One change, no matter how small, can have drastic changes on the world at large. From merely staying by her partner's side and not giving into Adam's hopes of her fleeing, Blake will set upon the a journey that will save the lives of countless people. All while trying to save one.
Black Ranger
By
Hibiki
Prologue: For Wounds We Can See.
-o0O0o-
Blake Belladonna was strong. In her body, in her convictions, in her battles. But she had always feared, and rightly so, not so strong in her will. Seeing her Mentor, her first love standing ready to slaughter innocent civilians, to turn that anger that she knew festered inside him at her, who he said he loved, then to the golden haired vixen who now lay unconscious beside her, bleeding stump of a right arm that had brought home the fact she was absolutely correct in her fears. She was wracked with untold guilt. Adam Taurus, leader of the White Fang, had told her that it would be his mission to ruin everything she loved. Then focused on killing Yang. It terrified her. Because it was true. She loved Yang. Not as a lover despite the occasional bought of flirtatiousness Yang could evoke or what the numerous other people around them thought. The flirting was merely another side of Yang's caring. No, She loved Yang like she loved Ruby, and yes, even Weiss. They weren't just her partner and teammates. They were her sisters in arms, those who had bled for her and with her. They knew who and what she was, and cared only for the person Blake Belladonna was. They were worthy of her love, and to her guilt, this is how she repays it. With pain, dread, and dismemberment.
She struggled to calm her aching abdomen. It wasn't a killing hit, Adam just wanted her hurt and pliant so she couldn't run while he forced her to watch in as he tore away at her protections, in his enjoyment of destroying her first true home. But there was enough left in her to get Yang away, despite the blood both of them shed. Partly in the fear of Adam hurting Yang further, partly in her own fear of the man who she had once loved even more greatly than her friends. She assumed he let her go, knowing he had gotten to her, but she escaped none the less. It took everything she had left to get to the air pads and the safety of teachers and fellow students alike. Weiss and Sun did what they could to keep both of her and her partner from bleeding out, but it did little to keep Blake's ever encroaching guilt. Nearly every fiber of her being was screaming at her to get away from them, to keep Adam and his demented twisted ideals of love away from her precious people. Ruby finally appeared but moments later she and Weiss left, to try and save Jaune and Pyrrha. Scant minutes later, far too much time to dwell on the fact Yang was unconscious and missing her right hand because of her, Beacon Tower, which housed Ozpin's office, the CCT, and Beacon's mainframe was demolished by the giant Grimm, Goodwitch and Ruby's uncle racing to Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck's side moments later as a dreadful feeling bowed over us. It felt like, pain. But not of their bodies. But a heartache they could feel deep within their very souls. A flash of white hit the tower and before anyone could blink it was gone. A figure wreathed in flame flew away from the ruined tower, landing on a hovering bullhead that then headed east, given the older members of fighters reaction that was a bad thing. They all waited on baited breath but for far longer than the Faunas could recollect nothing came out from the growing fog around us but Grimm. Blake thought that most of them in this span prayed. To old gods, new, fairy tales and old ancestors.
Then from the darkness and unknown came crying. We could hear her before Weiss wandered into view, the first to return, her tears and shell shocked steps told more than a few terrifying theories as to why in the seconds of her arrival. Behind her, Blake noticed Qrow holding her last missing teammate. Her chest rose and fell easily, meaning while she was breathing heavier than a sleeping person should, but at the same time it meant Ruby was alive. Somehow, no matter how battered they had all made... it... oh no.
In his left hand was a set of unmistakeable items. It was only with her faunas eyesight that she had glimpsed it at this distance. He approached the group, Sun was closest to the older man, and was asked a question Blake could easily hear from the distance she was at.
"'Nyone here Nikos' teammate?" It was around then she realized that from behind the group, coming from the distant burning Vale was Jaune Arc. Not only was he Pyrrha's teammate, he was her partner, her leader, her friend. Her... Pyrrha had loved Jaune... and as Qrow walked over and briskly handed the boy her effects, Blake realized that the boy had loved the girl too. Moments later Pyrrha's shield landed on the floor, the ruined remains of her spear sliding a few feet from the now kneeling figure holding what brought home to all of us that Pyrrha Nikos was dead. For a moment, Blake could have sworn she saw Jaune smile. But when she blinked all the faunas could see was a man holding the warrior's beloved headband to his brow, screaming her name with such raw pain that even Qrow had to pause and bow his head. Weiss cried all the harder, Blake knowingly for both their fallen friend, but also for Pyrrha's team. JNPR had been a closely knit team with her own, with both teams rarely doing anything without the other. If Blake loved team RWBY like sisters, then JNPR was close cousins to her.
