Music Choices: Megalovania and Big Shot by RichaadEB
Eclipse
Chapter 57
Finals Part I
The present….
"Alright," Qrow drawled, standing in front of team RWBY. The sun was just beginning to peek over the ruins, running shades of red and orange sherbert through the cloud cover. Despite the early hour, the girls were alert, their weapons either in hand or quickly accessible.
"I know a lot of crazy shit has happened in the last twenty four hours," Qrow started, pale red eyes glancing between the four of them. Ruby met her uncle's stare evenly, and smiled a little as he smirked instinctively. "And I know it will be hard to want to focus on the here and now because of that. But starting this moment? The here and now is the only thing ya'll are allowed to worry about, and nothing else. Because it is the here and now that will kill you."
Ruby glanced at her team, each of whom in that moment appeared more like adult Huntresses than she'd ever seen before. She let herself enjoy a spark of pride, before meeting her uncle's stare again.
"We're gonna be covering a lot of ground, in terrain that is unpredictable and dangerous," Qrow glanced up, squinting a little at the spreading cloud cover. "The Grimm past your mom's wards are also gonna be eager to make a meal out of all of us, and they aren't the only things we gotta be aware of. Somebody tell me what the billet said - what are we specifically lookin for today?"
Weiss's hand darted up instantly, and Ruby hid a slight smile. Yang visibly fought the urge to mimic her, trying to remain serious. Also because Blake had gently stepped on her foot.
"The sector to the north-east has been drawing large packs of both Beowolves, Creeps, and even a concerning number of Deathstalkers," Weiss declared, reciting part of the packet from memory. "And is likely concealing a hideout for criminal activity. Suspects currently are the Dust thieves, including Roman Torchwick and his men; and potentially rogue aspects of the White Fang. We're instructed to clean up the mega-packs, take note of any criminal activity, secure the area to prevent possible escape and call in to authorities for reinforcements if we find anything."
Blake's ear flicked, exchanging a brief glance with Ruby and Yang. Qrow bobbed, like he was tossing the idea around in his noggin a bit, considering it.
"Yep. That's the best case scenario, and most likely what we're dealing with. However...what else could be drawing big swarms of Grimm in the middle of nowhere?" Qrow prompted raspily, his expression unusually grave. "That wasn't mentioned in that brief, but we still need to be ready for?"
Weiss frowned a little, but Blake's hand rose slightly after a moment, her cat ears flat.
"Baiting traps," Blake started, her voice soft yet serious. "Or a trafficking camp."
Weiss and Yang's eyes widened almost in unison, while Ruby tried to process just what that would entail.
"That is a possibility, yea," Qrow agreed, his voice grave. "Unlikely, this close to the Kingdom and the BTF, but I've seen it happen before in the area. In the event that we come across a bait-rig, what is our number one priority?"
Her team collectively glanced her way.
"The...getting the victims to safety," Ruby replied, her heart hammering.
"How?" Qrow prompted.
"We summon the BTF using one of the frequencies dedicated to them," Weiss answered, still looking a bit paler than normal. "You have that radio in your pack and we're close enough to Vale that it could reach one of their outposts or one of the Lodge's in the region."
"Correct, and?"
"We secure the area," Yang answered, her eyes shining red. "We clear all the Grimm-"
"Are Grimm the only element you gotta worry about?" Qrow interrupted. He sounded more like an instructor than their carefree, unflappable uncle. "What's more dangerous to you and the victims in that scenario, the Grimm or the baiters?"
Team RWBY fell briefly silent. Qrow waited patiently before speaking.
"Keep this in mind at all times, girls," he drawled heavily, eyes sharp. "In our jobs as Hunters? The human or faunus element is always the most dangerous, because it is the most unpredictable. Grimm are consistent, unless magical shit is interfering, and that is extremely rare. People - desperate, fucked up people? Are always, always a higher threat to your safety and to a civilian's safety, than Grimm are. And people are capable of evils that Grimm lack the imagination for."
Ruby could feel goosebumps spreading up her arms, and she gripped Crescent Rose tighter.
