#(i can rest after having to worry about cinder raven and winter through all these years)

[strqyr]

idk if this is just my current 'the summer maiden is a child' brainrot talking, but even the epilogue has this focus on children; from the orphan kid to the two kids being brought food to the bunch of kids playing with happy huntresses, it all feels intentional. like hey, look at these kids, how they're handling this situation, how it started vs how it's going right now, etc.

it's like what clover said: "what good is saving the world without another generation waiting in the wings? hopefully they'll leave remnant better than we left it for them." the children are a focal point in the epilogue, in a way, and it would not surprise me if this was brought further, right into the main stage with the summer maiden.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #it works almost too well #(and as a bonus i don't have to worry about starr potentially dying lol) #(i can rest after having to worry about cinder raven and winter through all these years)

[howlingday]

"Hey, Renny?"

"Mm?" Ren didn't turn from his position of cutting potatoes for tonight's meal. His childhood friend, Nora was tapping two meat tenderizers together, pretending they were lovers. She did this often in the stone kitchen, especially when the other servants were elsewhere in the castle.

"Do you think Jauney is happy?"

Ren blinked, then set down the knife. He turned to face her. Nora was sitting on the ground, wearing her black Ursa pelt over her shoulders, two meat tenderizers in her calloused hands. "What do you mean, Nora?"

"I mean, ever since Pyrrha," Nora made an uncomfortable face, "you know, Jauney has been really grumpy. Our fights aren't as fun anymore, he doesn't laugh at my jokes, and he's been especially angry at the people at his royal court."

Ren sighed. "Lord Arc has been under a lot of stress, Nora. He is the lord of these lands, and he doesn't have as much time to enjoy himself since winter is due in only a few months."

"Hm..." Nora tapped her chin in thought. "What if we buy him a whore?"

Ren blinked, then returned to his potatoes. "...No."

"Well, I'm stumped!" Nora stood as she exclaimed. "He has all this stress, but he can't get it out. It's not healthy!"

"I wouldn't worry about it, Nora. The harvest festival will be soon, Lord Arc will find have fun, and he will go back to his usual self." Ren grabbed the good potato slices from the cutting board and placed them in the pot of water. He slid the rest into a separate bowl with his knife.

Nora set the meat tenderizers on the stone counter. "Okay, but if he's still grouchy after the festival, I'm buying him the best whore lien can buy!"

"You're going to buy who what?"

Ren froze in place as the familiar voice spoke. He turned, facing the lord if this castle and his employer. He looked the same as he did when they first met; deep, blue eyes, under a mop of shaggy, golden hair and above a chin of golden stubble, and wearing a black Beowolf hide over his shoulders, hiding his muscular.

"Oh, hi, Jauney!" Nora jumped with joy.

"L-Lord Arc!" Ren gave a deep bow, hiding his blush from being embarrassed. "What a pleasant surprise! To what do we owe this honor?"

Jaune passed a glance between the two, silently judging them. He then smirked, reminding Ren that, though he was his lord, he was also a cherished friend. "What's this about buying a whore?"

Ren's face continued to flare. How much of the conversation did he hear? Ren lifted his head to face his lord, and saw his amused grin. Ren sighed before speaking once more. "We were just discussing our shared concern for your well-being, Lord Arc. Nora was simply providing a solution for your stress."

"By buying me a whore?"

"Yes!" Nora proudly exclaimed.

"N-No, my lord!" Ren countered.

Jaune simply laughed. "So which is it? Am I getting a whore or not?"

"I-" Ren choked out.

"Lord Arc," came a cry from another room, "are you here, sire?!"

Jaune sighed. "Sounds like more bad news. Before I leave, what do you think it might be?"

Nora answered before Ren could speak. "Maybe one of those creeps are coming for a visit again."

"Now, Nora," Jaune chided, "just because Queen Salem's Inner Circle are unlike us, it doesn't mean that they are to be treated any less than us."

"But they are creepy! Especially that stinger-guy!"

Jaune was silent for a moment of thought. "I suppose you're not wrong there."

"Perhaps, Lord Arc, the whores have caught wind of our plans?" Ren asked with a small smile.

Jaune barked a laugh. "Maybe they did!" He sighed before stepping towards the exit. "I'll go see about the shouting." He suddenly stopped a few steps from the door. "Oh, but before I leave, what is tonight's supper?"

"Tonight, you are having chicken stew with carrots, potatoes, and onions." Ren answered, filled with the confidence fitting of the Lord Arc's personal cook.

"Sounds good! Nora, are you coming with?"

"On my way, Jauney!" Nora skipped to Ren and kissed his cheek. "Bye, Renny! Jauney and I are gonna go get bad news!" Nora then skipped out of the kitchen, following her lord.

Ren sighed and returned to his task. One day, someone's going to have a problem with Nora's casual attitude. Until then, however, Ren would mind to his cooking.

Jaune made his way to the main hall, where the shouting was coming from. He walked in and found his messenger, Russel open his mouth to shout once more, only to shut it upon seeing his lord. The young man was wearing an undecorated black Grimm pelt, a sign showing that though he was a member of lord Arc's defense, he had yet to prove himself worthy of any notable position.

"Yeah, I heard you. Are we under attack?"

"Have the whores caught wind?" Nora asked as she stepped in.

"I- what?" Russel asked in confusion. He then shook his head. "No, my lord, I have just recieved word of a small force on their way to the castle."

"How small?" Jaune asked.

"Just three; a man and two women."

Nora scoffed. "Just two women? Please! I'm ten times worth any woman!"

"Y-Yes, but there's more."

"More?" Jaune asked.

"Yes, my lord. You see, the woman leading them is described as a raven-haired maiden in a red dress."

Jaune clenched his teeth, and felt his breath grow shallower. "What color were here eyes?"

Russel swallowed the lump in his throat before answering. "From whatever men survived their encounter with her, described her as a witch with amber eyes."

"Jaune-"

"Nora," Jaune interrupted, "alert the rest of the castle. I want everyone ready for whatever happens next."

Nora nodded. "Yes, my lord!" Russel paled further. When dame Nora, the most crass of Jaune's closest charges and his right hand, spoke formally to lord Arc, he knew the danger was real.

"Russel," Jaune spoke, breaking the messenger out of his stupor. "What did you mean by, 'whatever men survived their encounter'?"

Cinder yawned as she passed through the hamlet on her steed. The black beast bellowed smoke from it's ember-lit maw as it trudged forward. Emerald glanced between her lady and the people who cowered in their houses. Mercury grinned with delight as he watched people flinched at meeting his gaze.

When he saw a pretty girl, his grin shifted to a wide, predatory smile. They would weep at the sight of this, hiding behind their husbands, fathers, and brothers with the same amount of fear. He chuckled every time.

"Mercury," Cinder spoke, "what do you think you're doing?" She didn't meet his eyes when he looked up. She faced forward, her face as indifferent as it was when they entered the hamlet.

"I'm just having fun." He defended.

"Your 'fun' is upsetting our beast. Continue," her gaze finally met his, amber eyes alight with wrath, "and I will have my fun with you." Mercury flinched and faced forward. "Besides, you'll have plenty of time for fun once we reach Arc's hovel."

"Does he know we're coming, ma'am?" Emerald asked.

"I have sent more than enough messages to ensure that he will greet us personally."

"And if he doesn't?"

Cinder looked around. Every door was shut. Every window filled with at least one person. Every home with a family as small as two people or as big as four generations. She smiled.

"Then I'll just have to send a bigger message."

Nora stood outside the gates, the cold autumn wind biting her skin. She liked this, though. It reminded her that she was hardy, tougher than the supposed "ladies" who would rather hide and let someone else fight their battles.

She looked up and saw gray clouds combining, gathering together to choke out whatever blue and light remained in the sky. It was going to rain soon, but again, she didn't care. If she became sick, she would just power through it, like she did all things. Plus, Ren would wait on her, hand and foot, as he always did before. She smiled at the thought.

The sound of running footsteps returned her focus to the road leading to the castle. Another messenger showed up, this time with singed clothes. What was his name again? Duck?

"Reports from the nearby village; two-"

"Women and one man are approaching the castle." Nora interrupted. "Yeah, we heard."

"The woman leading them was also riding a black monster we've never seen before! What do we do?"

Nora looked him up and down. He was pudgy, kind of short compared to Ren and Jaune. He wore an unmarked Grimm pelt like the other one, except his was burnt, and slightly smoldering. She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. "Go inside, get cleaned up, and get ready to fight."

"Yes, dame!" He rushed past her after giving a salute. She hated formality, especially getting them.

It has been three years since the day she "earned" her title. She remembers because it was given to her by the Black Queen herself as a reward for turning her back on everything she cared for. Two nights after she and Jaune surrendered to her after that monster murdered her best friend, Pyrrha.

Nora pulled out a spyglass and peered down the road. No one was approaching. Nora began grinding her teeth. She put away the spyglass and turned towards the castle.

"Looking for someone?"

Nora turned towards the voice. The voice of the murderer from that night. Atop a Grimm twice her size, sat Lady Cinder Fall in her red dress with golden accents. She had a wry smile on her face, like a tyrant out of a fairy tale after telling them their hero had died. Like she had after slaughtering her friends.

"No." Nora answered, glaring at the murderer. "I was looking for something, and then you showed up."

"Referring to a lady as a thing?" The assassin to Cinder's right said. "Sounds like treason if you ask me."

"No one asked you. Besides, what I was going to ask you was, 'how's your knees?' You know, after I broke them?" Mercury stepped forward, but a snap of Cinder's fingers brought him to heel.

The woman stepped forward instead. "We request-"

"Demand, Emerald." Cinder corrected.

"-Demand an audience with Lord Jaune Arc. Is he available?"

Nora eyed the woman carefully. She didn't remember seeing her. Was she there that night, or did she join after that? "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Emerald repeated.

"Uh-huh."

Cinder slid from her steed and stepped towards Nora. "There's no need to be rude." She checked her fingernails. "After all, we're all on the same side, right? We both pledged our loyalty to Queen Salem, no?" She lowered her head to be level with Nora's, smiling. "I mean, unless you feel another example should be made."

"Like burning more of our messengers?"

"Like burning another champion."

Nora reeled back a fist. Mercury crouched like a wound spring, while Emerald drew her twin, curved blades. As the Grimm began salivating a glowing red liquid from it's maw, Nora swung forward.

And Cinder kept smiling.

"Lady Fall!" A voice called from behind, stopping Nora from connecting her punch. Nora turned and saw Jaune walking out from the castle gates, arms wide open and a smile on his face. "I wish you had contacted sooner! The castle is an absolute mess, and there's only enough food for one helping for the four of us."

Cinder stepped around Nora and approached Jaune with the same gesture. Nora watched as they hugged. "I do apologize, Lord Arc, but our matter was so urgent, it had to be done without much warning. Why, I recieved the news before the crow of this morning's rooster!" The two shared a laugh. "And don't worry about dinner, we won't be long."

Jaune wrapped an arm around Cinder's shoulder and guided her inside. "And send you home on empty stomachs? Oh, no! I insist! Come, my cook was preparing a delicious chicken stew."

"Can you stew a chicken, Lord Arc?"

"I can't, but my cook can!" The laughter echoed from inside.

"Don't wait up." Mercury taunted as he stepped past. Emerald followed quietly. Nora eyed the Grimm as it stood there. She turned and walked inside.

She hated formalities, but she hated this even more.

Lady Cinder Fall, protege and student of Black Queen Salem, was impressed by the dinner. The dining hall itself, though not as large as her majesty's, was certainly large enough to house an army. And based on the large number of occupants currently eating before her, it did.

Cinder sat at a long table next to Lord Arc, her other side occupied by Emerald and Mercury, and Lord Arc's side occupied by his two lackeys, the girl from outside and some burly meathead he never met. In front of her were rows of soldiers, messengers, guards, and castle staff eating from their plates and bowls.

"More wine?" The young man in a green robe asked, holding a bottle of red wine. He looked as young as Lord Arc, and had a pink strip of hair in his bangs.

"No, thank you." Cinder presented a soft smile.

"I'll have some!" Mercury said, shaking his empty glass.

Cinder rolled her eyes and turned to Lord Arc. He sat quietly, looking out to his subjects with smile. His glass and bowl were empty, save for a few drops remaining of his wine and soup. "Lord Arc," Cinder began, immediately getting his attention, "regarding the important business we must discuss."

"Oh, of course. But can it wait until after dinner?" Lord Arc asked. "It's like my father once said; 'politics only aid indigestion.' And considering this is urgent news from her majesty herself, it could only be something political, right?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Her majesty, Black Queen Salem, has tasked me to deliver a message for you."

"Oh? And what might this message entail?"

"Queen Salem requests to know your intentions as Lord of the eastern coast."

"I... I'm afraid I don't understand the question." Lord Arc grew tense, she could tell. She could also see how close his protectors were listening in. "When Queen Salem graced me with the task of acting as lord of Vale's eastern coast, I thought I was to simply act as she would have me."

"Yes, but she's curious as to your endgame. Surely, you don't intend to simply live the rest of your life alone with no legacy; no songs of great deeds left to outlast you twice over?"

"...Lady Fall, I'm flattered, but I'm afraid I'm just not ready for your proposal to wed."

Cinder laughed. It was fake, but she tried to make it sound genuine. "Oh no, Lord Arc! This isn't a marriage proposal. But her majesty is concerned you may not be... up to the task."

"Is this a question of my loyalty?"

"Perhaps," she smirked, "but I feel a test is more appropriate."

The sound of liquid splashing suddenly caught Lord Arc's attention. He stood over Cinder and he gritted his teeth. Wearing her smile, she turned to watch as Mercury poured a third bottle of wine onto the servant's head. His hair was soaked and matted as he continued to bow.

"Damn, out again." Mercury said in a bored tone. "What was this wine called again?"

"The Rouge Rogue, sir." The servant replied. "Aged for twenty years from the-"

"Boring!" Mercury cracked the bottle over the servant's head. He fell with a thump, the bottle shattering and cutting his scalp.

"REN!" The girl screamed as she rose, unknowingly signaling the rest of the castle to not only rise as well, but rise with weapons in their hands. The soldiers and guards rose with swords and axes, while the servants, both too young to speak clearly and too old to stand without a cane, held forks and knives in their hands. "I'LL KILL YOU, YOU SONUVA-!"

"SILENCE!"

Everyone froze in place and stared as Lord Arc, master of this castle, roared his prominence. His face was red with rage, but his hands, held aloft, were stiff. The crowd was silent, save for Mercury, who just laughed. Jaune stepped from the table and approached him.

"Clean that up."

"Is this guy serious?" Mercury said. "I'm an agent of Black Queen Salem, the most powerful creature who ever lived, and he thinks he can give me orders?" He then spit on Lord Arc's face. "Touch me, and I'll burn this whole damn castle to the ground. Hell, might have some fun doing it, too!"

Lord Arc turned towards Cinder. She continued to smile. "Don't look at me, Lord Arc. It's as he says; he's an agent of Salem. Harming him will have consequences from her majesty herself."

Lord Arc faced Mercury once more. "Is that true? You serve only Salem?"

"Pfft!" Mercury scoffed. "No shit, dumbass! I don't serve 'Lady' Cinder, or you! The only person I answer to is Black Queen Salem herself."

"I see. That will make this so much easier."

"Make what easier?"

"This." Lord Arc backhanded Mercury and sent him sprawling to the ground. He spit out a tooth as he got to his hands and knees. "Apologize."

"Y-You can't hit me!" Mercury staggered to his feet. "I serve-!"

Lord Arc backhanded him again, this time sending him over the table. The servant named Ren stood by the table and watched silently, his hand covering his bleeding scalp. Lord Arc glanced to him. "Take some servants and return to the kitchen. Have your wounds tended."

"Y-Yes, my lord!" The wounded servant signaled to the other servants and five of then set down their utensils to before rushing to tend to his wounds.

Lord Arc returned his attention to Mercury. "Apologize." Mercury murmured as he rose to his knees. "Apologize." Lord Arc repeated sternly.

Mercury Black kneeled before Lord Jaune Arc, his head bowed. "I am sorry, my lord. I repent and beg that you forgive me."

"You are a murderer and coward. You attacked my castle, murdered my subjects, and aided in the assassination of my fiancee. I can't remember how many times I hit you that night, but it was never enough to make you stop. And now you come to my home again to commit the same crimes, only to bend your knee at only two strikes."

Cinder's smile had grown to a predatory grin as she watched Lord Arc pass judgement on Mercury. Her keen eyes saw what led to this moment as well. This was what she came here to see.

"Mercury Black, in your path of bloodshed to your current standing as an agent of the Black Queen, you have proven that you have only grown more cowardly and pathetic in your services." Lord Arc grabbed Mercury by his hair. "Return to Salem, and tell her of your failures. Only then will you be forgiven." He then pushed Mercury away, tears streaming down the assassin's face. He looked to Cinder. "I believe it would be best for you to leave."

"Must we, though?" Cinder replied. "You would send is back in the middle of the night, storm clouds brewing above as we speak, with only myself and Emerald capable of fending for ourselves?"

Lord Arc held a pained face of guilt. Good. That will make things much easier.

Jaune stood on his balcony and watched as the storm clouds rolled across the sky. As Lady- No, as Cinder predicted, the sky was black, with no moon or stars to shine. Thunder bellowed in the distance as lightning flashed in the clouds. No rain, though.

He sighed and looked to his land. Everything was dark, so he could not see far, but what he could see pained him. He saw the tree where he would spend his summer days napping. The same tree where he met her.

He stepped away from the balcony and into his chambers. He walked to his bed and glanced at his weapon to it's side. He nodded to it's presence and sat on his bed. He replayed the night's events in his head.

He started from checking on his longtime friend in the kitchen. His wounds were cleaned and treated. All that was left was for time to heal. When Nora stomped in full of rage, Ren calmed her as best as he could. He felt guilty allowing his friends to suffer as they had, even when Ren noticed and told him not to.

Before that, he had to see to his guest's quarters. Mercury had not yet broken from his adjustment, which Jaune felt neither pity nor shame. Perhaps the punishment will be enough to change him for the better. Cinder and her fellow female companion aided in bringing him to their room. What was her name? She was so quiet at dinner, but she was close enough to Cinder to sit next to her at dinner.

