Chapter 1: Sickening Dreams
"I bring misfortune." a voice rang out, "I guess you could call me a bad luck charm."
Those words repeated themselves over and over; like a bell tolling endlessly in Ruby's dreams. Yesterday, she was in Oniyuri on the way to Mistral; and while traveling through the abandoned city, she ran into some very odd guy who called himself Tyrian. He claimed that he was there to take her to his queen. Like hell that was going to happen. He attacked her, only for Uncle Qrow to intervene and take control of the battle. She was sure that Qrow had called Tyrian's queen "Salem".
Sadly, that bitch; Tyrian, being an scorpion faunus, had stung her uncle. He scurried away not long after, claiming he would return. But not before Ruby returned his favour with one of her own; cutting off his tail in his momentary distraction. While Tyrian was eager to giggle and bask in his slight victory, Ruby made sure he would never get the chance to poison anyone else ever again.
But the fight was not what haunted Ruby. Instead, Ruby's mind raced with everything her uncle had explained before she had fallen asleep.
Earlier that night, Qrow had told her about Ozpin's mission: Ozpin, in league with the other headmasters of Remnant, all worked towards a common goal. To keep the Kingdoms and the treasures they concealed safely out of Salem's hands. He even told Ruby the story of the Maidens, and of the relics. Ruby had been shocked ridged by the news, but it made sense. It brought a new clarity to the events atop Beacon Tower, with Cinder… and Pyrrha. Qrow also spoke of the brothers; two gods watching over the world before they had abandoned it long ago.
Though perhaps the biggest revelation came after a small argument, when Qrow ended up telling her and the others about his semblance. It made Ruby shudder to think that a semblance was the reason loving uncle was so distant in her life.
She had been traveling with Jaune, Nora, and Ren for a few months now. Her Uncle had ensured that she knew Cinder's trail led to Haven; so that's where RNJR decided to go... They'd started their journey at Ruby's house on the island of Patch and made their way eastward towards the city of Mistral, arriving at Anima via a ship known as the S.S. Pride.
Since their departure from Vale, the journey had become rougher. No one was watching the roads for Grimm anymore; everyone was just watching out for themselves. Fortunately, by the time they'd gotten to Mistral, all four kingdoms still had their borders open.
Unfortunately, Jaune wasn't having a good night either. To start with,he was still pissed at Qrow for what happened to Pyrrha. But on a more pressing note, now it seemed that Ruby, his best friend, was being tracked by assassins, probably sent to kill her! He just couldn't stand it at all. Why Ruby of all people?! And why was that faunus interested in him? But despite all that weighing him down, , all Jaune could really think of was a nightmare, eerily similar to a scene from that fateful night at Beacon.
Jaune opened his eyes to see himself running side by side with Ruby, as they exited a battered tower. The rain didn't help Jaune either as he felt the water began to weigh him down. The first thing he noticed they were in a different city than either Beacon or Oniyuri, with smoke arising from the mountains around them.
"What…was all that?" he asked to Ruby, quite worried about the banging he heard coming from within the base of the tower. He noticed Ruby was just staring down at the ground, and even within the rain he could see her tears dripping down her face.
"Qrow." she whispered, Jaune barely hearing it. 'Qrow? Oh right he's poisoned.' Jaune thought to himself, 'something must have happened to him again'. "There's no time." She turned to Jaune, her silver eyes starting to glow, to Jaune's confusion: why were they glowing? "Go. Get to safety, and call for help." she commanded as she held out Crescent Rose in it's sniper form.
Jaune just stared at Ruby; his expression shifted from confusion to worry. "Huh? What are you going to do?" he asked as she paused. Ruby then turned to face the tower. Jaune joined her, noticing Cinder glowing an amber color faintly at the top. Jaune shook his head as he spoke to Ruby. "No, Ruby, you can't…I won't let-"
Jaune was stopped as Ruby kissed him, her lips warm to the touch; they felt….right. The world seemed to slow down as he just looked at Ruby while they kissed. He continued kissing her for a few more seconds, before Ruby broke off. "I'm sorry, Jaune." She smiled at him sadly, her glowing silver eyes full of tears. The sound of Crescent Rose changing forms was heard as Jaune just stood there, his eyes watering. "I'll be alright." she finished as she turned and scattered into rose petals, her trail leading right up to the tower, then upwards, the petals swirling around the tower in a spiral motion.
Jaune started to cry, and he finally remembered why this was so familiar, before he quickly scrambled for his scroll and dialed Yang's number. "No! Ruby!" he shouted as he cried into his scroll, "Yang!" he shouted into his scroll as he heard the call click live. "Please, you need to stop her!"
"What?" came a voice over the scroll, but it wasn't Yang's voice through. Jaune instead recognized the voice as Weiss Schnee's.
"Ruby…" he said into the scroll, trying to form a sentence out of his words, "She went up the tower to fight Cinder… you need to help her! Ruby can't fight her alone, she doesn't stand a chance!" Jaune finally screamed into the phone, Weiss was his and Ruby's only hope now.
"Jaune, what are you talking about, where are you?" asked Weiss.
"Don't worry about me! Please…save Ruby." He stopped talking as he stood there, he knew it was too late, he couldn't stop Ruby, and neither would they be able to, but he knew he had to tell Weiss; for Ruby's sake if not his own.
"Where is she?!" asked Weiss, her voice slowly becoming concerned over the scroll.
"She's at the main tower! Please, you have to do something! For Ruby!" he shouted into the scroll as he chucked it, as he started to scream.
