Things You Wrote On the Walls

Yang

“Follow me, children! Do not hesitate to retaliate if we are met with resistance!”

Yang thundered along after the professor, Blake and Weiss hot on her heels. Her gauntlets were primed and ready to fire, and her blood ran cold with the icy fire of battle. I swear, if he’s hurts my baby sister, I’ll stick a knife where the sun doesn’t shine…

Yang’s head snapped up as she heard gunfire shatter the silence. Automatically, she leapt in front of Blake, and Weiss sprang in front of her, using a shield of ice to deflect the bullets. Oobleck roared and tendrils of fire shot out from his thermos, wrapping around the shooters— White Fang guards— with menacing light. In unison, they crumpled, screaming as they caught fire. Oobleck, Yang, Blake, and Weiss raced past them, but Yang’s stomach nearly upset itself as the awful stench of scorched, burning flesh wreathed the air and the screams from the Faunus guards slowly died into silence. She dared a look back, and saw Blake’s eyes full of some emotion she could not name.

They plunged further into the twisting labyrinth of buildings. The further they went, the less resistance they were met with, until they were flat out running across tracks and broken glass.

But at the end of an alleyway, a line of four guards stood with guns at the ready, four barrels of darkness leering at the four of them. They looked startled, before anger froze their faces to stone. “Humans,” one of them snarled, before pulling the trigger.

As he did so, just over the gunshot, Yang thought she could hear a shriek— a familiar shriek, high pitched and angry, tumultuous in the darkness. Ruby?

She roared in anger, dodging the shot from the White Fang lackey and firing her own with a condensed explosion. Fire imploded outward, blasting the guards with shrieks of agony into the sides of buildings; as they fell limply to the ground, Yang saw a flash of rose petals and silver, before a heavy weight crashed into her. She hugged her sister close, spinning her in joy. “Ruby, thank God— I was so scared…”

“Are you okay?” Weiss asked, her face ashen.

Ruby slid from Yang’s embrace, taking Crescent Rose from Blake’s outstretched hands as she did so, and glancing reassuringly at Weiss. “I’m fine, I’m fine, don’t worry.” She loaded her weapon before looking up, steel in her gaze. “Listen. They’ve got Androids, mechs, all sorts of weaponry— all loaded up on the train-cars!”

“What?” the professor said, looking flabbergasted. “That’s impossible— the cars don’t go anywhere, the tracks lead to a dead end.”

“It’s Torchwick, doctor— he’s behind this, I don’t know what he’s doing, but—”

At that moment, a sharp drone of static pierced the air, making Yang wince. There was a sound of creaking gears, and the acrid scent of smoke filled the cavern. ‘Everyone get to your places. We are leaving now!’

Yang cast a glance full of disbelief at the professor. “Well, it sounds like they’re going somewhere!”

Ruby fumbled for her Scroll. “We need backup. Let me call Jaune!”

If I needed urgent backup I wouldn’t exactly call him, Yang thought, but her heart wasn’t in it; she felt panic well up in her chest as Ruby’s Scroll flickered with a crimson message of failure, her face growing somber in the red light.

“I can’t get through— there’s no signal down here.” She stuffed her Scroll away, clicking a button on her scythe as it flipped out into its full form. She stood in the front of them, looked back as Weiss’s voice rose in alarm. “Well, what do we do?”

The professor stood beside her, planting his staff in the dust with a grim look on his face. “My dear, I believe we only have one option.”

Yang cocked her gauntlets, looking over as Blake drew her sword and Weiss spun her rapier in her hand. Finally, Ruby crossed the scythe in front of her chest, looking ahead with a cold expression on her face.

“We,” she said softly, every syllable taut with determination, “are stopping that train.”

Yang scrabbled up the ladder, landing with a huff on the top of the train. The dripping stone walls, stalactites and spires piercing downward, rushed past in colors of brown and gray, and she staggered to get a good footing.

Oobleck pulled himself to the top of the train after her, his eyes blazing. “Hurry, children! We must get to the front and stop this train!”

Weiss, who was up ahead, kicked open a hatch on the train and looked within. Yang felt a pang of distress as her eyes visibly rounded in alarm, and she jogged over, and looked inside. A shining chrome mechanism lay within, a glowing time-dial on its face, red and blue wires curving around the ends of it. The time dial’s face was blank— for now.

“Er, professor—”

“Doctor.”

She shook her head irritably and jabbed a finger down to point at the hatch. “What’s that?”

The professor kneeled over, and his sallow cheeks tightened as he glimpsed the contents. “That, my dear,” he said worriedly, “appears to be a bomb.”