As hunters we knew that one day friends and family would not come back. It was fact, people like them would live as long as they were able, taking as many of the Grimm infestations out as they could, before either the slowing of old age or a lucky Grimm brought them to their usually gruesome end. To have the first one be so close to home brought new waves of pain, guilt, and the feeling of hopelessness.
"B-Blake..." It was Weiss. "That's my fathers s-ship." Struggling to see through tears so numerous it was nearly impossible to know what they were from, her eyes caught a glimpse of an overly ornate but highly armed ship landing beside the Atlesian troop carrier that was beginning to load up the remains of Beacons students and hunters. Blake recognized it immediately, Eis Schnee's personal shuttle. The White Fang had tried numerous times to take it down, but the vessel was far tougher than anything the Schnee Dust Company would use for normal workers. It was easy to see, even through the slowing tears as the ex-terrorist took in this new threat to her family, the remains of the numerous attacks this vessel had taken in combat. "I know he will try and take me away, Blake. I can't stop him. With Beacon gone, Ruby, you, and Yang injured. He has the upper hand. I can't oppose him, not yet. Please watch over our teammates Blake." Blake shook her head, Adam's words begging her to prove him right. To run away.
"No... I can't... Adam... the White Fang will-" She was cut off as Weiss grabbed her close, holding her tightly. It was perhaps the first time Weiss had hugged her, but the usually frigid girl held on for dear life. Amazing what a year of trials and two hours of hell can do when a faunas girl, who had once been a bitter enemy, could wrap her arms around the Schnee heiress without remorse. Blake held on tightly, knowing that when she let go she would loose another precious person to an enemy she could not face.
"If I could I would take you all, but I can't keep anyone else safe in Atlas. Too many eyes in the walls." She eyed Blake's bow, giving the former terrorist an idea what she meant. "Where I am going, all I will be able to do is keep myself safe and try to use my influence to get a new arm built for Yang." Blake pulled back abruptly, her eyes filled with an incredulous expression. "It's literally all I can do for now. I need you to take care of them, please. Until at least Yang can make her way to the White Castle." The Schnee Dust Company headquarters and the Schnee's ancestral home.
Run like she always did, or stay and see where loyalty above fear would get her. Her love of her friends was all she could think about. Where one side begged that she could keep them safe by being near them was weighed heavily with her desire to run away to save them from any possible retributions of her past. But being able to tell Yang Weiss' plan in person, trying and make amends for the blonde's suffering, and to keep the hope of her sisters in arms being together again alive won out. Blake turned her back on the fear Adam had bestowed in her heart and embraced her future. She would remain and keep guard of Ruby and Yang. For Weiss, but more importantly for herself. Even if her mentor stood before her again, she would not run away, she would stand against him.
"I will. Keep yourself safe, Weiss." Weiss hugged her again and words... feelings unbidden poured from her mouth. "I love you, sister, be safe." There was a pause, then Weiss stroked her hair, the snow white jacket covering the girl's shoulders trembled with emotion.
"L-love you too, Blake. You keep yourself and our sisters out of trouble, okay?" Blake nodded, ashamed but not regretful that her feelings for team RWBY had poured out. It made her happy, despite everything, that Weiss understood her exactly. The Schnee looked over to Ren and Nora, both trying and failing to move towards their kneeling leader so at the very least they could mourn with together with Jaune. Her crystal blue eyes glancing around to their remaining friends who laid around them. It evoked a rather horrible feeling in Blake knowing that this would be the way Weiss saw anyone here for some time, and to the pit growing I her stomach, perhaps even last time she would see some of them. The Ice queen as she often was called broke, leaving a shattered scared little girl behind. "I shouldn't leave... I-I need to help. I can't leave... Ruby, Y-yang... Jaune... Nora, Ren... Oh Pyrrha. I-I-!"
"Weiss." It was not Blake who cut her off, but a tall and thin mustached man. A white suit held firm against his platinum hair and piercing eyes. His stature was as cold his name, Eis Schnee. "Come. Beacon is gone. Your shameful and petulant behavior comes to an end, now. It's time to end this farce. We are going home." Old hatred was hard to ignore, especially when coupled with new. Eis Schnee was to the SDC what Adam Taurus was to the White Fang. Both had taken over from benevolent leaders and turned something normal into twisted and darker shades of themselves. The man hated Faunas, it was apparent in the way he glared at Velvet who lay weakened in Coco's lap as the normally cool headed leader glared back, not liking the stare at her partner. There wasn't a single look of respect from the warriors in training, and not even the teachers could respond. The elder Schnee's voice held no tone for rebuttal from Weiss, and to Blake's dismay the younger Schnee seemingly crumpled into herself at the tone, aggravating Blake as she watched her sister nod slowly, almost fearfully.
