Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ruby wouldn’t say she had bad parents, per se. She had great parents.

Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long. Huge names in the science industry, even bigger names in the Huntsman industry.

They bought her presents, showered her with love, kept her fed, everything a proper parent should.

They helped grow her interest in science. In quantum physics, research into other dimensions. They were sure that another existed, and spent most of their waking moments on it.

So she rarely saw them. But when she did, they always tried to make it up to her.

Ruby didn’t blame them. She just didn’t like feeling like an accident. Like an impulsive decision they later regretted, but can’t drop.

Her half sister made up for their absence. Yang was really a trooper, making sure her younger sister stayed entertained.

Then her mother went missing.

It hit her dad like a tanker. It hit Yang even worse.

They weren’t sure if it was the portal Summer had been working on with Tai, or the Grimm. It could’ve been anything.

Ruby couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it.

So on the day that her dad, wallowing in his grief, saw them off to a road trip with their uncle Qrow, Ruby lied that she forgot her plushie and dashed down to the lab.

What would a thirteen year old be doing in a lab, she didn’t know either. But she found the portal, mashed about every button she could find…

And she died.

It was subliminal.

Last thing she saw was a lime green burst of light.

Her world warped into colours she didn’t even know existed. Shades that she’d never experienced before.

Her mind couldn’t quite place any of it. She was sure that it was red, but she couldn’t tell what kind of red. It wasn’t any pink, purple, or…

Then she saw Summer.

It was for a {moment / eternity}.

It’s as if she [didn’t see her mother at all / saw her mother for way too long].

Her eyes [must / couldn't] have been mistaken.

She was there.

When Ruby woke up again, she couldn’t hear anything but screams. Howls of anguish and pain rang out in her ears, the whipping of strong gales billowing out from behind her.

She grabbed the sides of her head, clamping her ears shut, but the sounds penetrated anyway, tearing her brain in two.

Ruby screamed. She screamed so loud, but she couldn’t even hear herself.

She kept screaming and screaming, hoping that the noises would stop.

She heard screeches, cries for help. Millions of voices trying to pry her head open, to crawl in, to infest her soul. To take over.

But something stopped them. Each time, the voice was ended with a passing remark. Eventually, it grew cacophonous, as every voice said the same thing, all in sync.

She is one of us.

Then they all stopped abruptly.

A million voices, ceasing their screaming.

It let her hear that footsteps were making their way down the stairs.

Her dad—Ruby longed for the comfort of his open arms. Sure, she’d probably gotten herself into some big trouble, but—

The man wore a suit similar to a spacesuit as he descended. In his hands, a menacing blaster.

Ruby opens her mouth to say anything, anything at all, to tell her dad she just wanted to find her mom, how she managed to see her—

She shudders as she stares down the barrel of the blaster, aimed right at her forehead.

The words that leave her dads mouth send chills down her spine as he growls:

“What did you do to my daughter, you paranormal piece of shit?!”

Ruby finds a newfound ability to fly, as her cowering form kicks off the ground and into the air. She keeps going, higher and higher, body tensed and too scared to look back.

She doesn’t even try to dodge the wall above her head. Something in her body told her that she’d be able to phase right through.

And she did.

As she flies through the roof of her house, she finds the strength to look around.

The island of Patch was covered in a thin film of some neon green goo. And walking around the grounds were faces so unfamiliar and dressed so oddly they might as well be phantoms.

The realisation hits Ruby like a freight train. Her flight destabilises, and she goes hurtling through the air.

She crashes into her mother’s grave.

If she could see ghosts, if every hypothetical question she just asked herself was true.

Ruby clutches the gravestone and looks around the forest.

It’s as empty as it used to, besides the faint neon green glow that everything has now.

Her hands phase through the grave, as if nothings there. She realises that she’s floating inside the ground, every single object once solid now like air.

It’s too much. Ruby crumples onto her knees, rolling into a fetal position.

How will she get home? Does she have a life anymore?

Is she even alive?

She hyperventilates. Her heart is slamming into her rib cage, threatening to break free.

She doesn’t even know if she had a heart anymore, but the panic just keeps coursing through her very being, shaking her very soul…

“Rueben.”

Ruby instinctively flinches. No one’s called her that since she, well, was Rueben.

“Calm down.”

She doesn’t know where the voice is coming from, but it’s request seems literally insane. How is she going to—

“You’re going to have to trust me. Do you want to be stuck like this for the rest of your life?”

Ruby chokes. It’s right. She doesn’t want to.

“Think of it like this. You’re a superhero now. Didn’t you always want to be a superhero, Rueben?”

She doesn’t like that name one bit, but she tries to steel her nerves. If it’ll stop her, if it’ll make things right again…

Ruby feels a hand on her back. It—it can touch her?

“You’re lucky I found you when I did. Took me years to return to my human form, you know that?”

Someone else? In the same predicament as her? It couldn’t be.

Yang’s mom, who’d gone missing all those years ago, was brought in for her portal abilities. She turned out to be alive, but never came back for Yang.

Why was she helping her now?

Raven notices that Ruby’s heartbeat is slowing, her glowing form ceasing its pulsating glow for a more steady one.

“You can’t tell anyone about this. Your father, the filthy liar that he is, will have your head and mount it on his wall,” Raven spits spitefully. “Like some sort of twisted trophy.”

“But you may return as your human self. Your body will remember how to swap once you’ve done it once. But be careful, for if they discover your true identity…”

“You can say goodbye to your sanity. Death doesn’t compare to the limbo those idiot scientists will put you through.”

Ruby’s breath hitches. If she really was right, then she really couldn’t take any chances.

She doesn’t remember what happened next. All she knew is that she cried herself to sleep. And when her father found her the next day, balled up next to her mothers grave, he spoke nothing of her road trip abandonment, nor his experience with a spectre that looked eerily like her.

All Ruby knows is that, over that summer, she became Patch’s only defence against the ghosts she herself unleashed.

She became the Scarlet Spectre.

Chapter Text

“And when you are done, Weiss, you are to continue your vocal practices. Now make it snappy, will you?” 

“Yes, father,” Weiss nods obediently, running off to say goodbye to her sister, her only respite in her torturous household. 

Winter notices her little sister’s approach and smiles fondly, patting her sister on her head. 

Weiss frowns. “Must you really go?” 

Winter nods. “It’s the final step in my Huntress training—to be mentored by a true Huntsman on a field mission. I just wish I could bring you along…” 

“Father would have your head, Winter. Or worse,” Weiss mutters dejectedly. 

Winter laughs softly. “I doubt it. Although…you are in…the ninth grade now, correct?” 

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Weiss grumbles. “You won’t take too long, will you?” 

“I’ll try to keep it brief. Considering my handler, however…” 

“Ms Schnee, you should get going,” Klein says softly. “It’s best to not keep Mr Branwen waiting.” 

