Author's Notes: First things first, I was so happy to hear all the positive feedback on last chapter, and secondly, I am happy to announce that I feel tons better about this chapter. I'm sure plenty of you will be happy with this one as well. We're switching gears and running full speed ahead! Have fun reading!
Chapter 7: Controlled Dread
The sun kissed hallway stretched out before Yang as she stomped through the winding corridors, her mind blitzing past her. "Is it really that hard to say it? Why doesn't she?" Yang stopped as she reached the front lobby of Beacon, ready to exit the building and hopefully keep her mind off her sister. "She looked different earlier. Better almost." The brawler shook her head as she stood still in the foyer. "I'm glad… I just don't understand." A painful sigh escaped her lips as she heard the beating of footsteps rapidly nearing her. She quickly turned around to see who was running after her.
Ruby stood, panting as she stared at her sister. A dense quiet pervaded the warm glow of the sun. The lobby lit like a candle. Ruby took a step forward, keeping her eyes locked onto her sister. "Yang, I—" Yang put a hand up. "You can just stop right there if you're here to say that you're sorry; that you still can't tell me about whatever's bothering you. I get it. You just can't trust me." Yang's heart ached as she lied to herself and to her sister, her own personality getting in the way. Yang turned to walk away again. "Sorry for being a bad sister." Ruby's eyes widened, anger filling them. "I do trust you, okay?! I really trust you!" Yang spun around to see a very angry ruby stomping her way towards her. "I trust you to be there when I feel down, I trust you to always try and pick me back up, and I trust you with all my heart to keep me safe!" Ruby looked at Yang guiltily. "That's why I'm here to apologize… And to tell you everything." Yang's eyes filled with tears as Ruby wrapped her arms around her. "And you're the best sister I could've ever asked for. If anything, I'm the bad one." Ruby chuckled a little at her self-deprecation, only to get a hefty hug from the blonde brawler. "Thank you… I'm sorry," Yang apologized. Ruby just squeezed tighter as they hugged it out, a warm smile crossing the younger sister's lips as they pulled apart. Ruby took in a deep breath. "I—" Yang put up a hand. "Alright, stop." Ruby looked at her sister confusedly. "But I thought you wanted to hear it?" Yang nodded. "Of course, I do, and you're going to tell me, but let's go somewhere more private." Ruby glanced around as a large crowd was beginning to form, looking at the two curiously. "Right, yeah, let's do that." Yang laughed as the two of them walked back to the RWBY dorm. She stared at Ruby's face as she saw the red head's smile. "It's good to have you back, Rubes." Ruby felt a swelling in her chest as she felt a hand clamp onto her shoulder as Yang pulled her into a side hug. "Yang! Can't you do this when we aren't walking?" Ruby asked, having trouble breathing. "Sorry, sorry! I just missed this; you know?" Ruby rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I know."
Ruby pushed open the door to RWBY's dorm, the entirety of team JNPR and the rest of team RWBY awaiting inside. Yang took a seat next to Blake on the floor as Ruby stood in the middle of them all. No one asked any questions, but everyone smiled. Ruby rubbed her hands together as they settled. Thoughts zoomed through her head as she stood there, waiting for the time to say it. "What if they don't believe me?" She shook away the thought. She needed to do this. There was no other way. "If I don't say anything, then we'll all suffer for it." Flashes of the emotional turmoil that she put her team through filled her head. "It's not worth killing our team over." Ruby took a deep breath, her nerves forcing her body to shake and sweat beginning to flow down her neck. Her shoulders shook, but she slowly calmed them down, getting ready. She opened her eyes to see her friends patiently awaiting what she had to say. They're eyes were all trained on the red head as they nearly held their breath. They wished to know the reason behind their leader's and friend's troubles. They wanted her to feel better, no matter what. "What horrible thing must've happened?" they all thought. Ruby pushed herself to see and overcome the wall of dread in front of her. The doubt and distrust of the future to come. "I am from the future," she announced shakily, prompting the whole room to erupt with confusion.
