12 new followers and 12 new favorites at the posting of this chapter. Not to mention 13 reviews on the last chapter. Thanks again who everyone who reads this story. Simply seeing all of you show up really keeps me going and wanting to finish this story. The only thing I have to say about his chapter is that I really couldn't get the Beast Claws to feel right in this fight scene. I think it's mostly because I lack inspiration for the weapon at the moment. Hopefully once 'The Old Hunters' DLC drops I can find something in the improved Beast Claws that will spark my interest and make me come back to them later in this story.
Let's see how JNPR fares in this fight.
The plan was simple, keep Dunstan occupied and corner him while chipping away at his extremities until the match was called. Unfortunately like most best laid plans it fell apart once contact was made with the enemy. The moment the transformation was complete Dunstan charged them and unfortunately all of JNPR lowered their weapons initially after seeing the transformation. Whether through planning or sheer chance his first move dragged Ren away from the group and slammed him into the wall.
A volley of explosives threw Dunstan away from the downed huntsman before he could deliver another blow. Holding his changed hand in front of him he charged forward while the thickened skin absorbed most the gunshots. Stray bullets would pass between his fingers landing glancing blows against the armor.
Taking a swipe with his claws Dunstan met with Jaune's shield as he used his gauntlet to catch Pyrrha's blade. Jaune felt his feet leave the ground as the hand that grasped his shield lifted it up. Jaune was thrown through the air towards Pyrrha who leapt out of the way.
Walking forward with her spear raised she kept Dunstan a short distance from her making sure he never got close enough to begin his attack. The short exchange was interrupted when Dunstan raised both his arms to block a hammer that slammed into his guard, throwing him to the edge of the arena.
"That was for Ren." Nora said triumphantly.
"Still alive." Ren said as he stood back as he kept his weapons trained on Dunstan.
Stick to the plan, we can do this." Jaune said getting back up as he and Pyrrha ran at Dunstan to engage him.
Jaune's swing was easily avoided with a quick dash sideways directly into Pyrrha's sword. The blade ran across his arm spilling blood onto the arena floor. Trying to dash around the Spartan he was met with a hail of bullets forcing him to keep the sword wielding warriors between him and Ren. Both slowly pushed him back towards the wall with their shields raised to block any attempt at retaliation.
Bringing his clawed hand back Dunstan let it rest on the ground behind him as Pyrrha leaped back and Jaune rushed forward failing to see the tale of the oncoming attack. In a flash the arm left the floor and was being brought down atop Jaune in an overhead swing. The swing connected smashing Jaune into the floor and having him rebound up into the air just high enough for Dunstan to unleash a barrage of quick swipes.
Each swing increased in pace and ferocity until one final strike threw the knight onto the ground. Seeing the knight failing to get back up Dunstan turned his attention to Pyrrha who kept her shield raised in fear of what would happen the moment she dropped her guard. Her fear was unfounded in the Valkyrie who flew at Dunstan after seeing her leader fall.
"This is for Jaune." Nora yelled as her she brought her hammer down on Dunstan only for it to stop mid swing.
Looking at the hammer's head she saw Dunstan gripping it with his changed hand. The impact forced him to kneel, but he had clearly stopped the blow from even reaching his body. Pulling the trigger an explosion freed her weapon from his grip allowing her to see what had happened to Dunstan.
The explosion shredded most of his jacket and completely destroyed his hat. Black fur seemed to extend from his arms and had taken most of his back. The fur seemed to defy physics as a bit of it would float off of him only to dissolve into nothingness.
Taking his chance Ren unloaded into Dunstan with his guns only for him to shrug off the attack like it was nothing. With his attention refocused on him Ren quickly regrouped with his team.
"So what's the plan?" he asked wondering if they had anything left since their leader was down for the count.
"I don't"- Pyrrha looked up in the stands seeing Ruby franticly hitting her weapon and pointing the barrel at Dunstan only for nothing to happen- "have any idea. New plan me and Nora lock an arm each while you take his gauntlet off."
"Are you sure that will work?" Ren said worried about what would happen if an arm got loose while he was removing the gauntlet.
"It's our best option now let's do this." Pyrrha said leading the charge with her weapon on her back and shield braced with both arms.
