Author's Note:
Well, it's been a while since I got to a RWBY fic, considering attachments and other fics that I have been writing. Having a bit of writer's block is bad when there are stories people are following.
Aaaaanyways, I've decided to get going on one I've been having in my head for a bit now. Since the crew at RoosterTeeth have confirmed a timeskip between Volumes 3 and 4, I thought it would be fun to add in a fic that illustrates what our heroes have been going through as it leads up to volume 4. Besides, with the confirmation of new outfits for the whole of team RWBY, I thought it would be good to look into how that may have occurred along the way too. This story is first among my "Timeskip Chronicles" series that I have had ideas for a while now. Hopefully, with Volume 4, I can get better ones.
On a side note, these fics will build upon two other fics I have written in the past. They are 'The Wandering Beacon' and 'Path of Vengeance'. Wandering Beacon takes place after volume 1, while Path of Vengeance is my most recent, taking place straight after volume 3. Now I am not advertising my own fics, but those were stories that in my view had good potential for my OCs to return or at least be referred to. And I'd be lying if I said I hadn't grown attached to them. But that leads to the issue of you, my readers, not really knowing much till you read these other fics as well. You don't have to finish them, but you can get up to speed on what I'm writing about here much better if you do.
For now, hope you enjoy this one.
The Beowolf snarled as it charged straight for her, hungry for her blood and also angry due to the many others of its pack she had single-handedly destroyed. Raising its paw, it reared up to strike, only for a flash of red to completely remove the clawed limb.
Ruby now flipped over the Grimm and stabbed right through its gut and fired Crescent Rose, the recoil now kicking the blade through the Grimm's body and completely bisecting it. Ruby sailed through the air, landing on her feet as the two halves of the Beowolf landed on the ground, black smoke rising from the corpse as it dissolved away.
Ruby now looked up, surveying the area. Satisfied that no Grimm remained within the area, she sheathed Crescent Rose and walked away from the battlefield.
A roar made her realise how wrong she was. Ruby immediately dived, feeling her elbows and knees scrape by some small rocks. She rolled quickly, avoiding the paw of the huge Ursa that decided to join the skirmish. Quickly drawing the weapon once more, Ruby leapt backwards, firing a few rounds at the Grimm, the high calibre bullets stunning the Grimm.
The Ursa roared in frustration as it lumbered after her, only to stumble as something exploded on its back, a pink puff of smoke and a high pitched squeal announcing the arrival of Nora Valkyrie. The petite girl now landed in front of Ruby, spinning to slam Magnhild into the head of the Grimm. As the Grimm teetered on its feet, Jaune and Ren came up from behind. With the flash of blades, the Ursa was slain, its huge form now crashing forward and beginning to evaporate.
Nora now spun around, shooting Ruby a huge grin. "Done and done!"
"Thanks Nora." Ruby smiled as she kept her weapon.
"Well, I hope that will be enough excitement for a while." Ren said as he sheathed his weapons. Jaune merely breathed a sigh of relief, sheathing Crocea Mors.
Ruby looked upward toward the sky. Orange had already coloured the sky. Ruby checked her scroll, getting the map up. According to the map, they were about a day's away from Keynes, a small town in Mistral. Despite its size, it was quite a prosperous town thanks to the mountainous surroundings that restricted the efficacy of Grimm attacks. Due to this, they had decided it would be a good place to rest and perhaps find a little bit of work as well. Money was tight now that they were on their own, and even doing some official Huntsmen duties were barely enough to get by, but it was sufficient at least. Besides, it would be nice to have a bed to sleep in. As much as she was prepared mentally, Ruby was starting to get uncomfortable with nights out in the wilderness.
"Let's find a place to make camp." Ruby said. "If we get up on time tomorrow, we should be able to make it to Keynes by noon."
"There seems to be a small cave some ways up that hill." Nora said, her eyes squinting through her mock hand-binoculars. "We should be good there."
"Great call Nora." Jaune smiled. "Let's get going, we have a long way to hike."
Ruby warmed her hands by the campfire, taking a moment to calm down the adrenaline pumping through her system. As she did, she thought back to the time she had her first camp out with her teammates. She trembled slightly as she remembered the peaceful times that were now nothing but history. As much as she wished for those days again, she knew there was no way to bring them back. At the same time, she remembered how she felt, the excitement that ran through her mind as she did what she dreamed to do.
