Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MidwayLives]

“I don’t really want to go either...”​

 

[MidwayLives]

....She just wanted to go home.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Oh my God. I literally don't care! None of you have a choice in the matter!" She snapped, throwing her hands up with a glare at Yang for starting all this. Apparently irritation could override her general 'do not interact' mandate when it came to her, on occasion. "I'm sure you all see yourselves as perfect little martyrs, but things were going FINE until you showed up. I had complete faith in myself! Now I'm making silly mistakes, my emotions are getting the best of me, I'm completely compromised! Congratulations, you beat the villain. Give yourselves a round of applause. But the best thing you can do for the situation now is leave. This was never your fight, it's one I picked myself."

"You're literally just here to be a lie detector, of course you can stay." She added to Robyn in a mutter.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"You're literally just here to be a lie detector, of course you can stay." She added to Robyn in a mutter.

"Glad I'm of such value to this meeting. Not like I have more to offer than just that." She grumbled sarcastically, more to herself than anything.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Oh my God. I literally don't care! None of you have a choice in the matter!" She snapped, throwing her hands up with a glare at Yang for starting all this. Apparently irritation could override her general 'do not interact' mandate when it came to her, on occasion. "I'm sure you all see yourselves as perfect little martyrs, but things were going FINE until you showed up. I had complete faith in myself! Now I'm making silly mistakes, my emotions are getting the best of me, I'm completely compromised! Congratulations, you beat the villain. Give yourselves a round of applause. But the best thing you can do for the situation now is leave. This was never your fight, it's one I picked myself."​

"For god's sake, get a grip. This is just pathetic. You're acting like you're the only one in this room who's ever made a mistake. Who's ever been overcome by their own emotions. Who's ever been compromised by a bad hand life dealt you. Newsflash, you're not. That one there-" Raven pointed at Cinder. "She just described going through all of those. These three?" A pale finger gestured at the good Ruby, Nora and Yang. "They've been on an emotional rollercoaster of bad times from almost the second since they've shown up here! This whole world must have felt upside down from the start. To look at familiar faces and be treated as an enemy by those same faces. To know there's a version of yourself that is your antithesis in many ways, there's no way that's easy to handle. But they're doing it as best they can." She jerked her head over to Ironwood. "That man's more than half machine right now and despite all he's lost, he refuses to give up or give in. Robyn? You can bet she's gone through a lot of the same feelings. Her too-" Raven jabbed a finger in Penny's direction. "-and her as well." Crimson eyes glared at Neo before snapping back towards Weiss.

"Even me, I'm no exception." Raven stomped closer, slamming her hands on the office desk in front of Weiss and leaning in. "But now that you have to deal with the same things, you crumble to self-pitying pieces? Just like that? I thought you Atlesians were supposed to be made of stronger stuff than that. I know you're tougher than this. I saw it in that cellar that night. Where's that Weiss?!" Raven shook her head in annoyance. "Here's my suggestion. You dig deep, find that will and resolve again, and pull it the hell out! Because that's the Weiss that's needed! The one who deals with the situation!" Raven finished with a stony glare.

"Now, I told you that I'm not going. Not yet. Just accept that and deal with it. Either you can let us help, or you can tell us what the plan is so that we're all confident enough that you will be able to keep your word and protect the people here."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"For god's sake, get a grip. This is just pathetic. You're acting like you're the only one in this room who's ever made a mistake. Who's ever been overcome by their own emotions. Who's ever been compromised by a bad hand life dealt you. Newsflash, you're not. That one there-" Raven pointed at Cinder. "She just described going through all of those. These three?" A pale finger gestured at the good Ruby, Nora and Yang. "They've been on an emotional rollercoaster of bad times from almost the second since they've shown up here! This whole world must have felt upside down from the start. To look at familiar faces and be treated as an enemy by those same faces. To know there's a version of yourself that is your antithesis in many ways, there's no way that's easy to handle. But they're doing it as best they can." She jerked her head over to Ironwood. "That man's more than half machine right now and despite all he's lost, he refuses to give up or give in. Robyn? You can bet she's gone through a lot of the same feelings. Her too-" Raven jabbed a finger in Penny's direction. "-and her as well." Crimson eyes glared at Neo before snapping back towards Weiss.

"Even me, I'm no exception." Raven stomped closer, slamming her hands on the office desk in front of Weiss and leaning in. "But now that you have to deal with the same things, you crumble to self-pitying pieces? Just like that? I thought you Atlesians were supposed to be made of stronger stuff than that. I know you're tougher than this. I saw it in that cellar that night. Where's that Weiss?!" Raven shook her head in annoyance. "Here's my suggestion. You dig deep, find that will and resolve again, and pull it the hell out! Because that's the Weiss that's needed! The one who deals with the situation!" Raven finished with a stony glare.

"Now, I told you that I'm not going. Not yet. Just accept that and deal with it. Either you can let us help, or you can tell us what the plan is so that we're all confident enough that you will be able to keep your word and protect the people here."

"She's right." Ironwood commented absently. Then a pair of glyph snowballs hit him and Raven in the face, making Weiss's stance on the hardball approach perfectly clear.

"That's what I think of that. I don't expect I'll be able to explain it in a way you can understand, but what you just described is NOT what I'm talking about. I'll pass on the lecture about willpower from the woman who couldn't even face the challenge of being a mother, thanks. My resolve is just fine. And I assure you, the last person I'd ever reserve any measure of pity for is myself."

She shook her head, the bitter taste of resignation on her lips at how this apparently had to go. Digging around in a drawer for a few seconds, she came out with something much stronger than wine and poured it into the accompanying glass.

"Negative emotions aren't the issue. I've never had any trouble with feeling bad; I wake up every morning and feel that way. Living in this world the way it is makes my skin crawl. It's..."

She sipped and inhaled heavily, bracing herself for whatever scorn and derision she was about to face for this rare moment of vulnerability. Or sincerity. They had always felt unnervingly similar to her.



"...it's... feeling good. I don't know how to feel good. Maybe because a part of me's always realized I don't deserve to. I can't... function, when I do. If I start feeling good about myself in any way, if even the slightest hint of contentment starts to pollute the well, then it's like dominoes. I make mistakes. I get complacent. I mean, you think my good work ethic comes naturally? I'm lazy! I'm a lazy person. I'd lie in bed all day if I could stomach being alone with my thoughts for so long. That's what I mean when I say I'm compromised, and that's why you people need to GO. You really want to help the situation so bad? Then that's how. You get the hell out of here and pray you never cross my mind EVER again."

If it was starting to sound less and less like she was still addressing Raven, or even speaking generally, then the fierce glower she'd taken to leveling Yang with for the last stretch cemented it.

Even if she still couldn't meet her eyes very long.

She slowly returned her gaze to the desk, unable to even really sustain a glare at present. When she spoke again, it was once more directed at Raven.

"...As I said. No pity. It's just something I have to account for, and believe it or not I really could not care less how silly you find it; or how 'gruff ex-bandit' you're about to get with me. Save your ridiculous speeches for your daughter and open a portal or waste everyone's time more by making me ship you there in a crate. Makes no difference to me."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"She's right." Ironwood commented absently. Then a pair of glyph snowballs hit him and Raven in the face, making Weiss's stance on the hardball approach perfectly clear.

She didn’t even flinch as that struck her in the face. Her expression hardly changed, and the only outward indication of damage was the slight flickering of her aura.​

“I'll pass on the lecture about willpower from the woman who couldn't even face the challenge of being a mother, thanks."

“...” Her face stayed as composed as ever, her inner thoughts shielded by the look of frustrated displeasure on her face. Part of her wondered if she had been the one to return to the bandits instead of Qrow...if it was that version of her who stood here now...if she would have not even tried to resist the urge to punch Weiss in her face. The desire to do it was strong, but the huntress refrained from acting on it. “Like I said. You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes.”​

She slowly returned her gaze to the desk, unable to even really sustain a glare at present. When she spoke again, it was once more directed at Raven.

"...As I said. No pity. It's just something I have to account for, and believe it or not I really could not care less how silly you find it; or how 'gruff ex-bandit' you're about to get with me. Save your ridiculous speeches for your daughter and open a portal or waste everyone's time more by making me ship you there in a crate. Makes no difference to me."

“Fine. I won’t waste my breath further on speeches. I’ll just say this. I’m not speaking for anyone else, but me? I’m not opening a portal until you, at the very least, tell us the plan. You want me gone without that? You’ll have to make good on your talk about shipping me there.”​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

The 'guard' popped one earphone out from under her helmet to listen, lazily shoving the few blonde tresses of hair that sprung loose back inside and pretending to act affronted.

"Whaaaaaaaaaat? Noooooooooooo. I'm like, totally a guard and stuff."

Then she touched a single finger to her lips in such a way that made 'sensual' seem as valid as calling the sun a candle. And wouldn't you know it, Blake got the whole rest of the song.





He shocked her anyway and moved on.




Perhaps surprisingly, he grunted his agreement. "Mhm. Then maybe you'd finally be able to carve yourselves a nice, hefty slice of the kingdoms like you always wanted. Pretty soon it's the whole pie."

