FeugoFox42

So, normally this would be where I would put Chapter Beta - {insert person's name here}, and say how nice it is to have them being a Beta for my story.

"Normally" being the operative word.

But, after the first draft went across to my beta, I got so many edits that it became a joint effort to improve it. And boy, did it get improved.

So, as it says in the summary, it's with great pleasure that I can say that this story is written in joint collaboration with my writing partner, Clementine Davidson! I'm so stoked to be working with her, she is so amazing at what she does. She's even got her own P*treon, so it shows how much she cares about what she does and how much she loves it. At the very least, give her stories a read – her current ongoing one is a Bumblebee story, 'Fans and Girlfriends', and I've got to say, I'm loving it; at most, if you're feeling generous, follow her and support her on P*treon. All she asks is $1 or $2, no more.

With the formalities and shameless plugs out of the way, I'll hand you over to the woman of the hour herself!

Clementine Davidson

Fangirls and Fanboys, welcome!

If you came here from my own story, Fans and Girlfriends, then I'd like to thank you for reading that story. So… thanks a bunch, really means a lot to me ^^

Me and FeugoFox42 here are excited to give you the story we've been working our butts off on for a while.

Like Fox has mentioned, my role in this story originally is supposed to be nothing more than a "beta", but, being the nice person that he is, he allows me to write off a few words of my own. Fast forward after a few days… and I'm actively working alongside him. Yay! Now we're partners in writing!

Suffice to say, we're really excited to show you this story. I know I am. We have lots of fun writing this story, and we hope you guys will have loads of fun reading our story too!

So, in conclusion…

WELCOME TO THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS "THREE MASTERS"!

Hooo, boy. This will be one heck of a ride.

Cover Image: Created by me. It's mine. All mine! NO TOUCHY!

"But he attacked me!" Yang protested.

"Video footage and millions of viewers say otherwise," General Ironwood replied with a cool head, ultimately unconvinced by the weak reasoning the blonde brawler had given him in defence of her actions.

Weiss gestured towards her teammate, informing the Atlas Headmaster, "but Yang would never do that!" earning a "Yeah!" from her partner and Yang's sister in response. But all Blake could do was remain silent and unmoving throughout the whole ordeal, and all Yang could do was sigh.

"You all seem like good students," the General admitted as he paced slightly, "and the staff here at Beacon are fully aware that you would never lash out the way you did... under normal circumstances." The entire team looked despondent and the veteran Huntsman's wording, and what he said only made it worse for them. "What I believe, and hope this to be, is nothing more than the result of stress and adrenaline. When you're out on the battlefield, your judgment can become clouded in an instant. Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there. Even after the fight is past…"

"But I wasn't-"

"That's ENOUGH!" When the room fell silent at his stern outburst, he continued on. "The sad truth is, whether it was an accident or an assault, it doesn't matter. The world saw you attack an innocent student. They've already drawn their own conclusions. And it's my job to inform you that... you are disqualified."

Yang's shock at the news turned into miserable understanding as her lilac eyes, once full of joy and life, faded to a much more washed out shade as they looked to the ground, with Ironwood leaving the room.

"You guys believe me," she eventually asked. "Right?"

"Duh!" came Ruby's reply.

Weiss added to that, stating that "you're hot headed, but not ruthless."

But when Yang realised one of their number hadn't spoken, she uttered that teammate's name, hoping it was for simple reasons like zoning out that she wasn't contributing to the conversation and not… anything else. "Blake?" Turning her head to see that Blake's gaze was fixed on the brawler certainly took her by surprise, piercing amber eyes staring intensely at her. The Faunus turned her head away from the brawler after a long moment of unblinking scrutiny, earning a shocked look between Ruby and Weiss.

"I want to believe you…"

"Huh!?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"

Hearing her partner's words, how easily they came to her, Yang's eyes widened, tears forming instantly. "Blake?" she croaked out, a couple of tears falling from the lack of trust her partner had in her.

Ever since Initiation, Yang had sought to find the best in all of her teammates. It helped that she had a fifteen, nearly sixteen, year head start with her team leader also being her sister. Weiss was tough to crack, and even though to this day they weren't on the greatest of terms, they certainly had come a long way from the first night they knew each other, arguing way into the night.

They were at it for so long that the pair of them almost got a detention on their first day for not letting the others sleep. The only reason they stopped was because Weiss didn't want to start the year with such a poor representation of herself. As the team learnt later that semester, the standards set by her father she had to keep up to stay at Beacon were ridiculously high, and with that came a much more lenient outlook on Weiss' behaviour.

And then there was Blake.

The enigma wrapped in a mystery, all tied off with a bow. For once, in a literal sense.

