Two Sides to a Coin Ch. 26: Re-employment
I am back, I can't promise super regular updates cause I am going back into school but here's chapter 26.
Darkness was all that Ruby could see as she tried to lift her eyes open. She struggled, only getting brief glimpses.
"Come on," she heard someone say. "Wake up." Ruby finally started to get her eyes open. "There we go, that's the spirit." Ruby started to recognize the voice and her eyes opened to reveal the surroundings and she felt her heart sink. The place was a snow filled forest and the thing in front of her was Onyx.
"Onyx," Ruby said shakily. "Why am I here?"
"You were rendered unconscious," Onyx began. "The Black Knight hit hard, took us out." Onyx stopped, flexing it's claws in anger. "We lost."
"We lost?" Ruby asked. "I don't… I don't remem-."
"That's because I was the one who was knocked out," Onyx said. "But the body took far too much, neither of us had any sense of our surroundings." It flashed forward and left it's hand hovering just in front of Ruby's face. "Why didn't you relinquish control sooner?"
"T-that's what he wanted," Ruby stuttered. "If you came out, he got what he came for."
"So defeat was more acceptable?" Onyx growled. "You failed to understand our situation."
"We can't just use you every time! Otherwise we'll just let everyone know."
"Congratulations, you now are willing to sacrifice our victory for the chance we lose. Seems like a poor trade to me."
"Onyx, I-."
"Enough!" Onyx now put it's hands on Ruby's cloak, pulling her into it. Ruby got to be face to face directly against Onyx's completely mutated form. "The next time you try that, I won't be nearly as patient."
"I'm leading this pack," Ruby said, trying to stay calm. Onyx laughed and dropped Ruby. It gave her a half-crooked grin.
"You're leading because I do not desire to lead," Onyx spat. "Tell me, do you think that you're stronger than me?" Ruby was silent, she knew the answer to that question. Onyx's grin became a full-fledged smile as it recognized that it had won. "Next time, think this shit through." Onyx looked around at it's surroundings.
"Our time is running out," Onyx said. "I hope you're going to be smarter moving forward." Ruby watched the dream fade away from her as she regained consciousness.
Ruby opened her eyes and saw that she was back in the RWBY dorm with Roxanne hovering just over her.
"Good, she's awake," Roxanne said. The glow that was surrounding Ruby faded and Roxanne stood up. "Welcome back to the world of the living."
"What…?" Ruby said, stopping and raising her hand up to her head and grunting.
"Take it easy there," Roxanne said. "You got hit pretty hard, you're gonna have a wicked headache for a while."
"Am I…?"
"Nope, everybody else is up as well," Roxanne said. "They all woke up a lot faster, I guess they got hit less hard. I sent them all out to get food."
"They can move?" Ruby grunted. Roxanne shrugged.
"If I get an urgent call about a student collapsing in the hall, my bad, but them hovering four inches away from me and refusing to stop asking about when you were gonna wake up wasn't helping." Roxanne paused. "Which speaking of, welcome to three days after we picked you up."
"WHAT?" Ruby sat up and immediately recoiled. Roxanne sighed and put her hand on Ruby's head. The glow returned and Ruby started to feel her pain fade.
"I've already burned a lot of energy but since you don't follow instruction well," Roxanne grumbled. After a few more moments Roxanne took her hand off of Ruby.
"Now, let's try not to react like that again," Roxanne said. "So, you were out for three days. Your team all woke up sometime between day one and day 2, Yang got up first, then Weiss, then Blake. They all got worried that you weren't getting up anytime soon."
"So… What happened?" Ruby asked.
"Basically your pilot noticed that you hadn't come back so he went looking for you. Once he found you, he called in for a medic to be ready to treat them once you landed at Beacon. Ozpin asked for me to get on the job." Ruby looked down at her hands, seeing that she still had her gloves on.
"Mind if I-?" Ruby asked. Roxanne cut her off and nodded. Ruby took off her gloves and set them to the side. She flexed her claws and sighed.
Her team wasn't beat, they were utterly destroyed. The fact that they were alive seemed like a miracle and a decision. They weren't alive by their own strength, they were alive because the Black Knight decided that they weren't worth the time to kill. She shuddered and put her gloves back on.
The door opened and Ruby turned her head to watch as the rest of her team walked in with various foods. Yang immediately saw that Ruby was awake and almost dropped her food on the ground.
