Volume 2 Chapter 21: Battle of Mountain Glenn

AN: Ugh, okay, this chapter was a pain in the ass to write. Well, okay, not the chapter itself. But after exam SNAFU's, a really bad case of diarrhea that nearly saw me making a hospital trip, and my final exam on top of that, I really didn't have all that much time for this. Here's hoping I still get it up this Friday.

Anyways, Yang's been captured, Zwei has a weak bladder, and Kassidy's royally PO'd. What could possibly go wrong with all that?

(Perspective: Ruby)

"Do you not understand, dear girl?!" Oobleck shouted, dashing right into Weiss' face. "We aren't looking for an underground crime network; we're looking for an underground crime network!"

The history professor was giving a lecture about the deep caves and the fate of Mountain Glenn to shed light on their situation. However, whereas Weiss just blinked at the suddenness of the lecture as well as the content of it, and Kassidy looked like she was outright ignoring it, Ruby took it all in. This was it. They'd found the White Fang, and now it was time to foil their schemes, once and for all. They had no choice otherwise; after all, Yang had been taken. Her sister was down there, somewhere in the same town that, as she now knew, her grandparents had died in. She could hardly stand to think of it; her own mother growing up an orphan, without someone to love her. Such a kind woman didn't deserve such a fate. And with her ultimate fate being one of such an anonymous death…

Ruby had already lost so much family. Mom, Auntie Raven. Dad was bad for a few years after Mom died, hitting the bottle even harder than Uncle Qrow ever did, but at least he eventually came back. And now Yang? No. She would not let her family be taken from her like that. Not again. She'd make sure of it.

She took a quick look up from her current task to take a look around. Everyone else was going through their own preparations, as well, to make sure this fairy tale had a happy ending. Oobleck was continuing to give them all the information he could, and at a frantic pace. Weiss was topping off Myrtenaster's Dust canisters, and shoving more vials of Nature's Wrath in her skirt pockets. Kassidy was busy wrestling her cuirass back into place, while simultaneously trying to stuff as much ammo into her pockets as they could physically hold. Bob was currently busy trying to get a signal of some kind to Beacon. Ruby was not idle, as she too partook of the preparations.

Removing her tools from the firing mechanisms, she appraised her quick work of field maintenance before nodding in approval. Taking up the bracelet, she dashed over to Kassidy to help her get it on. "Alright, I've managed to tune Ember Celica's mechanisms. They shouldn't have enough force to bust your arms this time around, but it might be best to get a bit closer to use them? The range won't be the greatest any more."

"That's fine, Rubes, honest," Kassidy seethed, snapping the weapon on her right wrist and expanding it long enough to slam home a strip of high-explosive shells. "You won't catch me complaining about having a bracelet that functions as a grenade launcher. Especially over something like this."

Ruby felt a soft whine take root in the back of her throat at yet another reminder. A reminder that she wasn't the only one Yang was important to, not anymore. Sure, Dad and Uncle Qrow loved her, but neither of them depending on Yang like she did. And now, Kass depended on Yang too. They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and Ruby could tell how much Yang's situation was hurting Kass just by looking into her eyes. All that pain, all those terrible, terrible memories hiding just under the surface… all that anger, just waiting to be turned upon whatever unfortunate soul got between her and Yang. Ruby was mildly surprised that Kass' emotions alone hadn't brought the Grimm on top of them already.

"By the way, I've got something for you," Kass suddenly said, interrupting Ruby's musings. The blonde took an odd-looking box out of her bag, before handing it to her. "You might be best with it. It's basically a bomb: stick it on something that needs to go away, push the trigger button, you've got two seconds to run like hell." Ruby nodded and was about to stow the box next to Crescent Rose, when Kass suddenly shot her arm out to grab a hold of hers. "Uh, just be careful with that," Kassidy added. "That trigger's a bit iffy. I taped it on as best I could, but…"

Ruby scoffed and was about to reassure Kass that it would be fine, but paused when she took a closer look, before nearly facepalming: Kassidy did, in fact, duct tape the triggering mechanism to the rest of the device. Instead, in a perfect match to her incredulity at the box, Ruby asked, "What even is this?"