His measured pace brought him to a final halt before Blake's cell, where he gave Yang a brief once-over (she had moved on to I Want It That Way) and shook his head before looking back down at the incarcerated faunus.

"Interesting friends you got."

"FWB, actually."

Beneath the other helmet Pyrrha Nikos was probably super apologetic or something idk she has two players already there can't be a third

He ignored that without so much as a twitch in expression, apparently no greater pleasure to be derived from that mental image than from what he was doing right now.

Then he just stared.

And waited.

Waited for that blood to boil. Waited for the hatred he recognized so well to hit its peak. Waited until Blake was angry enough and hated him enough that had her cell been a bear trap, she would've chewed off as many limbs as it took just to get at him.

Then he lifted the remote and-

Dully glanced to the left as a hand suddenly seized his wrist, coming eye to eye with a Clover who looked appalled and disgusted. And still confused at why that soldier was dancing.

"What. Is this?"

He didn't even know who he was looking at for an explanation, but instinctively - or just by dumb luck - He looked at Bear.​

The longer Carnelian stared, the less agitated Blake looked. She was still half way crying by the time he'd rounded to her cell, her breaths coming in agitated heaves as they locked eyes. Then they came slower, easier, deeper, her shoulders steadying, the tears on her face not drying but the flow coming to a halt. By the time Carnelian reached for the remote, most outside observers would've called her serene.

They weren't the ones who held her eyes. The hate wasn't fading, drifting, or hiding; it was being gathered, coiled and twisted around her soul like a python, bleeding into her muscles and nerves, and poisoning every thought behind those eyes with nothing but the desire to see the creature in front of her suffer through every hell her hands could create. Sienna, even Ozpin could've told her this man was off limits, and she would've tore their heads off and eaten their hearts just for half a chance to spit in his remaining eye while dying in the process.

Then Clover interrupted whatever crescendo they were building to, and the frustrated, animalistic growl that came out of Belladonna would've made an ursa cringe in fear.

Navano gave the young commander a dull snort in response, disdain clear in his eyes. Whatever personal epiphanies he might've had in the last hour, it did not change who Bear was; A warrior, a killer, and one who had suffered for decades under Atlesian boots.

"You left your attack dog out of its cage and come back to garbage all over the floor, then look to the faunus. What do you think is happening, soldier boy?"

He knew that wasn't what was happening, at least not in full. But it did them no favors to say so

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Weiss got a ghost of a sheepish smile out of Yang at her irritation, but it didn't last long.

Despite everyone else's sudden and very powerful disagreement, Yang didn't speak up so quick. Weiss had still been holding Robyn's hand when she made that declaration;

"All I'm willing to share is I won't allow any harm to befall the citizenship of either city, the power of your world's Spring Maiden will be back where it belongs shortly, and Remnant will not have to suffer mine or Ozpin's scheming for very much longer. Trust me or don't trust me, I'm afraid it really isn't up to you either way. So suck it up. Let me do one good thing."

Weiss believed all of that. and whatever moral failings this Weiss had, whatever was broken inside of her, whatever baggage she'd been beating herself and anyone who got in her way over the head with, and however stupid the idea that the woman who made herself councilwoman, stood and lied in the face of a monster for years, and wrested the power of two maidens for herself being a 'born loser' was, this Weiss had at least one thing in common that Yang knew and knew for sure she loved; if Weiss Schnee put her mind to something, then it got done. Period.

Which is why part of that promise was so worrying.

Yang closed her eyes and sucked in a breath that came out a low, exhausted huff, and she finally spoke up after her mom-but-not-really did.

"Or don't, honestly. If for some reason you can't tell us the plan, or its way too complicated to tell in any useful amount of time, or telling us would make you embarassed because you're suddenly like, super humble and shy and you don't wanna brag or something like this is your school project and you're about to blast all of us out of the stratosphere in the science fair and you feel bad, then sure, fine. If you can promise all of that, then that's good enough, for me anyways. But only if you can say one more thing while Robyn's still holding your hand, Weiss."

She opened her eyes back up, and didn't finish her sentence till Weiss at looked, if not at her, and least in her direction. Her voice came out far softer than she wanted it to.

"That we'll have a chance to say bye before we go home. That the world being free of you and the maiden powers being where they belong doesn't mean what it sounds like. Because you gotta know what that sounds like, Weiss. And you gotta know I'm not going anywhere if that's the case."

 

[Gus Gungus]

The longer Carnelian stared, the less agitated Blake looked. She was still half way crying by the time he'd rounded to her cell, her breaths coming in agitated heaves as they locked eyes. Then they came slower, easier, deeper, her shoulders steadying, the tears on her face not drying but the flow coming to a halt. By the time Carnelian reached for the remote, most outside observers would've called her serene.

They weren't the ones who held her eyes. The hate wasn't fading, drifting, or hiding; it was being gathered, coiled and twisted around her soul like a python, bleeding into her muscles and nerves, and poisoning every thought behind those eyes with nothing but the desire to see the creature in front of her suffer through every hell her hands could create. Sienna, even Ozpin could've told her this man was off limits, and she would've tore their heads off and eaten their hearts just for half a chance to spit in his remaining eye while dying in the process.

Then Clover interrupted whatever crescendo they were building to, and the frustrated, animalistic growl that came out of Belladonna would've made an ursa cringe in fear.

Navano gave the young commander a dull snort in response, disdain clear in his eyes. Whatever personal epiphanies he might've had in the last hour, it did not change who Bear was; A warrior, a killer, and one who had suffered for decades under Atlesian boots.

"You left your attack dog out of its cage and come back to garbage all over the floor, then look to the faunus. What do you think is happening, soldier boy?"

He knew that wasn't what was happening, at least not in full. But it did them no favors to say so

"Save the beleaguered martyr card for someone who buys it, murderer." Came Clover's firm reply, his hard stare of practiced neutrality dispelling any doubt as to where the old faunus stood in accountability for what befell Winter. He could play righteous revolutionary and wise old sage all he wanted; his semblance had been what allowed it.

Whatever his opinion of the various lunatics inside the cells, right now his concern was the one on the other side of it. There was plenty he could say about the way things had been going in Atlas lately, but by and large he considered it above his paygrade.

Flagrant torture of prisoners, on the other hand, wasn't. General or no general. He threw Carnelian's hand aside, more than a bit irritated that the old man hadn't broken his staring match with Blake to answer him, and turned away with a disgusted scowl as he was forced to finally say something that stood in opposition to everything he was as a person.

"Enough is enough. I don't understand what the council were thinking putting you in charge, but this is... not what I signed up to do. I'm reporting this to the councilwoman, and if she doesn't care then I'll find someone who will. The media, if that's what it takes. This isn't what Atlas stands for."

"Wrong."

In contrast to the muted ambivalence in Clover's tone, the one Carnelian finally answered with was one of cold, forthright clarity. He still didn't break Blake's eyeline, didn't glance up, didn't look away, and his voice no longer suited the pretense of a general addressing a subordinate.

"This is exactly what we stand for. What we've always stood for. The milksops running this kingdom into the ground for the past few decades just forgot, that's all. You want to know why the council put me in charge, young man? You're curious what they were thinking? Well, I can tell you. I've been inside their heads."

He smirked, aged lines and features that had lost none of the malevolence that plagued the faunus all those years ago. The ace op's eyes narrowed, but he didn't take another step.

"Fear, boy. The honest truth is that they weren't thinking. They were reacting. They had a faunus problem, see. Biggest one in a long, long while. What happened in Vale and Mistral? Nasty business, that. How long before the same reckoning came to Atlas? How long before it was our CCT tower burning, our children being torn limb from limb in the streets? And most importantly, what's the first thing you do when you notice you have a rodent problem?"

Clover had turned back to face him at this point, features so taut you could bounce a penny off them, the disgust still there but now mingled with shock and genuine astonishment at the general's shameless candor in spewing such bile.

He still wasn't looking back. His eyes were still boring two holes in Blake, and what may have been most sickening about his smile at this stage was the fondness in it, an almost grandfatherly crinkle to his age-worn eyes.

"You call the exterminator. They had forgotten me, you know. Ever since Jacques Schnee got too dead to keep greasing palms on my behalf, getting me those delightful little postings in the penal colonies where I could introduce myself to all sorts of promising young thugs like that darling little Bull. Ironwood had me sent off to die in some godforsaken outpost in the coldest corner of the continent. And I would've. I could feel myself dying there. Withering with each passing day."

He popped a squat, and in that moment he was less esteemed general of the Atlesian military and more the simple, unapologetic mercenary who had carved a bloody swathe through the Faunus war and turned its trenches into rivers of blood. His smirk had warped to a full, twisted grin, the flare in his eyes that of a far younger man than the one who was talking.

No; a man who had become revitalized. Who felt like he was young again.

"Then you people woke me up, and now I'm alive. More alive than I've ever been. You think I hate you or something, girly? You think your little revolution offends me somehow? No."

He slowly shook his head, never blinking or dropping the smile that was all teeth.

Clover did likewise, completely incredulous at this point. "You're... a complete madman. If you're not out of this room by the time I'm back here with my team then we're putting you on the other side of that cell- Who's your CO?!"