She was always so mysterious when they first met. During Initiation, she was hiding from everyone and chose to show herself and solidify her partner for four years (everyone may underestimate her based on her figure and hair colour, but it was pretty obvious to Yang that Blake chose her, rather than coming across one another through happenstance like nearly all the other pairings in their own and previous years.)

And when she opened up, hoo boy. So much passion underneath the surface. So much drive to do what is right. It was with that passion and drive that she and Yang got closer.

Sure, as partners they were naturally paired up with one another on many different things. But it was because of that constant pairing up that they truly got closer than many others did, especially in such a short time. Yang had never felt happier than the days where both she and Blake had done the tasks at hand, then slipped away from their teammates and just had a day to themselves.

They had grown to appreciate one another's company, sometimes even to the point of craving it. And no time more than when they were feeling down, or when something was weighing on their minds. They would go a quiet corner of the library, or an empty classroom, or - best of all - to their secret place; a lone flower garden on the Beacon grounds, hidden in the shadow of the larger buildings on the Academy grounds, away from everybody else.

No one could hear them, they'd be completely isolated from the goings on around them. And they'd cut loose. They spill everything on their mind at that moment - good, bad, inappropriate, hilarious, embarrassing, anything and everything.

They grew close. They shared secrets and feelings with one another.

They trusted each other with their deepest, darkest secrets. The ones that shaped them into who they are as people.

And so here Blake was, taking something that should have been so easy to side with her, and she was hesitating on her choice.

To say Yang felt broken would be accurate, but only to a certain degree. The part of her left unbroken was frustrated, even angry, at how easily Blake had said that.

"How can you say something like that?" Weiss protested. "Yang would never lie to us!"

Blake glanced at Weiss, seemingly passing a tiny amount of judgement on the petite Heiress before beginning her explanation. "I had someone very dear to me change." Ironically - or not, depending on your stance on the matter - Yang felt the same way about Blake at this very moment. "It wasn't in an instant, it was gradual - little choices that began to pile up."

'What, like you not believing me?' came Yang's internal thoughts, down heartened by the accusation sent her way.

"He told me not to worry."

'Yeah, and so did you, Blake,' the blonde thought to herself again, fists gripping her bed cover now.

"At first they were accidents, then it was self-defence."

'And so was this!' Yang practically shouted at her in her head.

"Before long, even I began to think he was right." Tears fell down the blonde's face freely now, not stopped by any emotional barriers. "This is all just... very familiar. Bu-"

"Get out."

With those two little words, the entire atmosphere changed in the Team RWBY dorm room.

Ruby saw it first, having been the only one to experience something like this before. She started cowering in fear, bringing her exceptionally un-normal knees up to her chest and wrapping herself up in her cloak for protection, just like many years ago. And just like her mom did when she was still around.

It was Summer's way of promising that, when the cloak was around her, Ruby would be safe, as if her mother was giving her a warm, loving hug.

She could already feel the anger seeping through Yang. She had never seen her big sister this angry before. At least, not at a person, and not for any reason other than touching or cutting her hair - accidentally or intentionally. And, despite being both a team leader and a future Huntress… Ruby was terrified of her right now.

Weiss hadn't seen Yang be that harsh and blunt, but she had certainly seen that. It was one of the many reasons that acted against Weiss' wish to study under the eye of anyone willing to be paid to do so by Weiss' father.

At this point in her life, she knew what Jacques could be like under the right (or, I guess wrong?) circumstances, and she wouldn't have been surprised if suddenly a new teacher came in at Atlas who looked far more like a businesswoman than a lecturer - mostly because they would have been and were sent with express instructions to monitor Weiss.

But Blake reacted in a far different way to the others.

Her Faunus hearing helped her hear the small, near inaudible gasp coming from Ruby. She noticed the lean away from Yang by Weiss, however small it may have been. But she did nothing of the sorts.

"What?" she muttered, still trying to process what Yang had told her. At least, she assumed it was directed at her.

"Get out of here, Blake." Yang's head snapped up, revealing not only red eyes from crying, but crimson irises from rage. "Now!"

"Yang, what has gotten into you?" The blonde ignored the call of confusion from Weiss, missing the trace of panic in her voice and instead glaring at her partner.

"Some partner you are, Belladonna. Some friend." She spat the last word out, disgusted in that moment in time at referring to the woman in front of her as such. "You were supposed to be there for me. Be by my side through thick and thin, Blake. Yet here you are, bailing at the first sign I did something remotely off."

"Yang, I was trying to say tha-"

"No!" the girl said, rising to her full height and taking a quick yet deliberate step forward. Ruby practically yelped in fear, latching onto her partner like a terrified child. And while Weiss wasn't normally a huge fan of personal space being invaded, given the situation they were all in, she was willing to let it slide.

Seeing Yang go from 0 to 100 in battle could be a spectacle.

Seeing Yang go from 0 to 100 against one of her own team, and Weiss finally realised why she was such a force to be reckoned with.

