Chapter 5: Morning Spiral

I wanna say, I've been sitting on this chapter pretty much for a bit on and off, hope y'all enjoy it!

The sounds of birds chirping loudly, startled Ruby from her slumber and knocking her out of bed. Groaning loudly to counter the birds, the young huntress in training got up from the floor of her bedroom… well not her bedroom, but the bedroom she was using at her uncle Qrow's house in the city of Mistral. Sure enough, Qrow had told her that: yes, she was allowed to take the bedroom with the queen sized mattress, in fact he said it was hers.

Ruby just sighed as she pulled herself back onto the queen sized bed, a luxury, compared to the twin she was still used to in her and Yang's bedroom back on Patch. It was quite comfy, soft but firm enough to not sink in, just what she liked. It was nice really to say that her uncle had given her a private bedroom for her to use while she was there. A shock though, was how the room was colored, she hadn't noticed it before when the team had crawled in with her on their first day there, but the room was decorated in red hues, from the bedcover to the pillows. A few silver colored items were scattered around too, making the room pop in the morning sunlight that was creeping in through the window.

She yawned to herself as she got comfy for a few moments, just resting on her bed. The mattress was one of the softest she had ever rested on, and she would have fallen back asleep in a flash, if it were not for her ears curling slightly from the birds starting to chirp again, even louder this time. Ruby just sighed, since arriving in Mistral, they had become a part of her daily routine, mainly due to her new wolf ears.

Ruby got up and started to walk towards the door, still a little unbalanced after days of on and off practicing with her new tail. Even though the tail is soft to touch and might cause her to get distracted when resting, it also shifted her balance, which for her, is a big part of her fighting style. Crescent Rose needs a proper balance after all!

Ruby opened the door and only hoped that once she started training again, her new faunus traits would become easier to work around, and allow her to revert back to how she fought before all of these sudden changes to her life. Her mind still had that sudden bird transformation from a few days ago bouncing around. Was there more to it, and could she turn it on or off at will? It was puzzling to try to put everything together about her new 'powers'.

What else was there just being hidden from her?

One answer to that lay before her. It had dawned on Ruby that she had already arrived at her uncle's door on the way to the stairs. The door was always locked, even when Qrow was downstairs or even inside of it. She hadn't asked why just yet, but it still concerned her a lot. What secret did her uncle have in there that was so bad that she couldn't look at it? Sure; she knew that her uncle was still withholding a lot of secrets of his own from her and her team, they were his to tell afterall. However, the door to his bedroom on Patch was never locked like this either so it wasn't the norm.

Ruby looked up at the door and hesitated to knock. Slowly she reached up and knocked. A loud groan soon creeped it's way through the cracks in the door frame. "I'm coming, I'm coming." Ruby's ears relaxed, and she swore her tail wagged a little at the sounds of her uncle's voice, a curious quirk that she still needed to get to, or at least research a way to calm her new tail down. Ruby just marked it up to the long bond she'd formed with her uncle since well, birth? He's been in and out of her life pretty much since birth after all.

The door slowly creaked open a sliver, to reveal really only Qrow's head, Ruby tried to take a better look, but only saw her uncle's chest, nothing more. "Whos- oh hey Pipsqueak." Qrow's attitude had suddenly shifted from his natural gruff to a more softened tone, fatherly even. "Good morning, you need something?"

Ruby shook her head. "Nope! I just wanted to make sure you were up, you mentioned today we are going to see Professor Lionheart at Haven Academy right?" She just smiled to herself, before blushing slightly at the realization that if she wasn't wagging before, she could now feel her tail wagging excitedly, bashing into both of her legs as she tried to stop it. She wished Blake was here to help her with these sudden changes!

Yeah.. Blake. Ruby was reminded of Yang's words in that moment, saying that Blake had run on the remnants of team RWBY. Still didn't make the pain any better, she missed her old teammates a lot.

She missed Weiss.

Penny…

Ruby tried not to focus on it, but the more she tried not to, the more her mind crossed paths with her memories.

Pyrrha.

Jaune's face when she met him the first time after waking up from her coma.

"-Yeah we are, aren't we." Qrow's natural grim stature had lifted a little as he spoke, catching Ruby's attention and bringing her back to real life. Ruby watched Qrow lift his hand and let it rub through his hair. "Yeah, let me get ready then we can head off once everyone else is ready to go Pipsqueak."

Ruby just smiled for a moment. "Alright Uncle Qrow!" She tried to peer inside of the room once more in that moment, only for her uncle to close and lock his door again, disappointing her. She sighed to herself, hoping one day her uncle trusted her enough to know just what was in his room. But that can wait, today she's going to their final destination: Haven Academy. Hopefully the visit to the academy will clear her mind and lift her spirits again.