Yang reeled back, her own alarm doubled with Blake’s as the Bond shivered in fear. A bomb? But that would be counterproductive, wouldn’t it? What the hell…?

However, Ruby’s voice cut into her thoughts, shrill with alarm. “We’ve got baddies!” She pointed forward, to where, far away but fast approaching in the shadows, a thick crowd of snarling Faunus were drawing near. Dozens upon dozens of them, masks glowing white in the dark, the glint of unsheathed blades and guns visible even in the darkness.

Oobleck shook his head and gripped his weapon harder. “Well, I didn't expect them to go—” He stopped short as a tinny beep sounded underneath them. Yang looked down in horror to see the bomb dial begin counting down from 30.

29.

28.

“—easy on us,” Oobleck finished in resignation. “Time to go!” He flung a hand out towards Blake as they all took to their heels. “Blake— detach the caboose! It will kill us all!”

23.

22.

21.

Yang saw her partner’s face contract, and it wouldn’t be until later that she would realize the implications behind it— cutting a train car loose, as she had done so long ago— but for the moment; she couldn’t worry about it; she flung herself over the gap and landed on the next train car as Blake dived down to the connecting cable.

10.

Yang stopped as she heard a cry echo up from below. “It decoupled itself!”

She leaned back over with the professor, looking down at Blake’s face, very pale and frightened in the shadows. She would never accuse Blake of being a coward, but her fear seemed almost— magnified. Like being on the train was doing something to her distress, making it grow and grow. And it infected Yang just as swiftly though the Bond until her own heart was pounding with the seconds of the bomb.

3.

2.

1.

The explosion was far behind them, but it still sent a boiling, rippling wave of heat blasting through the tunnel, a mushroom cloud of roiling black and amber fire echoing with a boom. Sunlight flooded in, but it was fast moving away, and it felt like they were plunging into the dark maw of some creature rising to swallow them. “I guess he really doesn't want us on this train,” Yang said, before reaching down and helping Blake haul herself up to the train’s roof.

“That’s not good…” Oobleck muttered, almost to himself, glasses reflecting the red light.

“Professor! Neither is this!” Ruby howled across the whistling chasm, pointing into another open hatch.

Blake’s voice rose in pitch, bouncing eerily off the walls and shrieking with the wind. “Another bomb?”

Yang stared, stupefied, as Oobleck launched himself across the gap to the next hatch, prying it open with a grunt and staring down in horror. He whipped around, a gust of wind nearly knocking him over. “They ALL have bombs!”

Yang opened her mouth to reply before a loud beep rang out under her feet, announcing the soon-to-be detonation of the bomb beside them. She took Blake’s hand, shouted ‘come on!’ before pulling her over the gap. They landed hard, rolling, and clambered to their feet.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” she spat in confusion and terror, seeing that there was now no room between them, and the White Fang members advancing towards them. A Faunus at the lead pointed at Yang and snarled, bared teeth glimmering white in the pallor of shadows.

“Get the humans!”

Yang activated her gauntlets, feeling the slide of metal on metal as they extended out, forming a golden chrome shield over her wrists, her forearms, power surging through her veins. Perhaps doubt had wracked her earlier, in the ruins of Mountain Glenn, but here, she knew she was meant to be a Huntress and this was where she belonged: with an enemy looming near and the power of her wellbeing just at her fingertips. Here, she was in charge of her destiny: not some long-forgotten ghosts or doubts.

Almost in slow motion, she charged at an approaching Faunus, narrowing her eyes before throwing a punch towards his face that would, surely, be the last one he ever felt. The force of her blow cracked into his jaw, sending him hurtling off the train with a yowling scream; there was no time to watch him fall, because more enemies were taking his place just as swiftly, roaring in anger.

Almost in perfect synchronization, Yang fell into a flanking position with her partner, both of them defending each other’s backs. They circled each other like lionesses, letting their anger that surged through the Bond turn them both into a spinning fury that lay waste to everything around them. They fell step-in-step, sending the many— but poorly trained— lackeys plummeting to their deaths, or knocking them to where they lay, wounded, on the train tracks. If Blake had any qualms about bearing arms against those who were formerly her people, she didn’t show them, and her blade cut through the air just as viciously as Yang’s fists. 

Yang paused, panting with exertion, as another explosion rocked the tunnel, a blast of heat streaming over her as fire roared through the tracks. But this time, she could hear Oobleck’s shout of concern, and she turned around, narrowing her eyes at the gaping hole in the tunnel’s roof.

