Interlude 2 Chapter 4: Red Sun Rising

AN: Does anyone have a time machine, by chance? I want a do-over on my October.

It's time for Beacon to decide which teams get to compete in the Vytal festival. Hmm… I wonder if RWKY will qualify.

(Perspective: Ruby)

Not you, not you, not you… there you are!

Ruby found the particular shell for Crescent Rose that she was looking for, and slid it into one of the loops on her belt. There were some shells that she didn't really want a full magazine of in situations like this, and ice Dust was one of them. Still, if it came down to it… that one shot just might mean the difference.

Not that Ruby was particularly worried. It was Saturday, and Saturday meant it was time to decide which teams get to represent Beacon, and thus all of Vale, in the Vytal Festival Tournament. Even to get the chance to qualify wasn't guaranteed: only the top eight teams in the entire school were allowed to compete in the in-house tournament. Four matches, with four victors… and her team was last up. CFVY had already beaten their second-year competitors SPHR, JNPR had completely rolled over third-year AZUR, and CRDL somehow managed to pull an upset win over third-years JYDE.

What did it say about them, then, that RWKY had to fight the only fourth-year team trying to qualify? Or, rather, what did it say about the highest-up years in Beacon, if two first-year teams beat them and a third was about to fight seniors?

Still, as much as Ruby didn't like pulling the short straw, what she did like was that she had a team that could handle it. Once again, she found herself being thankful for having the best team possible with Weiss, Kassidy, and Yang. They were experienced, they were fast, they were strong, they were skilled; most of all, they were ready. Honestly, Ruby, Weiss, and Yang could probably win four-on-three. Which… might actually need to happen.

"Hey Kass," Ruby called out across the locker room. "Let's go over one more time what you'll be doing."

She heard a badly muffled groan before Kassidy answered, "Again? Why?"

"Well," Ruby explained, "This is kinda important, and not just for this fight. And also maybe because you have a bad habit of ignoring pre-mission briefings."

"What? I do not!"

Ruby's sister took this time to chirp in, "Uh, how about that one weekend mission where you forgot we were tracking a target instead of collecting flags, and went the wrong way?"

Ruby giggled when Kassidy started sputtering, before the girl in question shot back, "Oh, come on! That was the one time!"

"And it's also good practice," Ruby reminded.

Kassidy shot Yang a mild glare and slapped her arm lightly, but nonetheless huffed and took a seat on one of the benches. "Team OPUL should be an easy win, at least for you three. My job's to keep their little reality-manipulator, Umber, busy so he can't royally screw everything up. As long as he can't use his Semblance, the three of you should have no problems with the rest of them."

Ruby nodded; apparently, Kassidy had been paying attention. Even to Umber's Semblance: the boy had a way of… twisting space? Whatever he did, it made his allies' Auras a lot tougher to hurt, and made his enemies' Auras a lot easier to hurt in an area. Still, it needed focus, which is why OPUL always seemed to turtle around him and focus on ensuring that he's left alone.

Still, there was one last important bit that she needed to make sure Kassidy understood. "And…?" Ruby prompted.

Kassidy sighed. "And no using my Aura gliding, or my specialty ammo, unless we're in a bad situation."

"Because as long as we win this anyway, the more we keep hidden away the better," Ruby finished. She stood up and skipped her way to the middle of the locker room. What do you mean, why am I skipping? If we win, then we get to compete in the Vytal Tournament! What's not to be excited about? "Okay, Team Rookie! We've had a long road to get here, but that just means we're all the more ready! After killer robots, giant mechs, and Grimm attacks, we've got this!"

"Yeah!" Yang exclaimed. "I love it when you're feisty, sis!"

"Just remember to remain in perfect form," Weiss reminded. "Honestly, despite having more years on us, it almost seems like we're already more experienced than them. Remember your training, and this should be easy."

The intercom speaker crackled above them, before Goodwitch's voice announced, "Would teams Rookie and Opal join us in the arena?"

Ruby heard the rustling behind her as her team got ready. Her team. Hers. Needlessly, she called out behind her, "We all ready?" It was needless, because of course they were ready. They were Team Rookie.

Okay, Ruby thought to herself as the four made their way to the arena. Maybe Dad was right in that this is getting to my head a bit. But why not? We kinda are that good.

As they lined up, Ruby watched OPUL get into their positions. As expected, Umber was in the back with the other three huddled in front of him. She caught eye contact with her rival team leader, Onyx, the girl loading a bolt into a crossbow that Ruby knew from observation could turn into a spear at the drop of a hat.