Regardless, Cinder stated the quarters were satisfactory for the night. Once confident in their comfort, Jaune exited to allow them to rest. He didn't care for their company, but as Lord of the castle, he would serve only to anger his queen by leaving her inner circle to fend for themselves in the storm and darkness.

A knock on his chamber door awoke him from his reminiscing. He hurried to the door and opened it, finding an unexpected visitor.

"G-Good evening, Lord Arc." The young woman of green hair from before spoke nervously in her white nightgown. Perhaps his display earlier had frightened her, or maybe his very presence simply put her on edge. Nonetheless, he greeted her kindly.

"Good evening," he replied. "I apologize, but I don't believe I caught your name."

"My name is Emerald. Emerald Sustrai, Lord Arc." She was nervous. Though, with Summer's End so close, it would not be surprising that she was cold as well. "I wished to have a word with you."

"This couldn't wait until morning? It's late, and it has been a long day for us both, I'm sure."

"Yes, but I wished to discuss what happened today with you, if you don't mind." Jaune looked around the corners, seeing no guards. Only torches lit along the walls. "May I come in?"

Jaune rubbed his chin, and felt stubble. He hummed to himself a little at the feeling. Had it really been so long since he last shaved. He then sighed, remembering his guest, and stepped aside, gesturing with an arm for her to enter. As she entered, Jaune caught a faint scent of lavender from her. He hummed once more, then shut the door.

"What did you want to talk about?" Jaune asked as casually as possible. It would be best to keep her at ease. "Your trip, your mission, or-"

"I wanted to ask about your semblance."

Jaune blinked. "My semblance?"

"Y-Yes. You used your semblance on Merc earlier, and I wanted to know how it worked."

"To find a weakness?" Jaune asked with caution. He stepped towards his bed, not revealing his back to her once.

"No! It's just..." Emerald gulped. Was she sent to spy on him?

"Just what?" Jaune repeated. "The only times people want to know about the abilities of another is to either gloat their superiority, or to exploit a weakness from a gullible opponent."

"W-What if I told you mine? Just to make us even?" Jaune seated himself on his bed. He then waved for Emerald to continue with his hand. Emerald sighed and held out her hand. Her eyes focused on it. Suddenly, as though from nowhere, a flower grew from her palm. It was a small lavender, in size and shape, but it casted no shadow as Jaune watched. Emerald stepped forward and help the delicate plant in front him. Jaune tried to pluck it, but it died in his fingers, fading away as he touched it.

"Illusion." Jaune stated. "Your semblance tricks a foe with an illusion you desire them to see." He chuckled. "It's certainly impressive, but judging by your breathing, it requires a lot of concentration to maintain."

"And... what of yours, Lord Arc?" She said, still catching her breath. "That was... no illusion... that made Merc bow to you."

"Supremacy." Jaune answered. "When I strike an opponent's aura, their will ebbs away, eventually forcing them to submit to me. Depending on how strong one's will is, I will either have to hit them once, or multiple times."

Emerald gulped. "I... I see."

"Now that I've answered your question, I have a question for you." Jaune stood, his frame towering over Emerald, his blue eyes squinting. "What are you doing in my room so late in the night, Emerald Sustrai?"

Emerald didn't speak. She didn't dare look in his eyes. Was her plan found out? It was supposed to be a simple in and out reconnaissance mission. All she had to do was get information on Lord Arc's semblance and report back to Cinder. She wasn't prepared to fight; she left her weapons in her room, concerned she wouldn't have been able to hide them from the man. Now, she was vulnerable.

"Are you going to answer me?" Emerald remained frozen, like a rabbit in a tiger's cage. "Would you like for me to answer for you? Nod if you do."

Emerald wanted to shake her head, if only to be given more time to think of a lie. But she didn't. Like a fool, she nodded.

Lord Arc circled around her. "I'll bet you thought you were clever. Sneaking in, taking what you came for, and then retreating to celebrate your conquest." He stopped in front of her. "But you made one mistake in coming here." Emerald shut her eyes, expecting the worst.

She heard the bed squeak. "I'm just not in the mood." Emerald opened her eyes and saw Lord Arc lounging back on his bed. "Don't get me wrong; you're certainly beautiful, and on almost any other night, I would have ravaged you until all I could think was lavender, but I'm just not interested."

Emerald stood there, blinking. "Er, so you're saying I'm here to...?"

"Are you not a whore?"

Emerald's cheeks flushed. "Wh- No!" She didn't mean to scream, but she couldn't control herself due to the indignity of it. True, she is a liar, a thief, and, in some instances, a murderer, but never a streetwalker. "I'm not a whore!"

Lord Arc sat up. "Then why are you here?"

Emerald cursed herself. Her pride got the better of her. She coughed into her fist as she spoke again. "W-What I mean is, I don't think of myself as a whore. I prefer the term... escort."

Lord Arc's cheeks flushed. "Oh, I am so sorry! I... I had always heard it spoken as- W-Well, in any case, I humbly apologize."

Emerald saw an opportunity. "W-Well, you should! I can't believe your friends paid me so well to 'entertain' you, only for you to insult me!" She turned her back to him and stepped towards the chamber door.

"Wait," Lord Arc called out, "before you go, allow me to apologize in full." Lord Arc reached into a location she didn't see and heard him walk behind her with a jingle in his hands. He placed a hand on her left shoulder and moved his right hand to in front of her, a hefty bag of coins in his palm. "I hope you can forgive me for my rudeness."

Emerald took the coins. "Hm, I'll consider it." She then kissed his cheek. "But only because you're so kind." She then stepped out of his chambers and down the hall, sashaying her behind for show, certain his eyes were on her until she turned the corner. She then sighed in relief.

"This better be worth the trouble." She whispered to no one.

#rwby #lie ren #nora valkyrie #jaune arc #rwby au #lord arc au #cinder fall #mercury black #emerald sustrai

[kingangelrose]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 8 Recap

“Dark” ------------

In the Atlas prison, Qrow, along with Robyn, Watts and Jacques were hearing the noises of the war outside between the Atlas and the Grimm, but Qrow noticed that there was something headed towards them and suddenly, the wall blew up in front of them causing the roof above them to start collapsing, and all that was seen outside of the giant hole through the wall was a raven cawing.

Meanwhile, back at the Schnee Manor, Klein was treating Nora, as she was slowly regaining consciousness, then Ruby, Weiss and Whitley carry Penny into the room, laying her down on the smaller bed by Nora, Ruby asks Klein if he can help her, Klein says that even what they have told them, he hardly knows what Penny is, but her basic anatomy is similar enough to stitch up her wound.

The power in the manor shut down due to the bombings outside, May calls Ruby on speaking, wanting to know if their okay, Ruby tells her that the bombing cause half of Atlas’ power to go out, but their okay. 

May apologized for not staying with them as she flies her airship, saying that time is running out for the people of Mantle in the carter. Ruby apologizes back and tells May that when they know what’s wrong with Penny, they’ll do something to help them. May then tells her before she signs off to not beat herself up, saying at that point, she doesn’t know how much is left to be done.

Ruby says, with tears in her eye that it’s all too much, The Grimm, The Carter, Nora and Penny, she wanted to know how they could fix all of it, Klein then says they can’t worry about fixing everything and try and focus on fixing things one step at a time, he then says that he can work faster to fix one problem if the power was turned back on.

Willow Scnhee then arrives at the door, saying that they have a generator near the edge of the estate, also saying that she’s above drinking in the dark, then greeting Klein in whom she hasn’t seen in a while. 

Weiss brings up that Schnee Dust Company executives have their own exhilarate power supplies in case of city wide blackout, saying that it’s extremely unfair, but it may be so bad to have company perks. Whitley then says that the SDC just doesn’t have perks, but the whole company. Whitley goes on to say that if the people of Mantle need a way out, they could use the rows of cargo ships sitting in the hangars because of the embargo, Weiss then says that there are also drones there similar to the ones at Snowshoe Shipping, Whitley says that he can order as much as they need to pilot the ships down to the crater and get people to safety while the Grimm are occupied with General Ironwood’s forces, all he needs to do is to access Jacques’ computer.

Ruby and Blake head to the generator to turn it on, while it’s processing, Blake tells Ruby that this will work, Ruby replies by saying that nothing else has. Blake then tells Ruby....

“I know you don’t always know what to do, but that’s never stopped you from doing something. I was like that as a girl, but time and...a lot of other things took their toll on me and then I wasn’t sure if that girl could actually survive in the world...until I met you. It was a little strange at first cause you were younger, but I’ve always looked up to you, Ruby, and I still do.” - Blake Belladonna

Ruby, with tears in her eyes, thanks Blake for those kind words as the generator’s process was now completed and the power was back on in the Schnee Manor, but as soon as they did, Blake’s expression turned to shocked as she saw The Hound in the window right behind Ruby.

The Hound busted through the window, which caused a big noise that was heard inside the manor, causing Willow to reach for her wine bottle shaken. Weiss then contacts Ruby and Blake to know what’s going on, Blake just said that it was a Grimm attack, but they were to occupied with it to say anything else, Weiss then leaves the room to let Whitley carry out the rest of the plan on the computer.

Ruby asked what kind of Grimm is The Hound, but Blake said it was just a Grimm, unaware that it was sentient, telling her to focus on her Silver Eyed Attack while she holds it off, however, it didn’t last long as the Hound made quick work of Blake, it then said “Get The Girl” as it charged and took down Ruby, depleting her aura and holding onto her, The Hound then spread out its wings and was about to fly away with Ruby, but then, Blake used her weapon to wrap around the legs over the Hound, holding it in place, Weiss arrives on the scene, then she warns Klein about the Grimm and tells him to keep everyone together and call if there is trouble.

Inside the manor, Willow dropped her wine bottle and glass, Klein asks her to calm herself, but Willow says she can’t and runs out of the room, but then suddenly,  Penny woke up with glowing red eyes, but as a completely different person, hacked by Watts, Klein tries to treat Penny when he turned around to see her up, but Penny didn’t respond as she pushes him away, but trying to fight to it, Penny activates her maiden powers to try and fight the control off.

Weiss tries to summon a giant ice Grimm to fight off the Hound, but suddenly, the underground Grimm appeared distracting Blake and Weiss, The Hound broke free from Blake’s weapon and then saw the green light emanating from the manor, Ruby warns Weiss and Blake that the Hound is after Penny, the Hound drops Ruby to the ground, knocking her out for a while, Weiss then goes to help Klein and the others while Blake tries to help Ruby, but then out of nowhere a centipede like Grimm comes from underground, confronting Blake.

Back in the manor, Klein tries to Penny to calm down saying that she is okay, but Penny then says that she doesn’t want to help Salem, just then, a now conscious Nora grabs Penny’s hand and tells her that no one will make her do anything that she doesn’t want to do, Penny, still fighting the control says that their is a part of her that is making her do so.

“It’s just a part of you...don’t forget about the rest...” - Nora Valkyrie.

Hearing this, Penny stops her maiden power, holding onto Nora’s hand. Weiss then calls back Klein to let her know she’s on her way to help, Klein asks her to hurry, saying that Willow and Whitley have yet to return.

Willow ran into her room in a panic, she was about reach for her wine bottle, but she decided not to, just then, the Hound busted through the front entrance window, sniffing out Penny, who’s green blood was stained on the floor of the entrance, Weiss entered the manor to search for the Hound, then Willow contacted Weiss shouting “Above you!” and then the Hound came down and struck Weiss to a piano, Weiss was ready to fight it, but the Hound sniffed out something and crawled onto the walls to the hallway, searching.

Willow tells Weiss that she can see the Hound crawl to the hallway near Winter’s old room, then asking if Weiss can kill it, Weiss asks Willow what it’s doing, Willow says that she doesn’t know and asks what it’s doing here, Weiss then says it doesn’t matter and tells her to keep an eye out on it so she can track it down. Willow agrees and keeps a look out, but where the Hound was heading towards next, shocked her.

Willow tries to warn Whitley who was finishing the shipment, but Whitley ignored it and said she was the last thing he needed, just then, the Hound came in the room slowly where Whitley was in, surprised by this, he hid as quick as he could behind the desk, the Hound was sniffing around the room when the computer sounded a notification about the credentials being verified, the Hound was moving closer and closer to the desk, saying “I Know You’re Here...”

Suddenly, a summoned Ice boar Grimm charges and holds down the Hound, Willow arrived and shouted at Whitley to run, which he did, before confirming the orders to the crater. Willow and Whitley ran as fast they could away from the Hound, and before it could get them, Weiss summons an ice wall to defend her mother and brother from The Hound. “I didn’t forget you...” - Weiss Schnee

But the Hound was breaking through the ice wall, Weiss tells Willow and Whitley to run while she fends it off.

While fighting this acid spewing Grimm, Blake then pleads with Ruby to get back up and that she needs her. Blake uses fire and ice clones to try and counter its attacks, but this Grimm was too formidable as it was about to finish her off, but then suddenly, Ruby awakens and finishes off the Grimm, then smiles at Blake, saying that she heard Blake calling her for help, as she helps her up.

Penny then lets out a scream, trying so hard to fight off Watts’ control, but it was too late, Penny succumbed to it and walks out of the room to the entrance area, Whitley asks what she was doing, Penny then said that she was going to the vault and was going to self-terminate, then suddenly, the Hound attacked Penny, but she held him off, then suddenly, the Hound grows another arm on its back, holding on Penny’s head and slamming her down three times. 

The Hound held Penny hostage, and then Ruby with a serious tone said that was enough, then she used her Silver Eyes to blast the Hound through the window of the entrance way, letting go of Penny.

But then, in a shocking turn of event, as the Hound was getting right back up to its feet, it was living person who was the Hound all along, as he was slowly regenerating he kept saying “Take The Girl!”, but as he was slowly headed towards Ruby’s team, Willow and Whitley pushed down the knight statue to take down The Hound, destroying it. Ruby fell to her knees after what she just saw, Weiss asked what it was and all Ruby could as she sees the Hound turn dust... “....That was....a person....” - Ruby Rose

Back at the prison, Cinder Fall removes the debris from Watts’ body and says to him that this is the first time I’d be happy to see him again as she helps him up to his feet. Watts tries to ask what she was doing there, but Cinder covers his mouth and says that it’s her turn to ask for something, as she carries Watts in fireman’s carry position. The Atlas security arrive to stop Cinder from helping Watts escape, but Cinder used her flame semblance to fly above them, dodge the rocket launcher and fly away to the Whale back to Salem. 

----------- The secret of The Hound has been revealed to be a faunus! That means Salem has the power to turn humans and faunus into Grimm Hounds. Is there any hope to turn them back to normal? If not, what will Ruby’s decision be? What of Penny? Will she be able to break free from Watts’ hacking control before she leads herself to destruction? So many questions have yet to be answers and will be found out on the final chapters of RWBY Volume 8.

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby volume 8 #rwby8 spoilers #rwby spoilers #qrow branwen #robyn hill #jacques schnee #arthur watts #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #nora valkyrie #penny polendina #whitley schnee #willow schnee #may marigold #rwby hound #cinder fall

[bridgyrose]

Raven finally tries to return to Yang, only for her portal to not work. She portals to Qrow and finds out that Yang and her team fell into the void and are presumed dead

Raven sighed as she looked up to the sky, hating what she was thinking about doing. She didnt care that Summer’s daughter was fighting Salem, or that her own daughter was dragged into it. But that message that was sent out to everyone, telling everyone about Salem and what was going on in Atlas…. 

Raven shook her head, trying to get those thoughts out. She didnt care. It was Yang’s own fault for wanting to take that lamp. Her own fault is she got herself killed. Still, part of her had a little concern for her daughter. The thought that if Yang died the same way Summer did… 

Raven groaned and pulled out her sword, thinking of Yang and trying to open a portal. She’d just go see for herself and then the worry would be gone. And maybe that tugging was nothing. She waited for a moment, hesitating when the portal didnt appear. She quickly tried again, waiting a few moments before not seeing another portal. And then the tugging on her stopped. Something snapped in Raven’s mind, causing her to worry about her daughter and turning to the only other person that would’ve been close enough to her. 

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

Qrow finished tying up Harriet, quickly going to the front of the airship to try to turn it around. “Come on… we have to get out of here.” 

A red portal opened up behind him, Raven stepping out from it. “Brother.” 

“Not now Rae, I’m busy.” 

“Where’s Yang?” 

“Helping evacuate Atlas. Something you could help us do.” 

Raven hesitated for a moment as her eyes locked onto Atlas, watching as the massive city seemed lower than what it normally was. “What’s going on with Atlas? I need to know what’s happening!” 

“I’m not sure about everything that’s happened, but grimm are crawling all over Atlas, I’m trying to stop this airship from delivering a bomb that’s going to destroy Mantle, Ruby and Yang and their friends are trying to get everyone from Atlas to Vacuo while using the staff, and we can use all the help we can get!” yelled Qrow. “No go to Yang and help her!” 

“I cant.” 

Qrow hesitated at those words and turned to look at Raven. “What do you mean you cant?” 

Raven sighed and tried to make a portal to Yang. “This… this all feels like Summer again. I’ve felt a constant tug ever since I let her go from the vault but now… the tugging is gone and I can make a portal to her.” 

Qrow went silent for a moment, pulling out his scroll and cursing once he saw that kingdom wide communications were still down. “The plan had to work. It had to.” 

“What plan? How are they evacuating to Vacuo?”

“To use the staff to move everyone from Atlas to Vacuo. Their plan involved using a central location like the vaults but… I dont know anything else beyond that. That’s all Winter would relay to me. We were supposed to help with evacuations after but then-” he turned and glared at Harriet. “-we ran into a few issues.” 

Raven went silent for a moment before rushing out the airship and transforming into a raven, flying to the nearest portal she could find. Her daughter was either smart or one of the most foolish people in the world doing this. Using the staff was one thing, but going anywhere outside of Remnant… that was even more foolish than she’d done. 

It didnt take long for Raven to find one of the portals and start flying through it, rushing through and transforming on the other side, hesitating as she took in all the bridges and platforms connecting the portals.

“YAAAAANG!” 

