Stalking Shadows: An Omake

Taylor

"- versus Taylor, of team RWBYT," Glynda announced to the class.

I sighed heavily, shaking my head at the sadistic anticipation my bugs saw on my opponent's face.

I had known that I would eventually have to fight her; her persistence on the matter ensured that. At least it would be done in class. Maybe that would be enough to satisfy whatever fixation she now had with me.

"Kick her butt, Taylor!" Ruby encouragingly shouted beside me.

"But, like actually, please do. Girl needs a whupping," Yang commented dryly, Blake nodded in agreement.

It was rare to see such open disdain from Yang and hatred simmer past Blake's usual mask.

"We'll see," I said as I headed down the stairs to the arena and then continued passed it into the locker room.

I opened my locker and grabbed my gun. I loaded both ice and lightning Dust rounds into the clip, putting to memory what order they would fire in.

My opponent stalked up behind me, putting me between her and my locker.

"What's the word? Nostalgic. That's what this is," she stated, the anticipation she oozed only hindered by a slight caution to her actions, even if she would never admit it. "Not going to say anything, Hebert?"

My bugs took note of her every action as I continued my work.

Her outfit was similar to her Shadow Stalker costume, just more armored and medieval. It was a black undershirt with plates of dark grey armor along her arms and shoulders. A hooded vest with a camo pattern of blacks and greys hid her hair but still revealed her face. The sides of it were tied together like a corset and went all along the sides. Woven into it were plates that mimicked defined muscles with angular cuts of metal. Her pants were similarly armored on the outer thigh and shins, hiding the combat boots with sharp spikes jutting out from the backs of their heels. A hard leather belt held a cruel knife and a variety of crossbow bolts along its length. With the outfit, she blended into the darkness of any area.

I finished pressing the bullets into the clip and it loaded with a crisp click before I placed it snuggly in its holster.

Finally, I shut the locker door purposefully slowly before turning to her.

"Just say what you want, Sophia. You've been circling my path since we came across each other here."

"Don't make it sound like I care about you, Hebert."

"I'm not."

Her eyes focused on my own, searching for something. She leaned back and smiled in some kind of assured satisfaction, happy with whatever she thought she found.

"I knew that once whatever fucking power-trip Panacea or Bonesaw or whoever was done, you'd be exactly like I thought you were," she stated, and walked off back to the arena without another word.

So, that was her gripe. Even being brought to another world, Sophia refused to change.

Then again, I didn't know if I'd changed either. At least I was trying though.

As I returned to the arena, I grabbed one of the practice blades off the rack before walking to the opposite side of the ring from Sophia.

The faces of the other students were shrouded in darkness as the only light shone down to mark the edges of the ring.

I faced Sophia. Her eagerness for this fight vibrated through her. Her hands clenched, reveling in the feeling of being fists before opening again.

I didn't see the reasoning or importance she saw in this. After everything else that had happened, that I'd done, why would she think a classroom spar would mean anything at all? There were no stakes, no benefits to winning, no villains to defeat.

Yes, this could just be another chance for her to vent the inexhaustible fury that stormed within her, but I knew about her outings of sneaking off to kill Grimm in the forest almost every day. The trips had helped her simmer down… if only slightly.

There was something else she wanted out of this, I just wasn't sure what it was.

"I've seen some of your other fights, Hebert. Should have kept emulating me instead of trying to outdo Heartbreaker," she smirked.

"I'm not scared of you, Sophia. And trying to goad me into some kind of reaction for this fight won't work either."

"You're acting all pretentious and arrogant just because you got a big victory you didn't earn. Now, I got to start showing you your place all over again."

"Doesn't matter if it was earned or not. It was something that was necessary. Didn't matter how much weaker we were than him, how small our chances were, how… immoral it was. Had to be done."

"Don't fuck with me, Hebert. It's always been about power."

"I didn't beat him alone, Sophia. No one could have done it alone. It was about coordinating, not about power. I had to use everyone and everything that could help."

I wasn't sure why, but her expression morphed into a rage that promised a thousand different kinds of pain; it was the most enraged I had ever seen her.

