The Princess' Rogue Chapter 8

(It is highly recommended that you read the Author's Notes below before reading this chapter.)

***


~ Emerald Forest. Late Morning. ~

She shouldn't have been here.

“You'll pay for that,” Junior said, the man glaring hatefully at Yang. He stood twenty feet away from the rogue, just at the edge of the camp site.

Weiss should have been long gone by now, not standing here with Yang, staring wide eyed as six fist sized stones rose in the air from behind Junior, the stones hovering at his sides.

“Oh you've got to be-”

With the flick of Junior's wrist, the stones rocketed towards Yang and Weiss like homing missiles.

Yang instinctively shoved Weiss to the right, the former princess yelping as she lurched behind the closest tree. Chancing a glance to the side to ensure Weiss was indeed out of harms way, Yang barely managed to face forwards again, her arms crossed in front of her face, before the first projectile hit. The first stone struck her hard in the gut, the rogue sputtering for breath as she stumbled backwards a few steps. Despite her Aura taking the brunt of the assault, it still felt like a charging bull had gouged out her innards. And that was just the first shot. The remaining five stones hit her consecutively seconds later, all of them taking chunks out of her cloak and Aura, leaving Yang with palm sized welts and bruises.

Now Yang knew how the people on the receiving end of her fireballs felt.

Ouch.

“Phoenix!”

“Stay back!” Yang hissed, her stance wobbling.

At the sound of scratching, Yang's head shot up, the rogue gritting her teeth as Junior called forth more stones to his disposal. His left palm was open and facing upwards as this happened, the stoney projectiles hovering loosely in the air around him. With the closing of Junior's fist, the rocks once again rocketed towards Yang, but this time she was ready. A split second before she was stoned, literally, Yang somersaulted forward, ending up in a crouch. The second volley of rocks shot over her head harmlessly, splintering a tree fifteen feet behind her.

Junior snarled, summoning more rocks from his surroundings, the man clenching his fist shut and launching them at Yang for the third time. Unlike the first two times this happened, rather than dodge or defend against this newest set of missiles, the rogue stood her ground and faced them head on.

“Phoenix! Get out of there!” Weiss shrieked from behind the cover that was her tree. Her shouts would be ignored.

Fists flew straight and true, Yang shooting missiles of her own from a red glowing Ember Celica. Fireballs met hurtling rocks in booming explosions of grit and dust, over and over again until a cloud of dust separated the two combatants, shrouding visibility. Just when Yang dispatched the last of the stoney missiles threatening to take her head off, Junior came leaping through the dust cloud in front of her, wielding a double handed great hammer made of loose stones of all sizes.

Stones met enchanted metal in a loud crash of sound, Yang's arms painfully tingling under the sheer force of the hit in spite of Ember Celica's protective embrace. Grunting, she raised her right fist to defend against the follow up horizontal swing from Junior's patchwork stone hammer, only to cross her arms in front of her face again a split second later to stop her head from being caved in. Lavender coloured eyes widened in surprise when Junior's heel connected with Yang's stomach, the rogue sucking in a chocked breath as she momentarily lost her footing.

Taking advantage of Yang's broken guard, Junior smashed her up into the air with a walloping swing, the rogue hitting the ground on her right side nearly ten feet away, hard. An audible crack sounded the moment Yang hit the ground, a searing pain in her hip and ribs making her cry out in agony. Winded and battered, Yang would have passed out then had she not locked eyes with a terrified Weiss. The sheer panic and fear on the white haired girl's face was enough to snap the rogue out of her stupor, Yang shaking her head to clear it. Apparently that last hit had smacked her backwards enough to now be in line with her travelling companion.

Yang silently cursed. Were it not for her Aura, she would have literally become a smear of red gore on that stupid hammer!

“What's the matter, Phoenix?” Junior mocked, taking a few steps towards the still downed rogue. “That all you got?”

Yang narrowed her eyes, her gaze snapping back to the gloating man. She growled as she rose to her feet shakily. A hand clenched at her right side, the rogue swaying unsteadily on her feet.

“What did you just call me?”

Junior smirked, resting the hilt of his hammer against his shoulder. “Surprised?” the man sneered. “Don't be. I know all about you, Phoenix. About why you're out here. About the bounty.”

Junior glanced at the white form peering out at him from behind a nearby tree.

