Ruby gave a wild cry as she swung her scythe, voice full of anguish, hate, and fear as she struggled to reach her comrade. She had seen Weiss go down under the tidal wave of Beowolves that had ambushed them, hearing her cry out as they had surrounded her, pulling her down to the ground and out of sight of her friends.
The sound of Yang's gauntlets, Ember Celica, rang out repeatedly over the sounds of combat and the growls of Grimm, mingling with her sister's cries and shouts of rage. Ruby, somewhere in the back of her terrified brain, thought that she had to be nearly out of shells, but in her current state of mind, Yang clearly no longer cared. Blake spun fluidly through the clumsy creatures that fell under her swift but sure blows, keeping back the monsters that threatened to overrun Yang, who didn't seam to care at all that they were so close to death.
She mashed her fist into the gut of an overzealous Beowulf, it's back blowing out as the Dust covered buckshot punched through the flesh. Blake tried to snap her out of it.
"Yang, we need to move, now."
"YOU WANT SOME, YOU MOTHERFUCKINGPEICESOFSHIT!" was Yang's only response. She either couldn't hear Blake, or decided to ignore her. Her path was marked by a wave of shimmering air, caused by the flames breaking out around her.
Blake tried one last time, "Yang-" but she was cut off as Yang dove past her, her gauntlets slamming down onto the head of one of the Grimms. The Grimm exploded as a fireball eviscerated it from within, flesh burning as it flew outward in a starburst explosion.
A foul stench filled the air as Grimm flesh flew, dissolving as it went. Blake felt a wave of heat suck the air from her lungs, leaving her momentarily breathless. In the moment of distraction, one of the Beowolves got a shot in, picking her up and throwing her at Yang, and knocking what was left of the air in her lungs back out. She landed at Yang's feet, and their eyes met. Blake found herself hypnotized by the solid scarlet color of her partner's hatred-filled eyes, even as she struggled to breath.
Yang's face, for a moment, was one of intimate concern for Blake, then in a flash it changed to absolute rage and hatred towards the creature that had injured her friend. The air around Yang was like a desert, hot and dry as she sapped any moister out of it that the snow hadn't already done, and melting the snow beneath her her fiery footsteps. With a cry of unintelligible, but terrifying sound, she leaped towards the creature even as it leaped back at her. Her momentum was enough that she pushed the creature over backwards, straddling it's chest as it flailed and began punching it's face, over and over and over, despite killing it within the first couple of blows.
Blake regained her feet, holding her stomach for a moment as she caught her breath. Miraculously, the attention of the creatures around them seemed as fixated on yang as her own sight was, and she couldn't blame them. The ferocity she witnessed would make an Ursa Major stop in it's tracks. However, the beasts wouldn't hold back out of shock for long. She pushed forward, grabbing Yang's shoulder mid punch, and was forced to jump back as Yang almost swung at her, her vision blurred by her pure rage. Yang recovered herself, however, and grumbled some form of an apology, not looking at Blake as she turned back to the enemy.
Ruby reached Weiss, slicing her way through the throng of creatures who were standing over her partner. Weiss appeared through the fur and teeth, looking relatively unharmed. The creatures hadn't depleted her aura, though judging from the faint glow around her it wouldn't last much longer. Ruby gripped her arm and pulled her to her feet, causing Weiss to wince, as she had her arm in a death grip.
"Are you alright?" Ruby shouted over the noise.
She shrugged her off, shouting "I told Yang it was a bad idea to go this way!"
Her rapier, Myrtenaster, flashed in her hand, and a line of fire incinerated half a dozen of the beasts. Ruby shook her head, always amazed by her friend's ability to shake off the horror's of battle. Not even near death did she seam shook or shocked.
"Come on, we need to get back to Blake and Yang," she said, fighting her way through the shallow group of enemies that had closed in between her and her team mates. Blake and Yang had managed to widen a circle around themselves, as the Grimm began to close in, still dozens, maybe hundreds strong. Ruby and Weiss pushed into the circle, which closed behind them like a grotesque wall of teeth, claws, and hate.
The group moved back to back, the pack withdrawing as it prepared for a secondary assault. Yang cocked her gauntlets, the spent shell casings flying out with a resounding 'ping', before burying themselves in the snow at her feet, the semi-liquid hissing at the touch of the hot metal.
She had calmed the slightest bit, and she loaded her last belts into the gauntlets, realizing that she had wasted too much on the few she had actually managed to kill. Blake dropped the empty magazine from Gambol Shroud's hilt, sliding in another as she assessed the situation. Of the group, she had the most ammunition left in reserve, though it was all normal rounds, having spent her last Dust rounds protecting Yang. "As good a way to die as any," she thought to herself.
Weiss was thinking furiously, creating and disregarding ideas at light-speed, each more and more unlikely than the one before it, refusing to consider that this might be her end, or, more importantly, the end of her friends. Ruby was calm, despite the exhaustion gnawing at her insides. She trembled slightly, just barely enough to be seen, but she kept her head.
"Is everyone alright?" Ruby shouted, trying to get her bearings. She knew none of the team would even mention if they were hurt but figured she needed some reassurance regardless.
"Wouldn't matter if we were okay or not, we need to get out of here!" Weiss shouted back.
"I know, I'm working on it… Yang, I want you and Weiss to focus on finding the Alpha. If we can put it down, we have a chance. Blake, you and I will try to hold the attention of the pack, since we have the best weapon reach and arc. If nothing else it will buy us some time till we can figure something out."
Yang nodded tiredly, her rage having subsided significantly as exhaustion began to take it's toll. Digging deep into her reserves, she shouted back, "I'm on top of it sis. Weiss, can I get a lift?"
"Sure." Weiss was as tired as all the others, but like them she reached for the spare tank and managed to summon some energy, casting glyphs into the sky around them, and two closer to the ground, so Yang could get above the crowd. Yang nodded appreciatively and leaped from glyph to glyph till she was above the monsters, where she began to race around the circle of glyphs, looking for her target. Whenever she saw a plausible target she let fly a fireball, which exploded on impact, killing and maiming for a several meter radius.
Ruby dug the blade of Crescent Rose into the snow at her feet, and began to fire from a standing position, Beowolves falling in scores as the bullets passed through at least three before slowing in velocity. Due to her growth spurt, she had been forced to increase the caliber and powder charge of Crescent Rose's rounds, to make up for the extra weight she had to maneuver when performing her acrobatics. This had the unfortunate side effect of fewer rounds per magazine, though the rounds were much deadlier now. The Beowolves redoubled their assault pushing into the breathing room around the three women.
Blake held back for the moment, allowing Ruby to shoulder most of the burden. Blake wasn't as worn as the other girls, but she was burdened in other ways thanks to her heightened faunus senses. Her nose burned with the smells of gunfire, flames, cold, and death. Her ears were all but useless, filled with sounds of explosions, yells, and endless howling and growling. Her eyes burned from days without sleep, flashes, and colors that endlessly changed. While her body remained strong, her mind and senses were being overcome.
Blake and Ruby took turns playing offense, allowing one of them to catch their breath while the other was in the midst of the fray. Weiss did her best to aid the group while maintaining her glyphs beneath Yang. Weiss stood a bit away from the group, but Ruby and Blake made sure to keep her covered, and she could still defend herself when she needed to.
Ruby was a wheel of destruction, dismembered Grimm marking her swath of destruction in the radius they maintained, bodies piling up before they could dissipate as she speed her way through her opponents. Contrast to this was a blur of shadow and ribbons, not moving fast, but still impossible to focus on. If Ruby was a tornado, Blake was a hurricane, two forces of nature ripping through the monsters that encroached on their land. But it still wasn't enough. The tornado moved slower with every rotation, and the hurricane was being pushed back by a wall blacker than she was.