He finally snapped at his other source of growing irritation in the room as the guard who just blatantly wasn't even listening to anything going on decided that was the moment to get way, way too intimate with a hand as she circled behind him, her gyrations somehow even more energetic than when they began. He rounded on her-

SPLITCH

-and had barely taken a step before the long, sleek length of an officer's sword exploded through his chest, driven through his back all the way up to the pommel. Carnelian gave nothing more than a stern grimace as the Ace Op sputtered in wide-eyed shock and weakly tried to reach for his weapon, but the general's aim was truer than most, and it was only a moment or two before he went limp.

Carnelian slowly drew his sword from the man and wiped it off casually on his uniform, sheathing it once more as he rebuttoned his sleeves.

"Unlucky, son. But then I did tell you to leave. Now, as I was saying..."

He turned back towards Blake's cell, while behind him Dragon shook off her helmet and seemed to relish in wiping Clover's blood off far more sensually than she needed to.

"You people are the best thing that's happened to me in fifty years. You let me out of my cage."

The remote was lifted once again, turned over in his palm once for momentary inspection. Then he held it out towards Blake, pushed down on a switch...

And the hardlight field keeping her confined dropped.

"Guess we're even now, huh?"

That was the moment Yang finally chose to return to reality, a few quick steps putting her between Blake and the man smiling down at her with a wide-eyed look of glee and a single hand held up in staying fashion.

"Blah blah blah, yea whateverthefuck. Now, kitty, I know what you're thinking, but trust me when I say you're gonna wanna not."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Save the beleaguered martyr card for someone who buys it, murderer." Came Clover's firm reply, his hard stare of practiced neutrality dispelling any doubt as to where the old faunus stood in accountability for what befell Winter. He could play righteous revolutionary and wise old sage all he wanted; his semblance had been what allowed it.

Whatever his opinion of the various lunatics inside the cells, right now his concern was the one on the other side of it. There was plenty he could say about the way things had been going in Atlas lately, but by and large he considered it above his paygrade.

Flagrant torture of prisoners, on the other hand, wasn't. General or no general. He threw Carnelian's hand aside, more than a bit irritated that the old man hadn't broken his staring match with Blake to answer him, and turned away with a disgusted scowl as he was forced to finally say something that stood in opposition to

"Enough is enough. I don't understand what the council were thinking putting you in charge, but this is... not what I signed up to do. I'm reporting this to the councilwoman, and if she doesn't care then I'll find someone who will. The media, if that's what it takes. This isn't what Atlas stands for."

"Wrong."

In contrast to the muted ambivalence in Clover's tone, the one Carnelian finally answered with was one of cold, forthright clarity. He still didn't break Blake's eyeline, didn't glance up, didn't look away, and his voice no longer suited the pretense of a general addressing a subordinate.

"This is exactly what we stand for. What we've always stood for. The milksops running this kingdom into the ground for the past few decades just forgot, that's all. You want to know why the council put me in charge, young man? You're curious what they were thinking? Well, I can tell you. I've been inside their heads."

He smirked, aged lines and features that had lost none of the malevolence that plagued the faunus all those years ago. The ace op's eyes narrowed, but he didn't take another step.

"Fear, boy. The honest truth is that they weren't thinking. They were reacting. They had a faunus problem, see. Biggest one in a long, long while. What happened in Vale and Mistral? Nasty business, that. How long before the same reckoning came to Atlas? How long before it was our CCT tower burning, our children being torn limb from limb in the streets? And most importantly, what's the first thing you do when you notice you have a rodent problem?"

Clover had turned back to face him at this point, features so taut you could bounce a penny off them, the disgust still there but now mingled with shock and genuine astonishment at the general's shameless candor in spewing such bile.

He still wasn't looking back. His eyes were still boring two holes in Blake, and what may have been most sickening about his smile at this stage was the fondness in it, an almost grandfatherly crinkle to his age-worn eyes.

"You call the exterminator. They had forgotten me, you know. Ever since Jacques Schnee got too dead to keep greasing palms on my behalf, getting me those delightful little postings in the penal colonies where I could introduce myself to all sorts of promising young thugs like that darling little Bull. Ironwood had me sent off to die in some godforsaken outpost in the coldest corner of the continent. And I would've. I could feel myself dying there. Withering with each passing day."

He popped a squat, and in that moment he was less esteemed general of the Atlesian military and more the simple, unapologetic mercenary who had carved a bloody swathe through the Faunus war and turned its trenches into rivers of blood. His smirk had warped to a full, twisted grin, the flare in his eyes that of a far younger man than the one who was talking.

No; a man who had become revitalized. Who felt like he was young again.

"Then you people woke me up, and now I'm alive. More alive than I've ever been. You think I hate you or something, girly? You think your little revolution offends me somehow? No."

He slowly shook his head, never blinking or dropping the smile that was all teeth.

Clover did likewise, completely incredulous at this point. "You're... a complete madman. If you're not out of this room by the time I'm back here with my team then we're putting you on the other side of that cell- Who's your CO?!"

He finally snapped at his other source of growing irritation in the room as the guard who just blatantly wasn't even listening to anything going on decided that was the moment to get way, way too intimate with a hand as she circled behind him, her gyrations somehow even more energetic than when they began. He rounded on her-

SPLITCH

-and had barely taken a step before the long, sleek length of an officer's sword exploded through his chest, driven through his back all the way up to the pommel. Carnelian gave nothing more than a stern grimace as the Ace Op sputtered in wide-eyed shock and weakly tried to reach for his weapon, but the general's aim was truer than most, and it was only a moment or two before he went limp.

Carnelian slowly drew his sword from the man and wiped it off casually on his uniform, sheathing it once more as he rebuttoned his sleeves.

"Unlucky, son. But then I did tell you to leave. Now, as I was saying..."

He turned back towards Blake's cell, while behind him Dragon shook off her helmet and seemed to relish in wiping Clover's blood off far more sensually than she needed to.

"You people are the best thing that's happened to me in fifty years. You let me out of my cage."

The remote was lifted once again, turned over in his palm once for momentary inspection. Then he held it out towards Blake, pushed down on a switch...

And the hardlight field keeping her confined dropped.

"Guess we're even now, huh?"

That was the moment Yang finally chose to return to reality, a few quick steps putting her between Blake and the man smiling down at her with a wide-eyed look of glee and a single hand held up in staying fashion.

"Blah blah blah, yea whateverthefuck. Now, kitty, I know what you're thinking, but trust me when I say you're gonna wanna not."​

There was at least two people upstairs who would've been heartbroken and horrified to know what had just happened in these cells; that a Clover who'd finally decided to do the right thing instead of the ordered thing had died for it.

None of those people were in this room. Pyrrha rolled her underneath her helmet without breaking parade rest, muttering something about a waste. Blake didn't even react, as aware as Carnelian himself was that Clover had been dead the moment he'd stepped back into the room. And Bear simply let out a beleaguered sigh and shook his head.

The reaction to the cells opening was far more explosive. By the time Yang was halfway through the 'not', Blake's hand was clasped around her throat in a violent burst of speed, her muscles twisted in a motion ready to toss the bruiser to the side with adrenaline fueled strength, instead paused not a millimeter from Yang's face as she spoke one word in a tone that wasn't human or faunus.

"Why?"

 

[Gus Gungus]

There was at least two people upstairs who would've been heartbroken and horrified to know what had just happened in these cells; that a Clover who'd finally decided to do the right thing instead of the ordered thing had died for it.

None of those people were in this room. Pyrrha rolled her underneath her helmet without breaking parade rest, muttering something about a waste. Blake didn't even react, as aware as Carnelian himself was that Clover had been dead the moment he'd stepped back into the room. And Bear simply let out a beleaguered sigh and shook his head.

The reaction to the cells opening was far more explosive. By the time Yang was halfway through the 'not', Blake's hand was clasped around her throat in a violent burst of speed, her muscles twisted in a motion ready to toss the bruiser to the side with adrenaline fueled strength, instead paused not a millimeter from Yang's face as she spoke one word in a tone that wasn't human or faunus.

"Why?"

Carnelian opted to let the two of them hash it out among themselves as he turned his back on them to instead rejoin Pyrrha, and it was glaringly obvious from the way he stepped over the man's body that Carnelian was in no way affording Clover that same warrior's respect.

"Eh. Guy fought with a fishing pole. Couldn't have been that great."

Yang's eyes shot open wider at the rough treatment, but it was that same sensuous giddiness that characterized it rather than fear or panic; the hand that had instinctively grabbed Blake's released it, fingertips stroking across its knuckles soothingly as the dragon ventured an inviting purr.

"Me-ooow, pussycat! And to think I always pictured you as the pillowbiting type. Much as I love this road we're going down—" She cleared her throat more seriously, hooking her thumb under Blake's and gently trying to pry her off. "—I don't have a fucking clue what you're asking me. 'Why' what? 'Why' am I springing you? Cuz I like you, silly. You're adorable. 'Why' am I even here? 'Cause I pretty much figured you dorks would get so caught up in your beef with the ice queen you'd choke when it mattered most. Get it? Choke."

Her tone made the pun apparent, while the wink accompanying it made it clear that it was just as much an invitation if that was still where her head was at later.

