RWBY Silver Eyed Warrior Chapter 6: Home Visit (Patreon)

“Steady…….Cor…vo.”

His mother’s words were distorted, barely reaching at all but Corvo could put together what she was saying.

His semblance was a powerful thing. Everyone always told him that and he never could disagree. Stopping time? Just hearing that he could do something like that would have people who knew nothing about aura looking at him differently. Anyone who knew anything about how semblances tended to work wouldn’t be so quick to be impressed, their next question always the same.

What were the drawbacks?

Rather than a power that could stop the world, it functioned more as a personal domain, the range of its influence entirely based on how much aura he used at activation. All within it was stopped. Naturally, those with their aura shields were able to passively lessen the effects so long as those shields were in good condition, only moving so slowly they might as well be frozen. The amount of aura and focus needed to keep it going was no joke either, seconds all he could manage after years of training.

Speaking of which those few seconds finished up, the few insects resuming their flight and the backyard’s grass bending along to winds that had already passed.

“Again.” Mom order, standing across from me.

Corvo wiped the sweat from his brow and straightened up.

“Behold THE WORLD!” With that yell time around him froze once again.

One.

Two.

Three.

Time resumed, Corvo shoulder’s falling and his brow furrowing, a contradictorily nonexistent weight latched onto him.

“Again.”

“Once more, THE WORLD!” The grass and all hidden within it froze on the spot.

One.

Two.

Three.

As his semblance’s effects ceased, the weight on him worsened, his left eye dangerously close to closing, and more sweat building at his temple.

That was three times back to back all for three whole seconds on each activation. His record without any movement related trigger. His semblance, as demanding as it was, also resulted in one of his ways to compensate for its weaknesses being a weakness in of itself if he relied on it. With the right trigger to focus the activation of his semblance, the aura use could be severely reduced.

A snap of his fingers was what he found to be the most effective trigger, Corvo able to activate his semblance five times in quick succession when at full aura. Neo herself had identified and took advantage of a weakness like that, preventing him from activating his semblance after only seeing it once.

“Again.” Mom ordered.

Right now, they were working on verbal triggers.

“Mom are you sure you aren’t-“

“THE WORLD grinds to a halt!” This time, once his semblance activated, his aura saturating the air around him, it wasn’t just the grass and bugs that were caught with it. Yang, her words slowed, moved painfully slow beside him, all from her lilac eyes to her long blonde hair slowed in their motions.

One.

Corvo stuck out his leg.

Two.

Yang’s eyes began to move towards him, but they never reached him, too slow. Just like she was too slow to stop her rising leg from reaching his foot.

Three.

Time resumed and Yang stumbled over Corvo’s outstretched foot. He didn’t even get a laugh out before his footing was stolen from him, Yang slamming him right into the ground in the blink of eye.

“Worth it.” He groaned out.

“You know you sound like a nerd yelling all that stuff out, right?” Yang questioned, kneeling down beside his head. “Aren’t you just supposed to be saying The World? Why are you wasting time adding all that other stuff?”

“The cool factor.” Corvo and Ruby said at the same time, the latter stepping up to the other side of his head, grinning down at him. He returned it despite the invisible strain on him, fist held to meet the one she was holding out. “And he sounded so awesome! He’s like a hero or a villain from a comic.”

“Nerds.” Yang repeated.

“Its fine so long as you’re only doing it during training.” Mom stepped up to his feet, her lips thinned into stern seriousness. “Unless it’s a practice match or some other school event, take every fight you end up in seriously. Pick and choose the best time to use your semblances. All of you. They’re only as good as the person they come from.”

The mini lecture was interrupted by the distance ringing of the doorbell.

Mom left to go see who it was, leaving Yang and Ruby to go back to their own practice while I watched from the ground.

Four back to back time stops wasn’t bad. Not as good as snapping his fingers but it was far better than using his semblance with no trigger at all. He only had one, maybe two tries on a good day, before he’d be struggling just to keep his aura shield up.

The verbal option might be just as cool as snapping his fingers though. It felt like he was commanding the world itself to do his bidding, yelling out things like that and then having everything slow down……yeahhhh, he might be veering more of the villainous side with some of those commands.

“Corvo.” Mom called out. “It looks like our guest is here for you.”

He looked away from Yang and Ruby and looked towards his mother voice as she rounded the side of the house. She wasn’t alone.

Plain black dress.

Short black hair.

Dark green eyes.

As he shot up, Neo raised a finger to her lips, her usual playful smile in place.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, jumping straight to his feet and rushing over to her. This was horribly dangerous territory. How ever she kept up her illusions, there was no way they could last forever, and, from what he’d seen so far, just a little force could shatter them. One mistake and his mother would see exactly who was standing in their home.

Neo held up his coat and jacket, both neatly folded and lacking the damage he’d planned on going back to fix or blood. In fact, they were clean and looking good as new. And his black, red lined wallet sat on top of them.