A seemingly endless amount of Grimm pushed in on them, no fear, no concept of mercy, and endless hatred compelling the bodies to push on, to drown the blizzard, the tornado, the hurricane, the volcano, until nothing was left but the blackened sea.
Yang finally spotted the Alpha, back away from the fight and indistinguishable from all those around it except by it's extra bone plates and massive stature. She cocked her arm, about to let another fireball rip. But before she could, a Beowulf leaped up underneath her like a shark, slashing it's claws through the glyph and ripping it apart. Yang's shot went wild, slamming into the ground at Weiss's feet, then blowing up in her face.
Weiss was thrown backwards, struggling to regain her balance as she was pushed back towards her other companions. She managed a backwards roll and came up standing at the last minute, all her glyphs fading to nothing. Yang fell towards the crowd of Beowolves below her, spinning in the air as she redirected her blasts straight down. The explosive metal peppered the monsters, blowing them to pieces, but she felt the slight unhappy vibration in her wrists as her gauntlets ran dry, the last of her ammunition wasted.
She managed to correct her landing, rolling into the crater she had made. Gauntlets empty and breathing hard, she raced towards the relative safety of her teammates before the wall of fur could close in on her. One wolf rose up in front of her, blocking out the shattered moon with it's height and girth, but she jumped into the air, spinning and dropping her leg down on it's head, using the extra momentum to propel over the falling creature and catapult herself towards her companions.
She came to rest beside Weiss, who was not happy. The edges of her pony tail were singed, and she shouted, "watch where you point those things, you dolt."
Back at Beacon, such a comment might have been enough, given the circumstances, to send Yang into an explosive rage, but now the words were hollow, a shadow of a habit from a past they could barely remember. Her voice was dry, trembling from exhaustion.
"Pay more attention to the enemy, then," was Yang's reply, her attempt at a snarl coming across as an exasperated gasp for air.
Ruby couldn't hear what her partners had said, her ears nearly deafened by the hours of fighting and gunfire that had already passed. Her hands were numb from constantly shooting Crescent Rose, and her eyes were practically glued open at this point by the need to see and survive. She fired again and again, until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked sideways at Blake, who was pointing at her scythe. Not understanding at first, Ruby looked down. Kicking herself, she realized she that the gun was empty. Sparring seconds to try and remember, she realized she probably hadn't fired a weapon for at least a minute. She dropped the magazine, reaching for another only to come up empty.
They had been on the road for months, and none of the group had had a decent nights rest in more than half that time. They had been plagued with attacks, infrequent resupplies, and equipment malfunctions, and were hungry, tired, and drained. Now, they were facing down a massive horde of lesser Grimm, and about to die. Ruby's face twisted, forming a strange smile. "Well, I always wanted to be like the hero's from the stories. Might as well die like one." She lifted her scythe over her head with what felt like every ounce of energy she had left, preparing to strike at the Grimm that closed in.
But before she had the chance, something blazed above her head, and she heard a familiar sound. Almost unable to believe it, she looked up, seeing something that was much more terrifying than the sea of Grimm creatures bearing down on her.
Pink explosions flared around the team as grenades rained down around them, blowing back the Grimm. Nora Valkyrie came streaking down from a tree at the edge of the clearing like an angel of destruction, giving a bubbling laugh that didn't quite befit the situation as she brought her hammer down on top of a Beowulf, crushing it into the world's largest (and most disgusting) pancake.
Right behind her was Lie Ren, Storm Flowers blazing as they fired Dust rounds at a cycling rate Ruby had never been able to duplicate. Scores of Beowolves fell under the withering hail of explosive ammunition.
Pyrrha followed soon after the duo, her spear and shield, Miló and Akoúo̱, glinting in the dying light of the evening sun as it decapitated three Grimm in a single blow. The site of her three friends was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and had she had the capacity to in that moment she would have cried. But now wasn't the time for tears or joyful reunions, as the crowd of Grimm assaulted them in full force. Ruby again readied herself, this time to cover her allies as best she could.
Ren and Nora were decimating the Grimm, clearly freshly rested and ready to fight. Nora swung her war hammer with what might have been called grace, and plenty of tenacity, smashing, bludgeoning, or throwing Grimm with every powerful swing. Around her danced Ren, covering her back and slashing his way through the arteries of everything that stood in his way. His movements were fluid yet decisive, slashing and shooting through the crowd with long, sweeping gestures.
Yang and Blake jumped in with them, and the quartet began to push their way through the slowly dwindling pool of enemies, Yang relying purely on her raw strength to beat back the tide, while Blake covered her sides with her whipping ribbon of death.
Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha held together in a tight group, a light show of gold, red, and white, as Weiss stood in the middle, shooting out various elements from her sword, while Ruby and Pyrrha fought around her, cutting through the Grimms. Ruby was beginning to get her second (or was it her seventh?) wind. Her arms were no longer trembling, and she found she had the strength to use some of her more acrobatic moves, though without her ammunition she was reliant on moves that kept her feet on or near the ground.
Ruby slammed her weapon's razor point into the chest of a Grimm, pushing it to the ground and pinning it there, then somersaulted over the length of it's hilt to kick a wolf, which stumbled backwards into Pyrrha's sword, dissipating as it died on her blade. Ruby began to feel the fear melt within her as the tide was reduced to scraps and streams, being torn to pieces by her friends and herself.
Suddenly something huge and heavy grabbed Ruby's foot as she tried to complete her maneuver. She found herself being lifted straight up, then slammed down onto the snow covered ground, her breathe whooshing out, her lungs crumpling like a plastic bag on the end of a vacuum hose. Her vision went dark for a moment, and she felt her aura fizzle out a snow settled over her in a thin dusting. When her sight began to come back, she felt something cold, hard, and very, very sharp pressed against her throat.
She could just make out the Alpha male of the pack standing over her with it's claws pressed to her neck, it's white armor and glowing red streaks in stark contrast even as her sight was still blurred. It's eyes burned with a conscious hatred, handed down through the Grimm bloodline that had spawned the horrific creature. It opened it's mouth, preparing to either howl or bite. It's breath smelled of decay and fire, and it's throat was nothing but a black sheet, void of light and hope. Ruby looked the creature right in it's eyes, calm spreading over her. She knew she had no energy to fight this. She waited for the inevitable.
"UNHAND HER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
With a flash, the Alpha Grimm went rigid, it's head stopping inches from Ruby's face. it's throat, she noticed, was no longer devoid of decoration, as a long, elegant length of silver metal now sprouted from a hole in the roof of it's mouth. Looking higher, Ruby found herself looking at the sharp angled hilt of Myrtenaster, a palm sized glyph rotating silently on it's pommel. Looking away from the Grimm, Ruby got an upside down look at Weiss, who was standing almost 30 yards away, a look of absolute and utter hatred, lashed through with highlights of fear, etched across her face.
Ruby had a detached thought. 'She is a lot scarier than I thought'. She felt the weight of the creature leave her body as it dissolved, and she rolled to the side as Myrtenaster fell, taking her place in the snow. She picked it up the tool that had saved her, then stood, snow falling from her body to the ground and leaving her with a cold, powdered coat. The sounds of fighting had died down to nothing, and the Grimm ambush party had been almost completely slaughtered.