"And lastly-but-I-assume-not-leastly, 'why' the old man? Well, that should be obvious, kittycat. While you and your justice club played harmonica and rattled mugs off the bars here, I took the liberty of getting us Atlas back. You're welcome."

Her eyes narrowed, and the first note of any sort of return challenge entered her tone as she bared her teeth and the caress on Blake's hand became ever so slightly less gentle. The gleam in her eye was less inviting now, more hungry and animal than anything she had ever seen in a faunus.

"Or are you starting to think your problems are bigger than what the bossman wants, too?"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Blake's grip was ironwrought, and nothing Yang said shifted her expression and inch. None of the usual disdain for her flirting or subservience at the mention of Ozpin and his war. She could tell that she wasn't even looking at her; she was staring right past her, her ears counting the steps Carnelian was taking and the exact distance she'd have to move for the kill.

"The only problem I have right now is that man not being a corpse, along with anyone in my way."

Not that she was in any state for a vengeful grudgematch with the monster. Her shoulder's woundcare had been a hasty wrap job, not for any lack of medical ability by Weiss' personal prison staff, but because that was the best that could've been done in her thrashing to escape. That entire arm still wasn't working right, the sort of bone damage done to it that would've made the other yang sick if she had to confront what she'd done.

That didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Only the kill existed.

"So what I'm asking is why you're getting in my way?"

 

[MidwayLives]

Tiger had only let out a grunt as she'd been shocked.

After that, she resumed her silence.

At least until Blake had been freed yet again.

Stepping as close as she could to the barrier still keeping her contained, Tiger audibly exhaled.

Tiger didn't want that man's help. Not now, not ever.

Her lips pulled back, the bandages around her mouth rustling in the process.

A low throaty growl escaped her lips.

​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Blake's grip was ironwrought, and nothing Yang said shifted her expression and inch. None of the usual disdain for her flirting or subservience at the mention of Ozpin and his war. She could tell that she wasn't even looking at her; she was staring right past her, her ears counting the steps Carnelian was taking and the exact distance she'd have to move for the kill.

"The only problem I have right now is that man not being a corpse, along with anyone in my way."

Not that she was in any state for a vengeful grudgematch with the monster. Her shoulder's woundcare had been a hasty wrap job, not for any lack of medical ability by Weiss' personal prison staff, but because that was the best that could've been done in her thrashing to escape. That entire arm still wasn't working right, the sort of bone damage done to it that would've made the other yang sick if she had to confront what she'd done.

That didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Only the kill existed.

"So what I'm asking is why you're getting in my way?"

"Now that would be a waste." Carnelian offered impassively, not turning around.



Even as fixated on Carnelian as her attention was, it dawned on Blake that all the playful mirth had slowly left the dragon of Anima's face over the span of a few seconds; as if it were slowly dawning on her exactly what she was looking at here. Riiiiight. The good old-fashioned cocktail of grief, rampaging martyrdom and nonexistent amounts of self-worth that was a death wish.

Fucking really?

Even the affronted, enticing pout she wore at Blake pulling her so close only to not give her her full attention was gone. In that moment, red eyes locked in a glare and lips locked in a taut, defiant grimace, Yang looked less whatever bizarre free spirit she was becoming and more the sullen, brooding loner Blake had first met, free of any Grimm attachment but saddled with the years of abuse and emotional neglect Ruby had left her with.

"So that's the play now, huh? Bitch out and die."



She shoved her. Hard.

Blake's adrenaline was pumping and her grip strong, which was why it may have come as a surprise when the hand that had been caressing it now twisted it free of her neck in a motion as clean and fluid as removing a bandaid. She didn't let go, but kept Blake's wrist trapped in her grip until she stepped forward and shoved her again, this time against her cot.

"Funny. Never took the 'pussy' in pussycat to be literal before. You think you're the first person in Remnant who ever felt low, kitten? Think the world's never felt so wrong that I thought the only way forward was to curl up and stop moving in the dark? Let's not kid ourselves, the world probably would've thanked me. Right?"

She scoffed, a low, macho sound that preempted her taking one final stride forward, tensing up with all the coiled bearing of a predator about to strike, and—

—Promptly sat down in her lap. Straight up just plopped herself down there and then like they had in any way a close enough relationship for that to be appropriate, one leg crossed over the other, seemingly completely unafraid of any form of prospective reprisal as one hand gently smoothed out some of Blake's tresses. The other stroked circles around her lapel soothingly, taking care to avoid her bandages, and the moment it made contact the faunus felt... Strange. As if she were being sapped, somehow; or at the very least pacified, all the rage and pain and sadness that made her who she was giving way to a baffling, clarifying numbness like it was being sucked out of her through a straw. She felt almost intoxicatingly tranquil, and if at any point she finally looked Yang in the eyes she noticed that hers seemed that little bit duller, the red just a bit less striking than usual.

The hand rubbing Blake down shuddered during its ministrations, muted and pinpoint enough that it was evident whatever lay under that glove was either growling or purring. When she spoke again, Yang's voice was much, much softer than she had ever heard it before.

"Except I didn't. Because fuck that. And if I had the sheer gall, the absolute audacity to stick around and see where the road takes me, then what the fuck makes you think you can get off early? Huh, Blakey? You actually have a reason to keep being here. Stuff that's wrong in the world you wanna make right, right? Check out before it's through and every bad thing you ever did becomes pointless. You just become another me. Now wouldn't that be a fuckin' tragedy?"

She leaned forward, cocking her head with a reassuring grin and slowly lifting Blake's chin with one finger.

"Is that what she would've wanted?"

She reeled back, quickly waving her hands with a grin that was less knowing and far more disarming.

"Oooorrrr, if that doesn't convince ya, how's about this? You and the dinosaur—" She jerked her head back Carnelian's way, dropping her voice to an encouraging hush. "—You will dance at some point. It's just on, like Donkey Kong. Trust me, he wants it too. And honestly? I really think you can take him. But not now, kitten. And not like this. You wanna charge in non-cocked, be just another faunus old daddy Carnelian puts in the dirt? Or you wanna be the one who finally makes the fucker bleed? I know which one I wanna see. But there'll be a time, and a place, and this isn't it. Look at it this way! I'm not asking you to stop."

She snorted and waved a hand, like the very thought were preposterous. Far be it from her to interrupt a blood feud.

"I'm just asking you to slow down. Here and now, we all stand to gain something from leaving our bullshit aside and putting our heads together, seeing as somewhere in that big emo brain I know you still have the same endgame we do."

She dropped her chin atop the hand resting on Blake's good shoulder, and the eyelash flutter she gave was infuriatingly coy.

"Baggin' us a rich girl. So, you in? Or is this gonna be a problem problem?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Tiger had only let out a grunt as she'd been shocked.

After that, she resumed her silence.

At least until Blake had been freed yet again.

Stepping as close as she could to the barrier still keeping her contained, Tiger audibly exhaled.

Tiger didn't want that man's help. Not now, not ever.

Her lips pulled back, the bandages around her mouth rustling in the process.

A low throaty growl escaped her lips.

"Hot."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

“Fine. I won’t waste my breath further on speeches. I’ll just say this. I’m not speaking for anyone else, but me? I’m not opening a portal until you, at the very least, tell us the plan. You want me gone without that? You’ll have to make good on your talk about shipping me there.

Weiss had just given up even answering Raven by that point, sinking down in her chair with fingers steepled at the bridge of her nose as what looked to be the makings of an extreme headache came on, questioning the life choices that had led her to the point where she was having to deal with this person at this moment on this of all days. And wondering how exactly she was supposed to vocalize any more clearly that the lapdog of Salem, whom she still very much disliked and mistrusted conceptually, was not getting in depth intel on Atlesian battle plans. Which was just one of many reasons she was so vehemently against sharing that intelligence freely with everyone in the room.

Weiss got a ghost of a sheepish smile out of Yang at her irritation, but it didn't last long.

Despite everyone else's sudden and very powerful disagreement, Yang didn't speak up so quick. Weiss had still been holding Robyn's hand when she made that declaration;


Weiss believed all of that. and whatever moral failings this Weiss had, whatever was broken inside of her, whatever baggage she'd been beating herself and anyone who got in her way over the head with, and however stupid the idea that the woman who made herself councilwoman, stood and lied in the face of a monster for years, and wrested the power of two maidens for herself being a 'born loser' was, this Weiss had at least one thing in common that Yang knew and knew for sure she loved; if Weiss Schnee put her mind to something, then it got done. Period.

Which is why part of that promise was so worrying.

Yang closed her eyes and sucked in a breath that came out a low, exhausted huff, and she finally spoke up after her mom-but-not-really did.

"Or don't, honestly. If for some reason you can't tell us the plan, or its way too complicated to tell in any useful amount of time, or telling us would make you embarassed because you're suddenly like, super humble and shy and you don't wanna brag or something like this is your school project and you're about to blast all of us out of the stratosphere in the science fair and you feel bad, then sure, fine. If you can promise all of that, then that's good enough, for me anyways. But only if you can say one more thing while Robyn's still holding your hand, Weiss."

She opened her eyes back up, and didn't finish her sentence till Weiss at looked, if not at her, and least in her direction. Her voice came out far softer than she wanted it to.

