Recording #60
March, 22981 AEA
"Apollo took me away from my lab today. Something about 'mandatory relaxation and celebration time'. I wish he'd give me warning in advance, but I do appreciate it. Sometimes I get very… lost while working. This doesn't really have anything to do with the Veil, but we went to the King's hunting grounds for a bit of friendly competition. He challenged me to a 'no magic' run, but regardless, I beat him down. That's not to toot my own horn or anything: Apollo was just out of practice, such that even I could defeat him with my mediocre combat experience. Though, personally, I haven't allotted more than a century for learning how to fight; any longer would be a waste of time. What would I possibly need it for?
Beacon Academy
November, 78 AGW
"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge,"
'Yep, sounds about right.' Ruby nodded along to his speech. That is precisely what she came here to do.
"To hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."
That was somewhat of a deviation from her goals, but Ruby could appreciate the fact that the rest of these mortals would willingly place their own lives on the line for the sake of others. That took guts, even if there was a more practical solution in simply removing death from the equation.
"But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."
She shot Ozpin an odd look, even as the other students whispered worriedly among themselves.
"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
Ruby smiled to herself. A bit of a pretentious speech, but nothing she hadn't heard before. Though, Ozpin was marginally older than everyone else in the room, so she supposed he could get away with talking in that manner. Ruby turned to leave, but stopped when she saw Glynda take the stage.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight." She pointedly made eye contact with Ruby.
"Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."
How annoying. While it did give her more time to observe these mortals in person, as she had been doing earlier, Ruby would much rather have preferred to return to the library or the weapons facility tonight. In her five or so days of reading, she'd just managed to pick up the basics of this 'Remnant'. Most of her time in the library was spent poring through innumerous historical texts for any mention of Eternal architecture or technology, to no avail. Because of course it wouldn't be that easy.
Aside from that, Ruby spent the rest of her time learning about Valean society and culture, since it seemed that concrete concepts like physics or chemistry remained unchanged. She had quickly learned that these humans believed magic to be fictional, or at the very least unattainable, yet most of their society also functioned off a semi-magical material called Dust. How contradictory was that?
Although, on second thought, perhaps they simply lacked the perspective Ruby had to make the connection. Regardless, this 'Dust' was quite fascinating to Ruby, and she had quickly begun experimenting with it during her time at the forges. Emphasis on 'begun', though, as she then had to spend a day scrambling to put together a proper weapon for initiation, so not much progress was made on that front. What made it worse was that her new weapon was totally a rush job; far from Ruby's finest work.
'No use crying over spilt milk.' That was one of the many strange idioms she had recently learned. Was she even using it correctly? She giggled as she made her way to her soon to be shared dorm, musing over the various phrases and sayings of their culture. Briefly, she wondered if they preferred to be called 'humans' or 'mortals'. Weiss had apparently not taken well to being called a 'human', at the very least.
Ruby took a quick inventory check as she opened the door. For tonight and tomorrow's initiation, she'd need her notes, Scroll, and weapon, all safely tucked away in her cloak's pocket. It was starting to get pretty heavy, what with all the junk she threw into it in the past week or so, but no management was needed for now. The dorm room itself, on the other hand…
All four beds were relatively untouched; Ruby preferred the hardness of the floor for her meditative sessions. Yet scattered about every other conceivable surface was various papers and articles she had 'acquired' from the library for further reading, alongside many ripped pages from versions of her notes and blueprints that she wasn't quite satisfied with yet.
Right. It was time for a cleanup. Ruby might have looked down on the state of these living quarters, and the state of these unimpressive mortals in general, but that didn't mean she was about to be discourteous for no reason. With a flick of her hand, a gentle breeze wrapped around any errant papers and guided them into a stack on a nearby desk. Ruby didn't bother checking the bathroom; she hadn't used it at all due to her current... situation, so naturally it was clean. With that sorted, and with her weapon secure in her pocket dimension, she made her way back to the ballroom.
"Ruby!" A cheerful voice called out to her from a corner of the ballroom. "Over here!"
Who—? Oh, it was just Yang, sat cross legged on an unfolded sleeping bag. She was dressed slightly differently from when they had first met, and was waving wildly at her with her right arm. Her left was hooked around the neck of a blonde boy dressed entirely in a fluffy blue outfit, obviously to prevent him from escaping judgement for wearing… whatever he was wearing.
