Ruby woke up with a gasp. She pushed herself up. A single tear rolled down her cheek. Her arm wiped it away, and she let out the breath clenched in her lungs. Her eyes floated towards her sister, lying in the bed across from her.
She tried to shake her dream from her thoughts, but it persisted.
Her scroll started ringing. She picked it up and pressed a button on the side. Cold, blue light lit up her face and she shielded her eyes from the brightness. She swiped a few times and tapped on the security app.
Golden eyes met her. Then, the camera cut into static. Ruby's heart stopped for a moment. It's Blake! She threw off her covers and jumped down. She looked towards Yang and stopped. Guilt pooled in her and she turned away to open the door.
"Ruby? Why are you up?" Yang muttered.
"It's Blake. She's at the docks," Ruby replied. Yang sat up, throwing her blankets off.
She jumped out of her bed and grabbed Ember Cecilia. "What is she doing?!"
"I don't know, she's smashing the cameras!" Ruby opened the door and paced out.
"What?" Yang frantically asked. "So we can't even see what she's doing?" She followed Ruby out into the hall.
Ruby didn't reply. She ran down the hallway towards the stairwell.
Yang stepped out and stopped at team JNPR's door. "What about Jaune?"
"He's just a liability. We don't have time." Ruby continued down the stairs.
Yang frowned but followed, not questioning Ruby's decision. She pushed open a window and jumped out, meeting up with Ruby outside of the building. They nodded and the two of them sprinted down the school.
They ran up to the helipad. An airship was docked at the pad. The insides were dark and the thrusters were powered down.
This is bad. Ruby stopped but Yang ran up to the cockpit. She banged on it and a shrill alarm pierced the air. The cockpit lighted up as a man inside scrambled inside. He knocked his head on the roof and glared at Yang.
The alarm stopped and a loud clicking noise sounded. A scrambled voice came through it. "What the fuck are you doing?!" he yelled through the speaker.
"Open the door!" Yang screamed. She waved her arm towards the door into the airship.
"What, no! You just punched my ship!" The man argued. He pulled out his scroll and typed something in. He raised his eyebrow at the screen. He opened his mouth when Ruby advanced and pushed her aside. She waved her wallet at the pilot, showing the lien inside.
The pilot stopped when he saw the money. "Hmm. . . Well, we might be able to negotiate something," he said, now with a touch of glee. The door flipped open and the airship lit up.
Ruby gave him a thankful look and stepped towards the entrance. Yang looked at the pilot with disgust. They stepped onto the airship, interior dark. The clear glass wall was without any holograms and the security window behind the cockpit was transparent.
Ruby ran up to the security window. The pilot turned on the two-way speaker. "Vale Coast Terminal B," she told him.
"Wait, I can't go there! I'm not authorized to leave Beacon airspace," he complained.
"Do you want the lien or not?" Ruby threatened.
"Alright, fine," he grumbled.
The ground started rumbling as the thrusters on the sides of the airship flared from red to blue. "What's happening?!" Yang yelled, stumbling around.
"You seem to be in a rush," the pilot yelled back.
"We'll blow up! Can't you use something safer?" Ruby asked.
"We'll need half an hour to heat up otherwise. Plus, we'll be alright. I've done this before!" The man reassured.
"You're a ferry pilot!" Yang cut in.
He just shrugged and pushed forwards a control stick. The airship jerked forwards, flying off the edge of the cliff. It dipped down, near the surface of the water.
"Now what?!" Yang yelled.
"Do you want to be blasted out of the sky by that Atlas fleet?"
"Fine," Yang muttered. She stumbled over to the window and stared out towards Vale. Her fists clenched and a look of worry broke through her demeanor.
Ruby was seated on the bench. Calm down, calm down, calm down. Things are going to be fine, just like last time. A little voice in the back of her head said that last time had Penny. She tried to quench it, but it flared up and swallowed her thoughts. She buried her face in her hands as she waited for what seemed like an eternity.