“Come on, Ice Queen! You wanna be a Huntress or not?” Qrow bangs on the door of his motor home. Winter rolls her eyes. 

“I’m coming, you drunk bastard! Shut up and wait, will you?” Winter snaps. 

She turns back to Weiss, a gentler expression on her face. “Go now; you’ve got vocal practice, don’t you? Klein will see you in.” 

As Weiss turns around dejectedly, Klein joins her side. 

“Young Ms Schnee, a parcel came for you. It’s on your table.” 

Weiss walks briskly to her room, curiosity piqued. She didn’t remember ordering anything…

A small wooden box, nestled on her table. 

She clicks open the lock and peers inside. 

A piece of paper sits upon a bed of cloth. Weiss brings it up to the light, reading its contents aloud: 

“You are…the Ninja?” 

Weiss raises an eyebrow. “Is this Klein’s idea of a prank?” 

She puts the piece of paper aside, lifting the mask underneath. It shimmers with a faint red light. 

She puts the mask aside as well, folding it neatly. Below that was a book, pulsing with a stronger red glow. 

“The Ninja Nomicon?” 

Weiss lifts it gingerly, prying open the pages. The book flips open on its own, rising from Weiss’ hands—and then, in a blinding flash of light, knocks her out cold, her head slamming into the open book as they both collapse onto the ground. 

Weiss blinks awake. 

She was falling. 

Wind was whipping past her ears. She glances around. 

The world seemed made of canvas and watercolour, words sprawling about in ancient writing. Water gushes from cliffs, looking right out of a Japanese traditional painting. 

“Unf—” Weiss slams into the ground with stupendous force, the ground bursting open like paper. She spins around, now face towards the ground. She falls through doorways, corridors, dojos, and more, all by smashing right through. 

She’s sent to a abrupt halt with the back of her head impacting on solid rock. She gasps, trying desperately to get air into her lungs. 

A paintbrush paints words in the sky. 

Believe in the weapon that is in the suit. 

Weiss blinks. Surely she cannot hallucinate this. 

She isn’t. The words don’t leave. 

Her mouth opens, raspy words leaving her dry lips. 

“…what’s that supposed to mean?” 

The ground caves in at her acknowledgment. She falls again. 

And awakes, as if someone’s splashed water in her face. 

There’s a pounding at her door. 

“Weiss Schnee! If you don’t open the door this instant—insolent brat, disobeying your father, are you?” 

Weiss tries to stand, but her feet are a little wobbly. How long was she out for? 

Jacques gets mad easily. She doesn’t like it when he flares out like this, because it always ends poorly for her. It’s best she answer quickly, but she must’ve been passed out for hours on end.

What kind of father doesn’t care that their daughter has passed out? 

No, it’s her fault. She never should have opened the weird book in the first place—

Her father is seething, literally scratching at the door. She can hear his heavy breathing from here. 

The sounds he makes go from angry to guttural, animalistic noises. A roar, then incoherent babbling.

Then his hand smashes through the door, clawed and twisted, and yanks the wood off its hinges. 

Weiss steps back, legs still shaking, but this time from fear. This wasn’t her father. 

It was nine feet tall, built like a polar bear. Its pupiless eyes bug out of its head, both focused on Weiss and shaking with rage. 

Ew. 

The mask on the table pulses bright red, catching her attention. 

It’s surprising what people would do when offered to save their sorry hides. 

Weiss plunges her face into the mask.

Nothing. 

Jacques pulls closer still, claws scratching on the carpet, ripping them apart. Weiss gulps. 

It sniffs, closing the distance in one large step. 

Weiss watches as it pulls back, ready to lunge forward and maul her to bits. 

A warm sensation. Ribbons flutter over her skin, snapping and stretching into a cohesive suit. A long, blue one wraps around her neck like a fashionable scarf. 

More ribbons wrap up her neck, arms, and outstretched palms. 

Jacques leaps forward. 

Weiss socks him in the face. 

The impact stops him in his tracks, body folding into itself as the fist connects. He then tumbles backwards, landing on his back. 

Weiss cusses under her breath as the beast flips itself back over again. Here’s to hoping it’d be quick…

She realises that she can’t stop the words she heard in that book from echoing in her head. They’re almost emerging in the air around her. 

Believe in the weapon that is in the suit.

Kicking the wall behind her, spikes emerge from the bottom of her soles. 

Nodding approvingly, Weiss scales the wall as her father attempts to follow her, then leaps off it with an acrobat’s grace and precision. 

A strike to his skull, then a boot to his cheek. 

She’s surprised by how good it feels. 

Land on the ground, bend knees, kick back up into the air before the creature has the chance to strike. 

It’s like dancing. 

Spin around gracefully, cleanly dodge a swing. 

Counter when the opponent is vulnerable with a jab to the eye. 

A kick to the chin while they’re reeling. 

Tackle when it exposes its underbelly. 

Dash through the stained glass window. 

Spin around so it’s body cushions your fall. 

Misjudge it’s relentless vigour, get smashed into the dirt instead. 

Weiss groans as Jacques grabs her head in his jagged claws, hissing. 

“Insolent…brat…” 

He slams her into the ground, leaving a crater. 

His claws dig into her flesh through the mask. 

Another slam. Weiss’ head hits rock. 

A toss into the side of the manor. Spine connects with brick. 

Weiss chokes and spits out bile. 

A hand around her waist. 

She’s snapped around a pillar, her spine cracking dangerously. 

Gripping futilely at thin air, Weiss watches as her father’s now-overgrown moustache pulsates with a disgusting green glow. 

If she didn’t already have puke in her mouth, she’d have more, as she stares down his gaping jaws. 

The smell is rank. 

The claws tighten around her waist, forcing the air out of her lungs and stabbing into her stomach. 

Weiss can feel it dig into her skin. It’s constricting, but the suit stops anything from penetrating. At least she hopes so. 

Another claw rakes across her left eye, digging into the unprotected flesh and grinding against her skull. Blood oozes out and coats her skin. 

Weiss can’t find the breath to scream. 

Ironic. She was supposed to have the breath to sing for hours on end. 

She’d really failed her father. 

Believe in the weapon? She’s not a weapon. She’s nothing close to it. 

If believing in oneself is the first step to becoming the Ninja, then she isn’t worthy. 

She’ll go down in history as another failure, another sorry rich girl who—

Her hand grips onto something behind her back. 

Peeking out from her scarf—her hand grasps a hilt. 

Her fingers close around the cool leather. 

Find your inner strength, Ninja.

She takes a deep breath in, ignoring the stench.

Strike! 

Weiss closes her working eye and swings, cleaving off the claws holding her in place. 

“I’ll be honest, father.” 

She opens her eye, blazing with fervour. 

“I never liked your moustache.” 

And in one fluid motion, cleaves it off. 

Jacques shrinks into himself, monstrous flesh absorbing into his body. Soon, it’s just a man, curled up, passed out. 