"Hi, Yang. Who's your friend?" Ruby plopped down on the hardwood in front of them.
Yang unhooked her arm around him and patted him on the back. "Go ahead and introduce yourself, Vomit Boy."
The other blonde wrung his neck before composing himself. "The name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue—ladies love it!"
Was he some sort of romantic connoisseur? Her notebook was already out and at the ready.
"Fascinating…" She jotted down his name and circled it for effect. "Please, tell me more!"
Jaune choked back a cough of surprise. Was it something she said? Next to them, Yang doubled over with laughter.
"You two are a riot! Guess you've got yourself a fan, you little lady-killer!" She exclaimed, ruffling his hair.
He sighed, but didn't put up a fight against Yang. "I can't believe I found my long lost eighth sister at Beacon…"
She ignored that comment, and turned towards Ruby. "So, are you excited for tomorrow?"
"For the initiation?" Ruby settled into her meditative stance. "Not particularly. Though, Qrow mentioned we'd be forming teams randomly, so that could be interesting."
"Oh, that's pretty neat—wait, you know Uncle Qrow?"
"I ran into him a few months ago, plus he's been hanging around Beacon for the past week." Yang's eyes narrowed for some reason, but she didn't say anything in response.
"Hold on, you've already been here for a week?" Jaune interjected. Okay, now she was getting bored of repeating herself.
Ruby closed her eyes and began 'sleeping', while Yang caught Jaune up on how Ozpin had accepted her as a student. Their voices faded away as she began sorting through the memories and information she'd gained today.
"Right Ruby? Uh, Ruby? Hellooo…?"
"I think she's meditating. We shouldn't disturb her, Yang."
"Awww, fine. But I'm totally not done asking her questions. Wake me up if anything interesting happens, lady-killer."
"I'm not—what? Hey! Stop that! I'd like to keep my Aura intact for tomorrow, thank you very much!"
Blake woke up with a start, hands instinctively reaching for Gambol Shroud. She sighed as her night vision kicked in. It seemed she still couldn't kick that old habit of sleeping in shifts from her time in the White Fang, despite having left months ago. On instinct, her eyes surveyed her surroundings, sweeping over the ballroom floor. Good, everyone was still asleep and—
Glowing silver eyes met hers, staring inquisitively. Wordlessly, hands appeared from inside a red cloak, holding a notebook and pen.
Blake broke eye contact and tried to lay back down in a natural fashion. Panic filled her body as her heart threatened to burst out of her chest. What the hell was that girl doing? Did she see her? Did she know?
She tried to keep her breathing steady as the painfully quiet minutes turned to hours. Eventually, the people around her began to stir, as the morning sun peeked through the ballroom windows, and Blake was left with two choices.
One: confront the girl over what she was doing, and risk getting exposed as a Faunus even before Beacon officially 'started'. Or two: pretend that nothing had happened and pray to the Brother Gods that it was just a coincidence or a dream. So really, Blake only had one option.
Getting up, she noticed the girl was still there, though her attention was now focused elsewhere. Blake hurriedly moved to the dressing room, intent on getting ready as quickly as possible to avoid any confrontation. Maybe breakfast would take her mind off of things...
Pyrrha was a fool. A complete and utter fool. How could she possibly have thought that her fame wouldn't have followed her all the way to Beacon? From the minute she stepped off that airship—no, perhaps even earlier than that—the pressure was on. Stares and shouts of recognition from strangers and students alike, and even a few attempts at asking for an autograph. Pyrrha politely declined, of course, but she felt like screaming on the inside. Still, if it meant becoming a Huntress, she would gladly grin and bear any acts of undeserved reverence sent her way. Like she was currently!
"So, Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!"
"Hmm... I'm not quite sure." She stalled as she buried her frustration. "I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."
"Well, I was thinking… maybe we could be on a team together?" Weiss asked hopefully.
"That sounds lovely!" Pyrrha smiled, years of training kicking in as she tried not to grind her teeth together too hard.
The Schnee's look of triumph quickly turned to irritation as something caught her eye, behind Pyrrha. Someone was approaching them. "You again!"
Bored, light grey eyes stared back at them. "Ah, it's you, um… Weiss, was it?"
The hooded girl in front of Pyrrha was about as tall as Weiss, with dark red hair partially covering her flawless, porcelain face. A red cloak covered her whole body, but Pyrrha could spot bits of a Beacon uniform poking out. What was a student doing with the rest of the initiates? And why was Weiss so angry with her?
