[ → Bumblebee ← ]

  "Legends Scatter"

08

Taeyeon was walking around the garden hoping she would miraculously bump into Tiffany somehow. She wasn't in a rush to find her because she knew the girl ran away for a reason. Instead, she trailed along the paths of all the wonderful roses and tried to clear her head.

It was the spur of the moment, Taeyeon admitted. She might have called the faunus animals, but she didn't mean it anymore. If she wasn't so far from the dining hall, she would apologize to Sun as well. But she ultimately decided to prioritize Tiffany first.

But she couldn't find the girl anywhere.

She asked everyone she saw : "Have you seen a girl this tall? Long wavy black hair, gold eyes, cat ears?"

But everyone said the same thing : "No."

The rest of Team TIJR helped and looked around as well. Jessica and Taeyeon coincidentally bumped into each other and decided to search together. Eventually, they regathered in front of the school's airship dock.

Taeyeon's arm still felt painfully uncomfortable. She had gotten a quick check-up before she ran off again in search of Tiffany. Still not use to her new ability, she would avoid touching anything she felt would conduct electricity. Sadly, this included her prized sword too.

Instead of her usual appearance in which her sword laid beside her waist tucked in a scabbard, it was placed behind her back. When she had been walking around, she couldn't dismiss the strange looks she garnered. Perhaps it was because she kept her one-handed sword behind her back. Students seemed to only see double handed sword users to be doing that, so when Taeyeon passed by them, they cocked an eyebrow up when they saw a mingy and dull sword strapped loosely on her back.

Another reason could be was that she didn't wear any uniform or armor. Still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, she wore a red and black checkered sweater that was ripped at certain spots. Clearly not a fashion statement, when the wind blew by, it cooled Taeyeon inside out. Her left sleeve was rolled entirely up. It was bandaged up from the damage she had taken from Sun earlier and Taeyeon didn't feel like taking her sweater off either.

When she was gathering the flowers, she had scrapped both her knees, her left one taking the most damage, and like she had done with her sleeve, she rolled up her dirtied black pants just above the knee.

All in all, Taeyeon looked awful.

Checking her scroll, Jessica informed the team that it was close to lunch time.

"We can't look for Tiffany hungry and weak." Jessica gripped her rapier and then crossed her arms. "The search can wait, I must suggest we eat."

Despite Taeyeon's plea, everyone seemed to like the idea of grabbing a quick bite.

"After we eat, we can look for her again, okay?" Ice ruffled Taeyeon's head. "Come on. We'll get you some food. Then we can head to the cities. Maybe get yourself cleaned up then, hmm?" Taeyeon clenched her teeth and breathed out in defeat. With the thought of food, she realized how dizzy she was. When she woke up, she immediately went to the infirmary. The only time she went to the dining hall was to witness the food fight.

Eventually, Taeyeon mumbled in sore defeat and tagged along.

It would have been a fine Saturday for all of them if Tiffany hadn't left. It was the day after Tiffany's birthday. August held nothing back, the sun was out and blazing. Though tired from last night's activities, this didn't deter the leaderless team.

Normally, Taeyeon would be back at Bumblebee working her body to exhaustion. But ever since she had met Tiffany, she found herself leaning towards the fighting lifestyle day by day. Her boss didn't seem to mind it though and at certain times, even encouraged the enthusiastic fighter.

They searched all throughout Vale, each of them searching a specific district assigned to them. Then, at the end of the day, they all gathered at Bumblebee to discuss how their search went.

Sadly, none of them had a slightest clue as to where Tiffany might be.

"I visited and asked the Vale police to help us in our search." Jessica said with her head high. "Thanks to some connections I have, they accepted my request." She took her scroll out and pressed some buttons. "I received a message from them earlier, but unfortunately, they had no luck either."

The group sighed in unison. Jessica took the silence of the moment to mention how late it was.

Taeyeon wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. Or rather, Taeyeon felt she didn't deserve to say anything.

