Chapter Text
Be alive with me Ch1
“The 10:30 train for Vale is now boarding, will all passengers please start the boarding process at platform 2B.” the PA finished.
The waiting had been long and bothersome; as it was an off season for most and they were heading back to meet with family. Yang looked up from her scroll to see all the people lining up. She had passed the time scrolling through the photos her younger sister had been sending her. Photos of her latest missions, of Zwei being dressed up in outfits that had been less than dignifying for him, and of course with the rest of the team whenever they were together. ‘Simpler times’ the blonde thought to herself.
She got up from her bench and swung her bag over her shoulder, time to get in line and board the train. She hadn’t seen her teammates for a couple of years now. Of course, they kept in touch via messaging and video calling but, Yang had been keeping those interactions limited. She would always give excuses that she was on important missions, or that she was too hungover from the previous night to keep conversations long. She handed her ticket to the conductor and he welcomed her aboard. Yang made her way down the train cars to near the front of the train, to her private booth she had booked in advance. She didn’t want to share the train ride with someone else, she wanted to be left alone. The blonde wanted peace and quite on her voyage back, just time to herself before meeting her team and the chaos that would erupt inevitably. The though made her smile softly. It wasn’t that the team was trouble, more so that trouble found them. And sometimes the trouble would find them because they couldn’t help but get involved in schemes to unravel less than reputable people.
She arrived in front of her booth and slid the door open, the booth was clean and had the aesthetic of her dorm back at Beacon. Seats bolted to the walls and table in the center, with a window on the other end looking out. She closed the door behind her and sat down on one of the seats. Yang let out a deep sigh as she removed her robotic arm, she wouldn’t need it for now, besides she wanted to be comfortable; and it would be hard with a robotic arm nudging you in the sides if you weren’t careful. She placed it on the table in front of her near the window ‘Wouldn’t want you to fall and wake me up from my beauty sleep.’ she whispered softly to her arm. Scooting over to window she looked out wondering when they’d start moving. Her lilac eyes being vaguely reflected back at her as she gazed out towards the station; people walking, some with a kick in their probably needing to be on time for something, while others were in groups hugging and being hugged, probably headed out on their journey or returning home from one. Though, looking at them brought a hint of sadness on Yang’s face, reminiscent of when Team RWBY went their ways on missions all those years ago. The blonde looked away as to not dwell any further on those thoughts, but couldn’t help her mind wandering on those thoughts.
The sudden jerk of the train indicating movement brought her out of her thoughts. She reached for her scroll in her pocket and sent word to her team.
Yang: Just started moving, be in town by nightfall.
Ruby: FINALLY!!!!! ME AND BLAKE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOREVER FOR A RESOPNSE!!!!!!!!!!
Weiss: Thank God, I was beginning to wonder if I had to come get you myself.
Blake: We’ll be waiting for you, stay safe.
‘Blake’ Yang thought to herself, it had been five years since they broke up and well things weren’t bad between them, they weren’t the best either. Blake had been wanting to talk to her about it for a while, but Yang had always been reserved when the topic had been brought up. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk about it with Blake, it was just that it was hard to talk about for her. She wanted to talk about but she knew if she did; words would be thrown around, accusations would’ve been made, Yang would lose her temper, things would be thrown, and it would end with her standing her eyes crimson red, tears running down her face, and regretting everything she did.
Yang closed her scroll and laid it on her lap, leaning her back she stared at the ceiling “Well, there’s no turning back now.” She murmured to herself closing her eyes and drifting off into a deep slumber.
“Wake up Sunny Dragon.” Yang woke up hearing a familiar voice that she couldn’t quite pin down, her eyes opening fully as she looked around and it dawned on her. She wasn’t on the train anymore, where she was now was barely lit, and the smell of something burning was in the air. She looked around to see if there was a fire from where the smell was coming from. But there was no fire only rubble, rubble that looked all too familiar to her.
‘KABOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!!’
A large explosion sent shockwaves from behind her, Yang snapped back to see what happened and she saw the familiar tower. Her eyes widened as now it dawned on her of where she was, Beacon. She started running away from the tower, Yang knew she had to get out of there so she started running faster than she could. Sprinting at full speed she heard the voice return, “Where do you think you’ll run to Yang?” The voice asked in a sinister tone.