Ruby kept breathing, making sure she was still conscious. Her nerves were still getting the better of her as she tried to explain herself to her friends. "When I arrived I was from a year into the future. You may not believe it, but I could never forget what I saw." Yang quickly leaned forwards. "What did you see?" Ruby winced, thinking of the horrible event. "Beacon fell. To the Grimm. To Torchwick and those he works for." Ruby's mind played out the events, recounting each excruciating detail. From Emerald and Mercury's betrayal to Penny and Pyrrha's deaths. Each new detail left her friends with shock across their faces. Hearing of such news was… unnerving. Ruby kept pouring out all the things she saw, all the things that happened. "Once I saw Cinder up there. I just… snapped. I saw a bright flash and then I woke up again in my bed at home." The tension inside the room was thick. Everyone had been hit with a sense of dread, but Blake stood up. "So now that you're here. Before all that happened. You wanted to stop it?" Ruby nodded. Yang stood up next. "Why couldn't you tell us this before? This sounds extremely important." Ruby didn't get to answer as Ren stood next with everyone else slowly standing together. "The Butterfly Effect," he said, a worried look crossing his face. "What's that?" asked Jaune. Ruby responded, a nervous tone taking over her voice, "The effect that when you time travel, the things you change can affect the things in the future, sometimes drastically. If one minor thing changes, things may end up completely different from how they were before," Blake said, remembering the idea from the books she's read. "That's just a theory, though, right? There's no way to know that such small changes could affect history," Weiss stated, concern on her face. Ruby nodded. "Not until you're in it." The room grew silent as the group took in all this new information. All thinking of what to do next.
Ruby was the first to speak up. "I think we should wait it out." The teams looked at her, clearly not following. "If we wait it out, and let things play out somewhat like last time, the possibility of things changing for the worse is lower," she explained. "How are we supposed to know how things happened last time? With all this new information, we probably won't act like that anymore," Weiss questioned. Ruby scratched her head. "That's a good point." The teams began to think some more about it before Jaune piped up. "I think Ruby's right, though. If she's right about Beacon still falling, then we should listen to the one who lived through it." Yang nodded. "I agree with that. It sounds like the best plan. Guess that makes you the leader of this 'Save Beacon' team, Rubes." Yang smirked at her sister. Ruby gave a bit of a weak smile as she quickly grabbed a binder that was nearby. She chuckled to herself. "Funny story actually, this binder was for the 'Best Day Ever Activities' I had planned last time." Weiss cocked her head to the side. "But that's my binder." Ruby looked at the heiress confusedly. "Yeah?" Weiss narrowed her eyes. "I'm starting to think that I didn't like you the first time you met me." Ruby nodded. "Yep, you'd be right." Everyone else sort of nervously laughed as they watched the two. "So, what's it gonna be for this time, little sis?" Yang leaned over the top of Ruby as the rest began to close in. Ruby began to scribble into the binder, crossing out the title and replacing it with 'The Amazingly Awesome Save Beacon Team Plan.' Everyone looked curiously at Yang. "So, this is how she was originally, right?" Ren whispered. Yang just nodded, a large smile on her face. "She's more mature than she used to be, but the personality is the same. It's good to have her back!" She ruffled the red head's red hair, much to the chagrin of said girl. Ruby continued to scribble in the binder, all previous worries and doubts having long since disappeared after her confession. "Alright! The Planning Phase is now under way!"
The planning sequence went on through the night and over the next few days, the two teams came up with new ideas to possibly prevent the upcoming tragedy. Everyone contributed. As Ruby lay in her bed one night, the night before the new semester, she thought of how cooperative everyone had been. "If I had seen this a month ago…" She thought for a moment before she sat up and jumped down to grab the binder. She heaved the heavy thing outside her dorm and set it on the ground, trying her best to not wake anyone. She took out a pen and flipped through the binder, licking her lips as she thought. "Alright, let's put some final touches on it." She scribbled for a minute. Circling parts and crossing others out. She eventually landed on the middle of a page where she drew a big circle. She wrote "Phase One!" next to a funny-looking picture of three people. She smiled as she closed the binder, happy with her choice. "Best day ever activities, huh?"
The binder slammed onto the lunch table, a new name taking over from last time. "Friends, sister, Weiss." Ruby said with a smile. "Hey!" Ruby chuckled as she flipped the binder around. "The time has come for phase one of the plan to go under way." Ruby caught an apple that was flying towards Yang. She took a bite out of it as the teams came together. "So, where do we start?" Weiss asked. Ruby just smirked as she flipped open the comically large binder. "Here! We start with this and get some people on our team." The whole group looked at the binder. The pages read, "Recruitment Phase!" Everyone paused for a moment as they saw the crude pictures of three people, one standing out specifically, their eyes widening. "WHAAAT?!"