"That is quite enough," snapped Glynda. "Keep your quarreling civil or to yourselves. I expect you both to adhere to the rules for this bout." She glanced at each of us as she spoke. I gave her a nod, but Sophia didn't seem to notice Glynda talking, or she just chose not to regard the warning.

"I will remind you both that this is a practice spar. The match will end when one of your Aura levels drops into critical levels." Glynda waited for a moment for any questions or clarifications before continuing, "If that's understood. Let the match of Sophia Hess of team SCRD (Sacred), versus Taylor Hebert of team RWBYT (Rubinite) begin!"

Two bolts twanged from Sophia's wrist-mounted crossbows before Glynda was halfway through saying 'begin'.

I was already moving too, throwing myself forward into a somersault.

I felt the hiss of wind over my shoulder from the bolts as I rolled. I got up just in time to meet Sophia's snarling charge.

My blade slashed out with a wide arc but only displaced misty air as Sophia phased through the blow.

A roundhouse kick was sent at my exposed stomach, but I jumped toward her in a side tackle before she could fully execute her blow.

She went to phase through me but was shocked back from her breaker state thanks to the scroll tucked in my belt.

Sophia growled savagely as she backed away from me, her teeth ground against each other to fight against the minor electrocution.

I saw her brown eyes blink and then flash into a malevolent, pure red that seemed to center on me instantly.

I leaped back, sheathing my blade and drawing my gun, and waited for some indication of what Sophia's Semblance did.

A smug grin merged with Sophia's look of predatory rage.

"Come on, Hebert. I'll show you how superior I am."

Sophia knew that displaying an obvious second power was something that would have her placed on watch; a fate I knew she would loathe to experience again. Since she wasn't afraid to use her Semblance, it must be something that isn't noticeable.

My bugs didn't feel any change in how fast she was moving or any other effects.

So, probably not a breaker ability. Less likely that it's a striker ability if it isn't noticeable but still a possibility, same thing with it being a blaster power.

I didn't get the chance to speculate further as Sophia launched toward me. The metal limbs of her crossbows shifted mechanically around to act as bladed claws, the wire vanishing within a section of the gauntlet.

I fired my gun at the ground in her path, letting sections of ice burst into form.

Sophia slowed and dodged around the path of my bullets, weaving around the slippery surfaces.

I turned my gun back toward her just as she came within ten feet of me. My rounds whistled through the air at her and she shifted to shadow, expecting ice Dust to pass through her.

The lightning Dust shocked her into small painful spasms even after the bullets pinged off her Aura.

I fired again, this time at her feet.

The first and second round bloomed ice around one foot, but Sophia was able to recover from the shocks enough to dodge the last ice round.

I had two lightning, then one ice round left, but I didn't have enough time to aim and fire, then draw my sword to attack before she phased out of the ice.

So, I threw the gun at her and dashed toward her while drawing my weapon.

Sophia batted my gun out of the way to avoid any more lightning and crossed her claws to catch my sideways cleave an instant after, faster than I thought she could.

A ringing clang sounded throughout the arena as the blades met, and for a small moment, we stood still, our weapons clashing against the other.

I noticed that I was breathing heavily while Sophia was only slightly winded.

"Getting tired, Hebert?" Sophia bit out with a smug smile. "I told you that I'd show you that I was superior."

Her scarlet orbs never blinked as they pierced into me.

Sophia's strength seemed to grow as she easily pushed my blade away with a grunt, but I used the momentum to pivot and deliver a spinning back kick.

She caught the blow with the side of her elbow, the force barely buffeting her.

Sophia tilted her elbow up, moving my leg with it, and followed through with a punch from her other arm.

I couldn't bring my leg back fast enough as her jab smashed harshly against the Aura of my shin.

Sophia then phased out of the ice and delivered a front kick with her newly freed leg.

My arm came up to block and I jumped back with the hit to reduce the impact.

I felt my chest almost heaving with exhausted breaths.

Why was I so tired?

Red eyes.

