Two days...
That's how long it took Ruby to finally learn the many different patterns and paths that the guards used. She'd set up a small camp about a mile up a mountain, with her little shelter being hidden behind a small number of boulders, a place she could still watch the bandit camp without too much trouble. There were always three guards patrolling the perimeter, and one was always stationed at the main gate; the three would swap with new people every six hours, and the main gate guard would swap at noon with another man. Just like clockwork, something that Ruby had to admire; being neat and organized like that took work. Too bad she had to break in...
But therein lied the issue: Ruby had planned on it being just as simple as getting in, fighting her way to Raven, and taking the power of the Spring Maiden. But then WBY and her Uncle Qrow had shown up, which made things complicated. Ruby had hoped she would've been able to get this done before they ever showed up. Were they there to warn Raven about her? Or were they there because they knew Ruby was already there, and were planning on trying to stop her again?
It doesn't matter... You know what you need to do. The Relic won't claim itself, Ruby.
Ruby barred her teeth and growled. "Shut up..."
Peering back through the scope of Crescent Rose, Ruby watched as Qrow and her teammates left Ravens tent, huddling together as they talked to each other for a few minutes, then Qrow walked back into the tent, leaving WBY alone outside. Part of Ruby wanted to go down and tell them to leave, to warn them before they got in the way, but she knew they would just try to dissuade her from her course, and Ruby was too far along to stop now. She HAD to see this through.
WBY eventually walked towards a different tent, a smaller one without any lights on inside, then disappeared, leaving Ruby to watch the rest of the camp until nightfall, when she would enact her plan.
"What are we going to do if she shows up?" Blake asked as she sat cross-legged on a cot, one of her Faunus ears flicking occasionally as she listened to the sounds outside.
"I'm going to talk to her. I'm not giving up on her, Blake," Yang said as she counted how many shells were loaded into Ember Celica.
"What about what Goodwitch said?" Weiss asked.
"I'm not killing my sister, Weiss! How could you even think about that? This is Ruby we're talking about!"
"Yang, she's dangerous. She's working with Salem now, I don't know if she's going to stop. Even if you try and talk to her, I'm afraid she won't listen," Weiss argued. "If we're not going to kill her, then we need a Plan B."
"Weiss is right. I don't want to kill Ruby either, but we do need a backup plan," Blake said as she looked towards the tent flap.
"Then... if I can't talk her down, we'll just knock her out and lock her up until we can think of something," Yang suggested.
"That's... not a very good plan."
"At least I'm trying Weiss! I don't know what to do, okay? How am I supposed to deal with this? My sister has gone full 'evil' here, and I don't know what I can do to stop her."
Weiss and Blake were quiet for a few seconds, with Blake looking at the entrance to the tent a moment before Qrow walked in. The man let out a short sigh, then pulled his flask out and took a drink, grumbling quietly as he went to his own cot and laid down.
"How'd your guys' talk go?" Yang asked as she looked over.
"I don't want to talk about it. Let's just get some sleep," Qrow muttered, rolling onto his side.
Yang silently nodded her head then moved to do the same. "That well, huh? Good night guys."
"Night, Yang."
"Good night Yang..." Weiss mumbled as she sighed, crossing her arms behind her head to get more comfortable.
Ruby didn't get much sleep in the few hours before nightfall. She tried, but every time she would be close to falling asleep, she'd hear Cinder's voice. Harassing her and telling her that would something would go wrong, or that she would fail. At one point, Ruby even thought she saw Cinder's reflection as she looked at the blank holographic screen of her scroll, but when Ruby looked twice, there was nothing. When most of the people in the camp down the mountain had turned in for the night, Ruby made sure to act quickly. She pulled her mask on, then her hood to cover her head as she climbed to her feet, and after grabbing Crescent Rose, she started down the mountain towards one of the walls surrounding the camp. She'd watched the patrolling guards enough to know when would be the best time to sneak in, so that was the easy part. The hard part... well, that would be coming up.
After making sure that she wasn't able to be spotted, Ruby let out a deep breath, then used her semblance to help her in jumping over the large wooden wall, the only sign she'd been on the other side being a few rose petals that were already fading into the wind. Once on the ground, she narrowed her eyes a bit as she spotted the larger tent, and shook her head. It figured that Raven would have the largest one... Ruby stuck to the wall of the camp as she circled around to the tent, being careful not to make too much noise as she walked, and as she reached Raven's tent, she pulled her scythe from her back and unfurled the weapon to its full length as she entered.