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!” Yang screamed as she continued running covering her ears.
“Now why would I leave here Yang? I’ve grown quite fond of this place. The bleak atmosphere, the endless amount of self-pity and loathing, oh and the FEAR.”
“SHUT UP!!!!!!” Yang again screamed back to the voice. From the corner of her eye she could see something sharp being hurled towards her. She tried stopping but at the speed she was running at it was impossible. She stumbled and fell forward whatever that was thrown at her barely missing her. Yang lying on the ground breathing heavily felt pressure on her lower back, she tried turning her head to see what it was when suddenly….
‘WHAP!’ something smashed against Yang’s face. She could feel her nose bleeding, and she felt her head being stomped on hard.
She felt a hand on her shoulder turning her over to her back, and now she could see clearly who was hurting her.
“Adam.” Yang snarled fiercely at the man who was standing over her. No eyes visible on him just his Grimm mask covered in red markings.
“Been a while Yang, how have you been?” he asked in an extremely condescending tone.
“FUCK YOU!” Yang hissed at him fiercely.
“Is that any way to treat an old friend?” he continued as he stomped down hard on her chest, Yang could feel a rib or two crack under the pressure of his foot.
“Who’d be friends with a psychopath like you.” The blonde responded.
“Well your friend Blake was.” Adam answered smugly.
The answer made Yang’s blood boil, her eyes burning red, she had enough of his scathing words. She grabbed his foot with her left hand, and took aim at his head and swung her right arm at him, indifferent to whether it would kill him or not she didn’t care.
But nothing happened, she looked at her arm and all the blood in her face froze. Yang’s arm was gone well the robotic prosthetic was gone. Instead it was only the bloodied stump of her right arm. It was freshly cut, blood spurting out all over her and Adam’s leg. Her face horrified as she let out a pain and blood curdling scream.
“Looks like you could use a hand.” He commented smugly as he pointed over to Yang’s side. Yang shivering as she slowly looked over to where he pointed at. Her eyes widened as she saw her severed arm lying there in a pool of its own blood. Her gaze fixated on it, as she felt being picked up slowly. A hand grabbing her chin and forcibly averting her gaze. Now looking at Adam, a twisted, sickening, stomach turning smile on his face. “Let’s have some fun.” Came from his lips and reaching Yang’s ears, as it did she felt her limbs go limp, the fight in her being slowly drained out.
He slapped her hard with his free hand then back handing her, and again and again and again. Until Yang’s cheeks were bloodied red, blood seething in her mouth. She tried kicking but he just shrugged them off, Yang feeling desperate punched Adam’s face with all her might with her remaining arm. It did something just not what she’d hoped. Adam’s Grimm mask flew off revealing his unbranded face, there was no SDC branding over the left side of his face, instead there were eyes Both of them. His cold blue and grey eyes staring back into Yang’s lilac eyes, “Shouldn’t have done that love.” Disappointment in his voice as he punched her straight in the nose, blood dripping from there and onto the hand that held her. Yang feeling helpless tried punching him again, she landed a clean hit on his face, but Adam was indifferent to it. He threw her hard off to the side with force so hard Yang kept tumbling and rolling until her back hit a block of rubble, blood spewing from her mouth through the force of the hit.
Yang was scared, she was helpless, she didn’t know what to do. She frantically looked for any means of escape or to fight back. She saw a long piece of rebar to her right, she tried rushing to grab it but something grabbed her hand. She quickly turned to see what was delaying her and she let out a pained scream.
“Ruby?” Yang tried asked in a soft and shocked tone to her younger sister who was impaled to the rubble right next to her by Crescent Rose. Yang looked down at Ruby’s hand it was covered in blood, she didn’t know what to do her younger sister, her world, her everything was impaled right beside her. “Y-Yang? I-I’m s-scare-d.” the younger sister was barely able to finish those words as blood started dripping from her mouth. Yang’s heart was shattered her sister, HER world was dying and Yang couldn’t do anything to stop it she raised her sister’s face. “IT’LL BE FINE RUBY YOU STAY WITH ME OK? YOU STAY WIT-…” Yang stopped as she saw the light leave her sister’s innocent silver eyes. Yang was horrified her sister’s head slowly bowed down and the bloodied hand slowly loosening its grip on Yang’s hand.