Raven quickly transformed back into a raven and flew to where she heard the scream. She didn't care about Yang’s friends, but hearing one of them cry out for her… She stopped mid flight once she got to the central platform. She could see that tiny Summer, the Schnee girl and faunus at the edge of the platform… 

Raven’s eyes immediately darted to Cinder and Neo when she couldnt find Yang, dropping herself to the platform and transforming right in front of everyone, eyes glowing with her powers. “Where’s my daughter?” 

Cinder grinned as she saw Raven once more, lowering down the fire from her tornado. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but she's gone. Just like the rest of her friends will soon be.” 

Raven let out a visceral screech, a small storm starting to form in the dimensional pocket. She glared at Cinder, a sword of fire and ice forming in her hands. “Then I’ll make sure you pay for what you’ve done.” 

Cinder looked towards Neo and nodded, taking a few steps back and preparing her own swords in the fashion of Penny’s Floating Array.. “Then I’ll make sure you get to join her.” 

#rwby #raven branwen #qrow branwen #cinder fall #rwby spoilers #rwby 8 spoilers #angsty drabbles #drabbles

[warsmith-38]

How I would do RWBY pt.4

World Travel Arc.

Season Four.

Cinder was found by Salem after fall of Beacon.

Missing arm and eye.

Salem helps her and even rewards her.

She accomplished her goal of shooting Ozpin with the arrow.

It didn’t take, sure, but that’s not Cinder’s fault.

Arm is replaced with grimm arm.

An eye was also offered but Cinder refused because she wants a visceral reminder of her failure.

Translation: Because chuunibyou.

Cinder spends her time training to compensate for and overcome her new disabilities.

Has massive grudge against Ruby.

What should have been two easy wins were stolen from her by sheer dumb luck and circumstance.

She has made it her goal to prove that she is more powerful than Ruby and will do so by tearing her heart out and turning it to ash.

Salem decides that Ruby will be an issue to her long term plans and sends her best assassin, Tyrian, to kill her instead of Cinder.

Just like Summer.

She doesn’t want to send Cinder on the grounds that she thinks that homegirl REALLY needs to chill.

Ruby is full murderhobo.

Killing grimm and taking whatever freelance bounty money she can on her way to Mistral.

Fuck if she knows what she’s going to do when she gets there but she hasn’t planned all that far ahead.

She just wanted to not be stuck at home again.

Finds JNR, who had volunteered for general assistance in the areas around Mistral.

JNR says that there’s both a grimm issue and a bandit issue in the area.

Ruby wants everything to do with it.

Blake is on her way back to Menagerie.

Encounters SSSN who are on light duties and are being sent to putz around in Menagerie.

Sun asks her ‘what the fuck is your plan?’

Blake says that the only place for her in the world is back home with her family.

Weiss is also back home with her family but is far less into the idea.

Dad is distant and detached.

Mother is drunk and miserable.

Winter is the only one she properly interacts with, training and sparring to keep herself in shape.

Winter offers a position in the military, a cushy one at that (Can I get an amen for nepotism?)

Weiss ignores the offer, is depressed, misses her friends.

Yang is stuck at home, also depressed, dealing with deepening abandonment issues, and constantly fiddling with the trinket Raven gave her.

Having Ruby run off only made things worse. Combining her abandonment issues with the feeling of letting her sister down when she needed her most.

Tai barely pays attention to her outside of his constant worrying about Ruby but eventually sees the trinket and tells Yang about Raven.

Is very clearly bitter about the whole thing but is pretending he isn’t.

VERY rose (ha) tinted glasses about Summer.

Not that she was secretly a piece of shit or anything, but to hear Tai talk about her she made saints look like goatfuckers.

Ironwood shows up and gives Yang robo-arm as an apology for saying he’d help her after the fight with Mercury and then letting her down.

Ironwood helps break Yang out of her funk, offers some military style counseling, helping her work off the muscle atrophy, even teaches her some spec-ops chokeholds and the like.

Yang says it’s nice to have an actual male role model/father figure in her life.

Ironwood rips Tai’s shit in for being such a bad parent to Yang.

Tai has no real counters to what Ironwood is saying.

He realizes that he’s been a neglectful asshole and starts helping retrain Yang too.

Weiss makes a scene at an event her father is putting on.

Jacques sits her down after it and says that they’re going to have a completely frank conversation.

Topic shifts to their viewpoints and life choices.

He’s fine with his daughter disagreeing with him, he just wants her to understand him and he her.

Weiss calls him out on the blatantly bad shit the SDC has done.

Jacques defends his points, saying that he tried to make things better for the faunus and the White Fang just made everything worse for everyone.

Weiss tells him that passing the buck is bullshit.

Agree to disagree.

Jacques gives her a spiel laced with double meanings about freedom and making your own path.

Weiss leaves that night. (keikaku doori (Translation: All according to keikaku (Translators note: Keikaku means plan)))

Jacques might be a dick but he does want his family to be as genuinely happy as he can make them.

Blake gets back home.

Gets royal reception on the grounds that she’s the daughter of the chief of the kingdom.

Sun sends SSN to get on with their mission, he’s gonna be a while, faunus business.

They understand, they’re hip to this sort of thing, and tell him that if he needs them they’re just a phone call away.

He calls Blake out for being one of the most privileged faunus alive while lecturing others on said topic.

Blake and Sun walk in on White Fang people trying to recruit Ghira.

Notices Blake in the process of telling them to leave.

Ghira shoves everyone out of his way to embrace his long believed dead daughter.

Emotional reunion.

Sees Sun, makes joke about ‘Adam’s cheerier replacement’.

Blake gets sad.

Ghira assumes Adam died or something and doesn’t press the matter.

Calls for a royal banquet to celebrate the return of his daughter.

Sienna is present.

Sienna is overjoyed to see Blake alive and well.

Blake is happy to see ‘aunty’ Sienna but is apprehensive to talk that much with Sun glaring at them both.

Ilia is there (as head of local White Fang cell) and is happy to see her old friend is alive.

She already knew but has to keep up appearances, especially after The White Fang was seen at Beacon.

Very poor publicity to be seen operating at a place like that.

Ilia had been reassigned to Menagerie before the fall happened so she’s not guilty of taking part.

Later has small meeting with Blake, Sienna, Ilia, Sun, Ghira, and Kali.

Sienna tries (again) to bring Ghira into the White Fang.

His joining would bring all of Menagerie and the connected resources into the conflict.

This is opposed by everyone else present barring Ilia.

Ghira says that he has washed his hands of the problems in Atlas and has local stuff that he believes is more important in the long run.

Supporting Wild Call is how he helps the rest of his people.

Kali’s been running Wild Call since Ghira stepped away to run Menagerie.

Sienna talks about how faunus are treated in certain parts of the world.

It really is nowhere near as bad as she says it is.

Blake brings up terrorist acts in places completely innocent of any faunus abuse.

Sienna ‘condemns’ these acts and blames them on ‘bad apples’ like Adam, citing the fall of Beacon.

Says that Adam was acting alone and without official endorsement.

She’s lying through her fucking teeth, but the only other one who knows that for sure is Ilia.

While taking part in the fall was technically unsanctioned, Sienna knows all about Salem and was okaying Adam’s efforts working with her.

Ilia suddenly feels very guilty for some odd reason.

Ghira is very confused, doesn’t keep up too much with world affairs, generally too busy.

Blake rounds on Sienna for trying to shift the blame to Adam, cites all of the bullshit attacks she was involved in, letting it be known that she herself was in the White Fang.

Ghira and Kali both become enraged at Sienna, who told them that Blake was killed years ago at a protest gone south.

Sienna tries to make excuses for the cause.

Is escorted with Ilia from the palace at gun point.

Kali and Blake reconnect as Ghira has a sit down with Sun, telling him to tell him everything he knows.

Weiss is stowed away on airship bound for Vacuo/Mistral (doesn’t really matter which, ship gets taken down either way).

Ship gets attacked by grimm and gets splashed.

Weiss makes it to shore and travels southward, realizing that maybe she should have planned this a little more than not at all.

Wonder who she picked that up from.

Ends up surrounded by bandits who see the pretty girl from Atlas who might just be worth a lot of cash.

Weiss kicks the shit out of them.

Raven shows up.

Weiss loses.

Yang decides enough of her sulking and gets ready to set off to find Ruby and either 1. Bring her home 2. Look after her and keep her safe on her personal quest 3. Kick her ass for running off and making everyone worried 4. Some combination of the above. (Maybe hit up where Raven’s map leads along the way if she gets the chance)

Tai acknowledges that he can’t always protect his girls.

Tells Yang to not be too hard on Ruby, realizing that she would never have been happy with a calm, sheltered, life.

Summer was the same way.

He also apologizes for neglecting Yang for as long as he did.

Yang gets a hug from Tai, a salute from Ironwood, and a slobbering from Zwei.

Yes, the dog is still here. He’s a good dog. Every story could use a good dog or twelve.

Gets to the continent that Mistral is on. (I do not care about the name)

Starts biking in the direction that the conflict zones are, hoping to find word about Ruby along the way.

Gets accosted by bandits along the way.

Kicks the crap out of them.

Raven shows up saying that she expected nothing less from her daughter.

Yang realizes that she is indeed around where the map was pointing her.

This was supposed to be a test to see if Yang was resourceful enough to track her down.

Didn’t really mean to come this way just yet, but sometimes things just work out that way.

Raven happily takes her daughter to the main camp.

Yang is apprehensive to get comfortable and seems a little disappointed that her mother is just some asshole bandit.

Raven gives her a speech all about survival of the fittest and might makes right and all that jazz.

Yang wants to know why she left her in the first place and why she is suddenly wanting to be back in her life after all this time.

She’s got a lot of questions and Raven has very few answers.

Raven avoids Yang’s questions and says that she’s always been watching her from behind the scenes.

Yang actually dislikes that even more because it means that she could have been there for her the whole time, yet wasn’t.

Raven continues by saying that if Yang’s so weak that she couldn’t beat a pissant like Neo then she really needs mama to teach her what’s what.

Offers Yang a position in the tribe and even offers to make her second in command.

Yang then sees Weiss in a cage.

Raven explains that she’s going to be given to Salem to use as a hostage in Atlas.

Yang had already given up on getting answers and was already going to tell Raven to eat shit but now...

Demolishes the camp, takes Weiss away on the bike, and leaves the trinket Raven gave her in the dirt.

Would have taken the time to kick the shit out of Raven, but she needed to get Weiss out of there.

Raven is livid.

In Menagerie, Ghira and Kali have very upfront conversation with Blake.

They are upset with her that she ran off with terrorists but are happy she’s alive.

They also admonish her for running/taking the easy way out of every problem she’s had.

Blake is exasperated that the last place she could run off to is calling her out for running off so much.

Adam is all like ‘what up bitches, imma kill ya’.

Has sizable team of White Fang commandos with him and some grimm Salem sent.

Ilia shows up with her own commandos to counter his.

Both sides duke it out with the Belladonnas (Nightshades technically) getting pissed and telling all of them to get off their lawn.

Blake fights Adam.

Starts losing.

Sun calls SSN in for the assist.

They help but not all that much.

Sienna shows up to break the stalemate.

Starts kicking the shit out of Adam’s posse.

Officially denounces and attaints Adam for his crimes.

Adam leaves and swears vengeance, telling Blake that if he can’t kill her, he’ll kill RWY and make sure they know it was her that sent him to them.

Blake finally learns her fucking lesson.

Start to pack up to stop Adam before he kills RWY and, either afterwards or in the process, find and reconcile with RWY.

Takes the time to actually explain why she’s leaving this time.

Ghira understands.

Sienna takes partial blame and offers Blake the last known location of a red hooded huntress with a big fucking scythe her spies found.

Blake thanks her, but refuses an escort, hitching a ride back to the mainland with SSSN.

Ghira and Kali thank Sienna for the help but still tell her to get the fuck out and that the White Fang and their war are both not welcome in Menagerie.

In the name of their past friendship, they don’t just shoot her.

Blake has parting conversation with Sun about justifications and personal growth.

She and Sun amicably part ways.

SSSN go back to their usual shit and Blake starts hunting for Ruby.

Her logic is that, as far as she knows, Weiss is surrounded with SDC security and Yang is probably somewhere safe-ish, while Ruby is actively in a dangerous locale and ripe for predation.

Speaking of…

Ruby and JNR are clearing out local grimm around Mistral as expected.

Include sad scene or two there they find the ruins of Nora’s home village, destroyed by bandits.

Tyrian is all like ‘what up bitches, imma kill ya’.

Ruby is actually very eager for a fight against one of the important bad guys.

That excitement is curbed when Tyrian lets her know that he was the one to kill Summer.

Ruby is now more scared than anything.

R+JNR fight him and get their asses handed to them.

They try running but Tyrian isn’t giving up the chase.

Turns into cat and mouse game.

Jaune is pushed to his tactical limit against an incredibly intelligent and just as unpredictable enemy.

Everyone is scared out of their minds.

The cat (Tyrian) is just playing with his food (R+JNR) at this point.

Could have killed them at any point but he’s a sadistic animal that gets off on this shit.

Nora flies into a fury, bellowing that she will never lose anyone close to her ever again.

This creates an opening in Tyrian’s style.

Jaune’s planning manages to exploit this enough so Ruby gets a good hit on him, severing his tail.

He is very unhappy at this development.

Decides that he’s done playing with his food.

Wrecks R+JNR.

About to kill Ruby when Qrow ex machina runs him off.

Jaune discovers his semblance is healing and uses it on everyone that needs it. Which is everyone.

Qrow is annoyed that Ruby ran off on her own but understands.

Says that there’s an abandoned chateau that can serve as a pit-stop.

Been in the Branwen family for ages.

They abandoned it after they lost their fortune and it got overrun with grimm in the past.

Grimm have since moved on but the building is still there.

He’ll explain everything he can when he knows they’re out of danger.

Raven contacts Salem and tells her which direction Yang and Weiss are going.

Salem barely cares about what one of her least important agents is up to.

Notices that Ruby is in the same area and gets wind that Tyrian failed.

Sends Cinder and company to meet up with Raven and get hunting.

Salem makes a point of ordering Cinder to let Tyrian take on Ruby and not get involved against her.

Cinder just happens to ignore that order.

Blake does a little extra tracking but heads in the right direction.

Yang and Weiss hear about a red hooded huntress with a big scythe and follow the rumors.

Everyone converges at the chateau at the same time.

It’s a very all over the place scene.

Ruby is happy to see Weiss and Blake but is a little wary of Yang after how their last conversation went.

Yang is eager to make things up with Ruby but more than a little scornful of Blake.

Blake is scared of everyone’s rejection but understands their anger and is more than willing to work through it if they’d have her.

Weiss is happy to see everyone but her happiness and excitement is curbed by how everyone else is reacting to each other.

The tension explodes when Cinder and co. arrive.

Ruby and Cinder lock eyes.

Ruby goes quiet for a moment-

And then goes completely Broly BERSERK!

Group of boss fights.

Ruby madly charges Cinder in a rage.

JNR, Qrow, and Weiss begin fighting Emerald, Mercury, Tyrian, and grimm they brought.

Blake fights Adam. (again)

Yang fights Raven, constantly calling her on her shit.

Abandoning her and Tai to be some asshole bandit, siding with Salem, being a coward, et cetera.

Says that she has figured out that the reason Raven left was because she’s just a chicken shit coward who can’t deal with the world.

All of her issues and traumas have manifested into a sort of nirvana of wrath that gives her a one-time, ‘fuck you, mom’, power up that puts her at Raven’s power tier level.

Ruby vs Cinder takes them away from the others.

Ruby is in berserk, adrenaline filled, wrath fueled, fugue state, taking hits that should be stopping the fight but aren’t.

Cinder is also not fighting at her best due to A. missing eye, B. her grimm arm having a built in weakness to Ruby, and C. the fact that she had no idea that Ruby would go fucking mental like this.

Ruby eventually knocks Cinder down a pit and promptly passes out from blood loss.

Blake beats Adam and tells him to fuck off, saying that she will not stoop to his level of murder.

Yang overpowers and beats Raven, but barely.

JNR is busy with the grimm and Qrow is busy with Tyrian, who has a freaky grimm tail now.

Weiss is fighting both Emerald and Mercury.

Is losing pretty hard.

Yang shows up to fight Mercury.

WY have their first proper rival fights against E+M.

And proceed to lose.

Raven has heel-face turn and bails them out.

Tyrian is killed at the same time. Small justice for Summer.

Qrow reunites with Raven.

The Branwen siblings intimidate E+M, faking not being fuckoff exhausted.

Dare they stand against this deadly alliance?

Nope.

Emerald and Mercury cheese it.

Raven explains that since Yang beat her, Yang is now in charge of the bandits.

Raven says how proud she is that her daughter is such an ass kicker.

Yang is about to tell her off but then realizes that Ruby is still gone.

They find her in a widening pool of her own blood.

Jaune heals her.

Everyone wonder just what the fuck that was that Ruby did.

It’s not its own power or a sub-power of her new semblance.

She was just that fucking angry at seeing Cinder.

RWBY has a big ‘we beat the middle to high tier bad guys’ group hug.

Ruby affirms that she senses that Cinder is still alive but accepts the hug anyway.

Raven says that Salem’s next target is Mistral itself with Adam’s White Fang hardliners.

Yang says thanks for the info and then tells her to do what she does best and fuck off.

Literally everyone mirrors the sentiment.

Raven leaves in a huff but starts to question her morals.

RWBY is now reunited as a team.

They’re not quite back to normal, but they’re all together again.

Reunited RWBY, JNR, and Qrow now on course to Mistral proper to recoup and make new plans.

Season four done.

#RWBY #does this count as rwde? #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Taiyang Xiao Long #Raven Branwen #Cinder Fall #Tyrian Callows #Salem #Team JNPR #but without the P #I regret nothing #Qrow Branwen #How I would do...

[loverofmalec]

I’ll fix you for a change... (FAIR GAME)

This fic is dedicated to everyone that is going through a hard time after what happened in the last ep. I haven't been a part of the Fair Game Fandom for long but you all have been so kind to me. You all have been so supportive when it comes to my fics with these two. I have never felt more seen or appreciated in a fandom than in this one. I wrote this in hopes of mending hearts and creating hope. I love you all and this is for you. 