Afterall, it was her fault Tiffany ran away. She leaned back on her chair and gripped her arm tightly. Around her was Ice, Rosie, and Jessica. Team TIJR including Tiffany.

Where was Taeyeon in this story?

Looking at the customized weapons the team had, Taeyeon was once again reminded about her position.

She was just a girl who worked at a cafe. A girl who didn't even finish High School.

Jessica was arranging a driver to pick them up and take them back to Beacon. Then, she asked Taeyeon her plans for the night.

"Since it's the weekends, I suppose you can come stay with us. I mean, if you would like to." She offered.

"Yeah, we need to rest so we can search again tomorrow. If we still can't find her, we'll just have to wait." Rosie commented. "She just needs time. And I'm sure she'll be back on Monday. Tiffany would never miss class."

"She'll come back when she's ready. And when she does come back, we'll be waiting for her with big hugs." Curling her fingers in, Ice gave a toothy grin and a big thumbs up.

Taeyeon gave a weak smile before waving the group good-bye.

Rosie stuck her head out of the window and yelled back, "Don't worry! We just have to wait!"

....

.....

We just have to wait.

A month has passed. Taeyeon got off work as usual and got in line for the next airship to Beacon. Walking the now familiar steps of the road, within a few minutes, she was now in front of Team TIJR's dorm room.

Just before she could knock, a door behind her opened and she turned around. Just in front of Team TIJR was Team JNPR. However, only one person came out of the room.

It was the red-haired green goddess Tiffany had introduced to Taeyeon before.

"Hi Phyrra." Taeyeon kindly spoke.

"Oh!" Phyrra's surprise turned into a delightful smile. "Good evening Taeyeon. How have you been?" Taeyeon shrugged. "I see." Phyrra blankly replied. Though the two neutrally knew each other, they had never really had a conversation. Nevertheless, Phyrra tried to be friendly and continued the pointless conversation. "I understand you're trying to get into Beacon. Have you been training regularly?"

Taeyeon paused and bowed her head. Other than Team TIJR, she had basically lied to everyone that she was visiting to train with Tiffany to get into Beacon. Although this was partially true, it was mainly because of the simple fact that a few minutes with Tiffany in the morning was not enough. She shrugged again, paused, then sighed. "No I...I've stopped training."

"That's not good. Beacon is very difficult to get into, you shouldn't waste anytime." Phyrra said encouragingly.

"I know that..It's just..well, I haven't got a teacher to continue with." Taeyeon's sentence caused Phyrra's smile to turn upside down.  "Oh..I see." Phyrra stepped away and finally closed the door behind her. "...I'm sure she'll come back. In the meanwhile, you shouldn't slack off. When she comes back, you should show her how much you've improved."

"Thanks Phyrra..I appreciate it but.." Taeyeon pointed at her weapon still tucked behind her. Although Jessica and Rosie had been helping her and teaching her on how to control her semblance, she couldn't quite grasp the concept properly. Even til today, she was afraid to touch anything. "I can't even hold my weapon anymore."

Phyrra reached for her weapon and showed it to Taeyeon. "I understand. It'll take a while. Here, let me just show you something." Taking an admirable stance, Phyrra stuck her thumb out and closed one eye. Then in a fraction of a second, threw her javelin down the long hall. Before it could strike anything, with a dark glow, she pulled her hand back and the javelin flew back into her hands.

"Your semblance is polarity right?"

Phyrra nodded shakily. "It is. But don't tell anyone! It's always best when your enemies know little about you. So I suggest you keep your semblance a secret as well." She winked. "Keep the training up. Maybe we can get together and think of a weapon you can wield."

"I'd like that."

Soon after, Phyrra said her goodbyes and departed the hall. Taeyeon entered Team TIJR's room.

As usual, it was messy due to the sister's equipment lying about. Just as she entered, Taeyeon jumped to avoid a spiky sword Rosie had lazily dropped by the entrance. Slightly different than when she first came into the room, Ice had acquired more posters she splattered across the wall. In a disapproving contrast, Jessica had more paintings painted and mounted onto the wall. Rosie had bought more books for Tiffany and placed them on her bed waiting for her return.