Qrow was also in the mood to sigh when he locked the door on his- Ruby's face. A part of his mind wished for him to just let her in, let her find out the truth but no. He made sure the door was locked once before. He slowly made his way over to his closet, pulling out a nice shirt and pants he had been storing for years. He took a moment to look at the other clothes in the closet.

He shook his head and closed the closet as he turned to look to the master bathroom. It was going to be a long day for sure, he might as well get ready. Sighing to himself, he knew he was going to have to iron the shirt's collar a little before leaving with the bunch of kids he was leading now. He was never good with ironing.

The echoes of rain filled Jaune's ears as his eyes flashed open. He wasn't back in Mistral, nor Beacon. No, he was staring at the Nuckelavee's cold hard yellow and red eyes staring right into his soul. It's boney face glowing a red hue through the cracks and tears in the being's skull and horns. It's mouth agape, just staring at him. Jaune could make out each line of the beast's flesh that conjoined the lower jaw to the skull.

N-No.

His eyes glanced around as he started to panic out of fear. This thing was out to kill him. The rain fell harder still as Jaune struggled to get up, but couldn't. He tried again, the weight of the world and the rain made it unbearable.

His eyes glanced down, and only when he did, did his whole body start to react wildly to what had happened. He started with a soft gasp for air.

It couldn't be.

His armor was shattered, pierced right through by one of the damned arms of the beast. He tugged at the arm, only to feel pain. No, it hadn't just pierced his armor, the arm had tore through him too, likely now firmly embedded in the building behind him.

His sword.

He needed his sword.

Jaune tried to grab for Crocea Mors, surely it was still within grabbable reach. He looked around and to his horror, it was too far to reach in his condition. He tried to reach it anyway, hoping for a sign from those gods Ruby's uncle had mentioned. Hopelessness creeped it's way into his mind as he tried to grab it again. Every time Jaune thought he was close enough, his arm strained, full of pain and showing to him that he was nowhere near close enough to grab his sword. Sighing in defeat, Jaune returned to trying to break the arm using his fists.

Surely just using Yang's method of fighting will help him.

"J-Jaune."

A voice echoed towards him, very pained, but he knew exactly whose it was, it had been Ruby's. Jaune pulled his head up, scouting around to try to spot Ruby, he had to believe it was Ruby's voice, he was sure of it! Surely she could free him and get him patched up!

"I-It's okay Jaune." Ruby's voice grew colder as he looked back forward, towards the beast's horse face, it too was very boney as it stared at him, but something else closer to him caught his eye first.

N-No.

There crouched before him, with a large hole in her chest and back filled by the same arm, was Ruby. Bleeding out she turned to him, her softened silver, beady eyes streaming with tears, her face red, both from blood internally and bleeding out, onto the Grimm's coldened arm, hardening on to the Grimm. "I-It's okay Jaune, we tried our best."

"N-No Ruby, I-I can't believe that." Jaune tried to get up, using his remaining strength to move towards Ruby. "Come on Rubes, we can try to free our-" Jaune just looked at Ruby as she shook her head. "Ruby?"

"N-No We can't Jaune. Our auras are broken. We're..-" Ruby trailed off for a moment, Jaune couldn't believe what she was saying yet she finished her statement. Ruby coughed for a moment, blood coming up out of her mouth, coating both Jaune and the beast's arm in spots of blood. "-We're dead." Ruby's voice had lost all motivation as the beast surrounding them only breathed down their necks.

It's over.

Jaune grunted in pain as he made his way further along the Nuckelavee's arm, eventually reaching Ruby. He put a hand on Ruby's shoulder as she turned back to him. "I'm tired Jaune… I'm gonna sleep…" her voice was slipping and it made Jaune want to scream to the heavens more and more.

"No you can't Ruby, you need to stay with me, for your uncle, for Ren and Nora, for me…" Jaune felt his own soul weaken as he struggled to hold Ruby closer, eyes barely able to see her clearly due to the amount of tears falling. "Y-you can't leave me."

Ruby looked up at him, her silver eyes losing life by the second. "I'm sorry…" Ruby's voice trailed off as she took her last breath. The life fading from her eyes as Jaune just looked at her, unable to do anything but watch in horror. There was no way he would lose Ruby, not to this.

'I can't move on, I failed Qrow.' Jaune thought to himself as he kept to himself, tears flowing from his eyes as he tried everything he could to save her. He wanted to murder everything that stood in his path.

He tried everything, but it wasn't good enough, damn him. He thought to himself… his mind warped and he started to think. He had blood on his hands, if he had never had gone to Beacon, Pyrrha and now Ruby would still be alive. He struggled to get up and cried.

