RWBY: A New Villain
"Looks like it's finally over," Ruby sighed as the police escorted a heavily injured Roman Torchwick and his henchmen to one of their vans.
"Yeah," Jaune panted with an exhausted smile as he sheathed his sword. Torchwick had attempted to attack Beacon Academy, but had been subdued by the staff, students and local law enforcement. Torchwick was taken down by Professor Ozpin himself.
"Ruby, you're okay!" Yang exclaimed as she charged up to Ruby and smothered her in a bone-crushing hug. "Are you hurt?" She asked, looking worriedly at a bloody spot on Ruby's left shoulder.
"It's just a scratch," She assured her. Just then, Blake, Weiss, Ren and Nora showed up.
"Glad to see you four are okay," Jaune remarked as he and Ruby approached them.
"Same to you," Ren replied, staring sadly at the ground.
"What's wrong?" Jaune asked. Then he realized it. Everyone was there except Pyrrha. Jaune grabbed Ren's collar. "Did they get Pyrrha?!" Jaune demanded anxiously.
"She's injured, but she'll be okay soon," Nora replied, somehow maintaining her usual cheerful demeanor. Jaune heaved a deep sigh of relief.
"Where is she now?" Yang asked.
"She's been taken to the infirmary," Ren reported. "If anything she's lucky, though. We lost two teachers and a couple dozen students from what I've heard so far."
Nobody said anything as they walked to where Pyrrha was. Jaune seemed especially troubled by what was going on.
"Don't worry Jaune," Yang assured him as they entered the building. "Nora said she would be good to go shortly, remember?"
"Yeah," Jaune sighed. Ruby glanced at him, worried about what might be going through his head. After a few minutes, they were at Pyrrha's side.
"Hey guys," She whispered. She was bandaged on her left forearm, her right bicep, her right thigh, and her neck.
"So, how are you feeling?" Nora asked eagerly.
"I feel like crap," She groaned.
"That's too bad," Jaune replied, unusually calm for this kind of situation. Ruby dismissed it as him trying to act tough for Pyrrha.
"Is there anything we can get you?" Weiss asked, looking concerned.
"Nah. I'm good," Pyrrha grunted as she sat up.
"Do you know when you'll get out of here?" Blake inquired.
"It should be about a week," Pyrrha replied, sounding very unenthusiastic about the idea of doing nothing for so long. "By the way, there's something I've been wondering about," She added. "If dust is what Torchwick was after, why would he attack a school of all places?"
"Maybe we have a place where we store a lot of dust," Blake suggested.
"Perhaps they intended to use the intimidation that would result to gain national attention to his organization?" Weiss guessed.
"Ooh! Ooh!" Nora exclaimed. "Maybe they were here to assassinate Professor Ozpin!" Everyone stared at her.
"Well, whatever the cause, I think it's safe to say that it's come to an end, and that we can all relax for a little while," Jaune stated. His efforts to look cheerful were very visible.
"Jaune's right," Ruby said. "We don't have to worry about it anymore."
"That's my baby sister!" Yang exclaimed, punching Ruby's good shoulder. "Way to be an optimist!"
A nurse came in and told them that it was time for them to leave, since some patients were trying to sleep.
Unfortunately, they didn't have much time to not worry. The next morning, they woke up to a teacher knocking on their door, telling them to get up and go to the courtyard as soon as possible. When they got there, they found a crowd surrounding a taped off scene.
"What's going on here?" Weiss asked.
"There's been a murder," A familiar-looking detective replied grimly.
"So, who was it?" Yang asked, pointing at the corpse.
"Professor Ozpin," The other detective replied. "Poor sucker didn't stand a chance against whoever did this," He added as he waved his pistol at the heavy collateral damage around them.
"How do you know that?" Blake inquired.
"The DNA in the blood is only Ozpin's," The other detective explained. "Whoever his opponent was, they weren't even scratched."
"Not even scratched? Against Ozpin?" Ruby thought. "Who would have enough power to pull that off?"
Team JNPR ran up next to them as the detectives began carrying the bloody corpse away. Jaune passed out as soon as he saw it.
Later that night, Ruby woke up to a loud thud. Curious, she got up, got dressed, and got out of the dorm. After she had been wandering for a little while, she found Jaune standing by a window.
"Hey, Jaune!" She called as she approached him.
"Oh, hey Ruby," He replied.
"Whatcha doin' here?" She asked.
"Just thinking about what happened today," He sighed.
"Worried about Pyrrha?" Ruby guessed.
"That's part of it."
"What else is it?" She asked. Jaune sighed again.
