The Conquerors bloodline

Chapter 258: The Duel 1

It wasn't long after Yang awoke that she saw Ruby was gone. Disappeared in the night while she wasn't on guard. At first, she thought Ruby had simply gone to the toilet but as the seconds turned into minutes and as she kept peering around the corner down the hall never to see her sister, she realized how wrong she was.

Yang bit her lip and bounced her leg rapidly until she heard the waking noises of Weiss. She would likely know as much as she did about her sister's whereabouts as she did. No point asking, Yang thought.

Against the wall, Blake was still buried facing it. Hiding herself from the others and hiding whether she was awake or asleep out of shame, or whatever it was her lower half was feeling.

"Where's Ruby?" Weiss dazedly asked as she lifted herself and looked around.

"I. Don't. Know." It came out as a menacing hiss that drew a tired raise of a brow from Weiss.

"And you think professor Evans is with her no doubt?" there was a condescension to her tone, that Yang was overreacting but she wasn't!

Of course, he was doing something to her. Ruby was the perfect girl to manipulate. All he needed to do was say he'll show her his 'sword' and undoubtedly Ruby would jump on him. She couldn't let that happen.

Yang burst onto her feet with fire to her eyes and growled, "better fucking not or I'm feeding his dick to the Beowulf's." And turned into the hall, stomping down the ways until she came to 'his' and her mother's room. Without hesitation, she knuckled the door loudly hoping to wake Summer if she was asleep. "Mom! You in there?" she called getting no answer.

Scrunching her eyes, she gripped the handle and opened into the room only to be repulsed by the thick stench of sex that wafted out. A hand came to cover her nose as she forced herself to look inside finding only a dishevelled bed but no Parc, Ruby, or Summer.

'Please tell me she's with them.' If she was, it would only slightly lessen her worries. No chance their mother would let him do anything to Ruby while she was there.

"You called?"

Yang jolted and spun, quickly finding that Summer had at some point gone to the babies room while she was asleep. There was a tiredness to her eyes and a strange sheen to her skin, not of sweat, her hair looked too wet like she'd just come out of the shower to be remnants of what had happened to her the night before.

"Yeah" Yang trailed off, Summer's posture was odd, normally she held herself with prowess but whether because of last night or some other reason, she could barely look Yang in the eyes. "Do you know where Ruby is? She wasn't in the lounge when I woke up. Is she with you?" looking over Summer's shoulder into the nursery she couldn't even see Khione in her crib.

"She's not?" Summer mulled turning her head down and to the side as Yang shook her head before looking back up to her daughters lilac eyes. "I mean, she's not with me, no. Maybe she's with Parc."

Yang perked up with that, "and where's he?"

"Downstairs," Summer said, "he's always in his workshop till around ten working on god knows what. Ruby might have heard him and got curious."

'Sounds like Ruby,' Yang mulled, "he has a dungeon in his dungeon. That's just plain creepy mom."

"I mean," Summer whined, "it's not like he has torture devices down there. Just a bunch of weapons and stuff."

Yang blanked Summer, hoping she'd see the worry to Yang's words. As a thin trickle came from her pores, Summer said, "you know what. I think I should go check on them."

"That'd be perfect."

Down the corridor, Weiss was looking with lacking intrigue as Summer turned to Khione and saw her still sound asleep. Summer then left the room and with hasty strides and drove down the corridor, pushing through the already open doorway leading to the workshop.

They descended the steps but halfway through began to hear voices.

"It's so big!" It was faint, but clear to them, it was Ruby's voice. "Can I sit on it?"

"Sure. Just be careful, it's a little volatile if you mess around with it a bit too much."

Summer paused for a breath, her skin growing a shade of white while Yang's eyes glowed crimson.

They knew it wasn't what they thought, the way they talked, it was just too out of place to involve anything licentious. At that moment it simply didn't matter. Mostly to Yang who bared down the stairs like a bat out of hell. Steam huffing from her nose as she heard the final straw that broke the camels back.

"Aha-ahhhhh-Waaah!" it was a scream of fear, though thinly hidden beneath it a shade of excitement.

Yang crashed down the final step, her body hunched ready to lunge as she analyzed the room. The many workbenches and stations, the deconstructed airship, her sister whizzing around the room atop an out of control flying hoverbike and Professor Evans.