"Um," Kass hesitated. "Pretty much as much fire Dust as I could cram in there. Whatever thermite I could spare, too, to up the yield a bit."

Ruby somehow resisted the urge to facepalm again, before stowing the device away safely and grumbling. Seriously, this is not how you build a bomb, Kass! I should know! I kinda made a couple on accident while building Crescent Rose. And maybe one or two Dust Studies projects.

"We all ready?" Kass suddenly called out, grabbing everyone's attention. "The longer we wait, the more likely that Yang gets hurt. Not to mention the more likely that the White Fang decide to go ahead with whatever they were here for in the first place."

"Calm, Miss Smith," Oobleck urged. When it looked like Kass was about to tear his head off, he reasoned, "Haste will not do your partners any favors. We mustn't panic in a situation like this – and as much as you don't want to hear it, our mission still remains to be done."

"He's right," Ruby urged, finally getting Kassidy to calm down somewhat. "But you're right too. We can't rush this, but wasting time won't do us any favors. Are we actually ready, guys?" When all three people nodded at her, with Oobleck turning a grin in her direction, Ruby led them all out to the outside.

Kassidy quickly brought them to the sinkhole that she and Yang had found. Where her big sis had fallen, and needed her help. While the remaining blonde in their group handed her line to Oobleck in order to safely lower herself down the hole, Ruby couldn't help but ruminate on the situation. Yeah, they've fought the White Fang a couple times already – most notably, at the docks and that Paladin fight. But still, those were going to be simple affairs compared to this. Ruby might even need to kill someone tonight. Her emotions must've been showing on her face, because Weiss startled her by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right, Ruby?"

"This is it, isn't it?" she asked. "We're going to fight them. Stop them. Probably… probably kill a few of them, too."

"Is that what you're worried about?" Weiss asked.

Ruby, however, shook her head. "Not anymore. I… I guess I always knew this day would come. Kass… Kass kinda made that more tangible. I'd hoped I'd never have to do it, but we can't all have what we want. But that's fine, I think. They're gonna hurt a lot of people, Weiss. They have my sister, and they're gonna hurt her, and they're gonna hurt a lot of people, too. Unless we stop them. If it's to save people, if it's to save my sister… I think I can do this."

"Well said," Oobleck praised, having finished lowering Kassidy. "Miss Rose, taking a life is never easy, nor should it be. If you ever need someone to talk to when this is done, you know my office hours. If not me, all the professors on staff is trained for something like this."

"Thanks, Doctor Oobleck," Ruby said. Shaking her head, she continued with, "But I don't want to think about that now. Need to keep my head clear. Let's go, team!" And with that, she jumped down the hole.

"Keep down," Kass hissed as they all landed. "Fang's on full alert now, probably because of Yang. The further in we can make it without them noticing, the better our chances are."

Ruby got on her belly and crawled next to Kassidy, bringing out Crescent Rose and peering through her scope. "Alright, I see… five Paladins, three of which are currently loading cargo onto a train of some kind. Ten, twenty, thirty… forty-three people, though only twenty are armed right now. I also see –"

"Wait, what about a train?" Kassidy interrupted. Shaking her head, she expanded, "Vale blew the tunnels leading back to the main city, there's nowhere for them to go."

"Except the destination," Oobleck warned. When they all turned to him, he explained, "Depending on how long they've been here, they may have had the time to clear out much of the debris between Mountain Glenn and Vale. With nothing preventing the train from reaching full speed…"

"That's the plan," Ruby said. Peering through her scope again, she could feel her heart sink as she paid closer attention to the cargo. "They've got more Paladins on the train, and they're loading Dust onto it now. They're gonna load the train for maximum weight, and use it as a battering ram to breach Vale's defenses. We've gotta – Yang!"