In mere minutes, thanks to the reinforcements from the other team, the tables had turned, together managing to fight off the assault. The last Grimm was nothing more than a melting shadow at Yang's feet, who's eyes were returning to their usual violet color. The snow around them fell extremely silent, and Ruby thought for a moment she might have gone completely deaf. There were no more howls, no more gunshots. The snow was falling harder, and slowly beginning to obscure the signs of battle, craters filling with snow, snow covering spent shell casings, broken trees.
'With timec, it'll be like this never happened for this clearing, and in a few months, maybe a year, nature will forget this, cover it up…... but not for us.' Ruby thought to herself. She knew she would never forget this place. What it had almost cost her. By no means her first near death experience, but easily the nearest she had gotten.
"Long time, no see," Yang said, interrupting Ruby's sobering thoughts as she pushed passed her sister, hugging Pyrrha and Nora, who reciprocated warmly. Ren had also moved closer, but remained quiet. He did however, give each of them a small smile and an, "it's good to see you in one piece."
Ruby followed Yang's lead, hugging her friends as weakness began to creep into her body. Weiss, like Ren, stood a bit away from the others. She couldn't smile, or frown. Her muscles were so drained it was all she could do just to stay on her feet. However, she did manage nod of acknowledgment as she leaned against a tree. Blake hugged them all when Ruby was finished and said "it's good to see you, but why are you away from the front lines? And how did you know where to find us?"
Pyrrha responded, speaking for the first time. "When Yang called ahead and mentioned you were coming this way, we decided to try to meet you en route. We had a small campsite a couple of miles down the way. But then we heard the shots, and rushed here as quickly as we could. Looks like it was just in time, too. It is a good thing you guy's put on such a show whenever you fight. It's a lot easier to see things that explode."
Ruby nodded, feeling both the physical and emotional drain from the battle telling her to sleep. For a moment, her legs gave out, but she caught herself mid fall and lifted herself up. To block out the voice calling for rest, she asked "where's Jaune?"
"He's still on the front lines. Kinda hard to get away when your the general of an army" Nora said, flicking a piece of Grimm fur from her shoulder. Her skin was flushed from the exertion of the fight, and the look behind her eye was almost fevered. Nora had always been a little too happy to kill and break things, Ruby thought wryly.
Ren nodded, saying "we will take you to him. He'll be glad to see you."
Then Weiss noticed the glinting gold band on Pyrrha's finger.
"He proposed?" Weiss gasped, breaking out into a wide smile that hurt her whole body.
"Oh my gods that's amazing I'm so happy for you!" Yang bubbled hugging Pyrrha again.
Pyrrha nodded and returned Yang's embrace, a happy, but restricted, smile spreading across her face. "I'm as surprised as you are. I thought I was going to have to do it."
Ruby picked up on the tone in her voice, a strange tension that was unlike Pyrrha. "Is something wrong?" she asked.
Pyrrha responded unhappily.
"It's a little hard to explain. You'll have to see for yourself."
The mood turned somber as the newcomers took in the sight of team RWBY. Their clothes were heavily torn and patched, streaks of blood from gods knew how many sources splattered across them and their meager belongings. As Yang came down from her adrenal and rage high, she began to limp, an injury to her left leg from a fight they had previously survived hindering her. She looked down at the bandage over the cut. The off white color of the dirty bandage was being tinted red. "damn it." she thought, checking the wound. As she suspected, it had reopened during the fight.
Ruby had numerous smaller bandages covering rips and slashes in her clothing. Much of the cloth was stitched, restitched, or patched. Several of the stitches looked like they where the only thing holding the outfit together. Her corset appeared to be the only piece that was fully intact.
It was obvious they had been on the road for a long while, too long. Even Weiss's usually perfect getup was crisscrossed with all manner of gore, and ripped in several places, and Blake was dressed in clothes that looked like they had been scavenged, leather pants and a fur lined top to keep her warm. Surprisingly she still had her white and black button jacket, clashing with the darker colors of her salvaged clothes.
In a way, they actually looked quite... Noble, Pyrrha thought. They looked like they had actually been fighting the war, unlike many of the soldiers in the 'posh' positions, protecting the important people. They looked like hell, but were still standing, something many hunters and many more soldiers could no longer say.
After a few more moment's exchanging small talk and pleasantries, Pyrrha said, "let's head back and get out of the cold. we're still about 10 miles from the main complex, but we can stop at our camp if you guy's don't think you can make it all the way there."
The women contemplated amongst themselves, then Ruby said, "we'll push on to the main camp, better than staying out here in the cold or waiting till tomorrow."
"Alright, well, then we better get going." Nora said, leading the way with a confident trot. The wintery setting hadn't changed much about Nora, who braced the cold with only a light jacket and some loose pants, her usual white, pink, and blue. Ren was more sensible, walking behind her in a long, coat that covered his arms and went down to his knees, looking thin but comfortable. Pyrrha wore light armor on the exterior of a familiar looking hoodie, and some functional and warm looking military pants.
It had been only two years since their graduation and departure from Beacon. Upon graduating, unlike many groups, RWBY and JNPR had chosen to stay together, splitting the money from jobs and living relatively close together in one town or other. A downside to the Hunter's life was constant moving throughout the world, following each job as it came by and taking each check based on how well you did your job. Several times they had gone hungry or slept around campfires because of bad or lost payouts. But there were plenty of times where they were fed and happy. Ruby had no regrets. At least not back then.
Since her uncle Qrow was a huntsman, he shared their current life style, and during those rare occasions when they met on the road or on a job, he had that silent understanding that a lot of the older hunter's had. Hunting was a fiercely competitive business, with other hunters often trying to move in on jobs and bounties and taking the prize at the end. High paying contracts usually offered very open participation, leading to reduced rewards and competition in many of those situations. And those that made a name for themselves never lacked for work or rewards. Before losing contact with Qrow, he had been in Haven, helping to stem the flow of Grimm in an evacuating red zone.
Things had changed, a year ago. It all started with a group of religious oddballs taking over a publication and advertisement office, and began pumping out commercials, posters, and fliers all saying that, in two months there would be an assault on a town on the boarder of the Vale kingdom, a small settlement called Frontier. Most wrote the individuals off as odd balls with money, looking for attention. A police investigation occurred, checking out both the group and the town, but found nothing suspicious.
After a time, a single individual became the groups spokesman, a younger man in his mid twenties, who gave compelling, yet ridiculous, speeches about what his followers and himself refereed to as the Fall of Man. He himself took the name of the Grimm Disciple, and his followers demonstrated fierce loyalty to him. As time went on it seamed like their numbers swelled immensely, with a number of chapters of his brotherhood appearing in other cities and countries, preaching about similar attacks in different places.
With the deadline approaching, team RWBY had decided to visit the town, if only to dispel the rumors, along with JNPR and several other hunter teams, all along mostly for the entertainment of seeing the group's words proven hollow. Ruby vowed never to forget the trip. They had taken their time, laughing, traveling in a small caravan by foot. They ran into smaller concentrations of Grimm here and there but dispatched them easily, laughing and joking and in general just messing around.
All that had been blasted to pieces when they came in sight of the town. They could hear the screams and gunshots from more than a mile away, and that last, invisible mile was the fastest passing mile Ruby could remember. The groups mirth was replaced with horror and fear, and they went from their easy pacing to sprinting as fast as they could. Ruby found the town first, the others arriving after her, to find her frozen atop a crested hill, looking down on a seen of blood and death.