Weiss lurches back to her room, yanks off her mask, and shuts the door. 

Her eye might never heal. It may scar, at best. But her vision is permanently gone. 

Did she care? No. 

Her heart wouldn’t stop thumping. 

Using her good eye, she pores over article upon article all over Remnant. 

The title gains newfound meaning. 

She was the Ninja. Remnants one and only. 

Although, she could use a more fitting title to go with her scarf. 

…the Cobalt Crusader has a nice ring to it

Chapter Text

Adam’s hand closes around hers. 

“Are you nervous, Blake?” 

She nods. This was a dangerous surgery, especially considering that he thought of it on his own. But the Galvan scientist decided that he’d be good to continue anyway. 

“It’s alright. Azmuth is the greatest mind in three galaxies. He knows what he’s doing.” 

The Galvan sighs. “I simply told you I had an unstable Galvanic Mechamorph core which I could attempt to fuse with your body to give you new abilities. I didn’t say success was guaranteed.” 

Adam laughs. “But nothing’s guaranteed, right? That’s expected.” 

“You’re not wrong.” Azmuth can’t help but agree. “But I do warn you, if anything goes wrong, you have to come to me as fast as possible for containment. I’m still synthesizing the stabiliser helix.” 

“Noted. I’ll keep that in mind.” 

Looking at his grinning face, Blake can’t help but feel a pang in her heart. She smiles fondly. 

 What an idiot. How could she have fallen in love with him? 

She blinks. 

“Blake. Are you listening to me?” Adam growls. “Move. We don’t have all day.” 

She gulps as Adam’s spindly form ambles by her, the mutated bull Faunus sporting sickly yellow Mechamorph patterns. His Mechamorph eye blinks. 

“Get on the bed. And we could be together. Stronger. Shed your worthless flesh.” 

Blake stares at the mattress, the canisters, filled with some incessantly vibrating Nanites. 

She hooks herself up to it, wincing as she stabs the tubes into her own skin. 

She loved him, after all.

Enough to forget about everything else that she loved. 

Everything else that loved her back. 

Her eyelids flutter open. 

Everything’s foggy in her head. She doesn’t remember anything. 

A man at the bedside. He looks disgusting, grotesque. Freak of nature. 

Adam. 

That’s her lover. She loves him. She shouldn’t think about him in that way. 

He raises a slender finger, plunging his whole skeletal hand into her chest. 

Unlike his touch normally, it enters her body, interacting with the nanites within. 

She chokes as he fills her lungs, her gullet, gasping desperately for air. It was like drowning, as her systems were flooded with him. 

But he kept her heart beating, pried her mouth open so she could breathe. 

She should be thankful. 

The half-Faunus infests her body from the inside.

He uses her lungs as his own, fixing his shaky, uneven breathing. 

He uses her organs, because his were failing. 

She’d do anything for him. This wasn’t any different. 

It didn’t stop it from hurting. 

But she shut her mouth and let him. 

She loved him, after all. 

Enough to surrender her very body to him. 

For his vision.

Blake stumbles around weakly. She can feel her stomach churning. 

She’s deathly pale, nothing but skin on her bones. Her heart was almost rotting from what Adam was putting her through. 

But the nanites just wouldn’t let her die. 

Her flesh falters and stops, just to be jolted back again. 

She wants nothing more than to claw out her own heart and bleed out in a pool on the ground. 

Death would be so welcome. 

But she can’t. She has to stay strong, for him. 

He needs her to survive. That’s what he keeps saying. 

Who is she to deny him that? 

She loved him, after all. 

Even as the flesh peels off her bones. 

Her heart beats for him, and only him. 

It hurts too much to keep going. 

The nanites, they wreck and tear at her skin. They breach her flesh, ripping away and creating amalgamations of their own design. 

Without him, she couldn’t control them. 

She thrashes against the icy cold steel of whatever it was that they chained her down to. 

Suffocating, drowning in agony as the nanites wreak havoc on her insides. 

Wrenching her body into pieces. 

As much as she tries to resist, it doesn’t work. 

“I should’ve expected this from you.” 

His voice. 

What? Why would he say that? 

She was strong, she was doing this for him, doing it all for him. 

Was she still not enough? 

What more did he want? 

No. No more. 

She’s got nothing to prove to him. 

She’s got nothing to gain from hurting. 

He’s nothing but a worthless parasite. 

She’s his host. But she’s more than that. 

She won’t take more suffering from him. 

The nanites heed her wishes. 

The growths take shape, take form. 

They hear her screams, her rage.

Neon blue circuit patterns form on her wrists. 

The shackles slide open obediently. 

“Hold on—it’s working. She’s controlling them. Can you hear me, Blake—”

She doesn’t want to.

The nanites condense around her hand. They build; lumpy growths turning into smooth steel. 

Something to translate her anger into, something she can use to vent her frustration. 

Blake sits up and batters Adam into the wall with a humongous metal fist. 

She turns to the scientist, eyes pure white. 

The fist opens with the shrill grinding of steel scratching against itself. 

She grabs him by the body and pounds his head into the wall so hard that it splatters to bits. Bits of his brain and blood go splattering onto her face. 

Serves him right. 

The nanites keep going as her fury festers, coating her legs, body, and head until Faunus is no more.

Blake hammers Adam into the ground over and over again, taking no notice of his choked screams. 

Then she peels open the doors and continues her rampage. 

She can’t remember the rest. 

When she wakes up again, she’s in nothing but a medical gown. 

Blood drips down her hands and face. It’s warm and fresh. 

Blake knows it isn’t hers. 

Her backpack is nestled in the grass beside her. She reaches for it, pulling out whatever could count as clothing. 

Her body thrummed with a technological buzz. 

It seems the nanites have accepted her after all. 

She won’t listen to anyone else. 

She’s nobody’s pawn. 

She’s the Revolution. 

Chapter Text

“Crummy summer vacation this was…and my little sister had to ditch me too…” 

Yang stuffs her hands into her pants pockets, grumbling in disappointment. 

First her little sister suddenly no-shows, then her supposedly cool uncle has to bring along some lame-o Schnee along for his “registered Huntsman duty” and forces them to go camping? 

Seriously?

She wades through the forest, eyes flickering between the trees. Yang isn’t stupid. She knows there are Grimm rampant in these woods. 

But she also knows that she’s strong enough to ward them off, so even if they come, she’s golden. 

Something in the sky twinkles. 

Yang looks up lazily. “A shooting star,” she cheers nonchalantly. “Yahoo. I wish this stupid vacation will stop making me want to tear my hair out in sheer boredom.” 

Her eyes narrow, eyebrows furrowing. 

Did it just change trajectory midair?

Eyes widening, she stumbles backwards. There’s no fucking way. 

It didn’t just change trajectory. 

It was headed right for her. 

And she’s watched Alien before. Yang knows that’s never good. 