"That we'll have a chance to say bye before we go home. That the world being free of you and the maiden powers being where they belong doesn't mean what it sounds like. Because you gotta know what that sounds like, Weiss. And you gotta know I'm not going anywhere if that's the case."

Weiss seemed determined not to react at all when one of those reasons spoke up at first, but couldn't keep one eye from cracking open in semi-appreciative surprise at how Yang's input developed. At least until around the halfway point.

Then it became obvious she was growing paler. Her legs were getting restless, hands growing more fidgety where they cupped the glass, and by the end she looked tenser and more uncomfortable than when Raven had been talking. In point of fact, her foot was tapping with so much high-strung tension by the time Yang finished it wasn't even a surprise when the malaise coiling in her gut finally manifested.

"Yang-!"



It was such a loud, fervent exclamation that one had to wonder how many of Weiss's severely repressed emotions had been crammed into that one syllable. It was frustration, vexation, incredulity, yet it was somehow in equal parts desperate and pleading in the sort of way Weiss Schnee (on this world or any other) would never show someone she held a low opinion of.

Which made her next words all the stranger when they spilled out, a tidal wave Weiss only had a vague measure of control over.

"I don't understand you, I don't understand how you can be such an idiot or how long it's going to take for you to get the message that I am not the person you know! I mean, are you serious? Were you dropped on your head at birth or something? Let me spell it out for you, one last time, since clearly the six or seven different people who've already done so didn't adjust to match your first grade listening comprehension! They were right, okay?! Everyone who has ever warned you about me has been right."

She huffed sharply, glancing down to check Robyn's hand. Still green.

"I knew you wanted there to be more to me. From the moment we first met, I knew you were suffering, I knew you'd latch on to even the slightest glimmer of redeemability in the people you cared for, and I used that. I used you! And now I'm done with you, and yet you STILL are not getting it! Is there even a brain under that ridiculous rug of hair?! Did it overheat or something?! This is just... beyond pathetic! You're pathetic! I've never seen a more codependent human being in my life, what, because your mommy never loved you? Well, newsflash, Yang, there isn't a mother alive who'd have had you if they had even the slightest inkling of how annoying you'd turn out to be! This is NOT a hard concept to grasp, it's a basic logic problem and it's been right there, plain as day, being denied by both of us ever since we first met! This is the world where team RWBY is wrong, we're extraordinarily messed up individuals who cause nothing but grief and harm wherever we go, yours is the one where we aren't. It's. That. Simple. Stop clinging to this ridiculous notion that you can 'save' us, stop getting that stupid doe-eyed look of surprise or heartbreak or whatever it is every time one of us lets you down, and STOP resisting the urge to HATE ME!"

She finally snatched her hand away from Robyn with a groan of frustration, letting her head slump into her hands so she could massage her temples without looking at anyone in the room; too mortified to look up after the flickering disco lightshow that had been Robyn's hand any time she had anything even remotely negative to say about Yang. When she spoke again, it was several seconds later and with an air of imposed calm, her voice drained and lifeless.

"Just... Just do what everyone sensible in my life has ever done, from the very start. Hate me, then leave. Or better yet? Forget you ever knew me. It's the only happy ending to this story, Yang. You just saw how it ends for someone who won't... who's too stupid to give up on me. Forget about this world and go back to the one where I'm... where I can be like you."

She sounded tired when she finished, the existential kind of tiredness that went well beyond fatigue; the kind of tired that only came about when a soul was twisted, stretched and distorted from its original nature until it was something unrecognizable. Robyn's gift wasn't necessary to affirm that at least one thing Weiss said was the wholehearted, undeniable truth: she wasn't the person Yang wanted her to be.

No matter how much she wished she was.

It was almost as if the weight of what happened to Winter had suddenly come surging back after a valiant effort to compartmentalize. She let her hands float down to the desk and finally dared glance around the room, right back to avoiding one among their number again.

"And if it wasn't clear by now, this is goodbye. So. Does anyone else have any pointless additions before we start making progress with that?"
​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Weiss had just given up even answering Raven by that point, sinking down in her chair with fingers steepled at the bridge of her nose as what looked to be the makings of an extreme headache came on, questioning the life choices that had led her to the point where she was having to deal with this person at this moment on this of all days. And wondering how exactly she was supposed to vocalize any more clearly that the lapdog of Salem, whom she still very much disliked and mistrusted conceptually, was not getting in depth intel on Atlesian battle plans. Which was just one of many reasons she was so vehemently against sharing that intelligence freely with everyone in the room.

She stared for a few more moments before she shook her head, ironically sharing with Weiss some similar feelings of frustration. Raven announced that exasperation by turning on her heel and striding a couple steps away, still shaking her head. This was going nowhere fast. "-it's like I'm talking to a brick wall here. Hell, the wall might actually be more agreeable." The huntress hissed to herself.​

"Or don't, honestly. If for some reason you can't tell us the plan, or its way too complicated to tell in any useful amount of time, or telling us would make you embarassed because you're suddenly like, super humble and shy and you don't wanna brag or something like this is your school project and you're about to blast all of us out of the stratosphere in the science fair and you feel bad, then sure, fine. If you can promise all of that, then that's good enough, for me anyways. But only if you can say one more thing while Robyn's still holding your hand, Weiss."

She opened her eyes back up, and didn't finish her sentence till Weiss at looked, if not at her, and least in her direction. Her voice came out far softer than she wanted it to.

"That we'll have a chance to say bye before we go home. That the world being free of you and the maiden powers being where they belong doesn't mean what it sounds like. Because you gotta know what that sounds like, Weiss. And you gotta know I'm not going anywhere if that's the case."

The two members of the informally made team RNJR in the room looked at Yang after that declaration, conflicted feelings in both sets of eyes, though neither yet gave voice to those feelings.​

Well, newsflash, Yang, there isn't a mother alive who'd have had you if they had even the vaguest inkling of how annoying you'd turn out to be!

Raven's frustrated grumbling ceased once she heard that. And though she didn't fully turn around to face Weiss again, her head did tilt a bit closer to her right shoulder. "That's not true." Raven objected, speaking more loudly now. Though that was the only part in that whole Weiss tirade that she bothered to respond to at all.​

"I knew you wanted there to be more to me. From the moment we first met, I knew you were suffering, I knew you'd latch on to even the slightest glimmer of redeemability in the people you cared for, and I used that. I used you! And yet you STILL are not getting it! Is there even a brain under that ridiculous rug of hair?! Did it overheat or something?! This is just... beyond pathetic! You're pathetic! I've never seen a more codependent human being in my life, what, because your mommy never loved you? Well, newsflash, Yang, there isn't a mother alive who'd have had you if they had even the vaguest inkling of how annoying you'd turn out to be! This is NOT a hard concept to grasp, it's a basic logic problem and it's been right there, plain as day, ever since we met! This is the world where team RWBY is wrong, we're extraordinarily messed up individuals who cause nothing but grief and harm wherever we go, yours is the one where we aren't. It's. That. Simple. Stop clinging to this ridiculous notion that you can 'save' us, stop getting that stupid doe-eyed look of surprise or heartbreak or whatever it is every time one of us lets you down, and STOP resisting the urge to HATE ME!"

She finally snatched her hand away from Robyn with a groan of frustration, letting her head slump into her hands so she could massage her temples without looking at anyone in the room, too mortified to look up after the flickering disco lightshow that had been Robyn's hand any time she had anything even remotely negative to say about Yang. When she spoke again, it was several seconds later and with an air of imposed calm, her voice drained and lifeless.

"Just... Just do what everyone sensible in my life has ever done, from the very start. Hate me, then leave. Or better yet? Forget you ever knew me. It's the only happy ending to this story, Yang. You just saw how it ends for someone who won't... who's too stupid to give up on me. Forget about this world and go back to the one where I'm... where I can be like you."

Cinder was completely silent now, staring at Weiss with overwhelming sadness reflected in the only eye she had. If she didn't think Weiss would glyph her for trying, she might have gone for a hug, truthfully. Yet others did not hesitate to speak up in the red-coded huntresses' stead.

"She's not wrong. At least not about the underlying message, beyond the self-hatred and the insults and everything else that deflects from that message. Look, however you want to feel about her, it doesn't really matter." Robyn brought up. Now that she was free from Weiss's grip, she turned to face all the others. "Hate her, like her, love her, whatever. Several of you in this room right now, your huntress licenses are based out of a different Remnant entirely. Your Remnant. The longer you remain here on ours...what happens to yours in the meantime? While you stand here, trying to stubbornly cling to people you think you know, arguing and declaring that you won't leave, what is happening to your actual friends, family and all the other people you care about?" Robyn stared at Yang. "Do you have any idea, Fisticuffs?" Purple eyes shifted toward Nora. "Or how about you, Sparks?" Then that stare locked onto Ruby. "Or you, Pipsqueak?" Neither Nora or Ruby spoke up then, only sharing an uncertain look between each other before both looked back at Yang.

"This world isn't your responsibility. The longer you stay here, the longer you forget that...who knows what could end up occurring in your absence?" Robyn finished, sliding her hands into her pockets and leaning back slightly as she studied them all.​

"And if it wasn't clear, this is goodbye. So. Does anyone else have any pointless additions before we start making progress with that?"

