R.W.B.Y.
A bleak end
Chapter 7
Can you see me?
Ruby
I was running.
Why am I running?
From what?
To who?
The world around me was red. I could hear a rolling growl, thunder. Disjointed images assailed my mind, made me feel afraid. I was bent over vomiting into an alley; I was splattering the brains of Grimm all over the battlefield. I was chasing an orange and green blur. I could feel my chest heaving as I cried, because my mother would never come home. I felt terror as red eyes stared at me from behind a white mask.
Then everything was sharp and distinct. I could see it again. But I was alone this time; Penny is not here with me. The monster steps forward and I smoothly lift my weapon. I step forward too.
I go to meet him in battle. I whimper in fear. I don't want to fight it alone.
"You don't have to Ruby."
"I don't want to fight it alone."
"I won't let you fight it alone. I'm hear Ruby."
"Where?"
Penny falls in stride beside me. Her swords are everywhere.
"Right hear silly." She smiles. Her face is so beautiful, her auburn hair dancing in the light of a rising sun.
Then everything is silent. Then I see nothing, only darkness, suddenly I'm unarmed. And everything is soft?
Then a flat warm something presses against my forehead. I can see something green glowing in the darkness, an eye.
"A nightmare… I'm sorry for waking you up Penny."
"It's okay Ruby."
From below I hear a "Huff"
"Yes I suppose it is okay" A third voice joins the darkness.
"You 'suppose'? It's not like she woke you up Weiss."
"Oh? And how would you know."
"I can see you in the dark remember. You're not sleeping." A forth voice joins the darkness.
"And if you're watching Weiss not sleep, then you're not sleeping either Blake."
The bed beneath me creaks.
"None of us are of course…. I'm going out."
I can hear Yang sit up in her bed.
"Going out where?"
"It's none of your busi-…. Well. I… I want to see Neptune. Is all…"
"Go." I whisper.
"….Thank you ruby." Weiss leaves.
"Welp, let's get what sleep we can." Yang hops out of her bunk.
"Hey!?"
"Chill out Blake. 'You look warm' too…"
"Yang… Just bring your own blanket.
"Alright."
I can hear the rustle of sheets. Then some huffing. Blake's bed squeaks. Then they settle in. Within five minutes Blake and Yang are asleep.
"Ruby?"
"Yes Penny?"
"Do you like me?"
"Of course, I like you just fine."
"That's not what I meant…"
"I… I Know."
"So do you?"
"Do you need to know?" She stops to think for a minute.
"Yes."
"Why did you wait until now to ask?"
"I was afraid."
"Are you afraid now?"
"Yes. But now I'm afraid of something else."
"Huh… I guess we all are."
"Well?"
My answer to Penny was long in coming. But finally I decided to just tell her.
"Yes."
Next to me penny grew very still. Her body seemed to get warmer.
"Really? You really do?"
"Penny… After. After it's all over. That's when I'll say it out loud. That's when we can try but not today ok? Not today. Not with war so close. Do you understand?"
"No… Yes… But Ok. Not today. Ok…"
"I'm sorry."
She didn't answer. I pulled her very close to me. She tucked her arms against her chest and buried her face in my shoulder.
It's all over; the last safe place is gone. We have no safe haven left to us.
If I was having nightmares, I was probably not the only one. We couldn't sleep because our time was up. Our two weeks were over.
We receive our orders tomorrow.
Ruby. Morning
Professor Ozpin sat in our dorm with a cup of hot chocolate I had prepared for him. He sipped it once, grimaced, and then began rolling out or orders.
"Miss Xiao Long you are to report to the landing bay at noon, Miss Schnee and Penny, you are to report to the landing bay by sundown. I will explain one more time. Yang you are in charge of the Wreakers, Nora, Nina and Silas will be present with you when you depart. Weiss and Penny the two of you are going to report to Mr. Grayson Phire and Cassandra Delany. They are your commanding officers.
I have your official military ranks written down right here; you will need them to command Atlesian Droids.
Ruby Rose, Captain.
Weiss Schnee, Lieutenant, senior grade.
Blake Belladonna, Lieutenant, senior grade.
Yang Xiao Long, Captain.
Penny, Lieutenant Commander.
"Also the ranks of your fellow squad members are as follows.
Grayson Phire, Captain.
Cassandra Delany, Commander.
Silas Arnost, Commander, per your request miss Xiao Long.
Nina Pixie, Lieutenant, junior grade.
Lie Ren, Commander, per miss Rose's request.
