Into the woods of Mirkwood they go!
AN: Couldn't resist writing that title. J
Now the company makes their way through the treacherous forest of Mirkwood, and hopefully, to the Atlas Walls of the Quarantine Zone.
As always I owe thanks to Nightengale4698 for beta-reading my story.
(Days till New Year's Eve: 2 Days)
It had been only two hours since the company left Beorn and Merida's farm. What was unexpected for Jaune was that they didn't run into any Grimm since. No Beowulves in sight, no howls or roars in the wind.
They continued on till they reached the entrance into the forest of Mirkwood. Qrow tapped on Jaune's shoulder to get him to stop. Once Jaune stopped, everyone else followed suit.
Jaune walked to the Grizzly and opened the back door. "Hey, I think now is a good opportunity to refuel the vehicles again. We may not get a chance in the forest."
Everyone inside nodded in agreement and pulled out the reserve fuel tanks. Once Jaune was finished refueling his bike, he turned to Coco. "Make one more inventory of our ammunition; I don't want any of us to run out in the middle of a fight."
Coco nodded in agreement and went to the ammo-crates. Jaune noticed that Qrow was standing at the entrance of Mirkwood.
"Welcome to the entrance of Mirkwood." Qrow said to Jaune.
"No sign of any Grimm." Jaune said with a curious look. He looked behind them to see a large bear on top of a rock range, on top of the bear was Merida, holding her bow. "I guess having them around scares the Grimm off."
"You have no idea." Qrow said with a smile as he waved both Merida and Beorn off. Once Merida waved back, they both left the rock face, leaving the company to finish their mission on their own.
Jaune looked to the forest, he had a look of worry and disgust as he spoke, "This forest… it looks sick. Like there is a disease spreading through it."
Ruby walks up to them, she starts to feel a chill run down her spine as she looks deep into the dark forest. "Is there any way around this dark place?"
"Not unless we go 200 miles West or twice that distance East." Qrow says as he takes a few more steps into the forest. "This isn't right." He pulled out Ozpin's cane and shined the gray diamond end in the air.
The light made from the cane made the darkness more visible It flowed like a river. Qrow it flow around him like water around a rock. The 'river' flowed from the East to the West; from Dol Guldur. "There was only one Dark Maiden in history that has ever done something like this to a forest… 'The Spring Harpy'. And if she's back, along with the Winter Witch, then we are in big trouble. I need to go to the tombs to make sure."
Qrow turned around fast and walked up to Jaune and Ruby, "I'm sorry guys. But I have to go."
"Go? Go where?" Ruby asked with a worried look on her face. "We need you with us!"
"Believe me, Ruby. I would not go unless I had to." Qrow said as he hugged his niece. Qrow then looked to Jaune with a smile growing on his face. "You have changed, Jaune Arc. You are not the same boy who dreamed of being a hero, all those years ago. Take care of the company while I'm gone."
Jaune nodded to him, "Good luck. And be careful."
"You too." Qrow said as he looked to everyone. "I will wait for you all outside the city of Vale, don't enter the caves below Beacon without me." Everyone nodded to his orders. "There is a stream that runs through Mirkwood, a dark enchantment is flowing though it now. Do not touch the water. Only cross with the stone bridge. The forest's air is intoxicating, so try not to breathe so heavily when you're in there. And no matter what don't go off the path, or else you'll get lost forever."
Once Qrow finished giving his orders, it was Jaune's que to give his own. "Let's go guys. I'll go first, Yang behind me, Grizzly behind her."
Once the company drove through the entrance of Mirkwood, Qrow turned around , shifted into a crow and flew away.
(AN: Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was his semblance, you guys.)
(Spire Fortress)
Emerald was looking over the data over all their torture attempts on Pyrrha. Every time they were close to mentally or physically damaging her, the same aura signature protected her. Emerald shouted and hit her head against the table with frustration.
Mercury walked in, "What's wrong?"
"I can't seem to find how she's doing it! Or for that matter, what it is! This isn't her aura signature." Emerald said with anger in her voice.