The airship pulled up as Vale sped under it. It slowed to a stop and descended down into the terminal. Ruby jerked her head up and walked over to the pilot. She pulled out a few hundred lien and pushed it through a slit on the barrier. She then turned around and paced to the exit.
The door slid open as the airship hovered over the docking pad. Ruby and Yang jumped out, landing and entering into a sprint. "Is Blake going to be okay?" Yang asked.
"Yes, she will!" Ruby yelled. They skidded to a stop by the docks. Yang advanced to leap off into the clearing in the center. Ruby put a hand on her sister's shoulder, motioning her to not rush things.
They crept up to the edge. Blake and Sun will just be fighting Torchwick, and I'll just go in to help them, Ruby thought. There would be no reason for anything different to occur, she reassured herself.
She peeked over the edge and into the clearing. The first thing Ruby saw was Sun lying unconscious, bound up in plastic tape. Two White Fang grunts were standing guard over him. The next thing she saw was Torchwick grabbing Blake by her hair, cane pressed into her neck.
"Well, well, Kitty Cat, how do you feel now?" Roman audibly taunted Blake. Her mouth was taped up and she let out a muffled scream. Roman ignored her and continued like nothing had happened. "You really were a piece of work!" He let go of Blake and kicked her forwards. She stumbled and fell to the ground. She saw Ruby and started frantically shaking her head.
"But all things must come to an end." Roman pointed his cane towards Blake. "Goodbye."
Ruby's eyes widened. She lept off her perch, opening up Crescent Rose with a slash aimed for Torchwick's head. She soared through the air. Her scythe sailed in a long arc when suddenly a pink blur appeared. The sound of metal striking metal rang.
Neo flipped through the air and landed deftly on the ground. She sported her sweet smile and opened her parasol behind her. Ruby lost her balance and stumbled when she met the ground. She propped herself up with her scythe. Yang stopped next to her as Blake climbed onto her feet and ripped the tape off her mouth. She spit out some bloodied saliva and skirted sideways towards her weapon. They stood in a wide arc opposite to Roman and Neo.
Neo?! What are you doing here?! Ruby looked towards Sun, lying on the ground, unmoving. A large bruise showed where he was knocked out. Ruby felt a sick feeling within her. She would have liked to run right there.
We can't run when Neo has that semblance, she told herself.
Roman waved his cane around. "Well, well. Look who's he-"
Ruby shot forwards in a trail of petals, slash aimed at Torchwick's head. He stepped back in surprise and raised his cane to deflect her scythe.
Crescent Rose lodged itself into the ground. Ruby fired it, throwing it back into the air. The round connected near Roman's foot. He blocked it with his cane and took another a step back. "Don't you know it's rude to interrupt somebody speaking?" he asked.
"We can end this now if you back off," Ruby threatened.
Roman smiled and readied his cane. "I'm afraid that's not an option." He looked towards Neo. "I'll take Little Red. You can deal with Goldilocks over there." A group of White Fang soldiers emerged from behind the containers, surrounding Ruby and her allies.
"Blake, you take care of the grunts," Ruby muttered. Blake eyed her warily, but backed off and faced the advancing arc of soldiers. She disappeared as a bullet shot through her shadow. Clashing sounds started and a grunt screamed in pain from behind.
Neo suddenly froze. "Yang, watch out!" Ruby yelled. Neo appeared behind Yang and went in for a stab. Yang turned around and grabbed her umbrella with both hands and pulled it forwards. It expanded in her hands. Yang backed off as it slipped from her grasp. Neo pulled the umbrella back and put it on her shoulder and moved back into safety.
Torchwick started advancing. He pointed his cane towards Ruby and pulled the trigger, firing out a blast. Ruby blurred into a red streak and flew straight under the round. She reappeared in front of him and attempted to stab him in the stomach with the butt of Crescent Rose. He weakly blocked it but still spit out a bit of air from the force behind the blow.