Rem Europa, Lieutenant Commander
Nora Valkyrie, Lieutenant, senior grade.
"Any questions?"
"Um yes." said Weiss slowly.
"May I ask why Penny outranks both Blake and I?"
The headmaster smiled.
"Because she already has extensive experience working alongside the Droids of Atlas, nothing more I promise."
"Uhhhh, Professor I noticed that you didn't give me or Blake our assignment."
"Hm? Oh yes you two have been put on hold for another two weeks. I'm afraid, that during our preliminary scouting your teammate Rem was injured, she is expected to make a full recovery but in the meantime you Blake and Ren will have to wait for her to mend before we can send you out into the field."
I was surprised, to say the least, that all my stress had been for nothing. But I felt no better for the sudden extension of my vacation.
"But Professor I'm ready! And I'm sure Blake and Ren are ready too! Aren't we the scouts? Who can do the scouting that you hand-picked us to do in our place?"
The headmaster gave me a subtle look. Not unkind or strict, nor was it sharp, it was a look that brooked no further argument from me. It was a silent reminder.
I am his soldier. He is my General. And for the first time since meeting Professor Ozpin I could see him for who and what he was; One of the most talented Huntsmen in the world.
My vision shifted like a tinted glass had been pulled away from before my eyes.
Our old soft-spoken headmaster is lethal, deadly and dangerous.
The headmaster spoke one last time and his voice seemed to ring slightly.
"You have you orders Wreakers, Reapers, Domino's. I bid you good fortune."
Yang, Weiss and Penny stood.
"Yes sir."
Wordlessly Yang and Weiss left the room behind Ozpin. I had no doubt that Yang would be back to say goodbye. And I felt no need to ask were Weiss was going, it was to see Neptune of course.
And then we were three.
"Blake, Penny… I-" Blake cut me short.
"Ruby it will be fine."
"But are you sure?"
"Well… No actually. But I feel it will be. I have hope."
Blake said "Hope" so tenderly I wondered about her. She looked different. Peaceful I think.
I turn to Penny.
"How about you though? Are you goanna be OK?"
"Umm… Yes I'll be fine, after all I'll have Weiss, also Grayson and Cassandra are both very powerful."
"Hmmm I don't know if that's what I meant by "alright"'."
Penny blinked; she understood what I was saying now. She turned away and began to assemble her gear. It took her only five minutes, and then Penny stood up strait.
Penny looked like a porcelain doll, sweet… and soft… and smooth. No more. Her torso was swathed in body armor white in hue with her personal symbol over her left breast. Her shoulders were cased in white combat armor; her legs as well were sheathed in pale boots of a similar but much daintier version of what the soldiers in Atlas wear. She strapped to her forearms pale gauntlets with a rectangular socket on her left arm, which she attached her scroll to.
Then Penny, MY Penny I think, brought down the full reality of what was coming to us down upon me. She reached up to her hair (Armor slightly impeding her ability to do so.) and tugged on her pink bow. She tugged it off allowing her hair to fall lank to either side of her face. Penny lifted a white forehead protector, which also covered her cheekbones, and fastened it onto her head. She reached down to her backpack and fastened it into place.
The Huntress I had known was gone hidden beneath the plastoid armor and the reality of our oncoming future. Only the warrior, solid and weighty in appearance, remained of Penny of Atlas.
Weiss
"I don't know if I've ever seen you in pants Weiss."
I huffed as Neptune poked fun at my armor, but otherwise ignored him.
Neptune looked quiet handsome in his plated uniform. He wore two lobstered gauntlets that left his pointer fingers free to pull his weapons trigger. His boots were both tall and gray; his belt looked more like a chain than a proper belt. His plate was flexible so he could use his more acrobatic fighting style. His shoulders had light overlapping plates shaped to flex easily.
My own armor annoyed me. When the armorer was sent to all of us he refused to permit me to wear a battle skirt. I was told that my fighting style demanded something much more flexible than normal plate armor; even splint armor would be too inflexible for me. So he delivered THIS. Scale armor. It was tight and form fitting and certainly possessed a form of savage grace and ferocious splendor. But it wasn't ME It made me look like a dragon-knight or a warrior princess. I felt more at home in my battle skirt, I felt more myself when I stood upon not a battlefield, but a stage. I am a singer, an artist. I am calculating, and I am cunning. But I can't be the singer on the battlefield. My gown allowed me to bring with me into the fire of conflict my personality, who I am. In my silvery-white scale armor, which highlights every curve I have, I feel like a warrior. I am not a warrior… At least I never wanted to be.