Taking his first strike with her shield she pushed the arm off before quickly grabbing ahold of it and getting it into a straight arm bar keeping it locked in place. Dunstan was about to strike her with his gauntlet when Nora slammed into him taking him to the ground as she grabbed onto his arm. With both arms locked down Ren quickly went to work and began undoing the bindings on the gauntlet. Undoing the last strap he saw Dunstan's hand fused to the grip with fur erupting over his hand.
"His hand is fused to the grip. What do we do?"
The moment froze for Pyrrha as she thought over every possibility with each one ending in Team JNPR being killed as soon as Dunstan broke free of her or Nora. The one solution she knew that could separate Dunstan from the Gauntlet terrified her.
"Pyrrha what do we do?" Nora yelled as Dunstan continued to thrash about.
Her answer never came as Ruby appeared above them and quickly shoved something into Dunstan's mouth. The effect was nearly instant as the fur receded and the gauntlet fell from his now loosened grip.
"Everyone okay?" Ruby asked seeing NPR lying on the floor trying to catch their breath.
"Never better." Ren answered while lying down with his arms stretched outwards.
"How's Jaune?" Pyrrha asked with some concern in her voice.
"Just knocked out. He took some serious blows there, but his aura took most of the damage."
"Okay class what did you all learn from this?" Dunstan asked weakly while breathing heavily.
"You're terrifying."
"Keep your guard up."
"You have a weird Semblance."
"You're terrifying." Hearing the repeat Dunstan decided to tell them.
"We learned that you shouldn't drop your guard even if you think your opponent is in pain and that you should always be prepared for your plan to go horribly wrong. Not everything will go as planned and you need to be able to adapt to those changes even without your leader present." Dunstan said looking over his class as they began to murmur to each other.
"I've gathered you all here today to talk to you about the goliath in the room." Ruby said as she sat on Weiss' bed
"A goliath wouldn't fit in here Ruby." Nora said cheerily while bouncing around in her chair
"Continuing on, I'm here to talk about why all of you are avoiding me and treating me like a delicate flower."
"We're not treating you any different Ruby." Yang defended while trying to find a way to defuse the situation.
"That's not true!" Ruby yelled seeing everyone flinch at the sudden outburst. "Sisters don't lie to each other and go behind the others back. They don't spy on you when you're having a confident talk with someone about moving on in life."
"We just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Is that why you apparently stayed outside the door listening in on my entire talk with Dunstan?" She angrily asked seeing a few faces looking down at the ground ashamed at by their actions.
"I was worried about you. I'm your older sister it's my job to keep you safe."
"I'm not a kid anymore I can take care of myself."
"I shouldn't have had to hear about you getting raped by spying on you. If you talked to me in the first place this wouldn't have happened. Why didn't you talk to me or anyone else?"
"I wasn't raped! I was talking to Dunstan about all those people I killed and how to deal with the guilt." JNPR stared at Ruby with fearful eyes wondering why the young leader would resort to such a tactic.
Ruby seeing the eyes of her friends turn from shame and sympathy to fear so quickly made her sit up and bolted from the room leaving behind a shower of petals. The silence was terrifying as WBY saw how JNPR was taking the news of their leaders less than inspiring exploits. Each member of RWBY was trying to think of ways to defend their leader's actions in the eyes of her friends.
"Ruby killed someone." Jaune repeated to himself in the hopes that it would somehow make sense if he said it out loud to himself.
"Sounds like it was more than just one person she killed, Jaune." Pyrrha added going over the information.
"Ruby couldn't kill anyone. She's like a little puppy." Nora defended weakly while trying to push the thought of the innocent girl kill others deep down.
The talking continued for a minute with the three of them each sorting through the possibilities. The reason something so terrible could happen to one of their friends and why it occurred in the first place.
"So what's the story behind it?" Ren asked calmly.
"What?" Weiss responded wondering how someone could be so nonchalant about the news of their friend turning out to be a killer.
"I believe Ruby wouldn't perform such acts without good reason or a lack of options on her end. So what's the story behind her actions?"
"She was surrounded after keeping a group of her attackers at bay since none of them had an aura." Yang started as both teams listened intently. "Eventually a strike got through and knocked her to the ground causing her to black out. Once she came to, her attackers were dead and I found her crying in the middle of a puddle of blood."