"Ruby!" She said. Yang carefully found an open spot to set the food and rushed to hug Ruby. Ruby hugged back, happy to be in the embrace of her sister again. "God… I thought you weren't going to wake up…"
"I'm okay Yang," Ruby said. "My head hurts a little bit but I'm up." Ruby felt two more pairs of arms join in the hug as Weiss and Blake added to the group hug. Ruby smiled, happy to be surrounded by her team. Regardless of how, Ruby was just happy that her team was still good.
Roxanne cleared her throat and her team piled off of Ruby.
"Thank you," she said. "Now, Ms. Rose, I'm going to leave you be for now and check back in tomorrow. In all honesty, there's no reason you shouldn't be fine for the rest of today. The only thing that would've been a problem was the headache but since nobody ever taught you self-restraint, I cleaned that up for you." Roxanne opened up the door and looked back at RWBY. "Call if you have any problems."
"Of course," Weiss said. "Thank you again Roxanne."
"Yeah, of course," Roxanne said. She left the dorm, leaving the four members of RWBY to stand around Ruby's bed.
"So…" Yang started. "That Black Knight guy is kind of a dick, huh?" Everyone let out a nervous laugh but Ruby fell out of humor almost immediately. She cleared her throat and looked down at her hands.
"Onyx isn't happy…" Ruby muttered.
"Eh, who gives a fuck," Yang countered. "We lost cause BK was a much better fighter than us. Who cares if Onyx's feelings were hurt a little?" Ruby was still silent before she took in a deep breath.
"I just don't like any of it," Ruby said. "We could've… I could've used Onyx sooner."
"Which he was waiting for," Blake added in. Ruby was still quiet, not willing to say anything more. Weiss put her hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"You did the right thing," Weiss said. "Just… A tactical error." Ruby was still silent, closing her eyes and starting to fight back her tears. Ruby didn't think that Onyx was going to do anything, as long as she made sure it was fed she thought she'd be fine. But she was so frustrated with herself. Her team almost died, there was no part of her that could salvage that in any way.
"I'm so sorry…" Ruby said. "I let you down…"
"You absolutely did not," Yang countered. She pulled Ruby right against her and leaned her head on top of Ruby's. "You did your best Rubles. Now we know for the next time." Ruby was dead silent, not wanting to utter a single word. Ruby felt her hand be grabbed and she looked up to see Weiss staring at her.
"I promise you Ruby, if you did something horribly wrong, I'd be the first to scold you on it," Weiss said. Ruby cracked a small smile and Weiss smiled back. "Trust me, you're fine. Just… Next time we go in as a team."
"Or we don't go in at all," Blake offered. "I'm a big fan of not fighting against the guy who has experience beyond what we understand." Everybody nodded and Blake looked at her bed.
"Well I'm beat," Blake said. "Rest for a new day tomorrow?" Everybody nodded and Yang looked Ruby in the eyes.
"Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" She asked. Ruby shook her head.
"I think Onyx is going to want to rest tonight," Ruby said. "I'll be okay." Yang nodded and moved back into her bed.
"Rest well Ruby," Yang said.
"You too Yang." The lights were shut off and everybody closed their eyes and fell asleep.
The next day, everything returned to normal. Ruby wasn't visited by Onyx at night, she made sure to feed it early in the morning. Onyx calmed down, though it was still not pleased and Ruby could feel that. She didn't like the energy, but there was nothing she could do. There was nothing that could change Onyx's mind.
After that, the day went as normal. Four days passed by and RWBY had started to get into their normal routine. But after those four days, Ruby got a message on her scroll.
Phantom zone, new information, you're landing on top of the roof this time. We've been given confirmation that the Phantom will make sure you're fine.
-Ozpin
Ruby bit her lip and looked at her team.
"I've got bad news," she said.
"Phantom?" Weiss asked. Ruby nodded and all of them let out a groan. Ruby grabbed her scythe and gestured for everyone to get ready to leave.
"The sooner this is over, the better."
The Phantom Zone
The Bullhead touched down on the landing pad on top of the roof and RWBY all piled out. The pilot watched all of them as they left the plane and gave them a nod.
"Let's try to not have me come down and pick you up," he said. Ruby smiled.
"Thanks," she said. The pilot nodded and leaned back in his chair, ready to wait out the meeting. Ruby looked at her team and lead the way into the building.
The stairwell took them into the secret passage of hallways that the Phantom had hidden behind his walls (the ones they had been lead to before). They reached a guard at the entrance into the main club, who immediately opened the door and let them in.