The biggest difference of all however was -- Tiffany was not here.

She hadn't been here. A month has passed and it was now September. The first week of her disappearance was a complete disaster for the team and Taeyeon. They did what Rosie had said before, "We just have to wait.". They had believed she wouldn't miss class and waited patiently for that Monday, only to be intensely disappointed.

Soon, their enthusiasm became fear. Fear that drove them to each and every corner of Vale, yelling Tiffany's name, sheddings tears wishing she'd come back. Then the fear evolved into acceptance. Though their hopes hadn't been completely crushed, they accepted that Tiffany was gone. Whether or not she'd come back, they'd allow the future to show them.

Since Tiffany wasn't there, Taeyeon hadn't properly trained in weeks. With no motivation, she didn't dare try to wield her sword like before. Ice had encouraged her to continue on, offering her aid and tutorials, but Taeyeon kindly rejected all her offers.

Then, life began to feel dull.

Taeyeon still worked the same job at the same old cafe. It was on a windy day that something changed.

Taeyeon's boss, Yang, had walked out of her office with a letter in her hands. Guessing on her expression, she seemed to be stuck in a rut.

"Yang?" Taeyeon said wiping her hands. "Is everything alright?" Yang scanned the cafe and noticed the emptiness. It was Wednesday morning, so this wasn't anything new. Ignoring her worker's question, she walked to the front and flipped the sign to read CLOSED.

Once again, Taeyeon called her boss's name out.

"Sit down." Yang said ushering Taeyeon to a seat. "I have to talk to you about something. Kind of important."

"A-Alright.." Taeyeon said unsurely, nervousness crawling through her skin.

Once they were both seated, Yang started without breath. "My wife is coming back to Vale at the end of this year." Taeyeon put her face in her hand and leaned against the chair. "That's great Yang."

Yang shook her head. "She's coming back with someone." Taeyeon tried to stare at the clouds whistling by the city outside, still unsure on what the conversation was really about. Whether or not to be interested in it, Taeyeon couldn't tell. Still, she played along.

"Yang I don't--"

"My wife is a faunus." She randomly began. "We both graduated from Beacon together. Got married a little after, then I got into an accident. Couldn't fight for a while or do anything really. I was pretty useless. With the medical bills piling up, my wife went back to the battlefield to pay them off. It wasn't difficult to do. Huntresses get paid a lot for their hard work. Lots of compensation."

"Yang..." Taeyeon started again.

"No. Let me.." She sighed heavily. "Just let me talk. Please." Taeyeon eased off and nodded in understanding.

"When she paid off the bills, I thought she'd come home. Instead, she decided to stay out there. Hunting grimm and whatnot. She sent enough money and I got this place." She twirled her finger around the restaurant. "So that when she comes back, we could just relax." Yang paused for a really long time.

"She was suppose to come back last month, but she encountered someone." Taeyeon's eye twitched involuntarily as if it was a sign. It caught her ear the second time. The word Someone.

"Taeyeon, I'm sure you know her. She goes by the name Tiffany Hwang."

And then, the world stopped.

Taeyeon stopped. Her heartbeat skipped a beat. Giving Taeyeon no time to absorb the information, Yang shoved a letter in her face. With shaking hands, Taeyeon took it and read intensely.

The letter was written by Yang's wife who's name was now clear -- Blake. The first paragraph meant nothing to Taeyeon. It was a simple letter asking how Yang was doing and their daughter. There was one part that caught Taeyeon's eye however...

I know I promised to be back before summer ended, but something came up. In one of my compensation missions, I encountered a young faunus wandering the dangerous forest. Just like me, she had cat ears.

A faunus.

She trusted in me the moment she saw me. I brought her home that very night and she told me everything about her despite our relationship being complete strangers.

