A/N: This is another of my concept pieces. It'll likely be a three shot at most. I got an early shift at work so it'll be at least another week while I adjust and get back to my other stories. I blame Amity arena for this story.
It was frankly quite a ridiculous thing, the story that one Jaune Arc was hurriedly telling. Standing between a griffon grimm and his friends. Ren, Nora, Blake, Weiss, Yang, Oscar, Qrow and Maria all looking at him like he had lost his ever loving mind. He couldn't blame them, and honestly had he not witnessed the events himself, he knew he would be just as skeptical. Really he figured they'd just be glad that he was alive, but be that the case or not he was in quite the predicament.
"That's not funny." Yang growls at him, eyes red, hair fiery.
"It's not a joke." Jaune returns in panic and exasperation.
"You're telling us that Salem turned Ruby into that griffon, and you expect us to take your word for it when you've been missing for a year?" Nora sounds utterly incredulous.
"Yea, I know it sounds crazy, but it's the truth. If we could all please put away our weapons I'll explain." The knight pleads.
"What if it attacks us?" Weiss demands.
"IT is RUBY and if you haven't noticed, she hasn't moved an inch since we landed. She isn't going to attack anyone! She can't speak or express her emotions, but, I promise it's her in there." Jaune explains, sounding offended on Ruby's behalf. The griffon nods its head sharply in agreement.
Oscar had given control over to Oz and had been standing quietly examining the scene before him. He tucks his cane away an walks towards the griffon, headless of the protests of the rest of his traveling companions. The griffon lays down at his approach, seemingly trying to show it meant no harm. It was dusk, the low light of the fading sun had made it quite hard to examine the grimm properly from a distance. He was close enough now he could see it's eyes. He was on high alert, ready to run or fight if need be. "You have silver eyes." He muses, chuckling a bit at the approximation of a groan the creature manages. "Yes, I suppose I'm repeating myself."
"May I touch you?" He asks pacing around the creature taking note of what looked to be a red collar around her neck, her rose emblem where a name tag would be if she were a house pet. Ruby nods her head lowering it for him. Oz places his hand on her mask. She closes her eyes as gentle magic works its way across her. She opens her eyes after a while and turns her head side to side examining the young man. The rest of the group standing in silence. Jaune walks up to the younger man.
"What was that?" The knight asks cautiously.
"Just an old spell, it's a bit like sharing memories." He turns to the group a serious look on his face. "I'm sorry to say, but, that griffon really is young miss Rose." Seven shocked faces stare back at him.
Yang and Qrow walk towards Ruby cautiously. The three look at each other for a long time before Yang reaches out touching the feathered neck of her sister. "How?" She whispers. Ruby turns her head resting it on her sisters shoulder, hugging her as best she could manage.
"Salem, magic, and down right rotten luck." Jaune sighs, Ruby makes a low rumbling noise in agreement.
"We thought the two of you were dead." Qrow sighs out, still not quite believing his eyes or ears.
"We've been searching the world for magic. There are rumors all around about traces of magic, or strange occurrences that cant be explained by dust or semblances. I thought, we could find, I dunno, some way to change her back." Jaune explains.
"Why didn't you come find us sooner?" Blake eyes Jaune up, noticing for the first time that Crescent Rose is strapped to Jaune's back."
"It's a long story, if everyone would settle around the campfire I'd be happy to tell it." The blonde man begins walking towards the fire when he's stopped by a familiar tug at his hoodie. Ruby has the hood in her beak. He turns smiling a bit. "What's up Rubes?"
Weiss almost swears Ruby rolls her eyes at the knight. Ruby makes a noise somewhere between a sigh and a growl. She drops his hood and nudges her weapon and stomps one front foot lightly. Jaune laughs again. "Yes, yes, maintenance day, I'll clean her up for you." He absently pats her neck before settling on one of the logs around the fire. Ruby paces the parameter of the campfire trying to find a place closest to her friends and family, but still far enough away from the fire. As a grimm having a natural aversion to flames was something she was quite unsettled by. She eventually settles a bit behind Jaune and Yang, both blondes sitting fairly close to each other.
Jaune sits with Crescent Rose on his lap beginning it's maintenance. "Two days before we were all set to raid the grimmlands I caught Ruby sneaking off on her own." He starts but I interrupted by Ruby flapping her wings and making a noise between a whine and a groan. "Hey, it's the truth and you know it!" He calls over his shoulder, Ruby huffs.
"You two seem to be able to communicate pretty well I see." Maria notes, blinking her goggles to focus.
Jaune shrugs. "We had to work out a system."
"You should have come back to us." Nora sounds sad, confused and just a bit angry.
"Ruby was afraid." Jaune answers simply.
"Considering the welcome we gave the two of you tonight, I can understand why." Weiss points out.
"I think it was more than that." Yang looks over to the lounging grimm by their camp. She knows it's her sister but it's still unnerving. Ruby sensing Yang's discomfort looks away from the blonde.
