Chapter 11

Yang Xiao Long POV

Listening to Ozpin announcement, I couldn't be happier with who was on my team. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and I had all fought together against the Nevermore and it had been awesome. During the fight working together has just felt... Right. We really came together, and I felt we had great team synergy. Thinking of the future I can't help but be filled with an expectation that we would be one of the best teams of Beacon. It also looks like us sisters were going to continue to be together as well.

As we were strolling together as a happy team heading back to the waiting room, I heard the Headmaster call Cloud up onto the stage.

Cloud had been with us during the most intense parts of the initiation test. The team that gets him was going to be really lucky. I saw for myself how good he was in a fight and he had that awesome support ability that gave me a boost. I would have loved to have Cloud on my team for that alone. If you could choose who could be on your team, I'm sure Cloud would be a first pick for most people.

Which was why I was extremely shocked when Ozpin said that Cloud would be operating solo and only be assigned to teams who need an extra person or a spare. Thinking back to how Cloud had saved Ruby and his ability to handle himself so well during the fights, I guess he would be skilled enough to be on his own. The headmaster should know what he's doing too.

Soon after the announcement ended Cloud came back to the waiting room. Still in a happy mood I couldn't help but try and tease him a bit.

" Wow Cloud! I don't think I've ever heard of someone being a one-person team at Beacon. Guess Ozpin thinks your too awesome for a team. "

To my shock he didn't look that happy, shrugged at my comment and walked past me to leave. I thought I'd get an embarrassed smile, a blush or at least he would say something. Instead he pretty much just left my hanging.

I couldn't help but feel confused as earlier before we had all been happily chatting together. However, now that he was announced to be working solo, he had just brushed me off with a rather cold attitude.

" Jeez... Wonder what's wrong with Cloud? "

Turning to look back at my team I get another surprise and see the disapproving look on my partner Blake.

" Yang... You were being a bit insensitive". The look on my face must have told her I clearly didn't understand.

" Look Yang, just before Cloud was with us talking happily about how great it would be to team up together. Now we are all on a team together except for Cloud who has been left out. Not only that, Cloud isn't going to be on anyone's team. When you made that comment, he could have taken it as you rubbing it in. "

" There's also the added complications of being solo. Beacon Academy's test are typically designed for a four-person team where you can only pass when you work together. I'm not sure what they'll do in Cloud situation, but this could mean that he has to achieve what you would expect from a team by himself. ", added Weiss.

Listening to both Blake's and Weiss's explanation, I finally began to understand what I may have accidentally done. The unsettling feeling of guilt began to set in.

Putting myself in Cloud's position I can see myself feeling how Blake and Weiss had described.

I hadn't meant to make Cloud feel bad and just said what came to mind. Cloud was a good guy and he hadn't hesitated to jump in to help my sister Ruby when she was in trouble.

Biting my lip I decided I needed to make this right and clear the misunderstanding. "Alright... I guess I kind of screwed up there. I'm going to catch up to Cloud to fix this, so I'll meet the rest of you girls back at our dorm. "

Not bothering to wait to hear what they had to say after that, I ran off to chase after Cloud. Entering the hallway, I looked around only to catch a glimpse of spiky blonde hair go around the corner at the end of the hall. Following him I go around the corner to see him walk out the door and go outside. Running out the door I yell out his name to catch his attention.

Turning around I see the surprise on his face to find that I'm here walking up to him instead of with my team. Once I'm in front of him I see that he is back to staring at me with his typical blank expression. I don't like apologizing, but I steel my determination to do it.

" Cloud... I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier as it might have been insensitive. I didn't mean it in a bad way, and I didn't realize until Blake and Weiss explained. I just wanted to let you know that I would loved to have you in our team and I'm surprised you aren't on one. "

"... It's fine Yang. I'm surprised too but I think Ozpin has his reasons why. "

He still doesn't seem to be happy but at least I've cleared up any misunderstandings. " Well if you ever need anything you can come to Team RWBY for help."