Mercury looked to Emerald's computer that had the recorded readings of the aura that keeps saving Pyrrha. His eyes widened when he read the signature. "I've seen that signature before."
"You have? Where?" Emerald asked with a raised eyebrow.
Mercury pulled out his scroll and played the video he took of Cinder's fight with Team RWBY and Jaune. When Jaune showed up, and showed him glowing, Mercury's scroll recorded Jaune's aura signature.
"They're the same? How is that possible?" Emerald said with her eyes as wide as olives.
"I don't know." Mercury said, and then he looked as though he had an idea. "Can you see where the aura originated in her?"
Emerald started typing on the computer and looked at all the events when the aura intervened with the torture in the beginning. She found something peculiar, it looks like when it was first discovered in Pyrrha, it was near her mouth.
"It came from her mouth?" Emerald asked to herself.
Mercury had a crazy idea, "You think they kissed?"
Emerald hit Mercury on the shoulder hard, "Even if they did, that doesn't explain how his aura went into her."
Mercury rubbed his shoulder and pouted, "It's still a possibility."
(The Fortress of Dol Guldur)
Cinder rode into the entrance of the dark fortress with Adam. Once she stepped off the bike, she walked to the main hall of the fortress. The sky was dark, even though it was the middle of the day, the clouds covered the sky as though it was a celling to the whole fortress.
There stood a skinny man; he wore a cloak that went down to the floor and covered his feet. What was strange about the cloak was that it looked like black smoke was coming from it. The man's skin throughout his whole body was pale; his eyes were yellow and the irises black. His hair was a light blue in a buzz cut shape.
"Hades… You summoned for me?" Cinder said with a slightly annoyed voice. "This better be important, because I have better things to worry about than talking to a corpse."
Hades looked to Cinder with annoyance his own eyes then he gave her a creepy smile, "I wasn't the one who summoned you, girl."
He then lifted his hand up and opened his palm; black smoke came out of his hand and swirled in between them. The smoke took the shape of a woman; a woman wearing a black kimono, her face was pale white, her eyes were black but her irises were glowing red like fire. Her hair was pail white as well, and had black roots coming from her hair to her face around her eyes.
Once the figure was whole, Cinder's eyes widened, she kneeled down immediately lowering her head to the ground, "Mistress Salem. Forgive me; I didn't know it was you who had called."
"It is not entirely your fault." Salem lowered her hand to Cinder's chin and raised her face to her, "Rise, my disciple."
Cinder slowly stood up and faced her mistress. "It pains me to be forced to use this… archaic means to communicate with you." She said with slight disgust in her voice.
"Once we secure the tower, we will be able to communicate like we did before." Cinder said while giving a look towards the Necromancer.
Salem lifted Cinder's glass hand, Salem gave Cinder a sad look, "Oh my… I suppose I am too late to warn you of this wound. Tell me, who gave you this wound?"
"His name is Jaune Arc. I think he is a Star Knight." Cinder said with anger in her voice, "Don't worry, I will deal with him."
"No... You will not." Salem said as she started to walk, she motioned for Cinder to follow. The Necromancer followed as well, the green mist from his cylinder was fueling the image of Salem, so he had to stay with them so that they could continue their conversation.
As they walked, Salem put her hands together and concealed them in her sleeves, "The army here is growing in number. I will need you to lead them when the time comes."
"What about Rose and Arc? We have to kill them before they become even more of a threat!" Cinder sounded angry.
"The knight has already bested you once, or did you already forget." Hades pointed to Cinder's glass arm.
"He caught me by surprise, that's all. He will not beat my skill with a blade." Cinder said towards Hades with anger and annoyance in her voice.
"Perhaps… But he is not your fight… Not yet anyway." Salem said with a calm voice.
"What? What do you mean?" Cinder asked.
"You are allowing your anger to get the better of you. And doing so will cause you to make rash decisions. The last time that happened, you almost disobeyed our mistress' orders." Hades said with an irritated voice which made Cinder lower her face.
"Watch your tongue, smoke pile!" Cinder hissed towards Hades, she looked as though she was about to fight him.