Scrambling backwards, Yang trips over a root, falling on her back with a thump. She grimaces. 

“I always knew I was pretty, but I never expected myself to be the first in those horror movies to die!” Yang screams out, covering her eyes with her arms as she watches the meteor hurtle towards the earth. 

She puts her hands down to peek. It’s taking awfully long. 

Yang’s met with a face full of dirt as it collides with the ground, sending turf and earth everywhere and leaving a crater on impact. 

Spitting the dirt out from her mouth, she decides, against all inhibitions and common sense, to investigate. 

You only live once. 

A large orb, patterned with markings. The sphere looks expectantly alien, since it did come from outer space, after all. 

As Yang draws closer to the crater, the soft earth caves in around her feet, causing her to slide in and even closer to the ball. 

Fuck. No, she’s really the first one to die in the horror movie now. She hasn’t even written a will yet.

Tentatively, she extends her hand, fingers outstretched as they attempt to touch the sphere. 

It opens. 

Kneeling over the orb, Yang realises that something inside is glowing—some kind of…watch? 

A circular face with an hourglass shape inside, glowing green. Four smaller bumps on the bezel, all the same colour. A lengthy strap, if you could even call it that, houses white tubing and a singular green button. 

If she’s gonna die anyway, she might as well, Yang thinks to herself, reaching out her right hand to touch the extraterrestrial device. 

Then it unfurls and leaps onto her wrist. 

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!” she screeches, flailing her arm about uncontrollably, trying to fling it off like a huge insect. It doesn’t budge, seeming to grip onto her wrist even tighter. 

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck…” Yang mumbles, panic surging through her veins. 

“Uhh…okay, it’s not laying eggs in my hand, I don’t feel any penetration…” she wonders aloud. “And it’s not speaking to me and telling me to eat someone’s brains either…” 

“Maybe it’s cool alien fashion. They saw my swag from light years away and decided that I deserved this,” she concludes proudly. 

Some high-pitched beeping from behind her jolts her out of her thoughts. Yang turns around slowly, hands raised in the air in surrender. 

“Hey, I don’t want any trouble, alright? The swag ain’t worth it. If this belongs to you,” she says to the ominous red glow from the thicket, “I’ll be happy to give it back, aight?” 

Yang heard something begin charging up, then murmurs in a language that sounds nothing remotely close to human. Mechanical buzzing, then: 

“The Omnitrix can only be removed from its wearer upon death. Initiating retrieval protocol.” 

Her eyes widen in panic. Gods, they want the swag so bad? It’s unremovable swag, too? This must boost her charisma like crazy—not that she needed it. 

She doesn’t get another stupid thought in before the drone flies out from the cover and fires a laser right in between her eyes. 

Yang doesn’t react fast enough. 

But the Omnitrix does.

In a flash of green light, she’s transformed just as the laser connects and burns a hole through her skull. 

Her vision goes black, but she can still feel the ground beneath her feet—something is uncannily off. 

Then her vision returns, and Yang looks down at her legs. 

They’ve been replaced by multiple thick vines, like tree roots. They lead up to a now chartreuse green body, and a badge on her chest with the same symbol as the watch. 

Yang puts two and two together, and realises that it probably isn’t just alien swag. 

Her field of vision is smaller, too, like she only has one central eye. She glowers at the drone, her thin, vine-like fingers balling into fists. 

“Dude! That was my head! Do you know how much of my precious hair you could’ve damaged with that?” Yang yells towards the drone. She pulls her arm back, and swings at it. 

Her arm extends far beyond its usual reach, bursting a hole through the drone, and springs back to its usual length like a rubber band. 

Yang looks at her own hand, mildly surprised and concerned. 

Not rocket science, but she might just not be…human, anymore. 

She…walks, I presume, with her four vine tendril legs all the way back to the campsite where her uncle and weird extra were waiting. 

                               ~

First thing they tell you about becoming a Huntsman: Always be prepared. Grimm can come in all shapes and sizes, so you can’t ever be too sure what’s a Grimm and what isn’t. 

So when Winter sees this humanoid plant waddle onto the campsite and rummage through Yang’s makeup kit—for some reason—she instinctively reaches for the fire extinguisher and bashes it in the head. 

It splatters all over the walls of Qrow’s dinky motor home, and her strike leaves a dent in the wall. 

The body doesn’t drop to the ground. It just stands there. 

Then its head grows back. 

“Hey, Winter! Look, I know it’s hard to believe—“ 

She smashes its head in again. 

“—but it’s me, Yang. Seriously. I don’t know if I’m permanently stuck like this, but I’ve been like this for ten minutes already—please put the fire extinguisher down…” 

Winter hesitantly lowers her bludgeoning weapon. It hasn’t attacked anyone so far…

“Prove it.” 

“P-prove it?! Bitch, you don’t even know me! What telltale factor would you have to run off of?” Yang sputters out. “How the fuck am I supposed to ‘prove it’?” 

Winter sighs. That’s the noisy girl alright. The bigger question is… “How?”

Yang grimaces, sucking air through her teeth. “Okay, you might want to pull up a chair for this one…”

                                ~

“You took it? Why would you touch it?” 

“You’re not serious.” 

“Who in their right mind—it saved you from dying, is that right?” 

Yang simply continues explaining as Winter constantly exclaims arbitrarily. Qrow stumbles back onto the campsite, carrying logs of firewood, just in time to see Yang’s Omnitrix beep red and flash her back into human. 

He pulls up a seat as well. 

“So, as far as I’ve gathered, this thing’s got some life-saving function. It switched me into that plant monster when I was about to die to some laser drone,” Yang summarises. “It’s also got a time-out feature, and back then it was recharging.” 

“Not a monster. Alien,” Qrow corrects her, much to two quizzical stares. “I mean, you said it fell from outer space, yeah?” 

Yang nods, pulling up her arm to inspect the Omnitrix. She taps the green button on it, causing the dial to pop up. 

She glances over to Winter and Qrow, who both seem a little hesitant. “Yang, maybe reconsider—”

Her hand slams down the core, and Yang feels the same feeling surge through her veins. Her body changes and grows, spine cracking and bending forward.

Yang’s hands plant onto the ground, her legs shortening. Her already-big mouth expands as her skull extends into a reptilian shape. Gills tear open on the sides of her neck as her skin turns shades of bright blue. 

“Okay, this is a new one. I thought that it was just going to be plant dude again,” Yang muses, checking out her new quadrupedal form. 

Winter draws her head back slightly in disgust. “Blue…big…lizard.” 

Yang spins around as she hears a familiar beeping.

“Uh, kid, those big gills, yeah? Try taking a…big ol’ breath,” Qrow offers cautiously, following Yang’s gaze towards the drone. “My gut is telling me that those things have to be useful for something on land.” 

Yang is starting to get a little suspicious about the amount her uncle seems to know as she follows along, letting out a blast of concentrated cryonic energy at the drone. 

