Chapter 25
Beyond the Walls
The bullhead soared through the dreary skies of Vale just as the sun peeked over the horizon. Expansive forests down below stretched beyond the eye, and despite their beauty team RWBY couldn't help wondering what kinds of nightmares were lurking in the shadows. In truth their destination wasn't too far southeast from the City of Vale, but it might as well have been another world outside the walls and far away from Beacon's protection. This was the domain of Grimm and this was their hunting grounds. While Forever Fall and the Emerald Forest to the north were used as training grounds for Beacon's students, with the Grimm population kept thin and as nonthreatening as possible, this land had been seized back by force by the nightmares of Remnant and had not given it up in nearly a century.
Blake had lived outside the kingdoms most her life so the protection of walls were a luxury to her. More than once she had stumbled across a village ravaged by Grimm or forgotten by man, and knew firsthand the horrors that the beasts left behind. Her partner had traveled between kingdoms upon graduating from Signal and knew what life was like outside the safety of the cities, but had never spent more than a few days in the wilderness.
Weiss was far less familiar with the outside world however. She had traveled to all four kingdoms countless times on business, but always from luxurious airships with a bullhead escort. This would be the very first time her feet touched uncivilized ground. Ruby unlike her teammates had never left the kingdom of Vale once in her life. The Isle of Patch had always been her home and was notorious for its safety from Grimm, and while she had run into countless Grimm on field trips at Beacon, her experiences had always been in restricted training areas and the Grimm almost always juveniles. Outside the city walls perhaps, but like her partner never outside the perimeter fences.
Her stomach growled just thinking about it and she took a big bite from a large chocolate chip cookie with Weiss looking on in disgust.
"How can you eat that for breakfast?" she gagged, leaning over as they hit a patch of turbulence. "Especially when our pilot just got his flying licence last week?"
"Cookies are a part of a balanced breakfast," She explained, "and it calms my stomach."
"Uhh..." The heiress groaned.
"What's the matter, Weiss-y," Yang quipped. "Feeling sicky?"
"No, now shut up," she snapped.
The blonde snorted and began thinking of ways to make her life miserable before being elbowed by her partner.
'Be nice,' Blake's eyes said.
She groaned at the missed opportunity of teasing the princess but ruefully complied. Across the airship her sister had given her a similar look but with the chocolate smeared on her face it lost its effect.
"For God's sake, Ruby, use a napkin!" Weiss cried.
"Okay." She wiped her lips on her sleeve and smiled a toothy grin full of chocolate. Yang giggled while Blake rolled her eyes at her team's childish antics, hiding a smirk. Weiss however turned her green face toward the door and gagged.
Her sickness washed away however as soon as she looked down and saw they were flying over the mountain, and below it almost in a valley like the City of Vale, was their desolate destination.
"It's beautiful," she marveled, forgetting her illness.
"The lost city," Ruby whispered.
"Wow," Yang choked with her partner nodded beside her.
The city was more than the team had imagined. An entire city lost to Grimm...
To most, the city with a forgotten name was a relic of the past. A mistake that cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives. Something long ago and far away that could never happen again, and yet it had been less than a century since the tragedy unfolded, with survivors still living, and wasn't too far from the City of Vale.
It was a constant reminder that the creatures of Grimm were patiently waiting at their doors for an opportunity to strike, and their mission was to make sure they never got that chance again.
'Not a single soul is in that city,' Ruby thought to herself sadly. 'They're all gone, just like Patchwork...'
"This is our stop," Oobleck announced as the bullhead came to a sudden halt in the air. Because it was a huntsman grade bullhead it's engine was practically silent and the girls could hear their breath catch.
"Um, Professor, we're still in the air," Ruby pointed out. "Like really, really high in the air."
"One thing at a time, miss Rose. First we must disguise our scent." Oobleck sprayed a bottle of what looked like cologne all over his clothes before passing the team their own bottles.
"What is this." Weiss looked for a label but didn't see any and was too scared to sniff.
