RWBYond Vale
AN: So I took a little break from writing and worked on the video I'm making. I'm recording the audio later today and then the real editing begins. As for this story, the release times are going to be pretty sporadic as I get into the plot of this arc. I'm pretty excited for one or two upcoming battles in particular. My other story is no longer going to have a regular release schedule. I do want to keep it going but I don't want to feel pressured to have a schedule when I'm already waist deep in this story.
Chapter 25: What Happened?
Weiss' fatigue was beginning to catch up to her. All the glyphs, summons, and time dilations had taken their toll. But she marched on. Her and her team. That sentiment just felt right. Team RWBY was back together, as Ruby had declared when they started heading out. They were with team ARRN and what remained of JNPR, looking for Rio. So they were in the bog outside of Haven retracing the steps Ruby and her unit had taken while tracking team JMMM.
"Are you sure he's out this far?" Yang asked.
"That hill up there is where we saw the behemoth." Ren said.
"He should be around there somewhere." Jaune said.
"If he's still alive." Blake said.
"Blake." Natalie protested.
"It is a possibility, but I doubt he'd die so easily." August assured.
"We're close." Rubrum said. "I can sense his water capture unit."
"His what now?" Nora said.
"Rio has a device he carries high density water in, just in case." Natalie said.
"He's done so ever since I humiliated him in the combat arena our first year." August said smugly.
"Yeah then he used it to humiliate you." Natalie said.
"What is wrong with you guys?" Ruby said.
"Adversity is a key component in any team dynamic." Rubrum said.
"If you can't pick on your friends, you can't pick on anybody." Natalie said.
Weiss recalled her fight with Blake back after their first semester. It had nearly destroyed the team but when they were able to talk it out the team dynamic only got stronger. There were no more secrets. If they had a problem, they said it. With that said Weiss knew Ruby was hiding something. Ruby's eyes were glowing when she fought the behemoth. Weiss knew it had to be the same thing that happened against the Dragon. Weiss still didn't know what was going on with her or where she got that kind of power. Weiss had been at the bottom of Beacon tower when the blinding light engulfed the sky. She knew now that it had something to do with Ruby. But it would have to wait until later.
The group came up over the hill and saw Rio. He was lying in the grass, head up facing the river with arms behind his head. "Rio!" Rubrum called out. Natalie teleported to him and grabbed him by the collar and began shaking him awake.
"We were worried about you." She said.
"I'm sorry but I was a little busy." Rio defended.
"Busy sleeping?" She screamed.
"After the hell I went through heck ya."
"Oh I don't even want to hear it." Natalie continued. "You know what we had to fight? A behemoth, a god damn behemoth."
"Whoa that's awesome."
"Ya I know you should have been there. It was screaming and stomping and crushing everything…"
"Sounds like my kind of party." Rio interrupted. Natalie threw him back down to the ground.
"I don't even know why I bother."
"Come on you know you want me." Natalie blushed angrily and turned away.
"How did you survive anyway?" August asked. "The place of battle isn't exactly a good place to nap. Rio sobered up at sat up. He pointed across the creek. There was a man sitting cross legged against a tree. He had navy cargo pants and a blue trench coat. His dark blue hair in a bowl cut hanging just above his eyes. The man stood up and grabbed a weapon. It looked like a blue version of Ruby's weapon's compact form. Only it had a small hacking blade along it's barrel. The man walked towards them until he was eye to eye with August.
"August." The man said.
"Tethys." August said back. Tethys rested his weapon and gave them a look over. His glare was cold. It reminded Weiss of her father, always judging. He gave all of them a look over.
"Mind telling me why he was fighting a bunch of Grimm by himself." Tethys said looking back at August.
"I told you I volunteered." Rio said.
"If I was five seconds later you'd be dead." Tethys shot back. "Who authorized it."
"I did." Jaune said sternly. "I was in charge of our unit."
"What's some snot nosed brat like you doing leading a unit."
"I was his job Tethys." August responded.
"And where were you?"
"Fighting the leader of the White Fang." August responded.
"You split your team in order to prove some vendetta."
"I split my team to give all fronts a fighting chance."
"My unit was mostly inexperienced." Rio said.
"So why didn't you lead?"
"Jaune has more leadership credentials." Rio said. Tethys looked back at Jaune.