The drone smashes onto the ground, shattering into shards. 

“Ha! That the best you got, ya bucket of bolts?” Yang proclaims pridefully, laughing. “It’ll take a lot more than that to defeat me!” 

More frantic beeping, then Yang watches as multiple lasers train onto her extended lizard forehead. 

She gulps. “Hey, easy now, I don’t think the refreshment reptile has regeneration…” 

“The Omnitrix can only be removed from its wearer upon death. Initiating retrieval protocol,” the drones echo. 

Winter picks up her rapier, resting the hilt on her palm. “I may not necessarily enjoy Yang’s presence, but if you’re threatening a person’s life, then I will have to step in.” 

She struts forward calmly as the drones switch their targets onto her forehead. She taps her blade on the ground. 

“First lesson of Huntsman training…always be ready.” 

Winter leaps forward, ducking under the initial wave of gunfire. Her boots leave skid marks onto the ground as she slashes upward from under one drone, then uses the momentum to spin and cleave apart two more. 

A drone manages to get a clear shot on her, but Winter reacts with ample speed, creating a glyph right beside her skull. The bullet ricochets and blasts open its sender. 

Two more train onto her back, but Yang, desperate to not have her spotlight stolen, freezes them both with another pulse of ice. 

“Thanks. But I had those,” Winter remarks scornfully, her nose wrinkling up in the air. “I didn’t need your disgusting creature breath on my jacket.” 

Yang is a little too awestruck to really object, so she just stands there in silence and nods. 

                              ~

“C’mon, kids. Yang, stop fiddling with the watch. You’re going to cause a catastrophe, especially with me around,” Qrow nags. “Let’s head back toward the other campers. Don’t intend on sleeping here tonight, do you?” 

Yang groans but piles into the Rust Bucket anyway, tossing her duffel onto the top bunk. 

Winter takes a seat in the front seat besides Qrow as he drives, flipping through the Huntsman manual once more. 

“You ever put that down, Ice Queen?” Qrow comments.

Winter rolls her eyes. “I’m checking, once again, if I am able to report you for bringing me along for a road trip of all things.” 

Qrow opens his mouth to fire back, but he cuts himself off as something crashes nearby his windshield. He slams his foot down onto the brakes, the Rust Bucket skidding sideways to a stop. 

Yang goes flying from her seat on the floor and hits the window uncomfortably. 

“What in the ever-loving fuck…?” Qrow’s jaw hangs open as he sprints out of the motorhome and looks up. 

A massive drone, a hundred times the size of the ones they’ve seen. It’s stomping around on its four appendages, scanning for someone—or something. 

It grabs cars and caravans, upturning them before tossing them aside. Yang and Winter step out to investigate, but Qrow quickly ushers them back inside. 

“Unc, we both know what that thing is after! It’s hurting innocent people!” Yang protests. “Look around. I’m the only one capable of stopping this thing!” 

Qrow shakes his head aggressively. “I’m a full-time Huntsman, and I’m not even challenging that behemoth. We’ve got no idea how tough that hide of its is, let alone—”

“Fuck that!” Yang snaps. “It doesn’t matter! If it gives people time to evacuate, then we’ve done our job! I’ve got to have some hyper-endurance guy in here or something!” 

“You stubborn piece of shit—you do realise that you’re giving up a device filled to the brim with power to—where are you going?!” Qrow reprimands, but Yang is already shoving past him and out the doorway. 

She activates her Omnitrix, looking the mega-drone dead in the eye as she screams her battle cry, “Hey, motherfucker! Down here!” 

“Pick on someone your own damn size, fucknut,” she growls, slamming down the dial with as much force as she can muster. 

She feels her bones begin to melt away, her whole body reduced to a pool. Millions of tiny minds and voices synchronise as circuit patterns form on her body. Her head becomes featureless except for a singular optic circle. 

With no regard for self-preservation, she charges forward, striking at its feet. Her hand breaks apart and dissipates before it reforms, dealing…absolutely no damage. 

A fist descends from the sky and squelches her into the ground, before picking her up and tossing her at the Rust Bucket. 

Qrow, still visibly pissed, grabs his niece by the nape of her Galvanic Mechamorph neck and sneers at her. “Don’t solve all of your fucking problems with punching, shit-for-brains. Think outside the box.” 

He then drops her to help Winter evacuate the campers. 

Yang’s eye furrows angrily. Really helpful, Unc! Think outside the box? She could have thought of that! 

Her frustration builds into concentrated rage as she finds herself able to fire an optic laser from her eye, striking the drone in its centre and knocking it slightly off-balance. 

As if her energy had been released, Yang finds herself…surprisingly calmer. Calm enough to notice that her vision is more of a technological scanner, causing some objects to shine with a green hue. 

Machinery, she realises. Toasters. Blenders. Cars. 

As the robot blasts her location with a laser of its own, Yang leaps at some random family’s SUV, and wills herself to bond to it. 

Circuit patterns form throughout the car’s exterior as Yang feels herself merge with the inner workings of the vehicle. The engines rev, now souped-up and more powerful than ever. 

“Aww yeah!”

Yang gives a spinning start, the car moving left and right as she builds up momentum, before she rushes forward, creating a ram attachment, and collides with the drone’s feet once more. 

“Booyah!” she cheers.

The ‘bot stumbles, but rips the roof right off. Yang yelps in pain. Never mind, that hurt like shit.

Think…outside the box? 

She u-turns away from the drone, scanning the area. The campsite sits at the bottom of a round cliff, with one hill leading up. 

After some quick estimation, Yang realises that she could probably nail the drone in the head and short-circuit it from there. 

She accelerates, leaving burnt rubber on the turf as she rockets up the hill. Cranking the wheel, Yang drifts a ninety-degree turn and rockets off the cliff, headed straight for the drone’s cranium. 

Winter and Qrow shove a few campers out of the way of Yang’s joyride, but a man trips, crashing onto the ground. 

Qrow dashes forwards, but skids to a halt as he hears the drone’s body creak and topple, headed straight for him and Winter. 

With one last apologetic look at the man, Qrow dives out of the way, tackling Winter onto the ground. 

Yang scans the area below as she plummets towards the ground, having abandoned her ride. 

Her eye widens.

The drone collapses, crushing the man under its massive weight. 

As Yang de-transforms and collides with the dirt, blood goes splattering onto her body. 

Her breaths hasten, her heartbeat accelerating. No. She can still save him, she just needs to act fast—Yang tears at the machinery, ripping chunk after chunk of alien metal out. Please. 

It’s her fault. She should’ve just merged with the robot, or chosen anything less flashy, she—

Qrow places a hand on her back. “Kiddo, there’s…something they don’t teach you…anywhere. It’s about being the hero.” 

“Sometimes, you just can’t save everybody. For a rookie, you did really well.” 

Yang’s breath hitches. 

You can’t save everyone. 

But you have to remember that you still have to try. 