Sophia's Semblance; some kind of energy leeching!?

No, she was about as winded as she should be for how much we'd fought. It was an energy sapping ability of some kind. She wasn't getting stronger or faster, I was becoming more exhausted and wouldn't be able to keep up.

I couldn't draw the match out any longer.

Sophia flashed her teeth with animalistic delight at my state and got into a ready stance as we both understood that the next move was most likely to be the last.

Her weapons reverted back to crossbows and autoloaded another two bolts that she instantly fired at me as we ran at one another.

I flicked my blade back and forth and swatted the projectiles away.

Sophia took the opportunity to change her weapons back to claws before she leaped into the air for a wild spinning downward crossing chop.

My legs were almost shaking with effort and I knew I wouldn't be able to dodge.

Mutual destruction it is then.

I lanced my blade straight into her undefended guts as her claws raked down my torso.

My strength was too drained to properly take advantage of Sophia's all-out offensive charge, but I think she knew that when she decided to do it.

I heard gasps from the audience as my bugs caught the gauges of our Aura displayed on the screen rapidly flickering to much lower levels.

My sword cut across the Aura of her stomach and went wide while Sophia slammed into me with her shoulder after she finished following through with her strike. I went crashing to the ground with her on top of me.

A burst of pain erupted from the back of my head as it cracked against a patch of frozen stone of my own making.

Sophia mounted me, my arm pinned under one of her knees while the tips of her claws dug into the sides of my neck.

A loud buzzing followed by the lighting of the room switching back to illuminating everything in the room marked the end of the match.

"That's enough. Miss Hebert's Aura has gone into the red. The winner is Sophia Hess."

Sophia didn't move, and her eyes blinked back to their regular brown.

"You get it now, Hebert? I'm better than you, always have been. Stronger, smarter, more useful. And don't you ever fucking think otherwise again," Sophia said like she had proven a point.

Wait.

Useful?

"You… you're fucking upset because I didn't control you for the fight with Scion? That I didn't use you?!Are you fucking insane!" I questioned in almost hysteric disbelief.

"The only power you had then was to use other people's power. People stronger and better than you because you're too fucking weak," she answered. "You've never understood what strength really is. I'm just showing you that you made a mistake in whose power you chose to use."

With that, she got off me and stalked away, a proud triumph holding her posture strong and confident.

I blinked at the ceiling in utter bafflement.

I know I controlled her, I brought everyone into my swarm. But I guess I didn't actually use her for fighting Scion or search and rescue. Her powerset wouldn't have been very effective in either situation compared to the others I had available.

Sophia had said we were cockroaches compared to Scion, but as soon as her position in life is challenged it suddenly didn't matter? Had she wanted me to just throw her life away just to prove something for her?

The sheer wrongness of Sophia's motivation.

Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. I doubt she had even attempted to contextualize it any other way.

I would pity her, but it would be wasted effort.

The fact was, Sophia needed her ideology to help her see her lot in life, no matter how stupid it was. She molded the world to fit her beliefs, because she wasn't strong enough to change herself to fit the world.

Stalking Shadows End

Author Notes:

Thank you, as always, to Juff for grammaring me stories gooder than me could.

Next chapter will be a full one, will come out sometime around the 21st.

This was just something I had bouncing around in my head for a bit. Hope it tides people over till the next chapters (cause they became a bit longer than I had intended). It is non-canon.

Might see more interludes of snippets of the story if another Worm character was on Remnant but we'll just have to see.

Yes, Sophia is the leader of what was team CRDL, Sky Lark didn't find a partner in the end. Yes, she did remark that she was picked to be the leader of her team while Taylor wasn't. Yes, she didn't like the idea of being in a team. Yes, she's a terrible leader; better than Cardin though. Yes, she didn't like the idea of being part of an organization like the Wards. Yes, she did like it after finding out that Huntsmen are basically mercenaries that can go do whatever after their training is done. Yes, I'm putting too much thought into the backstory of a non-canon Omake.

A thank you to Assembler for the idea for Sophia's Semblance and the Discord in general, everyone there is too awesome.