"Yes father. I... understand and beg for your forgiveness. May I humbly ask for a moment to say my goodbyes to my friends?"
"No." He truly was ice as he turned away from Blake and the others and began to stride away. "I am leaving now. Follow." There was no one who had not heard the man's command, except for maybe Jaune, who seemed oblivious to all. The few in any condition to speak did their best to say their farewell, but the group felt as broken as Weiss did, and no one got more than a few half started, barely audible mumbles. For the girl who had wanted control over her life and had come to Beacon to escape her father's thumb, it was as hard as the fall of Beacon to only be able to look back silently as she climbed the stairs and see her friends and outside of Winter, the closest she felt to family looking back or unconscious amongst the growing fog and before the shattered remains of Beacon. Blake and Weiss' eyes held each other until the door closed, blocking her from view.
Everyone watched as the ship rose moments later, the vessel obviously having a skilled pilot on hand as it took off, a few stray Griffons taking the brunt of it's firepower in a obvious show of power that no one dared comment on. Blake's eyes watched it until it went out of sight, but her ears were already sounds of people trying to move. It was time to go, but she had no energy left, it took all she had to return to Yang's side after Weiss' departure. The day's event were catching up to her as a speed she could barely handle.
"...I can't leave her up there. We need to get her. She's waiting for us, for me I can't..." Her ears perked up at that voice. It came from the blonde of team JNPR who Professor Port had been trying to Coax to the Shuttle. Her eyes drew wide to the figure pulling themselves away from Port's grasp. Jaune's expression lanced a fear of his mental state.
She had seen that look before. On white fang members given the... special jobs. The ones who never returned from those jobs. Like the light had left those poor souls eyes and they were nothing more than- "Walking dead!" Older Hunters and Huntress' looked to her as the younger looked confused by her words but she pressed on, time was of the essence. "Arc is walking dead!" It spurned the older people into action immediately while her school mates stared at both her and Jaune confused. "He's suicidal! Stop him!" She added trying to get the younger group into action, the stab wound preventing her more than sitting up and pointing. It worked only too well, though she felt bad watching Ren try and go beyond his bodies ability and fall back with fresh blood seeping through his bandages. However the momentum and surge of action carried Qrow well over the blonde man's form and slammed the pommel of his sword into the back of Jaune's head as the man proved far more powerful than anyone of them expected. It was shocking that the leader of JNPR was actually pulling those still capable of restraining him towards Beacon Tower. At first it seemed like he would go down, and they would be able to deal with this later.
"NO! PYRRHA!" Jaune Arc, dead last at Beacon with no control of his Aura suddenly flashed a brilliant white and caught himself before he fell, completely ignoring the knockout punch Qrow had given him. The white knight gave true definition of 'if looks could kill' as the older man merely slid back, sword on his shoulder and if it wasn't for the tenseness of his hand she would assume he was bored out of his mind not ready to cut down the unstable person before him if he needed to.
"She's gone. You'd fight your way all the way up to that tower for nothing but a nasty death. But I think you know that. You're not the first person I've seen with that expression. Personally, I could care less, I'd let you go and get yourself killed, no skin off my nose. But those people holding onto you, your teammates you got left screaming at you back there, even my nieces, do. They would follow you, and they would die for it. Because of you." I felt anger that he would throw dare that into the younger man's face, but I understood the effectiveness of it, as Jaune backed down his anger and rage suddenly fading away. "Good kid, nice to see you still thinking like a leader. Help us get the wounded on the ship, if you're up to it, we'll talk later." Jaune nodded then headed to his remaining teammates. Other began moving to help the wounded and Blake noticed that Pyrrha's shield and weapons were being left behind. It hurt her, but the thought of leaving her friend's effects behind to rust away here was worth the small pain she felt. She crawled forward after Qrow picked up Yang and busied herself with collecting the pieces but found herself, once finished, looking as her first real home echoed cries of nevermore and larger unseen Grimm. All the while, the remains of the broken tower sending bits of crumbling stone in a hap hazard beat of doom. Her home was gone. It was all so horrible, but could she leave it behind, no matter it's state?
"Blake." She was brought out of her thoughts, looking into Jaune's sorrowful expression. He looked down into her arms and the weight of his partners weapon and shield never felt more heavy. However his expression remained troubled."Thank you."