The town, like so many wild towns, was small, only a few hundred people, raising up to build housing and live their own lives, away from the larger city states. Talk came that eventually it would be a grand city but to start it was merely a convergence point of outlying farms into a small trade town of smiths, mills, and other border town charms. Now it was nearly in ruins. The buildings that once stood, simply but proudly, were blasted to rubble by a convergence of Grimm unlike any the hunters had seen. Nevermores rained feathers down on the town in black, steel strength torrents. On the ground, Goliaths stood high above smaller Grimms, thrashing about and smashing walls, houses, businesses, and everything else. The smaller Grimm sought to kill and maim, and the citizens of the town were nearly all dead already.
But the most shocking part was that the Grimms had riders, saddles, even man-made augmentations to their natural armor. Several of the larger Grimm had turrets, cannons, and other large weapons attached to them, adding to their destructive power. And over the entire scene flew a massive Grimm, a Night Terror, a dragon shaped Grimm, four powerful legs, two vast wings, sheets of utter blackness. A head that was both regal and terrifying sitting at the end of a lengthy neck.
And on a makeshift saddle on it's back sat the Young man, the Grimm Disciple, gazing down on the havoc below. Ruby swore he looked directly at her when she arrived, holding her gaze for a long time. Then the other hunter's arrived, and he, along with his massive monster, fled, leaving the hunters to try and save the town.
The newly arrived hunters were joined by a small military force, and what was left of the defenders from the town as they tried to push back the onslaught. By the end, however, heavy losses and injuries forced the defenders to abandon the town all together and run. Of the group that had tried to defend, including the towns original 750 person population, 500 trained soldiers with supplements from combat robots, and 25 assorted hunters, only 127 citizens survived, alongside 53 soldiers, and 18 hunters. All but one of the hunter deaths had been from a local hunter group, with one from the group Ruby and her friends had arrived with, a woman she had never met before but who had been extremely friendly and funny.
About 10 people had been apprehended, soldiers of the enemy, but all ten had been killed in one way or another before any questioning could be done. The military later sent reinforcements to try and take the town back, but found the ruins almost empty, with only a few minor Grimm remaining to harass their now sizable attacking force.
Reports of similar attacks rang out across the globe, even in Atlas and Menagerie, and many more places. Cries for assistance came from everywhere with a radio or some sort of signal, but always too late. People began evacuating en-mass to the large city states within the Kingdoms. Menagerie itself was completely abandoned, survivors pushing out by boat to Vale and Mistral.
Now, definitive front lines existed all over the world, the kingdoms closing their walls and protecting their Cities as best they could, while their armies, and the hunters within each kingdom, entrenched themselves in places where they could get the best of the terrain, and fight the enemy.
The religious cult revealed themselves fully. Factions of the cult had been buried deep in every continent, in every kingdom, in many, many towns and villages. They were armed, having both weapons and vehicles of war, built on the dime of companies and supports who held positions of wealth and power. World leaders who were once thought to be trusted now showed their positions as supports of the Children's war machine, a cancer that had grown under the skin of society.
Before world communications had become spotty and unreliable, a mass message had gone out from the children, claiming that their society had been developed over two hundred years prior. They had spent the decades strategically placing individuals in line for positions of power, and organizing the deaths of many. They funneled money, time, equipment, and people into building and hiding a vast army. They claimed the army was even larger than anyone knew, and that their leader, the Grimm Disciple, had control over the creatures, and that it was by his god's bidding that they destroy humanity, and let the Grimm flourish.
At least part of what they claimed must have been true, as the children had tanks, airships, and weapons plenty, though from all accounts the vehicles of war were outdated, and plenty of them were makeshift, civilian armored vehicles and mechanical loaders armed for war by wielding on weapons and turrets. Not enough, perhaps, to take on the united armies of the world, but the Grimm they supplemented their forces with were augmented, mountable, and extremely deadly.
Now, the world was involved in a drawn out war campaign, as the armies tried desperately to take on and root out the Children's bases while fighting off a never ending stream of monsters and creatures, many they had never seen before. Many ancient, thought to be extinct species of Grimm had risen to join the fight, some giant and very powerful.
About six months prior to team RWBY leaving on their nearly disastrous trip, an ambush had occurred on one of the military leader convoys, as they traveled between bases. Team JNPR had been present, along with a platoon of soldiers. Pyrrha had described the battle, a clash between soldiers in vehicles or on horseback and creatures of Grimm ridden by fanatics, firing weapons wildly and seeking to destroy everything. Pyrrha had lost sight of her team in the battle, only knowing they were alive by listening for their distinct traits, Jaune's cries of exertion and rage, Nora's explosions and gleeful laughter, and Ren's distinct sounding pistols.
The Children had fought to every last man, forcing the defenders to kill them all to survive, taking significant losses in the process as they fought their own horde of enemies. During the fighting, the general was mortally wounded, and Jaune, who had been protecting him, was given his rank and position with the man's dying breath.
Jaune had taken the role reluctantly. He and the general had been at constant odds during the campaign. His team had been drafted into the service position to help, along with hundreds of other hunters and teams. Unlike the others, however, his team had been pulled from active service to serve as bodyguards and 'consultants', to the general, an old war relic of a man, almost 70 years old if he was a day.
He had a radically different view of how his troops needed to be commanded, and how his army should be organized, but the general made fervent point to argue with and bash Jaune and his ideas at every opportunity. Pyrrha, during a conversation that seemed years in the past now, recounted how it was rare for Jaune or the general to be doing anything other than argue with each other and sleep. The general's ideas were far spread, far too spread for the troops he had and the people he wanted too protect, stretching the forces under his command across a huge grid.
The result was a patchwork of disorganized troops spread across every farm or town in the area, many ripe for attack, looting, and destruction, and many of them fell victim to just that. As moral was on the decline, the fights between the general and Jaune came to a head, and Pyrrha had described, with some pride, a moment when Jaune had struck the general, punching him in the face. He had left, and the general had the sense not to send people after him. The next day, the general had made an announcement that he would be taking his personal guards and a platoon of soldiers to another town to see, as he put it, "the might of our forces on the front lines." in other words, looking for assurance that he was right and Jaune was wrong.
Then came the slaughter, the death, and Jaune's immediate induction and promotion into and through the military ranks. The next thing Jaune knew, he had thousands of people he was responsible for, not just his friends. He had directors and people looking for orders and more.
Jaune's first order was to pull all remaining forces back and regroup. For a couple of months, the army did little but make dangerous journeys, pulling civilians, supplies, vehicles, and anything they could load up together into a cohesive whole. Attacks were common and death was often. RWBY had been out of contact with JNPR the entire time, they themselves working hard to protect Vale and help consolidate supplies and people, clearing and re-clearing farms and working to keep supplies coming into and out of Vale. It wasn't until after Jaune's decisions had born fruit that they heard from JNPR again.
Jaune had pulled all his forces and all the civilians that would come with him into a single massive group, a dangerous gamble that exposed his forces for a period of time. There were plenty that stayed behind, and several that died making the trip, however, by the end, Jaune had enough troops and people to take a major city, which he did, a small city named Fieldview, a business town located in a nook with high, impassible mountains to the south, providing excellent protection.
He set his soldiers and civilians to work, looting the town of food and water, and working to get power, plumbing, and sustenance going. It was rough, and the work was plagued with incidents and attacks, but within a few months he had turned the town into a working stronghold. High walls had been built around the town before he had taken it, and now those walls were reinforced with metal, turrets, and spotters. By the end of the operation, far fewer casualties than expected had occurred, and he had even managed to get communications with some of the other military leaders in Vale territory.
His work earned him no reprieve, however, as he immediately began directing special operations with the intent of rooting out the local chapter of the children, a never ending battle of chess to see if he could find them before they killed him and his people.
