The speeding yellow beast roared. Its engines growled as it was forced to stop in the yellowed grass below its treads. Mounted upon it was Yang, her hands firmly clutched its handlebars. The Bumblebee, what her motorcycle was known as, had endured a great burden in order to get to this place as quickly as possible. There was still some paces to go it would seem.
Yang was no doubt familiar with this territory. She had undertook operations as recently as a couple of years back before she was finally accepted into the Beacon academy. She had once worked with a private organisation that acted as a middleman between the Schnee Dust Corporation's workings in the forest and more predominantly, the mine. Actually, it was not much of a mine to begin with. Before that it was the ruins to an ancient Faunus tribe.
But she had not hit the ruins yet. She could only assume that Pyrrah, Blake and Ruby would be found there as well as the boy that Yang became increasingly concerned about. She had stopped the Bumblebee in front of an old burnt down house. This was an area of the forest a bit further west of the ruins; a place Blake had missed while being hunted by Pendragons. In its former life; the house was once a proud two story abode for a small family. Now, it was no more than flame bitten wood and cement. Whatever had brought this place down had happened years ago. It was sad. Evidence of furniture gave an insight onto how each room would have been. Yang shook her head and frowned.
Rather than tarry on the subject further, she put her foot down and kicked the pedal causing her metal steed to roar back into life. With a spark of flame from the exhaust pipe; Yang sped off on the rough grassy terrain through the trees to put an end to her haunting.
–
Atrocious monsters. Blake wretched at the thought of Faunus being the same vein as Grimm; in fact, she couldn't believe it, even with the downright feral behavior the White Fang had wrought in her past. But that right now was not the concern. The central Pendragon, the alpha of the three lunged for her. But she was still bound, unable to reach her weapon.
It was then with a clink, some might of force had caused her to break loose of one of the metal binds. "What?" Before she was given the chance to properly react, her entire body swung down partway like the dial on a clock becoming heavy and limp. Fortunately, by whatever manner of luck the Pendragon did not expect this outcome and tackled into the wall, causing the facing to crumble. The loosening of the debris broke her other bind, and she was free.
Landing gracefully like a cat, Blake made contact with the ground unharmed. Her wrists still cramped a bit, but at least now she was able to reach for the Gambol Shroud still attached to her back.
Not fast enough. There were still two other Pendragons on her tail while the first still suffered from recoil. Both blocked her escape. No way out.
Blake had also miscalculated why she had been loosened from one of her bonds as well. In the distance Pyrrah Nikos had fired the first shot with her rifle making acute use of the scope. "One advantage over the Crescent Rose is that it's ultra silent." She smiled as she still knelt in the crouched position with her gun loaded. She watched as Ruby next to her held out her Crescent Rose, that was folded into a large two handed gun, also eager to dig in on the action.
"Alright then." Pyrrah concluded. "I'll let you have some of the fun now that Blake is actually free. Just... uh be careful not to blow up our friend right?"
Ruby smiled and nodded as she loaded the Crescent Rose with ammunition attached to her belt. It took one switch of the trigger to let go one vast bullet of fire that crashed into one of the devils. It also took one after image from Blake's Semblance to shadow step out the way of harm. No longer was she trapped from escape by a wall.
Uther watched from a distance. Down below, Blake looked like a small black figure in brown craggy arena as she faced up against three bigger dots. But despite Pyrrah and Rubys excellent teamwork from afar, he felt extremely unsettled. "Both Ruby and Pyrrah are so good at fighting... but what can I do?" It was then his focus became entranced on something else on the field that made him ignore Pyrrah's exchange with Ruby.
"Are you ready to jump in?" Pyrrah asked standing up.
Ruby gulped and nodded. "Well we gotta."
With a leap, they landed on the terrain below. In reality, the ledge they were on wasn't far from the ground. Ruby nearly slipped on a rusty pickaxe upon landing though.
Letting the panic slide, another concern rushed to her mind. Blake was running towards her of all people, with a Grimm chasing behind her. Pyrrah merely squinted and observed the situation. Ruby had to act fast. Real fast.
Ruby stupidly decided to run in Blakes direction, both were about to collide. Somehow, Blake could see what was going on in the poor girls mind as the red-head tossed the black ribbon towards her. A Pendragon charged from the left, obscuring Blake from view but the Faunus had successfully grabbed the ribbon and performed a clean backflip. Ruby wasn't sure how, but when the Pendragonhad passed over and crashed into the wall, she could see Blake had landed on her feet with the Ribbon already neatly tied to her head. An epic feat.