"What?!" Kass and Weiss all but screeched.

"Torchwick just put Yang on the train. He's got her all chained up and stuff – we have to move, now." Ruby stood up, fully deploying Crescent Rose behind her. Turning to the three people behind her, she started issuing orders. "Kass, get to ground level. Stay in cover, and when things start off, hit them hard. Do what you do best. Weiss, Oobleck, I'm going to need you two in front drawing attention when I kick things off. Make sure Kass can do her job messing things up, but don't let her have all the fun; if there was ever a time to go wild with Dust, Weiss, now's it. I'll be up top to pick them apart and call out positions; if need be, I can probably use Kass' bomb to take out a Paladin or two."

"Let me know if anyone gets into trouble," Kassidy said. "Thanks to some of my friends in low places, and the work I did salvaging after fighting the Fang in Vale, I've managed to grab a thing or two for a rainy day."

Ruby nodded at her. "Like I told Weiss: if there was ever a time to go wild, this is it. I'll be the one to kick this party off. Alright, people, the objective is the train. We do not let that train leave this station! Let's go, Team RWKY! And Doctor Oobleck!"

And like that, they were all gone. Kassidy dove through the stairs, getting to ground level to do what she did. Weiss and Oobleck, having both Aura and a landing strategy, simply leapt over the edge of the roof. Ruby tapped into her Semblance and dashed from building to ruined building, covering dozens, then hundreds, of feet in seconds. She stopped long enough to get a good look around; Weiss and Oobleck were already set up and waiting on her. Kass, in a complete defiance of what most might consider a biologically-imposed speed limit, had already reached the ground by the time Ruby had covered several hundred feet. Ruby watched her drag a lone White Fang guy over a concrete barrier and bury a knife in his neck, before setting up behind the main body of guards. Ruby brought her baby back up, loaded a magazine of 40mm fire Dust shells, then started sweeping for targets that would make a suitable first strike. A few intrigued her, but her silver eyes quickly fell upon the grand prize: a Paladin in the middle of loading a pallet of fire Dust containers onto the train. Ruby closed her eyes, sighed, and said a quick prayer to the gods; her opening strike would surely kill the guy inside the suit. She could only hope she could be forgiven for this. Ruby opened her eyes, took one moment to aim, and fired.

The titanic explosion that resulted from her shot only prompted all hell to break loose. Oobleck and Weiss instantly leapt into action, Dust flying freely as a combination of fire and ice tore at the two Paladins guarding what passed as a front gate. Their history professor, in particular, had immediately fallen upon the two armored suits and actually seemed to be winning for the moment. Any retaliation by the infantry never happened, as Kassidy pulled a fully automatic rifle out of… somewhere, and opened up. Between the new bit of hardware, and the left half of Ember Celica, there were over a dozen dead and at least as many wounded before the blonde cut off her assault mere seconds after it began, disappearing into the buildings to presumably strike again.

"None of the Fangers here have Aura. Repeat: no White Fang I've seen has Aura," Kassidy said over their earpieces.

Ruby wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, their job here just got that much easier – and oh dear Oum if something that coldly tactical wasn't a measure of Kass' influence on her over the months. On the other, a lot of people were going to die here. Shaking her head and gritting her teeth, Ruby swapped out her fire Dust magazine for one of slightly-less-lethal electric Dust, resolving to not add to the death count if she could help it. She found a group and started taking potshots, bringing several down but fortunately leaving them alive, if unable to fight. She was about to move on to the next group before she noticed a fourth Paladin come around a corner, and right where Kassidy was about to pop up too, no less. The girl hadn't even been able to let them know about it over their earpieces before Ruby had taken off in a storm of rose petals, explosive box in hand.