That day, when an alien device did what it did, Yang became a myriad of alien superheroes, all with different names and identities. 

But they shared a consciousness. 

The brilliant mind…of Yang 10.

Chapter Text

Blake curses under her breath. 

Absolutely not. The women’s section in this mall is atrocious. She’s not buying that.

She's not buying anything, per se, but if she’s going to risk stealing something, then she’s going to make sure it looks good, and not make her look like a stripper. 

Strutting into the men’s section, she finds what she’s looking for. Sleeveless shirt, orange jacket. Better than the tattered shirt shes got on, but she quite likes the neon blue patterned leggings and her goggles. 

Blake stuffs the clothing into her backpack. She won’t risk changing here, not with all these staff around. 

She just needs to get up and leave, now. Don’t cause a scene, and don’t kill anyone she doesn’t need to. No blood needs to be shed. 

Duck behind a few clothes racks. Inch closer to the exit. Big strides, quiet steps, don’t draw any attention to yourself—

“Excuse me, ma’am. Are you going to pay for those?” a clerk asks sweetly. 

She’d forgotten to zip her bag, in her haste. 

Blake can’t kill her. It’ll be way too much of a scene, even if she injected her nanites into the man and detonated them. Too many witnesses. 

So she books it. Blake sprints out of the store, her burst of speed immediately putting distance between her and the clerk. He hastily makes chase, but she’s used to being on the run in the off chance that he’s able to find her. 

She flips over a banister and lands on the escalator to the lower levels, hitting her back on the sharp steps. Nothing her nanites can’t heal, Blake thinks as she hurriedly picks herself up and continues to leg it. 

Slide underneath the open legs of mall security, spinning to kick one in the crotch. 

That’s a woman, never mind. 

Blake flips to her feet leaps off the railings again, landing on the anti-suicide safety nets and hopping onto the ground, rolling into a ball to dissipate the impact force. 

She can see the exit now. They won’t find her. She’ll just hack into their security systems and wipe all trace. 

Nothing is fast enough to catch her. The nanites know how to beat her heart faster, to make her muscles push with more force. She’s gotten used to compensating for his needs. 

She has to begrudgingly change “nothing” to “no human” as she’s blasted from the side with a forcible deluge of water. 

Blake goes slamming into a store’s wall. She looks up, only to be met with the smug grin of a mechanic-esque crustacean creature. It’s shell is maroon red and extends as a hood over its head, which bears four neon grin slits as eyes. A badge on its chest bears an hourglass symbol, black and lime green.

“Those clothes aren’t even worth ten bucks, man,” the creature seems to laugh at her. “The shop had a buy one get one free deal, and you still had to go and steal it?” 

The nanites hum—at first she assumed it was out of annoyance, due to her emotions. Then Blake realised that they had detected technology. 

Maybe this watery hazard was a little more EVO than she first thought. 

Blake jumps to her feet, kicking the fireman lobster in the chest and knocking it backwards. She grabs onto the badge on its chest, intent on ripping it out, but the nanites have other plans. 

She wants this prawn dead. 

And the only way for that to happen is… 

The hourglass lime green section of the badge suddenly beeps alarmingly loud, then flashes bright green. 

When Blake regains her vision again, she realises that she‘s palming the middle of a blonde girl’s busty chest, while a device on her wrist continues its agonising beeping. 

Panicked, the girl lifts her arm to check on the watch, and Blake’s eyes follow. Two orange strips have appeared on the ends of the hourglass, constantly blinking on and off. 

“Omnitrix self-destruct sequence activated. Unable to authorise. Activating full charge mode.” 

The blonde blinks her lilac eyes in alarm, frowning deeply. “What does…full charge mode do, necessarily?” 

“When full charge mode is activated, it can only be turned off by entering the authorization code. All foreign matter attempting to enter the Omnitrix will no longer be able to, as the device charges up to explode.” 

“Ex-explode?” the blonde sputters out. “H-how big?” 

“Estimated explosion size…forty-six billion light-years in all directions. Or in simple terms…” 

Blake’s eyes widen. 

“…the entire universe.” 

                                ~

“Why are you still following me?” Yang sputters out angrily at the long black-haired girl who has insisted on tailing her ever since she somehow set the Omnitrix on track to blow up absolutely fucking everything. “Let me guess, you wanna accelerate the fucking countdown or something?” 

“Look, I—I’m sorry, first and foremost,” Blake speaks up as they casually walk out of the mall, all previous gripes about her theft case out the window. “I didn’t know that it would—”

Yang sighs, burying her head in her hands. She slams her fist into the wall, cracking it slightly. “Sorry isn’t going to fix anything, you son of a bitch! You understand it said the entire fucking universe, right? The universe? That’s where I live! No, where fucking everyone lives!” 

She raises the Omnitrix to get a good look at it, gauging if she can scrape a few uses out, maybe go Mechamorph and deactivate it. Oh, wait, she can’t. Because some fucker…

“I’m going to kill you,” Yang mutters, turning around and jabbing Blake in the ribs. Blake gasps, stumbling back a few feet. “And maybe the stupid fucking watch will magically deactivate on its own! Because I don’t know how the fuck I’m supposed to enter the authorisation code into an alien watch!” 

Blake clutches her chest, her interest piqued. She knows that she has to help, somehow, but no tampering with the watch can be done anymore. But an authorisation code…she probably knows someone who can figure it out. 

Greatest mind in six galaxies, or something. 

“I might know someone,” Blake says to cut through the tension. “He’s really, really smart. And he could probably fix whatever it is and save the universe.” 

Yang’s eyes narrow in disbelief. “And why should I randomly trust you? That the random Faunus stealing thrift shop clothing somehow knows someone who can fix this? That’s bullshit!” 

“Well, what other fucking choice do you have, twinkle tits?” Blake fires back, voice laced with anger. “For the record, I’m perfectly fine with the universe fucking dying. It can all go to shit! But this is your fault, ain’t it? Stepping up and trying to be the hero with fucking crab man over here?” 

Yang can barely sputter out a reply. This fucking— 

“And look, hot-shit. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I’ll bring you to where that fucker is, he can fix your shit. But you have to help me—or more necessarily him—solve something first, alright?” Blake continues. “He’s got a problem with his freako mutant. One of them went rogue. You fix or fuck up that guy, he’ll be more than happy to fix the damn watch for you, okay?” 

She has a point. Yang truly is out of options. 

Usually, Yang would’ve snapped—tearing into Blake and insulting basically everything she stood for. 

But it’s been a long summer. She's learnt a lot—from Qrow, from Winter, and especially from her escapades and heroics. 

Biggest lesson was how to swallow your pride and get something done and over with for the greater good. 

She has to start doing that sometime, so Yang takes a deep breath in and slowly turns to look Blake in the eyes. 

“…alright. Deal. How do we get to your guy?” 

                                ~

Blake hums quietly as Yang busies herself at the wheel, looking out onto the road. 