Ruby ceased to a halt and shrugged before whispering "She's probably used to doing stunts like that at Beacon."
Pyrrah placed a finger on her chin in thought. "I didn't know she wore two ribbons!"
Ruby decided not to comment. In fact, there was no time to comment anyway. Three Grimm, Three heroines. The girls collected and stood in a back to back formation to ensure they wouldn't be ambushed.
"One each?" Blake asked remaining her focus on one of the smaller Grimm.
"Ruby, you want the biggest one?" Pyrrah asked.
"He's mine." Ruby unfurled her gun into a red sweeping scythe of death. Its pointed blade lured the charging monster to its death. All three girls charged and engaged with their enemies, using their varying skills to make work of them.
Blake drew first blood with the Gambol Shroud. Folding the Rapier into a gun sickle, it made a wild swing and shot off stones from the creatures back. The snapped dust shardlings crashed to the ground. In all the damage inflicted had been minimal.
Pyrrah meanwhile had converted her rifle amazingly into some kind of spear. Combined with a shield that was now locked on her free arm it allowed her to engage in direct combat blocking heavy attacks that came her way.
Ruby was faced with the biggest challenge. An endless barrage of bullets from the head of her scythe did little to the largest one. In fact, none of the shots she fired seemed to do anything. While Pyrrah seemed to succeed better with her opponent, Blake's projectile attacks served little use either. Ruby made use of her agility and stepped in the beasts shadow. Scythe held outward, she went for the crush and tried to pierce its black body. Failure. Whatever it was made of was still tough as nails, she inflicted nothing more than a moderate scratch.
Uther just watched as the girls fought. Information began to fill his mind bit by bit as he stared into the white orb they fought in distance of. It was almost like the orb was telling him what was there... no... he knew all along. Images of torture and slavery that had occurred in this room entered his mind.
Death.
Murder.
Slavery.
He was almost certain that the role of this place was prominent in his past. The images he saw were people he recognized. His brothers. His mother. His father. He began to feel cold. He no longer felt alive.
He dropped to his knees when he saw one last image.
His own death.
It couldn't have been real, could it? The orb was telling him lies. But the more he looked, the more he couldn't look away. He was bound, entranced by its strange invisible wrappings around him. He shut his eyes hoping the horrid dream would go away, but it was still there as bright as day.
Pyrrah had already made light work of her part of the fight. The enemy Grimm was battered and exhausted and lay in a heap in front of her. She wondered why Blake and Ruby hadn't finished yet. "Hey, I think I just realized something!"
Grabbing a white shard of Dust that had smashed off the creatures back, she held it up. "These creatures are covered in Dust that has had its powers sucked dry, which makes me believe that any type of Dust attacks are ineffectual on these Grimm!"
Being creatures that were usually weak to Dust, the fact that such attacks couldn't be used was a blasphemy in all kinds of Hunters and Huntresses everywhere fighting Grimm. Fighting. There would be more fighting.
–
"I can't believe this! Those girls always make me worry!" Weiss marched through the forest, her eyes locked on the line of fallen grass. She seemed to completely ignore the presence of Jaune who was stumbling behind her. For whatever reason he had ended up following her all the way out to the Fabled Forest.
"Hey Weiss, could you just calm down a bit?" he stuttered waving his hands poking his head around her shoulders trying to get her attention.
It was a failure. The girl in white continued to look forth until she stopped at a pile of ruins. "Yang passed by here." She looked up at the remains of it wondering how the building fell.
"I wonder what happened here." Jaune thought out openly, still vying for Weiss's attention.
"I don't know. It's old." Weiss gave him some kind of crude response at least. "But it doesn't make sense why a house like this would be out in the middle of nowhere... ...I'm thinking on things too much. I've got to find Yang and the others."Deep down, she really did care for her friends, but she had difficulty putting it into words.
The hand of Jaune waved in her face. "Hellooooo anyone in there?"
She had only just realized she had been lost in thought.
"Ah great! You zoned out there Weiss." Jaune was thankful that she was alright. "Something on your mind?"
Weiss turned her head away from him and folded her arms. "Nothing. We need to move on."