He cried out in pain as he looked to Ruby's cold body before him, and up to the towering Nuckelavee Grimm above them both. His eyes slowly started to close on him, and he silently looked down at Ruby, closing her eyes for her, it was the best he could do. He took one last breath himself and closed his own, as his heart stopped.

Jaune Arc had murdered them, and now himself.

Jaune's eyes opened slowly, he was in the bedroom he shared with Ren and Nora. He looked around to see he was clearly in a pool of sweat. He turned to see their bed empty and birds chirping outside.

Jaune yawned and got up. That wasn't the first time he had been burdened during his slumber with that nightmare. No, he has had it every night since they had arrived in Mistral. Sometimes things are added like Nora's hammer smashed and laying nearby, but it always included him and Ruby dying on something.

It pained him a lot to try to get up today, just like the day before, and the day before that. The sounds of the city waking up barely helped him climb out of bed either. He only groaned to himself as he looked in the mirror above the drawer he was using.

He was useless without a semblance.

Jaune just looked at the dark bags that were forming under his eyes. Stress from his nightmares were getting to him and he didn't care. Part of him wanted out, to go back home to Domremy. To be the good little farm boy his father wanted him to be. Another wanted him to be able to see Pyrrha again.

He missed her.

He sighed to himself. He had never really been good with his emotions after all, he can gauge most people, but himself? What was Pyrrha still to him?

A friend? A lover? Where was the line?

Jaune didn't know, that night at Beacon had opened his eyes to Pyrrha's love for him, only for her to give up her life minutes later to give people time to flee Beacon.

Maybe he should inspire to be like her in that regard? To give up his life if it meant giving others time to get to safety. Yeah.

That's what a good knight in shining armor does.

"Jaune?"

Jaune turned to the doorframe, there was Ruby, trying to smile at him. He moved to wave a little. She had been here for him, at least once she recovered from her comas. But now? She's been cursed by those gods that her Uncle and former Headmaster Ozpin believe in.

And where had that gotten those two men? Poisoned by some lunatic, and killed respectively though Jaune didn't really care about that.

"You okay Jaune? You've been staring at that mirror again haven't you?" Ruby's voice brought him back to reality. Her new wolf faunus ears twitched as she looked at him. She was worried…

He was worrying her.

Jaune tried to push past that fact as he looked down at Ruby and tried to smile. Though it was very clear to both of them that it was clearly forced. "I'm fine Ruby. I really am."

Ruby's face fell and her ears dropped low. "O-Ok Jaune, I just…. I'm here to talk, Jaune, whenever you need me. We're partners now remember? I care a…-" Jaune watched as Ruby sighed, clearly holding things back too. "I care a lot for you, you know. Same with Ren and Nora, and my uncle. So please, talk to me if you need to, if not as a partner but as my best friend, Jaune." Ruby said trying to smile, her silver eyes sparkling with hints of hope.

Hope. Even through all of this madness, Ruby still had hope in her eyes. Jaune just smiled softly at that. Even in these times of need, Ruby was still moving forward.

He could use her strength at this moment, but… he didn't want to burden her more with his issues. She has her own first, that's what matters.

Yeah. She's what matters, Qrow even told him to protect her, so.. That's what he should keep doing.

Protecting Ruby.

Jaune looked down at Ruby again and smiled warmly this time. "Thank you Ruby. I'll talk to you if I need to."

Ruby just smiled warmly at that too and started to walk out of the room. "Breakfast should be done soon Jaune, hopefully you're fast enough to get some pancakes before Nora eats them all!" She smiled and winked as she disappeared.

Jaune sighed but chuckled. Ruby was known to leave pancakes for him anyway, hopefully today will be a good day. With him being able to practice and protect his team… and Ruby, at all costs.

That's what a good knight does: protect the Queen.

"Are we there yet?!"

Ruby tried not to roll her eyes at Nora's ramblings, she had been asking the same question for nearly five minutes now. While it was getting a little annoying to hear Nora ask it over and over, she had to admit Qrow's route was quite abnormal.

They were in a cobble stoned tunnel within the City of Mistral. Ruby wouldn't call it a main street, but it was clearly one of the side roads that made their ways up and down through the cliffs the city was built around.

Lanterns adorned the walls, as did a few doors, which Ruby thought were likely used as backdoors to access the main roads' businesses or houses. A few of them happened to have signs on them, and mailboxes!

Ruby listened as she heard Qrow just sighing finally reacting to Nora's question as they climbed up a set of stairs. "No we're not, but we're nearly there, ten minutes at most." The group turned a corner to reveal sunlight once more.

Ruby rushed forward, seeing a balcony and was amazed by just how big the city was. She had to admit, the city was very different to how Vale was laid out. Whereas Vale sprawled outward, Mistral was located in a canyon, and almost every plot of land was used with something right above it in a terrace formation.