"Certain Grimm, particularly Beowolves, have a fantastic sense of smell, miss Schnee. This will cover our scent so we aren't easily tracked."
"Sorry, Weiss," Yang laughed. "Looks like you're about to waste hundreds of lien worth of perfume on Grimm repellent."
The heiress didn't respond but didn't seem too troubled at the thought of her favorite perfume going to waste. She could always buy more after all, and she was willing to be a little less fabulous that day if it meant not get eaten.
"What is this stuff." Ruby raised a brow as she sniffed her arm where she'd sprayed.
"You don't want to know," Blake gagged and held the bridge of her nose. As a faunus her senses were far more keen than the others, and that more easily overpowered.
Ruby looked cautious but curiosity got the better of her so she turned to the professor who grinned. "Hyenas are an extraordinary creature if I do say so myself."
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang froze from their spraying and looked with wide eyes at Blake hoping he was kidding. She cringed and finally nodded.
Both Weiss and Yang poked their heads out the door while Ruby merely grimaced. She liked the situation about as much as the rest of her team, but did what had to be done.
"Come on y'all," She continued to spray. "It beats Grimm tracking us all over the city. Hurry up and get sprayed." She shook her head after getting a strong whiff, and really hoped the stuff could be washed out of her cape.
"Speak for yourself," Weiss remarked, holding her stomach. "I think I'd rather be mauled by a Beowolf."
"I second that," Blake agreed still pinching her nose..
Ruby shot her teammates a dirty look before hearing her sister's cries.
"EEEEPPP! It's in my hair!" Yang thrashed about all the while Oobleck observed the team shaking his head.
"Children," he announced, "if you would like, I could return you to Beacon at once where you could shower and clean up."
"Really?" Weiss and Yang beamed.
"NO!" their leader yelled.
All eyes turned to Ruby who shouldered a red pack and put a yellow under her arm. Blake recognized it as Yang's pack she was supposed to carry.
"We're going and that's final!" The girl with chocolate on her sleeve and crumbs on her chin regained her authority as petals began scattering from her cape. "Hurry up and spray yourselves so you can meet me down there."
"Wait-" Yang began but her sister held up a hand.
Before anyone could argue, the caped-girl leaped out the door to the city below. Her team ran to the doors trying to catch her but it was too late. She was already hurling toward the grown like a rocket.
"I'd hurry if I were you," Oobleck casually remarked. "She's about to be all alone in a city full of Grimm. It also appears she forgot her jump cable."
Everyone turned toward the cable that hung above their heads airship that obviously wasn't connected to anything. Within seconds all three girls were sprayed down and had packs shouldered, and they too left their jump cables instead relying on Weiss' glyphs to slow their descent.
Although they should've been terrified jumping out of a bullhead a thousand of feet in the air, they couldn't help feel an adrenaline rush like never before. Even Weiss and Blake were feeling a sense of giddiness falling toward the city that seemed to swallow them up.
Once they were close enough to the ground both Weiss and Yang hit the ground rolling to slow their momentum while Blake effortlessly landed on her feet, already her bow twitching.
"I suppose being a faunus has its perks," Weiss noted which made Blake give her a sly grin.
The blonde scraped gravel off her arms while searching for her sister. All around them were rusted cars that had been in style long before the turn of the century. Towering over them were buildings that had either been left unfinished or partially destroyed by years of neglect. Nature had began to retake the city and a tree even grew in the middle of the intersection.
"There she is," Blake pointed behind them to a parking lot where the caped-girl was standing over a disintegrating Beowolf.
"What was that?" Weiss demanded as they joined their leader. "A warning the next time you do something stupid will suffice."
Ruby shouldered her sniper-scythe eyes peeled for another attack. "The welcoming party's dead but more are prowling around. Where's Oobleck?"
On cue a cable hit the ground just feet from where they were standing and the professor's boots gently touched down all the while taking sips from his thermos. "Good to see you are all still alive. For now..."
