Penny and I arrived at the colosseum just in time. I was taken back by just how large the inside was. The walls looked like they belonged in an ancient palace. There were so many people walking down these halls, each of them going to or from the arena. I turned my head in every direction in an attempt to take it all in.
"It's pretty big, huh?" said Penny.
She was looking at me with both hands behind her back and a smile on her face.
"Yeah," I said with a slight smile. "It's...nostalgic…"
Penny smiled even wider at me. "It reminds you of the past, doesn't it?" she said.
My smile disappeared when I heard that.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"Penny and I need to get going," said Ciel sharply. "I suggest you do the same."
She stood really close to me as she spoke, clearly trying to intimidate me.
"Can't I have just another minute with Penny?" I pleaded.
Ciel's eyes narrowed at me.
"No," she said firmly. "We'll be on our way right now. You can speak with her after the match has been decided."
Without another word spoken, Ciel turned around and motioned for Penny to follow her. Penny stood back for a second and looked at me with a frown before following Ciel.
"What was that about?" I asked myself. Penny may have just answered that in response to me calling the place nostalgic, but there was something more to what she said. I could just tell by how she sounded.
"Now for the round you've all been waiting for!" Came the familiar voice of Professor Port, "The one-on-one final!"
There was a loud roar from the arena where the matches took place. I ran straight towards it. Professor Oobleck and Port would discuss the rules briefly before the match began. This gave me plenty of time to find a seat and maybe even scout out Emerald.
I thought I was used the waves of nostalgia that kept hitting me, but I once again found myself overwhelmed by it. It wasn't the colosseum that got me as much as the familiar faces did. Sun Wukong, Pyrrha Nikos, and even Mercury Black were people I hadn't seen in a very long time. I could see my old teammates sitting together in anticipation. It was so odd seeing Weiss and Blake behave so distantly towards each other. They weren't exactly good buddies, but they bonded way more now than they currently were.
To the left of my teammates were Team SSSN's members. I almost laughed at the sight of Neptune. Weiss's little interest in him was something Yang never let her forget and it was pretty funny to see her face burn red every time it was mentioned.
It was the people on my team's right that really got me teary eyed. Jaune, Ren, and Nora. They all looked so young and healthy, especially Jaune. We'd fought alongside them for years and risked our lives for each other on many occasions. I hadn't seen any of them since Team RWBY went into hiding. I wanted to approach them and just talk. Not about anything in particular. I just wanted to relive some of my happier moments right then and there. Unfortunately, there wasn't any time for me to do that.
I looked back down at the arena and focused on Yang for a second. My eyes were glued to her other arm. She looked so much cockier back then as well and it was hard for her not to be. She'd only been fighting against petty street criminals at the time. Anyone can feel invincible when those are the only enemies you have to go against.
"Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black!" Came the voice of Port.
The match would begin at any moment. I looked all over for Emerald and couldn't find her. I did see someone else that I hadn't before: Cinder Fall. I had an idea to at least confront her and cause enough of a scene to turn Emerald's attention away from Yang. Yang would probably win without any sort of interference and Mercury would play himself into losing. It sounded like a great idea.
Cinder was going to be a bit of a challenge. Even though I knew the silver eye would take her down, my younger self was still lurking around. Activating them at the time had been too much for my body to handle and made me fall unconscious. That would give her the perfect opportunity to wreak havoc and overtake my body. My only plan for the time was to distract Cinder and cause enough of a scene to turn Emerald's focus away from her.
I ran as fast as I could towards her as she walked away, knocking into several people along the way.
"You're not getting away with this!" I growled under my breath as I ran.
"Will all other combatants please leave the stage!" bellowed Port.
Now I knew time was closing in. I could see Cinder even more clearly. I was getting so close.
"Do you really think I'd let you win that easily?" A voice whispered from behind me.
There was a sharp pain in my left foot as something black rose from the floor and pierced it. I heard myself scream from the pain and then fell on my face.
"I said that what happened afterwards was going to be different," said my younger self. "Geez. You can't even follow the rules when they're given to you."
"Go away!" I groaned while trying to get back up. My aura wouldn't heal the hole that had been dug right through my foot.
"Enjoy the show," my younger self said. She patted me on the head as she sat herself in an unoccupied seat.
"Don't worry about her," I heard her say to a spectator. "She stepped on a thumb tack and fell."
Sweat was dripping down my face as I forced myself back up, limping as fast as I could in the direction Cinder went.
"Fight!" said Port.
I managed to work myself into a decent speed. The only downside was that it made my foot throb in pain every time it hit the floor. Cinder was long gone by that point, but I didn't care. I needed to at least attempt something.
There was another black spike from the floor. This time it pierced my other foot. I bit my tongue to fight back the urge to scream. Hearing that would only embolden my younger self further. Mercury had just landed his finishing blow on Yang. She'd be coming back shortly with her semblance charged to take him down.
I was now jogging at a very light pace. There wasn't anything I could do that at that point, but I wasn't going to give up. I decided that there was only one thing left to do.
I pulled out Crescent Rose from where I stood in full scythe form. There were several gasps from the people who saw it.
Yang had just landed the finishing blow on Mercury and would seen fall prey to an illusion.
I quickly combined some burn dust with earth dust and shoved it into Crescent Rose.
"You idiot!" I heard my younger self shout, "do you really think you can change anything?"
I didn't wait for her to reach me and shot right between where Yang and Mercury stood. There was a small explosion and the entire arena began to be filled with a smoke cloud.
Yang jumped back as the smoke surrounded her and Mercury. The cloud was so thick that nobody would be able to see through it, including Emerald. I could hear Yang coughing and felt bad, but I knew it was better than what would have ended up happening.
"It seems someone has fired off a round of dust into the arena!" I heard Port shouting.
"It was her!" I heard several students shout.
I could hear my younger self laughing at me as people began to scream and run.
"Congratulations on causing an even greater panic than your sister originally did," she said. "I can't wait to see how you get out of this one!"
She disappeared once again in a black slime-like substance.
"Ruby Rose!" I heard some Atlesian Knights shout. They all had their guns pointed at me.
"Stand down!" said another one.
"Ruby?" I heard Yang shout. "Why did you do that?"
I looked at all the guards with my head high and dropped Crescent Rose on the floor.
"Go ahead and take me into custody," I said. "I'm not denying anything."
One of them nodded and motioned for the others to escort me back into my dorm room. I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of thing got me expelled from Beacon. Maybe my younger self was right and I had just made things worse. I was worried that would be the case.