"Well, you see, in the battle today, I saw Professor Ozpin fighting Torchwick. I wanted to join in and help, but I was just too afraid. I was just a coward. It's making me wonder what might've happened if I had seen the ones who died and helped. And to make matters worse, Ozpin's dead now, so now who knows who else might go next?!"
"Jaune, whether you could've saved them or not doesn't matter right now," Ruby stated. "If anything, it was probably a good thing you didn't do anything to help. If you had, you might've gotten in the way, and just ended up making things worse." Jaune groaned miserably, knowing she was probably right.
"You know," He began, "Back when you told me that I couldn't be a failure, you really made me believe that I could do something right, like I could really lead my team. But right now, I'm starting to wonder if you were right about that. I failed to protect my team, and as a result, Pyrrha was seriously injured. What's worse, I wasn't brave enough to step in when I saw some people in trouble." He sighed. "I just let them die."
"Look Jaune," Ruby replied, "The fact that you failed once doesn't mean that you are going to fail forever." Jaune looked at her, a little surprised by her response. "Do you remember when you defeated that Ursa Major? That wasn't something that just anybody could do. I feel that that alone is proof that you are a capable huntsman."
"But if Pyrrha hadn't used her magnetism thingy, I would have lost.," He insisted.
"Maybe not.," Ruby replied. "I saw the whole thing. You probably could've hit it before it hit you. And even if you hadn't, you could've taken that blow and gotten right back up, especially considering you did just that after what Cardin did to you."
"You think so?" Jaune asked. Ruby grinned.
"I know so," She replied. "Have a good night Jaune." She turned around and began to walk away when she suddenly felt a sharp pain through her stomach, followed by the sensation of being hit really hard. She looked down, and saw a blade coming out of her torso. Shocked, she looked behind her. Jaune was smiling. But it wasn't his usual warm, friendly smile. It was a very cold, malicious smile.
"Good night to you too, Ruby," He replied in a surprisingly deep voice. He yanked his sword out of her and allowed her to fall to the ground as she began to pass out. She tried to scream for help, but she was already too weak and light-headed to do anything.
"Why, Jaune?" She managed to murmur as she blacked out.
The next morning, Yang woke up to find that Ruby was out of bed already. Surprised, she looked across the dorm. Assuming that she went to the bathroom or something, she got dressed and started making breakfast. But when Ruby didn't come back after a few minutes, Yang started to get worried. She called for Ruby, and received no response. Panicked, she grabbed a pancake and charged for the door.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Blake asked groggily as she dragged herself over to Yang.
"Ruby's missing!" Yang exclaimed, shaking Blake.
"She's probably in the bathroom or talking to Jaune or something," Blake grunted as she poured herself some Cat in the Hat cereal.
"I know for a fact that she's not in the bathroom, and if she were with Jaune, why didn't she leave a note?!"
"She's a kid," Blake barked. "She probably just forgot or something. Give her a break."
"Not Ruby," Yang replied. "She always lets me know where she's going and when she'll be back without fail." Blake sighed.
"Where do you think she might be?" She asked.
"I don't know!" Yang hollered. "That's why I'm going to look for her!"
"I'll get Weiss up," Blake groaned as she started to eat her cereal.
"What's with all the commotion?!" An already awake Weiss demanded.
"Ruby's missing, and we're going to look for her," Blake summarized.
"What? Why is she gone?" Weiss inquired.
"I'll explain on the way!" Yang called as she threw Weiss some buttered toast.
Once everyone was ready, they took off. Not long after, they came across a crowd.
"What's going on here?" Weiss asked.
"A young girl was found stabbed in one of the halls," One of the same familiar-looking detectives reported. "She's been moved into the infirmary."
Horrified, Yang grabbed Weiss and Blake's hands and charged as fast as her legs could carry them to the infirmary.
When they arrived, the nurse said that she was found in critical condition, but was now stable, but that they shouldn't stay for too long.
"Hey, guys," Ruby whispered weakly as they walked in.
"Ruby!" Yang exclaimed hysterically, "Are you going to be okay?! Are you in pain?! Will you be able to continue classes soon?! How are you feeling?!" Ruby just smiled at her sister and sighed.
"She'll be fine," Pyrrha reported from a few beds away. "But I would be less worried about her physical wounds if I were you."
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, looking confused.
"Her emotional wounds at the betrayal of her friend has done much more damage than her injury ever could have," Pyrrha stated sadly.
"Who was it?" Blake inquired. There was a long pause.
"It was… Jaune," Pyrrha managed to say. Everyone was stunned.
"THAT SON OF A grimm! I'LL SLAUGHTER HIM!" Yang roared as her eyes turned red and her hair began to burn.