"Maybe...maybe they're right." Nora conceded at last. On the surface she appeared to be looking towards Yang and Ruby, but much of her mind and thoughts were clearly elsewhere. Ruby herself didn't speak up initially. After a few moments of uneasy silence, she walked closer to Yang and just as she had done to Weiss a short while ago, gently placed a hand on her sister's shoulder as a gesture of support. Ruby saw both sides of it, could agree with either staying or going honestly, but ultimately...

"I'm with my sister. Whatever she thinks we should do, that's what I think we should do as well."

Raven's eyes softened as she watched that, her expression changing into one far more wistful and nostalgic, bitterly reminded of better times and the people they were then.​

 

[MidwayLives]

This is the world where team RWBY is wrong, we're extraordinarily messed up individuals who cause nothing but grief and harm wherever we go, yours is the one where we aren't.

Ruby opened her mouth to speak...and then didn't.

She couldn't deny Weiss was right.
​

After a few moments of uneasy silence, she walked closer to Yang and just as she had done to Weiss a short while ago, gently placed a hand on her sister's shoulder as a gesture of support. Ruby saw both sides of it, could agree with either staying or going honestly, but ultimately...

"I'm with my sister. Whatever she thinks we should do, that's what I think we should do as well."

Raven's eyes softened as she watched that, her expression changing into one far more wistful and nostalgic, bitterly reminded of better times and the people they were then.

The thoughts of what could have been.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Weiss had just given up even answering Raven by that point, sinking down in her chair with fingers steepled at the bridge of her nose as what looked to be the makings of an extreme headache came on, questioning the life choices that had led her to the point where she was having to deal with this person at this moment on this of all days. And wondering how exactly she was supposed to vocalize any more clearly that the lapdog of Salem, whom she still very much disliked and mistrusted conceptually, was not getting in depth intel on Atlesian battle plans. Which was just one of many reasons she was so vehemently against sharing that intelligence freely with everyone in the room.




Weiss seemed determined not to react at all when one of those reasons spoke up at first, but couldn't keep one eye from cracking open in semi-appreciative surprise at how Yang's input developed. At least until around the halfway point.

Then it became obvious she was growing paler. Her legs were getting restless, hands growing more fidgety where they cupped the glass, and by the end she looked tenser and more uncomfortable than when Raven had been talking. In point of fact, her foot was tapping with so much high-strung tension by the time Yang finished it wasn't even a surprise when the malaise coiling in her gut finally manifested.

"Yang-!"

View attachment 815877

It was such a loud, fervent exclamation that one had to wonder how many of Weiss's severely repressed emotions had been crammed into that one syllable. It was frustration, vexation, incredulity, yet it was somehow in equal parts desperate and pleading in the sort of way Weiss Schnee (on this world or any other) would never show someone she held a low opinion of.

Which made her next words all the stranger when they spilled out, a tidal wave Weiss only had a vague measure of control over.

"I don't understand you, I don't understand how you can be such an idiot or how long it's going to take for you to get the message that I am not the person you know! I mean, are you serious? Were you dropped on your head at birth or something? Let me spell it out for you, one last time, since clearly the six or seven different people who've already done so didn't adjust to match your first grade listening comprehension! They were right, okay?! Everyone who has ever warned you about me has been right."

She huffed sharply, glancing down to check Robyn's hand. Still green.

"I knew you wanted there to be more to me. From the moment we first met, I knew you were suffering, I knew you'd latch on to even the slightest glimmer of redeemability in the people you cared for, and I used that. I used you! And now I'm done with you, and yet you STILL are not getting it! Is there even a brain under that ridiculous rug of hair?! Did it overheat or something?! This is just... beyond pathetic! You're pathetic! I've never seen a more codependent human being in my life, what, because your mommy never loved you? Well, newsflash, Yang, there isn't a mother alive who'd have had you if they had even the slightest inkling of how annoying you'd turn out to be! This is NOT a hard concept to grasp, it's a basic logic problem and it's been right there, plain as day, being denied by both of us ever since we first met! This is the world where team RWBY is wrong, we're extraordinarily messed up individuals who cause nothing but grief and harm wherever we go, yours is the one where we aren't. It's. That. Simple. Stop clinging to this ridiculous notion that you can 'save' us, stop getting that stupid doe-eyed look of surprise or heartbreak or whatever it is every time one of us lets you down, and STOP resisting the urge to HATE ME!"

She finally snatched her hand away from Robyn with a groan of frustration, letting her head slump into her hands so she could massage her temples without looking at anyone in the room; too mortified to look up after the flickering disco lightshow that had been Robyn's hand any time she had anything even remotely negative to say about Yang. When she spoke again, it was several seconds later and with an air of imposed calm, her voice drained and lifeless.

"Just... Just do what everyone sensible in my life has ever done, from the very start. Hate me, then leave. Or better yet? Forget you ever knew me. It's the only happy ending to this story, Yang. You just saw how it ends for someone who won't... who's too stupid to give up on me. Forget about this world and go back to the one where I'm... where I can be like you."

She sounded tired when she finished, the existential kind of tiredness that went well beyond fatigue; the kind of tired that only came about when a soul was twisted, stretched and distorted from its original nature until it was something unrecognizable. Robyn's gift wasn't necessary to affirm that at least one thing Weiss said was the wholehearted, undeniable truth: she wasn't the person Yang wanted her to be.

No matter how much she wished she was.

It was almost as if the weight of what happened to Winter had suddenly come surging back after a valiant effort to compartmentalize. She let her hands float down to the desk and finally dared glance around the room, right back to avoiding one among their number again.

"And if it wasn't clear by now, this is goodbye. So. Does anyone else have any pointless additions before we start making progress with that?"
​

She stared for a few more moments before she shook her head, ironically sharing with Weiss some similar feelings of frustration. Raven announced that exasperation by turning on her heel and striding a couple steps away, still shaking her head. This was going nowhere fast. "-it's like I'm talking to a brick wall here. Hell, the wall might actually be more agreeable." The huntress hissed to herself.



The two members of the informally made team RNJR in the room looked at Yang after that declaration, conflicted feelings in both sets of eyes, though neither yet gave voice to those feelings.



Raven's frustrated grumbling ceased once she heard that. And though she didn't fully turn around to face Weiss again, her head did tilt a bit closer to her right shoulder. "That's not true." Raven objected, speaking more loudly now. Though that was the only part in that whole Weiss tirade that she bothered to respond to at all.



Cinder was completely silent now, staring at Weiss with overwhelming sadness reflected in the only eye she had. If she didn't think Weiss would glyph her for trying, she might have gone for a hug, truthfully. Yet others did not hesitate to speak up in the red-coded huntresses' stead.

"She's not wrong. At least not about the underlying message, beyond the self-hatred and the insults and everything else that deflects from that message. Look, however you want to feel about her, it doesn't really matter." Robyn brought up. Now that she was free from Weiss's grip, she turned to face all the others. "Hate her, like her, love her, whatever. Several of you in this room right now, your huntress licenses are based out of a different Remnant entirely. Your Remnant. The longer you remain here on ours...what happens to yours in the meantime? While you stand here, trying to stubbornly cling to people you think you know, arguing and declaring that you won't leave, what is happening to your actual friends, family and all the other people you care about?" Robyn stared at Yang. "Do you have any idea, Fisticuffs?" Purple eyes shifted toward Nora. "Or how about you, Sparks?" Then that stare locked onto Ruby. "Or you, Pipsqueak?" Neither Nora or Ruby spoke up then, only sharing an uncertain look between each other before both looked back at Yang.

"This world isn't your responsibility. The longer you stay here, the longer you forget that...who knows what could end up occurring in your absence?" Robyn finished, sliding her hands into her pockets and leaning back slightly as she studied them all.



"Maybe...maybe they're right." Nora conceded at last. On the surface she appeared to be looking towards Yang and Ruby, but much of her mind and thoughts were clearly elsewhere. Ruby herself didn't speak up initially. After a few moments of uneasy silence, she walked closer to Yang and just as she had done to Weiss a short while ago, gently placed a hand on her sister's shoulder as a gesture of support. Ruby saw both sides of it, could agree with either staying or going honestly, but ultimately...

"I'm with my sister. Whatever she thinks we should do, that's what I think we should do as well."

Raven's eyes softened as she watched that, her expression changing into one far more wistful and nostalgic, bitterly reminded of better times and the people they were then.​

"...You want a newsflash, Weiss?"

The words were quiet and hurt, Yang's expression drifting towards that doe eyed look Weiss apparently hated so much part way through that rant, but it had hardened into an angry frown as she uncrossed her arms and took a step forward.

"I already know. I don't think there's anyone else who can be more sure that you aren't the Weiss from back home. Not even close. Maybe you were, a long time ago, but at some point along the line, where she stayed strong, you broke."

It came out harsher than intended, but Yang was just so angry. At Weiss, at Blake at Ozpin, at destiny or whatever shitty director was calling the shots on the shitty double feature tragicomedy her life had been for the last few months, and at herself.