"Start off with Checkmate and Blacksmith," Ruby whispered, getting her teammates' attention. "Once Kass is on top of Umber, transition into Freezerburn to blind them and Fire Flower to split them up. After that, pick your target and take them down. Kass, if you need a hand, just shout and we'll be there."

By this point, however, their machinations were ended as Goodwitch took her position on the edge of the arena. "Rookie, Opal, are you ready? Three, two, one, BEGIN!"

The battle began with an explosion, both literally and figuratively; both teams seemed to know that the opening moves would likely determine the match. Ruby launched herself forward with Crescent Rose's recoil, Weiss keeping up with her Glyphs and Kassidy sprinting to try and get to Umber in time. All the while, Yang held back, opening up with Ember Celica and quickly launching the better part of a dozen high-explosive shells. OPUL was not stationary, either: Onyx launched her own high-explosive arrow to try and slow their charge, Pewter stepped in front to absorb Yang's attacks while growing a shell of rock around himself as a sort of armor, and Lake disappeared briefly, to be replaced by two identical Lakes.

Ruby smirked and let her Semblance kick in. She all but vanished in a pressure wave as she left the sound barrier in the dust, effectively teleporting the final fifty or so feet to right in the middle of all five of them. Her momentum didn't stop there, as Crescent Rose kept spinning around and forcing OPUL to scatter lest they lose a significant portion of their Aura. Weiss landed next to her, spun up a Glyph beneath the both of them, and lashed out with ice Dust to further separate them. Ruby turned around for a brief moment; Kassidy had apparently been the main target for Onyx's arrow, and the detonation seemed to have taken about ten percent off her Aura. Still, after recovering from her stumble she seemed to be catching up, using Rogue's bullets to clear herself a path to Umber.

OPUL was aware of what they were trying to do, of course, and reacted rather admirably. Still, their carefully coordinated plans were ruined when Weiss coated the arena floor in ice and Yang came flying in to sublimate it.

Ruby and Yang were about to team up to bury the immediate area in gunfire and actual fire, too, if they hadn't been caught off-guard. But no, Pewter didn't even appear fazed in the slightest. Or, rather, what they assumed was Pewter, as the young man had all but disappeared inside a half-ton rock monster ten feet high. He'd never been able to build his Semblance up that quickly before – but now wasn't the time to gape.

"Pick your targets and go!" Ruby called, putting deeds to words as she peeled off to the side to try and find Lake. The air around them pulsed with brown energy, but only once, no doubt a result of Kassidy having engaged Umber. Ruby would've hoped that Kassidy would be able to handle her fight, but quickly found her attention diverted by four whips. She stepped into her Semblance, dashed through the attack, and rematerialized just in time to see both Lakes regather their whips.

Their blue eyes lit up with mirth, and they simultaneously wondered with equal tones, "Ooh, what's this? Are we the babysitters this time?" Ruby grimaced, but didn't rise to the bait. Lake Darcy had the annoying Semblance of being able to split herself into two separate bodies. While each one only had half her full Aura, when combined with her favored weapons of the dual whips, 'area control' was an understatement, and Lake was the one person they didn't really have a complete answer for. Yang could stand up to – and even overpower – Pewter and his geo-kinetic-whatever Semblance, Weiss was every bit Onyx's superior in a fight, and even Kassidy could dance around Umber. But they only had one thing that could even try to keep up with Lake, and that was Ruby liberally abusing her own Semblance.

And the fact that her weapon could cover just as much area as Lake's, something which was demonstrated when the two Lakes had to dodge out of Crescent's swing. Ruby fired to get the furthest Lake even more off-balance, then stepped into her Semblance yet again to deliver a crushing blow on the near one, the sheer momentum folding Lake in half and sending her flying into a pillar. The force was so great, in fact, that it cracked the pillar and made that particular Lake vanish. The remaining one cried out, "What?!"

"You wish you could be my babysitter," Ruby mocked, sprinting forward again to meet her in combat. Lake waved her whips in front of her, the Dust-infused leather lighting up to create a veritable wall of electricity, but that's the thing about panic that Ruby learned both firsthand and from Kassidy – it made you really, really bad at thinking clearly. Ruby fired another shot through the whips, catching Lake and making her drop to a knee. Honestly, Ruby thought as she went for the (metaphorical) kill, this is too easy. These are fourth-years?

Ruby was viciously reminded of another lesson: hubris made you really, really bad at thinking clearly also. One whip found itself around her ankle and the second around the haft of Crescent Rose, and with one tug she was pulled to the ground and disarmed, fighting her convulsions as the electricity coursed through her body. Fortunately, it was rather short-lived, and Ruby was able to scramble out of the way of the whips coming back down on top of her.

