It was just routine mission. How did it go so wrong? Seth wondered as paced back and forth through the waiting room.
Earlier that day…
"You have your assignment. This is just a very routine mission. There is a large amount of beowolves showing up in the emerald forest. Eliminate them and return as soon as possible." Ozpin explained the mission to team RWBY.
"Of course professor, we will finish and be back as soon as we can." Ruby said trying her best to look like a proper and mature leader.
"An aircraft will pick you up soon; I suggest you go gather your supplies. Oh and Seth, I want to meet with you when you get back." The wolf faunus nodded in response. BEACON's only team of five turned and walked off.
"You know, you shouldn't try and act mature. It doesn't really work for you." Seth teased his girlfriend as they walked off.
"Hey! I can be mature!" Ruby defended.
"Yeah, and princess can be warm and friendly." Seth said gesturing towards Weiss.
"Scoundrel." Weiss scoffed.
"I thought I told you-" Ruby started.
"I told her to call me this one. It's fine." Seth said.
"I hope you two aren't missing any big plans because of this. We all know lover boy is a hopeless romantic." Yang teased.
"No we aren't. Hey, how come we don't make fun of Weiss for being the only single one?" Seth asked.
"We're not allowed to do that. Well we are, but were not going to." Blake said.
"Besides if ice queen needs a date she can just buy one." Yang said. "Though picking up escorts is usually frowned upon."
"All have you know I'm single by choice! I'm not about to buy a date. Especially not the way the brute is thinking."
"I think the princess needs someone. Look how grouchy she is." Seth snickered.
"Okay stop. We need to get changed out of our uniforms. Girls get the dorm, Seth you got to the locker room." Ruby ordered.
Before Seth parted from them, Yang asked "So Seth, do you like it when your girl is dominant?"
"There is literally no right way for me to answer that question. I'm just gonna go get changed." Seth walked away.
"So Ruby, how many bases has Seth gotten to?" Yang asked with her devilish grin. A bullet whizzed past her face as she asked. "He's very good at hiding that." The blonde said realizing the bullet came from Night Howler.
"Yes he is, and he missed on purpose." Ruby added.
"Come on, let's get going." Blake said with a smile. It's nice to be part of this. I'm glad that I'm over Seth going out with Ruby. They're my teammates, I should've been happy for them. I was being a blind fool. He makes Ruby so happy. Blake thought.
They all met up after they got ready. "Here." Seth took Ruby's necklace of her and placed it in a small box next to his. "For safe keepings." He said with a smile.
"Okay lovebirds, let's get going." Yang said.
Ruby looked at her sister. Love… is this, what it's like? All my thoughts seem to be around Seth. I always want to be with him, every second of every day. Am I really in love with him? How would I even say I'm in love with him? God I'm hopeless.
"Ruby? Come on, stop spacing out. We need to get going." Seth said as he pulled his girlfriend away from her thoughts.
"Seth, I have a question for you. Why have you been disappearing on Sunday's lately? We never see you at all on those days." Ruby asked.
"That will be answered in a moment." Seth said as they approached the air craft. It was a small shuttle, but it had more than enough space for them.
"Which one of you is a certified pilot?" a man standing by the aircraft asked.
"What? None of-" Ruby started.
"That would be me." Seth took a pilot's license out of his pocket. "This the beauty I'll be flying?" His teammates looked to him. "What? Ozpin's been teaching me. I assure you I'm more than capable."
"There is no way I'm getting in that thing with you flying!" Weiss said.
"Great, that means I don't have to deal with you while I fly." Seth replied. "May I have the keys?" the man standing by the shuttle handed Seth the keys to the shuttle.
"Are you sure you can fly this?" Yang asked.
"Do you want me to prove I can fly this thing before we get going? I'll take her for a quick test flight." Seth hopped in the driver's seat and adjusted his seat so it fit right. He looked to his side with very little surprise to find Ruby in shotgun. "Are you sure about this?"
"If you don't know how to fly, you've got a lot of explaining to do about where you spend your Sunday's. Besides I know you're not gonna let me get hurt." Ruby said.
"Well let's go." Seth started it up and took to the sky. He was a natural. He flew around the campus a few times. He went to land and flew straight over Weiss's head to freak her out.