She told me she was a student at Beacon, just like we were, and that she was kicked out of her team due to personal affairs. I suspected it being the reason she was a faunus, and when she confirmed this, my heart dropped and I knew I just had to help her.

I've decided to train her here as she accompanies me to my missions. Being her mentor, I learned a lot about her. For a first-year student, she's incredibly skilled. I suspected she might have been the leader of her old team..but I didn't want to bring the topic up. Her name is Tiffany Hwang and she told me her ultimate goal. 

In order to show her team mates that she isn't just a weak faunus, she asked me to train her to be able to win the Vytal Festival. Do you remember Yang? We were in the Vytal Festival before too. We would have won if Ruby didn't abandon us to take on the Master Grimm herself! By the way, how's the rest of the team? I overheard Weiss was...

Taeyeon briefly skimmed through this part of the letter.

Anyway, I hope you understand why I've taken her to my wing. I'll be back just in time for the Vytal Festival. Poor thing, I hope I can train her enough to win. The Vytal Festival is tough, but I have no doubts with this young girl. 

I'll see you then. Tell our little bumblebee that I'll be back soon.

With much love,

Blake

"...That's not true.." Taeyeon angerily whispered. "She wasn't kicked out of her team..I.." I caused her to leave. Taeyeon returned the letter before she turned herself into the urge to crush it. "God damn it!"

"I know about your regular customer. Tiffany. Always orders the Bumblebee special right? She hasn't been coming in for the past month." Yang stated correctly. "Usually she sends me pictures..but she didn't this time. But I think you and I both know that's.."

"It's Tiffany." Taeyeon said strongly believing. "It's Tiffany. It has to be." Taeyeon tossed her head back, mentally stopping the tears from coming. Yang passed her a tissue out of respect and waited a while.

"I'm sure you've heard of the Vytal Festival." Yang took her scroll out and showed a picture of her in her younger days. As she looked at it, Yang explained the photo.

In the photo was Yang's team. On the far right was Yang happily posing for the camera with, Taeyeon guessed, Blake under her arms. Next to them was a shorter girl holding what seemed to be a trophy. In her hands, was another woman of elegant and admirable features shyly looking at the camera. Yang pointed at each and every one. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Altogether, they made Team RWBY.

"That was the Vytal Festival. Ruby won it, though technically we all won it." She scoffed as if the event held an unpleasant memory. "The Vytal Festival is held every year as an event inviting all Hunters and Huntresses across the world. If you read about it online, it seems pretty simple. Before the offical festival takes place, fighters fight for a spot at the Festival. Only 100 people can enter the Festival, so competition is tough. Our team was lucky to have made it altogether. Then they gather you all and spread you apart in a man-made arena full of Grimm. The goal is to find the Master Grimm and defeat him. Of course.." Yang sighed and leaned back.

"It isn't easy. There's only one Master Grimm to kill. Whoever the killer is wins the Festival. The thing is -- it only appears when there's 10 people left. Not only do you have to wipe out the hordes of Grimm trying to attack you, you also have to beware of fellow Hunters and Huntresses themselves. You can't trust anyone. The Vytal Festival saying is -- "Destroy everything you see.""

Taeyeon shivered in fright. She had heard about the Vytal Festival, mostly because the entire student population of Beacon was excited for it. But she hadn't heard about this. "Wait so..you have to kill..people?"

"What? Oh god no." Yang laughed. "Only students can enter the Festival. They wouldn't kill off the students. That's terrible. Basically what happens when your aura gets low, you get 'vaporized'. You become ethereal. Basically nobody can hurt you, but you can't hurt anybody either. The effect wears off when the Master Grimm is killed."

"I-I see.." Taeyeon's thoughts were jumbled up. But one thing spoke out to her the most..

"Lucky for us, the Vytal Festival is going to be in Vale this year." Yang placed her hands behind her back. "Ah, I haven't seen my wife in a while." Then she glanced at Taeyeon. "Now I'm guessing you know why I wanted to tell you this?"