"Jaune, I'm sorry." He shook his head, looking exhausted once more. She truly was at a loss at what to say. The two of them only responded to one another at the far fringes of friendship. It was sad to say she was closer friends to Ren than she was to Jaune.
"We need to get on the ship, Blake. We need to leave." The tone of his voice brought the fact to her that this view she had been caught staring at was more than likely the last view she would have, and the thought of leaving coupled with her earlier fear grew again. Without Weiss' comfort she was quickly falling back into her normal Modus Operandi. The more animal instincts were telling her to flee.
"I don't think I can go Jaune. I'll just end up hurting them more." He blinked, She assumed she had confused him.
"Look I don't know whats going on, but don't you think not being there for Yang will hurt her more? For Ruby when she wakes up? You and Weiss-" She shook her head, knowing that he had been lost in his emotions when Weiss had been taken.
"Weiss is gone, her father came and took her away." Her sister in arms was gone, but not dead, it filled her with grief, relief, but also guilt that she could be happy that Weiss was at least alive unlike Pyrrha. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, and she hated feeling that way. It also stung that this may have been the most direct and longest conversation the two had ever had, and it started about his dead partner and was on her urge to run away.
"Then that means they will need you all the more then." He actually shocked her with how firm he was, and reminded Blake of Pyrrha's comment on how dependable he could be when the chips were down. He carried on. "Don't give up on them, because now more than ever, you all need each other." He never gave her the chance to respond or try to run off as suddenly he lifted her up, and to her continued shock he had done it as if she weighed nothing. Stuck as a passenger in his arms all she could do was study his face, as he looked lost for a moment, then he paused, staring at the tower as his gaze grew distant.
"I never got to say them to you in person, Pyrrha. But I wish that kiss had not been our first and our last." Blake's eyes grew wide at hearing that, but more pain for her friends grew because all they were able to do then, was open the gates to a possibility. But the path was ripped away before they could walk it. Jaune continued, as if she wasn't there. "That I had asked you to the dance, that I had been a better teammate, a better partner, a better person to you. That I thanked you for putting so much of yourself into helping me for so little. That I had been able to tell you the words I didn't even know I felt until it was too late. That I-" He paused, a warm unseasonable breeze caressed them both and he said something that Blake could not hear, despite her closeness and faunas ears. But she knew those words were not meant for her, they were for her. Blake watched him, sad and unable to help him as the world came back into focus for him. "Goodbye Pyrrha, until we meet again." She stared back at Beacon for as long as he walked towards the shuttle. So much had changed because of this place. She had learned that not all humans were bad, that even an enemy could become an ally, that her mentor had the wrong idea to try and force equality, that three girls could come from all walks of life had become closer than any others in the span of a year, and that a school designed to make them huntress' could become the home she had always wanted. Beacon had become a part of her life, and it felt like every step Jaune took was another away from the closest she had ever had to everything she wanted.
The moment she laid her head down, once on the shuttle, and her eyes drew to the face of her partner and her leader, a thought struck her. As long as there was a chance at having it again, she would take it. She would do everything in her power to get her family back together as best she could, to keep them safe.
Jaune made an oath to himself. Blake hadn't meant to hear it and it confused her. Later on, once she knew why, she agreed hardheartedly, making her glad she had remained to know the puppet master behind the strings they all had been pulled by. She knew what she would have to do.
Little did she know, that the mere fact that she had remained by Yang's side in this single most critical moment would alter the course of fate, and bring rise of the most formidable team in Remnants past or future. A team that would go on into legend and change the way hunter teams were formed forever more. It's stories would be told to children about the saviors of mankind during the Grimm wars. They would be labeled as heroes, united for different reasons but the same goals, who didn't care who or what they were, only that is help was needed, they would lend aid.
But for the five who would make up this band, and the countless others who aided them in their three year long quest, they would simply call them team BRNJR.
Black Ranger.
-o0O0o-
Next Chapter: For the Wounds We Can't.
AN: Black Ranger, or rather as it would be with RWBY's mannerisms BRNJR. Is a story with more serious moments than fun, given our send off from Volume three with team RNJR walking in a cold, quiet desolate path fraught with peril from the relative safety of Patch towards Mistral's Haven academy, it's not a happy point. The idea is that s simpler soul may save the world, it's the people around that soul that keep it safe. If one more person is added to the team, how much more could they accomplish while we guesstimate what will happen in Volume IV? What benefits does a 5 person team have than a four? Also I post them then run through the chapters on my I phone, using the highlight and define button on my mistakes so it might take me a few days to get every little thing. Until next time, Keep moving Forward. ~Hibiki