"Stop it, both of you. He is right, my dear. I ordered you to capture Nikos, and make her one of your soldiers. Not to shoot her in the chest with an arrow." Salem said with an angry glare.
"Nikos still survived though." Cinder said as if she was trying to play innocent.
"Which makes you lucky that she did. By the way, how goes her 'reconditioning'? Made any progress?" Hades asked as though he already knows the answers.
"After she awoke, we put her through any form of torture or reconditioning and she has resisted all of them." Cinder said with anger in her voice. "How is it she can be so resilient to our methods?" Cinder asked Salem.
"It is because a fragment of the Star Knight's aura is within her." Salem said.
"What? How?" Cinder asked.
"It is an ancient practice that aura-users have to keep those they care for alive. It is normally used between two users whom are in love with each other." Salem said.
Cinder started to smile, "He doesn't know she's alive, none of them do."
"Keep it that way, for now." Salem said as they continued walking, "In due time, her current state may become more valuable than another soldier." Salem said with a devious voice.
"But until then, I want you back at the Spire. Continue your efforts to 'recondition' Nikos; the knight's aura will not last forever." Salem started to fade away into the black mist, "And the next time we speak, it will be a time of war."
After that last remark, Salem smiled and evaporated into black smoke and faded away. Once she was gone, Hades looked to Cinder with a mischevous smile. "Looks like your little vendetta has been canceled, that's too bad."
"It doesn't have to be." Adam said as he walked past Hades and walked up to Cinder. "I would be willing to take care of the knight for you… If you would consider my original request?"
"The City of Vale?" Cinder asked with an obvious voice.
"If the White Fang were to take the city for our own, we would be able to expand farther than ever. More supporters will join, and you would have a whole city full of supporters instead of just an army." Adam said with obvious ambition in his voice. "So what do you say?"
Cinder raised her glass hand to Adam's face, "Kill the knight… and I will give you the whole kingdom."
"It will be done." Adam said as he bowed and walked away.
Adam rode out of the fortress with over 50 White Fang following him. Some were on bikes, others were in trucks, and Adam was in front.
Cinder got into the back of another truck and drove North-east back to the Spire.
(The forest of Mirkwood)
They continued through the forest as they did from the beginning. Weiss was sitting in the passenger seat of the Grizzly, holding the map that Merida gave them.
"Jaune, we need to go left on the next 'Y' intersection ahead." Weiss said though the radio.
"Copy that." Jaune answered on the radio.
Inside the Grizzly, everyone held their weapons ready, in the possibility of a fight.
They continued though the path for about 10 miles before Weiss spoke though the radio again, "We should see the bridge up ahead."
Right as she said it, Jaune spotted it. "Yeah, I found it."
Jaune slowed down, making everyone else do the same.
"What's going on?" Coco asked, in the back.
"Weiss, the bridge is gone. Is there any other way across this river?" Jaune asked though the radio.
"None that I can see." Weiss said as she was looking though all the other possible options, so far nothing.
"You know, there is enough of the bridge for it to be a good ramp." Yang said with a smile.
"WHAT!? No, no, no! There is no way the Grizzly can even make that jump!" Weiss practically shouted.
"Maybe with a boost?" Neptune asked as he looked to Nora.
Nora gave a big smile, "I'm on it."
Nora jumped out of the tank and formed her hammer. Jaune and Yang got out of the way of the tank so that they wouldn't get hit by it.
They closed the back door of the Grizzly and everyone tightened their seatbelts; Weiss more so than the others. Nora pulled her hammer back like a baseball bat. "Batter up!"
And with a loud bang and hard hit to the rear of the Grizzly, it flew past Jaune and Yang and went up the bridge/ramp, over the river and landed on the other side. Yatsu stomped don the breaks and stopped the tank just before it was about to hit a large tree.
"Everyone okay?" Jaune asked on the radio.
"Never better." Ruby said with a groan through the radio.
Jaune then looked to Yang, "Our turn."
Yang went first. She revved up her engine and drove at top speed, once she reached the top of the ramp, she used her gauntlets to shoot straight down to make her fly high enough and land on the other side of the river.