"How could you? I love you, Blake. You know damn well that I do. And I thought you loved me too. And yet here you are comparing me to your past, comparing me with someone who drove you away from your old life! I need you, Blake! Damn it, I need you now more than ever! Why aren't you here for me?! Why can't you ever be there for me when I need you the most?!"

Blake didn't answer. Not that she didn't want to, but because she felt like there was nothing to say. Sure, the offhanded way Yang dropped that they were in a relationship to their teammates was irksome to her - and judging by their faces, very surprising to Ruby and Weiss - but she felt more about how Yang spoke about her actions.

'Why can't you ever be there for me…?' Blake had been there, on multiple occasions. After the Breach, Yang confided in Blake that she was beaten to near death by the small girl with the umbrella from when they fought the Paladin Mech, and that she was pretty sure she was saved by her mother. Did that mean nothing to her? It was heart-breaking to think that Yang would forget that, just so that she was painted in the good light, and that Blake was painted in the negative. And so, Blake remained silent, not wanting to escalate things further.

That silence said it all for Yang.

"That's what I thought. You're just like the rest of them." The real anger wasn't there anymore, replaced instead with a sad acceptance of the bleak truth. Blake felt it too.

Yang had trusted her with the knowledge of her birth mom's departure from her life when she was still a baby, and the time Ruby's mom died when they were both much younger and she had to take over looking after her sister when her dad fell into a depression. Yang was comparing Blake at this exact moment with people throughout her life that just left her. It was a harsh comparison, but Blake figured Yang couldn't be reasoned with right now, and so the comparison would have to stick.

"Just leave me alone. All of you." Blake was out of the door faster than anyone, brief footsteps clicking along the floor left at the end of the corridor. Anyone with Faunus hearing would have heard the onyx haired beauty starting to cry the moment she rounded that corner, the guilt of it all finally hitting her. Weiss and Ruby took a little longer leaving, hoping that Yang just said that to see if people would go, or stay with her. "Please."

So many thoughts were rushing around in Yang's head at that moment. The fact she ruined Team RWBY's chances at a shot at the Vytal Tournament trophy single handed lingered in her mind. As did the fact that her actions will have negative ramifications for her and the team once the rest of the Academies had gone home - she was thinking at least a week's worth of Goodwitch detentions for the team, more for her.

But downscaling, she thought about how everyone was going to feel about her.

Team JNPR might distance themselves from Team RWBY completely, all because they wouldn't want to be near Yang. Even Nora, her Weight Training Buddy, would find someone else. It didn't matter if they wanted to be with her; she didn't want to be with them. Not right now. Not when she was like… this.

Weiss would return to being harsh and uncaring towards Yang, just as she was at the start of the year. Over time, she used the term "brute" for Yang in jest, or with endearment. Now, it had to be used in a literal sense again. Because of what she did.

Ruby, her own sister, would no longer look up to her. Sure, in the past, she'd disapprove of things Yang had done, like stealing cookies from the cookie jar, or lying to her about where she had been going on those late nights. But now, it could be the turning point in their relationship where Yang would be replaced as Ruby's role model. Because of what she did.

And speaking of relationships: her own girlfriend. Would they even be a thing now? With the way they acted to one another, maybe not. Could they ever mend themselves after this? 'Will there still be an 'us'?'

Ruby's arm raised to go and comfort her sister, but Weiss stopped it. "Come on Ruby. Let's go find our other teammate before she goes and does something stupid. Again." Weiss moved out of the room, waiting just outside of the door for Ruby.

Eventually, Ruby got up and trudged her way over to the door. "I love you Yang," she said as she looked back at her sister.

"…" With no reply from her sister, Ruby slowly shut the door with a dejected look on her innocent face, leaving the broken blonde bruiser to stew in her own emotions for as long as she needed.

Everything had changed. Not for the better.

And it was all because of what she did.

"... I'm such a fool."

FeugoFox42

Well, there we are. First part of the prologue done. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we did writing it. If it didn't catch your attention, we are sorry, but thanks for reading this far. If it did, see you in the next part of the prologue.

Clementine Davidson

I'll have to admit, for a first impression, this… could've been… different.

I know this isn't much, but we wanted the first chapter to really emphasize what will eventually be the one of the main plot of the story. We also didn't want to overwhelm you guys with too many information in just one chapter, we want to take this slowly to really build the story.

For now, this is all we can offer you. At first glance, nothing really seems important had happened, but, the slight difference in both Blake and Yang's actions and thoughts here will play a big role in what will happen in the future.

Especially Yang with her thoughts and actions.

FeugoFox42

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated.

Clementine Davidson

Thanks for reading our story! We really thank you for doing this! We promise the next chapter will be even better than this!

But, most importantly…

Bananas.