Ruby was always fast, and in this situation she pushed herself as fast as she could. And after months of training at Beacon, not to mention the combat experience she's received, 'as fast as she could' was pretty darn fast, if she did say so herself. Ruby blinked to the side of the Paladin in less than a second, breaking the sound barrier as an afterthought and sending the White Fang grunts flying from the displaced air. After quickly making sure the box was secured and the duct-taped detonator pressed, Ruby casually broke the sound barrier a second time dashing to the other side of the street, this time purposefully sweeping the White Fang with her in an attempt to shepherd them away from the blast that tore off both the Paladin's legs and left the guy crawling out of the tank.

The unfortunate pilot didn't get far, as Kass stalked out of the building she had taken cover in and put a bullet in his head while hardly looking at the guy. Ruby didn't see that, however. She was currently busy taking the blunt end of her baby to the grunts she'd brought with her, quickly rendering them unconscious. By the time she had finished, Kassidy walked up to her and genuinely seemed divided on whether to shoot them where they lay, or simply leave them there. Ruby was sure she wasn't going to like which answer she chose, but before they could argue a voice rang over some sort of speaker system. "Get to your places, we are leaving now!"

"Girls!" Doctor Oobleck shouted behind them. He and Weiss sprinted up to them, and he said, "Good to see you both still in one piece. I assume you have a plan for this as well, Miss Rose?"

"If we hurry, we have a straight shot to the train," Weiss said. "We can try and stop it once we're aboard."

"What she said," Ruby replied. She was about to follow them to the train, but stopped when she remembered that Kassidy wasn't exactly as fast as they were. A quick look back and forth, a terrible idea that was just terrible enough to work, and Ruby smirked. Kassidy must've caught wind of it, because she paled a bit before closing her eyes and breathing deeply. After the hazel eyes opened again, she nodded at Ruby.

Before promptly yelping as she was brought to instantaneous supersonic speeds as Ruby carried her to the train with a Semblance-enhanced dash. Even though Oobleck and Weiss had a head start, they'd gotten so far ahead that Kassidy even had time to vacate her stomach before the two of them caught up.

"Alright, children!" Doctor Oobleck shouted. "We must get to the front if we want to stop this train!"

"Bigger problems!" Kassidy groaned from her kneeling posture. "Kinda just threw up on a bomb – which, by the way, did nothing to stop it from counting down." They were about to argue over what to do, but they all heard beeping come from the very compartment Kass was hunched over. The girl yelped once again before slamming the lid down and taking off. "Time to go!" she yelled behind her.

"Get going!" Ruby yelled. "I'll get this separated from the rest of the train!" Putting words to action, she quickly dashed down to the link connecting the two train cars. Crescent Rose twirled into her full form behind her, but before she could swing her baby down, the cars automatically decoupled. Ruby could do naught but stare dumbly at it as the train exploded… which tore a hole in the tunnel… and let in all manner of Grimm. Ruby's stomach grew cold and heavy as she realized what was going on, and she quickly joined the others on the top of the car before saying, "They're leading Grimm into the city!"

"More bombs!" Kassidy yelled, having already thrown open the compartment on their current car. Oobleck dashed ahead to the next car, and the car after that, before relaying back that they both had bombs. The three girls barely even needed to share a look – though Zwei finally decided to poke his head out from Kassidy's backpack where he'd been hiding the whole time, in order to get his word in as well. Ruby took her dog's wise counsel into consideration before all three of them ran as quickly as they could to a car that finally didn't have a bomb compartment.

Of course, because the White Fang couldn't make saving the day easy, as soon as they were clear of the bombs a large group of grunts climbed to the roof to join them. Ruby could even see a couple Paladins leap to the top as well. Her heart sank – they couldn't fight through all of that. Not if they wanted to stop the train in time. Kassidy so helpfully put in, "Uh, anyone have any ideas? Considering I'm noticeably less bulletproof than you guys are?"