"If we stumble upon a bait-rig, and surprise a pack of baiters? They will try to kill you and conceal the evidence if you give them the opportunity," Qrow insisted, holding each of their eyes, reassuring himself that they understood. "They might have explosives around the rigs, they might have Semblances and resources you don't know about - after calling into the BTF, what is the second thing you do? Before even dealing with the Grimm?"
"We assess the scene for other dangers, like explosives or traps, and diffuse them while simultaneously taking out the people who laid the rig," Blake answered, amber eyes narrow. "If they're present or monitoring the...the trap."
"Which might mean what?" Qrow asked.
Yang inhaled, hesitating.
"That we might have to kill them," Ruby answered quietly.
Her teammates' eyes widened, a few heads turning her way. Ruby, however, did not waver. Qrow stared at her intently, before nodding.
"Our duties as Hunters? Is to preserve human and faunus life," Qrow started after a heavy pause. "At a cost that may include laying down our own lives. Or, killing people that are causing extreme harm to others. People that we can't negotiate with or subdue, like baiters or traffickers."
Ruby glanced up and noticed a black bird circling them overhead.
"Being a Hunter means you have to walk that line, the line between being a protector and an avenger of the innocent. And its fuckin hard to maintain that balance," Qrow said, glancing up and noticing his sister's shadow. "When we go out into those ruins today - whenever you go out into the world as a Hunter? You might have to take a life to save a life. That is an extreme scenario, but it could always happen and it is something you need to be ready for. Is that something you four are capable of, if the situation demands it of you?"
Team RWBY didn't answer all at once; but answer they did, one by one.
"Yes," Weiss affirmed firmly, without faltering.
"Yea. Yea I am," Yang confirmed, almost sounding surprised.
"Yep," Blake exhaled, her tone indicating she'd done so before.
Ruby watched as the shadow drifted further upwards. She inhaled slowly through her nose, her thoughts spiraling out.
Could I really kill someone? If I had no other options, could I really….I've built weapons most of my life, but I always meant for them to destroy Grimm . I suppose I've been kinda naive in that regard, but….
Her thoughts were pulled back to the mirrorways, to the song and light she'd wielded, a force that had let her both create and destroy so effortlessly; as if it was what she had been born to do. It hadn't brought her a sense of conflict then, because the mimics weren't alive; they were the manifestation of a magical virus, and she was the Mirrorways immune system responding to them. However, what if they'd been people? Could she do that to real people, no matter how evil, no matter what they'd done? Could she take life to preserve life?
A lonely grave on a hillside….
Ruby exhaled, finding the truth within herself.
"If there is no other option," Ruby confirmed quietly. "Then yes, I'm capable."
Qrow studied her briefly, before accepting this answer.
"Ok," he nodded, pale eyes burning with an intensity she wasn't used to seeing in him. A Huntsman's fire. "We step out on that field, and it's game on. Ruby, you're going to be point and calling the shots for your team, but I will be monitoring the situation and making orders as I see necessary. If I tell any of you to do anything ? You do it, immediately, no questions asked. I say jump, you do it. I say fall back, you do it. I say run? You fuckin run. If you hesitate, or give me any flak at all? I'll send you packin. Do you understand?"
Team RWBY answered 'yes' in unison.
"Your mom will be our eyes in the sky. She's not gonna interfere with us unless something serious is coming our way or real shit is hittin the fan. If I am incapacitated for any reason? She will take command and see you all to safety; if she tells you to do anything in that scenario? You fuckin do it, no questions asked. Understand?"
More affirmations.
"If something happens to both of us, Ruby will be in command, and you'll listen to her just the same. Got it?"
Ruby fought the urge to swallow nervously. The rest of her team agreed, sending her glances as she tried to look like the leader she needed to be. Qrow's eyes ghosted over the four of them, and for a brief moment, he looked like a stranger to her.
In that moment, he wasn't the easy going, whiskey loving uncle who made them breakfast at midnight and helped them build pillow forts, or paint murals on the bedroom walls. He was someone harder, harsher; someone who could make those tough calls, who could kill people if necessary, and had seen things in his life that Ruby was having a hard time imagining herself.
Ruby found herself confronted now, perhaps for the first time, with the understanding that both of these persona's lived within one person, and that her father was just the same. That her moms were the same; and that, at some point down this road, Ruby herself would become the same.
