RWBYond Vale
AN: Honestly I wasn't planning to write tonight because it's my sisters 21st. But she went home early and I decided I've got plenty on energy to crank out another chapter. Especially since this is all dialogue and not a lot of movement at all.
Chapter 51: Why did she have to die?
"Dang it Ruby don't you die on me!" Blake said. Everything was dark but Ruby could still make out the voice of her friends.
"Come on Ruby I need you to stay with me." Jaune said.
"Come on Ruby, you're going to be okay." Penny said.
"Why isn't she waking up?" Nora said distressed.
"She'll be fine." Ren said assuredly.
"Let me try something." Rio said.
"What are you doing?" Weiss said.
"Doing my best to keep her blood circulating." Rio said.
"You can do that?" Sun said.
"No not really but it's worth a shot."
"Ruby." August said. "Don't tell me this is where your journey ends. You still have a lot of work to do."
"August why do you have to be such an ass hole?" Yang argued.
"Trying to comfort her won't work. You have to remind her of why she's fighting." Everything faded out after that. She dreamt of all the places she's been. She saw the white specter standing at the cliff again. She saw Pyrrha with an arrow in her chest. Torchwick riding a griffon. Penny in pieces dangling from a ceiling. Then she saw Akagi, her entire body covered in sharp black markings. Akagi kept on chanting 'why.' That was all Ruby could remember of her dream as she screamed in horror, waking up.
It was a strange place. The setting sun shined through the windows. The walls were completely white with no shade of any color. The bed was strange to her to. There was something starchy about it like it…she was in a hospital. She was in a hospital robe. It took her a minute to remember. She was fighting Akagi and then…tears built up in her eyes.
"Hey there kiddo." A gruff voice said. Ruby looked to her right and saw uncle Qrow sitting in a chair beside her. He had his fingers laced together under his chin studying her.
"Uncle Qrow?" She said weakly. She tried to get up.
"Don't move pipsqueak." Qrow said. "You got hit bad. Your body is still recovering."
"Where am I?" Ruby asked.
"In a hospital, safe."
"Is this the Isle of Storms?"
"No."
"How long was I out?"
"About a month now."
"What?"
"You need to calm down. You pushed your body past its limits and beyond. What's the last thing you remember?"
"There was this girl. I had to fight her, I tried to stop her, but I…but I…" tears ran down her cheeks.
"It's okay Rubes." Qrow put a hand on her shoulder.
"Why did she have to die?" Qrow paused a moment before answering her question.
"Everyone dies."
"But why her? Why then? Why me?"
"I read through all the files recovered. She was created to destroy you. It was the only thing that she knew."
"But she had others."
"Those others were given to her as motivation. It's how the Black Knights work. It's how they've always worked. They tried to get your mothers DNA to make her but ended up with my sister's."
"We need to stop them."
"More than you know." Ruby looked out the window. The scenery was beautiful but strange. There were a pair of mountains nearby and clouds everywhere else.
"Uncle Qrow, where is everybody? Where are we?"
"We're in the Valean mountains on the border of Vacuo."
"Why are we here?" Ruby was getting upset. The mountains separating the two kingdoms were far away from the Isle of Storms, far away from anywhere Ruby had been. Why bring her all the way out here?
"Ruby, I need you to calm down."
"Where are my friends?"
"Yang, Weiss and Blake are in town. You'll see them in a little while but…a lot has happened since you left Mistral."
"Start from the beginning. Did you know I was the Spring Maiden?" Qrow paused a moment.
"Yes, but not until long after your mother died. Raven, my sister, told me. Your mom died helping them on a mission and somehow Ravens boss knew she was a maiden and used Raven's connection with her to extort her into helping them screw over Salem."
"So Salem had my mother killed."
"I honestly don't know. Raven says that another party got involved after the mission was a success and that's how she died."
"So what happened while we were away?"
"I'm going to need you to hear me out. Several councilmen were assassinated on route to their homes."
"What?"
"I said hear me out. Your friends did their best to patch you up on the island but didn't have the skills or resources to last long. But it looks like someone on the arbiters has been looking out for you."
"Raven?"
"No, someone name Kraken. I don't know anything about her except green hair and short. She saved your life. But that's not the end. That Rubrum kid is a genius. He turned their command tower into a giant CCT."
"Wait that means…" Qrow whipped out his scroll and showed that it was on-line.
"Every dirty little secret they could find on that island got broadcasted to every TV, radio, scroll and billboard in remnant. But it wasn't enough. We know who the enemies are now. But the involvement of Atlesian Colonel Vanilla Sly, a Mistral gun runner, a Vacuan mercenary, an Atlesian psychologist, several councilman and more than a few huntsmen, nobody trusts each other. Ruby, war has broken out in the kingdoms."
"What?"
"The kingdoms aren't fighting themselves, all the involved have been executed or imprisoned by the people depending on the kingdom. The whole chain of command has been shattered. The kingdoms refuse to cooperate and fight Salem and her forces as one. It's everyman for himself." Qrow took a swig of his flask.
"That's terrible."
"Vale is barely standing as is, Mistral is barely better off, Atlas has received the most scrutiny, and Vacuo is too sparsely populated to mount any kind of offense."
"What about the huntsmen?"
"The huntsmen, upon graduating, renounce their ties to any one kingdom. The headmasters are different, as government employees they have to stay in the confines of their kingdom. Some have gone to a kingdom to lead the militia forces there. The others have been split into five groups." Qrow pulled out some papers. "Sign this, renounce your citizenship and you'll become a…" Ruby ripped it out of his hand, took his pen and signed. "I knew you wouldn't hesitate but dang. Welcome to the Red Knights led by yours truly. The others are White, Gold, Green and Blue. They've been deployed throughout Remnant, where needed but all of them will be traveling around."
"I can't believe it. When I imagined becoming a huntress I never knew it would be like this."
"Everybody has signed these forms. JNPR went to Atlas, with the White Knights, SSSN went to Vacuo with the Gold Knights, ARRN split up to everyone except the Red Knights."
"And team RWBY is here, we're all Red Knights?"
"Yep but don't get too comfortable. You four have a long way to go which is why we are here. It's time to go to war. It's time we finish your training. These next few weeks are going to be purely defensive against our enemies while everyone gets back on their feet. Because when all five legions are ready, we're going back. We're going back home. We're going to Vale. We're clearing out Beacon."
AN: More particulars of what's going on next chapter. And then it will be the start of the next arc. The next arc is going to be all over the place, we are going to start at the beginning of the final battle at Beacon and then the remainder of the arc will be a "how did we get here" deal (watch Fight Club). Next chapter is going to be weird though. Mostly because a character gets introduced that always makes things weird.