"Ruby!" Doctor Oobleck shouted, "Take your team inside the train! You can make faster progress inside. I'll fight these guys!" The three girls nodded, and their history professor was about to take off when he suddenly remembered something and turned back. "Actually, Kassidy, my dear girl, may I have your bag, by chance? I have a feeling I may need its contents before the day is won." The girl in question nodded, before shrugging off the huge backpack and tossing it his way. With one final exchange of good lucks, the four parted ways.

"Alright, guys," Ruby said, trying to keep their spirits up. "This is what we trained for. Let's do this."

They were all about to begin making their way further into a train, but a figure suddenly stepped out from behind a stack of boxes. A dark brown cloak not unlike their own, black and brown padded leather armor, and a blood red steel faceplate strode out to halt their advance. A shotgun with an axe blade built into the stock was balanced on his shoulder. Ruby couldn't help but notice that it seemed rather crude. "I am sorry," the figure said. "But you go no further."

Kassidy, unpredictably, stormed in front of them and drew her sword on the guy. "Get the fuck out of my way, Munsell. I am not in the mood right now, and you can't fight all three of us at once."

The newly-identified Munsell tilted his head to the side. After a slight pause, he admitted, "Probably not." Instead of getting out of their way, however, he added, "Something tells me that I will only be fighting one of you."

"You two go on ahead," Ruby said, having already made up her mind without regard for what he'd said. "You two have the best chance of stopping this train. I'll make sure this guy doesn't bother you."

Kassidy hesitated, before arguing, "But –"

"No buts," Ruby insisted. "Go. I've got this."

Kassidy growled, but Weiss tugging on her elbow eventually made her relent. "Be careful," she hissed. "Just because he's no good doesn't mean he's harmless."

Incredulously, Munsell stepped aside when Weiss and Kassidy stepped forward, allowing the two of them to pass. "More wait behind me," he warned. "If you make it to Torchwick, I will not complain if he left the confrontation with more holes than he started with."

Weiss stared at the man. Kassidy glared at him and seemed awfully tempted to put a bullet in his back regardless. She probably only stayed her hand because of the amount of Dust in this room. However, the two of them made it out of the room, and the door hissed closed behind them. Trying to buy herself – and her teammates – some time, Ruby asked, "Why are you doing this?"

"Are you referring to the White Fang, or to me?" Munsell asked in reply. "The White Fang are here because they are a pack of inconceivable morons. I am here because my employer has an interest in seeing the White Fang succeed."

Ruby had more questions, but she didn't get the chance to ask them – Munsell dashed right up to her, forcing her to expand Crescent Rose to block the strike. The man immediately transitioned into a brutal and relentless offensive, one that made Ruby question Kassidy's remarks about his hilarious lack of skill with a melee weapon. Between the man's aggressions and her weapon's own mismatch – there was almost literally no room for her scythe to maneuver, and in truth Crescent Rose was hitting the walls and ceiling almost as much as the guy's weapon – Ruby quickly found herself on the bad side of a losing fight.

A losing fight that only got worse when she ate a shotgun shell to the face; the guy took an opportunity while the gun was twirling to put a shot on her when it was pointed in the right direction. The next thing Ruby knew, she was staring at the ceiling the full room length away, with her baby no longer in her hands. She tried to get away with a burst of her Semblance, but Munsell ground his boot into her shoulder painfully. She cried out, and he only cocked his shotgun in reply. "Goodbye, Miss Rose."

Ruby couldn't believe it. She was widely considered a prodigy, and in the top five in her year's Combat Training class – and she'd been thoroughly trounced in under ninety seconds. Her Aura probably wouldn't stand up against a second blast, and even if it did there was nothing stopping him from continuing to pump rounds into her. She closed her eyes. I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry, Yang. I'm so, so sorry. I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't be the hero.