"Man, you are so much easier to deal with without that oversized gardening tool of yours," Lake taunted, and it took the words for Ruby to realize that Lake was now between her and her precious baby. Lake obviously knew this as well, for her grin grew teeth and she slowly started flexing her whips. "What now, little girlie? We both know you can't fight without that scythe of yours. Looks like it's time to put someone in time-out."

Not like this, Ruby thought to herself. Her arm snaked around to the back of her belt, and she challenged, "I couldn't agree more," in a tone far darker than she usually used. In her mind's eye, she wasn't in the dueling hall facing down Lake – she was in a train car, Munsell stepping forward and cocking his shotgun. If you think you're beating me that easily again, you've got another thing coming. You won't take my sister from me!

Munsell fired – but Ruby stepped into her Semblance, diving past it and tackling him. The knife that Kass had gifted her came free of its sheath, and she buried it in his gut. His Aura held, and Munsell kicked her off him and scrambled to his feet. Ruby was faster, though; by the time he was upright, she had dashed behind him, slashed the knife against his back, and reversed her grip on the knife to bring it to his throat. You won't take my sister from me! I won't lose aga –

"Lake Darcy is eliminated by Aura level! Onyx Alabaster is eliminated by Aura level!"

Ruby managed to squeak out a, "Huh?" and she wasn't in the train car anymore. She blinked, and looked down to find Lake staring at her with wide, tearful, fearful eyes. Ruby had her knee in Lake's back, one arm having grabbed Lake's and wrenched it backwards while the knife pressed against the skin of her neck. She was frozen but a moment longer, before nausea kicked in at the realization that she'd nearly killed her opponent in a dueling hall. The knife fell from her grip, and Ruby staggered a few paces back, arms waving around for something to grab onto.

"Are you okay?" Weiss asked, suddenly appearing to her left and helping steady her.

Ruby shook her head. "I wasn't… I didn't… I –"

"It's okay, it's okay," Weiss murmured. "The train car?" When Ruby only nodded, Weiss reassured, "That's happened to me once or twice as well. It's fine. Nothing happened."

Ruby simply nodded again, before taking stock of the situation. Her eyes met Professor Goodwitch's briefly – the combat instructor's gaze narrowed at her – but quickly moved on. She managed to catch on to her sister's fight just in time, apparently. Despite Pewter now being inside a behemoth of rock the better part of twenty feet tall and no doubt weighing several tons, Yang was fully empowered by her Semblance. Pewter smashed both his golem's arms down, only to find them caught in her sister's grip. Yang yelled, ripped the two rocky appendages off, and then punched the golem shell in the middle of its chest, obliterating it completely. She hauled Pewter out of what remained of his armor, smashed him into the ground, and then finished off her fight by picking him up and chucking him into the far wall.

"Pewter Balderk is eliminated by both ring-out and Aura level!" Glynda declared. That only left one last fight, Ruby noted as her mind frantically tried to catch up to the present. Her gaze shifted, trying to find the last fight.

I was afraid Kass wasn't ready yet.

It was obvious that Kassidy was losing. She was panting for breath, down to her last 13% of Aura, and at this point only barely staying ahead of the double-bladed axe Umber was swinging around. The young man she was facing up against had most certainly not fared as well as he was hoping to, but even at 47% he had more than enough to end this fight. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all caught each other's gazes, and nodded before stepping forward to finish the fight and go back to their dorm.

"Give me a minute!" Kass called out suddenly. She backpedaled from Umber, and got enough space to say, "Hey, we win anyway, right? Might as well get some practice in."

The declaration actually got Umber to cease his charge. He looked around the room: to where Pewter was still trying to peel himself off the far wall, to where Onyx was limping towards the edge of the arena out of the way, to… to where Lake had passed out, fainting from sheer fright after their fight had ended. Umber growled, and in a rough, gravelly voice said, "This isn't fair. I'm the better fighter here. You're barely fit to be the janitor. I should be going to the Tournament, not you. This isn't fair."

"Life isn't fair, bud," Kass fired back. "But as long as it's not fair, help me get ready for it?"

Umber closed his eyes, let out a breath, and nodded… which is exactly when Kassidy decided for a sneak attack, Baton slashing across his abdomen as she grabbed the young man by one of his ram horns and pulling him off balance. "Coward!" Umber bellowed, axe swinging in an attack that threw him even more off-balance but was all but guaranteed to cleave through the rest of Kassidy's Aura.