Qrow couldn’t breathe, the cold air stabbing through his lungs doing nothing to give oxygen to his blood. The snow beneath him melted and soaked through is pants. The sting painful on his shins. His hands moved to pull Clover closer, press him against his chest with his hands soothed back ginger hair. Qrow hadn’t felt this pain since Summer, this time though it was too much. Everything was hurting and the guilt made him want to end it there too. Finish it, so he didn’t put in risk anyone else’s life. His girls would be fine, they would make it through this godforsaken war and be happy. They had their friends and they would be okay.

“I’m so sorry, Clover.” Qrow cried into his hair. He wrapped his arms tighter around the man’s body not wanting to move.

Then he felt it, a movement in his arms. A soft press against his chest almost impossible to notice, but Qrow did.

He pulled Clover away and pressed his ear right over the man’s heart. Underneath, he heard it, a weak soft heartbeat.

Panic settled in his bones and disgusting hope flared up in his chest so suddenly that he was light-headed with it. He could still save Clover.

Then it hit him, they were miles from Atlas there was no way that he was going to be able to take Clover in time to get the help he needed. He couldn’t just fly away and leave Clover behind while he found his kids either. There was only one other option and he prayed to every fucking god he knew that they would answer. 

“RAVEN, Raven, Raven!” He cried out his sister’s name, begged into the sky that she would listen for once. “RAVEN! YOU FUCKING OWE ME!”

Qrow kept screaming until his voice cracked and was on the verge of giving out. Then right in front of him, there was a gust of warm wind and the flash of blood red. A portal opened and Raven with her sword draw walked through. 

Her head turned to see where she was and her eyes flashed with confusion. She turned to look at her brother and she stumbled back. “Qrow, what have you done?”

“I’ve been there for you, trusted you and defended you until you decided to leave Yang. I never stopped loving you and I gave up everything for you. I’m you’re fucking brother and I’m collecting my dept.”

Raven noted his bloodshot eyes, saw behind him his bloody weapon. She thought back to Yang, their last conversation, and just how it had torn her apart to leave her daughter yet again. Flashes of her family forced their way to the front of her mind. She took a step forward and almost slipped on the snow. A heavy feeling weighed down her shoulders, her next steps were careful and deliberate. She crouched beside her brother and pulled Qrow’s face towards her. Her thumbs went to press against her brother’s temples and she turned to look at the man dying in Qrow’s side. 

“Breathe, you have to control your semblance or you’ll finish him off.” She ordered in a low voice. The cold seeped through her clothing and made it hard to keep her teeth from chattering. “Come on, you can do it. That’s it, deep breaths. I can fee your semblance over us and you need to draw it back.”

Qrow was shaking in her arms, the tears fell from his still shut eyes. He tried with everything in his body to bring back his semblance. Draw it back into his body until he could lock it away so it didn’t hurt anyone anymore. The weight that made his shoulders sag and his hands slip over Clover’s body lifted off them. His semblance vanished and Clover stuttered to breathe.

“Yang, she’s in Atlas with the others.” Qrow whimpered, his face pulling back in a fresh cry. 

His sister pulled away and without further conversation drew her sword. She pictured golden blond hair, the smell of lavender, and the heat of fire. With those thoughts in her mind, she sliced through the air and saw her daughter standing beside her teammates. The room was destroyed and soldiers were collapsed at their feet.

“Jaune!” Qrow cried out. 

Raven watched Yang stand in front of the Faunus girl. Then she looked past Raven to see Qrow with a dying Clover in his arms. 

“Uncle Qrow?” She ran to Raven and passed through the portal. 

Raven stood back and watched the rest of those brats rush through. The blonde boy who must have been Jaune quickly brought his hands over Clover’s chest and the man’s aura began to glow and flicker. She watched her family silently suffer and kept the portal open until Clover started to breathe normally again. 

Qrow picked up the man as if he weighed nothing more than air. He looked at Raven and the siblings stood there staring at one another.

“I won’t call on you again, don’t worry about that,” Qrow forced out. 

Raven shook her head and stepped back to let the kids through the portal. She saw Yang linger behind her Uncle. “It’s dangerous to love someone so much, you won’t survive it,” She spoke the truth and they both knew it. He barely made it through Summer’s death and had been on the verge of losing it then, just like now. The man had a bleeding heart that was on its last few beats.

“I have him now and that’s all that matters.” Qrow looked down at Clover and pressed a hard kiss to the crown of his head. “I won’t lose him again even if that’s the last thing I do.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Raven watched her brother walk past her and into her portal, she noticed lines on his face that hadn’t been there when they had last met. When he was gone and back in Atlas it left Raven and Yang.

“Cinder is alive and she’s after the Winter Maiden,” Yang didn’t look away from her friends. She didn’t look at Raven when they were a foot apart and Yang was about to leave, “Run, get away from here and find someplace to hide out. Salem is on her way too and I don’t know if we’ll be able to take her on. Ruby says we can, so I guess there is some hope in that.” That had Yang smile sadly, the look ripping Raven’s heart all over again. For a long second, she wanted to take her brother and daughter away from everything. Hide them away so she didn’t have to lose them. She knew she lost the right to feel that though, so she watched her daughter walk away from her for what could be the last time.

“Qrow isn’t in any state to fight right now. Get his little boy toy stable and then try to get Qrow out of his shock. He also won’t be able to control his semblance so be careful.” Raven turned away from Yang and gripped the handle of her sword tightly.

Yang nodded once and finally turned to face Raven, “I’ll make sure that he’s okay.

With that, she left her mother alone. Raven quickly closed the portal and opened the one to her camp. She left leaving behind a single raven feather that landed right beside a shinning four-leaf clover pin.

#rwby #fair game #qrow branwen #clover ebi #THIS GOES OUT TO THE FAIR GAME FANDOM!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!

[rwbyremnants]

WARNING: Light-but-sudden gore later.

Heyyyy we still out here, I promise. More coming soon! Maybe a new fic once Lady Stardust wraps up!

=Chapter 27

The rest of the evening went quite well, all things considered. Yang politely answered Mrs Schnee's every question, only side-stepping a few about her parents that were too painful to answer, or about how intimate she and Weiss had been. For that, Weiss felt grateful; she didn't want her mother to think of her that way if at all possible.

Neither did she want to think of her mother that way. An hour or so later when Kali finally shook loose the bonds of minimum wage servitude, she couldn't help noticing the warmth of the smiles that passed between them, and saw Yang squinting suspiciously, as well. But they very quickly afterward set to work.

“So,” Kali finally sighed just as Weiss was coming back downstairs to fetch herself a glass of milk, and Yang a glass of juice. The two mothers were sitting very close to each other on the couch, poring over various documents. “If these figures are accurate…”

“They must be. Jacques keeps impeccable records. Do you think we really have a-” Her voice cut off when she noticed her daughter standing there. “Oh! Did you need something?”

Shifting awkwardly, she said, “Just something to drink. Am I interrupting… anything?”

“No, no. Go on.”

She went through into the kitchen, trying to shake the feeling of being out of place in her own home. That feeling hung around a lot lately. She wanted to ring her sister and ask her to come home - help it feel less strange. But that wouldn't be fair; Winter had her own life to live. Maybe she would write her a letter.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a gentle hand in the small of her back. She turned, expecting her mother, only to find Kali instead.

“Are you alright?”

“What? Oh… I'm fine. Why?”

“You're pouring that milk into the juice.”

Starting in complete shock, Weiss took a step back and gaped down at the glass overflowing with two different liquids that most certainly did not mix well. “Oh… oh, poo.” Grimacing, she carried it over to the sink to dump out.

“Seriously, what’s wrong?” she asked again. “Your father?”

“It’s not that. I… oh, you’re going to think I’m silly.” But the Belladonna matriarch wasn’t budging. “You and… my mother.”

Kali smiled very slightly. “She’s a wonderful woman, Weiss. She’s simply been through a very difficult situation. I was a little premature in passing judgement on her for not being there for you… because it wasn't truly her choice. Once on the other side of all this, I think you’ll find you’re glad to be her offspring.”

“No, not that - I meant, um… you and my mother.”

“Me and…” Her eyes slid closed as she nodded. “Ah.”

“It’s none of my business, of course. I’m sorry.” Kali didn’t respond; merely stood by waiting as Weiss rinsed out the glass and went back to start over. Eventually, she decided she had to finish her thought or she might never get out of there - and she might as well, now that the subject had been touched upon. “It’s just- I mean… you spent so much time flirting with me, and now, you and she are so close, and I’m… a little confused about that. But as I said, it’s none of my business, and I’m definitely making a big deal about nothing.”

Chuckling gently, Kali sidled closer and slid an arm around her back, granting her some comfort. “I’m fairly sure your mother isn’t one of us, Weiss. Don’t worry so much.”

“Did I say I was worried?”

“Yes. Body language and tonal inflection count.”

“Tonal wha…?” But when Kali only smiled easily, she sighed and looked down. “Then you aren’t interested in my mother in that way?”

“I didn’t say that. But even if I were, it’s… irrelevant.” At Weiss’s alarmed expression, she held up her other hand to waylay any complaints. “I only mean that even if she were interested - which she is not - I’d never accept her feelings. She’s barely a few days on the other side of leaving a husband who hurt her, as well as their children. I don’t date married women, and especially not ones who are in pain from that marriage, and too fragile to make wise decisions. It’s… not a good idea for either party. Do you understand?”

That did grant the poor girl some relief. However, she was a little surprised to find that underneath that relief… she felt some disappointment.

“Weiss?”

“Sorry,” she sighed as she poured the juice and put it away. “I must really be irritating to you right now.”

“Did you… want me to be interested in courting your mother?”

Weiss swallowed hard. She didn’t want to upset Kali, but it had to be said. “Not if you were still interested in courting me. It’s too strange.”

“Ahhh. Well, I can see how that would be awkward. I did try to assure you that I was teasing, but…”

“You should probably just ignore me,” she laughed uneasily as she tried to back toward the door - but Kali caught her by the wrist, drew her in close so that her hazel eyes were filling most of her vision. “H-hey! I almost spilled these!”

A long, tense moment passed, and Weiss felt her heart thumping louder. It wasn’t the way it did for Yang - that was its own unique, beautiful mess that she sought out whenever possible. But Kali was a different matter. It was as if she wanted both women to take care of her, but in different ways; in Yang, it was physical, romantic. Sensual. With Kali, there were thrilling hints of that, but the rest of it was completely different.

She wanted her to mother her. And she had done such a good job of it thus far that she craved more of that, to receive what she had missed from her own parents. The craving just manifested in an oddly sensual way because she wasn’t used to feeling it.

“I’m sorry,” Kali told her very simply. “Sometimes, I forget my own sapphic strength.”

“M-Mrs. Belladonna…”

“I’ll never flirt with you again. That is a promise. As for your mother… well, I stand by what I said before.” Her voice took on a tinge of urgency as she embraced Weiss warmly. “What’s most important to me now is to be there for both of you, and help you through this. It’s silly since we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, but I already feel like you’re family. And I need you to be alright. Even if not now, then soon, with all of us working toward that goal.”

Weiss melted completely into the hug, squeezing back as best she could with the two glasses in her hands. It was nice having someone on her side - and the Dragons were quite good at that. But after a moment, she found herself saying something that was a little at odds with her feelings and actions.

“I suppose… you don’t have to quit flirting. Just as long as you keep an eye on the line and don’t cross it.”

Kali laughed, squeezing her just a little. “New lesbians are so cute.” Her lips pushed into the top of Weiss’s head, prompting a giggle. “And delicious.”

“Close to that line,” Weiss warned as she backed away. “And with Yang upstairs!”

“Maybe I’ll wait just long enough for you two to get frisky and barge in,” she threatened with her eyebrows waggling. Weiss would have been upset, except that she had all but asked for this herself. What was wrong with her mouth lately?

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

Of course, Kali never made good on that threat. She and Yang didn't do any such thing, either; they studied. Now that her father was temporarily sequestered, she wanted to get back to keeping Raven from beating her up again. Yang groaned and complained, and tried to distract her with kisses, but in the end they got some decent work done.

Next came another dreary school day. The homecoming dance was on the immediate horizon, and decorations were going up all over the hallways, reminders about “appropriate conduct” on every bulletin board. The Dragons had plenty of fun deriding the very concept, since none of them would be going.

“We know our kind isn't welcome there,” Blake sighed as she finished off the last dregs on her tray. Kali probably offered to fix her something more appetizing, but she didn't want to be the only one eating out of a metal lunchbox or brown bag. At least, that's how Weiss would feel in her shoes; she herself had only suffered through one lunch in her freshman year that was catered, thanks to her father. The other kids made such a big deal about it she thought she would never live it down.

“Our kind, the Dragons?” she asked. “Or our kind… the Boston Marriage kind?”

Coco shrugged, working on her teeth with a toothpick. “Six of one, half-dozen of the other.”

“We could still all go. It might be fun!” The withering looks she got said otherwise, and she ducked her head down. “Or not. Sorry.”

“Hey, why not?” Yang sighed with a lazy smile. “We'll go to the dance, raise a little Cain, and then head back to Kali's to, y'know… be ourselves.”

“Or Shopkeeper's.” The instant she said it, Blake's face fell, and she stared down through the table. “Damn. I forgot.”

Weiss reached over to pat her back. “It'll take some time. And… we'll find a new place, like we talked about.”

“I'll wear a suit,” Yang piped up, to take their mind off the fire. “Pick you up, show you a good time.”

“No, thank you. I like the idea, but I'd rather see you in a pretty dress.”

“Yeah,” Coco laughed easily, propping her boots up on the table. Weiss curled her lip in disgust, but no one paid her any mind. “I'd pay good money to see that myself!”

Glaring at the sunglasses-clad girl, Yang snapped, “If I gotta wear one, so do you.”

“Nah. My Velvet will look like royalty, and I don't want to upstage her. Although… I'll be on Fox's arm when we arrive…” Now she looked the tiniest bit less confident.

“Hopefully, Cinder will be able to come by then,” Blake sighed. They all fell silent after that.

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

After cheerleader practice let out, Weiss almost pushed and shoved Ruby into Pyrrha's car. It had taken some convincing to get her to hang around until after they were through shaking pompoms and memorising cheers for the home team. Penny tagged along with her ever-present smile in place, and the both of them looked quite contented in the backseat. In no time at all, they were all seated in the malt shop, barely crammed into a single booth.

“Hey, squares,” Yang grunted when she joined them a few minutes later, pulling up a chair to sit at the end.

“Oh!” Pyrrha gasped, sitting up a little straighter. “Here, sit next to Weiss!”

Before she could fully rise, Yang forcibly pushed her back down by the shoulder. “Cool your heels. I can sit next to her later. Besides, you were there first.”

“Hello, Yang!” Penny piped up with a chipper grin. “My name is Penny, and it's a pleasure to meet you!”

“Uhhhh, yeah. We've met before, I think.”

After thinking for a moment, she grinned again. “So we have!”

“Hey, sis,” Ruby began with a hesitant smile. She was just beginning to have some confidence around Yang now, after their sickbed visits. “How's, um… your shoulder? Is it better?”

“Yeah, better. Still kinda aches sometimes, but Watts said to expect that for another month or two.” The waitress came over to drop off two malteds and a cheeseburger in front of Pyrrha and Penny, so she waited for her to leave. “Uh, what have you been up to, Rubes?”

Smile both cherubic and excited, silver eyes lighting up, she replied, “Me and Penny are gonna apply to become writers! For the Vale High Voice!”

“Actually, I think I would make a better copy editor,” Penny put in pleasantly. “But I'll leave that up to Miss Goodwitch. She's the faculty advisor.”

“That's wonderful,” Pyrrha told them immediately, smiling as wide as Ruby. “I did a few articles for them last year, and was on yearbook committee. It's the bees’ knees!”

Yang looked a little unsure of what to say. But the instant Weiss kicked her under the table, she smiled over at Ruby and said, “Great! Wow, I didn't know you were into writing.”

“Yep! Well, before now, I just, y'know, wrote stories about… well, it doesn't matter.”

“Sure it does. C'mon, tell me what you wrote.”

“Umm…” Blushing a little, she looked down at her fingers, playing idly with a napkin to distract herself from being forced to talk about her hobby. “Stories about… well, kinda like Anne of Green Gables, but with magic? Fairies and wizards. I don't know, they were silly.”

Voice suddenly quite hallowed and serious, Penny leaned in to say, “Oh, they weren't silly! I enjoyed Ruby's books!”

“Books?” Yang asked, her smile growing wider still.

“I know, I'm a cube,” Ruby muttered, red to her roots. “And they're only in notebooks, not a real-”

“Get outta town! That's pretty great, little sis!” At her stunned expression, Yang gently socked her in the upper arm. “I ain't so good at reading, especially not a whole book. So you writing one is a big deal!”

Still wincing from the light punch, Ruby grinned. “W-well, they aren’t very good…”

“I told you they are,” Penny said simply, as if her stating that settled the matter.

“Can I read one?” When Ruby buried her face in her hands, Yang said, “What?”

“They’re not real books!” she squealed. “Just a bunch of scribbles!”

However, Ruby underestimated two things: Yang’s growing interest in her estranged sister, and precisely how stubborn the brute could be if she put her mind to it. That was something with which Weiss was intimately familiar, so she helped convince Ruby that there would be no dissuading her by that point.

And Ruby loved it. All Weiss needed to feel secure in her decision to push them together was to see how earnestly ecstatic the younger girl was to be hanging out with her big sister again.

The sky was getting dark by the time their little rap session was interrupted. Weiss had been about to check her watch and head home when it turned out not to be necessary.

“Hey, kid. Takin’ too long.”

Weiss blinked up at the tall, lanky man. She needed no introduction; ordinarily, she would be demanding to know why some stranger was coming up to their table. But he was almost a dead ringer for Raven - same brooding, dangerous eyes, same pale skin and black hair. Both fairly tall; Yang obviously got the averages of her mother and father's heights. That made this man…

“Sorry, Uncle Qrow!” Ruby squeaked with a duck of her head. “Lost track of time! Can, um, can we give Penny a ride?”