Once Nora was on the bike with Jaune, he revved up his engine and drove at top speed; he enhanced his bike by putting his aura into it and made the bike go twice as fast. They cleared the jump they landed right next to their friends.
Nora jumped off and started jumping around with happiness, "That was AWESOME!"
Just as Nora finished her cheer, all kinds of snarls and growls could be heard from all around. Everyone looked around to see that they were surrounded by blood red eyes.
"DRIVE!" Jaune shouted to everyone.
All three vehicles drove down the path they were on before at top speed. Nora stayed on Jaune's bike to save the time to go back into the tank.
They drove at full speed down the path. While they were driving, Nora looked behind them to see that they were being followed by Beowulves and Creeps. There were too many for them to fight them all, and they were gaining on them. "FASTER!"
After barreling down random paths, they finally lost the pack of Grimm that were chasing them. But what was strange to Weiss was, when she looked behind them she could have sworn that they were backing off.
Once they were sure they were clear, they all slowed to a stop. Everyone came out of the tank, with their weapons drawn in case of another attack. Jaune walked over to Weiss, "Where are we?"
Weiss looked at the holo-map she had and had a worried look on her face, "I don't know. We went down too many random paths I don't know where we are."
"How are we supposed to get out of the forest now?" Yang asked.
As they were talking, it almost as it they were hearing each other's voices in echo form.
"We could use the sun." Ruby suggested.
"Where is it? I can't see it through the trees." Coco said.
Blake looked straight up, then to everyone else, "I'll go up and take a look."
"I'll go with you." Sun said as he put his weapon away.
"Go straight up then back down, I know we are already getting intoxicated by the air here, I don't want us to get separated." Jaune said.
"You got it." Sun said with a thumb up.
Both Sun and Blake made their climb to the top of the large trees of Mirkwood. After a few minutes of climbing, they reached the top and found the sun. Blake and Sun took in a deep breath of the fresh air from above.
"(Deep inhale) Ahhh. That feels better." Sun said as he stretched his arms out.
"Look! There's the tower!" Blake pointed to the CCT tower in Beacon, then she pointed to the Atlas Walls. "Look we're almost at the wall."
"Yeah, just need to keep heading that way." Sun said with a smile. "Come on, let's go tell the others."
They both then made their way down to the bottom with the others.
By the time they both reached the bottom, both found themselves alone.
All three vehicles were still where they were, but the whole company was missing. Blake and Sun looked around to find any trace as to where they all went.
Sun looked inside the tank to find that it was empty, but there was a yellow light blinking on the center consul in the front of the tank. "Isn't that the distress beacon?" Sun questioned to himself.
Blake looked to the ground to find that there were drag marks on the ground. Whatever was dragged was not too big, same size as a human. And there were what looked like pokes in the ground, lots of them. Blake's eyes started to widen in the realization to where these came from, "Oh no. Sun?"
Blake looked to the tank to find that Sun was gone. She started to hear what sounded like little steps in the ground by sticks, they were coming up behind her. Blake whipped around with her katana out and swung her blade at the creature.
It was a large Grimm Spider, its main body was around the size of Blake, and its legs made it taller than her. It had white armor plating over the top of its body and at the end of each leg.
"Black Widows!" Blake practically screamed in her head. She slashed it across its face, but did no damage. It swung its front legs at her, she was able to dodge them and then get underneath the spider. She stabbed straight up, causing it to squeak in pain, before curling up its legs and dying.
Blake looked around in the hopes to find her friends, but then she heard someone shouting, it was Sun.
Blake ran after Sun's shouts in the hopes to find him and the others. By the time she caught up to them, they reached where everyone else was tied up. Blake made her way up, while hiding from the spiders in the area.
Blake noticed that there were too many spiders for her to take on alone, so she took a branch from the tree she was on, and threw it to the distance. Most of the spiders went after the sound, although one stayed. The spider was still wrapping Sun up in its web as he continued to resist.
Sun kept thrashing around in the web cocoon he was in, though when he saw Blake not too far away, he stopped immediately. Blake turned her sword into its Sickle mode and threw it at the spider. As the ribbon wrapped around the spider's legs, she pulled hard and made its legs come together. She ran up to hit and stabbed it in between the plates on the main body.