At least, it would've been guaranteed if Kass hadn't bent double at the waist, ducking under it in a remarkable display of flexibility. She followed the move into a handstand, her free hand dropping her sword as it moved to her belt and pulled out her pistol. As off-balance as he was, Umber had no chance to dodge, and Kass emptied Rogue's magazine into him, sending his Aura into the red.

"Umber Coble has been eliminated by Aura level! Team Rookie is victorious!"

There was applause from the crowd gathered to watch, and Yang cheered. From the look on Kass' face, she would've cheered too, if she hadn't finally lost her balance and fell face-first onto the floor. While Yang ran over to help her up, shooting off fallen, face, and floor puns the whole while, Ruby and Weiss shared a knowing look and smirked. Ruby's faded, though, when she once again went back to how she won her fight.

"Miss Rose!" Professor Goodwitch barked, causing everyone to jump and turn towards her. Glynda slapped her wand into her hand and glared at Ruby. "Report to my office. Immediately."

"Wait, what?" Kassidy asked from the far side of the stage. "What happened?"

Ruby turned around and was about to answer when Goodwitch repeated, "Immediately."

"So, what happened down there?"

Ruby sunk further into her seat, using her chopsticks to twirl around the noodles in her bowl. After getting all manner of detention from Professor Goodwitch (and nearly getting her team disqualified as well), she was not having a good day. And it was supposed to be a great day! They won! They were going to the Vytal Festival Tournament! They'd just proven themselves as four of the top sixteen fighters in Beacon – and four of the sixty-four best Hunters-in-training in the whole world! Sun was obviously one of the first to congratulate her, and offered to take her out for dinner. However, what was supposed to be a celebratory date was quickly turning into something far more somber.

"I… I don't know," Ruby admitted. She hated that she was ruining their date like this, but she couldn't stop thinking about it. "Whenever she disarmed me, I… it was almost like I was back in that train."

"The one you rode in from Mountain Glenn, right?" Sun asked. He slurped up a quick bite of his dinner before prodding, "What even happened on that thing, anyway?"

That's right, I never told him what happened on our mission. "Well," Ruby began, "Before the train, Yang found a sinkhole in the road. She saved Kass… but she got knocked unconscious, and the White Fang captured her."

"No good scum," Sun muttered under his breath. "Not doing anything but ruining the reputation of Faunus everywhere."

"They put her in the front of the train, and when we got on the train to stop it, we had to free her too. This… this one guy showed up to try and stop us. I was able to distract him for a little bit, so Weiss and Kass could keep on going. But… but he beat me. He beat me real easily." Ruby started breaking down at this point, and despite Sun's attempted reassurances she kept talking over him even as tears began to flow. "He… he didn't even make it look hard! He looked like he was bored! But he disarmed me, and kicked me onto the floor, and ground my shoulder down, and stuck a shotgun in my face. All… all I could think about was how I failed. I lost my Mom, I was about to lose my sister, I was about to lose my team, I was about to lose my life! I wasn't good enough!

"Whenever Lake disarmed me… I was back on the train. But since then… since then, Kass has been training me… us, rather… in how to use a knife. I saw that guy… that red mask coming up to kill me, to kill my sister, to kill everyone! I couldn't let him, I wouldn't let him! I…"

"Hey, hey, it's alright, it's alright," Sun murmured. At some point he'd walked around their table, scooting his chair around next to hers. He had an arm around her shoulders, and Ruby took that as an invitation as she started crying into his shirt.

Several minutes later, she stopped crying. It's been an incredibly trying day for her, and at this point she was simply spent. "Sorry for ruining our date," Ruby muttered. "I know you were excited and all…"

Ruby flinched back in surprise when something flicked her nose; her eyes tracked the offending finger as it went to rest on her forehead, making her go slightly cross-eyed. "None of that," Sun argued. "Yeah, I was; heck, I still am. But anything that's this important to you is important to me, too." He sighed and shook his head, before continuing, "Look, I haven't had to go through anything like that. I don't know what you're going through. But, what I do know is that you have an awesome big sister that would do literally anything for you. I know that you have some pretty awesome friends that would bend over backwards to help you." He paused long enough to smirk, before finishing, "And I also hear that you've got a boyfriend these days. Cool, good-looking, ring a bell? He's a pretty alright guy, I guess. I know he's here for you, and he'll do whatever he can to help."

Ruby couldn't help it as she snorted, giggling into Sun's chest from his description of himself. "Thanks, Sun," she said.

"Hey," he replied. "What are friends for, if not helping each other out?"

