Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY
AN: Weird how this isn't getting that much views. Then again, most of you subscribers are following Plus J since it was the first. To you guys that gave this a chance and are sticking by it – thank you, you will not regret it. Think of this like following the MCU. It all converges into one story. THAT'S RIGHT! After this ends, I'm putting one more gaiden before it clashes into one story where all characters meet into a possibly 30+ chapter story. I'll have you guys take a guess on who the last focus on the gaiden will be.
For now, let's get to the story.
Chapter 3: Ballroom Blitz
Sitting in the locker room with just about every other student, Ruby was nervous. Kailey was put into another section and Yang wasn't allowed inside since she wasn't a competitor. Looking around her, she saw everyone else was taller than her and was oozing confidence.
"Greetings, young candidates!" A fat man barged in. When he scanned the area, his eyes locked on her and he waved. "Ruby Rose? Is that you? What a s nice surprise seeing you here! You're father would be proud if he wasn't in Mistral at the moment."
Ruby didn't know who the man was, but he had put all the fighters attention on her! There were whispers of her being targeted first, while others still tried to figure out who she was.
"Shame your sister Yang decided to not enter." And now the fat man dug her grave when the students recognized her sister's name. She could see them now, plotting to beat her up in Yang's place.
'That's loser talk! Kick ass!' Her conscience yelled at her, sounding oddly like Yang. Looking up and glaring back at the competition, she saw a few waver. 'Thata girl. Now give the cute guy on the left a saucy wink and then-'
Shaking off the rest of her inner Yang, Ruby looked back to the fat guy to see he was almost done talking. "Now all of you head to the stadium now."
Looking around to see others leaving, Ruby was quick to follow. The fat guy gave her a thumbs up on her way out and she decided to be nice and nod. Following the others to the stadium, she could hear the crowd waiting for them cheer as the fighters stepped out. Looking around, she couldn't find her sister, but she knew she was somewhere close to see the action.
"All fighters stand in the center of the ring." The intercom instructed them.
Doing as told, Ruby looked to see she was up against twenty-nine fighters with different weapons. Anticipating the start of a bell or any signal, she along with the others were not expecting the ring to suddenly start spinning rapidly. Once it stopped and Ruby could focus her eyes, she saw something else to fight besides the others.
They were big, scary, and proof of Atlas being mad geniuses. Ten Atlas Knight Prototypes stood fifteen feet tall at the edge of the ring. They were facing the fighters, and if Ruby could guess, they were just there to make things harder.
"Don't be surprised, folks." The announcer spoke. "The list for candidates wanting to join was too high, we had to create this to weed out the unprepared ad trim down the numbers. Beacon accepts only the best and the cream of the crop. First five to survive against the knights and each other get to proceed to the 1v1 elimination rounds."
The young students all huddled together, staring at the large giants pointing their swords at them. When no one moved or attacked, the announcer came back on. "What are you guys waiting for? FIGHT!"
Head snapping into the game, Ruby was quick to zip far away from the crowd of fighters but smart not to get too close to the knights. Weapon still in compact mode, she fired a few shots at the others still huddled together to dwindle the numbers. Some of them chose to stay in a group to heighten their odds, but she was either going solo or going home on this!
Hearing the crowd shouting and something moving behind her, she ducked in time when a giant sword swung at her. The knights weren't just big, but fast too. When it tried to stomp at her, she was quick to jump to the side and away from it. She could put her attention on fighting it, but there were more of them and a lot of students that could attack her if she wasn't paying attention. Ducking another swing of the sword, she felt lucky when it hit a few students trying to flank her.
"And it looks like we've lost the first five." The announcer shouted, graying a few pictures on the screen. "This is turning out to be a quick show people. Looks like none of these students are ready for Beacon yet."
What the announcer said made Ruby angry. She was ready! She trained her butt off and endured tons of bruises and hits for this day. Opening her weapon into scythe mode, she twirled and swung at a few students charging at her. Zipping to the next group huddled together, she swung at them too and knocked all four of them down making it ten people in total. She was showing them now what she was made of! She was Summer's daughter – the badass Ruby Ro-
Blam!
The little reaper was on her knees by a shot to the back. Turning to the shooter, it was a senior of Signal. Specifically, one of the guys that was pushing Ruby around all those months ago. He got her with a dust revolver. Getting up, she was shot from the other side by someone else. This person she didn't know, but from the looks of things, she was being targeted.
In the stands, Yang was biting her lower lip at seeing her sister being turned into a sitting duck. The fighters were scared of her now and wanted her out of the picture. Clenching her fist, she wished hadn't dropped out of the tournament if only to make sure this didn't happen. Ruby didn't have anyone to watch her back now, and the brawler could do nothing but shout with the rest of the crowd.