She fired her scythe and pulled her scythe upwards, bladed end whipping up from behind her. Roman stepped aside. He threw his cane between him and Crescent Rose. It was wretched out of his hands and flew away in an arc, landing near where Neo and Yang were brawling. The edge of his lip twitched and he scrambled towards Neo and his weapon.
Neo was currently busy dodging the blows of an irritated Yang. With each blow missing its target, she was slowly losing her patience as red started to creep into her eyes.
"Stand still and take your hits like a man!" snarled Yang. Neo smirked and dodged a punch aimed for her head. She backflipped away from Yang right as Roman's cane slammed into the back of Yang's head, knocking her off her feet.
Yang flew into a metal crate, smashing back first and letting loose a wet cough as she sank to the floor. Within what seemed like a second, Ruby was by her side helping her sister stand up as Torchwick and Neo regrouped.
"I have to say blondie," Torchwick called out, resting his arms on his cane as Neo twirled her opened parasol before shutting it with a click, "you sure can take a beating. Too bad we can't play for much longer. Places to go, people to see, more things to steal. All that jazz."
He raised his cane again and fired a round towards Yang. It flew over her head and collided with a shipping container a distance back.
Torchwick yelled out, "Hey you! Get out from behind there!" He motioned towards some of his grunts to go investigate the situation. Four broke off and walked towards the rubble.
A figure charged out of the wreckage and smoke, brandishing a sword from its sheath. Leaping out from a high vantage point, said figure misjudged the height a piece of scrap and was sent barreling forward straight into the gut of an unsuspecting White Fang grunt.
Jaune stood up. Shaking his head slightly at the collision, he picked up his weapon and cast a brittle look of confidence. His knees shook slightly and his smile twitched, threatening to collapse into a scream of panic.
Roman looked at the scene in disbelief and shook his head while Neo looked on with an amused smile. He turned back towards Ruby and Yang and asked, "Is he with you?"
Shit, this is bad. Really bad. Ruby started stepping to the side, trying to skirt in between Roman and Jaune. Neo noticed and matched her movements perfectly, nearing Ruby.
Ruby looked towards Blake. Blake battered the grunts one by one but was visibly slowing down. The soldiers, however, were doing just as well as when they started. She blocked a strike and then another. She backed off towards Sun and disappeared after a bullet flew through her shadow. Sparks flew again as another soldier tried slashing at her again.
Mentally cursing, Ruby called out, "Jaune! Help Blake!"
Yang was looking a lot better. The red was slowly bleeding from her eyes however and she drew light breaths.
Ruby motioned her head towards Torchwick and Neo. Her sister nodded and Ruby ran towards Neo while Yang advanced towards Torchwick.
'Yeah Jaune, go help the freaking ninja! I'm sure she'll need more help than, I don't know… the guy who doesn't have any semblance of training whatsoever!'
Multiple grunts advanced towards him, brandishing steel machetes. He supposed that this wouldn't be a problem if he was just sneakier. It was too late to regret it though. He counted four grunts.
He looked back towards the grunts advancing towards him, only a few feet away now. He raised his shield up in defense and peeked over the edge.
They entered a blind charge. He instinctively drew back but forced his arms to hold his sword in front of him. It connected with a grunt at the neck, dropping him to the ground. The grunt clutched his neck in pain.
"Jeez, these people are even worse than me..." Jaune muttered. A soldier pulled her machete far besides her and sent it towards Jaune's head. He ducked as the machete grazed his hair and he slammed into the grunt with his shield. She stumbled backward and fell down.
He felt something, something that wasn't there when he was in Beacon. He was fighting against real enemies. There weren't any rules. There weren't any restrictions. They were giving their all and he was matching them and beating them.
A deep sense of thrill ran through his being.
Something hit him in the back and he turned around to see what it was. He felt the pain of his nose and cheek get smashed in by a foot to the face. Some spittle flew out of his mouth. Sent backward a bit from the blow, Jaune was given a small amount of reprieve as he climbed back into his feet. He felt a stinging pain from the wall of his mouth.