"Jaune? Jaune!?" shouted Weiss over the scroll, as Jaune started to cry uncontrollably. The rain comforting him as it fell down on top of him and his shield.
"No…I've already lost Pyrrha….I can't lose Ruby too…!" He shouted to himself, alone in the darkness, as a flash of lightning shook the skies above and the world turned to white.
His eyes burst open, as Jaune awoke from his nightmare, shivering from the residual adrenaline. Jaune looked around, to see the rest of his team resting sound. Even Qrow was fast asleep up against a tree. He sighed in relief, and as the fire was slowly going still, he looked across to Ruby, whose face shone like gold in the light of the flickering flames,. 'What was that all about?' he thought. Why did it feel so real and natural? Jaune pondered those thoughts as he tried to fall back asleep, keeping his eyes on Ruby to make sure she didn't disappear.
The morning dawned slowly on the rest of the group. Qrow awoke in a fit of coughs, and he looked down to see that his cut had started to ooze purple. Ruby ran to his side as he spoke.
"Well… that's unfortunate" Qrow muttered as he fell unconscious.
"Uncle Qrow!" shouted Ruby as she tried to check his temperature; she was worried for her uncle's health.
Ren looked at Qrow's cut. "We need to get to Mistral, and fast…. Qrow's cut is bad… he was injected with that scorpion faunus' venom."
"How bad are talking about?" said Ruby, tears almost falling from her eyes.
"We need to rush to Mistral…-" Ren said, turning to Ruby as he spoke. "Ruby, can you run back to Oniyuri? Your semblance will let you search more land quickly, go get a stretcher and fast!" Ren asked, a look of worry in his eyes.
"Right… do you think that town will have medicine?" Ruby asked, with a great deal of concern in her voice.
"Oniyuri was never finished Ruby, so I doubt it, but I still think there might be a stretcher." Ren stated, as Ruby nodded, acknowledging what Ren had said.
"Right…" Ruby rushed off, turning into a pile of petals as she ran towards the now long abandoned city.
"Jaune, go clean out the fire." Ren ordered to the blonde man standing at the fire pit.
"Right." said Jaune as he started to kill the fire.
"Ren… what's gonna happen?" asked Nora, looking at her partner, as she hoped for a sign.
"Nora… I don't know… without the map, we don't know how far it is to Mistral…." Ren paused as he started to remember his past. "Hopefully it isn't that far…Oniyuri was only a one to two day trip from..." Ren's words slowed as he remembered that fateful night, when the Nuckelavee Grimm slaughtered his parents in Kuroyuri. Nora could feel Ren's mixed emotions, as she had her own memories of Kuroyuri that night as well, and she knew the look on Ren's face whenever he started to think about the event.
"Ren, are you okay?" asked Nora, cutting into Ren's train of thought.
"Nora, I'm fine!" shouted Ren quite angrily.
"Ren, you alright?!" shouted Jaune from the distance.
"Yeah Jaune." said Ren more quietly as he shook his head to settle his thoughts.
It wasn't long until Ruby returned, her head low as she came back with only two wooden poles.
"Nothing?" asked Nora, worried for Ruby.
"Nothing, I only found these poles which I can string together with my sleeping back as a makeshift stretcher." Ruby solemnly spoke out to her teammates.
It wasn't long until Ruby lifted Qrow onto the stretcher when it… started. Ruby didn't know what it was as she and Ren moved Qrow onto the stretcher; all she noticed was Qrow stirring and then, poof! His eyes were open for a few moments. "Summer? Is that you?" He asked in Ruby's direction, unaware he was hallucinating.
"No, It's me, Ruby, Uncle Qrow." Ruby answered, confused at her uncle's words. Why did he call her by her mother's name?
"Ruby…." Ren stopped to think about what he was taught in health class. "He might be hallucationing."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked out loud to herself, unaware of what Ren meant.
"Well….-" Ren stopped as Jaune walked up to the group, which caused Qrow to start speaking again.
"Great...so you're going to be on my team, Taiyang?" said Qrow in a sarcastic tone as Jaune walked past him, scaring Jaune for a second.
"He's seeing things that aren't there… or rather, as it seems, because of the poison, he sees Ruby as this Summer person, and Jaune as this Taiyang person." concluded Ren, as he tried to understand what was happening to Qrow.
"Summer's my mother… and Taiyang is my father…" Ruby paused for a second, to think it over, "Both of them were on the same team as my Uncle Qrow. Uncle Qrow, when he isn't ignoring the subject like my father does, says I remind him a lot of my mom…" Ruby took a breath, smiling after her last statement. 'Yeah, I really must remind them of mom, don't I?' she asked herself sadly. "And you all saw my dad Taiyang, he's blonde like Jaune… and he can be a goof ball as well." she finished giggling to herself at her teammates expense.
"Hey!" yelled Jaune,as Ren and Nora joined in a quick chuckle with Ruby.
"But." Ren started, ending the levity. "We need to get going, as if he isn't treated soon, his condition will worsen, and we don't know how bad it's affecting him..." Ren said.
"Right, Jaune, help me with my uncle." Ruby commanded to her teammate.
"Me?" asked Jaune. "Why me?"
"Well…." Ruby said, trying to explain her reasonings. "He sees you as my Dad, so it might be better if he sees someone he thinks he knows." Ruby added. "Plus you're one of the strongest here."
"Ruby's right…" Nora replied as she took charge. "Ren, you lead, I'll stand at the back." said Nora.
"We need to get going then." added Ren, as he started to walk towards Mistral. Ruby and Jaune nodded in agreement as they picked Qrow up and started to head towards the direction of the city of Mistral.