“About a certain runaway princess.”

Weiss inhaled sharply.

Yang's free hand clenched into a white knuckled fist. It took everything she had not to look over at Weiss right this instant.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” the rogue said.

“Sure you don't,” Junior said, the hammer wielder nearly singing his words. The grin on Junior's face was malicious.

“But that doesn't matter now, now does it? Once you're out of the way, there will be nothing stopping me from getting that bounty.”

Grey eyes shifted to Junior's left.

“Along with some fun,” Junior said, shooting a lecherous look at Weiss.

“Not in your life time!” Yang roared, jabbing her free fist forward.

The Burn Dust Stones on Ember Celica lit up like a star, a fireball rocketing at Junior from Yang's fist. Junior easily dodged the blast, the hammer wielder merely leaning to his right a foot, the fireball shooting clear of him. Turning his gaze back to the heavily panting rogue, the grin on Junior's face went even wider.

“Oh look! Another fireball!” he laughed. Junior set his great hammer down on the ground, head first in front of him, resting his hands on the end of the hammer hilt.

“I'm shaking in my boots.”

“Shut up!” Yang snapped, whipping another fireball at the man. Like before, Junior shifted to one side and easily dodged the blast.

Yang gritted her teeth, a low, throaty growl escaping her lips. Things were not looking good for the rogue right now. With her Aura at an all time low, Yang wasn't confident she could beat an opponent who was clearly stronger and more experienced than her. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, there was still the whole thing with Weiss to sort out.

“Oh? Burned out, have you?” Junior mocked.

Yang clenched her jaw to stop herself from yelling profanities. Glancing downwards quickly, lavender coloured settled on one specific pouch hanging off of Yang's belt. Despite things looking grim, she still had yet to use that. There was no doubt in Yang's mind it would turn the tables in her favour once she used it. The only question now would be if Junior would give her the time to enact her plan. Unlike those stupid Atlas mercenaries who really didn't know any better, it was obvious Yang's current opponent was well informed.

“Some phoenix you are,” Junior said, smugly.

Yang's gaze flitted over to the man again. She smirked.

“Oh Junior,” the rogue said, slowly reaching down for her right belt pouches. “I was just playing with you. You really haven't seen anything yet.”

“Yeah?” Junior said, giving Yang an unimpressed look. “And what are you going to do? Shoot another fireball at me and hope this one hits?”

“Something like th-”

A crimson projectile forced Yang to abandon her belt pouches in favor of swatting it away with Ember Celica. The rogue quickly ducked under a second crimson missile which followed the first, the said projectile clanking to the ground noisily behind her after overshooting her. Chancing a look over her shoulder, Yang spied two blood red short swords.

“About time you two woke up.”

Two figures, one red, one white, limped up to Junior's right side.

“I was starting to think you two were going to waste the rest of the day away sleeping.”

Melanie huffed, looking at Junior in disgust. “Says the one who went down first before he could even lift a finger.”

Junior growled.

“You haven't gotten rid of him yet?” Miltiades said, narrowing her eyes at Yang.

Yang's hands clenched into white knuckled firsts. There was no way she was going to be able to drink her Shadow Kat potion now. With the twins conscious again, a surprising feat considering the beating the rogue gave them, there was no doubt in Yang's mind that they'd all swoop upon her the moment she tried something funny. That left very few options at the rogue's disposal right now, most of which included some form of running away. While Yang was by no means a coward, she wasn't a fool either. Only a fool would stay to fight a battle they could not win.

“Must I do everything?” Junior said gruffly. “My job was to get us here. You two were to do the rest.”

Melanie harrumphed. “Whatever,” she said, taking her gaze off the hammer wielder.

Green eyes turned back to Yang and Weiss, Weiss flinching at their intensity just at the corner of the rogue's vision.

“What?” Yang said, lowering her stance a bit. “Didn't learn your lesson the first time? Need me to smash it into your thick skulls again?”

Yang cringed slightly when Melanie laughed. It made a chill run down her spine.

“My dear, dear, Phoenix,” the white twin said, walking over to her sister. Melanie wrapped her arms around Miltiades' shoulders, nuzzling her cheek against her sister's. Miltiades returned the gesture, cuddling against her twin, wrapping her arms around Melanie's waist.

“It is you who hasn't learned his lesson,” Melanie said, purring.