She threw back her hood and bowed. "I'd like to apologize for my choice of wording yesterday."
Weiss relaxed a bit. "Well, as long as you know your pla—"
"I had no idea you disliked being called a Human. I'll be careful not to mention it around you from now on."
The Schnee threw up her hands, exasperated. "Are you serious? You've missed the point entirely!"
The girl's eyes widened. "Did I do something wrong? But I could have sworn…" She trailed off and whipped out a cartoonishly large notebook from her cloak, rapidly flipping through the pages.
Pyrrha barely stifled a giggle at the new girl's antics, drawing both of their attention.
"You there, tell me: was my apology not up to your people's standards?" The girl questioned her. Silver eyes met emerald, but no recognition flickered from them. Could it be?
Pyrrha chose her words carefully. "Well, I don't exactly know the cause of the argument, but—"
"Ruby here," Weiss interrupted. "Implied that partaking in Initiation with us 'Humans' would be an annoyance!" She finished, aggressively staring down the girl.
"But," Pyrrha continued, "She did approach you with the intent to apologize, right? I believe your apology was fine, Ruby." She finished with a kind smile. In all honesty, she was a bit biased against Weiss at the moment, but that was minor in the grand scheme of things.
"Thanks, uh…" Ruby's expression faltered, prompting another sigh from Weiss.
"Ruby, do you have any idea who you are talking to?"
"Should I? I don't recall seeing her likeness in the history books."
"Wh—? This is Pyrrha." Weiss introduced, stumbling over that odd remark. "She graduated top of her class in Sanctum, and has won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row! I doubt even a prodigy like you could accomplish that much!"
"Mistral…" Ruby flipped to another page in her notebook. "Oh! Yep, I know Mistral. It's a place. To the east of us. Uh… Congrats?" She offered a hand hesitantly.
Pyrrha shook it with a wide smile on her face. She wasn't certain what circumstances would need to exist for someone to not be familiar with one of the four Kingdoms, but in that moment, she didn't care. She just wanted to know more about this crazy girl that seemingly popped out of nowhere.
"Thank you. May I ask what you are doing here? You're already a student, are you not?"
"Not quite. I've still gotta do this Initiation with all you… people." Yes! Perfect!
"Well, if you need a teammate, I'm sure Weiss and I would be happy to have you." She declared, ignoring the look of indignation from Weiss.
At that moment, a voice rang out from the intercom. "Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."
"Guess that's our cue." They began walking to the exit. "Oh, and the team selection process is random, at least from what I've heard. It's whoever you meet first." That could throw a wrench in her plans.
It didn't take long for the trio to make their way to the Cliffs, where a majority of the other initiates were already lined up. Among them, Pyrrha could spot a blonde haired girl grinning at her in a predatory manner, while next to her, a black haired girl tried her hardest to look small. Standing at what was clearly a launching platform, Pyrrha began plotting ways to meet up with Ruby in the forest below. Perhaps a subtle use of her Semblance on her armor?
Once it was clear that everyone was present, Ozpin began another speech. Something about retrieving relics from the north? Pyrrha was too distracted revising her landing strategy to really focus. Glancing to her right, she could see Ruby staring down the Headmaster intently.
Then, starting from the right, the launching began. Soon, it would be her and Ruby's turn.
"Miss Rose. I hope you're not thinking of violating our agreement?"
Weiss launched.
"Of course not, Ozpin. In fact, I'll show you just how much I'm not gonna use it. Watch me!" Ruby declared with a mischievous grin.
Ruby launched. Pyrrha watched with wide eyes as the red cloaked figure soared far past everyone else. Was her launch pad defective?
"Ozpin!" Professor Goodwitch hissed. "What the hell was that?"
"I… do not know. Perhaps—"
That was all Pyrrha caught before she too was sent flying through the air. Determined to catch up to Ruby, Pyrrha stuck her hands out superhero style and started dragging herself forward with her Semblance. It wasn't much, but she managed to put herself ahead of everyone else before using her landing strategy. Miraculously, she could still see Ruby flying ahead of her, cloak billowing out as she descended. At this rate Pyrrha wouldn't be surprised if she'd reach the northern end of the forest just by landing!