Dark shadows fell down through it, one after another, flooding into a churning dark tide. Yang realized what they were a heartbeat before Oobleck shouted it out loud.

“He's leading Grimm to the city!”

Weiss staggered up behind them, her eyes huge with disbelief. “What?”

“It's the cars,” said Professor Oobleck urgently. “They detach and explode, creating openings for the Grimm!”

Blake sounded completely stricken. “That’s insane— I, why—”

Another car decoupled itself, cutting her sentence off as it drifted down the tracks before bursting in a fiery conflagration, killing a herd of Death Stalkers that had been thundering down the tracks.

“We have to hurry,” Oobleck said decisively, setting his jaw before sweeping a broad finger at Yang, Weiss, and Blake. “You three, you must go below and try to defuse the bombs, if you can, or set about stopping whoever is at the controls!”

Yang nodded swiftly at him, before whipping around and curling her fingers on a hatch-handle, wrenching it open. She waved Blake and Weiss through, making sure they landed safely within the dark belly of the train, before following herself, hearing the resounding clang as the trap-door shut, sealing them within the shadowy interior. 

Blake

She stared around the all-too-familar contents of the train car— the cargo, the grooved walls— and let out a hissing sort of breath, half-expecting to see a Droid, or even Adam, stalking towards her with menacing intent from the shadows. She shuddered, trying to push away her alarm. She couldn’t afford to lose herself in the panic of her past— it wouldn’t only hurt her, it would hurt Yang, too, and they all needed to be at the top of their focus right now.

“Well,” Yang said softly, her voice echoing around in the train… well… well… well… “I guess this is what we trained for.”

Blake looked over swiftly as a flicker of movement caught her eye. It was Weiss, holding out a cartridge with three vials of Dust: silver, amber, white. “Here. This should help you.”

Blake gave her a grateful nod, sliding the cartridge in Gambol Shroud, and bringing the weapon down to her side. The three of them broke into a jog, feet clattering on the metallic floor, before— just as they were halfway— a shape dropped down from the ceiling, blocking their way.

Blake recognized her immediately, recognized that oddly sinister smile, those mocking two-toned eyes. It was Torchwick’s ally.

But she wasn’t looking at Blake or Weiss. Her smug look was directed at Yang, those eyes as cold as a winter wind. The way she was smirking made Blake’s lip curl in anger, but she sensed the energy that crackled like a tangible storm through the air, and deliberately turned her head, knowing it wasn’t her fight.

“You two go on ahead,” Yang growled, almost as if hearing Blake’s thoughts. “This one's mine.”

Blake shot her an anxious glance, but she knew Yang well enough to know she wouldn’t thank her for her worry. She took to her feet, racing lightly down the length of the car, and sent out a silent thank-you to Yang for firing a shot to distract the opponent as she and Weiss reached the end of the car and leaped through the open door.

The gully between train-cars yawned beneath them, ground hurtling past in dulled, blurred colors. They didn’t have much time before the train reached the end of the tracks, and the door slid shut with a click of finality as they both landed. The next car was full of shadows and coldness, but it was not empty.

Blake’s breath caught in her throat as a very familiar figure lumbered from the shadows, a menacing chain saw rattling in his scarred hands. Corded muscles rippled underneath his skin as he approached them at a lazy saunter, a leer curling his face.

“Ayran,” she breathed. “You’re working with them to the death, then.” Why am I not surprised?

“Blake Belladonna,” he said almost conversationally, stopping the center of the train as the three of them all paused, measuring each other up. “With a Schnee, I see. I always knew you’d turn out a traitor.”

This is not my fight, she realized as she saw his cruel eyes zero in on Weiss, a hostile, cold amusement waking inside them. He hates the Schnees more than anything. They’re human and I’m… just a pawn that went astray. Because when it comes down to it… I’m like him.

“But how fitting to kill you both,” he snarled suddenly, his rusty voice frosty with hatred, before advancing. “I will enjoy it.”

Blake spat in fury as she and Weiss sprang forward as one, weapons extended. “You go on ahead!” Weiss shouted over the din of screaming metal before she lunged forward, engaging Ayran in breathtakingly quick combat, every movement blurred with speed.

He’s dangerous, Weiss, Blake thought, only stopping to aim one strike at him before taking to her heels and sprinting forward. For my sake, stay safe.

The door slid open as she ran for it, and she leaped through the gap with one terrifying glimpse of ground whipping away below her. Then all was silent in the final car, where one final opponent lay in wait for her.

He smiled as the door shut behind her, closing off her escape route. “Hello, darling,” Roman Torchwick said casually, eerily echoing the words of a boy she had once loved more than anything. “How curious to see you back on this train… though I would imagine it is hard to be here, isn’t it? Back among the White Fang, bearing arms against your people?”