She locked onto him first but soon took a double take as her sister shot right past her face.

"H-i-i-i-i Ya-a-a-a-ang!" Ruby's voice vibrated with an echo around the room.

She stopped to pause and watched her sister with mouth gaping as Ruby lined the walls barely able to control herself.

"H-o-o-ow do I-i-I slow-dow-w-w-n?" It was a challenge to figure out if she was talking to herself or the professor.

"Ease off the throttle!" Parc cupped his hands around his mouth and called, "twist it forward! Then- oh who am I kidding, she's not going to understand any of this." Parc watched Ruby storm around the room just barely keeping herself from crashing with empty eyes. "Why did I think letting her ride that was a good idea?"

As she shot past screaming to high hell, Parc saw Yang and Summer stood in the doorway and offered them a short wave. "Hey girls, be right with you. Just need to make sure Ruby doesn't snap her neck or something like that."

Analyzing her trajectory, Parc waited until she whizzed across one wall and back to the floor, just barely yelping and ducking as she ran under one of the steel beams of the airship. As she got closer, Parc opened his legs and hunched over bracing himself for what he was about to do.

"Brilliant thinking Parc, let the hyperactive munchkin on your bike. Nothing could go wrong, hey?" he whispered to himself and locked a breath.

When Ruby was just a meter out he stepped to the side, shot one hand out and grabbed her side.

Ruby grunted as she was ripped from the rough leather seating and sent into a spin with Parc holding her tight, arms wrapped around her as her brace.

The hoverbike wobbled for a second but quickly steadied. Now without Ruby's guidance, it began to slow, though not enough before it came crashing through Parc's workbench and into the wall.

Its metal twisted with the gravity dust crystal housed in one of the three wheels visibly cracking as the machine practically was smashed to pieces. Though now still and arguably 'in control.'

Parc spun twice and kept Ruby tight to his body before digging his foot into the ground to halt himself. In his arm's Ruby head was rolling and her eyes were unfocused.

"Thanks" she wheezed.

"You know Ruby. I'm not a smart person. But by far, letting you ride that, is my most idiotic moment yet. It took me a week, to figure the dust purity I needed for that. Took me another week to figure out how to put it to use. And now it's broken."Parc sighed and shook his head. "Honestly, if I wasn't doing it for the hell of it, I would probably have tossed you into a pit with a bunch of pissed off scorpions."

"Sorry" Ruby was by far still dazed and dozy as she clutched his shirt out of urgency and stability. She knew that her legs were likely to fail her.

Parc looked down at her, seeing in his peripheral Summer and Yang storming closer with anger to their eyes. "It's fine," he said, "at least your not hurt."

"I feel sick"

"That's the vertigo from swapping orientation so fast. Give it a bit and it'll wear off."

Yang stormed the closest and growled his way, "let go of my sister."

He eyed her for a moment then asked Ruby, "think you can stand?" the girl blinked a few times but her eyes were still unfocused as she replied.

"No?"

"Then just keep holding me till you get your legs back." Parc bowed his legs enough to let Ruby settle her own feet down, Ruby clutching his arm and the sleeve of the top he'd pulled on not long after she had come down.

When she was stable enough to stand, he turned to Summer and Yang, "mornin' you two. You sleep well."

Summer blanked him with an icy glare almost as cold as Esdeath's while Yang's growl turned more bestial. "What was that?" Yang asked.

"A hoverbike, with a little more emphasis on the 'was' it's more a mangled chunk of metal right now."

"That is not what I am talking about!"

Parc lifted a brow, "oh, you mean about Ruby riding it. Yeah, no, no excuses there. That was a stupid thing to do. Especially considering it's well Ruby, no offence."

"I understand." Ruby blinked a few more times as that sick churning in her stomach lessened a degree. "Yang doesn't let me drive bumblebee for the same reason. Ohhhhh" she groaned.

"I can see why. Anywho, you two here to check that I'm not doing anything dirty to Ruby?" he smirked, his gaze particularly narrowed on Summer as if to say, 'did you really think I'd do it?' which Summer turned away from.

To the side, the bike hummed as another cracking noise rang from another of the dust crystals. Yet another expenditure he'd have to deal with.