"So stop using her as a get out of jail free card. She's not here, she'd probably hate you, but that doesn't matter. This isn't about her, its about you. Yea, you're cold, you're manipulative, you'll hurt whoever you have to to get your way, and yadda yadda blah guess what I ALREADY KNOW, Because you've been BEATING ME OVER THE HEAD WITH THAT SINCE I GOT HERE!" She'd reached Weiss' desk and started pacing in front of it, her hands gesturing wildly as she continued.

"Seriously, you really I'm so dumb that I didn't pick up on all that? You got Blake out of prison, You put McMurder General in the highest office in the kingdom, You chipped me like a dog, tried to get me to give up stuff about the people I care about, did whatever the hell you did to my mom, lied to us all about who's side you were on for KINDA NO REASON AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED and don't you dare make this where you jump in-" she snapped as she whirled on Ironwood before she continued "-and, brothers, Weiss, you called a hit on two of the nicest people in Remnant not five minutes ago to try to make Blake walk herself back into her cell instead of just putting her there."

She stopped her pacing in front of Weiss and planted both fists on the desk as she leaned forward.

"You know what else you did? You lied to Ozpin's face for however long it took, you got the winter maiden powers out of an old lady who couldn't defend herself without killing her, you saved my life, twice, and you've tried to do your best. That's not Blake, and thats sure as hell not the other me. What, you want me to believe you just, saved my life last time so I could keep being a pawn? Bullshit, or you wouldn't be trying to hard to shoo me out of here so you can go on some suicide run! Just because I'm not from here, I'm not supposed to care what happens here? Hey, guess what, saving all of Remnant from the lunatic goddess of the grimm wasn't 'my responsibility' back home either! I didn't even graduate, they sure as hell didn't officially give me the job! All I've done, since the day my mom left, was what felt good. What felt right, and Weiss..."

She let out a quiet, exhausted sigh and moved to gently put the prosthetic that Weiss had gone through the time to replace over one of Weiss' hands

"...Leaving you to just... die, who's tried to hard to be something better than broken, who's done nothing but try to the right thing, even if half of its been in all the wrong ways? That doesn't feel right. That doesn't feel good."

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Now that would be a waste." Carnelian offered impassively, not turning around.

Even as fixated on Carnelian as her attention was, it dawned on Blake that all the playful mirth had slowly left the dragon of Anima's face over the span of a few seconds; as if it were slowly dawning on her exactly what she was looking at here. Riiiiight. The good old-fashioned cocktail of grief, rampaging martyrdom and nonexistent amounts of self-worth that was a death wish.

Fucking really?

Even the affronted, enticing pout she wore at Blake pulling her so close only to not give her her full attention was gone. In that moment, red eyes locked in a glare and lips locked in a taut, defiant grimace, Yang looked less whatever bizarre free spirit she was becoming and more the sullen, brooding loner Blake had first met, free of any Grimm attachment but saddled with the years of abuse and emotional neglect Ruby had left her with.

"So that's the play now, huh? Bitch out and die."

She shoved her. Hard.

Blake's adrenaline was pumping and her grip strong, which was why it may have come as a surprise when the hand that had been caressing it now twisted it free of her neck in a motion as clean and fluid as removing a bandaid. She didn't let go, but kept Blake's wrist trapped in her grip until she stepped forward and shoved her again, this time against her cot.

"Funny. Never took the 'pussy' in pussycat to be literal before. You think you're the first person in Remnant who ever felt low, kitten? Think the world's never felt so wrong that I thought the only way forward was to curl up and stop moving in the dark? Let's not kid ourselves, the world probably would've thanked me. Right?"

She scoffed, a low, macho sound that preempted her taking one final stride forward, tensing up with all the coiled bearing of a predator about to strike, and—

—Promptly sat down in her lap. Straight up just plopped herself down there and then like they had in any way a close enough relationship for that to be appropriate, one leg crossed over the other, seemingly completely unafraid of any form of prospective reprisal as one hand gently smoothed out some of Blake's tresses. The other stroked circles around her lapel soothingly, taking care to avoid her bandages, and the moment it made contact the faunus felt... Strange. As if she were being sapped, somehow; or at the very least pacified, all the rage and pain and sadness that made her who she was giving way to a baffling, clarifying numbness like it was being sucked out of her through a straw. She felt almost intoxicatingly tranquil, and if at any point she finally looked Yang in the eyes she noticed that hers seemed that little bit duller, the red just a bit less striking than usual.

The hand rubbing Blake down shuddered during its ministrations, muted and pinpoint enough that it was evident whatever lay under that glove was either growling or purring. When she spoke again, Yang's voice was much, much softer than she had ever heard it before.

"Except I didn't. Because fuck that. And if I had the sheer gall, the absolute audacity to stick around and see where the road takes me, then what the fuck makes you think you can get off early? Huh, Blakey? You actually have a reason to keep being here. Stuff that's wrong in the world you wanna make right, right? Check out before it's through and every bad thing you ever did becomes pointless. You just become another me. Now wouldn't that be a fuckin' tragedy?"

Yang became perhaps the first person ever to stop Blake from following through with a promise of violence.

Barely. Even with her other arm still gripped, the moment Yang landed in her lap, her free hand had gone straight for the blonde's eyes, and had stopped so close one nail was tickling an eye lid. Her breathing slowed as the hand drifted back downwards, haphazardly landing on Yang's shoulder as Blake stared off into space while Yang's voice plied against her ears. The sadness, the rage, the impossibly permanent flicker of hope for a better day that always burned at the bottom of Blake's heart all faded away into the rhythmic sound of breathing and Yang's words.

And the Hate.

It wasn't that it wasn't affected. There was just too much of it. The cup of emotion the grimm hand drew from was spilling over already, and nothing was going to empty it faster than it could fill itself. But it had never existed on its own, and there was a... a clarity to the hatred. A purpose, divorced from the violence of anger or the self destruction of grief. A simple fact, that she'd somehow missed, spoken plainly in her face by the dragon;

he wants it too.

Of course. How could she have been so stupid?

She leaned forward, cocking her head with a reassuring grin and slowly lifting Blake's chin with one finger.

"Is that what she would've wanted?"

She reeled back, quickly waving her hands with a grin that was less knowing and far more disarming.

"Oooorrrr, if that doesn't convince ya, how's about this? You and the dinosaur—" She jerked her head back Carnelian's way, dropping her voice to an encouraging hush. "—You will dance at some point. It's just on, like Donkey Kong. Trust me, he wants it too. And honestly? I really think you can take him. But not now, kitten. And not like this. You wanna charge in non-cocked, be just another faunus old daddy Carnelian puts in the dirt? Or you wanna be the one who finally makes the fucker bleed? I know which one I wanna see. But there'll be a time, and a place, and this isn't it. Look at it this way! I'm not asking you to stop."

She snorted and waved a hand, like the very thought were preposterous. Far be it from her to interrupt a blood feud.

"I'm just asking you to slow down. Here and now, we all stand to gain something from leaving our bullshit aside and putting our heads together, seeing as somewhere in that big emo brain I know you still have the same endgame we do."

She dropped her chin atop the hand resting on Blake's good shoulder, and the eyelash flutter she gave was infuriatingly coy.

"Baggin' us a rich girl. So, you in? Or is this gonna be a problem problem?"

Her hand moved towards Yang's face again, but this time to cup her cheek so she could hold her eyes steady. She almost made a terrible mistake. She almost forgot what she wanted.

"...Thank you."

The words were heartfelt, a tone of sincerity that would've made anyone from the world over yonder wonder if this Blake was actually all that different from the one back home. She glanced out towards the rest as she continued, and whatever moment of softness that had been there was gone.

"One condition. He doesn't touch a faunus. At all. I don't care if one's trying to stab him or is piloting Weiss away in an airship."

Pyrrha's head tilted slightly in the helmet, a flicker of an amused, if slightly exasperated smile on her face. "Blake, dear. There are faunus in Atlas. We can't be expected to just let them have their way with us."

"Not all of you. Just him. If any faunus get in the way, I'll handle it."

Quick and clean, like she'd always been until tonight. No broken fingers, no burned faces.

She tutted. "Even so..." She glanced towards Carnelian with an exasperated smile and a shrug.

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...You want a newsflash, Weiss?"

The words were quiet and hurt, Yang's expression drifting towards that doe eyed look Weiss apparently hated so much part way through that rant, but it had hardened into an angry frown as she uncrossed her arms and took a step forward.

"I already know. I don't think there's anyone else who can be more sure that you aren't the Weiss from back home. Not even close. Maybe you were, a long time ago, but at some point along the line, where she stayed strong, you broke."

Weiss had fallen back into the sort of guarded, expressionless look she wore whenever she was under scrutiny, one as carefully crafted over countless nights around the family dinner table as it had been tempered in the cutthroat world of Atlesian commerce.

The fact that Yang had come to know that look so well made all the little ways her words fractured it stand out all the more, as though it were porcelain rather than the reforged steel Weiss wanted to present it as. It was a far more subtle affair than the open melancholy she'd been given to over the last while, but somehow there was something far more abjectly stung about it, too; that even when her feelings were beaten back into their iron container of composure Yang could have this effect on her, have her brows crease and lips purse in wounded dismay as it became apparent the huntress wasn't quite as enamored with Weiss as she had believed. Or wanted to.

