Cooling Flames part 1

Fading Light…

Man, I changed my writing style a lot for this. I was going to make a bundle of one shots and include this, but I then realised the rating would have to go immediately all the way up to M.

And M rated stories are, by default, not shown to everyone.

NOTE: I separated this into multiple parts due to how long this one section is. I am also ashamed at how dark I made this...

Present

Flashback (I am using Word so it might not keep the italics. Just warning you all. And please, tell me if they don't appear so I can work out another way to separate the sections.)

Without further ado, the first chapter:

Darkness. Pure, cool, all-embracing darkness. I can't hear, see, touch, taste, smell; Nothing. Until reality crashes down on me that is. My head hurts; I have itches and stinging sensations all over my frame. Something has happened.

My eye opens, shutting immediately when I cringe away from the bright fluorescent lamp inches above my head. I'm in a chamber with a chipped and stained concrete floor…

Wait… Eye? Singular?

The hand lifts My Face off the ground, holding it by the left side, turning it towards the shadowy figure above me. Their eyes are like coals burning into my own lilac pair. The hand tightens its grip momentarily, and My Face burns before I see no more.

"Ahh, look who we have here." A voice, smooth as honey and sickly sweet, echoes around the dark room, "You have caused us quite a large amount of trouble, Miss Xiao-Long. I am so VERY glad to finally make your acquaintance outside of our little spats."

My limbs are bound to a metal chair-like structure on a wall. I can't move my arms and I'm too tired to try.

Raising my head is an arduous task; it takes me several tries before it raises enough for me to see something other than my own chest, my shirt looking like it was put through a food processor. I drag my tongue across my parched lips while studying my surroundings, swallowing as I see a single figure cloaked in shadow before me until my muscles give out and my chin collides violently with my collarbone.

Shadows, just shadows surround me; No illumination other than the lamp above my head. Why am I even here?

I hear a laugh before realizing that I must have thought out loud, voicing my confusion to my captor, before my blurry vision is filed with more gloom.

Professor Ozpin is pacing to and fro before us; Beacon academy's famed Team RWBY. He's speaking, but it sounds garbled, as if I'm hearing it underwater.

"This mission will have dangers, and as such, you and your team will suffer no consequences if you decide to abstain from your task." The green clad professor stopped directly in front of us, adjusting his glasses slightly and looking each one of us in the eye before continuing; first My Little Sister, then My Friend Weiss, My Partner… Blake, and finally Me…

"You are simply to observe the movements of Roman Torchwick's men, supplies, and, if you can, Cinder Fall herself. You are not to engage unless the entire mission has failed with no chance of escape."

The Headmaster took a sip of his coffee.

"Good Luck…"

"…You'll need it."

I awake with a gasp, drawing air into my lungs, coughing violently as I inhale some of the water soaking the rag over my mouth.

"That's enough. You may depart."

The faceless person beside me removes the pungent cloth, snapping to attention at The Voice's command before disappearing into the shadows.

My limbs are still bound, my left eye still blind. But now I can move my head. I glare straight ahead trying to murder whoever imprisoned me with piercing daggers. I'm taken by surprise when I feel a petite hand painfully caress my empty left eye-socket.

They raise a student's scroll in front of me, Weiss' scroll. Playing on its screen is a video of Headmaster Ozpin's mission briefing. Trust The Princess to take notes on everything.

"I trust your mission went well, Little Sun Dragon?" The voice inquires sadistically.

I can't answer, I can only stare.

There's an Impact on the right side of my face; a blazing backhand causing tears to appear in my eye and empty socket.

"Answer me!" the Voice is no longer soft, melodic. It is a well of unimaginable wrath, fury and hate.

I manage to find my voice, as small and raspy as it is.

"Who?" My voice is quivering. I swallow in an attempt to steady it before following with "Why?"

A laugh starts beside me, echoing of unseen walls until I feel that the very world is mocking me.

"You know why, and you should know the who."

With a clicking of glass heels on concrete, my captor is finally revealed: she's in a beautiful red dress, short enough to reveal a garter on one side, the sleeves flowing down her supple arms before attaching on her middle fingers. Her hair is voluminous and a wonderful colour while her eyes are burning with an evil yet playful air.

"Cinder Fall" My voice has changed from its terrified whimper and now is an angered growl.

The horrible excuse for a woman bows sardonically.

"Yes, that's me, but there are others who would yet like to speak with you just. As. Much. As. Me. I do believe you know them." She purred, her eyes scanning my body like a predator.

She moves to my left, beckoning to someone outside of my circle of light. A shoe enters slowly, followed by another, then the trailing edges of a white coat that has seen better days. The rest of the man's body follows, his face remaining outside of my view.