'Shit,' he grumbled in silence. 'Cost a thousand apiece those.' Buying gravity dust, especially large chunks like he'd used there was something of a regulated thing. Letting just anyone experiment with something that could cause someone to fly high into the sky only to ever come back down as a chunk of splattered meat and blood meant getting his hands on some was a challenge.

Yang looked to Ruby, saw how she seemed almost 'dependent' on holding onto Parc and it welled in her a wave of anger she wasn't intent on hiding. "Ruby. Come here. Now." She left little room for argumentation.

"I'm fine Yang," Ruby said, "just a little dizzy and confused," she scrunched her expression. "Ahh, that's better, no more double-Yang." To test herself, Ruby lightened her grasp on Parc's arm and tried to stand stable herself, only to stumble and shoot her hands out to grab him once more. "Nope, still not there."

A chuckle escaped Parc as he lifted a hand about to set it down on Ruby's head as if patting a stumbling puppy.

Before he could fully, Yang hissed like a snake and spat, "don't touch her!" she stomped closer and reaching for Ruby, ripped her away from Parc by her upper arm leaving his hand floating there solemnly.

Ruby stumbled away practically hanging off her sister's hand until Yang pulled her behind her back where Summer came to become her new crutch. Yang took a step forward, cracked a few of her knuckles and pushed herself into Parc's face.

He didn't react so much as grow a disinterested, almost tired expression as he looked down at her.

"Stay away from my sister. I don't care if you have this sick polygamous thing going on with my mother, I don't care if you drag Blake or Weiss or whoever into it. But stay. Away. From Ruby. She's not a toy for you to play with. Not like that Kurome freak or those other psycho murderers."

Parc kept quiet, at least as long as Yang puffed steam. "You know Yang." He met her gaze undaunted by its crimson hue. He knew full well that the first to look away would lose this battle of superiority. "I don't mind your spite. I don't care if you hate me or my relationship with my girls. But calling them freaks, psychos. That's pushing it."

"They are." She growled.

"Much like you, I'd say?"

Yang narrowed and glared, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"Juniors club. Hei Xiong? Wasn't it just a few months ago that you destroyed his property? Left him rebuilding for weeks before being able to open again? For what reason Yang? Because he wouldn't tell you where Raven was?" he observed her expression, saw her flinch. "I mean. Who grabs a man's balls only to leave a dozen men injured needing medical attention and devastating another's livelihood. A psycho Yang. Normal people don't do what you did back there."

Yang bit her lip, half tempted to look behind herself to see Summer's shocked expression. Would there also be a disappointment? She couldn't help but think. "I'm not crazy." She firmly put.

"No. But you are a hypocrite. A hypocrite who can only think with her muscles and not her brain. I'll tell you this now. Summer already made me promise to do nothing to Ruby till her birthday. Being honest? I'm not going to touch her till then, didn't plan to. But I'll tell you this now if she wants in. I'm not going to stop her."

A vein popped on Yang's neck as her grinding teeth almost became audible, she would never let that happen. Grabbing at his collar, Yang tried to tug Parc down to her level but found him unmoving. "Don't. Fucking. Touch my sister. Or I will make sure you will never be able to screw another woman ever." Her lips curled back till her gums showed in a display Parc could only relate to the snarl of a wolf.

"Yang, that's enou-" Summer moved to intercept but was halted by Parc's raised hand.

"It's fine Summer." Wrapping his fingers around Yang's wrist, he pried her from his shirt and flicked her hand to the side and mulled for a moment. "I think me and Yang here need to figure some things out."

"But-"

"Summer, no. Just, take Ruby upstairs and get breakfast ready. We'll be up in a bit."

"Parc I can't just-"

"Mom, it's fine. I agree," Yang cracked her wrists, never turning back to meet Summer or Ruby's concerned gazes. "Can't believe I agree, but yeah. We've got some things to settle."

Summer looked between Yang and Parc, unsure of what to do. Somewhere inside herself, she knew whatever happened wasn't going to end well. And she couldn't stop it.

Weakly she whined and while still holding Ruby, nodded, "Just, please don't break anything permanently."

"No promises," Yang replied.

"I can fix her if she breaks." Parc chuckled.

Remarks shared, Summer looked between them once more than guided Ruby towards the staircase, taking each step one by one. Pausing right at the step that would leave her unable to turn back and watched them slowly peel a few meters from each other.

"Ruby," Summer caught her daughters attention, "what's Yang's favourite comfort snack?"