One of his broad shoulders shrugged. “Hurry it up.” Then he leaned down and squinted hard at Yang. “Huh. So it is you. Been a while, Little Dragon.”

“Hey.”

That was an awfully short reply. Even while Weiss was staring between the two of them, Ruby was hopping up and dragging Penny with her - almost as if trying to avoid an incident.

“You, uh… get my birthday present?”

“Yeah. Thanks for the two bits.”

“Mm.” He reached over to tousle Ruby’s hair. “C’mon, squirt.”

“See you guys!” Once Qrow had turned his back, hands in the pockets of his grey slacks, Ruby mouthed the word “Sorry!” at her sister before fleeing.

The table remained silent for another minute or so. The waitress brought their check in the meantime. Weiss moved to the other side of the booth and dragged Yang into it next to her.

“What happened? I mean, that was a pretty chilly reception.”

“I agree,” Pyrrha said in a hesitant tone, idly moving the straw around her malt glass.

“Drop it.” After a few seconds of them staring, Yang sighed and grunted, “Family stuff. Okay? Just… he only ever had time for Ruby. And she's not even his niece by blood. Why couldn't he take me in, too?”

Stunned by these sudden admissions, Weiss breathed, “Raven's your mother. I'm sure that's… well, of course she would get custody. He probably didn't have any choice.”

“Yeah? Well, I don't remember him fighting very hard. And Ruby didn't, either.” When Pyrrha winced, she snapped, “I know! I know already, okay? Little perfect golden child was too young, and too upset about Summer dying. But I didn't get to be upset. I had to go live with the one person on Earth who would say anything bad about Summer Rose, who was way more of a mom to me than the bitch who gave birth to me.”

By that point, she was trembling all over. With rage, or with sadness; it wasn't easy for Weiss to tell, but she put an arm around her all the same. She clung a little tighter, and eventually the tension lessened, Yang’s breathing evened out.

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha whispered very quietly, as if worried she would break something if she were louder.

“Nah. I’m… gonna be fine. Promise.” Then she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Summer’s gone, and so’s Dad, and nothing’s gonna bring them back, anyway. So I might as well just… move on with my life.”

“Yang…” But Weiss didn’t get a chance to say anything else before she was getting up.

“I need to pee. Ladies, anybody else? No?” Without really waiting long enough for an answer, she pushed through to the restroom in the rear of the soda fountain, shoulders still taut despite her efforts to appear casual.

Pyrrha slumped a little lower in her chair. “Good grief, that was…”

“Awkward? Unpleasant?” As Pyrrha nodded, Weiss slumped forward herself, dragging her malt glass over to sip the last few drags from the bottom. “At least now I understand why she resents them. Imagine, being asked to raise only one of two sisters!”

“Or being one of the two. Not a nice situation for anyone involved.”

Her eyes flicked towards the bathrooms. “Should I go check on her? Probably not. She probably wants to be left alone for a minute.”

“You know her better than I,” she answered with a self-conscious laugh. “But… maybe just check on her, and ask if she wanted to be alone? Then you'll know for sure.”

Deciding she was right, Weiss made her way to the ladies’ restroom. Yang was seated on the sink, head in her hands. When she looked up to see who had come in, Weiss could at least see that she had not been crying - which was good, even if it didn't necessarily mean she was alright.

“Oh… hey, you.”

Weiss tried for a smile. “Hi. Sorry if I'm intruding, but… I wanted to check if you were alright. But I can leave! Just say the word.”

It made her sad that Yang actually debated the options. In the end, she sighed and leaned back against the mirror. “Wish it didn't still bother me. But just seeing his or Ruby's face… reminds me nobody wanted me. Not Raven, or Dad, or Summer… Qrow…”

“Ruby did,” she told her firmly. “And now you can't pretend she didn't - and if you try, I'll scold you until you see reason.”

“Fine,” she snorted, gesturing for Weiss to come closer. She did, and she reached out for her hand, squeezing it gently. “And I've got you, too. The Dragons. I shouldn't complain.”

“No reason you shouldn't, if you need to. Just want you to keep in mind that your sister loves you quite a bit - and not having you in her life was painful for her.”

Finally, Yang's expression turned truly sad. “Really? I mean… I can tell she's all smiles around me now, but not… she really missed me, huh?” When Weiss only nodded firmly, entirely convinced it was true, her violet eyes flicked toward the tiny window at the top of the wall. “Damn. I've been a terrible big sis.”

“Don’t say that,” Weiss reassured her quickly.

“Yeah, I have. Don't butter me up.”

Leaning up on her tippy-toes, she gave Yang a gentle kiss to the cheek. “You were still missing Summer, and feeling hurt. It's… you weren't mean to her much.” Knowing that wouldn't help, she added, “But you're already making it up to her now. Don't feel too bad.”

“Why do you love me?”

“What?”

“I'm a jerk,” Yang whispered in such a fragile voice that she had to double-check that this really was her girlfriend, The Dragon. “To you sometimes, and to Ruby, Qrow… even my mom, who is a real piece of work on her own. Sometimes, I'm really worried that… that I'm just a bad seed.”

Voice as gentle and soothing as she could make it, Weiss whispered, “You're strong, and loyal, and brave… and tender with me. Don't be silly; nobody's perfect. And you, Yang Xiao Long, are one of the best. I mean it.”

For a long moment, they simply stood and let their leather-clad arms hold each other. They had been through a lot in their lives, and a lot of it very recently. Then Yang left a kiss on top of Weiss's head, close to where Kali had so recently.

“What would I do without you, Schnee?”

“Probably fall apart,” she sighed airily while striding for the door. Yang let out an easy laugh as she followed.

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

Out of respect for their parents, Weiss and Yang retired to the train depot for a little post-dessert enjoyment. Pyrrha drove them, as they were still trying to let Yang's injury heal.

An hour passed with the two of them taking turns wringing pleasure from bodies that were quickly becoming so familiar. Once, they tried Weiss reclining back against Yang's front while the brute reached around to fondle her from behind. That was nearly as magical.

“You two really ought to fix your hair,” Pyrrha said as she glanced in the rearview mirror at them. “People will talk.”

“Let 'em talk,” Yang purred into Weiss's ear.

“Stop that!”

“Never.”

Blushing, their chauffeur went on, “We’re almost there, anyway. Do y-you want me to… drive around the block again?”

“Yeah,” Yang sighed wearily. “But you probably better take me home now instead.”

“Okay. I'm sorry.”

“Not your fault. Just gotta do what I gotta do.”

Weiss did offer to go in with her, but Yang declined. She thought it was more important that she spend a little one-on-one time with Raven. That sounded like a fate worse than death to Weiss, but she knew the reason was to hopefully help bridge that enormous emotional canyon between them.

As Pyrrha began driving them home, Weiss now in the front seat, she sighed and looked over at the tall redhead. “So… want to come up to my room and listen to the radio?”

“Oh? Shouldn’t we do our homework?”

“Probably. But… I think we can take a break for a little while. Maybe I could scare up some of my old comic books.”

The smile that stretched across her friend’s lips told her she had done the right thing. Even if she didn’t mean to, she had been a less than ideal “best friend” of late, and this was something they both needed.

Once they got back to Atlas Heights, Weiss stowed her jacket under the seat out of habit; she didn’t know why she kept doing that, but also didn’t much feel like going back for it just now. Then they began to head up to the front door.

“Think we could find any of Kali’s cooking in the kitchen?” Pyrrha asked quietly. “Maybe some pie?”

“Pyrrha! We just ate!”

“W-well, my metabolism is higher from all that track-and-field,” she hedged, cheeks pinkening a little.

Chuckling a little, she said, “Alright, we’ll check. But don’t be too disappointed if you’re out of luck; the way he packs food away, Whitley must have a hole in his stomach or s-”

What a sentence to be interrupted. Weiss had just been wondering what the noise behind her was, but didn’t even get time to fully turn and investigate before she felt white-hot pain in her abdomen. When she looked down, it was to see the very tip of a thin blade sticking out just below and to one side of where her navel lay, gleaming with her own blood.

“Or s-something.”

#princess and the dragons #freezerburn fanfic #rwby fanfiction #rwbyremnants #1950s au #gore tw

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 13 (Finale) Rundown

It’s been a month or two since the finale aired, and honestly I needed that time to organize my thoughts on it and what I think may happen next. And I was busy becoming an art major. That too. Oh, and a little thing called COVID-19.

So our season finale begins with one of the fights we had most been looking forward to, JNR and Oscar vs Neo. Jaune wants to avoid a fight and tells her to surrender since she’s outnumbered, but Neo is too confident in her capabilities and just draws her parasol blade. So Nora and Ren start shooting at her to no effect and rush in for melee combat. Also ineffective at first, she just dodges and blocks and counters. Even Ren’s new grapple line blades do next to nothing, she just does a split to dodge under his flying kick. Oscar runs in to attack with his cane, but she counters and flips him into the air with the lamp getting knocked off his belt and being in the air between them. Both thrust their sticks to try and catch it, but Oscar gets it first and sticks his landing. Neo just starts slashing at him as he backs away, and Jaune steps between them to repel her with his shield’s gravity Dust burst. One thing you notice pretty quickly about the fight is how casually Neo seems to be taking it, taunting her opponents the whole time by making faces and being theatrical with her every move. It’s maddening, but it’s the attitude we came to expect from her after Volumes 2 and 3. Teamwork seems the best move, so Nora launches Ren through the air at the ice cream demon while Oscar holds her legs so she can’t move out of the way. Too bad her Semblance is still pretty OP and Ren just shatters an apparently fake Neo. They check down the corridors for any sign of her but instead see Atlesian soldiers who chase after them on Ironwood’s orders.

Back to the battle of the seasons, Penny flies at Cinder with a high speed punch that sends her back into the hallway but she just catches it and uses her Grimm arm to toss her around a bit. Winter attacks with a flock of tiny Nevermore summons before charging in herself with a sword slash, though both do little to phase the nimble Maiden. She summons two glass swords of her own to fight back, and seems to have the advantage. She even takes the time to lecture Winter on how Atlas’s elite hoard so much power in the hopes of maintaining it forever, and how that just starves the rest of the world. It seems like she really means it once starved her, and she refuses to starve again. Some hints of what may have been her tragic backstory here, which I would be very interested to learn in greater detail even if it absolutely won’t redeem her character from the cruel and insane devil she is. I just want to see how she got to this point, where this lust for power came from. It’s certainly ironic that she’s complaining about other people hoarding power when she’s going around stealing Maiden powers all for herself when those were literally made to be divided among four people. Penny re-enters the fight with her swords on strings, but Cinder’s reflexes are apparently on the level of Ultra Instinct since she’s able to dodge and block all her spinning blades AS WELL as Winter’s attacks once she draws her second sword and joins in again. The two are at least able to avoid getting hit in return, but the whole is just going nowhere fast even if they’re blocking her way back into Fria’s room. So Cinder lashes out and flies at them with all her might, grabbing them both by the neck and rocketing through the other wall of the medical room... to reveal this secret room was not in a subbasement as we may have assumed but the top floor of a skyscraper. Now they’re all in the open air and Winter is the odd one out since... y’know, she can’t fly. She doesn’t make things better for herself by stabbing Cinder’s hand and making her drop the Specialist. With only one person to worry about now, Cinder tosses Penny away and kicks a flaming sword her way. Penny catches it, but didn’t expect it to explode and knock her back some more. The two have a floating standoff with Cinder becoming increasingly frustrated and calling Penny a toy, as if she’s Tom Hanks in 1995. But her attention is brought elsewhere as she’s hit by a blast of ice. In one of the most badass sights this Volume has offered, Winter is flying on the back of a summoned Manticore. The 2v1 fight resumes in this airborne setting, and Cinder has a harder time dodging and countering their speedy strikes while also focusing her powers on staying in flight. But when she and Winter charge at each other, her sword is unfortunately able to cut through the summon and leave Winter in a freefall. As if to add vindictive insult to injury, she also shoots a fireball at the Schnee that takes down her Aura. Satisfied with her work, Cinder flies back to the building while Penny is left with the choice of following her and dutifully protecting the Maiden powers or saving Winter. She makes the right choice, and saves her friend. Winter thinks she should have just been left to die, that she matters less than the mission. But Penny disagrees.

Back with JNRO, they’re still running from the Atlas soldiers. Whatever scuffle Oscar had with Neo before the others came along is now wearing on him and he begins to fall behind. In all the rushing through the labyrinth of hallways, he gets separated from the group. Just as he’s lost hope of rejoining the others and the guards are just around the corner, the farmboi gets pulled into an empty room and kept quiet via a hand over his mouth by... Nora? A very silent and smiling Nora... A Nora who suddenly lunges at him with a lace parasol... okay this is clearly not Nora. This is clearly Neo in a very cruel and deceptive disguise, as made clear by her eyes changing to the usual pink and brown when Oscar fortunately dodges out of the way of her attack and back into the hallway. Worse still, she swiped the Lamp from him in the heat of the moment, and the little devil makes a break for it. Jaune is looking for Oscar, but finds Neora instead, and she just dodges around him and springboards off his shield. Then... things get rough. She runs into Ren next... while looking like Nora. He still shoots at her as she barrels towards him but she just blocks with her parasol as she is want to do. When he meets her halfway and takes a jumping slash at her... she twists the knife in; changing her eyes back from her own determined mismatched pink and brown to Nora’s scared and confused turquoise. In that split second of seeing his beloved’s face staring at him with such fear, Ren hesitates and stops the attack, so she hits him in the face and trips him to the floor before running away some more. Jaune is still on her tail and runs past his dazed and shellshocked teammate. When he rounds the corner Neo had just headed down however, he only finds more Atlas soldiers firing at him. The real Nora comes running from gods know where and the three head back the way they came. Nora checks over her shoulder to see if they’re still being followed, but what’s more interesting is that Ren can be seen crying as he brings up the rear. Obviously he’s quite upset with how easily Neo could get him to hesitate just by posing as Nora and playing on his feelings for her. She probably didn’t realize just how complicated the Renora relationship is, but it worked perfectly in her favor. Ren’s tried to set aside his feelings but they’ve now dramatically affected his capacity to do his job. Like it or not, he HAS to talk about it or else everything is gonna implode. And of course, when we cut to see the armored soldiers chasing our heroes there’s also a more formally uniformed female officer in the back who goes sauntering off in the other direction. That was a very speedy costume change, you little sugar gremlin. Anyway, she got away with the Lamp. That’s no good.

What’s even less good is that we cut back to a temporarily black screen and the harsh wrenching sound of tearing metal. Turns out its the POV of Fria as she blinks back into consciousness and sees the satisfied face of Cinder as she starts a monologue about how the elder woman’s time is up. Fria admits she has been waiting for a good long while, but she can’t remember what or whom for. Cinder confidently informs her it was for this very moment. For her~ But as she goes for the Reverse Flash kill with her Grimm hand, the Winter Maiden shows off one of the reasons she’s survived this long. A good strong grip on Cinder’s wrist stopping her before she can make contact and keeping the Fall Maiden from getting any further. The hungry wolf won’t be gobbling up Granny tonight, deary. Faced with the tired but steadfast face of a woman who has likely lived and fought several times longer than Cinder has been alive, accented by the blue flame of her Maiden magic, the evil woman pulls back. But she’s persistent, and tries a glass dagger instead. That goes even worse, as a pulse of magic sends her flying backwards. With more magic on display than any Maiden we’ve seen before, Fria summons a cyclone of pure cold air and ice around herself and starts floating in the middle of it. Cinder’s Grimm fingers start to freeze (since they don’t have Aura like the rest of her body and thus get no protection from the cold, thank you for setting that concept up in episode 3 Weiss!) so she has to back away further. That becomes a full temporary retreat out of the room when the coldnado sends a pod door at her and the intensity only keeps increasing. Much like Professor Xavier in Logan, Fria is already very old and isn’t in the most stable state of mind anymore, so she loses control of the tempest and it busts a hole in the roof. Penny and Winter land a short distance away and marvel at the majestic chaos. Winter claims this is the power of a fully realized Maiden, which makes me wonder if Raven was able to do something similar or if it takes decades to unlock this kind of mastery. Winter tries to get in closer and reach Fria, but the blizzard winds are enough to destroy the material of her glove and leave her fingers red with chill. Something has to be done, but after the beating she took she’s in no shape to do it. So Penny jumps in instead, much to Winter’s dismay.

Continuing the hopscotch course of dismal vibes, we go back to JNRO as they’re hiding in the training room and Oscar is apologizing for having lost the lamp. Jaune tries to reassure him, but Ren is even more pessimistic. He doesn’t think they were ready to even become Huntsmen and Huntresses which is just so painful to hear. Nora of course disagrees, but Ren has a harsh rebuttal: if they’re ready and capable, then why don’t they have any of the relic they’re supposed to be protecting? Why haven’t they succeeded in their most important mission? Oscar seems even more hurt by this reminder, and Jaune puts on his serious leader voice to tell Ren that’s enough. I would half agree with Ren, and unfortunately its a half that blames him. It’s not that the team wasn’t ready for this, it’s that HE wasn’t EMOTIONALLY ready for this. Like I said before, Neo took advantage of his emotional state to make him hesitate and overwhelm him.  Their moping is interrupted by Pietro and Maria chiming in over their Scrolls. Was there any doubt that a genius like Dr. Polendina would be able to undo Ironwood’s communication shutdown?? We see Yang and Blake for the first time this episode as they shoot at Atlas robots and head for an airship, one which Maria is getting ready to pilot as their getaway vehicle. Nora informs her of their current hiding place, but the soldiers happen to close in at that moment and the three hide behind Jaune’s hard-light extended shield... wait. Three?? OH NO WE LOST THE BABY!!!! It would seem Oscar ran off on his own to try and fix things, and he insists they leave without him.