The sounds of explosions and bullets rang through the air around him as he saw Blake disappear in a hail of gunfire and reappear to knock back a grunt standing over a blond dude. A little further on, Yang and Ruby clash against a weird orange-haired guy and a short girl. His attention was pulled back to the two Faunus in front of him as a vertical slash almost cleaved him.
He backed off and narrowed his eyes. He decided to borrow a move from his partner and threw his shield, as best he could, like a discus at the grunt running support. It flew through the air, but due to its shape, it landed on the ground before the grunt. It wobbled a little and fell to the ground. The grunt stepped on the spinning shield and tripped, face planting into the ground. He turned around and punched the grunt charging in the face. He then raised his foot and kicked the soldier in the stomach.
"That's payback for earlier!" He shouted as the grunt went flying. He felt his heart beating, blood coursing through his body. A small grin appeared on his face.
The grunt behind him pushed herself up. Jaune decided to emulate another of his teammates' moves. Running up to the recovering grunt, he gripped his family heirloom with both hands and swung the blade like a baseball bat towards the Faunus.
The flat of Crocea Mors' blade connected with the side of the head of the grunt. Jaune felt the vibrations of the impact travel up his arm as the grunt crumpled in a heap. He did a fist pump and turned to see the grunt from earlier pick up a rifle from the ground.
Jaune looked around for his shield and gulped. His mind raced. Maybe he could do this and then follow it up with that? No. He ran through idea after idea, each growing more outlandish.
The grunt held his rifle up to his eye and aiming towards Jaune. Still searching for a solution, he looked back towards the grunt only to realize he had no more time. He tried throwing his sword in a last ditch effort and watched as the Faunus back off as it clattered to the ground and stopped ten feet away. Jaune gritted his teeth and charged forwards, trying to take advantage of his distraction.
The Faunus recovered and fired a shot towards Jaune. He barely noticed the bullet bite into his shoulder. He dived for the shield and sword, trying a shoddy parody of one of Ren's moves. He grabbed his shield and pulled it above him. His free hand grabbed onto the blade of Crocea Mors and pulled it behind its shield. The grunt opened fire on his shield, ignoring his exposed feet underneath or his shoulder peeking out of the edge.
The bullets stopped hammering his shield and Jaune peeked over it. The grunt was reaching into his pocket for another clip. Seeing his chance, he sprinted towards the grunt just as he popped the ammunition in. Smacking the gun out of the Faunus' hand with his blade, Jaune used the momentum of his swing and turned to bash the head of his opponent with his shield. A solid clang sounded and the final grunt slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Jaune let out a breath clenched in his lungs and felt himself smile with pride at defeating four members of the White Fang. He won! He actually went into a real fight and won! Maybe he was only bad because he was being compared to Beacon students. Maybe he could actually make a life being a Hunter!
The smile dropped when a cry of pain came from Blake. She was clutching her shoulder in front of Sun. The group of soldiers were closing in on her, guns readied. They slowly took aim at her.
"Hey, you scumbags! Pick on somebody your own size!" Jaune yelled from afar. The soldiers looked towards him. Their leader stepped forwards and motioned for half of them to stay behind.
They opened fire on him. A bullet nicked his cheek. 'Oh shit!' Jaune thought as he frantically ran behind a cargo container. Little dents dotted the metal sheet behind him as bullets hit but didn't penetrate the wall. He sucked in his breath and peeked around the corner.
The remaining soldiers took aim onto Blake. Loud bangs rang across the dock as they fired their guns. Blake and Sun slowly dissipated. The soldiers looked up, only to see a figure holding another in her arms disappear into the street above. They turned and ran up the stairway leading up to the streets, giving chase to Blake.
Ruby slammed Torchwick in the guts again. Why. . . Are. . . You. . . Fucking invincible?! She swore in her head. Yang was throwing limp punches at Neo nearby, clearly spent. Her target just idly sidestepped around her attacks, mocking her.