Pyrrha and Nora spent the walk through the woods talking about this, and explaining what they were doing now, about missions they had gone on and happy finds they had made. Many nearby towns still stood in ruins, and the soldiers and hunters present in Fieldview were often sent on missions to loot the towns of useful supplies, or scout promising areas to set up field bases, camps, and more.
After a few hours of trudging through the snow, weariness tugging at RWBY's bones and begging them to sleep, the two teams reached the outskirts of the town, where the woods ended. Night had long since fallen, and the shattered moon lit the snow-blanketed landscape. Ruby stopped for a moment to take in the sight. For a space of 400 yards there was just grass and snow. Then it ran up to a massive wall, towering over the landscape. Beyond that could be seen buildings, barely taller than the wall itself. And back-dropping it all was an even more massive monolith, a mountain taller than three sky scrappers and as wide as one. Mount Oranth, the second tallest mountain in the territory, and one of the largest mountains in the world.
Fieldview had been built with the mountain to it's back, around a clean water lake at the foot of the mountain. The wall surrounding the town lead to shear cliff faces that traveled most of the way up the mountain, and a waterfall fell down the cliffs, carrying fish and sediment to the lake below, which then flowed out into two rivers, one that exited the town to the east, the other to the west.
The town had been constructed around this natural formation for a variety of reasons, one being the abundant power to be gained from the currents of the rivers, which flowed strong and swift, spinning water wheels that fed kinetic energy into power generators, supplementing other kinds of energy gains. The mountain also provided a natural barrier for ground based Grimm, a solid wall of hard stone a mile high. The water also provided easy access to fresh drinking water, once it was properly filtered, and food from the fish that bred in the lake.
Team RWBY vaguely recalled the brief history they had been given of the town before setting out, but it didn't matter to them in the least. Now they looked up at the mountain and the wall with something approaching an exhausted fixation. Despite all they had seen, even similar sights to this, something so large and vast, to their weary minds, seamed impossible. Closer observation proved sobering, however.
The wall surrounding the town was clearly worn. In several places the wall was cracked and showed signs of repairs, and parts of it were blackened by fire and pitted and scratched with large claw marks. One segment was still under significant repair, basically just a collection of concrete bits glued together with resin and cement where a hole had been blasted in the wall. The walls were 250 yards high, topped with small raised segments containing cannons, artillery, AA guns, and numerous automated and manual weapons systems. They couldn't see much of the town from outside the walls, and followed Ren, who lead the way, towards the wall at an angle. By now, the snow had stopped falling, though the temperature was still very low.
They walked along the curve of the wall, and Yang and Blake couldn't help but to marvel at the stretch of plains away from the town. It was just…. Empty, for many miles. Blake's mind wandered as she looked over it, thinking of the vastness of the world and how little she had seen, even in her extensive travel as a huntress and a member of the White Fang. She had never seen this endless field, never walked these plains, on any of the sides. Despite everything that just happened, she felt a sort of calm settle over her. She caught Yang's eye and smiled at her.
Yang smiled back as she contemplated just how large the plains were. Roads crisscrossed it's vast decoration, some ancient cobble stones, some simple dirt paths, and a rare few asphalt roads. She could see what she imagined might be the tops of buildings in the distance, the bones of what might be a town.
Weiss walked a bit behind the others. Unlike her friends, her mind wasn't on sleep, where they were going, or what was around her. Her mind, like her eyes, was fixed on a red cloak, dark from melted snow, hair askew on the back of a head. Her footprints were familiar to Weiss, having seen them so many times before. The sway of her body, hidden by the cloak, was equally known to her. The images of Ruby were engraved in her mind from the last 6 years they had spent together. Her eyes never wavered from where she was looking.
Ruby, unlike the others, felt nothing but exhaustion and drain. The high of seeing her friends again and surviving had faded. Invasive, terrible thoughts began to slide through her mind, about everything that could have gone wrong, who she could have lost. How it all would have been her fault. She hadn't picked the way to go, but she had supported it. After all it was the shortest route to where they were going, it only made sense, right?
They had passed through ruins and fields and forests with only a modicum of difficulty, snipping at each other now and then due to some of the hard travel and mild irritation, but for the most part had been safe, happy, and even content. Laughing, joking, playing games, even a random prank here and there throughout the trip. Then things started to get difficult. The Grimm they began to encounter were no longer in ones and twos, but dozens. Grimm majors and alphas began to be common fair, and fights were no longer avoidable. What was once easy travel became a steep incline of battle as they ran from as many fights as they finished.
Their first major loss was against a horde of Wyvern type Grimm they had never seen before, that had taken up occupation in the shell of a town. The Grimm had devastating elemental breath attacks from their main diet of dust crystals, which they gorged on daily from the caverns under the mining town. Here they had to flee, as their arrival lead the Grimm to set destruction on the ruins again. Fire, ice, and electricity had rained from the sky, and Ruby still wasn't sure how they had all escaped.
During their mad rush to get out, Yang had been thrown hard against a ruined wall, getting knocked unconscious and injuring her leg when a rusty metal spike cut her outer thigh. They had been forced to carry her out, and managed to escape from the ruins without inciting the Grimm to follow them. Yang's cut was nasty and clearly infected, and their walk became a mad rush to their next supply point, which was a small village inside a cave system, which had, for the time being, kept the village out of notice of Grimm.
Yang was, thankfully, treated before the infection could take hold, but the cut and the treatment cost them a week in the town, further slowing their progress. A trip that was supposed to only take a month was turned into three months, and at least half of that time was spent trying to fight and stay alive.
After a week, Yang and Weiss had insisted that they keep going, and Ruby had agreed reluctantly. After that, the months went from jovial and easy to terrifying and deadly. And that time was now etched into Ruby's being. She felt like a machine that had gone without oil and maintenance for too long… something was starting to crack, and she didn't know what would happen when it broke.
Ruby's thoughts and memories were interrupted when she nearly ran into Nora, who caught her with a look of concern when she stumbled. "You alright, girlfriend?"
Ruby gave a weak smile, a mask she wore well from years of practice. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just… really really tired. It's been a long trip."
Pyrrha said, "Well you'll be able to rest soon. We had some rooms made up for you in the hotel we've been using as HQ. Come on." Pyrrha gently helped Ruby get her feet again, and when it was clear she could walk on her own let go of her shoulder. The group resumed their trailing behind Ren, towards the opening in the wall.
The opening turned out to be the entrance to a vehicle tunnel. A massive metal door currently sat closed, blocking 4 lanes of what was probably once a very busy road. Low lights kept the tunnel relatively lit, allowing anyone inside it to see, for the most part. As they approached the door, Ren turned, leading them to a smaller metal door about the size of an emergency exit. It turned out to be the entrance to a service tunnel, which He lead them in and then through. The tunnel was a bit cramped with all of them in it but they managed to fit.
They came out of the service tunnel on the other side of the wall, into the city itself. In a way what they saw was breathtaking. The city had been sizable, almost as large as Mountain Glenn. It had also been ruthlessly attacked. Many of the outlying buildings had been brought down to nothing but their foundations. Pieces had been hauled away to reinforce the wall in many places. A collection of soldiers was walking around with sledge and jack hammers, breaking concrete into smaller pieces and loading them into trucks to move them. The buildings that were still standing formed a secondary wall inside the first wall, more pieces of buildings, metal, and junk forming a haphazard and lethal looking razor defense wall about 300 or so yards inside of the first perimeter.
The road into the town was still clear of rubble. Burned out or broken down cars could be seen to either side, many having been looted for all usable wiring, parts, and supplies. Many of the buildings that were still standing outside of the secondary wall could be seen being looted by soldiers and civilian work crews, wood, metal, food, water, and other bits and useful pieces being tossed out of windows or carried out in trolleys.