They all would. And she was no longer certain how she felt about that, when confronted with the truth of it.
What if all of them were right, and I'm not ready for this?
"Alright then," Qrow drawled, bringing his weapon around and jerking his head towards the shadowed mausoleum. Ruby hefted Crescent Rose, and with a feeling of finality, she looked back at her team; and despite all her doubt, and her fear, she smiled.
"Let's get it."
The difference between the ruins within the boundary of Raven's wards and outside of them were like night and day. The moment they passed the last flittering scrap of marked paper, nearly a mile out from their campground in the apartment complex, a large pack of Beowolves picked up their scents and started stalking them through the gutted buildings and back alleys. Blake could hear their raspy growls and smell the caked blood on their black hides; apparently they'd had a kill recently, a human. She took that as a bad omen, but signaled to the others immediately that they were being tailed.
Yang didn't even need to be told what to do, the brawler pushing ahead of the group, whooping to draw the attention of the majority of the Beowolves. Her job, as ever, was to hold their attention and lure them onto the killing field; Weiss, with a quick nod from Ruby, fell back with Blake, drawing Myrtenaster up and preparing herself.
Finally, the Beowolves poured out of the buildings and off the roof tops, attempting a coordinated, pincer attack meant to overwhelm them from both sides; however, as the majority of them were barreling towards Yang, Weiss sealed off the perimeter with several towering rows of ice that she could drop and redirect with a flick of her wrist.
Taking that as her cue, Blake disappeared into the shadows, using her Semblance to get behind the charging Beowolves and began to pick them off from behind as they charged Yang, who was kicking up a firestorm. And Ruby? Ruby came down on top of their heads, using her Semblance to gain height and momentum, before dropping like a bird of prey upon a rabbit; she'd dissipated three Grimm before they knew what had happened, before spinning away with Crescent Rose's momentum, creating a near impenetrable, roving wall of slashing crimson around her sister. Yang stopped playing with her food once Ruby dropped and started to really splatter Grimm ink with gusto.
Blake focused on initially crippling her prey, leaving limping, incapacitated Grimm scattered across the tar smeared concrete as she dodged their attacks easily. She wanted to down as many as she could at once, to prevent them from properly banding together and overwhelming anyone, causing chaos and confusion amongst the pack; before circling back to finish off any survivors.
Weiss, meanwhile, played cleanup on the perimeter with her, while guarding their boundaries. Any Beowolves trying to flee the killing field, Weiss redirected with spires of ice or gravity glyphs, as she circled the area gracefully, skating along her heiress also picked off Blake's scraps as she found them, rolling her eyes occasionally as Blake tossed more her way, like injured field mice.
Overall, the encounter lasted maybe ten minutes. It was a big pack that had tried to swarm them, of maybe fifty to seventy Beowolves; it definitely got the blood running, and it had been the most Grimm Blake had seen since initiation. However, team RWBY cleared them like a well oiled machine. When the last remaining Grimm began to get mopped up, Qrow reappeared, having backed away to monitor their teamwork and to get his Semblance away from them to prevent mishap.
"Good work!" he called from atop one of Weiss's spires, having hopped up there to watch the show. "Ya'll handled that real well!"
Yang laughed from her mountain of ash and ink, blazing victoriously as she ripped the jaw of the last Grimm and stabbed it through the throat. It burst into black ashes, and Blake play-swooned when her partner looked her way, still burning like a golden comet.
Yang laughed, immediately pleased by this silliness and blew a flirty kiss her way; and Blake actually felt her own heart genuinely stutter a little at her expression. Despite feeling a little flustered, she smirked playfully and turned away, moving a little slower than she might normally, knowing full well her partner was watching her leave.
Upon which Blake immediately met Weiss's amused, knowing stare. Weiss, who looked with similar longing at Yang whenever she thought no one else was paying attention. Weiss the so-called ice princess, whose heartbeat couldn't lie about what she felt or what she really wanted to save her life.
Blake looked at her, and in that moment, was stricken with an impulse she wasn't inclined to ignore. Perhaps it was just the adrenaline, or perhaps it was the combination of everything that had changed in the past several days; but whatever it was, Blake reached out to gently wipe the smudge of Grimm ink off Weiss's pale cheek with a coy smile, before strolling on.