That explained how she found out where he lived and why she was here at all. But what was he supposed to do now? Could he just rush her out of here?

“Going to introduce all of us?” His mother asked, her brow raised, and amused smile formed. He turned. Yang and Ruby were looking over to, both curious about who she was.

XOXO

“When did you get a girlfriend?” Ruby haughtily whispered, staring up at him.

“How did you get a girlfriend?” Yang asked. “What? It’s a serious question. I didn’t even know you knew how to make friends.”

“Wow, Yang. That’s what I need to hear right before I start at a school where I’m going to be younger than everyone else.” Corvo said sarcastically.

“Hey, I’ve been saying you need to hang out with more than just Ruby and her friends forever. You can’t get mad at me for pointing out the facts.”

“Forget that, we need to focus.” Ruby pipped back in. “When did you get a girlfriend?”

Corvo beat back a sigh as he glanced around the corner of the hallway. Neo, still in her disguise, sat at the dining room table, silently swinging her feet as she watched mom prepare a drink for her over in the kitchen. As if feeling all of their eyes, she looked over, smiled and waved.

“Any reason why she hasn’t said a word yet?” Yang whispered while waving back. “Its kind of creepy, not going to lie.”

“I think she’s mute?”

“You think? Don’t tell me you only just met this girl.” Yang said, her eyes snapped back to him.

“Ehhh, I’m pretty sure someone somewhere once said time is relative, so if you think about a few days could be a really long time, actually.” It sure felt like a lot was happening to him recently.

“Oh, my gods.” Yang suddenly wrapped his hands around him, lifting him up in something of a bear hug. “Look at my baby brother, growing up in all the wrong ways. Mama Yang is proud of you.” She ignored his struggles to get out of her tight grip. “But you definitely shouldn’t tell mom that.”

She finally set him down and Corvo losing the battle against the heat rushing to his face as Neo watched the whole thing, the faux innocent smile of hers more amused.

“That’s seriously your girlfriend? This isn’t some kind of joke?” Ruby asked looking back to him.

“Is it really that hard believe?” All this doubt was starting to feel like they never expected him to date anyone. Which he couldn’t really get mad at them for. How was he ever going to end up with someone when he was always with Ruby?

Apparently by them nearly killing him over some ice cream.

Once she brought over a cup of freshly prepared tea, his mother and Neo began to talk. Not actually talk, the two making signs and motions with their hand. Weird. How come Neo didn’t bother doing any of that with him?

“Mom knows sign language?” He and Ruby asked at the same time.

“I guess she does.” Yang said, shrugging.

“Corvo.” Their mom called out. Yang patted his shoulder, whispering good luck as he headed over, stepping up beside Neo. “Your girlfriend here went through all the trouble of bringing back your stuff so make sure you walk her back home once she’s done with her tea. Be sure to remember what we talked about.”

Corvo nodded and Summer, one more quick exchange with Neo that he didn’t understand, headed towards Ruby and Yang, leading the two out into the backyard to keep training.

He dropped into the chair beside her, forehead pressed into the table. She reached over, running her hand through his hair.

Well. It could’ve gone worse.

XOXO

With the lights on Neo’s apartment actually looked like a nice little place for one person. The main room was just about everything a house would need with the hallway leading to her bathroom and bedroom.

Simple.

He sighed as he took a seat on her couch.

Sure, things hadn’t gone the worst way possible but its not like anything about that felt right.

In fact, it all felt wrong. Horribly wrong.

Weight settled into the couch around his legs, Neo’s head hovering over his, her illusion breaking away and revealing her actual half and half hair cascading down to mingle with his. Her brow furrowed and she pointed at herself.

“No, I’m not mad or anything, it’s just-“ He sighed. He’d never had a conversation like this with anybody, but mom always said trust and communication were the most important parts of any relationship. He needed to hold firm and say exactly what was on his mind even if it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

“I don’t mind that you showed up but that’s kind of the problem. That’s my mom’s house, well mine too obviously, but what I mean is that I’m not the only one that lives there. I already don’t like lying to her and just having someone show up without telling her just feels disrespectful to her and Ruby.” He explained. “And I didn’t want you to meet my family like that. I want them to like, well, you, not that disguise.”

Neo tilted her head, removed a hand from his shoulder and pointed a finger at herself, brow raised.

“I mean we did kind of meet in a weird way and you are a criminal but well-ugh!” He groaned fully leaning. “I guess I’m just hoping it’ll work out somehow. I didn’t really think any of it through.”

Neo stared down at him. For a long time. He thought he might’ve hurt her feelings before she leaned down, pecking his forehead, and pulled back with a small smile. Moving aside, she grabbed the nearby remote as she curled into his side, flatscreen turned on.

He had some time before he needed to get back and this felt like a nice way to spend it.