Back to the impending ice age, Penny is slowly making her way through the blizzard. Her foot gets frozen to the ground, but she hits the boot jets and it busts out again. There in the eye of the storm she finds Fria, and the android approaches carefully before gently touching her ankle to get her attention. The fire in the old lady’s eye dies down and she notices Penny. Penny is a of course a sweet and thoughtful girl and rather than demanding Fria stop the storm she just asks if she’s okay. Fria most certainly does not seem to feel okay, again mentioning that she had a job to do. She clarifies that she was supposed to protect the power of the Winter Maiden until the time came for her to pass them on. Penny notices the machines are broken and buried in a wall of ice, so the more safe transfer method is no longer possible. Fria laments that she may have taken longer to be ready for passing the powers along than she should have, but promises she’s ready now. She knows that means dying, that’s one thing she still remembers quite well. The elderly Maiden quiets the cyclone and floats down to collapse in Penny’s arms. Not gone yet, just weary, and hoping to learn the name of the sweet young lady who’s helping her like this. Penny gives her name, and now Fria asks the million lien question: Since Penny is suddenly showing up now after Fria’s only interactions being with Winter for so long... does that mean Penny is the One? The poor little android doesn’t know what to say to that, and for damn good reason. She knows Winter is supposed to be the one to get the Maiden powers, but she also knows Winter would use those powers to obey Ironwood’s cruel plans for Atlas and Mantle. If she takes the powers, she can make sure that doesn’t happen AND that they don’t fall into Cinder’s hands. But that would also mean betraying her boss and her orders, betraying her friend Winter. So what is she gonna do, what she’s been told to do or what she feels is right? This is the culmination of the struggle she’s been wrestling with the entire volume, nay her character’s entire existence! She is a creation of Atlas, but she is also a girl with a heart and soul of her own. Such a tragic clash of motivations! 

Speaking of motivations clashing, we cut down to Ironwood in the Atlas vault. He hears the hum of the elevator approaching and assumes it’s Winter coming to report Fria’s demise and her own acquisition of the Winter Maiden powers, and thus begins apologizing for making her perform such a morally dubious act. Instead he finds Oscar, posing rather seriously with Ozpin’s his cane and fixing James with his best look of fed up disapproval. With such a formal air about him, James has every reason to suspect Oz is back at the helm and asks which of the two he has the pleasure of addressing. It’s just Oscar though, but Oscar is plenty on his own. James thankfully doesn’t yet know that Oscar has lost the Lamp and thinks he just chose not to bring it down here with him, acknowledging that he isn’t very trustworthy right now. Oscar is a farmer to his very roots and wants to help the trust between our heroes and the Atlas forces regrow. He believes they can all come together again. But James is stuck in a guarded state of mind and thinks Oscar came to fight for his cause. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Oscar admits that he feels scared, and whenever he does he holds the cane and it helps calm him down, likely due to its significance to those who came before him. But he puts the cane away as a sign that he will face his fear without that aid, that he will be brave. James just thinks that’s another dig at him, that Oscar is calling him scared. Oscar reminds him that EVERYONE is scared right now, for good reason, and that fear is not something to be ashamed of, that it just gives us a chance to show the content of our character by how we handle the fear. James just snaps at him, says that it’s easy for Oscar to spout such platitudes when he doesn’t have to make life changing decisions for the sake of a Kingdom. As he starts circling around the poor farmboi and backing him towards a dead end ledge, he insists that no matter what labels they put on him he was RIGHT. He was right about what would happen if he opened his heart and trusted others, that all his worst fears came true because he went against his gut and did what the kids told him he should. Except he is absolutely NOT right. Things were going far more smoothly for him once he started trusting Robyn and told her and the council about the trouble he had to deal with, and despite the obviously concerning setback of Watts shutting down Mantle’s heat they handled that situation with very little trouble. It was only once Cinder popped in to sew doubt and paranoia back into his mind that it all spiraled out of control, and that was entirely his fault. If Cinder hadn’t stepped in, they might have found the Seer in Watts’ bag and killed it immediately instead of it interrupting a tense conversation. Robyn now knowing what the Tower is for would mean construction could resume without shipments getting stolen, and perhaps they could have negotiated a way to divide up the materials so the wall could get fixed too. Just spit balling here, what could have been. But no, it all went belly up and Jimmy is only fanning the flames. Oscar tries to remind him that his current plan of abandoning Mantle will be betraying an entire city of thousands to die alone in the cold, but James is having none of it. It’s an excellent philosophical puzzle to try and work through, but the way he sees it none of that matters compared to preventing Salem’s victory. He thinks he’s the only one who can see the big picture, who is making his moves with the intention of changing the final result no matter the cost.

But that’s what’s so dangerous about that mindset. People he writes off as small minded and soft, like Robyn, the council, and even Oscar (possibly by extension even Ozpin)... they’re the good people who think first and foremost about preventing tragedy and loss in the moment, who refuse to budge on their morals of protecting the innocent and will never trade lives. It’s the same kind of difference seen in Superman vs the Elite. Team RWBY and their friends don’t believe in necessary sacrifices for the greater good, but Ironwood has become singlemindedly focused on stopping Salem, likely out of the guilt and humiliation of being so helpless against her back in Volume 3. This is a chance to reclaim his honor, and he thinks of little else. That’s how I see it anyway. Oscar calls James out, saying this mindset makes him just as dangerous as Salem herself. But I guess that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and he insists Oscar refer to him as General. Only his friends may call him James, and it seems our good good boy has lost that status. Not that he seems to expect Oscar will have much chance to show him that due respect any time soon, because he pulls out his pistol and SHOOTS THE INNOCENT FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOY OFF A LEDGE TO FALL TO HIS DEATH!!!! Ironwood has officially made the transition from misguided good guy to full on villain.

As if there wasn’t enough tension and bad news, we go back to Penny who is still unsure how to answer Fria’s question. What is the right choice to make, the best choice for everyone’s sake? She has no idea. But she had better decide fast, because Cinder crashes through the ice wall and screeches that the powers belong to none but her. Unfortunately for our vicious villain, her Gum Gum stretchy arm comes with a weakness to blades and gets sliced off by a suddenly appearing Winter. Cinder reacts with the appropriate amount of bloody terror and pain that you would expect of someone conscious for an amputation. Winter surveys the room and realizes Fria isn’t long for this world so time is of the essence, but doesn’t have much longer to ponder that before Cinder enters a bloodlust rage. See, apparently whatever monster makeover Salem gave her in the wake of Volume 3 included the ability to regrow her Grimm limb, though it sounds like the process is terribly painful for her and may not have even been something she was expecting to have happen. Regardless, she wants revenge and starts lashing out by summoning blade after blade to throw at Winter. The Specialist manages to block most of them and they turn to dust on impact, but it’s a brutal onslaught that she has to face without any Aura, and one cuts her left arm enough to draw blood, though since it’s burning glass it also seems to cauterize the wound immediately. Let me take another moment to praise the talents of Jessica Nigri. This scene in particular required her to do a lot of screaming and screeching as Cinder, and that cannot be easy on the throat. So the fact that she pulls off those deep dark emotions so well is worthy of respect and sympathy in equal measure. Okay, back to the action. Fria lies on the floor and closes her eyes, passing away peacefully all things considered. Penny holds her hand in her final moments, and a blue glow passes from elder to younger woman. We go back to Oscar for a moment or two, but I’ll tackle his last couple scenes in bulk in just a minute. Winter is getting tossed around, and her hair has been pulled free of its bun to add to her disheveled look... and our overwhelming thirst for her. Battle battered or not, she’s looking like a real snack with her hair down. Cinder stalks toward her to continue the beating and possibly deal the killing blow, but is distracted by a snowflake flying past her face. Well that’s interesting... And then it becomes many snowflakes, a veritable flurry kicking up. She turns around with some legit fear and concern on her face, and her worries are confirmed. Penny’s eyes glow and flare up with a fierce green fire as she stands resolute as the new Winter Maiden. She seems ready to use her new powers to fight Cinder despite only just getting them, and clearly has some manner of control already if she was able to start generating snow already. And this does settle another matter of fan speculation, if she qualifies as a candidate for the powers. Welp, now we know. According to the guidelines set by Oz’s bestowing of the original powers and how he explains their transfer process back in Volume 3, you just have to be a young woman below a certain age (or else they probably would have given Amber’s power to Glynda) and have a soul to receive the power from the last user’s. I guess Penny’s blue fairy has come and said she is a real girl in all the ways that count. Her soul is unique and separate from her dad’s, even though he used his old man aura to create her. And she does in fact have a soul and is considered a legit person even though she’s got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts. Cinder is of course outraged that this “toy” was bestowed the powers she came all this way to steal, and gets ready to fight her, but is distracted by Weiss entering the upper observation room and yelling her sister’s name in concern and fear. Cinder probably has a confused and annoyed moment of “I thought I killed you back at Haven...” She gets ready to kill the little Schnee brat for piling on further interruptions to her plan, but that too goes out the window when she notices Ruby had accompanied her partner down to find their Atlesian allies, and likewise Ruby notices her. Ruby does not hesitate for a second and without needing any time to get into the right head-space blasts off a wave of Silver Eyed energy to essentially Solar Flare the whole room.

Now we can go back to Oscar and his dramatic descent. The shot from Ironwood took out his Aura, and he seems like he’s resigned himself to death once he hits the bottom of this pit. As he closes his eyes, they glow for a moment and he hears a voice that’s been absent the entire Volume. Ozpin. He only says Oscar’s name, or at least that’s all we hear, but the boi seems to regain his determination and tries to reach his cane again. He holds it with both hands, extends it, then holds down the lever on the side. Guess a single squeeze was all it took to pop out the cane part under normal circumstances... But now the gears inside the hilt start really turning, and glowing, and it becomes a flashlight as well as a cane. Well, that’s all that seems to happen at first. With a spin and a jab, Oscar thrusts the tip of the cane downward just as he reaches the bottom of the pit. There’s a momentary flash of green lightning around him then... fade to black.

And now we come to what seems to be the epilogue/wrap up of the episode and the Volume itself. And it begins how the show began, with a voice over narration. Not from Salem though, it’s our first motivational speech from Ozpin in a year. He talks about how fear is the only feeling in this world that is universal across every living thing, yet for how common it is we constantly underestimate how powerful it can be. We experience the fear of making close connections and growing to care for others, because that can lead to a loss which we also fear. We fear failure a great deal, I know I definitely do. And those fears only get stronger the more people depend on us to help them with the decisions we make. But Ozpin reminds us that fear itself is not something to worry about or even, dare I say it, fear. The real concern is how we act when we are afraid, who we become. Can we be proud of that version of ourselves, forgive them for what they do under duress? Will you understand why they felt the need to do the things they did? Will you even recognize them as the same person you normally strive to be, or will you look in the mirror and see the enemy you should have feared from the very start? We all find the answer to that eventually.

Now on to what actually happens in these last few scenes, the fitting content to go with Ozpin’s speech. Oscar is falling through the sky towards the ground waaaaay down in Mantle. Guess his attack with the can was strong enough to bust a hole in the bottom of Atlas... straight into the Vault chamber... hope nobody else finds that. Back in the icy former hospital room, Ruby falls to her knees from the exhaustion of using her Silver Eyes. She and Weiss notice a freshly burned hole in the ceiling, as Cinder apparently avoided getting damaged by the SEW blast and escaped. Weiss rushes to check on Winter and see how badly she’s hurt, but all her sister has for her is an accusation. She still doesn’t know what Team RWBY did to get a warrant for their arrests, but she knows it was the catalyst for all of this. Meanwhile Ruby looks to see how Penny is doing, and the ginger girl’s eyes lose their fire as she meets her friend’s gaze, only to gain regret and fear as she turns back around to kneel by Fria’s side. The Winter Maiden is dead, long live the Winter Maiden. But Penny can only mourn the loss of a good person’s life, she takes no satisfaction in being the one to carry on her legacy. Winter actually does reassure her a bit, saying that some part of Fria will always live on in Penny now. We cut down to the blood stained tundra as Atlas police arrive to arrest Qrow and Robyn, who is only now regaining consciousness. Qrow puts up no fight, and it looks like neither will Robyn. Cinder is seen flying above Atlas Academy and screams with rage and hatred, even getting a bit of a dragon vibe in it by having fire erupt from her mouth. I was glad she was the one shown when Ozpin talked about fear of failure, because she did indeed fail. We don’t know how, but JNR make it to the airship pad and onto the getaway ship where the Bees and elderly people are waiting. They take off and of course question the meeting lacking the presence of Oscar and the Lamp, and JNR can only look sad in response. From one sad ship to another, we see Qrow and Robyn aboard a prison airship in cuffs, and Qrow is holding Clover’s bloodstained lucky badge. Despite the last interaction the three shared being a fight, Robyn shows sympathy to his mourning and puts a hand on his shoulders. Can’t wait to see if the two of them try to break out of jail next Volume~ As they fly up to the city in the sky backdropped by the eastern sunrise, a large dark cloud approaches from the west accented by flashes of red lightning. Back to Oscar, he clips the cane to his back and closes his eyes for a few seconds to concentrate and steel his composure. Back to the ice room again, Winter says the girls should surrender to Ironwood. Weiss is heartbroken, you can hear it in her voice, but she has to disobey her sister’s wishes, they simply cannot comply with his cruel plans. Winter seemed to expect that answer, and instead urges them to flee, but Weiss doesn’t want to do that either because it would mean leaving Winter behind while she’s so badly injured. Her big sister insists it simply isn’t like that, this is her giving them a head start before she calls for reinforcements to hunt them down. Weiss is disheartened, but reaffirms the lesson Winter had shared with her earlier in the Volume, they booth have to make decisions for the sake of their own futures that might take them down separating paths. The getaway ship arrives and hovers just outside the first hole Cinder had made in the wall, and Yang greets the group. She’s very relieved to see everyone is okay, but soon finds a lot more happened than she expected. Ruby affirms that they need to head out while they still can, and Weiss gives her sister one more glance before departing. Ruby and Penny also share a look, and Penny decides she will be leaving too. Guess she’s decided once and for all she won’t be helping Ironwood. Winter seems concerned by this development, but realizes she has no right to object or stop her after everything the two of them had talked about since the dinner party. On the airship everyone seems very dour and grim, and Penny looks at her own hand as if asking herself if she had the right to make the choices she did when she is just an Atlas robot. But Ruby and Weiss both lean on her shoulders to reassure her and make sure she knows they are happy she came with them and they believe she did the right thing. That seems to calm her down, and Pietro looks happy to see she has such good friends. On an Atlas rooftop, Cinder is quite satisfied to see Neo deliver the Lamp to her, and takes it without a single word or gratitude. Neo doesn’t like that, I guess even Roman would praise her for a job evilly done. She’s probably starting to realize Cinder is just using her to further her own plans. Speaking of unfortunate realizations, Ironwood gets a message from Winter that simply says “It’s gone”. We’re unsure if she means the Lamp or the Winter Maiden powers. Considering what her job was meant to be, it’s likely the latter. Ironwood takes that news poorly and screams with rage. I too screamed with rage, because we next see that Arthur Watts is actually still alive and just in a jail cell, nursing a black eye and smiling ominously at the mysterious black clouds we saw rolling in. 

Oscar seems to have been playing some Halo 3 recently, because he throws up a bubble shield to cushion his badass superhero landing on the ground. Not just any ground though, he seems to be within the crater where Atlas once was before Ozpin lifted it into the sky. The same crater that has apparently become the main Dust mines for the Kingdom. Perhaps next Volume will give us a closer look at just how awful these mines really are. But let’s address what Oscar has actually done here. He had no Aura after getting shot by Ironwood, so that was not his Semblance. That energy bubble he used to shield himself when busting through the bottom of the pit and cushioning his hitting the ground, that had to be Magic. He’s unlocking more of Oz’s old powers, the union of souls is progressing. But he’s still in control, Oscar is still there. He just has more of Ozpin’s memories and abilities now and used them to save himself, as if the old souls are merging into his existing one as opposed to his new soul fading away into the collective. Maybe the process will be different this time around? Regardless, Ozpin’s voice is back in his head and ready to apologize for everything he put him through. But all Oscar wants to hear right now is what their next step will be to save Atlas. As we cut back up to RWBY and friends flying away from the city, we see that it will indeed need saving very very soon. Transmissions are coming in over the radio of multiple incoming hostiles, to a degree that seems impossible to believe. Our view shifts to the dark storm itself, and a shape begins to emerge from the black and red. A GIANT. FLYING. GRIMM. WHALE! With hundreds of Nevermore, Manticores, and Sphinxes flying around it looking as big as flies by comparison. I have personally dubbed this species the Mobius, and this particular specimen has earned the nickname of Monstro. I can’t imagine there ever being more than one of this thing though, so Monstro will be the only one. He has wings, but what seems to keep him in the air is several large chunks of Gravity Dust embedded in his belly and on top of his head. We pan up over his massive glowing forehead to see the Queen herself riding into battle. Salem has come to Atlas, and she’s wearing a badass (and kind of sexy) new dress to celebrate the occasion. There are grey arm bands on the longer sleeves that look like they’re made of bones, complete with jagged spikes, and a new broach to be the centerpiece between exposed shoulders and a noticeably bigger boob window. The unique aesthetic is aided by more red lines down the curves of her figure. The words “step on me” easily come to my mind, but that may just say something about me in particular. Regardless, she smirks at the camera and it is clear she is here to fuck some shit up.

We’ll have to wait 6 months to see how our heroes deal with that though. Cannot wait. Oh, and it must be noted that the new song for the credits “Fear” is very good, and we can see that another song on the soundtrack called “Until the End” was actually written by Casey Lee Williams as opposed to her dad. Good for her!! If only I could remember which song it was...

#rwby reviews #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #lie ren #oscar pine #neopolitan #penny polendina #winter schnee #cinder fall #fria the winter maiden #general ironwood #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #Salem #monstro the grimm whale #mobius grimm

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Vol. 5 The More the Merrier

This is a re-posting from October 9th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Hello, moon.

Will we ever learn what happened to you? Not in this episode! That ominous shot (countered with the oddly soothing sound of crickets) is just to situate us before we pan down, revealing the gang making their way to the meeting with Lionheart. And honestly? I kind of love everything about this composition. Let’s tick things off:

We have Jaune and Ren mirroring each other with determined expressions and clenched fists. They’re ready to kick ass if need be.

Same with Ruby and Nora except they look like they’re out for a casual moonlit stroll—with the added bonus that Nora is manically thrilled about this adventure.