The champion broke out into a measured sprint, taking care not to attract the wayward Grimm. A few Beowolves moved to intercept her despite her best efforts. Checking to see that no one else was around, Pyrrha quickly attached Miló to Akoúo̱ and launched it into the air, spinning the combo like a buzz saw with her Semblance, before directing it into the oncoming Grimm. Leaping over their dismembered and dissolving remains, she made her way into a clearing, spotting the flash of a now familiar red cloak. Or rather, the bottom half of a cloak.
Ruby was somehow buried headfirst in the ground, head, arms, and torso. Pyrrha took a moment to appreciate the humor of the situation before grabbing Ruby by the ankles and uprooting her.
"Thanks! I've done this before, and it was just as unfun as I remember! But I had to prove a point." She winked off in the distance. What?
"Why didn't you use a landing strategy?" Pyrrha inquired as Ruby shook herself off. There wasn't a single indication that she had just landed face first from falling off a cliff. How powerful was her Aura?
"I did, but I had to follow Ozpin's rules, so I didn't. It's complicated. Anyways, let's get these relics and get out of here. I want to go back to researching!" She started walking.
Pyrrha politely stowed her many, many questions for later. They were partners now, so she would have plenty of time to ask in the future.
"Do you know where the relics are?" Pyrrha followed along, matching Ruby's stride.
"I saw some ruins while I was still in the air. There was also a cave a bit farther north. You're more familiar with this world than I am, so what do you think?"
This world? Odd choice of words, but Pyrrha pushed that aside to consider the actual question. "It wouldn't be easy to monitor the insides of a cave system. Let's check out the ruins first."
"Fair enough." Ruby shrugged. "This way, then."
It was fair to say that Blake's day had gone from bad to worse. She was relatively undisturbed after that early morning fiasco, and everything was going fine up until they assembled at the cliffs. She was still there, but didn't seem to notice Blake, which was a relief. Even the launching sequence was rather painless. But, it seemed that fate wasn't done toying with her yet, as she happened upon the Schnee, surrounded by Beowolves.
Her eyes widened in panic. The Schnee was too busy focusing on the front, to notice a Beowolf creeping up behind her.
'I could just sit here and let it happen…'
The Grimm crept closer. Blake tuned her Faunus hearing. There was no one else in the immediate vicinity. No else was coming to help, to do Blake's job for her.
Then again, it was her job now, wasn't it? Her days in the White Fang were past her. If she was serious about becoming a Huntress, about making the world a better place, then she'd be a coward for not trying, even if it was a Schnee being threatened.
Gambol Shroud flew out and sunk into the Beowolf's neck, killing it instantly. Blake dropped down from her hiding spot and retrieved her weapon, making eye contact with the Schnee. For better or for worse, they were partners now.
"Thank you. Weiss Schnee." The heiress relaxed from her fighting stance.
"Blake Atropos." She replied, remembering her alias. Huh. Maybe she hadn't made a mistake coming here after all.
"Well then, Blake, shall we?" Weiss turned around and started confidently marching in a direction that was most assuredly not north.
Blake sighed. Of course things wouldn't be that simple.
"Actually, I saw some ruins this way." She jabbed a thumb behind her. "It's north of us, and I think it'd be a good place to start."
Weiss whirled around, clearly embarrassed. "Y-yes, of course! That way!"
The duo made their way further north, dispatching any Grimm that got in their way. Blake was loath to admit they made a pretty good team. Their basic strategy consisted of keeping out of range of the Schnee's powerful Dust attacks, and picking off the weakened stragglers; an efficient approach that allowed them to easily make their way to the ruins in a timely manner.
Weiss's eyes lit up when they entered the clearing containing the ruins.
"Pyrrha! Oh, and Ruby too…"
Blake froze. It seemed there was truly no way of avoiding it now. The girl—Ruby, she reminded herself—regarded her with a calm expression on her face. Her hood was pulled back, and her cloak was open, revealing a Beacon uniform inside. She was holding a strange looking curved hilt, with the grip separated into two by a hump at its center. It pulsed with a strange yellow-black and blue energy.
"Hello again!" Pyrrha waved cheerfully, plucking a white King piece off a pedestal stationed around the center of the structure. Weiss moved to do the same, grabbing a second King piece from another pedestal, before introducing her.
"This is Blake, my partner. Hopefully we can all be on the same team together."
"It's nice to meet you!" Pyrrha chimed, as the duo walked up to them.
Blake took a deep breath. Time for the moment of truth.