–
Yang arrived too late to the ruins. Despite the gift of speed her Motorcycle granted her she was not able to avoid the nearing presence of two fighter jets nearby. They flew low over the Fabled Forest and headed in the direction that she had hoped they didn't go. They were a familiar model, the same carrier that had been sliced in two by Penny's blades during their search for Blake in a previous adventure. These jets belonged to Roman Torchwick and his men of the White Fang.
Much like Yang, they were well aware of the location and the hidden ruins below it. The doors on the sides of the planes hung open and soldiers dressed in black and white hung knelt and poised to descend to the ground.
It was then a third ship steered into view. This one was more or less the same as the others, but with the addition of a large barrel attached to base of it. It pointed downwards to the ground, seeking the ground of its target.
"What are they doing?" Yang questioned as she squinted. She didn't get too close into view so she wouldn't give away her cover, being caught by them whilst being greatly outnumbered would serve as a colossal disadvantage to her cause.
She could fight, but not at 100% form as the effects of her ailments. She choked and coughed, clinging to a tree that was in even less health than herself. When her throat cleared of irritation she exerted her focus into watching the ships.
"Ruby and Pyrrah are in trouble, if I don't do something..." Her hand fisted the the poor tree, making it loosen even more of its dying leaves to the ground.
Suddenly, there was a small light that ripped through the atmosphere. In seconds, the sky was completely white. Weiss and Jaune were engulfed. The ships were taken. Ruby too saw the glint in the roof of the cave. "What is that...?"
She had been silenced by what followed.
A beam of coloured light from the cannon burrowed its way into the hill above the ruins boring a hole directly into the large cavern where Ruby and her friends were fighting. The girls and even the Pendragons had to dodge out the way of the third enemy.
Scuffling her shoes in the dirt, Ruby used her Scythe to maintain her balance from the blast and squinted at the light. It began to peter and clear noticing a huge hole that had revealed itself to them.
While the poor beasts around them had become lifeless lumps from the shock Pyrrah used her time to investigate the newly created hole. She temporarily drew her weapon and placed her hands on her hips as she carefully observed. "It's man made destruction!"
Roped dropped down from the sides of the hole and within moments, soldiers in white tunics swarmed the area like insects.
Blake recognized them instantly. "Members of the White Fang. But what are they doing here!?"
–
The soldiers were feeding through the main entrance of the ruins as well. Whatever was in there must have been pretty important for them to send an entire force of men, let alone a cannon to rip an opening into the place. Yang edged closer and watched as the last group of men wondered in. "There has to be some way to get inside..."
"Waaaaitt for meeee!" One of the straggling White Fang soldiers was still far away from the rest of the group. The poor guy didn't even have his pants on properly; his shirt hung over in a ragtag mess.
Yang had an epiphany. "I've got it!"
–
Pyrrah leapt up to the upper balcony of the cave, but her entrance had been blocked by more soldiers. "Twenty or so here, fourty from the roof. We're outnumbered!"
"No we're not!" Ruby shouted from below. "We can beat them!"
Pyrrah was proud of the girls perseverance. The young Gladiator drew spear and shield, ready to confront the attackers and to protect Uther who was nearby. The poor boy was quite visibly shaken.
One of the White Fang grunts stepped forward. "Seize them!"
"Ugh," Blake groaned as her ears underneath her bow flicked back. "Do we ever get peace?" She launched herself at some of the men carrying swords in their hands. With a twist of her arm she let loose her chain sickle. Her face darkened remembering that she was in league with such people. One sweep of the black ribbon was enough to trip them onto the ground. The ribbon cracked as it hit the floor like a whip and returned to Blake's hand.
Ruby fought hard against her foes. But her strikes with her scythe slowed as she became distracted by the presence of the Pendragons waking back up. Above her a large shadow already cast itself. She rolled forwards between the two White Fang and the poor men had to stop to figure out her small being had just slipped through between them. "Where did she...?"
The second grunt poked the first grunt as he looked up. "Uh..."
The pair were shortly silenced after being landed on by a Grimm. Fortunately for them, it was the smaller of Pendragons.
Not all the White Fang however were buffoons in combat. Pyrrah clashed with several more experienced fighters, reaching a stalemate with her spear at points. As she mowed through the advancing soldiers, one behind her caught her eye. He, or rather she wore the uniform much like the others, but underneath the helmet flowed long reams of golden hair. She was at the back of the group and as soon as she met contact with Pyrrah she gave a sly grin.