"You can do this, Ruby." She muttered under her breather, tapping into the ground with such force.
Back in the stadium, Ruby was doing her best to have a three sixty scope of the whole area. A lot of them were firing at the same time, and it made trying to move hard. Using her scythe to shield some of the bullets, she missed it when one of her attackers was slammed out of the ring by a knight.
"Ooh! Should've kept moving." The announcer commented. "Right now we're down to the final six. And from the looks of things, it's turning into a 1 with the little girl in red fighting solo."
She was in the final six? Ruby was close to cheering but remembered where she was. It wasn't over yet, and there were still five people and a lot of robots trying to take her out. The last five were students from Signal and some other school, but they were working together to keep the knights far away from them and the attention on her. And with her all alone, she had six of those big bad knights moving her way. Obviously, going after who they thought was the weakest link - her.
Too bad she was anything but weak.
Zipping around those knights, she used the shots from her sniper rifle to propel her midair in any direction she wanted. She was like a fly buzzing around a bunch of meatheads trying to swat her. Landing on the arm of one, she waited for anyone to attack and jumped off to dodge bullets and the swipe of a sword that cut the arm off the knight. The crowd was cheering at her display, and she wasn't done yet. With the fallen arm down, it was a shield against the others shooting at her but she still had the nights to worry about.
Doing a quick scan, she found a pattern to get close to them. She just had to time it right and make sure she did the proper maneuvers. It was a jump on the dead arm into the air, ride the recoil of a shot to flank left, jump onto one of the knight's foot, and get to the head so she could get a clear shot from behind it's head. After that, she would aerial dive and knock the block off that Signal senior.
"Yeah, that should do that trick." She muttered to herself, getting ready to put her plan in action.
Jumping into the air, she dodged a bullet and fired a shot to recoil her to the left. Instead of landing on a knight's foot as planned, she landed in front of it just as it was about to step on her.
"Yipes!" She flinched, jumping forward and continuing to do so when it tried once more to step on her. This went on for a lot longer until she was almost ten feet away from the other fighters.
With weapons trained on her, and Ruby stuck between a rock and a hard place, she chose to do something she was always iffy with – winging it. Jumping on the knight's foot, she dodged shots from the others while trying to climb to the top. In thought, it felt easier to reach the knight's head. Unlike her plan, she forgot to account for the knight putting up resistance. Added with bullets whizzing by her, she was not having a good time.
Losing footing, she almost slipped on the shoulder but caught onto the knight's neck with her scythe. Swinging to avoid the bullets still firing at her, she didn't plan on decapitating the thing and falling on her rump. Rubbing her sore tailbone, she looked up to see five guns trained on her. Raising her hands in the air, she was close to surrendering when she heard the dead metal giant lurch forward. Using her semblance to roll out of the way, she avoided being crushed. The other's weren't fast enough like her when tons of metal dropped on them.
The audience was silent as they waited for something to happen. So far it was just Ruby in the ring with a few of the knights just standing frozen. Then the announcer came back on.
"A-amazing!" He shouted in a surprised screech. "This is a great surprise! Instead of getting five competitors, we only have one!"
The audience slowly started clapping before they just went to full blown cheering. Yang was whistling at Ruby's win. It wasn't one of the classiest wins, but she did show some skill. It wasn't like she didn't have any skills to show. All those shots she dodged weren't just pure luck. Ruby had a knack for knowing things all around her. Just make sure she wasn't too focused on one thing and she was untouchable.
"What's that?" The announcer asked someone in his booth. Hearing a few whispers, the audience heard him gasp. "Ladies and gentlemen! The winner for this round and automatically going into the finals is none other than Taiyang's youngest daughter: RUBY ROSE! It looks like we're in the presence of a prodigy!"
That was a title Ruby thought she'd never hear of herself. Kick butt is one thing, but a prodigy? Looking at the audience and not knowing what else to do, she bowed. Leaving the arena, she went to go find Kailey and Yang.
Locker Room
"There she is." Kailey went to give Ruby a high five. "How's the newest prodigy to get into Beacon doing?"
"I'm not getting in yet." Ruby blushed at the compliment, raising her hand to give the high five. After her hand was smacked, she put it behind her to shake off the sting. "I still need two years at Signal before I get in."
"Where's the newest prodigy!" Yang barged into the lockers, disregarding the rules. Finding Ruby and Kailey together, she was quick to bury her sister's head between her chest. "I knew you could do it. You were scaring me halfway through, but in the end you did it!"