Hmm, maybe I should have talked to the team before saying that but I'm sure they would have agreed.

"Thanks Yang", Cloud says with a small smile.

I should head back to my dorm room to see the rest of the girls. Then I realize I don't know where the dorms are. I hadn't bothered to look at a directory map and it was really only my second day at Beacon academy. Cloud was probably heading back to his dorm room and seemed to know where he is going so I could ask him. Only to be surprised when he points at the building in the opposite direction where we had been heading.

Unable to suppress my curiosity, " Thanks Cloud, but where were you heading off to?"

" I wanted to clear my mind for a bit. Was thinking of exploring Vale. Haven't had a chance yet"

"Oh, how were you going to get to the city? There aren't any air ships scheduled to fly to the Vale for the rest of the day."

" Ah I have a dust motorcycle I was going to use. "

Oh my... Other than Ember Celica, my next most prized possession is my yellow and black dust motorcycle Bumblebee. Racing on Bumblebee was one of my favorite past times, but I had it stored at the moment. Hearing how Cloud's bike was here I couldn't help missing Bumblebee and I wanted to know what Cloud's bike looks like. A solution comes to mind at that moment and I immediately begin to execute my cunning plot.

"Well Cloud, I want to make it up to you for earlier. I just happen to be pretty familiar with Vale so I can be your tour guide and show you some cool spots"

"..."

His slight frown told me was quite hesitant. Time to seal the deal.

I get close to him and give him my best puppy eyes. "It'll make me feel better if you let me do this for you... "

" Alright... Thanks Yang". It was quite a half-hearted thanks which meant he probably didn't mean it. Oh well, Cloud might not know it, but he was in for an adventure tonight.

" Good, now lead the way handsome! I guess I'll be the one taking you out on a date". Laughing at his dumbfounded expression, I started pushing his back to urge him to move faster.

Headmaster office - Beacon Academy

" Thank you everyone for joining me in this meeting."

Inside my office with me was Glynda, Garth and general Ironwood through virtual conferencing. Ironwood couldn't be here physically as he had his own Huntsman academy to run in Atlas. " You didn't tell me much about why we're meeting Ozpin. "

" No time for any pleasantries general? It's been quite some time since we last spoke."

" He ain't the only one that wants this meeting started. Let's get to the point." Shaking his head, I can see Garth didn't want to stay longer than he needed to.

That comment by Garth also earned Glynda's glare who felt he was being rude. Garth blunt personality has always made it so the two of them didn't get along that well.

" We are here today to discuss the peculiarities of one of my newest students, Cloud Strife."

At the mention of Cloud's name I see Garth immediately tense up from his previous relaxed posture.

" He has demonstrated abilities that have been unique enough to catch my attention and possibly our adversary as well. "

I then turned on a virtual projection that showed a recorded video that contained a collage of Cloud fighting the Grimm during the initiation test.

" Cloud has demonstrated the ability to fire lightning bolts, heal and enhance others as well as other energy-based attacks. All without the use dust."

The room was silent at the implications.

" Could his abilities be derived from his Semblances? It looks like he has a few abilities that create electricity. ", questioned Ironwood.

" Not very likely to be from his Semblance because they are just too varied and different from one another. An electrical semblance although rare, is still documented enough that some of his abilities would not make sense. Especially without the use of elemental dust. "

" Maybe Cloud just has an undocumented Semblance unique to him? ", questioned Glynda.

" Perhaps Glynda, but it's the combination of other strange abilities that creates concern. Such as his illness which he calls Geostigma. ".

The virtual projection then changed to show pictures of the visible dark splotches on his skin.

" Searching our databases, we found nothing called Geostigma and the symptoms don't match anything existing. Interestingly, the only way Cloud has been able to treat it is through consuming Lightning Dust Crystal. "

" Impossible. Human or Faunas aren't capable of absorbing the energy from Dust Crystals like that. " Ironwood wasn't the only one with a look of disbelief, Glynda was equally stunned at the revelation that Cloud could eat Dust Crystals. One of the most volatile of all of the elements as well.