"You're too late," Pyrrha sighed. "He's gone. He took off early this morning."
"Do you think he might be responsible for Ozpin's death, too?" Weiss inquired.
"No," Pyrrha replied. "Ozpin was too powerful for Jaune to take down by himself. He had to have had help of some kind. Whoever did that was definitely not alone."
"But who?" A now somewhat calm Yang asked, not taking her eyes off Ruby's bloody bandages.
"I can't really think of anyone," Pyrrha admitted.
"The white fang, maybe?" Blake suggested. Everyone looked at her, surprised that she of all people would come to that conclusion. "They were working with Torchwick when he attacked," Blake reminded them. "We need to keep in mind that in mind as we think about this."
Just then, the nurse came in and said that it was time for them to leave.
Later that evening, the ceremony for orienting Glynda Goodwitch as the new headmaster of Beacon took place.
"The loss of Professor Ozpin was a tragedy," Professor Port started. "and it is with a heavy heart that I present to you your new headmaster: Glynda Goodwitch." Everyone gave a round of applause as she walked up to the microphone to give a speech.
"Good evening, everyone," She began in a very formal tone. "as you all know, I will be taking over for the late Professor Ozpin. I would like you all to know that I will take this new position very seriously, and that as long as I hold this position, I will make sure that everyone at this school will be kept safe from any threats that show themselves, and that I will continue Professor Ozpin's efforts to provide the best education possible." She started to sob a little. "You are dismissed," She managed to say before she walked off the stage, crying.
"Looks like she's under a lot of pressure," Blake observed.
"No doubt very sad about the death of her friend, too," Ruby added.
Nobody said anything for a good while after that, even after they returned to their dorms. They just sat there, wondering why Jaune would do this.
"He even saved Cardin's life," Weiss sighed after about an hour. "He just doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do this."
"I know," Yang replied. "He was Ruby's first friend here, and he just stabbed her in the back like that." She put her hand over her mouth and shuttered as she realized what she had just said.
"How about I make some tea?" Blake suggested. "It could help us take our minds off the situation."
"Good idea," Weiss replied. She and Yang sat at their dorm table as Blake went to make the tea.
"I promised that nothing would ever harm her," Yang sighed. "When we were kids, I would read to her before bed, and would talk to her, and even sing her a song if she had a nightmare." She looked down. "But I failed. I let her get hurt."
"There was nothing you could've done," Weiss replied, placing her hand on Yang's. Blake walked up to them with four cups and a tea pot. She placed one cup in front of each seat, and poured tea into the first three, and then remembered that Ruby wouldn't be joining them. She hesitated, then put Ruby's cup back into the cupboard.
"You know, back when I was in the White Fang, my friends and I would always go out for tea at our favorite café after our demonstrations," Blake remarked as she put some sugar into her tea. "The people there were very nice to us, and could sympathize with the discrimination that we faced. Even the humans." Then, Ren, Nora and Pyrrha entered the dorm.
"I see you've recovered," Weiss remarked, looking at Pyrrha with a friendly smile.
"Well, I'm still a little sore, but overall, I'm good to go."
"When we saw Ruby in the hospital as we picked Pyrrha up, we were horrified," Nora added as she walked up to Yang.
"There was a strange girl talking to her too," Ren added. "Red hair, green eyes, freckles; Do you know her?"
"That's probably Penny," Weiss replied as she took a sip of her tea. Just then, Penny charged into the room.
"Speak of the devil," Blake muttered through her cup.
"As soon as I heard the news, I ran here as quickly as I could," Penny announced.
"Wait, you mean that you ran the whole way here?" Yang asked, looking a bit confused.
"That's correct," Penny replied, unfazed by Yang's glance.
"You mean that you covered all that distance in a little less than 24 hours?"
"I neither rested nor ate," Penny declared, acting as though this was normal, or even physically possible.
"That's one determined girl," Pyrrha whispered to Ren.
"What did you call me?" Penny asked as she walked up to Pyrrha.
"Umm… I just said that you must be very determined to have gotten here so quickly on foot," She replied nervously.
"Oh, okay," Penny replied. She turned around and started to walk away.
"Man, she has good hearing!" Weiss whispered to Pyrrha.
"Yes, yes I do." Penny remarked, not even turning around.
About a week later, Ruby was released from the infirmary, and things started to get back to normal for Team RWBY. Well, almost back to normal. Unfortunately, this wasn't meant to last long. About two weeks later, everyone woke up to a loud explosion.
"What was that?!" Ruby squeaked as she bolted upright.