"...Tiffany will be fighting in the Vytal Festival won't she?"

"Probably."

"...I want to join but.." She gripped her left arm. It's been a habit for a month now. Sometimes out of the blue, current would run through her arm and shock anything conductable close by. Luckily, it hasn't caused anything huge. "..I'm not even a student."

"..Taeyeon..how much do you like Tiffany?"

"Huh?"

"Answer my question. Would you fight in the Vytal Festival for her?"

Taeyeon opened , then with a grim smile, nodded.

"Then you better start training again, cause you and I are gonna train!" Out of excitement, Yang stood up and smacked Taeyeon on the arm. Not only did it hurt Taeyeon, it caused her to involuntarily activate her semblance causing her to electrocute her boss. "Ahh! I'm so sorry!"

"Damn!" Yang laughed. "Your semblance is electricity huh? We could work with that..definitely.." She rubbed her chin in a mischevious way and raised her brow. "Can't fully control it huh? You're just like Weiss.." She drifted off at the end. "If you're going to train with me, you're going to need a better weapon. You probably can't wield your metal sword properly anymore huh? I know just the person who can make you a weapon.."

Then with a heavy breath, Taeyeon smiled.

Taeyeon was at Bumblebee when Jessica called her.

"Taeyeon!" Jessica half-screamed through the phone. "Are you alright? You haven't been coming over lately."

Wiping the countertop and keeping the phone up, she replied. "Oh! Sorry. I've been busy with work lately. I've also been training again."

"Really? With who?"

"Ah well..you see my boss graduated from Beacon too. She's been helping me lately."

The two continued their conversation when Yang called Taeyeon from her office. Saying farewell, she ended the call and hopped inside.

"Oooh I'm so excited! I called over my team today just for old times sake! Ruby can help you make a weapon. It'll be great. That knucklehead has always been good with weapons." She softly laughed. Being informed of their arrival, Taeyeon made sure to clean everything extra nice. After the evening passed, Yang reserved the cafe for her teammates. 

Then, they came.

A knock on the door spread through the quiet cafe and within a split second, Yang raced to the door and opened it. Yang immediately jumped at her two teammates. She could hear a hiss of disgust under Yang's arm and then--

"Ow ow ow ow!!" Yang frowned as she backed away from the queen looking figure. If she remembered correctly, she was Weiss. Taeyeon rubbed her eyes when she saw crystals spiking out of Weiss's body at abnormal lengths. They were magic crystals. Dust crystals, specifically named. Yang grinned, still holding another girl under her arms. "Excited aren't you?"

"Shut up you fiend." A voice of high class echoed through the air. "These crystals aren't your doing."

"Hehehe." Another girl playfully hugged Yang back before disappearing into rose pedals. Like Rosie, her semblance seemed to be speed. She appeared next to Taeyeon in a swift second, giving Taeyeon a small heart attack before she forced a smile.

"Are you Taeyeon? I've already got your weapon set! I was so excited to hear your semblance was electricity. I've never seen someone with a semblance like that."

"Ruby, come back here and calm Weiss down." Yang groaned. Beyond the hectic appearance of their team, the warming and sisterly atmosphere brought a real smile to Taeyeon's face. She wanted Team TIJR to be like this again. She had ruined the team and she felt the weight of bringing Tiffany back on her tiny and shattered shoulders..

After formally introducing each other, Taeyeon then realized that she was in the presence of a legendary team. She had heard about them before, but she didn't think that they were Yang's teammates.

Ruby Rose, famously known for her amazing scythe wielding. Weiss Schnee, President of the Schnee Dust Company, not to mention one of the best Huntresses as well. She hadn't heard much about Yang until Ruby informed her that Yang use to be called the Fire Dragon due to her semblance being fire. Although Blake wasn't here, they mentioned her here and there.

