Athazagoraphobia

Once Yang locked eyes with the blindworm, she couldn’t look away. Everything seemed to slow down. 

Distantly, she thought she heard someone scream her name, but she couldn’t tell. It was all muffled.

She couldn’t move where her body used to yell, Fightfightfight! Punch it! Move out of the way! Attack! Instead, it was a shaky, panicked-filled scream, Stop! Don’t move! Stay still! Maybe it won’t see you if you don’t move! Freeze! DON’T MOVE!

Yang just stared as the grimm came closer and closer. Its deep, dark, black hole of a mouth getting bigger and bigger. 

Someone was screaming at her. She couldn’t hear them.

Maybe I should let it eat me. It’s what everyone wants. To not be bothered by me anymore. Maybe it’s for the best. 

The screaming grew louder, more frantic. She could barely make out someone telling her to “run.” But she couldn’t. Not even if she tried.

The grimm was almost on top of her now; its maw opened wide, prepared to swallow her.

It’s for the best.

“YANG!”

A bright flash of silver filled her vision, and she felt herself getting yanked back by something.

She landed on her back, staring up at the cloudless sky as the newly frozen-in-stone blindworm loomed over them, casting a dark shadow.

Blake removed Gambol Shroud from around Yang’s waist-- When did that get there?

They were talking, but she couldn’t hear what. It was all muffled like she was underwater. 

And suddenly, she was moving. Blake had scooped her up in a bridal carry and was running away from something. And judging by the way that the shadow covering them had started to move, she could guess why.

They couldn’t get away before it broke free. It wasn’t possible. They should just leave me. That's what they want, anyway.

It’s what they want…

“WHAT ON REMNANT WAS THAT ABOUT?!” Blake screamed, yanking Yang out of her headspace. She hadn’t even realized how far away they had gotten or that they even moved. 

Where did the blind worm go? What happened? Where are we? Yang asked herself, looking around at her surroundings. They weren’t anywhere near the blindworm, and they were up high, very high. She could see more desert than she could before. 

But that wasn’t important right now; she turned and looked in the direction she heard Blake’s voice. She was met with the concerned eyes of all of her friends, minus Sun, Neptune, Maria, and Qrow, who were talking a little ways away from them. And Penny, who she could barely see in the distance flying around.

Ruby’s eyes had a mix of concern, relief, and something else that Yang couldn’t place. Like anger... But then Yang blinked, and it shifted to sadness. Weiss’s eyes were soft as she looked at her teammate, but she still had that shield behind them that couldn’t let Yang see what she was feeling.

Blake’s eyes were different, though. They had many different emotions running through them at once. Panic, concern, annoyance, anger, fear, confusion, lo annoyance, desperation, worry-- so many it almost made Yang’s head hurt looking at them.

It seemed like an eternity before Yang found the words she needed. “What.. was what?”

“You know what. You just stood there like an idiot while a blind worm was coming right at you.” Weiss responded with a deadly calm voice. “You would have been swallowed if Ruby hadn’t been able to freeze it in stone!” 

Yang stared at them in shock, not able to say anything to defend herself.

They didn’t give her a chance to, anyway. “You have been acting off ever since the cave in. You’ve been distant, you haven’t been participating in any conversation, you’ve been freezing up in fights, you tacked up rocks instead of cans, and you’ve been acting like your dog died.” Blake said, barely stopping to take a breath. “Can you see why we’re concerned?!”

Stupid. Stupid. Yang thought, turning her gaze to look at the ground… Not ground? It looked more like a shell. Not important. Now they’re worried. I didn’t want them to be worried. I’m not worth it. They have more important things to worry about. 

Weiss was saying something now, but Yang couldn’t focus on what Weiss said.

Instead, the conversation between Neptune and Sun caught her attention. “Why did they bring her along again?” Sun asked Neptune, obviously thinking he was quieter than they were actually being. “I heard them talking earlier, none of them think she’s worth the effort to keep around.”

Neptune nodded in agreement, “I think that once we get to a town, they’re going to leave her there. Then, she’ll be someone else’s problem.” 

“Good. Everyone’ll be glad to be rid of her. Blake even said that she’d take Adam over her, because at least he pulled his own weight.”

Yang’s heart stopped. She… what? No, that doesn’t make any sense. She hated him, said that she regretted every moment she chose to spend with him… So what does that say about you?

“..ang? Yang?’ Someone, probably Weiss, scoffed. “Yang Xiao Long! Are you even listening?!”

Yang snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at Weiss. “Oh.. I’m sorry, I guess I zoned out there..”

They were acting like Sun and Neptune’s conversation didn’t just happen. Maybe they thought that she didn’t hear it? Well, she certainly wasn’t going to bring it up.

Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. “This is what we were talking about. It’s not like you to completely zone out on a conversation like that!”

Blake knelt in front of her and reached for her hands, and Yang had to keep herself from flinching back. Blake must have seen something in her eyes, though, because she winced and backed away a little bit.

Yang ignored how she instantly regretted doing that and how she wanted Blake to come back and hold her hands. She likes Adam better than me. Why do I care?

“We’re just..” Blake paused, trying to find her words. “Really concerned about you. Please tell us, what’s been going on?”

There was no response from Yang. Both because she didn’t know how to respond and that she didn’t want to.

Ruby finally said something, “You could have died today, Yang.” She said quietly, her voice cracking. Her eyes were glassy with barely contained tears. “You could have died.”

Yang was hit with a wave of regret, she never wanted to make her sister cry, but here she was, Ruby almost in tears because of her actions.

“I-I’m sorry..” Yang whispered, surprising herself at how small and fragile she sounded. Weak. She hung her head in shame and didn’t meet any of their eyes.

The rest of her team looked at each other, unsure of how to continue. They had never seen Yang so vulnerable before.

Weiss walked over and put a hand on Yang’s shoulder. Yang didn’t see how Blake flinched again when she let Weiss touch her.

“Yang. What happened? What’s been going through your head?” Weiss asked gently.

Yang took a shaky breath, silently debating whether or not to say something. “I…”

She didn’t get a chance to decide as the surface she was on suddenly lurched forward. Yang cried out as she fell forward, landing face-first on the ground. 

“What was that?!” Weiss exclaimed. She and everyone else had only stumbled slightly, which was slightly embarrassing to Yang. No wonder they think I’m weak.

“That was probably the Slider just running into a giant rock or something, don’t worry about it!” Sun shouted to them with a grin.

“You alright Firecracker?” Qrow called as he sauntered over to Team Rwby.

Yang groaned quietly and shook her head, “Couldn’t be better..” She muttered, slowly pushing herself up. She stood with her back turned towards the others, pushing past the small part of her telling her not to show her back to them. The others started talking to each other about.. something while she stretched out her arms as best she could. 

She could feel someone’s eyes on her still, but she shrugged it off, reasoning that it was probably Blake judging her again. Yang pushed her hair over her shoulders, again ignoring another, slightly bigger, part of her saying STOP, exposing her neck.

Yang shivered as the air touched her neck, surprisingly cold considering that they were in the middle of a desert.

Just as she was about to put her hair back in order, she felt a strong grip on her shoulder.

“Yang..” Qrow said, his voice low and cautious.

She froze, realizing that all conversation had stopped. Yang slowly turned to look at her Uncle Qrow. “What is it?”

Qrow took a deep breath, looking like he desperately wanted a drink. “When were you going to tell us that a Rakleft had attached to you?”