"You could have killed me!" She shouted as he landed.
"Calm down princess. Now ladies, if you're satisfied with my abilities, I suggest we get going." The remainder of his team hopped aboard. "Next stop, the emerald forest, Ruby we better talk strategy." Seth said as he took off.
"It's just some beowolves. As long as you aren't over protective, we should come out of this fine." Ruby said making a slight reminder to Seth's last encounter with beowolves.
"Hey! I'm not making any promises when it comes to protecting you." Seth replied.
"Ruby, are you sure it's wise to go in there without much of a plan?" Weiss asked while gripping her seat. She still didn't trust Seth's pilot skills.
"Ah we'll be fine. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?" Yang asked.
"Weiss, as much as I agree with the fact that we should be careful, Ozpin said it was just routine mission. We're also stronger than we've ever been. I think we'll be okay." Blake said.
"Okay, it is only beowolves. The only thing we have to fear is Seth's pilot skills." Weiss remarked.
"Every except princess strap in. I'm gonna do a barrel roll." Seth said.
"Don't! You! dare!" Weiss shouted.
"Do it." Yang chanted. She buckled up and leaned over and unbuckled Weiss.
"Okay guys stop. As much fun as it would be to see Weiss flail around as Seth tumbles us through the air, if she gets hurt we might actually need some sort of plan." Ruby said.
"Oh right, that's the reason it's a terrible idea." Weiss said sarcastically and bulked herself back in.
"Okay, we'll be landing shortly. This baby isn't going near our target so we'll still be doing a little walking. Not too far so we can get back easy. I am putting in a slightly hard to reach place, keep it safe from Grimm and all." He explained.
"So let me get this straight, you cook, you write, you're an amazing fighter, and now you're a pilot. Any other talents you haven't told us about?" Ruby asked.
"Not as far as I know." Seth answered. He brought the plane the plane to their landing spot and gently landed. They team made their way off the shuttle.
"So I'm guessing Seth's nose knows where we should head." Yang said with a little snicker.
"Yang trying to be funny aside, yes I know where we should go." Seth said. "But something seems off." He added.
"What?" Ruby asked.
"I can't quite tell. Something doesn't feel right." He answered.
"Oh I'm sure you're imagining things." Yang assured.
"You're probably right." Seth replied.
Why? Why didn't I just trust my instincts? I should have been able to tell why it would go wrong. Damn it!
Seth lead the girls to where he smelled the scent. They saw a large amount of beowolves, far more than they should usually see in one place. "Okay, start long range and take out as many as you can. One the numbers die down, I want Seth, Yang, and Blake in there fighting in close range. Weiss and I will continue to back you up from back here." Ruby ordered. It was answered with consecutive nods from her teammates.
They began to execute Ruby's orders perfectly. Each of the beowolves began falling one by one. Soon Seth, Yang and Blake leapt into the fray. The three of them slaying the beowolves with ease, they were almost completely gone when Weiss and Ruby decided to jump down into the fray themselves. The beowolves had been slayed extremely easily.
"Well that was almost too easy." Yang said with a smile.
Seth started to look around. Something felt off to him. Blake was doing the same. "You feel it two?" Seth asked Blake. She nodded in response.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked.
"This isn't finished." Seth answered. As if on cue they heard a loud roar. Seth looked to the sky. A few Nevermore began to fly overhead. Ursa made their way towards them from the forest, as well as some more beowolves, and Borbatusk.
"Ruby…" Weiss said readying her weapon.
"Don't worry, were gonna get through this. Blake, you and Seth get to the skies. Deal with the Nevermore. They don't look as big as the one we fought during initiation. Weiss, we know you can handle Borbatusk. Yang and I will handle the Ursa and Beowolves." Ruby ordered.
I shouldn't have gone with Blake. I should have stayed with Ruby. I should have been there. I should have been there to protect her. Seth thought. He was now in the room of patient. Seth looked over her sleeping body. "Ruby… why wasn't I there to protect you?"
Seth used his shadow control semblance to increase his jumps. He moved through the tree's, along with Blake, to get up onto the Nevermore. The large black bird tried to shake him off as he got on. Seth slashed at its back as he ran across it, Blake was doing the same. He leapt to another one and did the same thing. He and Blake kept leaping across the Nevermore. They eventually found themselves on the same bird.