I open my mouth to speak before he pulls violently on a previously unseen cord in his hand. A wide metal trolley on wheels rolls up beside him and I can do nothing but retch onto my own lap before fainting at the horrific scene before me.

I couldn't beat him. I'm lying on the ground with a hole in my stomach. Blake is already down too and Ruby is still fighting the masses of gang members; it's up to Weiss now.

I can see her faintly, still fighting with Emerald, the duellers both unleashing a flurry of blows at one another. Weiss spins suddenly, Myrtenaster knocking Emerald's twin blades aside. Plunging her own blade into the ground she uses it to swing her legs around and deliver a vicious booted kick to the one-armed fighter. Before the other girl can recuperate, the Heiress' hands are both on her weapon's hilt and a spike of ice is through her opponent's heart. Emerald gasps once, blood bubbling from her mouth while her body slowly slides down the piercing pillar, coming to a rest on the ground.

My heart soars; she might pull it off. But my cheer catches in my throat when a sparkling projectile explodes on top of her.

"NO!" The silent scream reverberates in my skull, only to stop when a blur of white bounced up from the explosion and off several glyphs before landing a few metres from the blast.

Weiss is hurt, that's obvious when she drops onto all fours, chest heaving. My vision is fading and narrowing; I know I can't get out. I need to tell her to get Ruby and run.

"Weiss!" I rasp out, "Fall back; Blake and I are done."

She turns towards me, ice blue eyes open in concern. She dropped her guard; she is VULNERABLE.

My decreased vision doesn't even see the hit until it contacts Weiss; her small form thrown metres from her previous position. Roman walks up with his laugh chipping away at my sanity through my eardrums.

No,nononono; this can't be happening. She needs to escape. I turn my head, scraping it on the hard ground to desperately see Weiss' triumphant comeback. And I do. She flies at Roman, opening up a large cut on his chest and scorching his jacket. They engage in a strange sort of fencing match between cane and blade.

Weiss scores a few more hits resulting in a flambéed coat before the battle changes for the worst. Roman stabs his cane directly towards Weiss' face, punctuated by a shot. I hold my breath in horror as the tiny girl arches her back to an extreme bend, the projectile missing its mark, only parting a lock of alabaster hair. She starts tipping backwards, a direct consequence of her evasion, and I can only watch as Roman spins his cane around to hook the lithe pair of legs that are still regaining their balance before pulling with an awesome amount of force. Weiss spins in a complete backflip before landing hard on her back, a shrill scream being released from her lips.

Roman is absolutely guffawing at this point, his insane mind enjoying the mindless carnage as he lifts up his boot, stomping on the girl's pretty face over and over. He then viciously kicks her ribs, causing a visible spray of blood to fly in the air from her mouth. He grabs hold of Weiss' now crimson garments, lifting her in the air, the heiress' head lolling on her chest.

"Well, princess, you appear to have been beaten. So, let's give the other's a little show shall we?"

I awaken suddenly once again, a result of more waterboarding. I shiver uncontrollably at what I had just seen before the sight is shoved in my face again.

Weiss is even worse than when I last saw her; her face is almost unrecognizable due to the sheer amount of gashes and lumps that Roman undoubtedly had inflicted. What is scarier to me is the fact that there are obvious grasp marks all over her previously perfect skin and her clothes are destroyed; her threadbare undergarments being the only items keeping her semi decent. I can only imagine what happened to her in this horrible place.

Worst of all, her eyes had no fire. The Weiss I knew would just fight and fight until she won the war, but this was not her. This was merely an empty shell. Weiss Shnee, owner of one of the strongest psyches and with the strongest will of everyone I know, had been broken; eyes glazed over, cold and unseeing in their despair. If they could do this to her then how would I survive.

"You probably know what's happening." Cinder circled Weiss' prostrate body.

That witch. She looks up at me abruptly, as if she had heard my thoughts.

"We have to make money some way. Ransom, among other things, is a great way to fill our coffers." She approaches me, running a finger along my jawline as she bends over to look me in the eye.

I growl in anger before hacking a coagulated blood clot in her face. She jumps back in anger, spitting venom at me as she wiped the gore off of her face. With a final glare, she snaps her fingers, signaling to Roman to approach.

His face enters the light and I can't help but gasp at the terrifying sight in front of me. The man's face is covered in burns and much of his hair seems to be shorter than usual. But around his mouth is an injury of the most unsettling kind. On his left cheek is a massive red scar, stretching from his chin to his cheekbone and showing a slight view into his mouth.

He starts chuckling at my reaction, quickly turning into and uncontrollable howl. He literally could not stop laughing, an expression of pain on his destroyed face as he bent over in spasms. I knew he was insane before but now he's completely psychotic.

