White Sheep

Chapter 34

Here's the chapter.

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Kegi Springfield

Chapter 34

For  Yang, it seemed to happen in slow motion. She was back at the docks,  fighting against the Grimm that had spawned from Hentacle, except that  the beast was nowhere in sight, and the sky was a dark crimson that  moved like blood. Her team was cut off from her, too, with no sign or  sound of them at all. She was trapped by Grimm, held back from reaching  the epicentre of the battle.

She had to get there.

I do? Why?

She  wasn't sure. It didn't really matter. All she knew was that it had to  be done, and that as she punched her way through another Beowolf, her  limbs felt heavy and weak – as though gravity itself was dragging her  down.

Where was Ren? She could have really used her partner's help right now.

"Ah, no – let go of me!"

That  voice... it came from ahead of her, past the Beowolf and a few other  Grimm, and it was painfully familiar. "Jaune?" she whispered. Her eyes  widened and she called out, this time louder. "Jaune, is that you? Hold  on, I'm on my way!"

"Y-Yang? Argh, help, please!"

It sounded  like he was in trouble, and she hurled herself at the Beowolf before  her, trusting her aura to take the blow. It did so, even if her brain  rattled in her skull. It was a risky move for sure, but she couldn't let  Hentacle get away with him. There was no telling what might happen.  Even as her vision blurred, she lashed out with a right hook and planted  her fist into the monster's teeth. Ember Celica roared, sending the  shells directly up into its mouth and through what might have passed as a  brain. The monster fell. She was already pushing past it to kill the  next.

"Hang on, Jaune," she shouted, side-stepping an Ursa and shattering its knee with an aura-infused kick. "I'm almost there!"

"I can't-" His voice cut off with the sounds of struggling. "She's got me!"

She...?

Yang  burst past the Beowolf and towards his voice, but froze at the scene  she came upon. It wasn't Hentacle. The monster was nowhere to be seen.  Instead, Jaune struggled in the grip of a woman dressed in red and  black, with a face so similar to hers, it hurt.

"M-Mom...?"

The  woman's face turned, and Yang flinched back from the disinterest in  those crimson eyes. There was recognition, but no emotion, not even  surprise. "Oh," Raven said. "It's you."

"I...I..." The words didn't  come, and it was all she could do to stare at the older woman. She'd  wanted for so long to meet her, but now that she had, the questions  she'd always dreamed of asking had fled her mind. The sounds of struggle  drew her attention to Jaune, who writhed in the woman's one-handed  grip. "What are you doing with Jaune?"

"I'm taking him."

Her heart beat a little faster. There was something wrong... something so very, very wrong. "Taking him where?"

Raven's  eyes held hers for the longest moment, and when she sighed, Yang knew  it was because she was exasperated... because she saw her own daughter and  considered her nothing more than a pest. "Does it matter? I have no  interest in you, but he is different. I will be taking him."

Just  like that, with no explanation or warning? An unfamiliar feeling rose  within her, and yang shook her head, teeth gritted together. Ruby would  be devastated, and so would his team – and she... and she wouldn't stand  for it, either. One foot shifted back as she fell into a combat stance.