There was a clicking noise, like a gun being loaded and almost instantaneously, a set of mercenaries in front of the female grunt fell forwards on top of each other like dominoes. The girl had yellow gauntlets folded over her arms that clicked as the shells around the wrist let loose the already used clips.
"The Ember Cecelia! Yang!?" Pyrrah immediately identified the weapon the grunt carried.
Yang lifted up the visor to reveal her face underneath. Her lavender eyes glittered back. She flipped the visor back down again as if they were a replacement for her sunglasses and prepared to power through the rest of the mercenaries that blocked the entrance.
The sound of a megaphone interrupted their fight however.
"Drop all your weapons now and cease this fighting. All of you."
The men began to quiver and immediately did as they were asked. The heroines didn't however, they where still trying to figure out who the voice belonged to. It was a female. None they recognized.
Ruby gasped. "Even the Grimm have stopped fighting."
The back monsters cowered back. They either were deathly frightened of this woman or that she had some kind of influence over them. Either way, they could see a platform from above being winched down into sight. It was impossible to make the woman out by the dark shadow that hung over her, but her eyes shined like a dire wolf on a moonlit night. Ruby could make out flecks of a mid length dress. On her left arm she held a massive grey object that seemed to be attached firmly. It didn't have a conventional design like Hunter weapons of current times.
The woman resumed her speech. "It was a simple operation. You already failed miserably both Grimm and Faunus alike, rotten creatures. We needed only one soul."
Yang stepped forward and leapt down alongside Blake and Ruby. Her little sister recognized her right away. "What are you doing here?"
"I should have been here long ago."
Ruby then wretched and held her nose. "Yang. That costume smells."
"That's not important!" The eldest sister clenched her fist, nearly spiraling into a rage.
Their tame banter was halted by the presence of the new enemy. Or not so new to Ruby at least. She recognised the woman from the moment Glynda Goodwitch saved her life. This woman in red had a crushing aura around her, and Red Riding Hood had ideas on just how capable she was with dust. Compared to the soldiers that worked for her or even the Pendragons, she was a deadly adversary.
"We needed one more soul to charge the Moon Stone. Just one more. Are you so incapable?" The woman with the fiery eyes continued. The platform hoisted her down until it touched the ground.
Yang grew furious. Her hair sparked with fire. This was the same woman she had once worked for. The same woman of which she had seen commit horrific deeds. The same woman that made her commit horrific deeds. She inched forward. Goldilocks had a score to settle with Cinderella.
Yang grit her teeth and clenched her fists. She dashed forward and surged to inflict a punch. In a flash, she was in close range with 'Cinder'. She launched punch after punch after punch without thinking straight and allowed her rage to be vented through each and every attack. Every single time, her Ember Celica's made contact with something that was not Cinder's own body.
Whatever was on Cinder's arm, the gargantuan grey contraption with a hollow recess was now being used as a shield that protected the anti-huntress from harm. "What's this?" Cinder whispered to Yang. "You're not on top form today are you?"
Yang's body was still under stress from her sickness. It had not even been a day since she'd been allowed to recover and Cinder did not even need to retaliate to make her fall. Yang quickly slumped down on the ground in front of her enemy realizing her mistake. The embers in her hair died out once again like a candle flame that had been snuffed.
Cinder stepped away from Yang for a moment and turned her back towards the large orb of Dust or 'Moon Stone'. "That's right, beg for mercy like the dogs you are."
"Yang no!" Ruby charged, but Pendragons and White Fang got in the way. The monsters and Faunus really were working together... somehow.
"That device on her arm is reacting with that stone!" Pyrrah had recognized that it had been Cinder's goal all along.
Whatever the metal thing was on Cinder now had the Moon Stone in its recess. The ugly shield/gauntlet then converted into a type of cannon which Cinder turned around and pointed like a toy. "It is still severely lacking in power, but one more soul should do it." The gun was aimed at Yang's lifeless body.
"Sister!" Ruby cried out as she tried to struggle between the hands of the men that tried to resist her passage. Blake saw her cry of pain and tried to rush in from the side, only to be halted by the largest Pendragon.
"You guys really are hopeless without me aren't you?"
"That voice..." Ruby instantly recognized it.
The air froze in a beam of ice that struck the Alpha Grimm as its target. His head froze solid, much like the technique used by Weiss on the King Taijitsu earlier. No doubt it was her.
She danced through the air, using her glyphs to guide her above and over the enemy. Using the opportunity, the Cat Faunus used her Gambol Shroud to smack the head of the Pendragon clean off much like the technique she had earlier witnessed. She shrugged as the monsters body collapsed to the ground. "Hey that really does work."