Junior smirked at this comment, drawing Yang's gaze only for a moment.

“Shall we do it, Miltia?” Melanie asked, pulling her face back just enough to look at Miltiades in the eye. Only an inch separated their faces.

Miltiades smiled, leaning her forehead against Melanie's. “Yes,” she said, licking her lips. She turned her gaze back to Yang, her stare anything but innocent. “Let's.”

The grin on Melanie's face was demonic.

“Alright.”

Yang's feet shifted an inch in anticipation.

For a moment, there was only silence. Then everything happened all at once.

“Phoenix!”

Time slowed down to a crawl for Yang as she spun around to face Weiss. Normally the rogue wouldn't have taken her eyes off of her opponents, especially ones as dangerous as these. To look away would mean death or dismemberment or some other horrible thing like that. But Yang couldn't ignore the sheer horror and panic in the white haired girl's shout, Yang quickly assuming the worst when she turned to face Weiss.

The worst could not even begin to describe what was happening.

Weiss was running at Yang, screaming at her, her face pale. Out of the corner of her eye on her left side, Yang could just make out Melanie, the white twin's left arm extended in her direction, the girl's fingers curling inwards in a come hither motion. At the opposite edge of the rogue's vision there was movement, Yang turning her head to the right to investigate. To her shock, she found Miltiades' crimson blades, both of them airborne and shooting at her head.

There was no time to dodge them.

An agonized scream.

Yang's chest heaved as she struggled to breathe, the rogue crashing to the ground on her back with a thump. Pain flared all over her body, her face paling, her muscles spasming, her vision blurring, but she barely noticed any of that.

A pained whimper.

“P-Phoenix...”

No, all Yang noticed now was red staining white.

“W-Weiss?”

No.

No, no, no, no, no! This was not happening. This was not happening! Not again. NOT AGAIN!

A head of pearl white hair was the first thing which met Yang's gaze as she looked down at herself. Moving past the head of hair, the rogue caught sight of a familiar form, Weiss' form, the girl laying half on top of her with Weiss' head resting on Yang's stomach. Ignoring the agony in her limbs, Yang hastily pushed herself upright, the rogue immediately cradling the whimpering, smaller girl in her arms. Weiss was clutching at her face, her left eye to be specific, liquid crimson leaking through the former princess' fingers. One of Miltiades' blades lay on the ground off to Yang's right, dripping red.

“Weiss...?”

The said girl shuddered, her breaths coming out in heavy pants.

“Phoe... nix...” Weiss said in barely a whisper.

“Well,” Junior drawled, blinking at the scene in astonishment. “That was a surprise. I didn't think the princess had it in her.”

“Neither me,” Melanie said, pulling away from her sister some to get a better look at the pair opposite them.

“Weiss?” Yang repeated, her voice breaking, her eyes hot with tears. She was completely oblivious to the trio at her back, watching them. Unable to tear her eyes away from the white haired girl, from all the blood, Yang watched as Weiss' liquid life now ran down her arm.

Why was this happening all over again!?

Yang couldn't breathe.

“Hmpf!” Miltiades huffed, displeasure clearly heard in her tone. “That was anti-climatic.”

“Indeed,” Melanie said. “I thought he was supposed to be strong.”

“Weiss?” Yang said again, almost choking. “P-Please... please say something...”

After another deep body shudder, Weiss' right eye cracked open. Yang gritted her teeth at the pain she saw in it, her throat tightening when the ex-heiress forced out a small smile. The smile didn't last very long, for soon Weiss' right eye rolled up in her head and Weiss went limp.

“Weiss!?”

Yang barely heard the thumping of boots which stopped right behind.

“It's too late for her now,” Junior said, his hammer resting loosely against his shoulder again.

Yang hugged the unconscious girl closer to her. “Why is that?” she growled, the rogue refusing to look anywhere but at the girl in her arms.

“Why do you think?” Melanie replied with a snark. She gave Yang a look, crossing her arms over her chest as Miltiades reached past the rogue to pick up her fallen blade.

Before the red twin could pull back her arm completely, Yang's hand shot out and grabbed Miltiades by the wrist. Ignoring the girl's surprised yelp and the shout of her sister, Yang brought the blade up to her face. Aside from the blood on the tip of it, the blade itself seemed much too shiny and glossy to be normal. Taking a whiff of it, Yang quickly understood why.