"Wait," Jaune interrupted. "If they lacked aura how could they cause any real damage to Ruby?"
"I'll take it from here Yang." Weiss said letting her hair down and parting some of it to reveal a small scar atop her head. "They were strong. A single surprise strike threw me into a wall and left that little reminder. That doesn't even factor in the monsters that she probably had to deal with while making her way through the town."
"When you say monsters do you mean the Grimm?" Pyrrha asked thinking about where they possibly could have run into such people or beasts.
"Before we continue you need to promise us that whatever you hear from us doesn't leave this group. It's a matter of the Kingdom's security." Blake asked of them.
"We promise." They said in unison agreeing to the terms.
"Asylum wasn't overrun with Grimm it was something much worse. A virus of some kind that changed the infected into beasts. Some people retained their shape, but others became more like wolves with their faces elongating into maws and their hands turning into claws." Blake thought back to the beasts on the roof top that were attacking Ruby and Dunstan.
"Like a werewolf." Nora said quickly linking the two together
"Only much worse. It spreads through blood and once you're infected it can't be cured." Blake said repeating what she learned from Ozpin.
"Is that why she nearly killed Cardin?" The team shared a quick look before turning back to JNPR.
"Yes Ruby is infected and before you panic she is a unique case according to Dunstan. Her infection isn't as severe. It used to make her more irritable, violent, and prone to rash decisions, but she seems to have it under control now thanks to Dunstan." Yang and Weiss both looked at Blake surprised by the information she was giving since neither of them knew much besides that their leader was infected.
"Does that mean that Dunstan is also…?" Jaune trailed off.
"Yes, he's also infected and has been for some time longer than Ruby. He has also dealt with the plague before. Apparently it was his job as a Hunter to clean up infected areas so others wouldn't have to be exposed to the plague and risk it spreading."
"It all makes so much sense now." Jaune mumbled to himself.
What was that Jaune?" Pyrrha asked hearing her leader.
"When we first met Dunstan he talked to me about having to kill his old teacher and killing a very large lady to reclaim his workshop. His teacher was probably infected and the large lady was one of those monsters Blake was taking about. If I had any problems I'd probably want to talk to the one person who knew what I was going through."
"I just wish it didn't have to be him."
"Why's that Blake?"
"Because his job wasn't to just hunt beasts and infected. He also killed his own comrades who abandoned the task or lost themselves in the job. A Hunter of Hunters, one who kills his own."
"Even for Huntsman and Huntresses it isn't unheard of for some to turn to crime or worse. So there are some who specialize in killing people and take on the task of killing any rogues. Though we are allowed to quit the job whenever we want if it becomes too much for us." Pyrrha said noting the differences present in the two organizations.
"We need to find Ruby. We looked at her like she was a monster and a killer." Jaune said standing up from his seat.
"I can't fault her for her choice, especially if some of it was forced upon her." Ren added joining his leader.
"We can't have her being all sad and stuff. We just need to apologize than go out for a meal together." Nora planned hoping that Ruby wouldn't be too angry about their initial reaction.
Weiss, Blake, and Yang were almost overjoyed with Ruby's friends looking past her actions or coming to terms the reasons behind it. As they looked at each other agreeing to the plan Pyrrha remained seated a pensive look on her face. Turning to face the invisible girl a slight frown formed around some of their mouths worried over why she wasn't joining them.
"I just need some time to think this over. I'm not saying I disagree with Ruby's choice in actions, but It's going to take some time for me to sort through this." Pyrrha said then immediately began to fear the possible backlash and loss of her friends from her words.
"It's okay Pyrrha. You can stay in the room and think this over. If you want I can stay so you're not lonely." Jaune offered not wanting to leave his teammate all alone.
"Go search with the others I'll be fine." With that they all left the room and went their separate ways to search Beacon's grounds for the red cloaked leader.
"I'm sleeping here tonight." Ruby said taking a seat and throwing a blanket over herself as she got comfortable in the chair.
"Please tell me this won't be a regular occurrence while I'm recovering." Cardin said seeing Ruby already tucked in and ready to sleep. "So how long will this be for?"