The secondary wall had an entrance that was more regulated than the exterior ones, a military checkpoint with multistory lookout towers to either side, turrets on every floor and snipers on the top. Workers could be seen moving about piles of junk and scrap that were in front of the checkpoint, dividing it up into specific trucks to move in to town. The soldiers at the gate were dressed in heavy armor and equipped with heavier guns. Ruby saw rocket and grenade launchers, on top of more normal assault rifles and shotguns.
When they entered the secondary wall, things began to look different. Most of the damaged buildings had been broken down to their foundations, like on the outside, but buildings that seamed mostly intact remained standing, so an odd forest of business and residential buildings stood among plots, many of which were being used as scrap collector spots. Where buildings once stood were now organized piles of scrap metal, parts, and assorted collected junk, with soldiers appearing sporadically through them, documenting or collecting bits and loading them onto trucks. Here, Ren stopped, leading the group over to truck that had just been unloaded.
Pyrrha waved down the truck driver. "Hey, can we get a ride to headquarters?"
The young man, probably no more than twenty, looked at them with wide eyes. "Y-yes, that is, Yes Ma'am!" saluting. He hopped in the drivers seat quickly, clearly excited. Pyrrha grimaced lightly and Ruby and Nora laughed. It seamed that no matter where Pyrrha went there was always people looking at her, amazed.
Ruby and her friends clambered in, utterly exhausted, hungry, and far more than sore. Even Weiss didn't complain about the concrete dust and scrap metal bits that littered the floor. Ren and Nora helped them into the back, Yang leaning heavily due to her injured leg. Nora nodded at the injury. "Jaune can probably fix that for you when we get to headquarters."
"Yeah… that'd be great." Yang said wearily.
The truck started up with a grumble, sputtering a bit from poor or makeshift maintenance. When it finally turned over the truck pulled away from it's plot, loaded with the weary warriors, and beginning to drive towards the center of town. They had covered a fair bit of distance already, the night sky above glowing slightly. Blake didn't know what time it was, but she felt it was probably well after midnight. She was sitting in the back, and when she looked towards her team, she chuckled to herself a bit. Weiss was asleep, sprawled out leaning next to Yang, who was drooling with a smile on her face as she too slept.
The only ones not indulging their weariness yet were herself and, she noticed, Ruby. Ruby was white-knuckling a piece of scrap metal, hands shaking. In fact, to Blake it appeared her entire body was trembling. Moving closer, she laid a hand on Ruby's shoulder. She snatched it back when Ruby jumped hard.
Talking just loud enough to be heard over the truck, Blake asked, "Are you alright?" of course she already knew just by looking that Ruby was most definitely not alright, but she couldn't exactly confront her about that given their current situation.
Ruby looked her in the eye, and for a moment Blake saw nothing, just an emptiness, within her friend. Her eyes showed nothing, no emotion, no weariness. It was like she was dead. Then suddenly they were back, Ruby shaking her head and saying, "I'm fine. Just tired, cold, and hungry." she smiled weakly.
Blake was taken aback. "No, you are-" she was cut off when the truck screeched to a stop, shaking her team mates out of their sleep and jolting her. Yang sat up, shouted "waffles!" and then promptly fell forward onto the deck of the truck. Weiss was shoved to the side because of this, falling flat on the bench and then jumping up, smacking her head against the top of the truck.
For a moment, there was silence, then a high laugh erupted from Ruby. It was such a sudden sound that Blake and Weiss jumped, a shot in the dark. Ruby was defiantly shaking, but she now it was because she was laughing, hard, shaking in her seat as her laughter rose in sound till it was almost hysterical. Weither because her laugh was infectious, or because they were all exhausted, the others began laughing as well, the sound of it echoing in the back of the truck. Other sounds could be heard, but they were drowned out by the women and their jubilation.
Weiss tried to look indignant, but in her weariness, even she couldn't help herself, and joined in. Ruby laughed, despite how she helped. It spread through her against her will, reaching into her depths and drawing the sound out of her. It hurt, more so every second as her lungs gasped for air and her stomach turned. Yet, against everything, she kept laughing.
After some time, the laughter began to die down, the gawfs and laughter becoming controlled chuckles. Ruby felt burning on her face, and reached up, wiping cold tears from her cheeks. For a moment, she fixated on a whole tear, resting in almost a perfect sphere on her palm. A silvery reflection flashed through it, and Ruby's eyes lifted. Slowly, the emptiness crawled back inside of her, her fixation shifting from the liquid glass of the tear to the harder, porcelain figure who was herself fighting back laughter and tears. 'Such a cold thing, love.' Ruby had time to think to herself, before a bubbly voice made her jump.
Nora appeared around the side of the truck, looking at them oddly. "What's so funny? Awwww…. Did I miss something good?" Pyrrha and Ren appeared from the direction of the cab after her, just as Yang replied with something nearing a shout, "Waffles!" and began to laugh hysterically. The rest of her team, even Ruby, couldn't help it and began laughing again, this time Nora joining in as if waffles was all she needed to hear, laughing louder than any of the others.
Ren and Pyrrha looked confused, but smiled all the same. The laughter died down slowly, with Ruby again being the first to stop. Weiss was second giving up out of sheepish exhaustion as she gasped for air. Yang never really stopped laughing, nor did Nora, but the two of them did die down to sporadic chuckles instead.
Pyrrha and Ren helped the girls out of the back of the truck, and they got their first good look at where they were.. the truck had stopped in what was probably the town square. Reasonably sized buildings bordered the square on three sides, two three stories and one four story that looked like a mayors office or a town hall, or probably both. On the fourth side was a building at 8 stories tall, the tallest building they had seen (that was still in one piece) since they had entered the town. While it wasn't the most central building, by Ruby's estimates, it was the highest building with the best view, and had been effectively fortress-ized.
The bottom two floors were obscured by a cinder block wall that went all the way around the building. An opening revealed what appeared to be a grand entrance to the building, 12 feet from the wall, but also a layer of hescos inside of the outer wall, cube shaped containers that were filled with sand, rocks, and anything heavy enough to add significant weight and support. Inside of that was another cinder block wall. A metal walkway lined with concertina wire marked the top of the wall, with soldiers patrolling the walkway, armed with DMRs and assault rifles.
The buildings to either side and directly behind the large building had all been demolished, giving unrestricted views of the surrounding area. Here seamed to be the largest concentration of soldiers, which made sense. The town square had a sizable park in the middle, which had tents spread throughout it. Grunts marched or jogged around giving abstract cadences as they marched.
Unlike the outer section of the city, and indeed the several mile drive leading into the heart of the city, there were no civilians here that Ruby or the others could see, but she did notice about a dozen other hunters around, some in military uniforms but others in their own obvious flair, setting them apart from those around them. A group of faunus were playing what looked like a game of tag, except they were all blind folded. Blake recognized it as a sense-training exercise, meant to utilize some faunus's abilities for sixth senses, enhanced smell, and exceptional hearing.
In one of the openings to the west of the main building, Ruby noticed a massive man made hole in the ground, with a crossbeam design of concrete walls in the middle, dividing the circle into sections. In one of the sections she could see, just barely from her position, the tops of trees. Leaning over towards Pyrrha, she asked "what's that over there?"
"Its a combat arena that we use to run the soldiers through training drills in different settings. it's divided up into 4 segments, each with a unique biome. Off duty hunters will occasionally use it to spar as well. Here, come on we should head inside. You guys need rest, and Jaune wanted to see you before you all went to bed."
