Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
Chapter 3
The atmosphere was uncommonly tense as Oobleck and WBY landed at Beacon. All were thinking about what happened to Ruby, though only Oobleck had a clue. The entire ride back none of them had spoken a word. Shortly after they got out of the bullhead, an argument started between the W and Y of Team RWBY.
"Why didn't stop her, she was standing right next to you!" Yang yelled at Weiss flailing her hands around.
Weiss looking at her incredulously shrieked, "Me! Why didn't you do anything, you're her sister!"
Yang walking up to her screeched, "You're her partner, and again, you were standing right next to her!"
"Yang, Weiss—," Blake tried to talk.
"Not now Blake," Weiss said as she cut Blake off, continuing, "The little brat needs to understand that it was her fault too, not just mine."
"Brat!" Yang snarled trying to grab Weiss.
Blake, finally fed up with the pointless bickering, yelled while pushing the two away from each other, "Stop your arguing, this is not getting us anywhere and is most certainly not finding Ruby!"
Professor Oobleck, finally deciding to intervene, said, "Blake is right you know, this arguing between you will not bring Ruby back," Pausing before continuing, "It is only to satisfy yourself if we want to get anything done we need to head to Ozpin immediately."
"Professor Oobleck is right. I'm sorry Weiss, I just…" Yang said ashamed with herself.
"It's alright, just don't do it again," Weiss replied quickly.
"Now that we have that sorted out we need to head to Ozpin and tell him what happened on the mission, maybe then will we have a chance at finding Ruby," Professor Oobleck finished then muttered, "Especially now that we know what happened unlike before."
Yang, hearing the last part, asked, "What was that Professor?"
"Nothing, simply me deciding to dwell upon the past," Professor Oobleck replied with haste.
Yang, deciding not to pursue the subject, said, "Well, let's go."
Upon entering Ozpin's Office, Professor Oobleck and WBY saw Ozpin and Glynda talking with General Ironwood. Ozpin, telling General Ironwood they would have to finish up later and Ironwood reluctantly agreeing, ended the call. After that, Ozpin turned to Professor Oobleck and the three members of Team RWBY.
"Welcome Bartholomew, Team RWBY, I trust the mission went well," Ozpin started then noticed Ruby wasn't with them, "Where's Ruby?"
Professor Oobleck, grimacing, replied, "I am afraid history has seemed to have repeated itself."
"You don't mean?" Ozpin started but then stopped when Professor Oobleck nodded, "Well, I think you should start from the beginning."
So Weiss, Blake, and Yang began telling the story of what happened from when the landed to when they got to the temple. When they got to where they were inside the temple, Professor Oobleck took over relaying Ozpin the events that had occurred hours previously.
"When we had reached the center of the room on top of the temple Ruby seemed as if she were in some trance." Thinking then moving on, "At first I thought nothing of it because she was just standing there, but then she started to move forward through the black slime substance surrounding the pedestal in the center. No matter how much we called she just wasn't listening. By the time any of us had moved to grab her, she had already seized the artifact, and soon after the black substance surrounded her. When the black material dissipated like the grimm do after they die, Ruby was not there. She had vanished." Professor Oobleck told Ozpin.
Sighing while rubbing his temples, Ozpin replied, "This is the second time this had happened now, though now we know most likely what happened the first time."
Yang, now getting curious as to what Ozpin and Professor Oobleck kept referring to, asked, "What are you talking about Headmaster?"
"What I am talking about is what happened to Summer Rose all those years back," Professor Ozpin replied.
"You know what happened to mom?" Yang inquired surprised.
"Yes, I do, and so does Qrow and Taiyang, though none of us knew exactly what happened to her. This mission you were on shed some new light onto what may have happened," Ozpin told Yang then added on, "Coincidentally, Summer disappeared on the same type of mission you were on today. She had said before she left she had to clear out some temple with grimm around it that were attacking nearby towns. The unfortunate part was she never told anyone where she was going, and the task she took was apparently not an official one because it was not logged with the Hunter's Association."
"Why wasn't me and Ruby told what happened to our mom, we have every right to know," Yang replied angrily.
"Taiyang decided you were too young to know what happened to Summer when it happened," Ozpin replied calmly.
Yang, getting angrier by the moment as shown by her eyes turning red, practically yelled, "What about now! Ruby is 15, and I am 17, we should be old enough now!"
"Yang, please calm down and at least try to be professional," Weiss said looking to Yang.