" I've seen him do it myself while he was in our infirmary. Whether he is human or faunas is also up for debate. He has shown the ability to hide his Faunas traits which are wings. What's strange is that they aren't contained within his body but de-materialize into particles"

The video then changed to one of Cloud de-materializing his wings in the infirmary.

"What are you suggesting Ozpin? " Ironwood and Glynda were both at a loss for what all of this means.

"We know that who ever is supplying the White Fang Extremist are taking in children for experimentation. So far, we have not been able to discover who the perpetrator or organization conducting the experiments are. However, we have been able to recover the bodies of what we assumed are the failed experiments. Investigating their cause of demise has shown that it was attempts at genetic manipulation focused on changing or enhancing their abilities. "

I paused for a moment to let the disturbing information sink in while changing the video to show a DNA graph.

" When Cloud was brought to us, he was injured. However, for some reason his wounds weren't healing so we took some samples to conduct tests and see if we could determine what was stopping his healing. Examining his DNA we discovered that it had been significantly tampered with... His strange ability to hide his wings could be a result of that. "

" My investigative team on the White Fang have found that they are trying to figure out a way to hide to their Faunus traits. One of the biggest challenges for the White Fang is gathering information because their loyal operatives are all Faunus with obvious traits that make it impossible for them to go undercover. I've heard that they've been conducting experiments to see if they can get around this but haven't found any success. ", added General Ironwood with a solemn expression.

" Could Cloud be a white Fang operative trying to spy on us? ", suggested Glynda.

" Cloud ain't one of those bastards. ", spat out Garth in anger.

" I'm just trying to see this from different angles. He could be acting innocent to fool us.", Glenda replied back with annoyance.

" We're talking about the kid without him around. I don't like this and don't think its right. I've been with him for six months before and not once has he shown himself to hate humans or want to hurt anyone. In fact this could be helpful information for Cloud. It could help the kid possibly get some of his memories back. "

" Calm down Garth. I don't think Cloud is a danger which is why I had allowed him into my academy. When you originally asked me to look into Cloud I had Qrow follow him from a distance those times you had him leave the village. I thought that he might show different behavior when away from public eye but so far, he hasn't shown any suspicion behavior. "

Ironwood picking up on Garth's last statement, " The boy has an issue with his memories? "

Nodding my head, " Yes, he seems to be missing most of his memories from before six months ago. From what Garth has shared, Cloud has needed to relearn a lot of basic information such as what is Dust, what are Huntsmen, as well as how to read."

" If it is true that he has been experimented on then the memory impairment may possibly be a side-effect from the experimentation done on him.". Ironwood's speculation was a possible explanation.

" Our test results indicate that his Geostigma has also been found to be a genetic disease and not a viral one. "

" What could be the goal of the experiments done to him then headmaster? ", asked Glynda in confusion.

" I believe that Cloud may be an experiment on trying to create someone with the abilities of a maiden artificially using Dust. We know our adversaries are very interested in obtaining the abilities of a maiden. Would it not be possible that they would try to artificially create those powers through experimentation? "

" That is a very bold guess Ozpin. I can't imagine what they would have to do to make that a remote possibility. "

" There has been extensive genetic change and damage to Cloud. The fact that he is functioning and normal is a miracle. As evident by Clouds abilities they may have found some success based on his varied abilities. However their chances of recreating success is probably abysmal as honestly it was probably luck that Cloud survived. "

" As insane as that sounds ... it does potentially explain things. Obviously his Geostigma sickness shows that it didn't work along with the damaged memories. Still if our adversary were to find out that he roaming freely there could be danger. Perhaps we should quarantine him for study. What ever was done to him we could potentially learn from and use for good instead of evil. "

" The kid hasn't done anything wrong. You are not locking him up to be a test subject." Garth practically hissed. " He ain't going to come willingly either if what Ozpin said about him being experimented on is true. Hell, he freaks out when you mention the word Test."