"We need a better plan than this. While it keeps them off others, we need to join up with them." Blake said.
"I might have an idea." Seth ran to the Nevermore's face and leapt off it. He jumped around from each one, using his semblance to the max to make sure he made each jump. The birds were now all trying to get one target. The three Nevermore merged to one position, causing them to crash into each other. "Blake!" Seth yelled. Understanding what he meant, the cat faunus through grambol shroud, using her ribbon she managed to slice the head off one of the Nevermore. Seth sliced the head off another one. They both stabbed down into the back of the third and it started to plummet to the ground with the two still on its back.
"Let's move!" Seth yelled. He leapt off the Nevermore's back, followed by Blake. Seth used his shadow control to safely land him in a tree. Blake swung around using her ribbon and weapon and landed next to him.
"Come on. We better help th-" Seth started to say. He stopped when he saw what was unfolding on the ground.
Ruby nodded as she saw Seth and Blake go up to the Nevermore. She held out Crescent Rose. "Let's go sweat heart." She said and ran to start slicing Ursa. She jumped on one's back and pulled the trigger to decapitate it. She leapt from Ursa to Ursa doing this same thing. They just seemed to keep coming. She sliced one after another.
"Ruby! Watch out!" Ruby turned to see one of the Borbatusk that Weiss had been charged with taking care of charge her. Even with her semblance she barely got out of the way in time. She thought she was safe for a moment when she was met with the claw of an Ursa Major. She flew into a tree. She stood up and found her ground again. She ran at the Ursa Major. She put her scythe through it.
The second it was through it she was met with a claw from a beowolf. They beowolves soon were completely on her. She used her speed semblance and sliced them one by one. Each one falling as she sliced them. She went through them and was met with a claw from another Ursa. This time she could barely get up before another Ursa smacked her as well. They kept beating her back and forth. She couldn't even get on her feet. She was losing blood even with her aura working to close her wounds. The world was becoming slightly blurry. She saw one last thing before she passed out from blood loss. Seth's sword going through the skull of an Ursa, and the angriest face she'd ever seen.
"Never touch my Ruby!" Seth yelled as his sword went through one of the Ursa's skull. The other one that had been smacking Ruby around went flying past him thanks to Yang. He sliced through every Ursa and beowolf in his path, each one falling before his blade. He stopped for a moment when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Seth, take the shuttle and get Ruby out of here. We've dwindled them down enough that we can handle this. Get her to safety." Weiss said. Unlike Seth and Yang, she was thinking straight.
"But-" Seth started.
"No buts. If you don't get her out of here she could get hurt even worse." Weiss said. Her words got through to him. He rushed to Ruby. He picked her up and ran as fast as he could. He reached the shuttle within minutes. He strapped Ruby in and quickly started up. As he flew it away he passed another shuttle, inside was team JNPR.
Seth pulled off his shuttle communicator and said "Team RWBY to JNPR."
"We read you, what's the situation?" He recognized the voice as Jaune's.
"Ruby's badly hurt. I'm getting her out of here. Yang, Blake, and Weiss are still fighting the enemy. They could use help."
"We're already on the way. Get Ruby to the hospital."
"I'm already on the way." Seth flew as fast as he could. He had reached the hospital with in minutes. "She needs help." He said as he ran into the hospital. He was met with stretcher and he placed Ruby on it.
As he sat in the waiting room, wondering what he could've done differently so that she wouldn't have gotten hurt. He kept muttering "Ruby, please be okay." Tears began rolling down his face as he waited for news.
A female doctor came to him. "She's stable. She still won't wake up. You may go in there with her if you wish." Seth was gone the second she finished. He looked over her body. He held her hand in his.
"Ruby, please be okay. I need you." He kept saying over and over again. I couldn't protect her. She's the only thing that matters and I couldn't protect her. Ruby… I need you.
So I got a little choked up at the end of this chapter. You guys need to understand that Seth cares about Ruby. The last time he got this close to someone he couldn't protect them. He'd hate himself if she died. No Ruby isn't going to die, she'll be awake sometime next chapter. Join me next time in chapter 26, accidents, until then.