A/N This is a story I thought of after looking at all the stories that kill off Ruby and leave her friends, mainly Weiss and Yang, to deal with it, usually involving some kind of vengeance. So I thought, what about if one of Ruby's friends died, and Ruby was left to deal and wanted vengeance. So I decided to write this story. I will update this story and Shattered Bonds less frequently during the school year so I can do work, and as I think of things to add to either, so updates may be erratic. One last thing, this take place three months before the finals of Beacon, and teams RWBY and JNPR are all fourth year students so this is their last year at Beacon. I hope you like it, and as always, leave a review and I'll read it. Onwards to the story!
Weiss
"Come on, Weiss, we have to go!" Ruby was practically shouted at her partner while jumping around. "Okay, I'm coming just a moment-" "But we have to go now! There are reports of huge packs of Beowolves, and we can use them to practice our partner combat skills for finals." She said excitedly, not noticing her partner was trying to say something until- "Ruby Calm Down! Yes, I know finals are coming up and that we could use the practice for partner combat, and I know your excited, but I'm not even dressed yet and it would be appreciated if you got off my bed." Ruby jumped down, looking sheepish. "Sorry." said Ruby, the beginnings of a pout on her lips. "It's fine, go on ahead, I'll be done in a few minutes." As she said that, she gathered up her clothes off the bed and smiled slightly as Ruby disappeared, leaving a cloud of petals that Weiss brushed since she and Ruby officially became a couple last year, both of them have been doing better in classes and as a pair in general. After getting her clothes on, she walked out into the hallway and headed to the cafeteria, both because she was hungry and because Ruby would probably be there as well. Looking around when she arrived, she noticed team JNPR sitting with Yang and Cardin, who had become much nicer since Juane saved him in freshmen year, but she didn't see Ruby, which worried her slightly. Walking over, Ren looked up and smiled at her, motioning for her to sit down. "Have any of you seen Ruby today?" Asked the heiress. "No clue, maybe she went outside." Was the general response from the others. After getting something to eat, Weiss got up and headed outside, looking for her partner.
Seeing her partner sitting near the fountain soon after she got outside, Weiss ran up to her. "Ruby, I was looking all over for you. I was starting to get worried that you left without me." The heiress said, looking very relived. "Oh, sorry, I had gotten a message on my scroll." Seeing the questioning look on the others face, she quickly continued. "Don't worry, it was just a congratulations from Qrow for getting an 'A' on that last test. It's nothing to worry about, the cafeteria was just too crowded for that kind of thing." She smiled. "So lets get going, shall we?" Asked Ruby as she saw other students head off towards Forever Fall. "Yeah, of course. Did you remember to tell Yang where we're going? I don't want her getting Ozpin to sent teams out like last time." Asked Weiss. Both shivered slightly, remembering when Yang was so worried about Ruby that she convinced Ozpin to send out Bullheads to find them. "Of course I did, do you think I would... I'll be right back." Said the hooded girl before disappearing in cloud of rose petals for the second time in less then an hour. Weiss looked up at the sky, smiling again. She always forgets something. Well at least she remembered before we left.After a few minutes,she heard a slight movement behind her. "Ruby, you know I can hear you. And I know how long it takes for you to get to the dorm and back." "Drat. I thought I had you that time, I even waited a minute before I ran back." She smiled. "Come on, let's go." Ruby started walking towards the launch pads near Forever Fall, with Weiss a short way behind.
Ruby
As they reached the pads, she noticed that some of them were already triggered. Looking back towards Weiss she said, "Looks like some of the others are already out there. We might have to hunt for our targets." Weiss nodded in acknowledgement. "We should get going." Just as they were about to launch, they saw Cardin walking nearby, looking like he was lost. "Cardin, what are you doing?" called Ruby. Cardin looked at them quickly. "Oh, sorry. I was just taking a walk, you know, admiring the view of the forest." he replied, looking down in embarrassment, scratching the back of his head. "Oh, well, have a good day then." Ruby continued in her usual optimism, causing Cardin to look up again, this time he was smiling. "You too, and good luck out there." he said, as they prepared to get launched of the cliff. Ruby looked at Weiss one more time, before both of them left the ground and flew.
Yelling with joy, Ruby laughed as she looked over Forever Fall forest, loving the beauty of it all. In her peripheral vision, Ruby saw her partner making platforms to slow her landing. Seeing about where her partner would touch down, she drew her weapon and started to angle herself in the same direction, cutting down any trees in her path. Afterthe two landed a small break in the trees, they began to walk. "Do you think there are any of the larger Grimm in the forest?" Asked Ruby, looking around. "Not really, there might be some, but I doubt that there are many. Not after all the tests this year. I expect that there will mostly be Beowolves, and maybe the largest thing we'll fight is an Ursa or two." Replied the heiress, also watching their surroundings. "Oh, thats two bad, how will we be able to test our skills if all we have to fight is an Ursa?" Complained the crimson haired girl, pouting. "Don't worry, I'm sure that something will appear soon," started the girl, before the sound of a large being interrupted her. A very large King Taijitu burst from the trees on the right, causing Weiss to have to jump out of the way. "See, I told you." She smiled as the beast looked at them, its red eyes filled with unbridled hatred.