Poison.

Miltiades wrenched her hand free from Yang's grasp with a growl, the red twin immediately backing up out of the rogue's line of sight to rub her wrist. Even without facing them, Yang could feel the twins' glares boring holes into her back. Yang bowed her head, her jaw clenched.

“Why?” she asked after a few seconds, the shadows of her cloak hood and scarf hiding her face. “What did we ever do to you?”

After some minor shuffling, Junior spoke up. “A job's a job,” he said, no hint of malice in his voice. It was as if they were discussing the weather.

“Surely a bounty hunter like yourself understands that. It's nothing personal.”

A job.

That's right.

That's all this was. Just another job.

It was supposed to be easy. Save the princess. Collect the bounty. And then live the rest of her life without a care in the world.

Gods, what a fool she had been all this time.

A shadow loomed over Yang from behind.

“Any last words?” Junior asked, his stoney hammer seen at the very edge of Yang's vision.

The rogue shifted slightly, pulling Weiss closer to her yet again.

“Yeah,” Yang said. Under the cloak of shadows, lavender coloured eyes turned red.

“There is one thing.”

“What's that?” Junior questioned, deciding to humour her.

Red eyes looked up, the Burn Dust Stones both on Ember Celica and in Yang's belt pouches flaring scarlet.

“I burn.”

The southern most part of the Emerald Forest erupted in flames. A geyser of pure fire shot up from the middle of the chaos, one which could be seen from every neighbouring city and town around it.

***

~ Emerald Forest. Mid Afternoon. ~

She had to counteract the poison and stop the bleeding.

That would have been very easy if Yang had had all of her vials of various potions still intact. Unfortunately for the rogue, upon further inspection, the crack she thought had been her hip fracturing during the middle of the fight actually turned out to be her landing on and crushing her precious supply of remedies instead. Which left Yang with only one option now if she wanted to save Weiss' life.

Unlocking Weiss' Aura.

“Son of a Reklats!” Yang cursed, a fist clenching at her side, her knuckles white.

Yang was no expert on Aura. While she knew a bit more about the topic than most common folk, even she knew she was in over her head right now. For the better part of five minutes, the rogue had been trying to jump start Weiss' Aura, frantically channelling every ounce of her own into the white haired girl despite barely having any left from the fight. And for five minutes, all she got was resistance, one of which baffled her so completely until a tell tale flash of white light emanating from Weiss' left hand caught her attention.

Son of a Reklats indeed.

Yang hadn't been kidding when she told Weiss she had an Aura. The ex-heiress may not have believed her, but it was true. The feeling of Weiss' Aura was always the strongest whenever the girl was near water, hence why Yang brought her this close to the riverbed. And while Weiss' lack of Aura (well, more like hiding Aura) never ceased to confuse Yang, never in Yang's wildest dreams did she expect the reason for that being a high level Dust seal effectively suppressing it.

Lavender coloured eyes glared hatefully at the seal glowing brightly on the back of Weiss' hand. It was the size of one of Yang's Burn Dust stones, the ones that powered Ember Celica. The seal itself was in the shape of a snowflake, the Schnee family crest, the magical glyph imprinted on Weiss' very skin. How Yang hadn't noticed such a thing before now was beyond her. Then again, never before had she been this close to the former princess for so long aside from when they slept recently.

Another whimper from Weiss drew Yang out of her thoughts.

Still maintaining pressure on Weiss' eye wound, with her free hand, Yang scrambled to open one of her belt pouches. Most of them were useless now, the ones once holding her vials of potions filled with broken glass, the syrupy contents of those same potions having long soaked into the leather pouches, ruining them. The pouches which once held Yang's extra Burn Dust stones weren't any better off, those pouches burned to a crisp. In her rage over Weiss' injury, one she only got because of the rogue, Yang had set them all ablaze, causing the entire section of forest they were in to go up in flames.

Finding the pouch she sought, Yang gingerly withdrew a half cracked vial of pale liquid. Half of the vial's contents were gone, the potion having seeped through the cracks at the top of the container. That left only half of the Aura boosting concoction Yang had come to rely on from time to time, this vial being the only one out of them all having somewhat survived her fall from before. Taking a quick glance back to her unconscious companion, Yang quickly downed the remnants of the Shadow Kat potion. As Yang waited for the potion's effects to take hold, her gaze wandered back over to the seal shining brightly from Weiss' hand.