Ruby couldn't speak since her mouth was full of cloth and boob. Pushing away from Yang, she gasped from finally getting some fresh locker room air. Never before had the smell of sweat and whatever it was that made locker rooms stink smell so lively.
"I'll be seeing you in the finals Kailes." Ruby looked to their friend. "Beacon needs huntresses like you in the field."
Nodding, Kailey fixed her handguns and shock baton. She was the closest friend to the two sisters, and it sometimes felt like she was the third sister they never had. She was a good friend for life, and that was something no one could find around any corner. When she started hanging out with Yang, Ruby was a bit suspicious of the dark bluenette, but that was in the past. She was a good friend, and nothing would stop that.
"No one's expecting you to do a Ruby and drop knights on your opponents." Yang massaged her shoulders, making the girl laugh. "Just go in, fight smart like you do, survive, and come back here so we can party it up."
"Yang, I got this." She replied, rolling her shoulders. Eyeing the competition, she sent a sneer their way when some glared at her. "I've got a lot riding on this, just like Ruby does. It's either go in big, or just go home."
"That's my girl." Yang slapped her on the back. Turning to the exit, she was about to leave but had one more thing to say. "And Kailes. You're looking real cool now."
Blushing, Kailey holstered her weapons and pocketed her baton. Turning to Ruby, the bluenette nodded. She was planning to see Ruby in the finals.
"Go get'em, champ." Ruby punched her arm lightly. "I'll be in the stands with Yang to see your fight."
"Thanks Ruby." Kailey whispered, taking a seat on the bench. Watching Ruby leave, she closed her eyes to concentrate on not throwing up. She could save it for a projectile attack, but being remembered as Puke Face wasn't something she'd want to be known for if she got into Beacon.
Minutes later
"Wooh! Go Kailes!" Yang cheered as she saw her friend take on everything coming at her.
Their friend was shocking and shooting whatever came into her sights. No bullet was wasted, and she wasn't charging into the fray like they would. She was smart, good at forming short alliances, and good at stepping away when things got too big for her. And most of all: she had skills for days.
"Look at her twirl!" Ruby shook the chair in front of her, disregarding the person sitting. When the baton user jumped in the air and twirled with pistols out to do a seven-twenty shooting, Ruby was squealing in joy. "I taught her that move!"
Their friend was currently part of the last seven still standing. Funny enough, things went by fast since a lot of the fighters in the arena thought to copy Ruby's stunt. Some of them still haven't mastered their semblance, so it was a suicide attempt on their part when the knights just swatted them away. Although, it made Ruby wonder what went through their heads. If the first ten couldn't take down a knight on their own charging in, what made them think they could do it? They didn't even change the way to do it. They just attempted to run, then jump, and hope to scale the giants to knock their heads off. None of them even made it past the very first step: getting close to the knights.
Sure, she did it out of desperation and a different plan in mind, but if it didn't work the first time then she would've thought of a new and better plan. It was like they were going to keep trying it the same way until someone got it right.
Focusing back on the fight, Ruby saw it was down to six when one of the fighters betrayed their teammate. And what a sleazy thing to do, shooting a partner when their back was turned. It looks like they were getting desperate now. The knight's were still moving, and six fighters were just shy one person away from getting into the 1v1 match. Focusing on Kailey, she had her guard up and was waiting for someone to make the first move.
The blue haired baton user was steering clear from all of them. Alliances were now done, and the ones standing were her, and all these backstabbers. It wasn't even an insult and more of an astute observation – the five fighters she was up against each had their own alliances and partners that they pushed into fire, shot in the back, and used as shields to stay standing. Seeing two stepping her way, she gave off shots to their chests to keep them far away from her. She had them all in her sights, and none of them were going to take her down. When two more tried to flank her, she back flipped out of the way and let the two crash into each other. After landing, she soon backed up more seeing the guy choking the girl. Looks like they were taking anyone down.
"Damn!" Yang shouted in the stands. When the girl went limp, there was a buzzer signaling the end of the match.
"And that's the end of the match folks, with Brisk Cares choking out Nina Shaine!" The announcer shouted. "We've got our five competitors to go one on one against each other. We have: Brisk Cares, Ivan Stain, Kailey Spills, Rusty Simons, and Winston Drips. To make things fair, they will be given half an hour to rest up. To those in the audience, it's a chance to meet up if you're friends or family with the contestants - also a chance to get some snacks before the main fights begin."
After that, ads started showing. Some of it was propaganda for some guy named Harmon Odyssey, but most were Vale and Atlas commercials for new products and schools. Getting up from their seats, the two girls went to go in different directions. Ruby was going to get some snacks for later since she was already confirmed for the finals. Yang was off to congratulate Kailey in the locker rooms.