Noon, Ruby
The air shuddered under the weight of airships of all shapes and sizes. The sound of armored boots marching in synchronous thundered all around me. I embraced Yang, then Nora. I turned to Nina and bent over slightly to hug her. Then I reached up to hug Silas. Both Nina and Silas were visibly surprised by my gesture but made no comment. The four of them were not dressed as Huntsmen and Huntresses.
All four of them looked for the entire world to be soldiers. Silas no longer wore jeans and sandals; he wore huge snowy boots and greaves. His massive weapon replaced most of the standard armor; before he turned to board an Airship that had begun to descend into the landing bay he donned a helm in the shape of a snarling tiger. Nora and Nina looked far more serious than the normally might. Like tiny storm-troopers. And Yang looked ten years older. She was Grave of eye and mouth and also wore the pale armor of the Atlas armed forces. They had become pale soldiers in the armor of silvery Oblivion. Black was of course associated with death, but the blasted garb that we were being squeezed into for this war brought to mind the mask of our enemies. Pale and white with red eyes, indeed my friends and classmates would look more like Grimm when their gear is covered in blood. They looked like done-up army men. I hatted it. They had lost any semblance of Humanity…..Save for, ironically, their weapons.
Silas was wreathed in as much iron black as snowy white. Nora carried Magnhild over her shoulder, and Nina wore on her feet, fist, shins and fore-arms her pink and silver weapons "Tanker Bell". Yang wore her "Ember Celica" over her arms instead of the combat bracers. Yang shot her fist out towards me just as her ride touched down. I thrust my fist out as well, and three others rushed out to meet her from beside me. Our fist bumped for half a heartbeat Penny on my right, Weiss and Blake to my left. Team R.W.B.Y. was not saying goodbye, indeed we said nothing else to one another as Yang and the Wreakers loaded up onto the humming Transports open deployment bay. A group of white Atliesian Droids with gold markings marched on-board behind them and the ship began its ascent.
I looked up expecting to see my sister as a soldier. But I saw her and her team as I always see them. It was the weapons I decided. Their instruments of death were their last display of self, and imagination. I liked that. When faced with death it will be our weapons that protect our lives and allow us to be human, or Faunus.
It was the last I would see of Yang for close to a year.
Sunset, Ruby
The scene was both like and unlike the one from noon. The smaller deployment ships were mostly gone already. Now larger vessels had begun to arrive. I stood with Blake and Penny and Weiss. We awaited the arrival of Grayson and Cassandra. To our surprise we were approached by some familiar faces wearing unfamiliar attire.
Sun, Neptune, Juan and Pyrra.
"Hello again!" Gasped Pyrra over the roar of an engine.
"Sup!" Shouted Sun and Neptune together. Juan Smiled and waved.
All three of the boys had been dressed out in the ice-white armor of the other "great warriors" Pyrra had made only one change to her battle raiment. Were typically she let her skin show, she wore a skin tight black cat-suit under her gold and crimson breastplate.
Juan stepped up and roared over the booming of thrusters
"All four of us have been made Majors just below Ironwood and Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch is a Vice Admiral in the fleet but I think she still answers to the Generals on the ground. I was given the 105th battalion and Pyrra was given command of the 88th legion of Commandos."
Neptune shouted out. "And I'm twice as cool, I got the 199th legion, cutting edge and all that good stuff, ya know?" Sun grimaced then told us his command.
"I've got the 73rd army. It's old-school but they are still around for a reason." He smiled. "They've all got low grade dust shielding. It was too pricey to continue to put it into the new models, but it's kept them alive and operational for over twenty years so I can't complain too much I guess." Sun rolled his eyes. "Except I've got the oldest battalion in the army."
I was startled by all this talk of battalions and armys.
"What are you talking about? These Grimm can't be so tough that we would need armies to beat them!"
Pyrra grimaced as she explained.
"Well you see in the last forty-eight hours in has been confirmed that full blown armies of Grimm have begun to amass in the outskirts of civilization. The largest is within a day's march of Vale. All four of us have been ordered to the front lines to repel the assault. General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin will be coordinating the attacks from Beacon academy. If I'm correct then your specialty Squads are searching for the Monarchs, It's our job to hold the armies at bay, or destroy them, until your teams can defeat the Monarchs."
It was right then that Grayson and Cassandra chose to appear.