“What were you going to do if I couldn’t drive?” Yang asks, making a right turn. 

Blake shrugs. “Hack the car. Shouldn’t have been all too difficult.” 

“Take a turn on the next left,” she continues, guiding Yang. Blake remembers these roads. She had to walk past them on her bare feet. 

She definitely isn’t looking forward to the concept of visiting the place she took so much trouble escaping, but if Yang is as powerful as she lets on, then she could be rid of him for good. 

She could sleep at night without thinking about the feeling of him invading her insides. Eating away at her organs like a parasite. Blake shudders involuntarily. 

“Why would you steal those?” Yang comments, phrasing it less like a question and more like a statement. She wasn’t expecting Blake to reply. 

“Because I don’t have any money. And nobody wants to hire…” 

“A robot freak?” Yang questions. 

“…a Faunus,” Blake finishes, narrowing her eyes. She drums her fingers on the side door to a beat, humming a tune softly under her breath. 

Yang’s eyelid twitches. “Stop that. You’re throwing me off.” 

“Oh, you can handle conversation, but you can’t handle tappy taps. Good to know,” Blake mumbles sarcastically.

“Hey, if the guy—Azmuth—can fix your Omnitrix, what’s the first thing you’re going to do?” she inquires, leaning her head onto her gloved fist. “Parade around as big crab again, go give our free showers to the homeless like the big hero you are?” 

Yang pauses, letting the words sink in for a while, poring over each individual syllable. 

“…what did you just say?” Yang demands, turning to face Blake. 

“I said, what are you gonna do with that funny watch—”

“No, no. Before that.” 

“Oh. If Azmuth can fix your—”

“If? What do you mean, if? You lied to me—you don’t fucking know if he can fix it or not, do you?”  

She slams the brakes, causing Blake to get jolted out of her seat and caught by her seatbelt. 

Yang glowers at Blake incredulously, her mouth hanging open in slack-jawed disbelief. 

“Hey, look, the guy’s really smart, but nothing’s set in stone, right? I’m not lying,” Blake quickly replies, covering up her obvious fib. She can’t let her know that she can’t give a shit. Azmuth is smart, after all. “So, I made an educated wish that he could probably fix it for you. He’s a genius. He’ll surely find a way.” 

Yang pulls her fist back and decks Blake across the face, drawing blood from her nose. She readies to swing again, but Blake grabs on and grips onto her fist like a vice. 

“I said, I didn't lie!” Blake coughs out, using her other hand to wipe the dripping blood from her nose. She reaches down to her shirt, pulling up the fabric to reveal her bare skin.

The whole section is scarred red, an area the nanites have been too scared to fix. It’s where Adam frequented his invasion into her body, and the unpleasant marks throb and send pain jolting through her body with every breath. But she’s learnt to live with it. 

“This—was caused by the mutant I told you about. You want the truth? Then fine. I’ll tell you the truth, Goldilocks.” 

Blake hesitates, but another glance at Yang cements her options. 

“I’m an White Fang ex-member. I left when their leader, my ex, decided on full radicalism and turned himself into a faulty Mechamorph mutant and used me to keep himself alive. And he’s going to do the same to every other member of the White Fang if I don’t stop him.” 

“But that’s the problem. I can’t. He’s got some control over me left, and I physically can’t beat him. But you—with your organic alien monster creatures—you can. You can save all of them, and set the White Fang on the right track again.” 

“Pause,” Yang interrupts calmly, raising her hand. “If you’d come at me with this any other time, gotten my attention in any other way…I would’ve accepted your plea.”

She takes a deep breath in. 

“But you initiate a self-destruct for the whole universe, and our only shot at fucking fixing it, is relegated to your…what did you say? Your educated fucking wish?” 

Blake’s eyelid twitches in annoyance. Does she really have to repeat herself? “They call me many slurs, but they don’t call me Benevolent Blake, who always has everyone’s best interests at heart.” 

Yang breathes out heavily through gritted teeth. “…you know what?” she chuckles, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. Her eyebrows remain furrowed downwards. “You’re actually pathetic.” 

“In all my life, I’ve never seen someone be as much of a prick as you. You’re not just selfish—you’re literally so fucking narcissistic that you genuinely manipulate people into doing everything in your favour, and then you paint yourself as the victim. You’re nothing but an attention-starved, self-centred bitch—the biggest one I’ve met in my fucking life, and that’s saying a lot, because I’ve been to every bar in Vale, and tried to pick up every single soggy loser there.” 

“Do you know why your ex could manipulate you like that? Why he could use you like a toy? Because you were so thirsty for any form of attention that you’d willingly surrender your body to anyone like some kind of prostitute,” Yang concedes, the smirk on her face mocking, even though the rest of her face is incandescent with rage. “It’s one fucked-up joke by the Brother Gods that you haven’t died for your hubris—except that’s on all of us!” 

Blake goes silent for a solid few seconds. She looks back up to Yang, adjusting the goggles on her head down over her eyes.

She stares at Yang for another few seconds, then finally speaks up. “…I’m going to fight you now.”

Yang scoffs. “Oh, are you—”

Blake unbuckles her seatbelt and socks Yang across the face hard, drawing blood as it drops down her nose and onto Blake’s gloves.

“You don’t know fucking nothing about me, you blonde, entitled, son of a bitch,” she hisses, readying another fist.

Yang’s head shoots back from the impact, her nose spurting blood into Blake’s hand as she turns back towards her, grinning wide. Her eyes turn crimson. 

“Thats it?!” Yang laughs. “Come on, kitty!” she snarls as she grabs Blake by the collar. “I’ve had limp-dicked scientists hit harder than you!”

“I’m not even going to bother with the comebacks,” Blake coughs, socking Yang across the face again. “I just want to *fuck you up*.” 

Blake yowls as Yang slams her head into the radio with enough force to change the channels, putting on Chappell Roan’s Casual.

Yang growls like a dog, taking the hit like a champ, grinning wide with blood trickling down her mouth and onto her chin.

You said we’re not together…

Blake headbutts Yang square on the mouth.

So now when we kiss I have anger issues…

After Blake does so, Yang snarls, her eyes growing an even darker red at the impact. She’d made the mistake now, in Yang’s mind, of being up-close and personal. 

You said, “Baby, no attachment.” 

Grabbing the girl by the sides, Yang pushes Blake back, then smashes her head straight into Blake’s own.

But we’re…

Blake grunts in pain, gritting her teeth as she feels the bruise begin to form on her forehead. It’ll heal, surely. 

Knee deep in the passenger seat

She grinds her teeth together, unbuckling Yang’s seatbelt and leaping onto her from across the car. Her legs wrap around Yang’s waist as Blake yanks away fabric to bite Yang angrily on the shoulder, sinking her teeth into flesh.