Ren again began to lead the way, through the opening in the wall towards the building. When they were inside the wall, they noticed a sign above the entryway, faded and damaged. It read:
Hea h w Vond ue H tel
the Heathrow Vondrue Hotel was a popular spot in the town, especially for hunters. It had provided top of the line commodities for those who had the money, with 160 guest rooms, a penthouse suite, and a gourmet kitchen. At least back when it was functional. Still, even with the scuffs and minor damage to the outside of the hotel, it still looked immensely comforting, compared to where they usually spent sleeping, out on the ground, or in holes, sewers, ruins, or caves.
As the door opened, they were greeted with a blast of warm, dry air, enough to reveal to the girls just how cold they were. The last weeks of snow and cold had numbed them to their condition. Even the nightly fires only barely warmed them. This sudden blast seemed to revitalize whatever part of them was supposed to tell them they were cold, and suddenly all four of them started shaking uncontrollably, feeling like their insides were ice.
The group pushed inside, trying to get warm, and nearly got run over by a trolley laden with stacks of papers and boxes, which swerved to avoid them and didn't even bother to stop. The young man pushing it shot them a look, but didn't seem to have the time to stop and yell at them as he pushed onward. They were standing in some form of atrium, a two story opening in the main lobby of the building. Where there may once have been furniture and rugs, and even a front desk, now stood crammed together many desks, all of them covered in paper, typewriters, and computers, and each with an aid or administrator typing furiously at them. While outside it looked like an army, here it looked like an office building.
Pyrrha lead them through the disaster area towards an elevator to one side. Over the noise of their surroundings, Ruby called to Pyrrha "where are you guys getting your power from? The rivers can't power the whole city."
"They don't," she called back, "but they do provide a lot of our power overall. This place is running at a greatly reduced efficiency than the original town. But we have plenty of generators, and a lot of them are self sustaining. We have a lot of solar, wind, and water power being fed into the city's power grid, and we get everything else from gas and dust generators. Most of the time though we keep those turned off to conserve the resources. There are you-don't-want-to-know how many forms just to turn one on for 30 minutes."
When they reached the elevator, Nora hit the button, and it opened smoothly. Despite the size of their group, they fit inside the elevator comfortably, thanks to it's large size, and Pyrrha hit the button for the penthouse. Even though it was only 8 floors up, the ride felt long and awkward to Ruby. Yang chatted about nothing serious with Nora, while Weiss and Ren had each claimed their own personal corner. This left Blake, Ruby, and Pyrrha as the odd men out in the middle of the elevator.
After a few semi tense moments the elevator dinged open on the top floor of the building. Ahead of them was a short hallway, with two human guards, two faunus guards, and two combat robots, one of each to either side of the hall. While the gesture appeared to be meant to show the might of the military, the length of the hallway and the lack of cover for the guards made Ruby think it would be rather easy to take them out if necessary. 'not that I would even need to kill them. At this distance I could rush past them and through the door before they have a chance to react to the elevator opening. Not that I would...' she thought, smiling grimly inside at her dark thoughts.
Pyrrha lead the way here, nodding to the guards. The last one on the left grunted slightly, acknowledging them, then turned and scanned a small card against a panel to the left of the door. A beep from behind Ruby made her turn around. Two descending precision turrets she hadn't noticed upon her arrival retracted into the ceiling.
'More danger to them than me. If I didn't know about them they could probably bring me down, but since I do know about them now, I would just need to use the guards for cover, grab the card and scan it before they could take me down, then slip inside and cover the door with Rose...' Ruby was somewhat thrilled by the thought of the challenge it would take to get past the guards, but she also knew it was unlikely she would need to. Still, she made a note to practice her mental game any time she had to come up here.
After a few moments, a buzz was heard and the door opened, allowing the group to pass inside. The room they entered had been cleared of all living furniture. A dust generator was set up in the center of the room, under a holographic battle map, with cables and hoses trailing out from the generator to all manner of high tech equipment. A dozen people moved around the room, and around the holo-map stood three individuals. In each of the four corners of the room stood a robotic guard, and panels in the ceiling revealed where, if necessary, hanging turrets could be deployed. Ruby's admiration of the weaponization of the room was interrupted by an angry, frustrated shout.
"We know where they were, and we know where they might go, but we have no idea where they are RIGHT NOW!"
Jaune growled in frustration, slamming a fist down on the battle map that spread out before him. Ruby winced. She had never heard him that angry. The holo-map fizzled slightly as his hand passed through it to hit the generator beneath it, then solidifying. The men around him, all looking a little weathered from more than a few years of life, grumbled unintelligibly, unable to offer anything helpful, but feeling it was their duty to at least make some sort of sound.
Pyrrha cleared her throat, and the blond knight turned. Ruby gasped lightly. It had been a long time since she had seen Jaune, but he had barely changed at all. He was slightly taller, and definitely more muscled than before. He no longer looked scrawny. His hoodie was gone from beneath his armor, replaced with a gray and black military outfit that Ruby thought fit him well.
Yet even with the similarities he felt like a very different person than she remembered.
"Hey guys. Been a while, huh?"
The uncertainty, usually front and center in his voice, had long since left, replaced with a mellow, soothing quality, which in turn was hedged by a sharp, defiant tone. His sword, Crocea Mors, was still belted to his waist, his armor unchanged even after so many years. Though he would never hold the same skill level as Pyrrha, he was also no longer helpless with his blade, and there was an assurance to his steps that cried of hours of training.
"Yeah, it has,' Ruby said, stepping forward and hugging him. He was still a ways taller than she was, which miffed her a bit. Each of her team mates embraced him, even Weiss. "When we finally got contact with you guys back, you had already set up shop here. We figured we'd come and see how you're doing, and if we can lend a hand. We… uh, well, we almost didn't make it. If it wasn't for Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, we might have died just a few miles away from you guys, to be perfectly honest."
"You guys would have found a way, I know it. We just lent a hand." Nora said nonchalantly.
"Yeah well, still, we're lucky to be here," Yang said, frowning slightly at her sister for bringing up the subject. "Anyway, how are you guys doing in this war?" she asked. She wasn't used to saying that word.
"About as well as can be expected. We haven't had an open conflict in months, but skirmishes are happening every week. We've set up about a dozen bases off sight, trying to keep an eye on things as best we can. On the upside this city had an air field, which we managed to fill up with our remaining aircraft and some that we commandeered from towns around here. It isn't easy living on salvage but we've been making do. A few weeks after we set up here there was a big fight. That breach in the wall? wasn't there when we moved in. We nearly lost it all…." Jaune was quiet for a moment, almost brooding. Then he smiled again.
"Where are my manners. Come on, we have some catching up to do."
Jaune waved off his advisers, the men and women backing off and leaving the room. The security bots remained in their respective corners, looking like statues with red lights for faces. Each member in the room grabbed a chair, pulling them into a rough circle around a table Nora carried over single-handed. Jaune sat next to Pyrrha, and when she touched him, years seem to melt of him. He looked calmer, relaxed. He looked at her with a devotion so strong it hurt Ruby just to look at it.
Ruby couldn't help but feel a little jealousy and pain mix with her happiness for the two and how they felt about each other. Her thoughts turned hard towards her own inner turmoil about her current relationship with... the harder she tried not to think about it the more it wormed it's way into her mind.
A ragged hole had been torn in her chest by her own feelings, her heart carved out and handed unfairly to a certain tsundere that was less than 4 feet away. Her fantasies often used the word princess instead of heiress, but the same feelings couldn't be ignored. She blushed scarlet as one of her more vivid imaginings invaded her mind. Yang noticed, but kept her peace, striking up an animated discussion with Nora.