"No, Weiss, me and Ruby had the right to know what happened, and especially since the same thing happened to mom, maybe we could have avoided it if I had known," Yang seethed not even looking at Weiss.
"Yang Xiao Long," Professor Ozpin started firmly, "None of us knew what happened to Summer Rose the first time and only now we have a clue to what may have happened. I know it is sad that it has come at the cost of your sister, but taking out your anger on everyone here will not do anything to bring her back. Considering that Summer Rose never came back after what happened, we have to consider as well that Ruby may be dead."
"Dead!" Yang shrieked, "I can't believe this!" Yang raged walking to the elevator and quickly pressing down.
"Yang, come back here," Blake called to her, and Yang, not listening to Blake, pushed a button in the elevator and closed the door.
"I'm sorry Professor Ozpin, Yang was incredibly rude there," Weiss said to Ozpin.
"It's alright," Ozpin replied, "Yang is understandably upset about all this. It is her sister who is on the line right now."
"Professors, I think we should probably go calm Yang down now," Blake announced to them.
"Go ahead, I was just about to send you two off anyways," Ozpin replied to Blake. As soon as Ozpin finished, Weiss and Blake left Ozpin's Office to find Yang leaving the occupants of the office in silence.
Glynda, breaking the silence, said in thought, "I can't believe this has happened again, at least this time we know what happened. It would be tragic if we couldn't do anything, though we will have to inform Taiyang and Qrow. Qrow will be furious about this and Taiyang will probably go into another depression."
"This is not good…" Professor Oobleck stated.
Weiss and Blake were heading down the hallway to their dorm room when they ran into Team JNPR who were looking thoroughly confused.
Pyrrha, noticing Weiss and Blake first, asked, "What happened with Yang, she seemed quite upset, and where's Ruby?"
"To answer both your questions at once I will tell you what happened on our mission that we took," Weiss replied and continued telling them what occurred on their mission earlier that day, once Weiss finished there were expressions of shock and worry between the members of Team JNPR.
"I am sorry, I did not know," Pyrrha told Weiss and Blake.
Blake quickly replied, "It's alright, I am still coming to terms with it myself and so is Weiss probably, though Yang needs some comfort right now. It's her sister that this happened to, we need to go find her, so see you later."
"Goodbye," Nora replied solemnly contrary to her usual mood.
Unlike the rest of her team, Ruby had no idea where she was. She had just woken up in a desolate land that had the same black slime as in and around the temple, and there were also strange purplish-pink crystals everywhere. On top of that, she could not remember what she had done in the upper part of the temple and that she had the artifact with her.
"Where am I?" Ruby thought as she wandered the bleak wastelands.
As Ruby walked she noticed one thing other than the strangeness of the land, it was deathly silent, too silent. The silence had left her on guard and quite nervous. She soon walked up to the edge of a lake of the black slime. Very cautiously she moved up to edge of the grim lake.
"What is this stuff," Ruby thought to herself afraid that if she were to talk something would find her. Suddenly the black substance slithered up and grabbed her leg and started pulling. Panicking, she yanked out Crescent Rose and slashed at the black rubber-like slime hoping it would do something. The black ooze as if anticipating something like that to happen reached out and took Crescent Rose out of her hands and threw it away.
Trying to grasp anything she could to keep her from being pulled in, Ruby thought, "No!" In the end, it was in vain as she could not stop herself from being pulled in. The next thing she would experience would be the most painful thing to her ever.
When Ruby was fully submerged in the black substance, it started to merge with her body, taking the artifact with it into her body. Soon her skin turned deathly pale and her hair white. At the same time, deep red and purple veins started appearing across her body. In addition to that, her irises turned red, and her sclera turned black. Also, a black diamond marking appeared on her forehead, presumably from the artifact. Ruby had passed out by the time this transformation was complete. After it was finished, Ruby was ejected to the shore of the lake, changed forever…
Following Ruby's grim transformation a figure walked up to the shore of the lake finding Ruby. The figure, a woman, walked up to Ruby's changed and still body touching the red cloak Ruby wore.
"It can't be," the woman thought then seeing the rose on Ruby's belt, "It is…" Quickly picking up Ruby the woman started to walk away toward a building in the distance.
Author's Notes
Well, there's the third chapter, not much to say about it. Damn cliffhangers though, they'll get ya. See you all in the next in chapter make sure to leave reviews as to what you think or if I made any mistakes.