It was pitch-black inside, no lights of any kind were on, not even a candle was burning; something that made Ruby a bit nervous as she took a couple of hesitant steps inside. She couldn't see anything, not even the floor, the only real light was from a sliver of moonlight that crept in through the crack in the tent's entrance flap. Ruby was a bit nervous, she'd hadn't expected this. Had Raven snuck out when she wasn't looking? Surely there would have been some sort of sign that the bandit chief had left, but yet it seemed like Ruby had been caught off guard. It was then that Ruby was knocked to the ground from behind, having the wind knocked out of her as she rolled to the side and groaned as she tried to see what had hit her.
"Expecting someone?"
Ruby blinked a couple of times before a light was suddenly shining in the tent, revealing Raven standing a few feet from where Ruby had just been standing. Her sword was drawn and she was standing casually, as if she were just casually talking to a friend.
"Sorry, but I don't have any plans on you getting the drop on me," Raven said as she swung her sword to the side in a downward motion. "I hate to break it to you, kid. But you're in way over your head."
Ruby growled as she pushed herself up to stand, glaring at Raven as she used her foot to kick Crescent Rose up into the air, where she caught it with one hand and spun the scythe so that the barrel was pointed at Raven.
"And I don't plan on going back empty handed. You may be Yang's mother, but that won't earn you a thing from me. The most you'll get from me is you get to live," Ruby growled as she fed a round into the receiver of her weapon. "I'm getting the relic whether or not you're still standing when I do is a whole different story."
Raven gave a huff of respect before she shook her head. "They weren't kidding. You really are working for Salem... Either way, killing me won't do you any good. The relic isn't in Haven anymore. Not that you'll find it anyways."
Ruby squinted a moment before she aimed her scythe behind her, firing a round to propel herself at Raven and tackle her to the ground from the force of the impact. Ruby snarled briefly as she held the blade of her scythe close to Raven's head.
"Where is it? Tell me! What did you do with it?"
Raven merely laughed before shoving Ruby off of her, kicking her back hard and causing the teenager to stumble several feet. But that was enough time for Raven to grab her own weapon off the floor and go in for a series of attacks. Each one of them created sparks as the sword slammed into Crescent Rose, causing Ruby to dig her heels into the grassy ground below as she was pushed back. As Raven took a split-second to breath, Ruby smirked and used her semblance to dart away, firing another shot at Raven's back before she channeled a fireball to her free hand, sending it towards Raven a moment later. The bullet struck the older woman's back almost harmlessly, but the ball of flame crashed into her shoulder as she turned, charring a few of the feathers that lined her outfit.
It was then that the flap to the tent swung wide open as Qrow and WBY ran in, weapons at the ready, only for them to lower them cautiously as they saw what was going on.
"Ruby! Stop!" Yang yelled.
Ruby's eye glanced to the side for a moment before she turned her attention to the newcomers, aiming her scythe at them as she let out a frustrated growl. "Stay out of this!"
Qrow narrowed his eyes a moment before he stepped between Ruby and Raven, pointing his large sword at Ruby as he glared.
"Ruby, stop this... I don't want to hurt you. But you're leaving us without a lot of options here, kiddo," Qrow said calmly, almost in a way that was too serious for the man.
Ruby kept her scythe aimed at him, pulling her mask off as she squinted. "Get out of my way. She has the lamp! Where is it? Just give it to me, and I'll leave."
"That's not going to happen, Ruby."
Ruby screamed and tightened her grip on her scythe. "Why do you all keep getting in the way?"
If they're in your way, Ruby... then why don't you just go through them? Or go around?
"Because we all love you too much to watch you do this; why would you think doing any of THIS is okay?" Qrow asked in a raised tone of voice.
Ruby went quiet for a few seconds as she looked at everyone, her eyes landing on Raven in the end before she shook her head. "I told you already. Stay out of my way!" Ruby shouted before she fired a pair of shots at Qrow in quick succession.
Qrow managed to block the two shots, but in doing so, missed as Ruby sped into motion by way of her semblance, bolting past him and tackling Raven to the ground again. Though this time they didn't stop, they kept going as Ruby used her semblance to drag Raven out of the tent and out of the camp, intent on taking her back to her mountainside camp where she could interrogate the woman.
"RUBY NO!" Yang cried out as the two went whizzing past her.
"We need to stop her!" Weiss yelled as she followed them out.
Nobody said anything else as they ran out of the tent, following the trail of rose petals to find them.
"Where is it?" Ruby growled as she glared at Raven.
"I already told you, you're wasting your time. I'm not telling you anything, Ruby," Raven said with a slight smirk, despite the fact that Ruby had already managed to break one of Raven's fingers.