"She had to come to terms with the change herself, believe me, trying to drag a griffon anywhere she doesn't want to go.. yea it doesn't end well." If a griffon could look smug, Ruby would look quite smug.
Ruby and Jaune had managed to come face to face with Salem. They would have taken a moment to appreciate their stealth skills, but being face to face with the embodiment of hate tends to put a damper on celebrations. The fight had been short but intense. Jaune took to distracting Salem giving Ruby the time she needed to use her eyes. The blast of light knocking Salem back, heavily wounded, but healing already. Jaune an Ruby repeated the sequence several times before the grimm queen ha enough. Salem lifted her hand, shooting purple red magic towards Ruby. To Jaune's horror it connected, the sight of his best friend being transformed would haunt his nightmares for months to come.
Ruby seemed to take stock of the situation quickly. Salem was still down, she still had her silver eyes. She unleashed her power only to reel back in pain. Jaune was frozen in place in shock. Salem smirked deeming the two now harmless. The silver eyes no longer a threat Salem settles on her throne to regain her strength. Jaune runs towards Ruby, he can never explain just why or how, but he knew that she was still Ruby. Crescent Rose Is retrieved from the floor along with the rose emblem. Ruby bends down, one wing extended towards the ground. Jaune nods and hops on her back. Ruby learns that flying is instinctive for griffons, something she's thankful for, she takes them out of one of the smashed windows and flies for hours, finally settling near a little pond.
Jaune hops off and begins pacing and muttering to himself about what to do, who to call, and various other subjects. Ruby is lost in her reflection in the pond, it doesn't seem real at all to her. She opens and closes her mouth, watching as the reflection mirrors her actions, She flutters her wings, lifts a foot, and swishes her tail, The pond reflecting evert action she makes. It's wholly disquieting how natural all this feels. She's brought out of her own thoughts when Jaune exclaims they need to find the others. She walks over to him and tries to speak for the first time, she only manages to screech. She and Jaune both duck from the sound.
"We really need to get back to the others, maybe Oz will know what to do." Jaune tells her, he's surprised when she shakes her head no.
"No?" Jaune asks confused. Ruby whines, padding back over to the pond. She looks at her reflection and back to Jaune several times before it dawns on him what she's trying to convey. " You don't want them to see you like this?" He asks tentatively, she nods her head. The situation finally sinks in for her. Ruby paces back and forth obviously upset. Jaune walks over to her blocking her path to force her to look at him. "Hey, it'll be okay, I promise, on my word as an Arc we will find a way to change you back." Ruby sits allowing her head to droop down, making a sound so sad Jaune's heart was breaking for her. He ducks under her head wrapping her neck in a hug. "I promise." He states firmly.
The two travelled town to town searching for any leads on magic they could find. They always found dead ends but never gave up hope. They did hunters work where they could so Jaune had money for food or lodging when the weather was too rough for camping. One night Jaune sighed that he wished sometimes he had a ranged weapon, not that he didn't appreciate his sword, but it would come in handy when they were in the air. Ruby leapt to her feet trotting over to the tree where their weapons were leaning. She practically pranced back to him and gently laid Crescent Rose in his lap. "You want me to use this?" He asked carefully she nodded. "If you're sure I'd be glad to. I'm sure your baby is starving for some action." He laughs at the happy little dance she does with her front feet.
It takes a while but he gets the hang of using the sniper rifle part of Crescent Rose. Beowolves and Borbatusk are so much easier to deal with from the sky. Flying grimm are another issue all together. They work out a system where Ruby wears them down in the air and gets them close enough for his sword or her rifle to finish off. It's actually quite hard for Ruby to get the other grimm to engage in battle if he's not on her back, sometimes even when he is on her back they don't engage. Grimm don't seem to attack other grimm. He had never really put much thought into how grimm worked before. Ruby didn't seem to need food or water and she was impervious to most weather, cold being the exception. She was much slower in the winter.
She had been injured by a passing traveler once and the wound took nearly two weeks to heal. Grimm not having aura after all she didn't have that protection. He had attempted to use his semblance but it did nothing at all for her. They only walked for the two weeks as her wing healed. The two eventually found themselves on the outskirts of Mistral. Jaune had taken a job clearing a rather large den of beowolves for a local farmer. That's where the two had run into their friends. Jaune had to practically tackle Nora to keep her from bashing Ruby's head in. "That leads us to now." Jaune states finishing up the story, and maintenance on the sniper scythe.
"That's a lot to take in." Blake states, looking Ruby and Jaune over.
"Believe me, I know." Jaune laughs a bit.
"What do you think Oz?" Qrow asks the young man.
Oscar answers. "He's analyzing the magic, he's not sure if it's a simple spell or a curse right now. He say's he'll be busy figuring it out for a while."
"Well, now that we're all back together we aren't going anywhere, are we Ruby?" Jaune calls over his shoulder, she makes a small rolling noise that he seems to take as a vote of agreement from her. "She says she agrees."
A/N: This is prologue, next chapter will be the main story, third will be epilogue. This has probably been done to death, but meh, the muse insisted.