Yang is pretty blasé. Been there. Done that. Survived worse.

Weiss? The embodiment of “Ugh I could be home right now instead of walking around in this heat this had better not mess up my hair.”

Oscar looks way out of his depth and is hanging back from the rest, as we’d expect given that he’s a farm boy joining a group of elite fighters that have had years to bond without him. It’s Awkward New Kid Syndrome with a side of extreme danger.

And then there’s Qrow. Out in front. Suspicious looks all around. Iconic hunched shoulders. Really wants to put his hands in his pockets but the animation isn’t quite there yet. Behold, everyone. Our leader.

For real though, jokes aside I honest to god love this opening. It’s quick and from a practical standpoint sets up only that they’re heading somewhere as a group, but if you take the time to actually look you’ll see each of their personalities shining through. We might bitch about RWBY’s faults, but there’s a whole lot of love poured into this series and more often than not you can see it in the details.

Ruby pauses then to take in Haven tower—always one to appreciate beauty even when things are bleak—and then hangs back until Oscar has caught up. It’s a wonderful little moment between them because there’s no dialogue and ultimately none is needed. He doesn’t stop for reassurance, but he could. Ruby gives him that option and waits until Oscar passes her before continuing herself. The whole scene is heavy and poignant. There’s nothing but music until they arrive inside and Lionheart breaks the peace with, “Why hello. There… seems to be more of you than last time.”

Yeah. You can hear the fear in his voice. As if the rest of this setup didn’t already scream “TRAP, TRAP, TRAP,” He’s gotta be super suspicious in his greeting too. Leading them out here in the dead of night. Lionheart up on the podium—both figuratively putting himself above them and literally keeping himself out of harm’s way. Then the first thing out of his mouth is a worried comment on their numbers? Suspicious, suspicious.

Qrow: “Oh you know what they say. The more the merrier.”

He did the title thing! Love that.

Except the delivery makes it clear that Qrow is also suspicious as hell. No one has drawn their weapon yet, but the fight has already started. Qrow and Ozpin know that this is no simple meeting. Now Lionheart knows that they know. A quick shot reveals both his fear and the fact that he came with a weapon of his own:

Qrow tries to continue the charade by asking what’s up with the council and Lionheart is so bad at acting casual it’s actually painful to watch. He wants to know why they all brought THEIR weapons while hiding his own behind his back. As if they in any way failed to miss him standing there with it in full view for the last thirty seconds.

I can’t with this guy. He's just so bad at being bad I almost feel sorry for him.

(Although, as we in the U.S. have certainly discovered the last two years, the incompetent ones are often the most dangerous…)

As said, the fight has already begun. While Qrow and Lionheart trade subtext Yang checks out their perimeter, immediately picking up on the raven that just happens to be chilling on the banister. A simple, whispered “Mom?” and Qrow has his weapon out and a shot off, barely missing Raven as she swoops down beside Lionheart.

Can we appreciate that reaction time for a second? I feel like between Ozpin’s Super Secret Magic and Qrow’s self-deprecating drinking the fandom tends to forget that he’s easily one of the most powerful fighters we’ve seen to date. He demonstrated that in his playful spar against Winter, keeping Tyrian on his toes while also ensuring that the kids were safe, and here as he responds blindingly fast to a one syllable word. A few seconds later Raven calls him out for missing or, just as likely, deliberately missing since he doesn't want to kill her—yet. Which makes it all the more impressive that he can aim and achieve the results he wants in such a short amount of time. You 100% do not want to fuck with Qrow.

A nice cut using Lionheart’s back and Raven becomes human once more. In the realm of ‘artists paying careful attention to how their background characters act,’ Oscar is uncomfortable but isn’t even looking at the threat—almost like he’s listening carefully to something the rest of them can’t hear—while Nora looks downright floored. “They really are magic,” she says to herself, solidifying with evidence what they'd been told a few episodes back.  

Okay. Rant time. I still don’t buy these reactions. Really not great on the world building front here. I mean, we’ve had Pyrrha who controls magnetism, Ren who manipulates emotions, Yang has a Hulk mode that includes changing eye color, Blake can create clones of herself, Weiss is basically a necromancer, Ruby turns into rose petals, give him an episode and Jaune will straight up heal a girl, and Nora herself can store/release electricity. Why is turning into a bird so incredibly shocking? It would feel way more natural if they saw Raven and Qrow’s transformations and went, “Okay… so that’s their semblance?” and then Oz has to explain about the difference—being born with an ability vs. being granted it—which is cool and there’s surprise that that’s a Thing, but their reaction to the ability itself is still pretty meh. Because they’ve literally seen weirder.

We’re given no indication as to WHY a bird transformation instinctually reads as more impossible than transforming into rose petals, other than “one is magic and one is not because we say so.” There’s no justification behind the characters’ ability to recognize magic when they see it, especially given the incredibly wide range of abilities RWBY has shown us over the years. Either attach more overt rules to semblances (obvious boundaries where the viewer understands what is and is not possible) or make Ozpin’s magic look radically different. In this world summoning storms and turning into birds doesn't read as radically different. Hell, in many ways Dust, an incredibly common commodity, is more powerful than this supposedly gasp-worthy magic. Why be impressed with Raven summoning rain clouds when Weiss can create powerful winds in her fight against Flynt with just a bit of Daddy’s money?

But anyway. I digress.  

The verbal sparring continues. Oscar still isn’t making eye contact. Raven spouts more of her excuses, Salem can’t possibly be stopped, we're all out for ourselves, blah blah blah. Ruby emphasizes that they’ve already done the impossible, but they only achieved that because they were working together. Separation and a pessimistic attitude is exactly what Salem wants. Ruby wants Raven to join them.

And take a gander at that contrast between sisters. As I’ve said before, Ruby is the classic full-of-heart protagonist who believes that almost everyone can be redeemed. As we’ll see in a second, the exemption to this appears to be Cinder. Her murder of Penny and Pyrrha highlights her irredeemability in a way that overshadows Raven’s—and even Salem’s—more nebulous crimes. The bigger your actions are the harder they are to conceptualize. The smaller and more personal they are the harder they are to forgive. Paradoxically, it’s easier for someone like Ruby (and the fandom…) to shrug off Raven’s actions because as of yet she hasn't felt their repercussions as intimately.

Yang though? She has. And in this moment she’s not ready to forgive.

Raven refuses of course and tells Ruby she sounds just like her mother. (Give us flashbacks of Summer!) She summons a portal where a fireball flies through, hitting Ruby square in the chest and allowing the whole evil gang to join the party. We get a closeup on Oscar as he and Oz recognize Hazel, locking them inside while the White Fang sets up their bombs.

Hazel: “No one’s getting in… and no one’s getting out.”

Because RWBY, for all its dark storylines, is still hella cheesy at times lol.

Weiss: “So this was all just a trap?”

Ren: “It appears so…”

Ah, naive little children. If only you were watching from our fourth wall perspective you would have realized it was a trap more than an episode ago! Too bad.

We learn that Lionheart was the one who secured Team Bad a place in the Vytal festival. Not only that, but he’s been passing information about huntsmen and huntress whereabouts to Salem. That’s how they were all murdered and Qrow’s realization of this—after spending all that time looking for them and hoping against hope—is definitely a kicker. “I couldn’t find any of them… because you let her kill them.”

Keep in mind, most of those people were Qrow’s friends.

Jaune, as we’d expect, is at his breaking point. Pyrrha’s murderer is standing right there and, as he says, rubbing their faces in how many people she’s killed—“All with that damn smile on your face!” We’ve had all of two instances of RWBY cursing and it’s definitely needed here. I appreciate that his tears and his anger are basically a call to arms. Most everyone draws their weapon as soon as he's finished speaking. Qrow’s still trying to keep the peace, but Jaune’s very existence is a walking testament to exactly how much these people deserve to be brought to justice.

He yells that he’s going to make Cinder pay for what she did and then comes the most brutal line in all of RWBY.

Cinder: “Who are you again?”

Damn. They’re never gonna top that.

Perfect characterization though. As the audience it’s easy to forget who knows who in a big ensemble cast and, more importantly, who cares about who. From Cinder’s perspective Jaune is a nobody she's barely met. Why would she remember him? If she’d instead made a taunt about his dead girlfriend most of us probably would have just shrugged off the plot-hole, but paying attention to details like this is not only, a) satisfying but b) wonderfully vicious. Way to twist the knife here.

Jaune attacks as we knew he would but Cinder easily blocks him. Ruby joins the fray only to be stopped by Emerald—“You’re not getting near her.” (Love the devotion.) Yang pairs off with Mercury to settle an old score. Raven orders Vernal to take out “the heiress” (rude, she has a name) and in another excellent nod to the switcheroo that tricked both the team and a large chunk of the fandom, she casually throws out that Vernal doesn’t need to use her power to kill a kid.

Good excuse too. Considering, you know, she doesn’t have any.

No more fake outs. Qrow attacks Raven head on with the announcement that they’re not family anymore. Harsh, but deserved. Raven’s “Were we ever?” smells more like denial. We also get a good look at their similar, but differently balanced color schemes.

As their fight takes them out of frame we stay with a rather terrified Weiss. To her credit though she holds her ground against Vernal, assuring her that she’s “more than a name.”

Finally, Ren and Nora—ever the perfect duo—are left to fend off Hazel. He’s one of those real asshole villains who has a “code” that they follow. He doesn’t want to fight two kids half his age and power level… but he has to. Just like he has to keep pursuing his misguided revenge against Ozpin. And he, like Raven, feels the need to announce to the world that this isn’t what he’d prefer. It’s just how things are! Totally out of his hands, I’m sorry to say.

We’re seeing a trend with the villains and their justifications, yeah?

With everyone paired off Ozpin-Oscar (I need a portmanteau for them…) sneaks over to confront Lionheart. Lionheart goes from telling this supposed stranger to get himself out of the fight while he can to attacking him with a rock-lava-energy blast thing in like five seconds flat. Of course, our two favorite BAMFs block it with ease and we get the RWBY equivalent of,

(x)

Holy shit this kid blocked my hit??

Beautiful.

The second the cane comes out though everything makes sense and we get another stellar line of “Not quite” when Lionheart identifies him as Ozpin. I really love that they let Oscar handle the first half of this battle. Yeah, it’s a little flimsy that he’s able to take on an adult after just a few weeks of training, but we also don’t know how much he and Oz are already sharing. Fighting might come naturally to him now in a muscle memory sort of way. Regardless, he kicks ass and I’m loving it.

“You found Qrow,” Lionheart says. “How?” implying that he might have been doing even more work than we saw to keep those two apart. A voiceover from Ozpin wonders what happened to his former ally. The fact that Lionheart knows all the details of Ozpin’s reincarnation tells us that yeah, they were really, really close.

That knowledge is dangerous too. Realizing that Ozpin “couldn’t have had that form for long” Lionheart gets over the debilitating shock of fighting, you know, Ozpin. We hear him rationalizing in the wonderfully creepy manner of the desperate that this is just a boy in front of him, a boy soon to be Ozpin, and if he delivers the kid to Salem he’ll “finally be free" of her. Sounds a lot like Raven thinking that the relic will protect her; a lot like a hurt Tyrian muttering that she’ll forgive him.

RWBY does a good job of reminding us in small ways how utterly terrifying Salem is...and what that fear drives people to do.  

This would be the (supposedly) perfect moment for Ozpin to take over. Oh no! Lionheart is all serious now! Oscar is worried! But the only thing Ozpin does is tell him to “fight.” I’ve heard a lot of people in the fandom claim that Ozpin is a monster for his possession, culpable for something that’s outside of his control. But Ozpin has no desire to take over people’s lives like this and—unlike Hazel or Raven—it really is out of his hands, to say nothing of the fact that he does all he can to actually achieve what he thinks is right. He can’t keep himself from merging with Oscar, but he can give Oscar as much agency as humanly possible, including here. The only times we see Ozpin take that agency away is when it really is for the greater good (they can’t afford to hide on a farm forever) or when Oscar is well and truly in over his head, like after the fight with Hazel goes on too long. Taking over Oscar at that point is to save his life, akin to forcing someone out of the way of a blast.

But we’ll get to that.

We come back to the fight between Weiss and Vernal as Weiss tries to buy herself enough time to summon her knight. Vernal easily cuts through her summoning though… which is kind of a relief? In that RWBY (usually) knows when to limit new powers. If Weiss had no real limitations on her summoning—the time it takes, the energy it requires—we’d be wondering why she didn’t just summon a whole, super-powered army every time they were in a spot of trouble. Too many shows (Supernatural...) craft crazy powerful characters and then conveniently forget about that power when it would too easily solve a conflict.

Also, check out that smile from Vernal.

We segue to Cinder and Jaune. Kudos to Jaune for holding his own one-on-one! He really is Pyrrha’s student. Remember what other kid managed to hold her own against a freaking Maiden, at least for a time? 

Emerald won’t let Ruby get anywhere near Cinder. She “owes her everything" after all. But she’s willing to indulge her (so to speak) and summons up a mirage of Cinder to fly at Ruby. That and the resulting attack startles her enough that she sets off Crescent Rose, the bullet narrowly missing Weiss.

…Portent of things to come.

Because we’re back on Weiss and it's becoming clear to the viewer why we’ve been focusing so much on her in this battle. A shock from Vernal’s weapon rips out a scream from her, draws Jaune’s attention, and Cinder cruelly asks if he’ll “let her die too.”

Gotta have the fake-out first though. Deciding to take him seriously, Cinder charges with intent to kill and the head-on strike triggers Ruby into remembering Pyrrha’s death. Her silver eyes instinctually go off, blinding everyone and halting the battle.

Emerald knocks her out fast but even those few seconds was enough to effect Cinder. Apparently once you’re struck by that kind of power your body remembers it. She’s down on her knees, clearly in pain, and Jaune takes the opportunity to get a strike in, managing to clip the half-mask she wears.

And yeah. Cinder’s pissed.

Partly from getting caught in one of Ruby’s blasts again. Partly because a “nobody” like Jaune managed to hit her. Awful when that power you sought isn’t as perfect as you were promised, huh? Jaune makes the mistake though of declaring that he’s not important, only his friends are… and Cinder knows exactly how to make one of the good guys suffer.

Why just kill him when you can instead kill the girl he was worried about moments before? Why grant him peace when you can vividly recreate the trauma of Pyrrha’s death instead?

We have just enough time left in the episode to see the team’s shocked faces, watch Cinder’s weapon disappear, and then we cut with Weiss in mid-fall.

It’s a brutal combo of content and editing. Thanks, Rooster Teeth! I hate it!

We all know how things turn out though… so that's some kind of comfort. Until next time!

Other Details of Note

When everyone enters Haven tower we see this statue… and honestly I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. Something something it’s a maiden guarding a Maiden relic. Something something broken chains and freedom. Something something Atlas-esque imagery of holding up a world…you get the idea. It’s symbolic.

Cinder calls Qrow “little bird” and Lionheart “lion.” Always something wonderfully creepy about villains with a penchant for nicknames.

When Jaune first charges Cinder we pull back behind the chain on the statue and see it sway from the force of his attack. It’s quick and subtle, but an excellent visual detail to show us how strong he’s gotten. Pre-Fall of Beacon Jaune never would have managed that kind of force.

For all its faults in places, I enjoy how much this fight makes use of space, especially when it comes to Weiss using her glyphs. It’s not perfect or as complex as what we might have had with Monty, but I think the team is improving in their choreography overall.

Yes, Jaune is well over his schoolboy crush on Weiss---something I'm pleased about---but it still hits hard to have her as the victim here. Out of every team member Cinder could have targeted she chooses the one other girl Jaune might have had legitimate, romantic feelings for. In an alternate timeline, so to speak. 

So the whole “villain walks slowly towards the person they’re gonna kill and everyone who normally has superhuman reflexes doesn’t move an inch” trope is crazy annoying, right? Just putting that out there...

#rwby #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

[rwbyremnants]

WARNING: Cunnilingus and fingering.

Told you it wouldn't be too much longer! Enjoy you guys!

=Chapter 24

A week went by with very little word from the police. Weiss and her mother and brother had to go down to the station and testify about Jacques Schnee’s behaviour, and that seemed to be enough to convince them that they shouldn’t let him out quite yet. When asked if they would like to see him, Weiss flatly refused, but her mother waffled, unsure if she should. Weiss told her she should wait until she was sure and that did the trick.

Whitley seemed no better for having seen his father. During the car ride home, he had suddenly announced, “Can I be sent to military school?”

“What?” their mother asked in shock. “Military school? Why would you want that?”

“Well, it seems to have made Winter happy. And…” Shrugging, he looked out the window. “I can’t tell which of you is lying. You or Father. So I’d rather just go away and not have to think about it anymore.”

“How dare you,” Weiss snapped. “How dare you think Mother and I would lie about anything like-”

“It’s alright, Weiss,” she sighed wearily as she drove. “In his situation, I can understand; both of his parents are accusing the other of being a terrible person. Honey… do you really want this?”

“Yes, I think I would. Or I think it’s best. I…” His voice faded, and he didn’t seem to have anything else to say.

“Then I’ll look into it for you. But I am sorry you feel this way.”

Very softly, he whispered, “I am, as well.” And no more was discussed.

There was another visit to the Branwen home two days later that went better than the last. Raven stayed out of their way entirely, and Yang was in even better spirits. Weiss took a spot on the bed next to her and even Ruby, who had been less privy to their relationship, said nothing about how much they were cuddling. It was nice, having a space like that outside of Shopkeeper's where they could be themselves.

And Yang was maybe a little too affectionate, if the playful “ewwww” from Ruby when they kissed was any indication. But that was her only protest.

Frequent visits from Kali turned into daily visits. She was busy working at her restaurant, so it still meant a lot of very lonely days for Weiss’s mother, but she tried to drop by as often as possible. Together, they began to piece together a plan of attack for when Jacques was healed up and would be trying to piece his life back together. Though Willow had no idea why they needed to be so thorough, Kali assured her that these were necessary steps to protect their monetary well-being. Weiss stopped being able to follow along with their discussions, so she eventually retired to her own room and focused on homework instead.