" I have to agree with Garth. Cloud has not done anything to warrant being locked up and he has only helpful to those around him since he was discovered. He exhibits traits and a personality that makes him a potentially great Huntsman in the making. Cloud is also my student and I will protect him as necessary. "

"Fine... I disagree but won't force the issue. However, we should still keep a close eye on him. If his memories were to ever return he could potentially be a threat. In addition, so far this has mostly been speculation. Do you have anyway to prove any of what you said is true about Cloud?"

Grabbing the remote controlling the visual projection I changed it to show an image of a thin man in a white science lab coat with pale skin and long black hair. It was a blurry image but you it gives you a rough sense of what he looks like.

" Although we don't know who is completely responsible for the experiments or their overall plans, Garth who has been doing his own investigations was able to acquire this image that we believe could be one of the scientists connected. I am planning on sharing it with Cloud to see if it may trigger any memories or if he has any helpful information to share. "

Burger joint by the Ocean

Looking at the waves crashing onto the beach I couldn't help but think about how its been a long time since I've seen the ocean.

"Cloud you going to eat those fries? ". I could see that Yang was very eager for me to answer this question. Seeing how much she liked them I decided to just pass her all of my remaining fries which she happily received.

We were currently sitting in the outside patio of a fast-food burger joint by the ocean beach near Vale. Since it was already fairly late into the day, the tour of the city was more of a quick drive through the different neighborhoods of Vale rather than in depth exploration. In the end, Yang had wanted to take me to one of her favorite spots to eat dinner and relax and that's how we ended up here.

" You never told me why this is one of your favorite spots Yang. ". Having just finished off the fries, Yang was looking pretty content as we watched the sun set over the ocean together. We had arrived at the perfect time for this spectacular view.

" Well I grew up on a large island called Patch which is west of Vale. Living there I could easily see the ocean all the time. Seeing the ocean like this just reminds me of home and growing up with Ruby so that's why I like it." Yang's gentle smile told me that she had fond memories of Patch." Say Cloud, where did you grow up? Your so good at fighting too. Which Academy did you go to? I went to Signal on Patch before coming here to Beacon ".

I didn't want to lie to her, but after thinking for a moment I decide to stick to what I had shared with Garth and Elizabeth before.

" I have a ... memory problem. I don't remember much of anything about Remnant before six months ago when I was found by a Huntsman named Garth and taken to a village called Lightning Keep. To answer your questions though, I remember growing up in a small town called Nibelheim which was burned down later. I also have memories of being a mercenary and I guess they've stuck with me like muscle memory or subconsciously or what ever so that's how I know how to fight. "

"...". Yang froze in shock from what I shared. " Oh, I'm sorry to hear about your memory Cloud. I guess you might not know, but do you remember if you have any family? "

" Not too much to say about my family. I do remember that my mother passed away during the Nibelheim fire. I'm pretty much on my own now. " Talking more about this was only going to bring down the mood. " Tell me about your family Yang. "

" Well... Ruby's my half-sister if you didn't know. We share the same dad but I was born from a different mother". Yang looked down as she fidgeted with her burger wrapper before giving me a shrug. " My biological mother left us shortly after I was born. "

Crumpling up the burger wrapper into a ball she then pitched it into a garbage bin not too far away from us before looking back out at the ocean.

" I've always wanted to find her and ask her why she left us. " Yang quietly muttered. " She was a pretty famous huntress back in the day. Right now, she's missing and no one I know has seen her but I'm sure she's alive and I'll find her someday. "

Sinking into her chair with a sigh, " Jeez Cloud. I didn't mean to bring down the mood by talking about all this. "

I could see that finding her biological mom was important to Yang. " Do you have a picture of her? I'll let you know if I ever see her. "

Yang seems a bit surprised before she smiles at me, " I do actually ". Shen then takes out her scroll to show me an image of a woman I try to memorize. Long black hair and surprising blood red eyes. If I needed to describe her with two words, it would be beautiful and deadly.