Yang’s sensing deafening as she looked at her younger sister’ corpse just there, with blood on her already black and red outfit, Yang wanted to scream but something petite and very white was thrown at her. she hit the rubble and knelt down with what or rather who was thrown at her lying there in her lap. Yang’s sight came to and she saw who was in her lap, “Weiss?....” she was almost unable to speak with the sight of what was in front of her. The young heiress laid lifeless in her lap her eyes open and lifeless, her face bruised but what drew Yang away from the sight of those was Myrtenaster. Myrtenaster was driven right through her neck as rivers of red marked their way from the wound.
Before Yang could say anything about the sight in front of her Adam’s voice spoke, “The young heiress thought she could make her stand against me, admirable, but sadly her determination was misplaced. Well consider her debt to the Faunus paid in full, as for the rest of the Schnee family I’m going to collect, Personally.” He walked forward his blade drawn in his right hand and something else in his left, Yang could see what it was but she didn’t want to know.
“THIS ISN’T REAL!!!!!!” Yang yelled “YOU’RE DEAD! BLAKE AND I KILLED YOU!” She continued screaming towards Adam.
“That may be true, but that doesn’t mean I will let go of you that easily Yang. I’ve suffered at the hands of many, now it’s time for you to share in my suffering.” He answered maliciously. With the blink of an eye Adam appeared right in front of Yang. He knelt down to her level his cold eyes meeting her pained ones, he rammed his sword through yang’s shoulder pinning her back. Yang screamed, almost to the point that her voice was gone. Adam moved Weiss’s corpse with his free hand and something else in its stead. Adam grabbed Yang’s Blonde hair and forced her to look at what he set down in her lap. Yang sealed her eyes shut she didn’t want to see what he put down, she was scared to see it. Adam displeased with what he saw, Yang’s eyes closed. Now how will she see what he brought her, so Adam improvised.
He took his thumb and slowly kept pushing it into Yang’s closed eye, Yang squirmed and screamed, trying to get away from Adam. But Adam didn’t relent his grip on her hair tight and his thumb still digging into her eye. “Either you look at it or I will make things much, much worse.” Yang complied she couldn’t take this anymore she wanted it to be over, so she did as Adam told her to. Adam pulled his thumb back and Yang opened her eyes barely, and she looked at what he had set down. Her life left her body at the sight of what she saw. Blakes severed head sitting there in her lap, Blakes amber were just filled with pain and fear.
Yang was done, she didn’t want to see anymore she didn’t want to suffer anymore. “Just do it now. I can’t take anymore, just finish it.” Yang said with a defeated and lifeless tone.
“That’s it? No fighting anymore. No anything.?” Adam asked proudly. Yang shook her head ‘No’ she gestured.
Adam lifted her head up towards him, “But I’m not done Yang. Not now not ever” He responded “I’ll come and go as I please Yang I’m not done with you. Not now, not ever I will be lurking in the darkest corner of your mind. I will not rest Yang and neither will you.”
He pulled his sword from her shoulder and sliced at Yang’s throat.
Yang woke up breathing heavily as there was a knocking on the door of her booth. “Refreshments!” a warm and comforting voice came from the other side of the door. Yang got up lazily from her seat and opened the door, she was greeted by lady who was about fifteen years her elder. she had a warm smile on her face the kind you would see when you go visit your parents after years apart. ‘Home.’ Yang thought to herself but brought back to reality when the lady asked if she would like anything. Yang’s stomach grumbled as she nodded yes to the lady, “Were doing spaghetti today, or would you like something else?”
“No, that’ll be fine ma’am.” She took the tray filled with spaghetti the lady had handed her along eating utensils. “Are you alright dear?” the lady asked with concern radiating from her voice. “It’s just been a long day ma’am.” The lady nodded understandingly. “Here.” She knelt down in to her cart and brought out a small half-pint bottle of whisky, and handed it to Yang. “We’ve all been there dear, just don’t drink all of it at once.” Yang nodded in understanding. She set the tray and bottle down on the table and waved back to the lady who waved her goodbye as she closed the door behind her.