"Ruby, you can't be serious," Yang said, concern on her face. "Au contraire, my good friends." Ruby pointed to the picture, showing off three distinct figures, only two of which the group knew, but not two likely candidates for joining the team. "How are you going to get both Roman Torchwick and Professor Ozpin to help us?" Weiss asked. The group silently watched Ruby grin wildly as she paced about. "Believe it or not, I have quite the leverage over Roman." Blake tilted her head. "Oh? What might that be?" Ruby stuck out a finger. "Because, my dear friend, I know exactly how and when he dies!" Everyone nearly fell over. "That's awfully morbid," Pyrrha commented. "True, but if he joins our team, then he probably won't die." Everyone quickly realized something important. "Wait. But how will you get him to join you anyways? Isn't he loyal to that Cinder chick?" Ruby shook her head. "He seemed to me like just a mercenary when I fought him. He and his second in command both seemed only loyal to each other, or at least whatever keeps them alive and out of trouble. Hopefully we can get both of them to cooperate with the plan." Everyone was somewhat stunned. "You've put a lot of thought into this. Did you come up with this all on your own?" Jaune asked. Ruby scratched her head and laughed nervously. "Y-yeah, I came up with it last night." Everyone's mouths hung open, but Yang just smiled. "You've certainly grown up a lot, sis." Nora leaned over the table curiously, staring at the third person. "I know who the others are, but who is this girl?" Nora's finger pointed towards a green-haired girl with dark skin. "That is Emerald Sustrai. She's… another enemy." Weiss groaned. "Another one? How many enemies do you want to recruit?" Ruby shook her head. "Last one, but she's trickier than Roman. She's… pretty loyal from the looks of things." Ruby scratched her head a little. "I didn't have a lot of time to think about how we would recruit her, but we see her a lot. I think maybe we could get on her good side." Ren tilted his head. "And how would that be?" Ruby shook her head, no longer confident in this part of the plan. "Not sure, guess we'll have to get to know her better. But I do know one thing, I am an excellent judge of character!" She placed a hand on her chest, confident in her abilities. Yang laughed. "Didn't they sneak right past you last time, though?" Ruby turned red, embarrassed a little. "Th-That's because she had an excellent character!" Weiss eyed the red head. "What about the others who snuck in?" Ruby stammered again. "I-I didn't like them; I just gave them the benefit of the doubt since Emerald was nice!" Everyone sighed. A somewhat relieving feeling washing over them as they held this conversation. Everyone had just about the same thought about the red head. "She really ties this whole thing together."
"So, what about Professor Ozpin?" Ruby just sat down, ready to finish giving her plan. "I can deal with that," Ruby said, thinking about what happened last time she saw him. "He's very smart. I hope he goes through with the plan though." Everyone else nodded. "So, what do we need to do?" Jaune asked. Ruby thought for a moment. "Well, I think we should still try to keep things much of the same, but I think that we should all try our hand at winning over Emerald. She's the wildcard in this." Everyone nodded. "Hey guys, what're you all talking about?" Sun asked, showing up suddenly. Neptune stood beside him, awkwardly waiting for any answer, but Ruby just stood up. "You guys wanna be in on a cool secret?" Everyone cautiously looked between the girl and the two boys. "Huh?" they said in unison.
Ruby dusted herself off, prepping herself for this next conversation as she rode the elevator up to Ozpin's office. She took a deep breath. "Okay, this should be easy, right? He shares the same goals and everything." The doors opened and Ruby stepped out. "Ah, Ms. Rose. What did you wish to talk about?" Ruby sat down in front of the Headmaster's desk. "I have a confession to make." Ozpin quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? And what might that be?" Ruby took a deep breath. "I lied to you the last time we talked. About what was bothering me." Ozpin nodded. "Yes, I am aware." Ruby blinked. "Oh, really? Well, that makes things easier," she said with a laugh. "So, it does. And I see that you've become more yourself again as well." She nodded. "Sir, I came to tell you that I'm from the future. I know what's going to happen, if it even does happen now that I've told people." He motioned for her to continue. "At the end of the Vytal Festival, Beacon falls after an invasion of Grimm." Ozpin darkly looked at the young girl. "Thank you for this information, but I'm guessing you didn't only come to warn me." Ruby shook her head. "I have a plan for how to stop it, but we need help. From some of the enemy. I know exactly how to stop it." Ozpin drew in a long breath. "And what is my place in all of this?" Ruby looked down at her hands before staring deep into the Headmaster's eyes. "We need you in case things go south." Ozpin nodded. "A failsafe then. You wish for me to put in a backup plan?" Ruby nodded. Ozpin stood up to look outside his window. "Tell me more about this attack."
Oh boy, how's that? It's the moment you've all been waiting for! Thanks for your patience! Looks like a new direction just opened up, and boy do I have some plans for next chapter. I'm getting excited again and that's always a good thing. Not much left to say on this one, but I am very excited to continue this now. Renewed vigor! Anyways, thanks for sticking with it and I wish you all the best. And thus, until next time!