aiko's otter den

black cat's curses - Blake Belladonna is not a faunus.

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7. The Way In

Takaishi Takeru didn’t remember dying.

He didn’t remember the moment of his death.

He knew it happened, otherwise he wouldn’t be reborn as a tall pretty girl with fire willing to run around her hands but he didn’t remember dying and that was a bit of a problem. It was like having a concussion and sleeping when you shouldn’t. Anything could happen.

Sometimes, as a child before mom left (this was a world where dad stayed, this was a world where dad did his best and loved his girls and remarried and loved but love did not save people. Love inspired people. Effort saved people), Yang would try to remember and set fire to her bed, or have headaches that sent her into tears.

At some point, about the time she had nearly failed to save Ruby, Hikari, her sister, her best friend in the whole world, Yang had had to accept that she would never know. Takeru did not have all the answers and in fact, never would, and that had to be okay.

At least until now.

Now with a thing open in one of the warehouses, surrounded by Faunus, surrounded with guns, and Blake there and then gone, Yang had never wanted to know more and also know less. There were things they had to do, like get through these Faunus, like help her.

She doesn’t need help, whispered a voice that Takeru and Yang had never heard and yet vaguely remembered. She is going back to where she belongs now. As you all will.

Who are you?

Libra, she heard and all went silent. For a moment, the world was still.

Then the world bursts into action and Yang knew she had only a single moment to make this count, to make this right. She leaped high and shouted. “Ruby!”

Hikari — no Ruby, she was Ruby, that was important, that mattered — snapped to and nodded, her small face scrunched in fear and determination. That’s Hikari. “Team!” Her voice carried over the sounds of battle and Roman Torchwick’s laughter. ‘Our goal is to get to Blake and help her out! Don’t kill anyone if you can, focus on the Grimm!’ She paused to look around. “Also there was someone with her! Help them!”

“Right!” All of their voices answered without hesitation, including Penny, which for once was very welcome as Weiss came racing across her glyphs, rapier in hand.

For a moment, it felt good. It felt all right. Even diving into a brawl felt back on schedule, back on point. Punching and kicking and laughing in the face of danger, Takaishi Takeru never could have done that. He never could have been happy in the face of battle.

But Yang Xiao Long could smile and maybe that was the difference of this world. Maybe that was the best and worst part of this world.

And as she cocked back her fists, casings of dust ready to fire, the warehouse Blake had been in exploded into pale blue light. Everything went white.

The Grimm faded into dust.

Oh I see, Yang thought and then passed out standing up.

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The world below Blake’s feet was vast but everything below it was small. Even from here she could see it crumbling, blocklike buildings falling in chunks and glass. No Grimm below, sure, but the amount of dead remained. There was nothing like it, she knew, like raw destruction, uncontained, unwilling to stop.

She was not willing to stop.

Hikari’s voice is soft in her ear, soft and unrelenting. The other’s voice is soft in her ears. If that person doesn’t exist then… if that person doesn’t exist… then why does anything?

There had to be a reason. There had to be a reason to exist. There had to be a reason they existed, even when it was damaged by something.

But both voices thundered in her ears, insistent and growing. A bead of anger built and burned up until it was an inferno in her gut. It ached. It ached, it ached, it burned so much —

We’ll make a new world, promised the second voice, childish and sweet and angry. One where we never have to be apart. One where we can stay together!

No, Blake tried to tell them. “No,” she choked out. “Stop, you don’t have to do this, you don’t.”

They didn’t hear her; they didn’t care, and it was too late.

Then Blake was falling, falling, falling down. It seemed like it would never end, but then she crashed hard into the ground.

She opened her eyes to soft blocky hills, trees with eggs dangling from the nearest branches. She flexed her fingers. Still hands, not paws. Still cat ears and tail, not one or the other. Blake sat up, expecting to see a smaller body, expecting to be alone, expecting to be at the very least bruised. Instead, the rest of Team RWBY was sprawled over the area, and she was perfectly fine.

… Huh.

She was still Blake Belladonna. Still not a Faunus, but arguably still herself. And this was, it had to be the Digital World. So how had she come here and not become a Digimon? Had not become Tailmon?

“That’s because you’re not Tailmon anymore.”

For a moment, Blake thought she heard the voice of the headmaster. Ozpin, eternally wise but somehow eternally stupid. Giving off this air of geniality and understanding, with an underlying hiss of power and plots and secrets.

Blake turned her head, expecting Gennai or Ozpin. Instead who she got was…

“Yagami Taichi?”

Taichi grinned at her. “Hey Tailmon, er Blake. You’re Blake now. I gotta remember that.” He scratched his mass of hair. “I gotta remember, no one can go back, nothing can go back to the way it was. That’s why you guys are here.”

“What is this?” She pushed herself to her feet. “Where are we?”

“You’re in what’s left of the Digital World.” At her raised eyebrow, he sighed. “Sorry, I’m not Ozpin or godlike or anything. I’ve just been stuck in between for a long, long time. I’ve been watching you guys and well… you got hit with the consequences of all of us being stupid, you and all the Digimon. We were angry, upset, confused, hurting and we did, we made a lot of mistakes.”

“Like Greymon?”

“Yeah.” His voice was a whisper. “Like Greymon.”

Weiss started to stir.

“I need.” Taichi stopped, watching Ruby’s face specifically. Then— Ah. Her eyes twitched. “I need you guys to finish what was started. You need to destroy this world too. Homeostasis managed to save me and keep me here, and this little spot of Digital World but it’s going to decay eventually. It’s going to decay and then your world might fall apart. But if you break it instead, it can reboot and reset and we’ll all be free. Can you do that Blake? Can you and the others kill him and finish this?”

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