Grayson wore his gray hat and coat as usual, but had also donned his new Atlas style armor as well.
Cassandra's deep violet robes were slightly open at the front revealing she, like Weiss, had been given scale mail.
They both wore their typical weapons, bulky sheath full of arms and tall purple-on-black staff.
Weiss and Penny stepped up to join them. Grayson shouted something but I couldn't make it out. My partners nodded and turned to me and Blake. Penny and Weiss hugged Blake and me and we hugged them back. Then Neptune gripped Weiss with a fierceness, anguish and longing that I had never seen on anyone's face before, except for Weiss' in direct response to his gaze. Sun kissed Blake too. Almost as passionately, but their embrace was more bitter than longing. I was distracted from the passionate kisses that had just begun between the four, by a sudden blur in my vision. I was choking back sobs of fear and loathing. I wanted nothing more than for this to all be a nightmare, horrible and heartbreaking but still just an illusion. Then Penny walked over to me and held my face in her hands.
"It's okay Ruby. We will all be back soon. Everything will be back to normal before you know it."
She kissed my cheek. I would see Yang and Nora long before I would see Penny again. It would take over a year of fighting. It would take an army of Grimm amassing in apocalyptic numbers. It would take fire raining from the sky before I would see Penny again.
The flagship of the air force then descended from above the clouds. The clouds from below looked like bruises but their crowns radiated a golden nimbus of light that stole my breath. The ship just kept coming and coming it was just so massive.
The ship had to be 2000 feet long from bow to stern. The dorsal section sported an immense launch bay that even from our view on the ground we could see opening. It was deploying a single bullhead, the craft was undoubtedly being sent to receive the Reapers. The four Reapers in question stepped forward. Within five minutes the Bullhead lands. Grayson leads my friends and Cassandra onto the ship; they reach up to grip bars hanging from the ceiling and as they do so they turn around. Grayson reaches up two fingers to the brim of his hat and salutes us by flicking them away from his head. He then shouts out the order to depart, and takes my friends away from me.
Blake reaches out for my hand. She's crying too.
We watch together as the smaller craft begins its return to her mother ship. The clouds that surround the Flagship "Iron-Clad" seem as threatening to me as an army of Grimm surrounding mortal kind. And Blake and I are as insects below helpless to change the verdict passed by fate.
Then a shadow passes over us as the ship departs the clouds whip around into a whirl of light and dark and the sun begins to change hue, from liquid gold to blood red, the crimson shade that our world had shifted to remind me of the little girl that Penny and I found on the Bleeding plains; Blanca.
The girl was pale and pure, innocence incarnate, and guilty of no sin in our world. Yet Blanca died the senseless death that she did. Now all of my friends were shielded by pale and pure body-armor. And when they die and the blood drains from their faces they too will be like Blanca, flotsam in the war that has raged in our world for time out of mind. There will be no killing off the Grimm. But I must wonder if there will be staving off their advance? Will we repel them this time? Will all of our efforts be for nothing? Will our lives color the world in any way? Or are we all just blank souls to glow and peter out as fate and chance decrees?
Late at night, Ruby
Blake and I had only returned to the team room once the Iron-Clad had completely disappeared from sight. The room was cold and empty without our other three teammates.
"Ruby, did you hear about the Grimm that took out Rem's eye?"
"Yea, apparently they're just light infantry or something, but they attack in huge swarms. That's kinda scary I guess."
"Yea… Sun was given the oldest Atlesian Legion. Do you think that he'll be OK? Those droids are like fifteen years old. For a battle droid that's rather archaic."
"Blake I think he'll be fine. After all he's thinking of coming home to you."
Blake smiled at that, it was refreshing to see her smile. But I also wondered if Penny and Yang would be OK. I was just as afraid for Weiss and Sun and Neptune and all of our friends. But I guess I'm just being a worry-wart.
I crossed the room to sit in Blake's lap who reached for a quilt on the back of her headboard. She wrapped us up and flicked a spare bullet casing at the light-switch. Darkness enveloped us.
"Ruby, we'll be in the field in a week or so. We won't have the time to worry about them. We'll get to focus on the Grimm, and then when they're all dead we can come home."
"Yea, but who won't come home with us?"
To that Blake had no answer.
A.N.
Oh… that took longer than usual? Sorry. I did notice an increase in my traffic on the 4th of July, very clever folks, I wish I had thought to have it all finished by then, after all July's birthstone is ruby.
Do leave me a comment and let me know how you liked it.
H.M.