"Just until we graduate from Beacon and can go on solo missions as Huntresses."
"I told you to talk to them, how the hell did this come about?" Cardin asked annoyed by how something so simple could deteriorate into him having to watch over the moping leader. Ruby felt her eyes beginning to cry along with her nose beginning to fill.
"They think I'm a monster." She cried while pulling her hood over her head in an attempt to comfort and shield herself. "I told them I killed some people and they all looked at me like I was never their friend and just some killer."
"Look I'm sure it wasn't that bad." Cardin said hesitantly in an attempt to calm the girl.
"You weren't there. Do you know how bad it hurts to have your friends stab you in the back like that? I could see it in their eyes. They want nothing to do with me anymore."
"One of the upsides to having no friends is that they can't stab you in the back." He joked hoping to lighten the mood.
"You have friends Cardin." Ruby said with a sniffle.
"Remember what I told you. I have no team and I'm not exactly popular with the general populace around Beacon."
"You have me."
"Remember what you said Rose. We're more acquaintances than anything else."
"Well I'm willing to upgrade that to friend if you stop with the racism towards Faunas." Ruby offered the lone leader.
"You know you're asking for a lot of me there. It's not like I just woke up one day and decided to hate the Faunus. It's kind of ingrained in me now." Cardin said trying to remember his initial reason for disliking the Faunus so much.
"And friends help each other get over their faults and limitations. We can work on it together."
Cardin laid in his bed mulling over his choices and was trying to find a reason to shove the young leaders offer away. Had it been a month ago he wouldn't had even considered the possibility of him making friends with the young girl. He might have even laughed at the possibility of it.
"Alright let's give this a shot."
"Yay, plus one friend." Ruby cheered.
"Yeah, plus one friend." Cardin repeated slightly happy over the thought of having a friend.
"Can't believe she pulled a Blake." Yang said while furiously walking through Beacon's halls.
"We aren't calling it that." Blake said following a few paces behind the fiery blonde.
"Fine, now will you help me find her before something happens?"
"Yang we're in Beacon one of the safest locations in Vale. What could possibly happen here?" Blake reminded her.
"Blake, nowhere is safe in Vale." Yang said and immediately regretted opening her mouth, knowing what her partner would say next.
"What do you mean nowhere is safe?"
"Can we talk about this later?"
"No Yang we can't. Now what did you mean?
"Just follow me, we can't talk about this here." Yang said walking into the woman's restroom with Blake behind her.
Making her way past each stall she pushed them open checking to see if anyone was present. Finding no one in the room with her she opened her scroll and began playing a sound file that filled the room with the sound of women moaning. The noise caused Blake's face to redden and march up to the Blonde.
"What the hell Yang. I'm trying to be serious and talk to you."
"So am I. This is one of the few rooms that lacks a camera and I can't have others listening in from outside the door." She quietly responded smirking at her partner's response.
"Do you have to use that sound?"
"We need a plausible reason for why two girls are alone in a restroom if someone is listening or decides to walk in."
"I feel that you're doing this to make me uncomfortable. Now would you tell me what you meant by 'nowhere is safe'."
"I've talked to someone about what was going on and they told me that some of the people who are responsible for the breach are hiding here. We don't know their reasons for sneaking into Beacon, but it can't be good for any of us."
"Mind telling me who this source of yours is." Blake asked wondering if the information could even be trusted.
"That's something I can't do. I need you to trust me on this Blake. This information is reliable."
"And the reason you've been keeping this a secret from us. We just went over why we shouldn't be doing this if we want to trust each other, Yang."
"I was asked not to."
"By your mysterious source."
"And I was worried by everyone's reaction. You, Ruby, and Weiss would immediately want to try to flush them out or something and my source doesn't want them to know they know. You have to promise me you won't tell the others. It's tough enough for me to pretend everything is fine when I know that we have a knife to our throats." Yang said letting her calm cheery demeanor drop to show the worry and fear that had been weighing on her for so long.
"You watch my back and I'll watch yours."
"I knew I could count on you Blakey. Now let's go find my sister."
"She's in the medical ward." Blake answered pulling out her scroll and seeing a bright red dot standing still in the corner of the buildings map.