"Yes I've heard of you." Tethys began. "You led a team to an embarrassing victory in the tournament. A fight that your second strongest was able to win for you. Your strongest teammate died at Beacon. Your school is destroyed, your team incomplete, so what gives you the right to lead?" He stared at Jaune who remained unmoving. Weiss was digging up unpleasant memories of her father. This man reminded her too much of him. Nora and Ren were getting mad but it was Ruby who led the next outburst.
"Leave him alone. We did a great job." Ruby shot out. "We completed our mission with no fatalities."
"Someone had to hold off the Grimm. The mission was too important to let them interfere." Jaune said.
Tethys' face softened and he started laughing. "Man, you're a brave lot." He said laughing. "Usually when I give people a look like that they piss themselves. It's alright, nobody was too badly hurt and we'll never know what would have happened had I not been here." There was an audible sigh of relief. "I expect that kind of bravery from my son's team, they're used to it by now. But you seven don't know me yet you still held your ground." He put a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "You're Ray's son right? How's the old man doing."
"You know my father?" Jaune asked.
"I know most people's parents. Especially their mothers." Rio and August both face palmed.
"Dad!" Rio said disgustingly.
"I'm kidding. Rubrum, how are Ginger and Rojo doing?"
"They are fine as far as I know sir." Rubrum said with a solute.
"Enough with the formalities kid. I haven't been your supervisor in over two years."
"What?" Ruby said quietly, a look of disbelief on her face.
"Team ARRN shadowed Tethys during the Vytal field trip our second year." Natalie explained. Weiss couldn't imagine what that must've been like. It would be like if team RWBY shadowed Winter or heaven forbid Qrow instead of Doctor Oobleck.
"What happened?" Tethys asked the group.
"With what?" Ruby asked.
"The behemoth, I was fighting it when it disappeared. That's when I ran towards the city and ran into Rio."
"It's all taken care of with minimal casualties. No one died at the feet of the behemoth." August answered.
"Well then, how about we head back to the city." Tethys said. They began heading back. Rio and Natalie were bickering about Tethys and Yang was asking Tethys about the adventures he's had.
"Yes Yang I know your parents well." Tethys said. "Your father and I stopped the serial arsonist Johnny Blaze back during the revolution. That was when we first met." Tethys said. "And Ruby, I knew your mother though not half as much as I would have liked."
"Did you meet her during the revolution?" Ruby asked.
"No, we unfortunately never crossed paths at that time. We worked together on a couple escort missions for the Schnee dust company." Weiss flinched at the mention of her father's company. "Speaking of which how is he anyway?" He directed towards Weiss.
"Same as always." Weiss said with more disdain than she wanted.
"That bad huh. You know I worked security for your father a lot until he wanted to cut my pay. I guess he thought we were close enough to where I would work out of the goodness of my heart, as if."
"Sounds about right." Weiss said to herself. Sturm Schnee was no stranger to hiring huntsmen to protect shipments. But the last few years he's been too stingy to pay that kind of salary and too untrusting to let idealist anywhere near his figures. It was a huntress that blew the whistle on him years ago and exposed his mistreatment of faunas. That was about seven years ago.
"So you're a sea-huntsman right?" Nora said.
"The best." Tethys boasted.
"So how mad would you be if someone accidentally blasted a whole in your ship?" Nora said.
"Most people would want me to forget that." Rio said annoyed.
"I certainly wouldn't sail with them unless I had to." Tethys answered. "Otherwise I would probably throw them overboard."
"Told you I was being nice." Rio said. Nora whined a little in defeat.
"Hey if it's alright," Ruby started. "I would like for my friends and I to head towards the crashed ship. There's something there I want to check." So team RNJRWBY parted ways with their seniors and went to the ship resting in the water of the western bay. They were greeted by Professor Polendina.
"Ms. Rose!" He called out with a wave.
"Professor, is Penny alright?"
"She's right as rain now that the virus has stopped being broadcast."
"Any idea how it happened?"
"Penny is able to receive a wireless signal, I installed it as a precaution for field work so that we can stay in communication without the use of a scroll."
"Ooh, that's nifty." Ruby said.
"Yes but I'm afraid I will have to uninstall that feature now. We still don't know how to counteract that virus now that we know its wireless."
"Try Rubrum." Yang said. "He's good with machines."
"Think you, miss?"
"Yang."
"Oh that's right. You're Qrow's niece. I'll have this Rubrum fellow see what he can do."