Yang grabbed her prosthetic and put it back on her stump, her left arm still trembling from the nightmare. She started flexing her right arm to just get any sort of normalcy, as she sat back down. ‘Another one, that makes three this week.’ She thought to herself. She rolled the sleeve of her left arm revealing her bandaged arm underneath, covering the scars that she inflicted to herself those times ago. Yang took steady deep breathes to calm herself as she’d learned online, her stomach grumbled again telling her to focus on the tray of spaghetti in front of her.
Yang took a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other, and started digging into the food. Taking her first bite of the spaghetti and slurped up the bits that were hanging from her mouth. The food reminded her of dad’s cooking, ‘Home’ she thought to herself remembering of the fond memories she had there with dad and ruby. ‘Ruby’ she thought and the sight of her cold lifeless corpse from her nightmare flashed. She didn’t jump at flashbacks as she used to, not entirely immune as they still made her jump from time to time, as all the broken cups, mugs, and plates she’s dropped over the past years were proof.
She leaned her back again and let out a deep sigh before she got back to devouring her food. She finished some time later and the tray was almost wiped clean, almost anyways, now Yang’s gaze was locked on the bottle of whisky. Yang started to reach towards the bottle before smacking her own hand away, “No! I’m not gonna go down that road again.” She steeled herself with her remarks. Alcohol and what she was going through didn’t mix, well the did mix but what would be left in its wake was less that dignifying. She turned her sight to the window and to the outside world, just taking in the greenery and some semblance of peace. She pulled out her scroll to see how much time till her destination was reached.
It was six o’clock now with less than an hour to reach her destination, with a message from Weiss.
Weiss: So……. Don’t be alarmed there might be a slight change to the plans.
Ruby: IS GOOD?! IS IT BAD?! ARE WE GOING TO NEED TO CHANGE HOTELS?!?!?!?!
Weiss: No, you dolt! Just a little more than I could carry, our accommodations have already been arranged with the hotel so nothing to worry about.
Blake: Well that’s a relief. Speaking of which, how far are you Yang?
Yang: Less than an hour. 😊
‘I didn’t need to send that, feels a bit too much.’ Yang thought to herself, but the text was already sent, not much she could do about it now. That whisky bottle was looking rather very appealing right now, but Yang silenced that thought. But against her better judgment she grabbed the bottle and put it in her bag, ‘Couldn’t hurt with how things might go.’ Yang put her arms on the table to set her head down, she wasn’t going to try to sleep just enjoy the solitude she had.
“We have arrived at the Green Stalk Station in the Kingdom Vale. Thank you for traveling with us, enjoy your journey.”
Yang raised her head as the announcement ended, ‘Finally.’ The thought of seeing her sister flooded her mind and warmed her heart. Seeing Weiss again would be nice too, her had demeaner had drastically from their first meeting back at Beacon. And seeing Blake, Yang felt a wave of sadness wash over her, ‘Oh yeah that’ Yang would have to face it sooner or later, but she preferred it would be later, way later.
Yang grabbed her bag and made her way off of the train, to and now out of the station. She checked her scroll to confirm the address of the hotel and made her way there. She preferred walking for now Yang was still undecided if she should get another motorcycle after the previous one had made extremely close acquaintance with Adam’s well-being. “Adam.” The very thought of him soured her entire being, so she quickly moved on from the subject matter not wanting to dwell on the topic any more than she needed.
After of about thirty minutes of walking Yang had finally reached her destination ‘Crystal Faunus’ read the sign as she stood before the giant building ‘Weiss really outdid herself this time’ Yang thought to herself with a warm smile brushing over her face. She made her way to the entrance the doors were opened for her by the doormen who bowed and greeted her. Yang will admit that did make her feel special, she made her way to the check-in desk to well, you know check-in.