"You put a tracker on her scroll." Yang said unsure of whether to be angry or happy by her friends actions.
"I'm just tracking her scroll. I got Ozpin to give me access to her signal after previous events."
"Fine, I'll let this slide since it is helpful in situations like this. You don't happen to be able to track other people's scrolls now would you?"
"Just Ruby's, now would you turn off your scroll. I don't want to have to walk the grounds with that playing in the background."
"I think it sets the mood purrfectly."
"Yang." Blake warned.
"Fine, you're no fun. You know that right?" Blake didn't answer as she left the room and started walking to the medical ward.
"Still can't believe you designed a weapon that's about twice as big as you are."
"I just kept adding more and more to her until before I knew it she was bigger than me. I do use it to my advantage though. You won't believe how much momentum Crescent Rose gains while I'm swinging her around."
"I think I can, got the scars to prove it too." Cardin said pulling down his collar to reveal a scar stopping just short of his neck.
"Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it. It was a good learning experience and it showed me what I should add to my armor next. Some spots are a little too exposed and should be covered."
"You crafted your armor?"
"Yep, built it to help cushion the blows from the Grimm since I knew I wouldn't be fast enough to avoid or block every strike. Took forever to get the insignia right though."
"Is it your father's?" Ruby asked remembering that some Huntsman carry an insignia into each generation out of respect for the previous one who bared it.
"It's the families, or at least it has been since my grandfather started crafting weapons."
"So how does your weapon work? I doubt it's as simple as an explosion on a stick." Ruby asked actually curious since she didn't have much knowledge on dust based weaponry.
"Well in layman terms it is an explosive on a stick though it gets more complicated when you get into how it actually works. Every prong on my mace exerts a small containment field when my aura is going through it. Now if I activated the dust crystal while I was just holding it my mace would probably catch me in the explosion, but when I hit something the field is weakened where it was struck giving the explosion a path to follow. Like most forces it will take the path of least resistance giving me a controlled explosion in whatever direction I strike in." Cardin said with pride over his explanation seeing a slightly less than captivated Ruby.
"Your weapons cool and I do like how it uses such a simple factor to account for the directional force of the dust crystal, but I was hoping for something more like Weiss' rapier."
"My explosion on a stick is awesome. Besides if you want something as complicated as what she uses you'd be better off talking to Russel. Though he mostly uses his to enhance the blades. He can't do anything as insane as what Weiss does with her glyphs."
Before Ruby could respond the door to the room opened up as Yang walked in seeing Ruby bundled up in a chair across from Cardin. Blake walked in shortly after to find Yang frozen in place looking at Ruby and Cardin. Though angry over his discrimination against the Faunas she held her tongue in fear of having her heritage found out.
"Ruby what are you doing here with this jerk?" Yang nearly yelled as Cardin feigned being offended by the remark.
"Since JNPR doesn't want to be around me anymore I came here to talk with my friend."
"Ruby, Cardin is not your friend. He's a racist, jerk, and a not good person." Yang said trying to watch her choice of words with her younger sister.
"Hey I'm trying to work on some of that." Cardin defended himself.
"Which part?"
"The racist part."
"Still a jerk and not a nice person, now come on. JNPR wants to talk to you." Yang said grabbing her by the arm.
"I'm not leaving." Ruby ripped her arm free from Yang's grasp. "You can't decide what I do with my life."
"Ruby, I'm only trying to look out for you." Yang spoke sadly.
"You're not mom!"
The effect was instantaneous as Yang's eyes flashed red for a second before reverting to a tear filled lilac. Yang bumped shoulders with Blake as she ran from the room and away from her sister. Blake looked between Ruby and the door wondering what to do.
"Go make up with your sister." Cardin said in an almost angry voice to the reaper
"But," Ruby started saying in an attempt to defend her actions.
"You can't hurt your family like that. No matter what they say or do they're still your family at the end of the day. Now go set things right before that wound you left her has time to fester."
Ruby threw her blanket on the ground and ran out the room in search of her sister in the hope of making things right between them. The room stayed quite as Blake eyed the bully. Neither sure on what the next move should be for two strangers who weren't on good terms.
"How did you get Ruby to call you her friend?" The question seemed simple, but it was one of the few things she could think about that interested her.
