RWBY Red: Crimson Shadows
Author's Note: I'm back at it! While I'm still waiting for a better idea of how Yellow went over, I've figured out how I'm going to work this set. Like the show, each character is going to have their prequel of sorts with running into the shadow faunus. The continuation from there is going to be an entirely separate beast, so these little one shots will be it.
Now let's see how Ruby reacts to our new friend (foe?)
A commotion down one of the service corridors reached the ears of one young faunus as he scanned the endless passages below the arena. Ears pointed in the direction of the sound, Kieran Night frowned slightly as a thud resounded.
Seconds later a flash of red whistled by him, rose petals fluttering in the wake of the fleeing person. It seemed they were heading back up to the arena. Unsure of whether he should follow the trail of dissolving petals or consider breaking a few bones of an obvious bully, he glanced back where the figure shot from before narrowing his eyes and following the petals. As he climbed up to the arena level the atmosphere changed dramatically. The faunus stiffened, instincts bringing a slight snarl across his lips before he reigned himself in. With a calming breath he tried to work out what he could potentially be walking into.
The match up for the second round was one Pyrrha Nikos and a Penny Polendina. A quick dig on his scroll had yielded next to nothing on Penny, though Kieran already knew the young gladiator's semblance was polarity, and his ever so sensitive ears had picked up a ringing of metal on metal anytime Pyrrha's sword made contact on Penny. Disgusted at Atlas and their underhanded trickery at entering their latest toy into a student competition, the faunus had left, not willing to watch a ridiculously one sided fight that could only end badly.
Sure enough, badly it had ended. As the faunus stepped out of the stairwell into the corridor with a view of the arena, immediately he zeroed in on the four distinct pieces that remained of Penny. While he didn't know much about the android's mechanics, it would seem that whatever Pyrrha did was more than enough to decimate the machine. Eyes darting back to the gladiator, he was barely surprised at this point to see another bend in the air around her. Now he knew someone was playing a dangerous game. The shock of what many first thought as a brutal murder, followed by the discovery that Atlas had a new component of their military was more than enough to warrant the distinct change in mood Kieran had sensed.
Frowning, he tore his gaze away as the CCT was overrode by an unknown source who then proceeded to convey her displeasure with the way things were in the world. Not ten feet from the end of the corridor was a little girl on her knees, red cape sprawled out behind her. Well Red, you certainly know how to move, he observed. By some twist of fate, Kieran recognized the girl as Yang Xiao Long's sister, Ruby Rose. Which meant the faunus now had an interest in her as well. Can't play one and not the whole set. Time to intervene on his part.
Ruby tore away from Mercury and flew up the hall. She still couldn't comprehend how he was up and walking around after the earlier match with Yang, but that was the least of her concerns. As she dashed by a lone faunus wandering the corridors, her mind flew as fast as her semblance. As much as she needed to warn the two girls, she hadn't the slightest idea how, let alone whether or not she would even make it in time before something terrible happened.
The closer she got to the top floor and the arena, the louder the sounds of combat rang out. Then there was a brief moment of silence before a clattering of metal on the ground. Ruby got just within eyeshot of the arena the moment the wires caught around Penny. A horrible screech of metal ripping metal tore through the air as before everyone's eyes, the Atlas student was dismembered and divided in four. Horror struck Ruby as she fell to her knees, unable to run any further. What was the point? It was too late anyway. Tears welled in the corner of her eyes as a frightening silence swept through the stadium. Even Pyrrha looked shocked at the result of her semblance.
The screens showcasing the matches were suddenly alight with a red chess piece as a woman started talking about how disappointing and frightening everything was, from the new military hardware to the now twice over examples of just how dishonorable and vicious hunters and huntresses were. Ruby barely heard a word. All she could see or hear was the arena below, Penny ripped apart, and zero explanation as to why Pyrrha would have done such a thing. A brief thought back to her sister made Ruby vaguely question if this was a similar circumstance. After all, Pyrrha was just like Yang in that neither of them would purposely retaliate to an attack on this scale of power or end result. They were good people, and Ruby knew good people didn't do those things. Which might have explained why she felt no anger towards Pyrrha despite her attack being the cause for Penny. I know Pyrrha wouldn't do such a thing either, Ruby thought desperately hoping she wasn't wrong.
Zoned out in her own world, the first spectator to rush by her knocked her over onto her side. Within seconds the entire stadium was emptying out. Dazed but cognizant, Ruby tried to see just what had caused such a sudden change. Silver orbs widened in surprise as she took in the sight of the giant Nevermore atop the arena's forcefield.
"Get up!" A voice stirred Ruby from her stupor. Without warning a pair of rough hands grabbed her and hauled her up and into an alcove, out of the way of the stampeding crowd. Whirling around she came face to face with the faunus she had raced by down below the arena. "Are you okay Red?" The faunus asked, frowning with veiled concern as he gave her a cursory glance before poking his head out to gauge the flow of chaos.
"Y-yeah, I just…" Ruby couldn't form a coherent sentence aloud. Her mind was still far beyond that of her speech, and the glancing blow to the head from one of the spectators didn't help. Taking a deep breath, she drew on her aura and the slight fog around her head cleared. Even fully alert, the only thing she could process was still the gruesome scene she had witnessed down on the grounds.