“They’re not my people,” she spat, wincing, realizing she’d taken the bait as he laughed.

“Of course. I know that. You ran away months and months ago; that charming boy who serves the bonehead leader, Ayran— what was his name? Adam? He told me as much. Right after he told me how he was going to rip you limb to limb.” He rolled his eyes. “He was quite boring, to tell you the truth. I can almost get an inkling why you ran away from him. He has no sense of subtlety, really.” Torchwick cocked his head and gave her a glitteringly cold smile. “Or perhaps, not any longer. He has changed, my dear. Does that bother you? Or do you know it?”

Blake’s throat closed up with terror. He wants revenge on me. He didn’t forget. I feared… I didn’t think it would be true… “You use your words to mock me because you are afraid,” she said, trying to discreetly activate her weapon with the Dust chamber so he wouldn’t notice her doing it.

“Maybe so. Maybe so. But I think we both know that isn’t true, Blake. You’re here to fight me, aren’t you?” He spread his arms wide, gloved fingers beckoning her tauntingly. “Give it a shot. I’d love to watch you fail.”

She felt a cry of rage leave her throat before she forgot the first lesson she had ever learned from Adam: she charged without an attack plan, blind with fury. His grin morphed into a snarl of glee as she darted at him, and he lifted his gun, ready to fire.

But the Dust aided her more than she thought, and while an ordinary shadow clone wouldn’t have done anything, this time it erupted in flames. She had the good sense to lunge upward as it exploded. The shockwave propelled Torchwick up into the air with a throaty shriek, and as he fell, she lashed out a few well-placed blows and struck him in the chest.

He snarled and shot a round at her as they landed with loud thuds. She dodged it, whirling around before sending out another shadow clone. It instantly hardened into stone, taking the shot as stone shattered around the car into shards, clattering with tinny clangs.

He swore loudly. She capitalized on his frustration and leaped overhead, beating him with a flurry of attacks as he dodged with more mixed cursing and cries of rage. As he raised his cudgel in wild anger, she took the opportunity to use her final Dust cartridge— the ice one— and leave behind a statue of herself, a perfect form of glittering ice.

Alarm glowed in his eyes as his weapon was caught in the center of it, frozen stuck. A grim smile on her face, she lunged backward, lifted Gambol Shroud, and brought it down.

A shockwave rippled with the force of it, blasting down the center of the train-car, shattering the ice replica and sending him flying backward. She plunged forward as he slid down from where had flown from the force of the blast, groaning in pain, and planted her foot square in the center of his chest.

“No,” he coughed out, blood trickling from his nose. “You wouldn’t do it.”

There was a crystalline ring as her sword cleared its sheath, and she leveled against Roman’s throat, her teeth bared. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t cut your throat right now, you lying coward.”

To her surprise, he didn’t even look the slightest bit scared. Instead, he laughed up at her— a grotesque sight with the blood. “Darling, don’t you think you should quit lying to yourself? We’re on the same side, Blake, and you know it. I saw you at the rally. You’re one of them. The White Fang. And you always will be.”

She snarled at him, unable to think of a retort, of a defense, of something, anything, to convince him that he was wrong, she had left forever… she was never going to go back, had never reconsidered… but all she could do was stare into his eyes, so cruel and devoid of light, just like Adam’s…

“You think your secret is that you want to be a monster, that you will turn yourself into one just like that old partner, that old love of yours. But I will tell you the true secret, the darkest secret,” he said, and his voice rose, turning into something exultant and not quite human. “You already are.”

“No!” she screamed in a guttural cry, bringing her sword down like a spark of fire in the darkness. She felt it strike flesh and heard his screech cut short, blood instantly tainting the air with a metallic stench.

Her night vision kicked in. She had not killed him, only cut a shallow gash across his chest. He moaned feebly before stirring, green eyes bright with pain.

“Prove me right,” he rasped, his voice rusty as blood slowly spread in a red tide across his skin. “Kill me, then, Blake. And be like a monster. Prove who you are.”

She bared her teeth— and heard a door slam behind her before the sound of a crash echoed through the train car. This is too familiar, she thought, turning in slow motion and feeling her heart stop as she saw Weiss skid to a halt, unconscious and bleeding, and Ayran— Ayran was advancing on her, his face full of a terrible glee, his eyes flashing with two terrible promises.