"Got time for a story?" Cardin asked while motioning to the now vacant chair. Blake didn't bother talking and instead grabbed the seat. "Well it all started when I felt a scythe tearing through my right bicep."
Ruby found Yang standing out in the courtyard starring up at the sky with her back to her. She could hear the occasional sob along with Yang's shoulders shaking. Seeing her sister in such a state brought some feelings back up as Ruby walked out to her.
"Yang." Ruby spoke half expecting her to no respond to the call.
Quickly wiping her eyes she turned to Ruby her eyes red from the crying. "What, Ruby?"
"I shouldn't have said that, Yang. I'm sorry that I said something so unfair to you. I know you've been doing your best to help me and you shouldn't have to put up with someone like me as your sister." Ruby began to sob. "You're kind and you've always helped me when I needed it. There isn't a better sister out there."
Yang grabbed Ruby and brought her into a hug nearly crushing her with her strength. "You know it's really unfair when you cry. No one can say no to you when you're like that."
"I'm sorry Yang, I'm so sorry about everything." Ruby wrapped her arms around her.
"You're right though. I'm not mom and I need to accept that you're growing up. Pretty soon you won't even need me anymore. I mean look at you, your Ruby Rose Huntress in Training."
"I'll always need my big sister. Even if she doesn't think I need her."
"Ruby?"
"Yes Yang."
"Not to ruin the moment, but you're getting snot all over my shirt." Ruby immediately detached from the hug and used her sleeve to wipe her nose.
"Sorry about that."
"It's fine, now let's head to bed. It's getting late." The two sisters headed back to the dorm to find the other two still gone. Grabbing her scroll Yang sent out a message to call off the search party and jumped into bed to end the hectic day.
"Reports are coming in that the subjects in some of our facilities are reaching stage three sir, what do you advice?"
"All our previous tests have never resulted in anything less than complete degeneration in the lab. Why are they changing now?"
"We either contain or eliminate them. What are our orders?" He asked in a more stressed voice over the possibility of an outbreak.
"We contain them. We can't lose our research materials especially now that they're exhibiting the more latent symptoms of the plague. Increase security and focus on those who are exhibiting more severe changes in physique and eyes." The possibility to study the later symptoms of the plague in the lab was exhilarating for the man.
"We have strike teams on alert and within 20 minutes of each facility in case of a breach."
"Good, keep a team ready to respond at all times. We will not fail as our predecessors before us. We will unlock these secrets and guide the world into a new age of blood where we no longer have to fear the Grimm."
The room was abuzz with movement as people ran from station to station to observe the latest findings. Video feeds showing beasts tied down with chains and straps to hold them in place while machines extracted samples from their thrashing bodies. The excitement that spurred them forward had an underline fear that no one wanted to confront. The possibility of an outbreak rested in the back of all their minds with each pushing it back down to focus on their work.
As they all ran about a single man sat at his desk calmly going over his monitor scanning through all the data present from each Kingdom's facility. Taking a sip from the coffee mug a slight grin begin to slip past his façade that slowly grew until he was smiling ear to ear while softly chuckling to himself. Closing the opened files on his monitor he took one last look at a subject that caught his attention. A lone woman showing no signs of beast hood who was sitting in the corner of the room patiently waiting. Standing up he joined his colleagues in celebration and joy over the findings, knowing that it was going to be a long week.
All the emotions, they hurt my blackened heart. In all seriousness though we really haven't had a real feely chapter since 8 and 9 when Ruby experienced her first kill and Yang comforted her. Writing scenes like this actually effects my mood since I have to run them through my head so many times until it comes out right. Which made some parts of this story a really touch and go at moments with me taking breaks towards the end. I imagine a lot of you are already figuring out how badly Vale is screwed when the outbreak happens especially with certain beasts prowling about. Speaking of outbreaks that should either start at the end of the next chapter or the start of the one after that. This means we're running up on the last half of this story or however long it takes for everything in Vale to finish up. Please don't ask about story length since I have no real idea how many chapters are left until the finale.
For everyone else I hope your enjoying your week and I hope that those of you that celebrate have a happy Thanksgiving since my next post won't be till after the holiday.