"It's nice to meet you, too." She replied, carefully watching Ruby for any reaction.
Ruby scrunched up her face in recollection. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"No!—I mean, I don't think so?" Blake blurted out, panic once again rising to her chest. Pyrrha and Weiss shot her odd looks, but thankfully, it looked like Ruby was already over it.
"Well, we have the pieces, now we should hurry back to—"
A loud screech from interrupted Ruby. Four heads turned skywards to see a giant flying Grimm circling above.
"Nevermore!" Weiss called out. "We need to move into the forest, or we'll be sitting ducks out here!"
The three of them made a break for cover. Wait, three of them?
"Ruby! What on Remnant are you doing?"
Blake whipped around, and saw Ruby standing exactly where she was earlier. She had her hilt aimed at the Nevermore. What the heck was that supposed to do? Ruby activated something on the hilt, and the top half folded back and over the bottom half, forming a distorted horizontal 'H' shape. It actually reminded her a bit of Gambol Shroud's gun form, with a bit extra on the bottom, but where was the barrel?
The Grimm finally noticed Ruby was still out in the open, and swooped down. Blake was too busy focusing on the new threat to see the weapon glow a bright green. Then, at the lowest point of its descent, Ruby let loose a massive blast of energy from her hilt, knocking back all three of the huntress-in-training who had moved to help. The Nevermore was unable to correct its course in time, and took the blast head on.
A pair of massive wings crashed off to the side, completely detached from their torso, which had completely vaporized, leaving a smouldering crater in its wake. Weiss, Pyrrha and Blake staggered to their feet as Ruby began fiddling around with her weapon, muttering to herself. But before anyone could even begin to ask what happened, something stirred in the center of the blast radius.
"What the hell? I don't remember something like this happening before." Ruby mumbled, as Grimm matter began to coalesce into a pile in front of her.
Finally, Weiss retook command of the situation. "Everyone, be on your guard. We have no idea what's happening." She beckoned for them to form up around Ruby.
A great whorl of dark energy surrounded the crater as a Grimm began to build itself into existence in front of their very eyes. Jagged humanoid legs with dark spikes scattered haphazardly rose up, joining into a monstrously deformed torso rife with tumors and desiccated skin. It split in twain at the center of the chest, leaving behind a pulsing black heart suspended by a few strands of Grimm matter. From the halved torso grew two deformed arms; the right bulky and deformed, full of bone-white plating and spikes, while the left was thin and flimsy, yet a sinister orange-red glow surrounded it. And finally, two halves of a featureless head formed, lifeless jaws flopping about as the Grimm shuddered into existence.
Then, the impossible happened. The split body of the Grimm snapped back in place for a second, and a voice reverberated out of the darkness.
R̴̤̹̗͌̈́̅͋u̶̡̧͍̰͌̾̈́̔b̴̼͔͂̄y̴̜̮͉͊̑̚.̷̟̤̗̣̦̈́.̶̛̤͓͈́̏̉ͅ.̸̞͉̜̜̮͛̑̒
̶̦̝̔͘Ţ̴̌̈́̇ŗ̷̻͕̲͊̓́̈͝a̵̢̨͈͚͎͘í̶̗̺̬̥̤t̸̢͙̻̓̚͜ŏ̴̤̲͎̦͜r̵̖̝̼̱͚̈́̅.̴͙͎̹̇.̸̛̲̩͚͖͌͛.̷̨̡̛̣̙͋̾́
A/N: The plot thinnens...
Anyways, yeah, the traitor plotline from the game was too good to pass up, in my opinion. Don't worry, though, we won't copy/paste the entire storyline verbatim. I'm not that shameless, even if I am a bit uninventive.
Special thanks to the reviewer C3l3st14 for their weapon suggestions, which ended up reminding me of the various plasma weaponry from Halo. If it wasn't clear enough, Ruby is using a version of the classic Energy Sword which can mekashift into a Plasma Pistol. I thought it'd be a nice little reference to how RWBY got started from RvB in the first place, and also it's a good starting weapon for her. Not sure yet if I'll name it anything special or if I should save that for the big guns later.
Please let me what you think of the other characters. The last thing I wanna do is write 5 different characters, but have them all sound the same in dialogue and inner monologue. Bad dialogue is one of my main fears when writing this story, and it helps to have outside perspective.
Oh, and we've reached over 100 followers! Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my story!