Her silver eyes snapped back open when Munsell cursed and the pain on her shoulder disappeared, before said silver eyes bugged nearly out of their sockets. A third person had somehow entered the room: black boots and skirt, red shirt, white mask, and a sword sheathed, but might as well have been pointed at the boy that had so nearly killed her. She looked familiar, and Ruby could tell why after a few precious moments of thought. She'd seen her picture before. She almost looked like… "Auntie Raven?"

The woman ignored her, but Munsell didn't. He clutched his left shoulder, having dropped his shotgun in the middle of his retreat, and even without his face being visible it was plainly obvious he was glaring at the newcomer. "Raven Branwen," he hissed. "What are you doing here?"

"When a family member makes a mistake, when their strength fails them… tradition allows one opportunity for their elders to move to their aid. I am exercising that one opportunity." Suddenly drawing her sword, a blade of the deepest red pointed at the boy. "I will give you one chance. Leave. Do not return."

Munsell continued glaring at her, before finally sighing and shaking his head. He shambled only forward enough to grab his weapon, then brought his injured arm to tap against where his ear would be. "Neo, I am outmatched. Get me out of here." Almost immediately, glass shattered, and suddenly the same girl that bailed Torchwick out was standing next to the boy. They shared a nod, before glass broke again and their forms shattered.

Ruby couldn't help but outwardly gawk at what just happened. Raven sheathed her sword, but didn't make any effort to help her up. Ruby sat up, a million questions buzzing through her head, but settled on the one: why did she leave. "Why did –"

"That was a foolish and imbecilic decision you made," Raven chided, interrupting her question completely. "You would be wise to exercise more caution in the future. You should see to your strength as well: tradition forbids me from saving you a second time." Her sword flashed out of her sheath, near the front of the room, and all of a sudden a reddish-black portal opened. Raven stepped into it fearlessly, and left as quickly as she arrived. Not once bothering to look her stepdaughter in the eye.

Ruby continued to sit dumbly for a solid minute, head swimming from what just happened. Finally, she clambered to her feet and grabbed her scythe.

I sure hope everyone's doing better than I am.

AN 2: So, a couple things here. First off, congrats to Artoria Pendragon for being our one hundred fiftieth favorite. For such an auspicious occasion, I bequeath… a boot to the head. And another for Jenny and the wimp.

Secondly… hoo, boy. There were a couple ways I could've made the play out. In the end, I settled on swapping Neo for our own villain, and having Raven show up after all.

Alright, here we go guys, the home stretch. Three more chapters left in Volume Two, and all signs currently point to my plans of having the final chapter of this chapter be released on Team Rookie's one-year… anniversary? Birthday? Anniver-day.

Coming up next: Kassidy Smith vs. Roman Torchwick, ROUND FOUR FIGHT! Also, Weiss vs. Mystery Contestant #2.

AgentDraakis: Sorry, but you don't get to find out until next chapter! Though, I don't think Kassidy is gonna let Roman get away with this if she gets a say in the matter…

The Crimson Commando: Another sorry, but there's too much going on for me to give that the justice it deserves. I'll be sure to give it some love in the second interlude, but as of right now it's been given to Ruby and she slept with it. Well, not slept with it, slept with it. That would be weird. And probably cheating on Sun.

intata: Glad to hear you're liking things so far! Yeah, I'm still working on the reworks for the first dozen or so chapters, and that's gonna be looked at.

EWR115: Believe me, you don't want to see what she did to the White Fang grunts this time around. Kassidy didn't leave enough of a lot of them to be buried.

serioushugsies: I can totally understand where you're coming from with Bob. As I've said before, at the moment I currently think Bob is the weakest part of the story. Yeah, as he is right now, we all know him and love him and I wouldn't do anything to him. If we were in late July/early August of last year when I was planning this out? Yeah, I'd probably not include Bob this time around if I got a second chance at this.

FloriteFlower: Oh, believe me. If Kassidy gets a say in things, she's definitely not letting Roman walk off this train alive. I guess it's only time to see if she gets a say in things.