" Thanks a lot Cloud... If you ever need anything you can always come to me. " She emphasizes her point by jabbing a thumb at herself with a confident smile. " Since you lost your memories, we'll just have to make better ones to replace them! We are both going to be at Beacon for the next four years so we'll have plenty of time to make them. "

A now comfortable silence falls between us as we enjoy the ocean view. The whole adventure together with her had actually been really ... nice. Driving around the city and then coming here for burgers while watching the ocean had been enjoyable.

" Hey Yang ... Thanks for spending time with me this evening. It's been great ", I said with a smile.

Smiling back at me, " Yea, it's been good. We should start heading back to Beacon before it gets too late. Oh, just so you know, the gates will be locked when the sun sets so you'll need to drive us a little faster".

"..."

The only way to get back to Beacon Academy before night sets would be to drive recklessly fast. Somehow I think that is exactly what Yang wants and what she had planned from the start.

Yang Xiao Long - Team RWBY Dorms

I couldn't help but chuckle at what just happened earlier with Cloud while walking back to my dorm to meet up with my team

I had lost track of time while we were spending time together. It was only after we finished eating at the burger joint that I realized that we really should have headed back to Beacon earlier. At that point the only way Cloud could get us back into Beacon Academy before gates closed was to rush us here on his dust motorcycle. What happened next was incredibly shocking.

Cloud had actually started speeding and racing down the highway to get us back home on time. As an unexpected twist to our night, the local Vale Police Force had started giving chase. Only to end in my amusement when Cloud thoroughly ditched them in his dust. It was an absolutely unexpected but thrilling way to end the night. Seriously, Cloud might be as good at me at riding a bike.

I make a mental note to challenge Cloud to a race with Bumblebee in the future as I enter the dorm.

Walking in the first thing I notice is that the beds are stacked on top of each to create bunk beds that don't quite look secure. However, what concerns me right now isn't the beds, but the three girls sitting on them and staring at me unhappily.

"Uh... Hello girls. How are you all doing? "

Their response is to continue to stare at me in disapproval for a few moments.

Unable to resist anymore, Ruby broke the silence. "Yang, as team leader I demand you tell me where you went! I know you went to apologize to Cloud, which is good, but we just formed our teams and you didn't even stick around for our first team meeting. You've been gone for hours! "

" Well ... "

I then began telling them about how I had apologized to Cloud and cleared up any misunderstandings between us. That it had to me being his tour guide for Vale as an apology. The different places that we went and the ocean stop. They were quite surprised to hear that Cloud had memory problems and the sad bits that he did remember. I finished by letting them we lost track of time and rushed back.

Weiss who hadn't said a word the whole time and just listen finally decided to speak. " Yang, tell me if I understood this correctly. The reason why you didn't stick around for our first team meeting is because you decided to go on a little date with Cloud.".

"Err... Well... It wasn't so much a date as it was me and Cloud just yanging out! ."

"..."

I was attempting to lighten and defuse the tension in the air with my brilliant little pun. Sadly, the silence I received told me they had no sense of humor.

"Hey, I also did send you all a quick scroll message that I would be back in a few hours before I left."

Somehow I don't think my extra comment helped with the situation.

"Gah, well your forgiven this time since your here now and you were only gone a few hours. I'm glad that you addressed things with Cloud. He's a good person. ", said Ruby with a huff.

" It's sad to hear that Cloud is amnesiac and been that way for the last six months. I never would have guessed it. The way he uses his abilities during the initiation test is as if he has been training for a long time. ", Weiss stated with a wondering look on her face.

" Not to be mean or anything but it doesn't seem like Cloud had an easy past based on what he shared. In fact some people would even prefer if they don't remember their past anymore.", Blake mentioned sadly.

" Well either way you were right to tell him that he can come to us for anything Yang. That's what friends are for! ". No one on the team disagreed with Ruby's statement.