“Finally,” he snarled. “The culmination of the two things I hate the most in one place, how fitting. The human and the traitor.” He slowly walked forward, dragging his chainsaw with a rattling buzz across the floor. “And how fitting that I will slaughter you both. I will enjoy watching you bleed.” 

Blake kicked Torchwick in the jaw as hard as she could, feeling him gasp as he went limp, unconscious. She sprang away from him and slid her arms under Weiss, giving one last look of blazing fury to Ayran. “I left your twisted plans long ago, you monster,” she spat. “And you will never have me back! You will never take away anyone I love again!”

He threw his head back and laughed, on and on. It was a rusty, horrible thing that she was sure would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life. “Let me tell you a secret, daughter of nightshade,” he purred finally, fixing his green-amber eyes on her. “Your father made his choice long ago, and as for your partner— Adam came to me willingly. It’s your fault!” His voice rose to a roar, and she saw the true insanity, the madness, glittering in his eyes. “All the death! All the heartbreak! All the pain! Everywhere you go, you will be cursed, Blake Belladonna! I swear to you, for as long as you may live, and as long as human and Faunus are divided, you will never find peace wherever you may run!”

Choking with agony, Blake secured her arm around Weiss— and raised her gun, steeled her heart, and jammed her thumb down on the trigger, firing a bullet straight into his heart.

The shot blast echoed through the car with a horrific BANG, and he staggered back as her aim made true, forward and direct into his chest. A choked gasp escaped his throat and his eyes flew wide. “You hurt me,” he whispered hoarsely, his hand going to his chest, where blood slowly started seeping out. “You really hurt me. You— Belladonna— would dare—”

“I swore once that I would make you pay,” she whispered lowly, her chilled voice dropping to an octave. “Don’t we all get as good as we give, Ayran? That was for my father. You murdered him, I know you did— and now it’s your turn. This is for every nightmare and all the lives you made living hell, including mine.”

This time, she didn’t look as she shot at him again, straight into his skull. She could hear him, though, hear his scream as it cut abruptly short, hear him crumple to the ground with a thud of finality, one nightmare come full circuit, one nightmare now closed— forever.

Just how many people have you killed, Blake?

She allowed herself a few heartbeat’s time, only a moment’s worth, to gaze at his slackened face, his eyes— once terrifying and piercing— now glazed, clouded with death, some essential light missing from them. Her gun was two bullets lighter and her heart was several years heavier as she saw the blood of death trickling from his mouth. Now with the life, the animation, gone from his rough features, he seemed… different. She could see the younger shadow of a pained Faunus there, but only just. His madness and greed had transformed him into a true monster years ago. Nothing could excuse his actions, or ever make her forgive him. 

I killed you, Ayran. And now, as a consequence of that, Adam… he is leader of the White Fang now, by my hand, just as you predicted so long ago… and you were right in some twisted way, weren’t you? But I killed you for my father, my mother, Khione and Adam, and everything I gave up in your insane crusade for violence and chaos. Your life and strength were misguided as any and in the end, I can only pity you. Hail and farewell, Ayran of the White Fang. Now… and forever.

She shuddered, slipping her arms back around Weiss and securing her, before gathering the last of her strength and shooting up— straight up into the roof, feeling the shattering of glass, before shadows swallowed up everything.

Yang

The cave walls rushed past as Yang stumbled out from the freight car, her whole body aching like a giant bruise. Her head spun with all she had seen and all she thought she had saw— had the red sword been there, the flash of dark hair, or had she been seeing things?— but she knew she could not think on it now, not when the ending of the tunnel was rushing towards her with the promise of death.

Several cars ahead, she saw the roof of one train-car bulge before exploding outward. A dark shadow flitted out with it, and Yang, upon realizing it was Blake, sprinted forward. She’s okay. Oh, thank God, she’s okay. But the Bond was singing with pure pain and horror, and Yang could see stunned fear in her partner’s eyes as she drew close. Weiss staggered up as she stopped next to the two of them, drawing Myrtenaster.

Blake’s head snapped up as Yang staggered over, bleeding and bruised. “Are you okay?” she asked, standing as well, running her hands down Yang’s arms. Satisfied as Yang nodded shakily, she drew away with a short breath of pain. “Torchwick is down for the count. And Ayran is dead. I - I killed him.”

Yang gaped at her. “You— what?”

Blake flinched, but there was no more room to speak of it, because just then, Ruby ran up to them, panic in her eyes. “We’re about to crash!”

Blake’s voice rose in terror. “What do we do?”

Weiss looked around at them, exchanging a steeled glance with Ruby, before raising her rapier, shouting defiantly, before plunging it down— and with a screaming, grating noise, everything went suddenly, horribly white.