As the spider was dissolving, Blake slowly and quietly made her way to him and cut him down. As she was finished removing the webbing, she started to laugh, "You always seem to get yourself in the weirdest messes."
"That goes double for you too." Sun said as he held her hand tight. "Come on, let's get everyone else down."
They started to cut all the webbing that was holding the company up. One by one, they slowly descended to the ground. The moment they hit the ground, they all started to wake up.
Everyone started to get up fast as they were scraping webbing off of them, Weiss was the most grossed out.
"THIS! IS! DISGUS-!" Weiss was interrupted by Velvet's hand over her mouth.
"You want to let them all know we're here?" Velvet whispered with a hiss.
They all then looked and heard screeches and growls in the trees. "Looks like they already do." Coco said.
Blake and Sun then landed on the ground beside them, Sun spoke first, "We need to get the vehicles. Come on!"
Sun and Blake lead the whole company back to the tank and bikes. Once they got there, there was a group of spiders waiting for them. The whole company attacked the spiders, with each hunter attacking their own spider at first, then more started to come down from the trees.
The problem was, for every spider they kill; two more would come down from the trees to attack them. They were starting to get overwhelmed. They didn't have enough time to start up their engines and get going.
Just as Ruby shot a spider that was about to jump on her, she could see a figure jumping off tree branches in the distance.
After being distracted by the figure, a spider talked Ruby to the ground, she used her scythe to keep its teeth from getting her but it kept chomping at her. Then it squealed in pain and laid its whole body on her.
She pushed it off her and found that there were blades imbedded in its back. The blade was a half blade sword with a green circle at its hilt. Ruby recognized the sword.
Ruby looked up to see a woman with jump down from the trees; she wore green armor plating, similar to the Atlas soldiers, from the waist up, her legs had black armor plating. She had orange hair that extended to her shoulders and curled at the end.
She landed right in the middle of the fight between the company and the spiders. She was wearing some kind of backpack, and more swords came out of it. The sword that stabbed the spider to save Ruby flew to the woman and got in a row with the rest of the other swords.
The woman then swept the swords at the spiders and chopped them up as each blade hit their target. She continued this until more Atlas soldiers arrived to help.
Everyone attacked the spiders until there weren't any of them left.
Once the fight was over, Ruby stared at the woman with tears in her eyes. "PENNY?!"
The woman turned around to Ruby, her face was full of shock and happiness, "RUBY!"
Penny ran to Ruby and tackled her; they both hit the ground hard. "Why?" Ruby groaned.
Penny then stood up and helped Ruby up; they both then spoke in perfect sync, "I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE OKAY!"
Everyone started to smile at a beautiful reunion between friends.
"How did you find us?" Ruby asked.
"We were on patrol and we detected your distress beacon." Penny said as she pointed at the Grizzly.
"Faunus!" One of the soldiers shouted as he pointed his gun at Velvet.
"Another one here!" Another soldier said as he pointed his gun at Sun. "Search the others!"
All the soldiers started to search everyone, their heads to find ears, their backs to find tails and their teeth to find fangs. Ruby got nervous about Blake around for her, she was gone.
One of the soldiers walked up to Penny, "Lieutenant, we have two armed Faunus here. What are your orders?"
Penny looked to Ruby with a slightly worried look on her face, "We take them back to base."
As the soldiers were taking the company with them to the base, Ruby walked past Jaune and whispered, "Jaune, where's Blake?"
After hearing Ruby's question, Jaune himself wondered where she went, he looked behind them to find that she was nowhere to be seen.
The soldiers put everyone in a military troop transport that was on the path, while the soldiers drove their vehicles behind them.
Blake was underneath the Grizzly, holding onto the bottom of it, and praying that they don't hit any potholes.
AN: Sorry it took me so long, had to wrap up finals this week.
Penny is back!
This is kind of how I hope she comes back in the real story, I hope you guys like it.
There will be more of Penny in the next chapter, and we get to see Jaune confront James Ironwood about his positon in Vale.
R&R