"Neo, just get her done with!" Roman grunted as he barely avoided a head cleaving slash from Ruby. Neo rolled her eyes and flicked her parasol, letting out the hidden blade. She stepped around Yang's punch once more.
Ruby turned as she heard Roman's order. She shot towards Neo. Torchwick whipped around the hook of his cane out and snagged the back of her hood, reigning her back. She fumbled at the pins holding her cloak but was unable to unclasp them.
Neo kicked Yang in the stomach. Her aura snapped, long spent in her rage. Neo followed with a long diagonal slash. Yang fell back, wound opened on her stomach. Ruby heard the fabric on her hood tear and stumbled forwards.
No, no, no, no, NO! She scrambled and sent a slash towards Neo. The tip of Crescent Rose caught on Neo's shoulder, pushing her back. A trickle of blood stained the torn fabric in the area and Neo clasped the wound with her unharmed hand. She vanished and reappeared next to Roman. Ruby backed off towards her sister and stood in front of her, guarding her from Neo and Roman.
Yang. . . Ruby took a glance towards Yang's downed figure, forcing herself to gauge the extents of her sister's wounds.
Slash across the stomach. Deep but not fatal. You're strong. I trust you to not die from this. Ruby's panic died down a little as she realized that Yang would live.
She looked back towards Neo. I'll kill you.
Neo was scowling and clutching her shoulder. She motioned towards Yang and made a throat slitting action. Roman laughed. "We're not here for her, Neo. There's no point making any more enemies." Neo frowned and crossed her arms but made no more movement.
Ruby brandished Crescent Rose. Neo flickered and disappeared. Ruby jabbed at her with the back of her scythe. Neo blocked it with her parasol and took a step back as Roman advanced. Ruby swung her scythe in an arc over her head, cleaving at where Torchwick stood. He frantically lept back. Crescent Rose nicked his leg and his aura gathered around the point. It threatened to break but held.
She buried her scythe into the ground and fired it. Roman barely blocked the sniper round and was pushed back. Her scythe lept out of the ground and Ruby fired it again, stabbing it into Neo who was stabbing from behind. She stepped to the side and dodged it. Ruby grasped Crescent Rose and swept it around towards Neo, hurtling towards her head. Neo blocked it with her parasol but was knocked back. She jammed her weapon into the ground and slid to a stop.
She flashed again and appeared right in front of Ruby, slashing sideways at Ruby's neck. Ruby blocked it with the shaft of Crescent Rose. Neo expanded her umbrella right in her face. It flooded her vision and pushed her back.
Ruby turned her head and saw Jaune sprinting towards her, running through gunfire. He yelled out towards her. "Ruby, watch out!"
Neo disappeared. Something buried into her back.
An explosion detonated point blank behind her. Ruby's face crashed itself into the ground and she flipped around as she skidded to a stop. Stars flew around her vision and she felt bile rising in her throat. She retched a bit but held it back. A searing pain flared in her back. She tried moving but the pain overpowered her and she collapsed again. She ground her teeth as she tried moving again. This time, the agony in her back shot up her spine and she let out a cry before collapsing.
Neo planted a foot on Ruby's chest. She pointed her blade at Ruby's forehead.
So this is where it ends, huh? Ruby started feeling her aura pool into her eyes.
Neo raised her blade and prepared to plunge it down.
Jaune crashed into her. Neo backed off of Ruby and deflected a swing from him. She twisted Crocea Mors out of his hands and kicked his knee. It bent inwards and he fell to the ground, clutching his knee in pain. Neo pulled her foot back and jammed it into his side. He was sent sprawled out onto the ground.
Neo walked over and raised a foot over Jaune's neck.
She stomped down. Jaune's aura threatened to buckle but didn't break.