Thinking it over, Ruby wondered what would happen if she had to fight Kailey in the finals? Her friend wasn't a slouch like the rest of the others in Signal. The match she was in showed she had the skills to be in Beacon. Sure she took a few shots and her stamina wasn't that high, but she had heart and attitude to back up her skills. And most of all, she had-
"Oof!" Ruby bumped into someone going to the snack bar. Looking up, she saw it was a civilian. "Sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention."
"No problem." The man waved off, only glancing back slightly.
Peeking in front of the man, the little reaper squinted seeing a very long line. "Excuse me, sir. What's this line for?"
"This? It's the line for the snack bar."
This was insane in Ruby's opinion. What kind of place was this that had a really long line to the snack bar? This was Amity Coliseum, right? Shouldn't it have more than one snack bar? Oh look! There were six more lines, meaning it did have more than one. She was just way back! What was next, there was only two bathrooms for each gender and they were on opposite sides of the structure?
After close to fifteen minutes, Ruby was about to reach the front of the booth to buy some cookies and a sweet drink. Then she heard screaming and people clamoring to head back to the arena. Ignoring them, she got her goods and took a casual walk to the stands. She didn't see Yang, but she assumed she was giving Kailey some advice and pumping her up for the 1v1 fights. Knowing Yang, she was a great motivator in getting anyone going.
"Ladies and gentlemen! This crazy blonde girl is pummeling all the fighters!" The speaker blared as Ruby got close to the stands.
Dropping her stuff, Ruby ran close to the rings and saw in the monitors Yang was in the arena beating up three of the fighters. She was mad as shown by her red eyes, and her hair was on fire. Looking at her fight, she wasn't going for any merciful and quick end. She was making sure to hurt them bad. When the aura of the three was put on display, Ruby thought she'd stop when one of them was in the red. But Yang didn't stop until the guy was left with a broken jaw and a bleeding nose.
"You wanted this?!" Yang shouted over the guy's unconscious body.
Looking to the other two, she roared in their direction and invited them to come at her. When they took a step back, she took a step forward – with a hard stomp on the unconscious guy's chest. Charging forward with a shotgun blast, she grabbed one of the fighters by the head and slammed his head into the ground. To make it worse, she buried his head into the hard concrete neck deep and left him there. The last fighter was trembling on his knees whispering apologies to her, but Yang wasn't hearing any of it.
She was going for blood. Raising a fist, she was going to knock this guy's head off but was stopped by someone tackling her to the ground.
"Yang, stop!" Ruby latched onto her sister's arm. "You don't wanna do this!"
Struggling to get Ruby off her, the two sisters ended up rolling on the ground. Ruby tried to put her sister in an arm lock, but her grappling skills weren't as good as Kailey or Yang's. In the end, it ended with her sitting on Yang's back an arm pulled back.
"Stay out of this Ruby." Yang growled, trying to shake her sister off her arm. With the other arm, she was trying to pull her way to the guy trying to get away." Shit! He's gonna get away! You don't know what this is about."
"Yang, please." Ruby pleaded, digging her nails into Yang's arm when she felt it slipping. "Think about Kailey."
"It looks like Ruby Rose has entered the fight." The announcer stated the obvious. Why was he commentating on something this serious instead of calling the police? Ignoring him, Ruby focused on the matter at hand – her unhinged sister.
When her grip slipped, Yang bucked her off and was quick to her feet. Taking Ruby by the hood, she tossed her to the edge of the arena away from her. When Ruby landed, she a gunshot and saw her older sister sailing to nail the last fighter in the face. She wasn't quick enough to intercept as Yang knocked three teeth out. It didn't stop there. She continued to hammer into the boy even when he tried to cover his bleeding face. With one mean left hook, the boy flew back and skidded on the floor with a few hard rolls. He was still conscious, but he was broken and scared now.
"You're gonna get what you owe." Yang snarled at the whimpering boy. Even when he was trying to crawl away, Yang was just stomping towards him like the inevitable death.
"Yang! That's enough!" Ruby tried once more to reason with her. "You've beaten them. It's time to stop!"
"Shut up, Ruby!" The blonde shouted, not looking away from her target. Grabbing the guy off the floor by his ankle, she effortlessly raised him high in the air and slammed him hard on the ground.
As Ruby watched this, she shut her eyes but couldn't unheard the boy's cry of pain and plead for mercy and help. She knew what she had to do, but her heart wasn't in it. Hearing the audience screaming, she peeked her eyes open once more to see if it was almost over. It was just close to finishing in a very bad way. Yang was going to kill the guy by snapping his neck!