"Wow, this is amazing!" Ruby cheered as she stood at a railing, her arms stretching out towards the canyon, it was a lot to take in.

Qrow just laughed a little. "Yeah.. it's certainly something compared to Vale, and Atlas, this is the main market area of the city, this whole chasm is from top to bottom basically considered an open twenty four hour mall."

That got reactions out of both Ruby and Nora, both 'oooohing' and 'awwwing' at the city as Jaune spoke up. "They really made the most of this area haven't they?"

Qrow nodded but soon gritted his teeth. "Yes… Every nook and cranny there's something. There's vendors here from around Anima, who will sell you just about anything… whether they should or not."

"What's that meant to mean?" Nora asked, smiling.

Qrow just sighed. "Let's just say….There are quite a few places in the chasm that are just… swarming with mercenaries, some ex-Huntsmen, I suggest that we avoid the lower levels if we can. The higher you go, the nicer it gets, trust me. I've lived here for quite a while."

Ruby's ears latched onto that last statement with interest. Perhaps Qrow was just exaggerating some things, as he did in fact, teach at Signal Academy for over five years, the last five years even. When did he have the time to settle down here properly? Ruby shook off the questions for later as Nora shouted. "And we are going up!" Ruby turned to see Nora pointing towards the twin towers poking out above the other side of the chasm.

Qrow just laughed. "Yes, that's the Academy up there, Ms. Valkyrie. Now come on, let's get a move on shall we kiddos?"

Ruby just nodded in agreement. "Right uncle Qrow, let's try to not get distracted on the way then!" The others agreed in unison, and they started to walk towards Haven Academy.

It did not take long to get distracted.

Over a whole hour had passed by the time Ruby and the group had managed to leave the marketplace. Nora had been the first one to end up walking into a store and soon they all were exploring on their own. Ruby ended up traveling around the market with Jaune in tow as she came upon weapon shops, dust shops, and other goodie stores.

Jaune had to hold her back sometimes from buying a lot of things, though Ruby managed to purchase a few things to read and use on Crescent Rose.

It had taken Qrow a good fifteen minutes alone to finally track down Ren and Nora once he had found Ruby and Jaune, but now they were at least on the road again, the academy's shadow slowly creeping up on the group. It's twin CCT towers drew their attention as they walked forward. It was finally time to talk to Professor Lionheart.

"That's right, just like that dear."

When Abuela Maria said she was going to start teaching him how to fight, Oscar did not expect her to be so rough with her training. It had been a few weeks of grueling training already. Armed with nothing but a wooden sword, it was a struggle to keep up.

He had been lucky that one of the first things she had done was unlock his aura for him, at least now he can take a few extra hits before collapsing. He knew his abuela was tough, but tough was clearly an understatement.

"Alright Oscar, you need to focus on the swing." Maria shouted, as she turned around. "Now dodge!" Maria swung hard towards him, giving him only seconds to stumble backwards, hitting the rocks hard when he eventually fell on his back.

Getting up, he looked himself over, noticing a small slash on his arm. "Abuela, remind me why we're practicing without aura, even though you taught me?"

Ozpin lay inside Oscar's mind, only to sigh at the situation confronting Oscar. While he understood Oscar's troubles, he had to commend Maria's style of teaching as proving to be successful. There was less pain today than yesterday. Oscar's learning on his own, and while he wanted to teach Oscar, Oscar wanted to go to his grandmother. A choice Ozpin had to agree with, as it is Oscar's body and mind he's in, afterall.

Maria stopped and lowered her own wooden sword. "There will be times where you are unable to use your aura, it's best to learn how to fight without it." She reached down to lift him up. "Besides, overuse of aura is also a bad thi-." Maria paused for a few moments.

Oscar grew concerned, while she didn't often get reminded of the past, it would be hard sometimes to pull her back. "Abuela?"

Maria looked over to him. "Oh sorry Ozzy. But Oscar… Aura is a serious deal, it might be the manifestation of your soul, but at the same time, I need to train you first, so it can enhance you, not be your driving force."

Oscar didn't understand what she meant but just nodded. "Alright Abuela, let me get ready for another-"

Maria shook her head, making Oscar a little curious, she normally kept him practicing for another hour or so. "No deary, we've been training all morning and into the afternoon, let me get you patched up, and make us something to eat, dear."

Oscar felt relief flow through his body as he sighed. "Yes Abuela." Maria then took her staff and walked towards the house. It was quite the pain to practice with the wooden sword, with the fear of getting splinters really not helping.

Maria wasn't listening to him, for she was lost in her own thoughts, remembering all the times she had to flee due to her own aura, and her eyes. Sure they had been removed but the memory still pained, she had been found by her blinder with the help of her own aura afterall.