"I don't know," Yang replied. "Let's find out." They all changed into their clothes so they would be warmer, grabbed their weapons, and charged toward the source of the noise.
When they arrived on the scene, they saw that dozens of others, most still in their pajamas, had already arrived. The majority of them were shivering.
"What's going on?" Weiss demanded as she grabbed someone's shoulder.
"Someone's set off a dust bomb," He replied, pointing at a crater. The girls made their way through the crowd to the front, only to have their gaze drawn upwards. Members of the White Fang were starting to drop out of their airships, followed by a dark figure in a black trench coat and a hood, who stood in front of them.
"Attention students," a low, familiar voice boomed. "we are here today to finish what we started." Ruby knew she recognized that voice from somewhere, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. Then it hit her.
"Jaune, is that you?!" She hollered as loudly as she could. The figure removed his hood, revealing a full head of messy blonde hair and a skinny face. It was him all right.
"Oh, hey Ruby," He replied in a calm, friendly manner, using his new, deep voice. "Long time no see."
"What are you doing here?!" Pyrrha demanded from inside the crowd. "Haven't you already caused enough damage as it is?!"
"You're probably referring to my single-handedly disposing of Ozpin," He replied calmly.
"Not another word!" Glynda Goodwitch screamed as she marched to the front of the crowd, weapon in hand. "You killed the best headmaster in Beacon history, and what's worse, you've attacked one of it's precious students as well! You've got a lot of guts showing your face here again!" Jaune grinned that same malicious grin.
"So, you think that after what I've already done that you're going to stop me?" He remarked. "Since you've apparently forgotten already, I am the one who took you're your most powerful teacher single-handedly."
"We all know what you've done!" Goodwitch yelled back. "And I have no intention of letting you get away with it!" She waved her wand at Jaune, sending what appeared to be dust stars at him, which exploded upon impact.
"Did she get him?!" Nora demanded, looking half-worried, half-hopeful.
When the smoke cleared, Jaune stood, unscathed, with his shield up.
"If moves like that are all you have, then I suggest you give up now," Jaune remarked. "I don't really want to kill you, but, stepping on an ant without crushing it tends to be very difficult."
"We'll see who's really an ant soon enough!" Goodwitch roared as she prepared another attack. But before she could launch it, Jaune had already charged up to her, and slashed her deeply in the torso, traveling several meters in the blink of an eye. Goodwitch collapsed into a small puddle of her own blood.
"Are you convinced yet?" Jaune asked, gently kicking her head.
"Jaune!" Ruby hollered. "If you're one of them, and you really are so bad, why did you help me in the courtyard when we first met?! And why did you save Cardin from that Ursa Major?! Surely someone who does that can't be all bad!"
"You have… silver eyes," He replied coolly.
"What?" Ruby asked, confused.
"The same eyes as the famous scythe wielder Qrow. I hypothesized that you were connected to him somehow, and therefore could prove a threat to the plan."
"Oh, that's my uncle!" Ruby exclaimed.
"You confirmed this hypothesis when you showed me your weapon. As for Cardin, I simply wanted to look like the good guy to eliminate any chance of anyone suspecting me of anything when Ozpin was to be killed." Ruby was flabbergasted. Had he really planned everything this far ahead?
The White Fang members began to charge towards the staff and students, weapons drawn. The students and teachers that had brought their weapons took them out, and got ready for battle.
"Don't worry, Ruby," Yang murmured into her sister's ear. "This time around, I'll make sure you don't get hurt." Ruby grinned.
"Don't play with me," She grunted. "I'm too angry to get hurt this time." They then charged the White Fang and Jaune.
Chaos followed. As people were fighting around her, Ruby was trying very hard to fight the enemy without hurting anyone else. She was slashing through and shooting as many of the White Fang members as fast she could, trying to avoid killing them if possible.
"Sorry!" She hollered as she shot one of them. As much as she hated to admit it, she was having a very hard time against them. Compared to these guys, the beowolves were creampuffs. She narrowly avoided one of their swords, and barely missed a student's heart with one of her bullets. She decided it would be best if she simply used her speed to get through the battlefield, slashing as she went. "This would be so much easier if there weren't so many people around," She thought. She glanced at Weiss, who was struggling to stay up after taking a stab to her left thigh and to see who was who in the dark.
"If I go down now, I'll never be able to face my father," She thought. "Come on, Weiss, you can do this! Take these scumbags down with you if you have to!" As she struggled to maintain her composure, she remembered what the White Fang did to the Schnee Dust Company. How they had stolen tons of dust, executed board members, and kidnapped family and friends. She glared at one of them, and in a rage, charged and stabbed him. "That stab was courtesy of the Schnee Dust Company!" She declared as he collapsed. She looked around herself, angry but nervous, wondering how long she could make it through this, especially considering her family's hostile relationship with her family's company, whose emblem was printed on the back of her dress! She wondered how Blake felt about fighting her old friends.