Now with that dream becoming more real than it ever was, she realised how naïve she was.
"So, I'll take first watch." Ruby said as she got up while the others tried their best to get comfortable within the confines of the cave. They had been in luck to find that the cave was quite small with nothing inhabiting it, but it was still necessary to take watch as there was nothing but forest from the entrance of the cave. It wasn't unlikely that a Grimm could just walk in as they were sleeping.
"Ruby, let me do first watch." Ren said. "You've been doing the first shift for the past four days now."
"I'm alright Ren." Ruby reassured him. "You guys just try and get some sleep okay?"
Ren moved to object, but decided against it. The boy merely nodded, walking back to the fire where the rest of his teammates had gathered. Ruby now took her place at the cave entrance, keeping a sharp eye toward anything that might be dangerous. Truth be told, she was exhausted. It wasn't easy being the last to sleep and the first to wake. But right now, she wanted this. After everything that had happened in Beacon three months ago, and everything in between, she often found her mind weighed down. Penny and Pyrrha's deaths, the loss of Professor Ozpin, the dissolution of her team, the loss of Beacon. There was so much to think about in addition to the journey to find Cinder and the rest of her gang that it was difficult to even get sleep. The only thing that appeared to help was collecting her thoughts just before she went to bed, hence her reason for always taking first watch. But it wasn't just her having trouble sleeping.
Just an hour into her watch and she already heard the moaning. Ruby turned to see Jaune tossing and turning in his sleep. Carefully, she could hear him mumbling about Pyrrha, pleading her not to go. Ren and Nora now came over to him, shaking him awake. Jaune now breathed heavily as he realised it was just a dream. No, in more accurate terms, it was a memory. The memory of Pyrrha Nikos throwing him into a locker and setting him off toward the city of Vale, that he might live while she fought on in the hopes she could stop the inevitable. It was even showing in Ren and Nora's faces. Despite their positive thinking, closer inspection would always reveal a shadow in their eyes, no doubt them still trying to come to terms with the loss of their friend.
Ruby turned away to face the forest again, her eyes tearing up slightly as she remembered Pyrrha, knowing she would never see her smile or hear her voice again. She wiped the tears away, knowing that crying wasn't going to bring Pyrrha back, and neither would it keep them safe through the night.
Ruby shivered as a chill went through her limbs. Looking down, she saw that her clothes were torn. Her sleeves had been ripped apart to expose the skin at her elbows and halfway down her right forearm. Her stockings had also been shredded, exposing her knees parts of her shins.
From that fight with the Ursa… Ruby concluded as she eyed her exposed elbows. That wasn't the worst of the damage. She eyed her shoes, which were now worn down from countless treks through forests. Her blouse was also looking worn, with what appeared to be threads fraying out from her sleeves. Only her skirt had managed to remain unaffected.
She decided it would be best to get some new clothes in due time. Walking around in shredded garments was not a way to be sociable. If Weiss were here, she'd have thrown a fit at the state of her clothes. Ruby's gut clenched as she realised how much she missed her own team. Even with the antics of Jaune, Ren and Nora, it was not enough to replace that of her own team.
Ruby shook the thoughts out of her head. She'd have to worry about that another time. Right now, the survival of their small band depended on her till Ren took over second watch. Taking out Crescent Rose again, she extended the stock and flipped out the scope, eyeing a lone Creep in the crosshairs. Not for one moment did she let up till the Grimm disappeared back into the bush.
"Ruby… Ruby wake up."
"Huh?" Ruby stirred. "Weiss, five more minutes… Please…"
"Um, it's not Weiss Ruby…" At this, Ruby woke to see Ren stood over her while Jaune and Nora got breakfast ready, a meager portion of bread and jam.
"Oh. Right." Ruby nodded as she got up, grimacing as she brushed her teeth with a worn out toothbrush. As she finished, Jaune went over and passed her a Strawberry jam sandwich.
"Thanks Jaune." Ruby said in response.
"No problem Ruby." Jaune replied with a smile, an obvious mask for the haunted look in his eyes. She knew it wouldn't be easy for him of all people to move on from Pyrrha's death. She was the same when she found out her mother died and it took months before she stopped thinking about it constantly. The only thing she could do was help Jaune along as much as possible.
"Alright, if we just follow the mountain ridges, we should get to Keynes by noon." Nora said as she looked through her scroll. "Just in time for lunch."