"He made this bad boy." Yang waved her arm around. "I'm sure he can improve Penny before she loses her head again."
"Can I see her?" Ruby asked.
"Of course right this way." Professor Polendina led them into a building where Penny was lying in a bed staring up at the sealing.
"Penny." Ruby said softly.
"Hey Ruby." Penny said without moving. There was an awkward silence hanging over the room.
"Sooo…" Ruby started.
"How many people died because of me?" Penny said.
"What, you didn't kill anyone." Ruby said.
"But I wasn't able to save anyone either." Penny said sitting up. "I was useless. I distracted you guys. Blasted a whole in two of the ships. Sat the entire battle out."
"Penny don't do this to yourself." Jaune said.
"I was created to protect people. It's the only reason for me to live but twice now a city has fallen under heavy attack and I couldn't do anything about it except get in the way."
"Penny that's not true." Ruby argued.
"But it is. I'm a machine. And a machine that can't do its job is worthless."
"You're not just a machine."
"Then how was it so easy to lose control?"
"You fought the entire way." Jaune said.
"What good did that do?"
"We're still alive thanks to that." Jaune said. "If you weren't fighting it I would probably be dead."
"Jaunes right." Nora added. "You had him dead to rights and hesitated long enough for us to get him out of the way."
"Penny," Weiss started, "we don't always have control over a situation. The only thing you can do is let us forgive you and fix it so that it never happens again. The rest is up to you.
"And it so happens," Jaune started, "that there is a team that is short one member. And I think you'd be a perfect fit." Penny sat in silence, most likely contemplating the implications.
"You'd really have me? After everything I've done?"
"All I know is that you through a poorly timed temper tantrum." Jaune answered.
"And after the fights we've had today, yours seemed like a nice warm up." Nora said with a yawn.
"We'd be honored to have you be our fourth member." Ren said. Penny jumped up and hugged the three of them.
"We're going to be the best team ever." Penny said quietly.
"I beg to differ." Yang said lightly punching Penny's shoulder. "So now that I'm like 1/8 robot does that make us related?"
"Your more like 1/20 robot and no not unless they're from the same makers." Weiss answered.
"Darn." Yang said.
"Don't worry Yang we can still be friends." Penny said.
"I wasn't worried." Yang said. "Robot arm pals for life."
"That would be delightful."
"So," Ruby started. "I guess this is the end of team RNJR."
"But RWBY and JNPR are finally back even if it is different." Weiss said careful to not disgrace Pyrrha's memory.
"And wherever this journey takes us we're going together." Jaune said as he started nodding.
"I hear the huntsmen are gathering in the coliseum to discuss just that." Professor Polendina said. Just then Ruby collapsed and her aura shattered.
"Ruby!" Yang and Weiss called out.
"I guess those soldier pills are starting to…" Ren said collapsing with a shattering of his aura.
"What pills?" Yang said.
"What happened?" Weiss said.
"Better than candy," Nora said sleepily as she rocked back and forth. "you're so dandy, butter cup princess I love you." Nora said collapsing her aura shattering too.
"Raven, she gave them to us, said that, after an hour we'd be done." Jaune said collapsing his aura shattering as well.
"Well this is just great. They're sleeping." Weiss complained.
"Well there are some beds." Blake said. "Perhaps it's best we let them sleep.
"And I was just thinking how good that bed looked." Weiss said.
"We can come back after we discuss things with the huntsmen." Blake said. Penny shot up to join them.
"Is this Rubrum going to be there?" She asked.
"Probably." Yang answered. Penny put Ruby on the bed.
"Oh my," Penny said. "Ruby's leg is broken."
"What!?" Yang said her eyes flashing red.
"I'll call the doctors." Professor Polendina said. "Then I will likely join you girls to see what I can do."
"Raven has some explaining to do." Blake said.
"Damn right she does." Yang said popping her knuckles.
"They'll be safe here for now." Polendina said.
"So let's go so we can get back." Yang said. So they headed on their way leaving a sleeping team RNJR in their beds.
AN: A lot of wrapping up from the last several chapters. Next chapter will be similar but will mostly introduce the main plot of the next arc. I consider this the last chapter of the Mistral arc and next chapter the beginning of something different. Still didn't stop me from introducing a major theme of this next section. I'll have you guess what it is. Be sure to review and also follow and favorite. Until next time, stay classy.