I got angry and wrote this. Fuck RWBY canon. Volume 3 onwards never happened in this fic.
Enjoy if you can.
Past midnight, the Emerald Forest...
Ruby ran full tilt through the forest. It was late at night. Grimm were probably on the prowl. There was absolutely no logical reason for why she should be out...
And yet she was...
She was angry and frustrated. Six missions back to back resulting in failure. What a track record, right? Absolutely terrible. And she knew it was all her fault. Sure, it technically wasn't her fault, but as leader of her team, she was the one who had to take the blame, even if the only one who was giving blame was herself.
All the missions were just missions they were bound to fail. Nothing she could do about them because they all turned out to be much bigger than any of team RWBY expected them to be.
A mission to patrol the streets of Vale? It lead to the sudden discovery of an entire network of arms smugglers. Ended in failure after the smugglers intercepted a transmission to Ruby's scroll for a routine report to base. They immediately packed up and left, leaving a bunch of heavily armed thugs to keep team RWBY busy. By the time Vale PD and other Huntsmen and Huntresses arrived, the smugglers were long gone, with RWBY only having just defeated the thugs.
Another mission where they'd act as guards for a civilian transport ship carrying goods to and from the outlying villages? Failed after the transports and all the goods were destroyed by an unbelievably large pack of Beowolves. They sniffed out the fear in the driver and passengers who had never driven to the outer villages before. The pack wasn't even large at first but as the civilians grew more panicked, more and more Grimm came running. They managed to get the civilians back to Vale with no fatalities but they had to be scarred for life.
Just...
All of the failures were caused by little mistakes like forgetting to turn off her scroll or not calming down the civilians well enough. They were things she shouldn't have forgotten. And yet she did. It was frustrating just thinking about it.
And what was even worse, all her teammates were trying to downplay it. She heard none of Weiss' scolding. Yang was pretending all those failures never happened. And Blake... she seemed to have retreated even further into her books, not even bothering to speak in most conversations anymore.
Everything was all wrong...
Wrong...
Ruby skidded to a stop and pulled out Crescent Rose. With a scream of frustration, she swung. All around her, the shrubs and bushes immediately exploded into a shower of leaves. Shortly after, trees began falling, crashing down with an earth shaking boom.
Breathing heavily, she took a look at the clearing she had accidentally created. She her gripped her scythe even tighter and broke into a run once more.
She was trying to blow off steam... but tearing down the forest wasn't working... She needed something else... She needed...
In the darkness, she noticed the glowing red markings of a Beowolf. She noticed a lot of them, actually. She gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger, propelling herself even faster towards the Grimm.
She swung.
She felt the light resistance of Grimm hide and bone as she tore through what must have been a limb. Keeping the momentum, she began spinning Crescent Rose wildly. She went on auto-pilot as she lost herself to the battle. The wet crunch and tug of her blades hitting flesh, the flash and accompanying bang of her gun fire, and the smell of blood and used bullet cartridges were all she was aware of. The battle was all she knew...
Ruby wasn't sure how long she was fighting. She just knew that, by the end of it, she both was out of bullets and out of breath.
She planted her scythe into the ground and fell to her knees. Her mind felt numb. The sound of her blood pumping rang in her ears. She was exhausted.
But... it didn't seem like she was as angry anymore...?
She let herself fall backwards and laughed.
Well, she blew off steam. She did exactly what she sought out to do. She wasn't sure what she hoped to achieve with it but it certainly satisfied her.
"What the heck am I doing?" she said to herself, covering her face with her hand.
"I'd also like to know that," a voice from above said.
Ruby blinked in confusion, suddenly finding herself staring at a pair of yellow eyes up in the trees. "Blake?"
Ruby sat up as Blake dropped down to the ground, landing lightly on her feet. "What are you doing here?" Ruby asked.
"Looking for you," Blake replied, offering a hand.
"Me? Why?" Ruby took the hand and was helped to her feet.
Blake raised an eyebrow. "You left the dorms in the dead of night, went to behind the school, and launched yourself into the forest. You worried us."
Ruby waved her hand. "Wa-wa-wait, what do you mean us?" Blake merely stared. Ruby stared back for a moment before looking away. "You're not the only one searching for me, are you?"
Instead of answering, Blake looked away, her bow twitching. After a few moments, even Ruby could hear the voices of her other teammates. They were getting closer.
Ruby pursed her lips for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Guys!"
Upon hearing Ruby's cry, the other two beelined for their team leader. Weiss still a few ways off and already she was scolding. "What the hell were you thinking!? Going out in the dead of night and launching yourself in the forest!? Are you trying to kill yourself!?"
Ruby winced, glancing at Blake. "That's pretty much exactly what you told me," she muttered. Blake didn't reply but she did chuckle.
"I'm sorry, guys. I... I was just a little out of it..."
"A little out of it, were you!?" When Weiss was at arm's length, she delivered a slap to Ruby's cheek. "What exactly would you be like if you were completely out of it, then!? Please tell me so I can prepare beforehand!"
Ruby's face stung but she kept a hard face. "I really sorry," she repeated.
"You took a single extra magazine! You know how easily you burn through your ammo supply! What would've happened if you ran out, huh?!"
"I did run out," Ruby muttered. "I felt angry, okay? Just... the last few mission just hit me hard... I needed to blow off some steam..."
"That's...! That's..." Weiss tried to rebut. She seemed to be trying hard, even. But she ended up saying nothing.
It was at that point that Yang spoke. "Ruby, I hate to say this, but you're not the only one frustrated. Like, I hate what happened too. But going here?" She gestured to the fallen Grimm that were already dissolving into smoke. "Doing this? That's a Big No, sister. Next time, if you really want a fight so badly, just ask one of us to spar. You and me beating the shit out of each other to blow off some steam sounds like a good time. I'm sure these two feel the same."
Ruby smiled sadly, rubbing her cheek. "I guess it could be like a team bonding exercise..."
"Great! Glad we settled that. Now c'mere. I think you need this." Yang pulled Ruby into a hug.
Ruby immediately felt a comforting warmth well up inside of her. She smiled and returned the embrace.
"There's still enough space to make this a group hug, guys," Yang added. "Blake?" The faunus shrugged and threw an arm over Yang.
Ruby chuckled for a moment before turning to the heiress who was still staring at her with a deep scowl. "Weiss?"
"I'm still mad at you."
Ruby frowned. "Weiss..."
Weiss stared at Ruby's pout for a moment before her expression softening. "Dunce! Idiot! Moron!" She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her teammates.
Later, Beacon Academy...
"By the way, guys, how did you find me?" Ruby asked as they walked back to the dorms.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "It wasn't hard. You practically cut a path for us through the forest with how many trees you cut down."
"How would you know it wasn't someone else's doing?"
Weiss pulled out a used bullet cartridge from her bag. This is a fifty caliber cartridge with traces of gravity dust. Between this and the clean cuts through three-foot thick tree trunks, I was pretty sure it was you."
Ruby nodded thoughtfully. "Huh. Makes sense, I guess."
End of chapter...
I hate karaoke. I hate it so much...