Fanfic / I Can Almost Hear The Hounds

Yang Xiao Long, Blake thinks, understands the dangers of being a Huntress far better than any of her teammates. Blake only knows the basics— her mother (a veteran Huntress) killed on an everyday mission, and her little sister (a Huntress in training, a prodigy) devoured so thoroughly they could only find her scythe— but she gets why it would turn even the most headstrong of people cautious.
Or,
“We have to go after it,” Yang says. “Please. I swear to God, that thing’s my baby sister.”

— Archive of Our Own description

I can almost hear the Hounds is a completed RWBY fanfic that deviates from canon a year before Volume 1, when Ruby Rose goes missing and is presumed dead. Yang hasn't recovered by the time she enters Beacon and is made leader of team YIBW (Blake, Weiss, and an Ilia who chose to run away with her old friend) no matter how hard she tries to pretend she's okay. She still blames herself for what happened to her little sister, and she'd do anything to see her again.

Then her team goes to Mountain Glenn and she's given a chance to do just that.

The story can be read here on Archive of Our Own. It has a short sequel, Trim and nothing else, and a prequel, There is a Hell, written by the original story's editor.

This work contains examples of:

• Alternate Universe Fic: Takes place in an alternate universe where Ruby was kidnapped by Cinder and turned into a Hound a year before Volume 1.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  Weiss: I mean... I mean, let’s say you’re able to beat it in a fight. Then what? If that thing is your little sister, and you want to save her— how?
• And I Must Scream:
  Ruby: Because every second I was the Hound, I wanted it to end. I’d do awful things and wake up every day as a monster and I wanted to scream but I couldn’t, because they’d ordered me not to, so I’d sit there and try to do something, anything, until my brain got so fuzzy that I couldn’t remember why I wanted to scream in the first place. And every time there was enough me in my head to think, I’d spend every second wondering how long I had until I wasn’t me again. And every time I stopped thinking, I’d wonder if it was the last time. If I’d just... stop being me.
• Berserk Button: Weiss presses Yang's when she suggests they leave Ilia to deal with the White Fang on her own.
• Big Sister Instinct: Yang's kicks in hard when she realizes just who The Hound is.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Chapter one is full of this as it centres around Yang's grief for her dead sister. Even then, the description and tags make it pretty clear that Ruby is alive as the Hound.
  • Cinder's epilogue in chapter five is rife with this. We're aware that Ozpin and his allies know her identity, that Qrow returned to check on his family, and Taiyang is there to kill her, but she doesn't.
    • For bonus points she's confident that neither Neo or Roman, who were captured during the Breach, would rat her out, and that the greatest issue behind the Hound being missing is that it's dead and Salem wouldn't be happy she lost such a rare Grimm. She doesn't realize that said Hound, Ruby, is not only alive, but also completely exposed her entire operation.
  • Despite Cinder being the one to kidnap Ruby in the first place, neither she nor her team have any idea that Ruby is the true identity of the Hound they have accompanying them. In fact, Cinder has no idea who Ruby actually was beyond having silver eyes, meaning she doesn't recognize Taiyang when the latter shows up at her door. Something that quickly ends up being a fatal mistake.
  • Also prominent in the sequel, Trim and nothing else. Any reader (especially ones who have read Lather and nothing else can quickly guess that Ruby knows Emerald's identity and is testing her before it becomes obvious.
• Determinator: Yang will do anything to save Ruby. The Hound is escaping? Doesn't matter how exhausted and injured she is, she'll chase after it. Her thigh muscle gets torn in half? She'll crawl. She's only stopped when she tries to go fight Cinder on one leg.
• Eye Scream: Ruby's eye melts in the process of cleansing the grimm parts from her body.
• Face–Monster Turn: Ruby goes through one before the story takes place.
• Family Portrait of Characterization: Played with. Blake finds a series of Xiao Long-Rose-Branwen family portraits that demonstrate where the family was at in each point in time. Partly because of how they look, but also because of who exactly is in each one.
• For Want Of A Nail: Cinder finds a silver-eyed girl while searching for the fall maiden, and it results in her being killed and the Fall of Beacon being avoided.
• Heroic BSoD: Yang's reaction when she figures out what (or rather, who) The Hound is.
• Heroic RRoD: Yang pushes herself far past the point of exhaustion while chasing The Hound through Vale.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Yang tries this with The Hound. It doesn't work.
• I Never Told You My Name: Yang's first clue that there's something else wrong with The Hound is that it knows her name.
• It Can Think: Yang's first reaction to encountering The Hound. What do you mean, a Grimm that can talk?
• Karmic Death: Cinder abducting Ruby utterly screws her in the long term. When Ozpin cleanses The Hound, it completely exposes Cinder's entire infiltration of Beacon without Cinder herself knowing her cover has been blown, resulting in Cinder being easily lured into an ambush by none other than Tai under the context of asking her some questions about the Breach and subsequently killed.
• Killed Offscreen: The closest we come to seeing Cinder's death is a flashback in Trim and nothing else.
• Mercy Kill: Weiss ends her Armor-Piercing Question by suggesting Yang may have to do this to The Hound. Yang eventually tries this in the climax, not seeing any other way to save Ruby from her fate. Luckily for everyone, Ozpin arrives just in time to help purify Ruby and get Yang her sister back.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Ozpin initially wants to try imprisoning Cinder, but Qrow insists Cinder needs to die, even if just for what she did to his niece.
• My Greatest Failure: Yang views Ruby's "death" as this until the very end of the story.
• My Greatest Second Chance: How Yang feels once she realizes what exactly happened to Ruby.
• Never Found the Body: Yang, Tai, and Qrow only ever find Crescent Rose. The logical assumption is that the Grimm infesting Patch's forest ate Ruby... right?
• Not So Above It All: Glynda is offended when Oz bets twenty lien that Penny will request to stay at Beacon with Ruby before the month is over. Not because she's above it, but because he should surely have learned that teenagers are inherently lazy.
• Oh, Crap!: In chapter three, when Yang finishes her Armor-Piercing Question conversation with Weiss and realizes Blake's been paying attention to them, and therefore isn't keeping watch.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Blake's first hint at Yang's Tragic Backstory is when she screams at Weiss that they're not abandoning Ilia.
• Outside-Context Problem: Cinder is prepared for everything that could possibly go wrong in her mission to destroy Beacon. The Hound she brought along being rescued and spilling the beans on her plan is not an outcome anyone considered.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Hound tries this when the train starts moving, and then again when it crashes into Vale.
• Something Only They Would Say: Yang starts really thinking The Hound is Ruby when it tries playing hide and seek with her in a way only Ruby did.
• Tell Me How You Fight: Inverted. Yang's able to go blow for blow with the Hound because it still tries to fight like Ruby did.
• Titled After the Song: The title of the fic, as well as the title of each chapter, is taken from The Hounds, a song by The Protomen.
• Tragic Monster: The Hound, even more than in canon.
• Was Once a Man: Yang's second, much more important reaction to encountering The Hound. Especially considering which person in particular.