Jaune, this isn't your fight. . . You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't have to die. Ruby clenched her teeth and started pulling herself towards Neo. She raised her arm out and clenched. She pulled herself forwards. Her back flared but she bit down the pain and endured it.
Neo raised her foot and stomped down again. Jaune's aura snapped and Neo's foot bruised his neck. She pushed him onto his side with her foot and raised her blade over Jaune's neck. She turned her head and thought for a moment. She moved it over to his side, right above the side of his chest.
Ruby stumbled onto her feet. She placed one foot forwards, then the other. Her mind was cloudy and she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness. She wrung out the last drops of her willpower and threw herself towards Neo.
Neo plunged the blade down. It pierced through Jaune's side. He screamed in pain. Neo forced the blade down farther and twisted it. She pulled it out and flicked the blood off of it.
Jaune was bleeding profusely. He coughed up a wab of blood and clenched his side where the wound was. Ruby stumbled forwards and threw a hand onto Neo's shoulder, trying to push her down. Ruby stumbled forwards and then collapsed, legs failing her. The concrete ground slammed into her head and the last thing she saw was a blinding light burn through her eyelids.
Where did things go so wrong?
"Stand down or we will fire," a voice boomed overhead.
Ruby was hiking up a mountain trail. Blake was shortly behind her and the two stopped at an outcrop on the side of the mountain. Red trees surrounded them and a small creek ran down the side of the mountain around them.
"How far do you think we're from the base?" Blake asked.
"I dunno, it's pretty amazing out here though," Ruby idly chirped. She sat down and pulled out a sandwich from inside a pocket. Blake sat down next to her and Ruby took a massive bite out of her sandwich. "Mfhm, look, you can see the camp from here!" she spoke from between her bites.
Blake laughed. "Ruby, don't take bites like that!" She put up a patronizing tone. "You might choke," she said.
"Oh come on, food would never do that to me!" Blake stayed silent. Ruby looked towards her. She was staring out towards the mountains in the distance.
"Do you ever regret what you've done, Ruby?"
"No, not really. No point wasting my time over the past, you know."
Blake nodded and sat in thought for a moment. "Do you ever fear what's to come? What hasn't happened yet?"
Ruby mused about it. She swallowed her mouthful of food and lied down. "I always figured that it wasn't the best idea to fight fate."
Her eyes lit up and she pointed a finger out towards a cloud. "Hey, look, that looks like a Beowulf!"
Blake looked away and concealed her laugh. "Yeah, it does."
DorkKnight: Sorry about the missing upload, school kinda just started and we wanted to spend a bit more time on the chapter. Anyways, it seems like the story should start picking up and I feel like we can be more confident in doing stuff other than rewriting canon.
Exiled: There isn't much for me to say (total lie), except that writing this chapter has been something I've been looking forward to for a long time. It's something that I've been planning with DorkKnight ever since I first started helping out, like Chapter 3 early. I've been waiting for this moment, and I'm glad that we found something to agree on regarding this chapter. Besides all that, I have to wonder, since we both worked on this chapter, I wonder if you guys can tell the difference between our writing styles. Try and guess who wrote what in the review section and let us know what you guys think.
And as Jackie Chan's uncle once said, one more thing. I understand that some of you really dislike Jaune Arc as a character and whatnot. And I mean, REALLY dislike him. But one of the major reasons why we are putting so much focus into him is because he fits into so many themes that we sat down and figured out for this story. I don't think we can put Weiss in his place and have her do what he does.
Jaune is my favorite character because (for one of many reasons) he is malleable. You can do whatever you want to do with him, but, in my opinion, so long as he fits in with what RoosterTeeth describes him as, you can alter him in any way.
DorkKnight: I think we'll all see Jaune's purpose next chapter. It wasn't very clear when we started but I think this chapter set up where to go next quite well.
Exiled: Most likely we are going to take a small break for a while so if you don't see any updates next Sunday or Saturday that's probably why. School is starting again but we'll still try our best to keeps our update schedule a thing!
DorkKnight: Totally.