"...Well then. Glad to know where we stand."

That was all she said, at least initially. Per usual, none of what she was feeling registered in her words apart from a sniff of something opaque, not one attempt made to defend herself from Yang's appraisal; She knew full well how hypocritical it would've been, after everything she just said. So she just waited. Patiently, attentively.

But not for one second did Yang feel like her appeal was falling on flexible, nor indeed even receptive, ears. The second she saw that distant, cold look in Weiss's eyes she knew.

Her mind was made up.

"Seriously, you really I'm so dumb that I didn't pick up on all that? You got Blake out of prison, You put McMurder General in the highest office in the kingdom, You chipped me like a dog, tried to get me to give up stuff about the people I care about, did whatever the hell you did to my mom, lied to us all about who's side you were on for KINDA NO REASON AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED and don't you dare make this where you jump in-" she snapped as she whirled on Ironwood before she continued "-and, brothers, Weiss, you called a hit on two of the nicest people in Remnant not five minutes ago to try to make Blake walk herself back into her cell instead of just putting her there."

"...You're not dumb, Yang."

The admittance finally came in the form of a quiet, apologetic sigh, Weiss's regret for the way she had phrased her prior outburst and the effect she let this person have on her nothing if not honest, at the very least. To go full disclosure with an honesty policy, to admit that she had cancelled the order on the Belladonna elder, for instance, would've been counterintuitive at this point. Engaging on any sort of an emotional level with Yang at all was obviously a mistake. She knew what she had to do now, no different than a majority of what her day job required.

Double down.

"You're just not as smart as you think you are. Because I am NOT broken. Awful through and through, yes. But I'm exactly the kind of awful that thrives in this world; The kind the enemy I intend to point it at deserves. Nothing I've ever done has been for 'no reason', regardless of whether you can see it or not. And those things you mentioned? I would do all of them again."

Her tone of voice made it obvious she wanted that to be the end of it, the way she didn't even look back up from the screens she had firmly switched her attention to when Yang leaned over her desk indicating she had every intention of forcing the huntress to just accept it and shut up already, happy or no. But of course, no. The world couldn't even give her that much.

"You know what else you did? You lied to Ozpin's face for however long it took, you got the winter maiden powers out of an old lady who couldn't defend herself without killing her, you saved my life, twice, and you've tried to do your best. That's not Blake, and thats sure as hell not the other me. What, you want me to believe you just, saved my life last time so I could keep being a pawn? Bullshit, or you wouldn't be trying to hard to shoo me out of here so you can go on some suicide run! Just because I'm not from here, I'm not supposed to care what happens here? Hey, guess what, saving all of Remnant from the lunatic goddess of the grimm wasn't 'my responsibility' back home either! I didn't even graduate, they sure as hell didn't officially give me the job! All I've done, since the day my mom left, was what felt good. What felt right, and Weiss..."

She let out a quiet, exhausted sigh and moved to gently put the prosthetic that Weiss had gone through the time to replace over one of Weiss' hands

"...Leaving you to just... die, who's tried to hard to be something better than broken, who's done nothing but try to the right thing, even if half of its been in all the wrong ways? That doesn't feel right. That doesn't feel good."

She yanked her hand away, stood up, and walked to the window so quickly Yang would've been forgiven for thinking something in there had somehow insulted the maiden worse than any of the criticisms she'd leveled her way, if not for one thing.



The smile. More an impression of one, really; just a single, momentary glow of warmth cresting across Weiss's face like a wave, enough to signify the relief flooding her as the right words came at the right time from the right person. The only person who could make her feel that way.

Which was exactly the problem.

There was a long pause before Weiss spoke again, but it felt even longer. Her arms were crossed so tightly it was practically a hug, figure as still as the fresh layer of snow the morning after a blizzard; naught but a deathly soft, practically imperceptible hitch of the breath escaping her lips for the duration of her silence, a noise that was impossible to trace precisely as either happy or sad.

Her voice, when it finally did come, was a marked contrast in how flat it was, whatever emotions Weiss had felt in those few seconds as carefully and elaborately guarded behind as many hastily erected walls as they had ever been.

"Then this is the perfect time for you to learn the world doesn't care about your feelings. The things I did for you were not acts of kindness, Yang. They were selfish. Maybe you'd understand why if you were half as worldly and grown-up as you pretend to be, and not... Dust. Not just some kid."

The admittance came out in a mutter that sounded as muted as she did disgusted with herself, before even that feeling was swept under the rug with all the rest. When she did finally deign to continue after that it was with levels of hollowed-out ice and detachment so unwaveringly numb they couldn't be anything other than wilful.

"One last time, here's what's going to happen. You're going. You're forgetting all these delightful little notions you seem to have about me, swallowing whatever stubborn pride is even keeping the argument going at this point, and putting as much distance between us as is humanly possible. Whatever speech you have coming, whatever sassy attitude you're about to cop, you're doing that. And if you don't..."

She was really, really glad Yang couldn't see her face during this next part.

She was even more glad she couldn't see Yang's.

"I'll hurt your sister."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"I'll hurt your sister."

 

[Gus Gungus]

Yang became perhaps the first person ever to stop Blake from following through with a promise of violence.

Barely. Even with her other arm still gripped, the moment Yang landed in her lap, her free hand had gone straight for the blonde's eyes, and had stopped so close one nail was tickling an eye lid.

The only reaction the threat of such excruciating violence seemed to elicit was a breathless, heady giggle, whatever state of mind brought on Yang's new lease on life apparently just as comfortable slipping into the role of mouthy brat deserving punishment as it was the mean, aggressive bully desperate to prove their dominance over everyone and everything.

Her hand moved towards Yang's face again, but this time to cup her cheek so she could hold her eyes steady. She almost made a terrible mistake. She almost forgot what she wanted.

"...Thank you."

The words were heartfelt, a tone of sincerity that would've made anyone from the world over yonder wonder if this Blake was actually all that different from the one back home.

Which made it somewhere between disturbing, sad and hilarious that the only part appearing to genuinely trip her up was this one, a flicker of a faint, uncertain squint disrupting her infinite confidence as her eyes tried to track Blake's hand, the show of genuine heartfelt tenderness struggling to register with a mind that had never felt anything of the sort.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh... k?"

There was something slightly sheepish in how she slid off her and got up, thus proving that deep down in both Remnants Yang had no game.

She glanced out towards the rest as she continued, and whatever moment of softness that had been there was gone.

"One condition. He doesn't touch a faunus. At all. I don't care if one's trying to stab him or is piloting Weiss away in an airship."

Pyrrha's head tilted slightly in the helmet, a flicker of an amused, if slightly exasperated smile on her face. "Blake, dear. There are faunus in Atlas. We can't be expected to just let them have their way with us."

"Not all of you. Just him. If any faunus get in the way, I'll handle it."

Quick and clean, like she'd always been until tonight. No broken fingers, no burned faces.

She tutted. "Even so..." She glanced towards Carnelian with an exasperated smile and a shrug.

Dragon rolled her eyes with instant boredom and shot Carnelian a tedious stare, face regaining its sly, playful footing as she gave the top of Blake's head a casual ruffle between the ears that was probably supposed to be placating.

"Okay, pops, you heard it. Kitty's got tenure, so find a healthier way to get your dick wet."



Rounding out the incredibly bizarre and deadly mix of personalities in the world was a man who once again could've been mistaken for somebody's (disfigured) grandfather, mustache bristling as his lips quirked up in a relaxed smile and he held his hands up to Pyrrha and Yang both.

"Quite frankly I'm a little insulted by the aspersions, young ladies. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't go around indulging myself without limit like some sort of common animal."

It was amazing how quickly a facade could drop when it was one that had been carefully crafted over decades, and how quickly the sinister gleam reentered his eyes with those last two words as his gaze passed straight through them both to lock hard on Blake's again.

"You get to my age, the days are better spent saving your energy for the special occasions."

Yang clapped, all enthusiasm in contrast. "Cool! I mean, the most basic bitch bad guy motive ever invented, prolly, but hey! Killer cyborg guy has joined the party. Ahem."

Her jog out of Blake's cell brought her to a stop in front of the general, where she tapped her foot with an expectant stare and put her hand out.

Carnelian sighed and tossed the chip control device into her waiting palm on his way to the door, heading out to ensure the hallway remained clear and relieve any guard postings they'd missed on the way in. Yang caught it with a flourish and crushed it into a pile of scrap metal and circuitry, deftly hopping onto Clover's corpse and letting it sprinkle all over his face as she twirled and maintained her balance.

"Gonna need you to tow a line too here, kittycat, okay? Last thing I wanna see right now or ever actually is two grandpas start smacking each other around, and love him or hate him Carnie's our biggest asset tonight. Well, maybe second biggest. I am full of surprises, y'know." She made sure to catch Blake's eye on her next rotation, shooting her a salacious wink.

"Either way, he's pretty much our only shot at not going back to papa emptyhanded at this point. If Old Big and Muscles Big here can't take the L and accept this is the way things are for now they can stay here. Your call!~ Have I mentioned I love watching you boss people around?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Oh, don't act so shocked. Like it's my fault you're all such poor listeners."
​