There was a sharp snap from Cinder's direction, immediately causing the criminal to stop laughing and look submissively towards the Crimson Witch before resuming his advance with his cane held threateningly in front of him.

I know what's in store for me and the only thing I can do now is try and return fire as much as I can. When he gets close enough to me I throw my body forwards and reach my neck out. I just barely have enough reach but I do it. I kiss Roman Torchwick on the cheek. Disgusting. But he is crazy enough that I believe this could work and throw him farther off the rails, if it's possible.

He immediately stops moving, a stunned expression the only thing he seems to be showing. And then he yowls once more, this time in anger, trying to form competent words. I know what happened to him; it's coming back to me. So I laugh in his face.

"What happened, Mister Roman?" I say in a falsely innocent voice, "Did a cat get your tongue?"

I laugh even harder, even when he violently smashes a button on the wall causing my chair to fold into the wall, pulling me with it against the hard concrete. I keep laughing, even as Melodic Cudgel smashes into my head, bringing back the dark.

Roman stands above my sister, her plan to save Weiss having been foiled by the man. He's chuckling once more.

"What a surprise; you kids are just not getting it!" He was swinging his cane to and fro as he paced around Ruby's fallen figure.

"No!" I yell out, surprising even me, "You don't get it; you can't win, you won't. It's just not right. It's not right…" I break down into sobbing. "You can't hurt her; I'll do anything, anything at all."

"You'll do something all right." He grins sadistically, "You'll watch."

"Nooo!" I scream over and over, my voice deteriorating each time I scream it while he raises his cane as if golfing.

"FORE!" There's a sickening crunch as the cane connects with her small skull. I stop screaming, I can't breathe; Ruby was the only one left.

"Well then. Everything appears to be in order, so I'll just be taking what I'm owed and leave." He bowed sarcastically in my direction before righting himself. "And that means you're all coming with me-graaah!"

I heard a gunshot just then before Roman stopped. Looking at him, I see a familiar kusarigama fly away from his face, back to its owner. Blake's not dead. Roman seems to be choking for a second before a small pink lump of flesh is coughed out of his mouth along with a stream of thick, dark liquid.

Another gunshot sounds, signaling the return of Gambol Shroud. Roman's head snaps to the side, staring directly at the black blade flying at his head, panic etched on his face. Less than a second before impact a sudden burst of flame blinds me. I wrench my tired eyes open to see Gambol Shroud impaled on the ground, a beautiful woman in a red dress appearing from behind Roman. Cinder Fall had joined the battle.

My eyes, they can't stay open. I just want to sleep. My eyelids are closing. No. I have to stay awake.

Cinder's grabbing Blake's ribbon from her fallen weapon, I see her give a ferocious tug, Blake's beaten body dragged from her resting place on her White Fang buddy's chest ,screaming as she was pulled across the coarse ground to arrive in front of Roman.

The girl's head rises slightly; looking down the barrel of Roman's now raised cane before a point blank explosion sends viscera flying across my field of vision.

Something lands next to me with a wet slap. Turning my head ever so painfully, I see a pale forearm, absent from its rightful spot on Blake's right shoulder and still wrapped in a black ribbon, lying next to me.

"B-Blake… no, NO!" I sob; there is nothing I can do to stop it.

My world is ending.

The eerie tinkling of glass slippers on the abrasive ground beside me predicts my damnation.

"Well," I can see a shadow leaning over me, "what do we have here?"

Fingers scrape on the back of my neck, reaching around to my collarbone before twisting me forcefully onto my back. The fingers caress my face softly, causing a surge of pure, unadulterated fear to jolt through my body.

There you go; an M rated fic by me. I surprised myself while I was writing this. When I first had the idea I wasn't going to have any backstory for how everyone got captured and/or killed. In fact, it was supposed to be rated T and only about 1000 words.

I just got caught up in writing it after I had an inspiration to do the flashbacks and it escalated from there.

In the original idea, Yang was supposed to be the only RWBY member that was there. And now look; I have Blake being gibbed (pardon the Gears of War term), Weiss… well, you should know what I was alluding to unless you somehow still have your innocence (Run while you still can), and little Miss Rubes was driven all the way to the green by Torchwick (Joke! You know? Because he yelled "Fore!"… Dark humor…Dark, dark, golf-y humor).

If some of you are wondering about the flashbacks missing parts, that's totally normal; this is only the first part and I am putting in flashbacks whenever related information occurs in the "present" part.

Stay tuned, and to all of those who write as well as read…

Keep Writing

P.S. If anyone thinks they could help with improving the quality of this fic by means of better descriptions, ideas I did not think of, more suitable language, etc, please review and/or PM.

Yes, I would mention you in the chapter. Yes, it's kind of exactly like a Beta Reader.