A few days after initiation

Concentrating I began to channel my mana to get ready to try and cast a spell. Once I felt like I had stored enough mana I began the process of trying to cast Barrier without the materia to aid me. Channeling the mana around my body I willed it to solidify into a defensive protection that if done correctly, should halve any incoming damage. Finally, I felt it work and a weaker version of Barrier was in place around my body. However, it had taken a little more than half of my overall mana in order to cast. Checking the Barrier effectiveness, I'd estimate that it would only block one-tenth of the damage instead of halving it if casted with materia.

This was a disappointing result, how frustrating.

When I had thought back to what happened during the initiation test, I had realized that my lack of Aura defense was a serious weakness. Before coming to Beacon, my only experience fighting other Aura users had just been Garth. However, during initiation when I had grouped together with other students to run away from and ultimately fight the Death Stalker and Nevermore, it had opened my eyes to the vastly different weapons of Remnant.

Nearly everyone my age was using some sort of gunblade type weapon. It really made me realize what Yang comment mean when she said that I was a traditionalist. It seems both myself and Garth are the exception rather than the norm as we both stuck to what I consider traditional standard weaponry.

The issue here is that gunblades added an extra element of danger that I had to worry about. That is getting shot up close. Parrying bullets and taking the occasional bullet hit hasn't ever been too much of an issue for me. However, gunblades always have an opportunity to shoot you point blank with each strike depending on the weapon. Even I would have a really hard time if I keep taking shotgun shots to the chest point blank every time I block an attack.

My idea to help with this weakness was to figure out how to use my old spell Barrier. Unfortunately, it just wasn't good enough with the massive mana consumption for a relatively weak improvement in defense. I would be better off using the mana to attack and focus on prevention of damage as opposed to taking the damage. Silently sitting in my room I considered what I could do. One idea was to boost the defensive power of Barrier by restricting it to critical locations on my body where a hit would be a fatal blow. Reducing the coverage and focusing it could help it use less mana and improve its defense. Not something I've ever had to try to do before but it could be a potential fix.

Another possible solution would be to use a Lightning Dust Crystal and see if I could somehow power the spell directly with the Dust Crystal instead of using my own mana. I hadn't tried it before because I knew how volatile Dust Crystals are. However, I've always felt as if materia and Dust Crystals are really similar. Maybe I could use a Dust Crystal like materia to make it easier to cast spells. This was a serious enough issue that it might be worth taking the risk of having a Dust Crystal explode on me. Using cure I could probably survive any accidents... I think.

Either way I was done experimenting with Barrier at the moment since I was feeling pretty drained. Over the next few days I was going to need to buy some Lightning Dust Crystal's for my Geostigma because I'm running low. I had yet to experiment to see if other Dust Crystals helped my Geostigma the same way as Lightning ones do. However, it was because I was worried that it might only work with lightning element and the other elements would just explode inside my body.

Even a full power cure isn't going to fix that most likely.

Interrupting me from my thoughts I hear my scroll ping. I had found it pretty amusing that what people called scrolls here in Remnant were pretty much the same as my cell phone back in my world. Checking the notification it told me that Ozpin had requested a meeting with him at his office.

Maybe Ozpin wants to explain how being a solo Huntsman in a school of teams was going to work? Well at least I get a whole room to myself and don't have to share with three other people.

Changing into the uncomfortable Beacon Academy student uniform I left my room to head to the headmasters office to see Ozpin. To my surprise I see Team RWBY waiting outside the elevator door as well when I get there.

"Hi Cloud! We got messaged to see the headmaster. Did you get a message from the headmaster too? ", said Ruby as soon as she saw me.

"Maybe it has something to do with the Nevermore we fought during initiation? ". Weiss suggested a possible reason. Still, I don't remember anything about the Nevermore being all that unusual. If anything, it might be because he has questions about my abilities that I had displayed. Honestly, I could only speculate.

Suddenly the doors opened and Glynda beckoned us in.

Author Notes:

What do you think of Yang? Do you hate her or like her? Please let me know in the review whether you would want to see more of her.

Also, what do you think of Ozpin's interpretation of Cloud abilities? Does it make sense why he would think of Cloud the way he does to you?