The King of Vale couldn't have done this himself. Given what Weiss had already revealed in their time together, this was most likely the work of one of his many sorcerers. Considering Weiss' lack of memory about it, it was a fair guess that the white haired girl's Aura unlocked at a very early age. The King, not having one himself, grew jealous of his own daughter, eventually succumbing to vanity and greed, having Weiss' Aura sealed away with no one the wiser. While he could have just killed his daughter to save himself trouble, the scandal that would arisen from such a thing would have no doubt lost him favour with the people.

Pathetic.

Gods, Yang hated that man so much right now. If she was ever given the opportunity to punch him in the future, the rogue would gladly take it, caring not of the repercussions which followed. Yet as much as it would have pleased Yang to watch King Schnee suffer for all his misdeeds, now was not the time to think about that. Time was of the essence for Weiss right now, and with Yang's Aura (the last dregs of it) starting to flare in response to the Shadow Kat potion, now was the time to act. Yang could only hope that the shock of Weiss' Aura being released after all this time would be enough to cleanse the poison running rampant through Weiss' body. If it wasn't... well... Yang refused to think about that right now.


Small flames licked off of Yang's body, the rogue's eyes closed and her head bowed. Concentrating all of her remaining Aura into her hand, Yang reached out to hold Weiss' hand, the one with the seal.


Flames sizzled as words were spoken, the pulsing of Aura making the white seal flicker. Yang gritted her teeth when she felt her Aura coming up against that invisible wall again, the rogue starting to pant with effort as the Schnee seal resisted against her, even now with her boosted Aura.


The Schnee seal flickered, the light from it going off and on, then off again, then on. Much to Yang's anger and annoyance, the seal still held.


Yang was breathing hard now, her Aura quickly fading, the flames crackling off of her skin slowly dying out. But the rogue refused to give up, Yang forcing more Aura against the Dust seal.


Cracks in the white seal could be seen now, little ones at first, before they expanded more and more. Soon the entire seal was fractured, but the stubborn thing still held fast.


“Come on, Weiss,” Yang muttered. A flaming hand held a glowing, sealed one. “Don't give up on me. COME ON!”


With only a sliver of Aura left, Yang put everything she had into it, smashing her Aura into the Dust seal holding Weiss' Aura hostage. Nothing but silence greeted the rogue when her Aura finally died out, her vision blurring, Yang on the verge of passing out. Just when the tears of frustration and failure fell, an explosion of white engulfed her vision, Yang hurtled into the air through an invisible force of enormous strength. Six seconds later, the rogue came crashing down to the ground again, ten feet away from where she previously sat. Before unconsciousness claimed her, a violent shiver worked its way through her battered body, lavender coloured eyes blinking as the rogue shook the fog from her sluggish mind. Only when she pushed herself to her hands and knees did Yang go rigid, her mouth hanging open in shock at the sight in front of her.

Ice covered every thing in sight. The river, the muddy ground, the trees, nothing within a twenty foot radius of the still unconscious white haired girl was left unscathed. Flakes of snow drifted down lazily to the now frosted ground, large spikes of ice, ones at least five feet tall and as wide as a man, circling around the former princess. Groaning and exhausted, Yang crawled over to the ice wall surrounding her companion, the rogue shivering as she did so, her breaths coming out as wisps of white mist. Using the shards of ice as support, Yang eventually climbed over the sharp towers, landing with a thump on her back next to the slumbering Schnee. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Yang lethargically rolled onto her side to look at the white haired girl, reaching out with a shaking hand to touch her cheek.

Weiss was much cooler to the touch now, the ex-heiress no longer panting or gasping for breath. The white haired girl's veins, once pitch black, were a barely noticeable grey colour now, Weiss' veins barely seen through her skin. Yang's bloodied scarf still covered the former princess' wounded eye, frozen solid like the rest of the things in the immediate vicinity. With a shaking hand, Yang reached for it, only for her scarf to dissolve into snow flakes the moment she touched it. Despite the loss of her prized accessory, one given to her by a dear friend, Yang couldn't but breathe in relief when she got a full view of Weiss' face.

In place of the bloody mess that was once Weiss' wound was now a single pink scar running vertical down the white haired girl's closed eye.