Friday evening was the first time Yang's shoulder was healed up enough that she could venture out of the house. Though it meant being chauffeured instead of riding her motorcycle, which was still being repaired anyway, she was glad to hit Shopkeeper's and see all her friends again. They had nothing but kind and encouraging words for her, other than the odd teasing about her being too much of a “daredevil” for her own good. Cinder insinuated that she had only wiped out to get all that attention, and Yang told her to go sit on a fork. The only response from the smirking girl was “Ooohh, kinky.”

Salem expressed further concern about Weiss's situation, and her usefulness to the Dragons. Though Kali had already informed her of their plans, and she was satisfied with them thus far, she told their newest recruit to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity from the man now that he was essentially her enemy. Having to think of her father that way hurt… but it was too accurate to bother arguing with her.

Meanwhile, it seemed as if Blake was content just to see Yang again. Weiss had been a little worried about that, and about whether or not there would be lingering feelings of jealousy. But there weren’t. She still looked a little sad when no one was watching her too closely, but Weiss understood; she was working through it at her own pace. She would just have to be there for her whenever she could.

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

To help make up for such an atypical week, Pyrrha loaned Weiss her car on Saturday night so she and Yang could go to the drive-in. Weiss had learned the rules of the road from her father, but he was such an overbearing terror in the car that she didn’t attempt it very often. After a few rocky stops and starts, and nearly running a red light, Yang laughed and took over, guiding them into a spot near the back of the lot.

“So this is pretty cozy, eh?” Yang whispered as they settled in with their popcorn in Pyrrha's front seat. The movie was just starting, so it was nothing but musical score and credits drifting by.

“Yeah, I'll say.” Weiss didn't want to admit how nervous she was. It was the first time they had been alone since she helped dry her off - and that had been only a fleeting moment. There might have been dozens of other cars parked around theirs, but none of them cared about the two girls. They had their own dates to make it with. “How’s your shoulder?”

“I’ll live.” Her finger tapped the small metal speaker unit hanging on the driver's side window. “This alright? Can you hear?”

Snuggling into her side, Weiss said, “Perfectly well. Besides, I've seen ‘South Pacific’ at least five times.”

The smile that blossomed on the Dragon's face was a bit more reminiscent of the ones she wore when they first began speaking, and promised much. “So… does that mean you don't mind missing the flick?”

“Quiet, you. I'm very interested in sharing this musical masterpiece with my… my girlfriend.” Their shared smile was warm and shy. “Wow. It's nice to be able to say that.”

“Yeah. And… well, we’ve been kind of funny about saying it, but it’s definitely not ‘cause I don’t want to! Just weird, hanging around my sis all the time, and with Kali-”

Weiss cut her off with a gentle press of lips on lips, her hand sliding up her neck to cup her cheek. The response was immediate and enthusiastic; Yang pushed her back against the passenger door, humming into the union of their mouths. Even though she had initiated this, the rich girl felt herself completely powerless to resist, melting beneath her brute as their bodies writhed and the windows fogged.

The kiss was broken with a quiet little “ow!” from Yang. Weiss pulled back, concern in her eyes.

“Just my arm,” she breathed, eyes serious yet dazed with the power of their affection. “I'm fine.”

“Come on, you said it was okay. Here.” She began to knead it gently. “Is that better?”

Violet eyes fluttered closed. “Mmmm… yeah. Thanks, babe.”

“Of course. I take care of what's mine.” They both shared a knowing smile. “We're not watching the movie.”

“What movie?”

“Brute,” she purred in a voice that was anything but accusatory, petting her hand up and down the lapel of Yang's jacket. “Uncultured Philistine.”

The last one made Yang's eyebrows shoot up a little higher. “Oh yeah? Think I can't enjoy this dumb movie of yours, Princess?”

The teasing had apparently backfired very slightly. Weiss was definitely more interested in Yang than in the movie, but Yang was now turning around to face it properly, pulling the popcorn bucket back into her lap from where it had been resting on the dashboard. Slapping her shoulder only made Yang shush her so she could pay attention.

“You're really going to watch it now, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm… good.” Even though the prospect of spending a few minutes fogging up the windows appealed to her greatly, Weiss decided this was just as good and snuggled back into her side, reaching into the bucket.

That went on for a good long while. Weiss hummed along with the songs and relished the closeness. Much to her own surprise, Yang seemed to be enjoying the film, as well, even laughing at some of the key comedic points. All the while, her arm remained around Weiss's shoulders, and she began to realize that she could stay there forever and not feel like she was missing out on anything else in the world. She hadn't been expecting to find someone to be that close to for many years yet - especially not a woman that she had barely known for a few scant weeks! Life had really thrown her for a loop.

“Your lips are salty,” Yang giggled after a brief kiss.

“Hey! Yours are, too!” Settling in again, she began to pet up and down Yang's ribs beneath her jacket. It prompted a quiet hum of appreciation. “Like that?”

“Yeah. You feel really good right there. And here,” she added, squeezing her shoulders to illustrate what she meant.

“I would certainly hope so.”

They lapsed into silence for a few more minutes. Then Yang whispered, “Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Uh… I haven't really said it yet, but thanks. For everything: saving me, and dealing with Raven, and… Ruby… you've just been really great, and I don't deserve-”

“Shhh,” she shushed her, petting a little more vigorously. “Thank you for saying so, but I don’t need you to. It’s… I think Kali said it best when she said you and the other Dragons are my family now. And family does things like that for each other. It was a pleasure. Really.”

Yang suddenly set the popcorn aside again, turning so that she was kneeling in the floorboard and gazing up into Weiss’s eyes. Her hands clasped Weiss’s tightly, causing the shorter teenager to blink back at her. She was expecting something very risque… and suddenly got something even better.

“I’m really in love, Weiss. I never thought… I mean, uh… ain’t so good with words,” she admitted with a lopsided smile, and Weiss spared a small one of her own. “You were my dream girl. Then we started talking, and I was worried you weren’t because you hated me. Plus, you were kind of a brat.”

“Hey!”

“Come on, it’s true,” she laughed, and Weiss laughed with her. “But just in these last few weeks, I think we both grew up a little. Got to know each other, and more about the world. And now…”

As Yang raised their hands up between them, lacing their fingers together, Weiss finished for them, “Now we fit together perfectly. Like links in a chain.”

“Yeah. Is that crazy? Am I just real gone?”

“We’re both real gone, Yang,” she whispered softly, heart pounding in her ears and stomach fluttering in time with its beats. “I want to be your wife. Or you to be mine, or… oh, I’m being so silly; we can’t be that to each other. But I don’t care!”

“Me, neither. I just want you in my life forever. And that’s…”

Words had run out. Yang leaned up to kiss her again, and Weiss threw herself into the contact even more than the last time. Nellie and Emile were singing to each other so earnestly in the background that she couldn’t imagine a better place and time to live. She wanted to always be there, with Yang, in that car.

The transition was so natural she almost could have missed it. One moment, their lips were engaged - many moments, actually. Then she felt lips moving down her chest, to her stomach through the soft cotton dress she wore. Her own hands lifted to glide through Yang’s hair, holding on for dear life as she wondered what was about to happen to her. There weren’t a great deal of possibilities. Either Yang had dropped something, or…

“Oh.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Yang paused to look up at her. “Tell me to stop.”

“I…”

“Tell me to keep going.” Her throat clearly worked to swallow before she kissed her thigh through the layers of fabric. “Tell me… whatever it is you want.”

It took a lot of willpower for Weiss to find the words she needed. “Keep g-going. I…” She had to look away to admit it. “I need you.”

Even as Yang kissed down her thigh to her knee, still sheltered by her dress, she could feel the stirrings from before. Why did the bruiser have such a strong effect on her entire system? It boggled her mind. Almost as if she were still an inch away, memories of Yang’s fragrant sex filled her mind - the taste of her, the sounds of her writhing beneath her at every touch. And she was about to have that paid back in full. Was she ready?

No. But she was through waiting to be ready.

When Yang began to lift her skirt and petticoats, a little squeak of alarm blasted out of her throat anyway. Yang paused to whisper, “Too much?”

“No, Yang. I want more. I’m just…” Her shoulder shrugged helplessly. What she was made no difference.

Kisses moved up the insides of her thighs, over her stockings until they reached the tops where they ended in lace. The first kiss on skin was so close to her center that she had to suppress the powerful urge to clamp both legs around Yang’s head to hold her still; instead, she merely twitched. A single light peck against the crux of her entire being was enough to make her fall back against the seat, eyes clamped shut in mingling fear and anticipation.

“You’re ready,” Yang breathed softly, as gentle as a lamb where she was normally ravenous as a wolf – even if the hunger was burning just under the surface. “At least… you smell ready.”

“Sh-shut up,” she breathed very softly. “Is it bad?”

“No, no. It’s incredible.” Yang nuzzled her inner thigh as her fingers drifted upward. “Can I…?”

There were certainly no words of protest. Weiss pressed a hand into her eyes as she felt cool air caress her wetness, followed by the warmth of breath. This was insane. Could she really let a woman do this to her? Let anyone? She was starting to believe her nerves had a lot more to do with reservations about allowing anyone to get this close to her, rather than the gender of the person in question. And for her to finally allow Yang to return this favour…

Yang must have felt her reticence, because she appeared above the skirts again, face flushed and eyes dark with desire. “It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.”

“Yang…” Swallowing hard, Weiss looked to one side so she wouldn’t see the single tear that escaped her guard. “Thank you, my darling.”

Lips on her waiting petals caused her to lose all sense of time, direction… the world became as fogged as their windows. The heels of her baby blue pumps gouged into Yang’s back through her jacket but if she felt pain from it, she made a good job of ignoring it in favour of pleasing Weiss. The practiced ease of Yang’s tongue made Weiss’s clumsy attempts pale in comparison. Before she had any chance to even attempt to think of something to ask, a praise to lavish on her for such skill, Yang was finding new ways to caress her most sensitive skin and wring even more pleasure from the moment. All she could manage was to pant, and moan, and suppress the occasional shriek of pure joy that tried to burst from within her. Barely.

Minutes passed and she felt her end building - it could be nothing else. Her hand pressed into Yang’s crown to hold her face precisely where it was as her hips began to rock forward to meet each caress of the eager tongue.

“Yes! Yang! I… yes!!!”

The only response was a low “Mmmhhh” of pure enjoyment. That was the one thing that could have added to her own pleasure: knowing Yang did not consider this a burden, a chore that need be done. They were both swirling through the same eddies and pools of ecstasy.

Which was how Weiss crashed headlong into her first orgasm.

Yang continued her gentle licks for a minute more as Weiss writhed and moaned, thighs trying to trap her there forever, heels no doubt bruising her back. Then the licks turned to kisses, and then the kisses moved down her creamy thigh flesh until reaching the top of her stocking. Her head slowly raised up from the horizon of the skirts to smile at her.

“Woooooow,” Weiss breathed weakly, eyes wide and face hotter than she could ever remember.

“Yeah,” the brute chuckled, though her grin was full of adoration rather than amusement. “Wow.”

After barely a moment's hesitation, Yang quickly kissed the inside of her thigh before tugging her underwear back into place. Trying not to be awkward, she climbed back into her seat - accidentally kicking open the glove box and making both of them burst into giggles. Then they were simply sitting side by side and sharing one of the warmest smiles they had ever worn in their lifetimes.

“So that's why you kept trying to get my dress off all these weeks.”

“Not the only reason, Schnee. But… a big one. Wanted to make you feel good so you'd date me. Never really considered it would last, since you're too good for some meathead like me. Gotta admit, though… this is better.”

Snuggling into her side, letting her entire body relax, she whispered, “This is?”

“Absotively, posilutely.”

“Mmm. But you're not a meathead. You're sweet, and considerate, and strong in the best of ways!”

Out the side of her mouth, she told Weiss, “Not so loud. I got a reputation to keep!” They shared another giggle as Yang petted up and down her arm. “God, I love you.”

“I love you, too. More than I-”

Their moment was interrupted by a knock at the door. Rolling her eyes, Yang turned and shouted, “WHAT?”

“Knock it off in there, you kids! This ain't no motel!”

They couldn't even see the perpetrator of this grave injustice through the fog on the window; just a vague silhouette. Yang decided the most effective way of communicating her displeasure with the interruption was by pressing her middle finger against the glass.

“Yang, that's crude!” Weiss hissed, though she had to try hard to suppress a small giggle.

“You wanna be run out of this drive-in? Huh?”

Realizing that the guy wasn't going to leave them in peace, Yang rolled down her window and glared at him. He was either a teenager or had only been older than that for a year or two, with scraggly brown hair and a missing tooth in the front. His irritated expression gave way to one of shock when he saw the driver was a woman, and it only deepened when he saw the passenger was, as well.

“Listen, chum. We're trying to have a nice time watching this talkie. You're kinda making that less easy. So why don't you make like a tree and leave?”

The man let out a weak little laugh. “H-hey, my mistake! I thought you were a fella, and- well, the windows are all steamed up…”

“That's our business. Thanks for checking in, though. Now take off.”

Now he looked a little creeped out. However, he did nod and moved off, shaking his head as if to rid it of unwanted thoughts.

“Very well-handled,” Weiss whispered as Yang rolled the window back up.

“Thanks, doll. I take care of business.”

“You've taken care of enough business for a week as far as I'm concerned.” They shared a conspiratorial grin. “But now I'm sad.”

“Why?”

“Well, he's paying too much attention for me to be able to go down on you now.”

Yang's blush was honestly so cute and unexpected that Weiss thoroughly enjoyed peppering her face with dozens of little kisses. But she didn't dare get too vigorous lest they attract any further pests.

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

By the end of the movie, both girls were in high spirits. On top of the world. They decided to revisit the old depot rather than hope for a few stolen moments in anyone's house.

Weiss practically ripped Yang's clothes from her body in her haste to re-engage their bodies; Yang took more care, gently peeling off her beautiful dress and laying it aside. Wandering hands explored curves, lips met over and over, skin shifted against skin. Instead of her mouth, Weiss attempted to use her hand to bring Yang pleasure - and if the reactions we any indication, she was successful. This was crazy; Weiss couldn't believe she was in an abandoned building with a gang member, a woman, naked and unafraid. Their mouths rarely left each other until Yang needed hers to gasp for breath as she reached her finish.

And they didn't stop there. Instead of weeks later, Weiss found out immediately the kind of thrill she had provided Yang when one of the brute’s strong hands snaked down between their bodies. Going from never being quite sure she was aroused to two orgasms in one day was almost too much… but it was a surplus of pleasure she was more than happy to weather.

“Ohhhh,” Yang groaned as she rolled off, panting and gazing up at the half-crumbled ceiling.

“What did… we just do?” They both laughed. “You don't actually… have to explain, I'm not that naive. But WOW!”

Still laughing, Yang petted up and down her bare stomach, making it quiver at the touch of a foreign hand upon it. “You said that already.”

“I mean, I know this is old hat for you, but I'm… honestly surprised. I thought sex was something women just did to keep men happy, and make babies! So all of this with you is really opening my eyes.”

“Hey, watch how you say it's ‘old hat’ for me. I'm not that cheap a floozy!”

Weiss looked horrified. “Oh… oh no, I'm not- that wasn't how I meant that to sound!”

“Don't worry about it,” she laughed, kissing her temple. “I mean, you're right; I've been around the block a time or two. But it's never been so… with you, everything's different. I'd be alright if it was just you and me for the rest of our lives.”

“Really?” When Yang nodded, she wrapped her body even tighter around the Dragon, feeding off her warmth, her strength. “Oh, I love you so much!”

Burying her face in Weiss's neck, the bruiser whispered urgently, “Love you, too, baby. Chee… you really do like me. Really?”

For a few seconds, Weiss didn't reply. Then she drew back to gaze down into the stunned, overwhelmed features of her lover. She felt like singing! Therefore, she did - and didn't trouble to keep her voice down.

“Younger than springtime am I! Gayer than laughter am I!” Even before she continued, she could see Yang blinking in surprise. “Angel and lover, heaven and earth, am IIIIIIIII wiiiiiith yoooooouuuu!!!”

Then she felt a little silly - especially when Yang started clapping. Why had she allowed herself to be such a square? Just when she was about to shout at her for poking fun, she saw the look of pure wonder in the blonde’s features.

“DANG! How did I not know you can sing?! I mean… I've heard you hum a little, but you can really sing, like rings around Peggy Lee! You're phenomenal!”

“Oh, stop,” she muttered with a bashful smile.

“Are you out of your tree? I wanna hear more!” She sat up and slid her hands around Weiss's trim waist, eyes sparkling as she gazed up at her. “Baby, you're gonna be a star! Like… like Judy Garland or something!”

Now the smile was even more bashful, and the color that had begun to fade from her cheeks rushed back in with a vengeance. “What? Please, I'm not that good!”

“Better! You could beat the ruby slippers off her!” When Weiss rolled her eyes, she insisted, “Honest, Weiss, I'm… I'm so lucky. I knew that already, but holy hell…”

“Well… my parents wanted me to go to Vassar first, but… I guess I could audition for some musicals while I'm there… and they’ve always insisted I keep up my vocal training.”

“Who cares what they want? This is about what you want.”

The idea of that surprised her a little. What she wanted? What did she want? A successful career, sure. But becoming an international singing sensation was a tempting thought. No one had ever really cared what she wanted out of her future before. However, she only had one immediate answer.

“You.”

After a quiet second, Yang smiled shyly. It still stunned Weiss to see the brute that way. “Come on. Even if you do like gals now, I'm… just some-”

“No, stop that,” she cut her off. “Whatever you're going to say, I don't care. I love who you are, and I've never felt this close to another human being before. And you are… the most beautiful woman the whole wide world.”

“Stop trying to pass the buck. That's you, not me.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “So pretty, and sweet, and comely, and smart… a-and you're the b-best thing that ever happened to me!”

Weiss wasn't used to seeing the tough woman fall apart. What was she supposed to do?! All she could think of right away was to fold the overcome Yang into her arms, petting up and down her nude back and rocking very gently. If anyone deserved to feel like they could let their armor fall away, it was this titan of a woman. She would be her armor when necessary.

#princess and the dragons #freezerburn fanfic #freezerburn smut #rwby fanfiction #rwbyremnants #nsfw-Text