"How much do we have for lunch anyways?" Jaune asked, digging through his bag for any Mistral currency.
"Enough for a sizeable meal for all of us." Ren replied. "Hopefully we can find some work and then get us back up on our feet for the next leg of our journey."
"I'm still amazed that we're being allowed to take Huntsmen jobs." Jaune remarked. "You'd think people would be apprehensive about giving us Grimm extermination missions."
Ruby's mind worked as she ate her breakfast. She had to agree with Jaune that it was incredible they were able to find work so easily despite looking so young. Then again, lately she learned age was something that was not completely based on how long one had lived. The last time they took a mission, the Huntsman administrators couldn't even bear to look them in the eye. She wondered what exactly could have happened to them that they now appeared to be deadlier then their age. Perhaps it was their previous interactions with the Blood Hunt Order, a group of vagabond Huntsmen that hunted the Grimm to slake a thirst for revenge. She could still remember the dark nature of Vanessa Sanguinar, the current Maester of the Order and the grim and brutal beliefs she held to. Perhaps they have been passed on to them, even if it was ever so slight.
"Well, at least we can get some money in." Ruby nodded. "We wouldn't have been able to get food otherwise."
"I still miss pancakes…" Nora grumbled.
"Well, we can't exactly carry around flour." Ren answered. "Additionally, we have to spare some for ammo and weapon maintenance."
"It would be nice to get some new clothes soon." Jaune remarked as he regarded his ripped and frayed jeans. "I swear, possibly the reason people think we've seen more than enough for our age is because of how we look like homeless people."
"Agreed." Ren nodded. "We look way too ragged for a bunch of teenagers."
Ruby shrugged. In her mind, it wasn't the worst. If it helped them get work, that was the better. "Well, we ought to get going soon. The faster we get to Keynes, the better off we'll be."
They continued their trek, a rather uneventful day passing them by. For once, Ruby was glad for the peace and quiet that came in the absence of the Grimm. Even Nora was having a fun time it seemed, spreading her hands out and running around, imitating the birds in the sky. Ruby admitted that, even after all they had been through, it was nice to just fool around once in a while. Even Jaune and Ren were giving quiet laughs to themselves.
Then, Nora stopped. Ruby frowned as she approached the teenage girl. "What's wrong?"
Nora pointed forward. Ruby looked up, now seeing that there was a person lying in the middle of the dirt road.
"Oh no…" Ruby gasped as she ran forward as fast as she could, using her Semblence to help her along. As she neared, she could now make out the person's distinct traits. She was a Faunus that was for certain, attesting to the huge green scaly tail that extended out of the back of her waist. The woman also wore an olive green cheongsam dress with orange trimmings and gold patterns in the shape of dragons accompanied with white trousers.
But it was the weapon that Ruby eyed. Upon her back was slung a very long polearm, a dagger-axe by the look of it. It appeared blocky, with the staff widened more than usual and a trigger attached to one side. She wondered what this weapon was capable of.
But then reality kicked in as Ruby shook the woman. "Hey! Are you okay?"
The woman groaned, which triggered relief from Ruby. It seemed she was still alive, but Ruby still checked for any wounds or blood. It didn't look like she was hit by Grimm. Perhaps she was robbed?
"Help… me…" The Faunus moaned.
"Ren! Get the first aid!" Jaune said as they neared. Ren now dug through his backpack, taking out a small white box.
"What kind of injury are we looking at?" Ren asked.
"I don't know!" Ruby replied. "Help me move her so we can look!"
"Got it!" Nora nodded, leaning in to help.
Suddenly, a massive growling could be heared. All of them froze, instantly keeping an eye out for any Ursa that would be nearby. However, as the growling continued, they realised the sound wasn't coming from the forest.
All of them now turned to the Faunus on the ground, where the rumbling was at its loudest.
"Help…" The Faunus moaned. "Need… food… So… Hungry… Can't… move…"
With some effort, they had managed to bring the Faunus woman along with them to Keynes. Thankfully, the Faunus was loaded with cash, which meant they were able to at least pay for a decent meal. As a show of thanks for getting her to Keynes, the Faunus was more than willing to pay for all their meals.
However, as they sat eating, Ruby wished they had chosen a more private place to have a meal. Granted, it wasn't the four teenagers that looked like they had been to hell and back that the patrons were shocked by. It was the rate at which the Faunus woman was eating.