"Enjoying noodles with," Ruby snarked, appetite suddenly returning. "We should probably finish up before they get too cold." They continued eating (and occasionally slurping) for a few minutes, before a sudden thought came to her. "How come this stall is open? I thought the Festival didn't start for another week or so."

"Yeah, but everyone's setting up shop now," Sun said. "The guy finished early, so I guess he figured he'd try to earn a few more bucks while he was stuck here."

"Well, I'm really thankful he did finish early. This is good. Really good," Ruby said around a mouthful of noodles. "So, want to do anything when we're done? I'm actually all caught up on my studies for once, and I think Yang and Kassidy are spending the night watching movies in the dorm."

"Really?" Sun asked. "Which one?"

"Kass called it 'Spaceballs', whatever that is. Said it was from her home." Ruby pouted as she added, "She also said that I couldn't watch it."

"Wow. Lame," Sun declared. "How about we go watch something ourselves? I heard that the fourth Montana Smith movie is out; apparently, they're going to some ancient Mistrali temple and fighting the United Soviet Collectivist Kingdoms. Sound like fun?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think I'd like that," Ruby admitted. "I like the first three; hope they didn't jump the shark with this one."

"Well, it has been a while," Sun added. "Guess we'll just have to go and find out, huh?"

AN 2: Holy Christ almighty. Seriously, can someone give me a do-over on the past month or so? I want a do-over. Needless to say, I am done announcing dates for publishing the next chapter. I'll continue to try for every other Monday, but at this point… I don't even know what's going on anymore.

Anyways… that post-fight did not go how I thought it would at first. You'd be surprised how much these stories write themselves on occasion, or how much they surprise the writers. Or, in this instance, be complete trolls that take a detour you didn't even think was there.

Also, as those of you who watched the fourth Indiana Jones movie well know (if you haven't, then I guess spoilers in this next sentence), that movie was an abomination of an Indiana Jones movie that should have never been made in the first place.

Coming up next: Kassidy, Yang, Bob, and Blake. KYBB? What color even is that? Heck if I know.

Right after these Reviewer Responses.

Guest #1: Unfortunately, all signs are pointing towards a "no Blake and Adam scene" at the present moment. I might be able to work it into the story in the very distant future, but not anytime soon on that front. I also agree that, at least to start with, Adam was basically the definition of chivalry; Blake had to see something in him in order to fall in love with him in the first place, right? Also, he seems like he'd be that kind of guy if he wasn't busy being so edgy I could cut myself on his character.

Myrillis: Interesting information, thanks for sharing it. And yeah, Bob's memory might be slightly more reliable than yours and mine. Hell, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast that morning half the time.

AgentDraakis: Want to place bets on just how big of a troll Bob turns into to mess with Kassidy? After all, he still hates puns, and still wants revenge for all the puns Yang and Kassidy crack.

DIYEyal: At least to start with, Kassidy had to steal what she could while out on the streets of dystopic America. Though when rebuilding him (and I thought I mentioned this – was I not clear enough in the chapter?) she basically told Weiss what she needed, and Weiss told her company to build it. Bob v Watts is absolutely something I'm considering, though I'm not sure which side I favor at the moment. And yes, at some point Bob is going to be going for his best Ultron impression. Hopefully, it's the good Ultron.

Guest #2: Bob had strings, but now he's free.

Nemasis Demarini: Please accept my apologies. Even if I dropped the ball this week as well. Again, life is all manner of complicated bullcrap around here, and at this point I'm kinda lucky if I can find time to work on the story. So again, please accept my apologies, and I hope that at least my chapters remain entertaining.

Tykene: Glad to hear you continue to like the story so much. Yeah, the last ~1k words or so were definitely something that could never seem to flow right no matter how I worded it, and unfortunately I've been unable to come up with a good revision. Also kinda worried that I did the same thing here, but again I'm not coming up with anything better at the moment. Here's to hoping this chapter lives up to expectations.

EWR115: Well, there's only one way to find out. I mean, I suppose I could just tell you, but where's the fun in that?

FlouriteFlower: Smartass Bob is indeed my favorite Bob. I've only seen up to V5E4 so far (not a FIRST member, so I see new episodes on the Tuesday, please no spoilers!), and I've got to say I have been extremely impressed with everything so far. Honestly, the biggest complaint I have at the moment is that Blake is still pretty much there as Little Miss Plot Device, but everything else is top notch.

Guest #3: He's back, baby. And now far more capable of trolling your day.

Guest #4: Oh, hey, it's been a while since someone's been back here. Glad to hear you liked the Fool's Errand arc so much. Hope you've found the rest of the story as entertaining as that.