Turning back to her, the faunus' gaze bore into her. Try as she might, she couldn't seem to look away from those amber eyes. They were even sharper than Blake's, and held a depth of intelligence one wouldn't expect for his age. He couldn't be much more than a year or two older than Yang. As his ears twitched, keeping alert to any potential trouble, he knelt down, right on eye level with her, and placed his hands on her shoulders bracingly. "Take a deep breath. Shit just got crazy out there and you being a huntress means you're going to have to get a grip." She nodded. He was right, but she didn't have Crescent Rose, and after that…
"But what about -"
The wolf faunus cut her off. "What happened to Penny was bad. There's no way around that. But those two had no business being paired off to start with. Someone else is pulling the strings here." At this Ruby's attention shot up a few levels. Well did that mean Yang..? ¨Come on, you can't seriously sit here and tell me you believed your sister did such a reckless move like that without cause?" As if he read her mind, the faunus gave light to one of Ruby's concerns.
"Who would do such a thing? It's cruel and heartless," Ruby spat in a rare moment of contempt. She couldn't believe someone would take matters into their own hands just to wreck such evil.
"I don't know." The faunus' eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second, clearly displeased at his own answer.
"PYRRHA!"
A shout from the now mostly empty arena, clearly sounding like Juane. "PYRRHA! That thing's going to break in, YOU'VE GOTTA MOVE!" A quick glance around the corner from the two sheltering in the alcove told them that the Nevermore was only seconds away from breaking down the barrier, and Pyrrha was standing stock still, continuing to be mortified by the broken girl in front of her.
The faunus put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Your friend is in trouble." Ruby didn't hear him at first, transfixed yet again by the unwelcome sight below. "You're not mad at your friend are you?" He sounded genuinely concerned that she might leave Pyrrha to fend for herself against the Nevermore.
"No, it wasn't Pyrrha's fault," Ruby said firmly, both to the faunus and herself. I still don't have Crescent Rose, she thought, frowning.
"Then you need to hurry up. That Nevermore isn't about to stay there much longer." Ruby looked back as the faunus started heading away.
"Wait, where are you going?" She thought for sure that he would help with the onslaught of Grimm about to flood the arena. Glancing back at the Nevermore, she went to say something else but he was gone. Unless he was extremely fast, there was nowhere he could have disappeared to; it was a long hall that didn't curve for several hundred feet.
Another shout from Jaune made her realized that the mysterious faunus was the least of her worries. As the Nevermore shattered the barrier and landed, it knocked Pyrrha, Jaune, and the reamins of Penny across the arena. Bracing herself, Ruby shot off towards the ground just as the Nevermore broke through the barrier at least. In a quick move, she grabbed a sword of Penny's and rushed past the members of Team JNPR just as the Nevermore leaped into the air, beak ready to snap up Pyrrha. With all her strength of her semblance backing her, she plunged the sword into the bird Grimm before flipping back gracefully to stand between the beast and its prey.
"R-ruby?" Came the choked voice of Pyrrha, stunned that the girl would come to her rescue wielding her victim's weapon no less.
"Leave her alone!" Ruby cried furiously, drawing a stance against the Grimm. The giant chicken screeched in response, immediately taking to the air until it could find a better approach of attack. As it circled and then dove at her, Ruby braced herself.
The bird never made it though, as several large objects pelted it like ballistics. Rocket propelled lockers, apparently summoned by the other students. The bird crashed and skidded to a halt mere feet from her.
Students scrambled to grab their weapons, ready to fight. No sooner than everyone was armed, the damned Nevermore gave a raucous shriek and made to rise. The various teams scattered and threw themselves at the bird. Nora, giggling, landed a ferocious crack on the bird's bone mask, and Yatsuhashi and Sage double teamed a beautiful aerial strike to dually sever the giant chicken's head. Right before Ruby, the giant Grimm fizzled away.
Immediate danger having passed, Ruby finally faced Pyrrha. Before she could say anything though, Pyrrha beat her to it, tears in her eyes as they radiated guilt. "Ruby, I -" she broke off emotionally as she clutched the scrap of fabric from Penny's clothes. Struggling to find her voice, she tried again. "I'm so sorry."
Ruby didn't even hesitate. What she told the faunus was true, she didn't blame her friend. "Me too.. but it wasn't your fault." She finished determinedly.
"She's right." Stepping into the scene, Jaune came bearing Milo and Akouo in his hands. As he approached Pyrrha, she stood up. Never before had anyone seen Jaune so serious, even fierce. "Whoever was on the microphone, they're the ones that did this. As he handed Pyrrha's weapon and shield to her, he continued with a promise. "And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else."
With Pyrrha back on course, they looked to Ruby. Teams SSSN, CFVY, and FNKI looked to Ruby as well as the charged their weapons up for a fight. Ruby gave the smallest of determined smiles. They had a job to do.
There you go. The metaphorical "Red Trailer" to my story "Overshadowed". Let me know how I did? I purposely jumped from Yang to Ruby because Kieran is doing exactly that. Now he's off to find one of the monochrome pair and gain his ground there. I promise that all four of these, while being their own separate stories, will play into a chronological part as a whole. IF I power through that far. If not, well I guess they make pretty cool one shots, right?
As one always asks, please review, flame or otherwise. I'll admit I'm starting to have fun with these, even if this one did throw me for a 3 hour bump trying to balance the sudden maturity with Ruby's ever-childlike state. Good night!