Blake and Pyrrah joined with Ruby to push back the forces. Cinder was distracted by the presence of the new gatecrashers, Jaune was there as well. He would have consoled Uther on the top of the ledge whilst the girls were all fighting, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. It was never a concern to Jaune due to the fact that he didn't make acquaintances with him before.
"I'll feed all five of you to my jewel!" Cinder threatened pointing the cannon at Ruby.
The girl moved so fast that she made for a difficult target.
"You leave my god-damn sister alone... YOU HEAR ME?" Cinder's own imposing aura was being blanked out by the girl who had fallen trying to attack her. Through the draped hair over Yang's face she could see the glow of red in her eyes.
"Hmph. And what could you possibly do? Stay on the ground. You belong there. Or would you like me to put you a few feet under?"
Despite her threats Cinder seemed pretty dead set on taking the life of Ruby, above anyone. She had a long lasting grudge with her mother. The child was no different. She behaved as a reflection, even an incarnation of that same person. It was time to let loose the ancient weapon.
"Now hear the roar of the Lunar Eclipse!" she cried firing the weapon for the first time. It took a while to get going, but once the charge was set up it unleashed a beam of coloured light that skirted across the room tearing down the walls and decimating the ground beneath them.
Cinder was still disappointed however. "It is not as strong as the notes said it was. I'm still lacking the soul of innocence. One accurate shot will be enough."
After mopping up most of the foes on the floor, team RWBY and half JNPR had to focus on keeping out the way of their adversaries shots. One false move and they would all be fatally wounded or worse.
Ruby made the charge to save her older sister. "I'll stop you!"
Cinder was aware of the girls speed, but couldn't react fast enough to it. She had a chance to fire one more shot and hope it hit its mark.
"Ruby, watch out!" Pyrrah cried reaching out her hand.
It was too late. There was a flash of white that had engulfed the girl and she fell to the ground. The group were about to scream, but one member was lacking. It wasn't Yang. Ruby was surprised she was still conscious. She looked up, but her sight of Cinder was blocked by a set of Bronze armour and red hair.
They couldn't believe their eyes.
The first one to shout was Jaune. "PYRRAH!"
Weiss was flabbergasted "You idiot...!"
Whatever had just happened, the Gladiator had saved Ruby's life. As the girl in red looked up im a crouched position with her hands over her head, she saw Pyrrah look slowly back before whispering something that her ears couldn't pick up. Within moments, her body fell to the ground and Jaune and the girls rushed to her side. The blonde haired man was there first, his wimpy face had turned into something more sorrowful and sad. He embraced her in her arms, something he had previously had little courage to do. His emotions overflowed into tears. He clutched her hands with his own, hoping his warm body would wake her. "Pyrrah... talk to me. It's your old pal Jaune..." His words did not wake her. The cries of RWBY did not wake her.
Weiss and Blake stood above them unsettled and disturbed. "Did she really take her soul?"
"Why did she just do that!?" Ruby was confused. Watching Jaune trying to awaken Pyrrah with no success what making her brim with tears as well.
"She did what any one of us would have done!" Weiss retorted.
In a matter to secure safety, Blake checked for Cinder. She had already begun to depart from the ruins, taking the Moon Stone with her. But now, the stone had changed from white to blood red. "This source of life shall do for a little while, but mark my words, I'll return to get you Ruby Rose!"
–
"Why me? What do people want with me?" No matter which way she turned, tragedy always seemed to follow Ruby.
Jaune had carried an unconscious Pyrrah out of the ruins and with the help of Yang and Blake, put her on the back of the motorcycle.
Weiss had defrosted a little under the heavy atmosphere. "You know Ruby, you're not so different from the rest of us."
"How so?"
"Back at home, my father made me the center of attention with everything. You would think that performances, fame and good grades would be the best of lifestyles right? Well with it bring a lot of enemies. I've been hounded by the burdens of my heritage and my own father for as long as I can remember. Signing up for Beacon was a way I'd hoped I would have gotten away from it but as luck would have it, my past always comes back to haunt me."
Ruby could kind of understand what Weiss was trying to say. For every tragedy she had suffered there was always another who had been through the same thing, or more. But even that being said, the heavy feeling of loss had been felt today by everyone.
She only hoped that there was some kind of impossible salvation waiting for her.