And why not, thought Ruby as the Taijitu prepared to attack, we entered its territory, and to it we are nothing more then gnats. Too bad these gnats have one hell of a bite. Then, it lunged. Both girls were able to dodge out of the way of the powerful jaws. Weiss, after jumping back to avoid the attack, used a glyph to dash forward with Myrtenaster and tried to stab one of the eyes. As she neared her target, the black head suddenly moved back and the and the white head was thrown forward, and would have hit her had Ruby not shot, and hit the attacking head in the side knocking it to the side. Weiss was able to move out of the Grimm's ark of attack, and so while Ruby was distracting it, Weiss saw how it was using both heads to dodge the oncoming attacks. Thinking fast, she changed the dust capsule to light blue, placed a glyph behind her, and dashed forward before slamming the tip of the sword to the ground in front of the Taijitu. "Ruby move!" shouted Weiss. Ruby, looking towards her partner, saw what she was doing, made one more slash at the Grimm and then jumped back, right as the ice from Myrtenaster reached the point where the two snakes join and froze them in place. "Now!" shouted Weiss dashing forward, as Ruby started to fire at the Grimm, hitting it in the eye, mouth and nose, before slicing the black head clean off. At the same time, Weiss shot forward like a round from Crescent Rose to and stabbed the left eye of the white head, and freeze it in a solid block of ice. As both girls moved back, the black head fell with an audible thud and the white head shattered when it hit the ground, dead. The two huntresses looked at the Taijitu, happy that their partner combat skills were not rusty. After taking a small break, to rest and eat, they continued on.
After about three hours and a few battles against Beowolves and some Ursi, the pair were preparing to head back to Beacon, when Ruby saw a large fireball above the trees. "Weiss, I think someone is in trouble, that was a pretty large fireball. We should see what happened." Ruby said, looking worried. "I agree, but we should be careful, it could be a trap of some kind." replied Weiss. After contacting the headmaster and telling him what they saw, they proceeded to the place where Ruby saw the fireball. Ruby dashed though the trees, jumping from branch to branch with incredible speed, with Weiss nearby jumping from glyph to glyph in the air until they reached the spot. What they saw surprised them.
They saw Cinder Fall in the middle of an unnatural clearing, hand outstretched and pointing at a Death Stalker. Twelve goons stood nearby with firearms out, looking at the forest in case more Grimm appeared. Ruby took out her scroll and contacted Ozpin. "Yes yes, what is it?" asked the headmaster. "Cinder's in Forever Fall, near us." the slightly drowsy state the headmaster was in quickly disappeared at the mention of Cinder, the two heard muffled shouting before he returned. "Okay, we have a Bullhead being prepared, you two need to leave, now. Repeat, do not engage Cinder." Ozpin said, in a tone that held no room for debate. Unfortunately, Cinder had other ideas. Just as Ruby was closing up the scroll, Cinder shot a fireball at them. Thankfully, Ruby and Weiss were able to avoid the blast, and they prepared to attack the foe. "Well, look what we have here. Two little girls, thinking they can be hero's. How cute." the last word came out as if it were the most horrid thing in the world. "Kill them both." ordered the pyromancer. The goons around her aimed their guns at the two, and fired. Ruby, being the speed demon she is, was able to dash forward to the first thug, and take him dawn before he fired his weapon. Weiss, who was not as fast, brought up a glyph to block most of the bullets. Cinder watched the fight with mild interest.
The men she hired didn't last two minutes against the pair, Cinder cursed under her breath. "So Torchwick was right, they were no good in a fight. Hmph, oh well, I guess I have to do it." Cinder laughed. "So, the trainees have some fight in them, thats good. I can't wait to beat it out of you." she laughed again as pillars of fire burst out of the ground, mostly around Ruby, who was only just able to avoid being burned. As she was focusing on Ruby, Weiss was able to dash forward to engage Cinder, only to be blasted back by a wave of heat from Cinder. Ruby, seeing her partner wounded and hurt, screamed. Seeming to teleport, she appeared in front of her love and stop the next attack from hitting her, but the same attack also shattered Crescent Rose into peaces. Ruby was flung back and fell next to the carcass of the Death Stalker. As she blacked out, Ruby saw the shape of Weiss Schnee fly towards a vary angry Cinder that looked ready to burn the world, and a Bullhead hover overhead and open the bay doors. She tried to shout a warning to Weiss, but her voice was hoarse, and then she saw nothing but blackness.
A/NOk, talking time. As I said above, this is going to be about Ruby losing a friend, a teammate, and having to live with the consequences. I have multiple paths that this could go, but I haven't decided which one I'll go for. Also, I'm really sorry if I did a bad job at portraying White Rose, but I was going for the fact that Ruby and Weiss would not be trying to flirt in combat, if you hated it please tell me. I hope you enjoyed it. I will update this and Shattered Bonds as much as possible. Bye!