At the check-in desk Yang was greeted by a female bunny Faunus, who reminded her of Velvet who now was a proper Huntress. A main difference between the clerk in front of her and Velvet was, that the clerk was a silver haired Faunus with deep piercing blue eyes, and well one was a Huntress and the other was the clerk. “What can I help you with ma’am?” the clerk asked. “Here to check in the, name’s Yang Xiao Long.” She answered with a smirk. “Ah yes Ms. Xiao Long there was a situation with your and the others rooms, please take this and head to the restaurant over that way.” She gestured to her right to an attendant as she gave her a slip. “Right this way ma’am.” The attendant gestured for her to follow as he led the way. Yang took the slip and followed the attendant to the restaurant, as they were walking Yang opened the slip to see what it read;
Just come on over and it’s alright to cry.
-W. S.
Yang was a little confused at the note, as they both reached the restaurant the attendant spoke with the head waiter who asked yang to follow him. She followed him to near the back where there was a big booth area, “Your table Ms. Xiao Long. The others will be arriving.” The waiter said as he took a bow and left. ‘What othe- ‘before Yang was able to finish that thought she was bombarded by a streak of red moving at blinding speed and tackled her and grabbed Yang around the waist. Red rose petals flew around Yang giving away who clung to her waist. Before she even needed to look down for confirmation, “Hey Ru- “She was cut off again by a soothing familiar albeit a rather high-pitched voice. “HI YANG DID YOU MISS ME?! DID YOU MISS ME?!” Yang looked down at her younger sister “NOPE.” She replied smugly
Ruby made a pouting face before it was washed over by a warm smile as yang grabbed her sister and pulled her into a tight embrace. “Well there goes the subtlety.” Another familiar voice sounded. Yang’s ears perked high because of who that voice belonged to, “Hey Yang.” That voice continued. “Hey Blake.” Yang responded in a rather somber but warm tone. ‘Oh, yeah. That.’ Ruby softly said under her breath. Yang took a good look at Blake, it has been a while since the last time the both of them saw each other, since their not so perfect ‘separation’
Blake was almost unchanged her hair still short at shoulder length, her Faunus ears roaming freely on her head, and here eyes. Glistening amber eyes that were warm but there was still a hint of sadness in them. “Come Here.” She opened her arms gesturing for Yang to complete the embrace. She was hesitant at first, but with a little nudge from Ruby she went in for the embrace. The embrace was warm and kind but Yang still felt something was off but she didn’t care, Yang just wanted to feel the warmth of the embrace.
“Well, looks like you dolts got started off without me. Typical.” The voice of the ice queen sounded as she walked in with authority. “Well somebody had to.” Ruby quickly responded with a tongue out. Weiss gave a defeated sigh as she opened her arms for Yang, “Come here dolt senior.” Yang left Blake’s embrace for Weiss’s. Though many would assume Weiss’s embrace was as cold as her icy glare, all of them would be wrong. As the blonde who towered over Weiss stood in front of her, Weiss jumped at Yang the hug her dearly and as hard as she could. Yang returned the embrace as she held Weiss some distance over the ground. The two remaining members of Team RWBY embraced both Weiss and Yang, with Yang at the center.
They held the group embrace for some time before Yang put Weiss down, and all of them took a moment to gather themselves.
“So, what took you so long?” Blake asked Weiss in a semi-deadpanned tone. “Well, I had some stuff I needed to make sure was proper before I made my way down.” Weiss answered. “What kind of stuff?” Ruby perked up asking.
“This kind of stuff.” A confident voice answered the question walking in, revealing himself to be a tall and lean man with sharp blonde hair and recognizable blue eyes.
“Hey there vomit boy.” Yang said to the oh so recognizable man in a warm tone.
“Oh, great, we’re doing throwback nicknames again. Great.” The blonde responded with a defeated sigh.
“Oh fine, vomit Man then.” Yang corrected herself as a soft smile wore on the blonde man’s face.
“C’mon Jaune.” She gestured him to come join them “We got another hug in us and room for one more.” She finished.
Jaune came in to the group embrace he towered almost everyone and even yang, his arms large enough to wrap them around Team RWBY, which has nice as his warmth, aura, and his presence was so welcoming and comforting that no one rejected it. As for Yang who was in the middle of all of this she wanted to take it all in, all the love from her team (yes even Jaune) and being in the center of all of it made Yang feel safe. Something she hadn’t felt for a long time, something she wasn’t sure for how much longer she would have.