"I was hoping this day would never come," Blake thought as she hacked her way through the enemy soldiers, trying to avoid killing her former comrades if possible. "I wonder if I knew any of these people," She thought as she slashed, whipped and shot them in rapid succession. Due to her Faunus heritage, she had excellent night vision, meaning that she had no problem distinguishing friend from foe. However, given who her opponents were, she honestly didn't know if she really had any enemies here. Nevertheless, she kept fighting to defend herself and her friends. She noticed some loud shouts and small explosions not too far from her. "That's probably Yang," She thought.
"Man, you guys couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!" Yang hollered as she smashed her way through the battlefield, anxiously searching for Ruby. "I won't let her get hurt again," She promised herself. She grinned broadly as she plowed through several White Fang members, charging through dozens of people at a time.
"OW!" A student yelled. "I'm on your side, you idiot!"
"Sorry!" Yang shouted back. She began to pay more attention to where she was firing after that. Unfortunately, after she had blasted her way through yet another group of enemies, she saw something. It was somewhat short, thin, and gold-colored. It was a hair. One of her hairs. She went berserk as her eyes turned red and her hair began to burn.
She proceeded to charge through everything in sight, with minimal restraint on attacking friends. Terrified, everyone ran away from her, trying to get away from the shower of shotgun rounds she was firing everywhere. This continued until almost every
White Fang member had been all but annihilated.
"Good work, everyone," Jaune remarked from a rooftop as he looked down at everyone, clapping his hands to show his approval of their performance. "I'm impressed by your skills. You've proven to be much more powerful than we anticipated. However, you are still nothing compared with the full power of our little alliance."
"Oh, yeah?!" Ruby exclaimed. "Then how did we kick your butts just now?!"
"You mean to say that you kicked their butts," He corrected. "Since you appear to have not noticed, I was at the heart of the action, and was being constantly bombarded by attack after attack, and yet am completely unscathed." To prove his point, he picked up an unconscious student up from beside himself. "Cardin Winchester, previously thought to be far beyond me in skill, was as fragile as eggshells compared to me." He threw Cardin down into the crowd, where he was caught by some random students.
"This doesn't make any sense," Pyrrha stated. "If you couldn't even use you aura when you got here, how can you be so strong? And why did you let Cardin just push you around like that?!"
"Silly girl," Jaune snarled. "I learned how to lock and unlock my aura at will. My master taught me herself. As for that pathetic piece of crap you call Cardin, I simply wanted to appear weak and defenseless, so that nobody would pay much attention to me. This would help me do everything I needed to do in secret. To be honest, I didn't even plan for the latter. I was simply presented with an opportunity and took it."
"But this makes no sense! Why would you do this if Torchwick was already on the job?" Ruby demanded, confused. "You could've joined him, and accomplished even more!" Jaune sighed.
"All this talk is tiring me out," He groaned. "We work for the same person. Roman was assigned to cause chaos in the open, and I was sent with fake transcripts to attend Beacon as a student, in case of his failure, and to assist in the final parts of our plan."
With that, an airship flew over Jaune, and a rope ladder was lowered down to him. "Until next time!" He called as he grabbed the ladder as the ship began to take off.
Later that same day, the casualties were calculated. In all, at least 70 students and teachers had fallen, and they had taken out at least 120 White Fang members. With that, the Beacon Academy staff and students declared themselves the winners. Professor Goodwitch would recover after a few days, but she would be forever changed by these events. Team JNPR received a new teammate whose previous team had been wiped out. Penny returned to the city, and continued to train and defy logic. As for Team RWBY, Ruby was near unscathed, and would continue her usual routine soon. Weiss recovered from her wounds in a couple of days, but was still a bit shaken up by what had happened. Blake had it the worst. Her physical wounds were all minor, but as she helped gather the corpses, she found several of her friends among the White Fang corpses. Some of them were among the same ones she would go out for tea with after demonstrating. It would take some time for her to get over her depression that resulted from this. Yang was in relatively good shape, but had to have a couple of bullets removed, and had a lot of apologies to make for friendly fire. Fortunately, none of them were lethal. She was also overjoyed that Ruby was okay, and was very proud of her for handling herself so well in the heat of battle.
At the end of the day, nobody went unaffected. People had lost family, friends and associates alike. Yet, they all knew one thing: Whatever the enemy would try to do next, they were combat ready.