Yet despite that, Raven was still keeping up her bravado, insisting that Ruby was wasting time by trying to torture the information out of her.
"I can do this all night. I don't have a problem with it, but you can only take so much before you snap," Ruby threatened.
"And what are you going to do? Keep beating on me until I talk?" Raven said provokingly. "You don't have it in you. You're too good a person to be torturing people."
Ruby leaned in close and grabbed Raven's broken finger, squeezing it hard as she smirked. "Wanna bet? I've turned over a new leaf, Raven. Now tell me."
Raven simply clamped her mouth shut as she let out a pained groan, squeezing her eyes shut from the pain, but not doing anything to show that she would budge. "You'd better hope that Qrow finds you before I break free. Otherwise, I'm going to kill you," Raven said as she tightened up her muscles.
"Ruby! That's enough!"
Letting out a groan, Ruby tightened her hands into fists before she turned away from Raven, looking at Qrow and her teammates a moment before she shook her head. "You guys are seriously starting to annoy me. I've told you, I'm not going to stop. Now leave me alone, unless you know where the lamp is."
Qrow shook his head, holding his hands up in a placative gesture as he looked to Raven. Ruby had set up her camp not too far from a cliff edge, and had Raven leaned up against a rock with her hands tied together, one hand having a broken index finger, but otherwise she was fine.
"Ruby... I'm not here to tell you to stop. If you want to collect the relics, then go ahead. I won't stop you. But, ask yourself. Do you really want to give them to Salem? After all the people her and the Grimm have killed?"
"Ozpin has done far worse! He's lied to everyone since the dawn of man! He... He lied to mom..." Ruby screamed. "He has to pay for what he did!"
"Fine! And we can make sure he does, but not like this. Please, just stop this. It's not too late to quit this insanity," Qrow said, taking a step forward.
"I can't. I have to do this. I don't want anyone else getting hurt. If I do this, I can make it so no one ever gets hurt by Ozpin again."
"Do what? What are you trying to do?" Weiss asked quietly, earning her a quick glance from Ruby.
"I'm trying to save-"
Ruby was cut off when she suddenly was stabbed through the side, the tail end of Crescent Rose sticking out of her ribcage several inches as she started bleeding profusely. Raven, had managed to untie the rope around her wrists, and gotten a hold of the scythe while everyone else had been focusing on Ruby; which gave her the opportunity to strike.
"RAVEN! What are you doing?!" Qrow shouted as he ran to tackle his sister to the ground.
Crescent Rose clattered to the ground, allowing Ruby to stumble a few times as she covered the hole in her side, her face going pale as she mumbled. Yang ran forward a couple of times to reach for her, but each time, Ruby would back up more.
"Y-You... you stabbed m-me..?" She sounded almost confused more than anything. "W-Why?" A couple of seconds went by as she continued to bleed through her hands, before she stumbled one more time, falling backwards off the cliff into a river that was almost a mile and a half down.
Qrow slammed Raven to the dirt and glared at her as he held her down. "Why did you do that? She was stopping! She was listening!"
"She was going to kill me! She would've tortured me until I told her where the lamp is, then killed me and given it to Salem!"
"Why? Damn it Raven! Why?" Qrow screamed.
"I did what had to be done," Raven said coldly.
"You killed her! You murdered Tai's daughter, Summer's daughter!"
Raven growled as she grabbed Qrow's hands to keep him from slamming her into the dirt anymore.
"And given the choice, I would do it again!"
"Where is it?" Yang asked as she walked towards the cliff, staring down below for any signs of Ruby.
"Where's what?" Raven asked sharply.
"The lamp; the thing you're willing to kill my sister for!" Yang answered as her eyes turned blood-red.
"Haven."
"What?" Qrow asked in disbelief as tears rolled down his cheeks.
"I lied! I never took the lamp. I just said that to throw her off," Raven explained.
"So you killed her... for NOTHING?" Qrow asked, getting angrier.
"I won't apologize for protecting myself and Remnant as a whole. If she's dead, then we won't need to worry about her working for Salem."
Qrow slammed Raven into the ground one more time before climbing off of her, standing up and shaking his head several times as he tried to process everything. Crescent Rose still lay bloodied on the ground, and as Weiss moved to pick it up, Blake looked over to Qrow with a guilt-ridden expression.
"What do we do...?"
Qrow snapped his head to the side at the question, then started walking away, back towards the camp. "There's nothing we can do. Ruby's gone. All we can do now is go home..."