I have the overwhelming urge to kill everyone when we get past him, Onyx whispered. Ruby bit her lip, hoping that her displeasure and distaste was enough to convince Onyx to stop thinking these thoughts. They weren't helping her concentrate on what she needed to do.
They all walked in and took a seat on the couch, noticing that the chair was empty. They heard boots walk up behind them and saw one of the Phantom's workers walk in front of them.
"The Phantom has some last minute business that they did not foresee to take care of," he said. "He will be right with you."
"Thank you," Ruby said. The worker left and RWBY sat on the couch, as uncomfortable as they could be.
"So… Anybody wanna play iSpy?" Yang offered. "I spy with my little-."
"No," Blake said immediately, cutting Yang off as quickly as she could. Yang shrugged and sighed. There was the loud sound of boots behind them and they heard a familiar voice.
"My apologies everyone," the Phantom said as he came into view. "Sometimes people who are paying me more money than Beacon come calling, I had to take that call briefly. I'll take a bit off of the monetary value." The Phantom took a seat across from them and crossed his legs. RWBY all shifted around and Ruby reached for her scroll.
That was when Ruby heard the smallest of clinks against the ground and she turned her head, immediately feeling dread fill her.
What? Onyx snarled. The rest of her team followed Ruby's eyes and all of them went dead silent.
The Black Knight rounded the corner and stood behind the Phantom, folding his arms in dead silence.
"What the fuck is he doing here?" Yang asked instantly. The Phantom looked behind him at the Black Knight and shrugged.
"Oh him?" He asked. "Well you see, I paid him a lot of money." Yang growled and Ruby's hands clenched around her scythe. The Phantom sighed and looked back at his bodyguard. "Black, would you mind giving these girls an explanation?"
"Of course," the Black Knight said. "Somebody paid me more money than the Phantom was going to and gave me simple instructions, fake working under him and render you unconscious. I met with a masked person every week with no knowledge of who employed them, just a lot of cash."
"So you just knocked us out and now we're cool, huh?" Yang said, getting angrier and angrier.
"You don't seem to understand," the Black Knight said, his own tone dropping harshly in annoyance. "I came back to finish my duties under the Phantom, giving him a full confession. He was impressed with how strong I was, how easily I beat all four of you and offered to pay me more than anyone ever would to work under him."
"You still signed elsewhere!" Weiss snapped.
"And that contract expired," he continued. "Now I am getting paid more."
"Your allegiance-," Blake tried.
"My allegiance is to the highest bidder, or are you unaware of how mercenaries work?" Blake was silent and the Black Knight tilted his head. "Don't worry, I have no interest in fighting any of you again. Unless you start something that I have to finish."
He's not lying… Onyx whispered to Ruby. But I want his blood on our hands.
"You four didn't even put up a challenge," he continued. "Why bother with wasting energy?" Yang stood briefly but was immediately pulled down by Blake.
"He's right," Ruby whispered to her team. "We can't fight him."
What are you doing? Onyx hissed.
"Listen, we just want the info and we'll be gone," Ruby continued. She pulled out the scroll Ozpin gave her and passed it over. The Phantom took it and quietly went to work. Every member of RWBY kept their eyes trained on the Black Knight, who was watching them as well.
"Here we are," the Phantom said. "I left two files for my tardiness."
"Thank you," Ruby said. She grabbed the scroll and nodded. "We'll be on our way now."
"Of course," the Phantom said. "Though, you are welcome to relax here for a few moments?"
"Fuck off," Yang said. The Phantom laughed and shook his head.
"Children can be so sensitive sometimes." He waved his hand towards the passage. "Go, report back." RWBY left through the door way and the Phantom waited for it to close behind him.
"Do you think they bought it?" The Phantom asked.
"I didn't lie," the Black Knight said. "A masked man gave me a lot of money at a pre-determined location with instructions to fake being your bodyguard. What about that was false?" The Phantom smiled.
"Excellent thinking," he said. "But I will say, they're young and stupid, they will want to try for revenge. How confident are you in your capabilities of handling them?"
"Extremely," the Black Knight replied. "But… There are reasons to believe they'll be smarter next time. The Grimm had a remarkably underwhelming effect, I doubt that'll happen again." The Phantom nodded and stood up.
"Let's ensure that it never comes to that."
End: Short but it's back. Questions, comments, follows, favorites and feedback is always appreciated.