"So, what's going on in your life, Nora?"
Nora, ignorant for the moment about what Ruby was struggling with, gave a chuckle, saying "well, shortly after we left school, I manged to convince a certain someone that I wasn't following him around for fun. We all know he can't take a hint to save his life, and..." she continued on, her bubbling about finally getting Ren to notice how she felt about him (she said she had locked the two of them in a room for 4 hours before he figured it out. Yang thought she was joking until she saw the somewhat sour look spread over Ren's face,) enough to capture Blake's attention.
Blake listened to Nora's ramblings, which had somehow wondered into a new modification she had made to her hammer, Magnhild, which allowed it to rapid fire it's grenades, allowing her to shoot faster than before without resorting to an all-for-one styled attack. Apparently, it had been Ren's idea, and Nora had convinced him to make a slight modification of his own. His Storm Flowers could now collapse, and transform into twin knives. Though it wasn't anything overly outstanding, it was huge that she had managed to get him to do anything to his precious weapons.
Blake was envious. She had had a pretty huge crush on Yang for the better part of the last year. She had never been an expert on relationships, and the few she had had were worse train wrecks than just about anything she had ever heard of. She shuddered as she thought briefly about how it had ended with Ilia, and drifted further from the conversation as her mind went unconsciously to Adam.
Her teacher, her friend (she had thought), and her (briefly) boy friend. The relationship had been more for convenience than anything. They had both had their lonely insides, their hollowness. They had tried to fill it with a meaningless relationship. Plus….. well, he had been compelling, fiery, in his own right. Before she really understood him, that is. She had left before anything... physical, had happened with Adam, and afterwords… well, afterwords, her world changed.
Jaune had started talking to Ruby, saying "I was thinking that when all this is finally over, we can all get together for a real reunion. It's been so long since we've had anytime to really catch up. What have you been up to? We lost track of you when you were headed for quadrant 7. What happened?"
"We were heading after the Grimm that tore through Hevail. It led us into an ambush, and our bag that had most of our communication equipment in it was eaten. When we were on our way back, we found a working 2-way in what's left of Johnston. That's when Yang contacted you. We managed to corner the beast in a valley in the eastern corner of the quadrant. It took us 5 hours to bring the damn thing down."
Pyrrha asked, "what type of Grimm was it?"
"Don't know. Never seen one quite like it. I think it was a Drakon type, you know, dragons without wings? But it was different than most. It was huge, for one thing, but it was really lightly armored. It seemed like it relied on speed over power. It had massive stamina. We only killed it because it finally tired out. That and Weiss managed to freeze 2 of it's legs." She giggled, then stopped, unnerved.
The sound was slightly unnatural, and she was surprised that just mentioning Weiss was enough to draw such a reaction from her. Ruby thought she felt that little fracture in her machine widen a bit but chewed on her feelings for a moment, deciding it was probably just exhaustion that was driving her crazy. She glanced at Weiss sideways, unconsciously engraving the sight of her into her memory, her posture, her clothes, her skin... her face.
Pyrrha snapped her fingers at Ruby, trying to get her attention, but the sound came out louder than she meant it to. Everyone turned to look at her, then followed her gaze to Ruby, who sat, suddenly mortified that she was looking directly into Weiss's eyes. She stood abruptly, her hands clenching as she bared her teeth, trying to control her emotions. She said "is there a place where I can change? I'd like to put on my last clean outfit."
Jaune answered before anyone could ask what was wrong. She was surprised that he had picked up on her tone. He was obviously more mature than when they had first met. He said "out the door, turn left, take the elevator to the fifth floor. There is a communal bath on at the end of the hall, and you'll find some temporary clothing if you need it, towels, soap, and the rest of it. We had them prepped when you contacted us. After you get cleaned up you can pick whatever room you want on the floor for yourself."
Ruby nodded curtly, then turned and walked briskly from the room. Yang half stood in her seat, but Weiss held up a hand, saying "I'll go. She's been acting off for several weeks. As her partner, I think it's my responsibility to find out what's going on."
Yang nodded, retaking her seat. Weiss left the room, looking towards the elevators in time to see Ruby hitting one of the buttons. Their eyes met, and Weiss stopped cold. There was an uncompromising look on her face, one that was filled with both unwavering hate and extensive pain. Weiss was frozen in place, a wave of irrational fear spreading through her body.
Then the door closed, and it was like Weiss was released from some sort of spell.
She could move again, but she didn't want to. She felt suddenly weak in the knees. But she knew if she didn't check on Ruby, she might not be able to. She walked slowly to the elevators, making
sure Ruby's was already at the fifth floor before calling one. She thought to herself 'what the hell is wrong with her now?' As she waited, her fear began to turn to anger and irritation as she considered what she had seen.
Not only was Ruby in some sort of pain, she was refusing to tell her team about it. She spent the whole elevator ride getting more and more frustrated. As the doors finally dinged open, she was seething. It never changed. Every time something happened to someone on the team, they refused to talk about it.
She stood at a T intersection, with a single door down a short hall, and two doors to either side of the hall in front of her. To the left and right, a hallway extended to an L shaped intersection at either end. She stormed to the door at the end of the hall, remembering Jaune's instructions, she stormed towards the room at the end of the hall, sure enough, she could hear water running from beyond it. She opened it, too angry to think about knocking. However, she immediately pulled back. The sight that greeted her was somewhere between terrifying and absolutely beautiful.
The room was fairly large, a public styled bath, with a wide pool in the center of the room. To the right of that was a line of individual tubs meant for personal baths. To the left were shower stalls, and to either side of the door were lockers for storing personal items. On the far side were hundreds of hygiene items, stocked carefully so they were all organized. Not that Weiss noticed any of this
Ruby stood in her underwear, bent slightly over a tub that was half filled with water, one finger testing the water, steam curling up and around her slim frame. Her skin was a creamy pale, not quite as light as Blake's or Weiss's, but nowhere near her older sister's light tan. Her skin was covered in cuts and bruises, quiet a few of them faded and old, a testament to their time on the road. With her back to Weiss, her chest was hidden. At Beacon they had shared a locker room and shower space. In fact nothing Weiss saw here was anything new to her.
Yet, despite having seen it before, something about the situation was sending a heavy blush towards Weiss's face. Ruby's body seamed… beautiful to her. But what froze her in place, what held her back and forced her to a stop was not her body. No, the thing that terrified her, shocked her even, was the look on Ruby's face. It was drawn back in a human interpretation of a wolf's snarl, her eyes alight with emotion, something that looked like rage.
After a moment, Ruby straightened, turning and walking slowly towards Weiss. Weiss had never been scared of Ruby before, but now she took an unsteady step back, iron bands closing around her chest as she tried to breathe, the fear seizing her mind, her body refusing to move correctly. Having closed the door behind her, she felt her back press hard against the cool metal door. Ruby was less than 2 steps away.
Weiss tried to apologize, saying "I'm sorr-mph!"
Ruby had thrust her lips hard against Weiss's, and she froze.
She had never expected this, not in a million years. She didn't know what to do. If it had been anyone else, she would have panicked or fought, but she found herself not wanting to fight Ruby off, not wanting to end it.
Ruby had one hand on the door, the other holding Weiss by the back of her neck. Weiss couldn't go anywhere, couldn't do anything. So she settled for nothing. Her body stayed limp as she felt her lips being pushed around, felt, a little less than timidly, by Ruby's. After a moment, Ruby pulled away, turning her back and just standing there. Unable to decide what to say, Weiss turned and left. If she had stayed only 2 seconds more, she would have seen the tears racing down Ruby's face.