Resolve now firm, she didn't hesitate when she took fire at her own sister. Shooting her in the back, Ruby felt pain for doing this to her own sister. She was her hero, the one she looked up to, and now she was forced to hurt her. But what hurt, was the shock and disbelief on Yang's face on who shot her.
"I'm sorry." Ruby whispered, unloading shot after shot onto Yang.
She knew Yang's semblance, and she knew she could tank a lot of hits. She was able to push her back, but the brawler was still standing firm and trying to step towards the victim on the floor. After the first five didn't put her down, Ruby got out something else. It was meant for the finals, but it looked like there'd be none. Loading the lightning cartridge into her rifle, she aimed for Yang's heart and fired.
When Yang's aura fell and the shot electrified her, Ruby was quick to zip in and hit her with the blunt side of her scythe. With everyone in the ring unconscious but her, she stood alone even as the crowd continued to shout and chatter around her. Looking at her sister's unconscious body, she felt huge guilt at doing this to her. And when the police arrived to take her in, she was crushed that she couldn't follow. Reporters came to interview her, but she pushed them aside to be alone.
Then the ambulances came moments later to take the injured fighters. The stadium had a medical bay, but all of the fighters had horrible injuries. Not seeing Kailey during the whole event, Ruby tried to find her to see if she was okay. Yang was a hothead, but she wasn't that bad that she couldn't distinguish friend from foe. Maybe her friend could tell her what happened.
"Kailey! Kailey!" She shouted, scanning the whole place for her friend.
Ruby soon found her, but not in the best conditions. The bluenette was being carried on a stretcher into the transport. Asking the medics and her parents, Ruby was allowed to ride in the back with her to the hospital.
On the way to the hospital
Her friend was badly bruised. There was a busted and swollen lip, her eye's were swollen and purple, and her nose was bent in a bad way. There was no sheets covering her body, so she could see some of the bruises on the bluenette's torso and arms. There were purple patches, but the worst was her hands- her fingers were dislocated and looked crushed. Ruby didn't want to believe this was Yang's doing, but after seeing how berserk she went, Ruby didn't know what to believe. Maybe Kailey and the others said something that set something off with Yang. Maybe Yang was just high strung and was trying to bottle it all up, but it all poured out. The only one that had the answers were Yang and Kailey, and the latter wasn't in any condition to talk.
Looking at her face once more, Ruby moved closer seeing her friend's eye twitch. When it opened a small crack and looked in her direction, she sighed in relief seeing she was going to be okay. Then she closed her eye making her worry again.
"R-Rubes." Her friend croaked with eyes still closed. She was in a lot of pain, and being still didn't make it better.
"Kailes." The little reaper gasped. "Kailes, what happened? Why'd-"
"Y-yang." She tried to speak. "Help… me."
"What?" Was Kailey asking her help for Yang? Did she mean save her from Yang?
"Am…bush." Kailey tried to get words out despite the pain. "Lo-lockers. Yang…save… me."
"Y-yang saved you?" Ruby tried to piece it together. When Kailey groaned out a yes, Ruby got the idea.
Kailey was ambushed in the lockers by the other fighters. Yang came in and saw the event, but was too late when Kailey was already badly hurt. She got mad, fought them all – and Ruby got her arrested. Tears welling up in her eyes, the little sister cried silently in the transport at the mistake she had done. She should've listened to Yang. Her older sister told her she didn't know what was happening, but she still stepped in. All she knew was that Yang was going to kill those people. She knew it was wrong, but she had to make a choice.
"Kailes, what have I done?" Ruby whimpered, hoping her sister would be okay.
In Mistral
"Ozpin, did you hear me?" A feminine voice asked on the headmaster's scroll.
"I have, Glynda." The headmaster answered, looking at the recording of Ruby and Yang fighting. "I shall inform Taiyang about his daughter's …unfortunate circumstances when this is over. Be sure to have any news on Miss Xiao Long cut from airing to Mistral and Vacuo."
After hanging up, Ozpin looked at his folder and added a picture inside. Closing it, he placed it to another folder titled Beacon Candidates.
END
AN: And that's the end of this chapter. It was hard to write all the actions without adding too much detail to make a pointless wall of text. So Yang is in holding (of course, since a trial hasn't happened yet) and Ruby is the hero in the people's eyes. But is she when she sort of saved the ones that hurt her friend? I say sort of because a lot of them were already hurt badly. Or maybe she saved Yang from becoming a killer. It's all perspective on things.
This story ends in next chapter, so look forward to the epilogue. It's gonna be something when families meet up.
This is Aloe and I hope you enjoyed.