And you’re eating me out,

Yang yelps as Blake sinks her teeth into Yang’s shoulder, her eyes going wide as she yelps in agony and grabs Blake’s hair with both hands, yanking hard, then shoving Blake hard.

She shoves Blake off, pushing her away.

Is it casual, now?

“Oh, fuck you!” Yang cries out in rage as she grips at her shoulder, which had a small chunk of it torn out. Her hair ignites into a golden blaze. “How does it feel now, you dumb cunt!? You bit off more than you could chew!”

“What’s wrong?” Blake pants, her mouth dripping with blood, a mix of her own and Yang’s. She instinctively licks her lips, tasting the metallic smell. “No sorry little Omnitrix to protect you anymore, because if you use it, you’ll just accelerate the self-destruct?” 

“Eat shit, twinkle tits!” she roars as she snags the seatbelt from behind Yang, attempting to strangle the blonde with it.

“Screw you!” Yang spits, the blood of the two mixing in a morbid way, her teeth clenched together.

“I don’t need the Omnitrix to kick your sorry ass!” she slams a hard fist into Blake’s ribs. Blake gasps for air, feeling a rib snap and give way from the force. Her grip loosens on the seatbelt, but she manages to grab ahold of Yang’s waist.

Grunting with effort, she chucks the blonde out of the windshield. Yang tumbles onto the gravel of the ghosted road. She winces, landing hard on the asphalt, tumbling to the ground and skidding across it, while simultaneously letting out a loud, sharp “Ouff!” of pain.

Propping herself up on the dashboard, Blake clutches her rib cage as she catches her breath. 

Yang picks herself up slowly, spitting out blood before looking back up at her foe, her eyes a bright, bright scarlet. Her vision tunnels with adrenaline and rage. 

Blake wipes the blood collecting on her goggles and turns to face Yang, a playful expression on her face.

She holds up two fingers and taunts her, fingers still gripping the dashboard for support as her blood haemorrhages internally due to ruptured vessels, her knuckles white. 

“Motherfucker—I’m whooping your ass!” Yang roars as he starts running towards Blake again, going full sprint into a shoulder charge. She collides with the bonnet with so much force that it activates the car’s airbag, bursting it into Blake’s face and causing her to smash into the car seat.

Planting her foot on the wheel and activating her nanites, Blake short-circuits the machinery and sends an electric shock through the car battery to her opponent.

Yang yelps in pain as electricity courses through her body, her muscles seizing up briefly and her jaw locking with her eyes widening from the shock.

She tries to step back, falling backwards onto her ass from the shockwave, her body twitching occasionally from the remnants of the jolt of electricity still working their way through her nervous system.

Blake pants, praying that her nanites and Aura work overtime to fix whatever injuries she’s got while Yang’s incapacitated.

She looks complacently on at Yang, but gulps as Yang’s Omnitrix suddenly beeps and flashes green. It’s still usable.

“Hey, now…” Blake cautions. “You don’t know how fast that’s going to speed up the self-destruct. Don’t pull some hypocritical stunt…” 

Bursting the airbag, Blake grits her teeth and looks on at Yang. They kind of need this car, but she can surely afford to bust a few builds if need be…depending on the transformation Yang chose.

Yang hisses through her teeth as the shock of pain subsides, her eyes narrowing as her Omnitrix flashes green, her expression going from pain and shock, to cockyness, then a wide smirk, her mouth curling back in a sneer, as she starts twisting the watch dial. 

She raises her eyebrows, clearly considering Blake’s warning. However, the need to win, the need to hurt Blake, was stronger. Much, much stronger. 

 That, and the rush of the fight and the adrenaline was flowing through her, the world becoming clearer. She adored the rush—and the satisfaction of pummeling her foe with her own two hands.

And she had just the transformation to do it. 

Yang scrolls to the Piscciss Volann and slams down. 

Blake doesn’t have enough time to react as six feet of slimy, scaly, teethy and bitey pounces through the windshield. With two clawed hands, Yang grips onto her wrist and elbow, then opens her mouth wide. 

Blake’s eyes shoot open in alarm. “Fuck no. No-no-no—”

Yang’s jaws clamp down onto her arm, ripping bone off its joints. She turns and spits the forearm out onto the road as Blake clutches her elbow joint and screeches in agony. 

“—FUCK YOU!” Blake growls, surging nanites over to her other arm for a miniature Smackhands. She grabs into the lure on Yang’s head and uses it to pound her fishy skull on the dashboard. 

Lifting a clawed hand, Yang attempts to slash at Blake, but Blake hurriedly yanks down the lever of the reclining chair until it’s near-horizontal, then kicks Yang in the massive jaws with her foot. 

Yang growls and snaps at thin air, before realising that her adversary is lying right under her. She pins Blake down to the chair, gripping her shoulders as she licks her teeth. “Well, lookie here…” 

Blake uses her leg to flip Yang against the wall and swap their positions, but Yang fuses her feet into a aquatic tail and uses it to rocket Blake through the roof of the car. 

Taking in a few long, gravelly breaths, Yang watches as Blake hits the side of the roof and tumbles down, collapsing onto the ground. 

The Faunus plants her feet into the gravel, slowly steadying herself. The remnants of her arm seem to have healed to her wrist, and she flexes the regenerated joint. 

Yang returns the taunting motion, still lying down on the horizontal seat. Blake laughs wryly, rolling her shoulders, then pounces into the car from a window. She slams her shoulder into Yang’s gut, inciting a gag. 

Blake hammers into the oversized sashimi platter with fervour, managing to tear off the dangling lure on Yang’s head. Blood spurts out of the wound as Blake chucks it out of the window. 

Yang digs her claws into Blake’s abdomen, dragging them through the flesh and tearing it open. 

Blake inhales sharply, grabbing onto the hand and wrenching it away from her before gripping on to it harder with her freshly-healed hand and snapping it backwards. 

With a pained grunt, Yang kicks the EVO into the backseat, biting off her foot as she does so. In retaliation, Blake forms a Punk Buster from her other foot and batters Yang into the dashboard, bruising and knocking a few teeth out of those ripping jaws. 

Blake’s chest heaves as blood gushes out of her ankle, feeling the bruises on her back and face. One lens of her goggles is shattered, a rib juts out of her chest, and she has to grip onto her skin to stop her guts from spilling out. 

She chuckles. “I was so wrong. This old fuck of a car fucks hard. Too bad you don’t, Canyon Coochie.” 

Yang yanks her arms out from the dashboard, scoffing. “Oh, we’re just getting started, Washboard Tits.” 

                               ~

“What’s a guy to do to get some cash around here—Oh, would you look at that. Two lesbians and a busted-up car,” a figure comments, leaning on the roof.

“Hold on…isn’t that…” the Faunus boy raises an eyebrow, adjusting his eyepatch.

 He prods the two unconscious bodies with his staff. “Guess Benevolent Blake came crawling back, eh? Malware won’t be too happy with your new girlfriend, though…”