Yang rolled her eyes and ignored the professor's rude remark, but got distracted seeing the cable disappear and the bullhead take off the direction it had come. "I don't see anything, Rubes. Are you sure-"
"Hold it," Blake interrupted holding up her hand. "Grimm eight o'clock." Everyone turned to see where she was pointing.
"Ah yes, a lone Beowolf," Oobleck said perhaps a little too loudly as he pulled his binoculars up. "Absolutely fascinating. He looks to be a rather young specimen. I hardly see even a speckle of white armor."
"Uh, he's not alone," Weiss squeaked.
"You're right, miss Schnee," he said even more loudly. "It appears to be an entire pack. As long as we keep our distance and remain silent I believe we'll be fine."
"They're looking this way," Blake deadpanned.
"I wonder if they heard my rather loud voice?" Oobleck mused. "I've been told it often carries."
"Let's take them down!" Yang activated her gauntlets but before she could even take a single step forward a cloud of rose petals obscured her vision. "Ruby!" she cried in frustration.
The four closest Beowolves were cut in half before they knew what happened, and the other five froze in confusion before they too met the same fate. Soon all the Grimm were disintegrating and Ruby was looking for more.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Yang stomped to her younger sister's side. "You're gonna use up all of your aura if you keep that up. Aren't we supposed to be a team, team leader?"
She glanced at Blake and Weiss who had caught up but they were too surprised by Ruby's actions and speed to be angry. They'd almost forgotten how she seemed to turn into a different person in combat. Gone was the childish girl with chocolate stains on her clothes, instead she was replaced by the one of the most dangerous fighters at Beacon.
"Our gunshots will just draw more Grimm," Ruby said absently. "If we're going to be here for a week we'll need to conserve all the dust and ammunition we can, so for now we only use it when we absolutely have to. By the end of seven days we're going to need it if we're not already out."
The caped-girl turned to leave but paused, and unshouldered the yellow pack and tossed it to Blake.
"Oh right," she said, remembering she was supposed to carry her partner's pack. It felt heavier than she remembered, and curiously wondered if it had anything to do with the weight of the moment.
Ruby turned to leave again and everyone was taken aback by her ruling and change in behavior.
"If you'll excuse me," Oobleck chuckled, "I believe I'll be following her. She seems to know what she's doing, and I'd like to make it home alive." He followed and the team was left staring at their backs.
"I hate to say it but they've got a point," Blake remarked dryly.
"I don't like living in a world where Ruby makes sense," Weiss whined.
"Easy for you guys to say." Yang held up her gauntlets which she put off safety. "You all have blades, I don't..."
Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud and offered her partner the cleaver that acted as the katana's sheath.
Yang shook her head and pushed the weapon away. "That's alright. It's better off in your hands. I can't remember the last time I actually swung a sword anyway."
"What are you going to do punch them?"
"Maybe you should headbutt them with your hard head," Weiss joked.
"Something like that." Yang cracked her knuckles and gave a devilish grin. A small fire sparked in her hair and traveled down her arms before being extinguished. "I'll have the city cleared by lunch."
She took off running to catch up with her sister, and the monochrome pair shook their heads not liking the sound of that.
"She's your partner," Weiss stated rather emphatically, "which makes her your responsibility."
"Yeah," she sighed. "I'll try to keep her from getting herself killed..."
The other girl bit her lip in deep thought. "Our partners are going to be the death us aren't they?"
"Probably," Blake agreed.
Weiss watched as Ruby easily dispatched another Grimm, and glanced down at her wrist scroll to make sure it was on. Once her partner's vital popped up she smiled.
"Wouldn't have it any other way."
(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. This is another chapter I had a lot of fun writing. Something about Weiss' peevishness and the character interactions this chapter was a lot of fun to write. The team is finally in the lost city and are surrounded by Grimm. Should be fun. Also I'll leave it up to you to decide if Oobleck was being serious with their scent being masked by the spray or if he's just playing a sick joke and wanted a laugh. I'm rooting for the latter personally. Once again thank you for reading and all of the support and kind words. You all rock. All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who without Him none of this would have been possible. God bless