Taeyeon was interested and learned about Weiss. Apparently during her school years, Weiss realized how dependent she had become in using dust that she voluntarily took herself to be experimented to become one with dust. After the intense procedure, Weiss could generate the power of dust to her will. The only side effect was, whenever Weiss was too emotional with something, crystals would spike out of her body. It didn't hurt her, but it definitely hurt anyone near her. So Ruby was there, Weiss's wife, to keep Weiss calm to the best of her abilities.

"So, Taeyeon." Ruby said with an excited smile. "Weiss and I made a weapon for you. I built the basic layout and Weiss improved it with her dust."

Taeyeon turned to Weiss to thank her when she was shrugged off. "Don't worry about it. It's just a favor I did for Yang." Taeyeon made a mental note to thank Yang again later on.

Ruby retrieved the weapon from the car they used and came back. It was wrapped around a white cloth and when Weiss did the honor of unwrapping it, Taeyeon was confused at it's concepts.

When Yang asked, Taeyeon specified she would like a one handed sword. But what was laid out in front of her, didn't look like a sword at all.

The handle was a different texture of somesort and the shape was rectangular. The edges were longer than the sword as it cut off at the end leaving two long lines. The weapon itself was transparent and looked like glass. With the eager faces of Ruby and Weiss, she picked it up.

It was incredibly light. Taeyeon swung it with ease but was still disappointed.

"What are you doing?" Weiss said crossing her arms. "Activate your semblance and direct it to the weapon." Mindlessly following orders, Taeyeon focused for a quick second and--

The sword sparkled in a blue-green light. Words spread across the transparent screen. With her semblance activated, Taeyeon finally understood the strange design. At the end where the sword shortly cut off, electricity ran through at incredibly scary speed. The sound thundered through the air, warning people of the weapon. Ruby hopped up and down. "Yes! It worked!" She jumped up and down and hugged her wife only to be stabbed by a crystal. 

"Woaaah..you really outdid yourselves." Weiss pushed Ruby back and lectured the girl. Then she directed her focus to Taeyeon. "It's the Schnee company's latest design. Specifically created to compliment your semblance." She sighed and said with a proud smile,

"It's a taser sword."

(Author's note) **Violent language ahead

MOTHER.ING.TASER.SWORD.

HOW COOL IS THAAATT?! Credit to whoever owns that picture lol it's actually a sword from a game I play called S4 League. Link here if you can't view it : http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2014/019/8/3/s4_league_taser_sword_by_xxvladki-d72tlz5.png

So yeah a lot of things going on in this chapter. First off, TIFFANY HAS BEEN MISSING FOR A MONTH. She's deathly afraid of what people would think about her being a faunus and decided not to return when she encountered another faunus, coincidentally Yang's wife, Blake. 

Taeyeon in return, feels responsible for making her leave. Despite wanting her back desperately, she hasn't trained because she lost the motivation to.

But Taeyeon has a chance to get her back! Only if she enters the deadly Vytal Festival.. It's going to be held at the end of the year and Taeyeon only has a couple of months to prepare. Not to mention she isn't even a student. Hmmm...

This chapter's poster is the original team TIJR is based off of, RWBY. I've decided to add them into this story much older than they are in the series, obviously, but if you actually read this amazing AU called Henceforward, link here : http://kumafromtaiwan.tumblr.com/henceforward%20AU%20catalog in that story Weiss does becoming 'living dust'. The characters of RWBY in this story will originate from the ideas of kumafromtaiwan's story Henceforward. If you have watched RWBY (you don't need to finish it since it's an entirely different story) you should definitely check this out. It's amazing and should be offical man. It takes place years after the original series and portrays team RWBY when they're older.

I apologize for any mistakes, I wrote this down all in one go and didn't even bother to read back lol. don't worry this story will still be fluffy c: as far as I know..this story might be 1x chapters long? Not sure. Hopefully by the next chapter the concept art of Taeyeon's weapon/armor will be done so I can upload it and stuff. Some bad action will be coming up soon~

God damn I didn't study for two of my tests just to update this ya'll better comment and upvote I swear--  

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to comment. Go do that. Like. right now. rawr.