Rice bowls, chicken drumsticks, whole fish, vegetable dishes or burgers. It didn't matter what was piled onto the table, the Faunus woman scarfed it down at lightning speed. Compared to their own bowls of rice and the three side dishes, the Faunus was eating the fill of at least twenty people single-handedly.
"And I thought Nora could eat…" Jaune gulped as the Faunus grabbed a whole plate of fried rice and lifted it over her mouth, gobbling the food down as if it was as easy as breathing.
"Um…" Ruby attempted to get a word in to the Faunus. It was only appropriate they thanked the woman who was kind enough to pay for their food, though she was 'inhaling' food so quickly it was a challenge to do so. As she finished the last dish, the woman slammed the plate down on the table, heaving a satisfied sigh.
"Whew…" The Faunus smiled. "Boy that was the best meal I've had in ages!" Looking up to face them, she put her palms together and bowed her head. "Thank you for the meal! And thank you kids for getting me here! I'd have starved to death otherwise!"
"Uh, your welcome. I guess…" Ruby blinked. "So uh, if you don't mind me saying… Well, thanks for paying, but who are you exactly?"
The Faunus looked up. "Oh, where are my manners?" Standing up, she extended a hand. "Diana Urodel! Just an average wandering Huntress, graduated from Beacon quite some years ago!"
"You were from Beacon too?" Ruby gasped.
"Huh? Yeah I was." Diana replied. "Wait, you guys are also from Beacon? What are you doing all the way out here? You guys graduated already? Wow, Huntsmen these days must be badass if Ozpin is letting you guys go into the field this early…"
"Um…" Ruby started, but wasn't sure how to respond.
"Actually Diana…" Ren began with a calm look. "There's something you ought to know." Slowly, Ren recounted the events at the end of the Vytal festival, leading up to the Grimm invasion and the Battle of Beacon. As he ended with the destruction of Beacon tower and Ozpin's disappearance, Ren's eyes fell, along with the rest of his teammates.
"And that's why we are out here." Ruby finished. "We are looking for those responsible for what happened. We have to. We have lost friends and teammates, and those who survived have also lost something else, so we have to find answers, for all their sakes…"
Diana's face fell as she sat back down, taking in the gravity of the situation. "I… I'm sorry, about all of it. If I had been there, maybe I…"
"It isn't your fault Diana." Jaune said. "None of us were prepared for it."
"Well, I must say though, you have guts to come out like this." Diana nodded as she looked up again. "I really wonder what they make kids out of these days. But now that I know the CCT is down, it explains loads of things. I've been trying to call my old teammates in like, forever but nothing has worked! Then again, when you are away from civilisation that long…"
"Huh, when you said you were a wanderer, you weren't joking." Ren chuckled. "But who are your old teammates?"
"Only one of the best teams to graduate from Beacon!" Diana smiled as she pulled up a photo. Upon the photo were four Faunus teens. They recognised Diana in the middle. To her left was a Faunus wearing a red coat over a white shirt and pants, with his white hair combed in a spiky manner, though he did not bother hiding his fangs and claws. To Diana's right were two very familiar faces that Ruby had seen before. The furthermost right was a cocky looking boy with wolf ears sprouting from his head and wearing a black coat. Hefted on his shoulders was a very long and broad zweihander with a handle in the mid-section of the blade. The last was a squirrel Faunus who wore a tank top that exposed her midriff accompanied with black shorts and two tonfa weapons on her hands.
"Team WNDR…" Diana smiled. "The only team comprised entirely of Faunus."
"You are Wesley and Nicole's teammate!?" Ruby gasped, triggering surprise from Diana.
And there it is. I've always wanted to find out how to get a lizard based Faunus into a fic in a more obvious way. After seeing the ideas of other fans, I think sticking with just a reptile tail for Diana, my OC, was the best way to go.
If you are wondering, Diana's name comes from the scientific name of the Salamander family of amphibians, though her behavior as you have seen is similar to a komodo dragon, considering her gluttonous nature. For just a little FYI, komodo dragons eat ANYTHING they can get their jaws on, even bone. As someone from Asia, I was wondering how to put something like that into RWBY, and so after much deliberation, Diana Urodel was born. Why I named her based on Salamanders however, that's something you'll find out later.
For now, I hope you have enjoyed this little read. Do comment on anything.
Jdbl00d