She obviously didn't miss how Weiss immediately turned beet red at that gesture, nor the nervous spike in her heart-rate, which soared higher than when she'd been fighting; and to be honest? Blake found that she liked that very much, the hints of a pleased rumble starting up in her chest.
Despite the giddy little currents running up her spine, Blake knew that she needed to tread carefully, so as not to hurt anyone or negatively disrupt their team dynamics. Perhaps after all of this, she could sit down with them, all of them or one on one, and just..talk? Like really, honestly talk.
It wasn't like this was an unheard of situation, from her perspective at least. Menagerie, the Fang, the communities she'd been a part of over the years, they had all kinds of people in a wide variety of relationship structures; and it's not like polyamory was exactly unheard of for Ruby and Yang.
However, she'd never personally seen or heard of a relationship structure in human social circles where two siblings dated the same person. Let alone possibly the same two people. It was possible it existed, somewhere, but it wasn't by any definition a common practice in the Kingdom's or Settlements. It was frankly kind of rare even somewhere like Menagerie or in the White Fang, but it still at least had precedent amongst faunus communities. However, you combine all of that with the other other factor, and Blake knew damn well she was likely in waaaay over her head.
I am going to get black bagged by an SDC hit squad at this rate.
Blake sighed and decided she wouldn't dwell on all of that just yet; it was currently against the rules to think about anything but the present, afterall. With an effortless flick, she slung the remaining Grimm ink from Gambol Shroud's blade, and strolled over the smoking bodies to regroup with the others.
Their morning continued much the same, with RWBY systemically wiping out roving hordes of Grimm as they made their way to the sector of ruins they most wanted to search. It was a grind, to be sure, and Weiss eagerly focused solely on the task at hand; staying ahead of the roving packs, luring them into the best location, and planning for the next destination. She'd been keeping record of the numbers they were raking up, and while she was pleased their progress, she couldn't completely shake the niggling doubts and worries that had been haunting her
Still, whenever her anxieties threatened to bog her down, she simply threw herself into something productive; or checked on her teammates. The rest of her team were, despite everything this awful week had thrown at them, on their absolute A game and Weiss had honestly never been prouder. Qrow didn't refrain from giving blunt assessments where they could improve on their field work or strategy, and his language was always very colorful; but he seemed genuinely impressed with the lot of them as they progressed smoothly through the ruins.
The Grimm packs remained fairly consistent in terms of size. Large, but nothing like what was described in the mission brief. She believed that the mega-packs were further into the city, and Ruby determined that they scout it out after they stop for their rest at the six hour mark. It was conceivable that the Grimm had drifted, but if that was the case, then it indicated that the potential hide-out had moved or caught wind of a Hunter billet in the area and decided to pick up camp. At this point, anything was possible.
At the fifth hour, they finally came across a collective of Deathstalkers. Their strategy had to adapt to deal with the large, plated Grimm. She still remembered their disastrous encounter with one during their initiation. However, they'd come prepared this time.
Ruby used Crescent Rose's sniper function to target the first Deathstalker and draw it to them. The Dust round exploded into ice as it struck the Grimm's meaty pincher. Squealing, the Grimm began to turn their way, surprisingly quick despite the cramped corridors between the buildings. Ruby shot it again, targeting it's dangerous tail, and a ball of ice enveloped it. The Deathstalker shrieked indignantly and started to charge clumsily, it's tail dragging awkwardly along one of the buildings, gouging out glass and concrete.
Suddenly, six Creeps burrowed up from below, trying to surprise them; Weiss activated one of the gravity glyphs she had planted around their group, freezing the little devils in place while Yang started cheerfully punching their faces in.
The Deathstalker, meanwhile, had nearly reached Ruby's position, when suddenly several of its legs became ensnared. Blake had laid a trap, weaving gravity Dust coated wire between its many legs, and activated the Dust wire from her position as the Deathstalker focused solely on reaching Ruby; who was still shooting its exposed joints with ice Dust rounds.
The Grimm squealed as it was forced to a temporary standstill and Ruby activated her Semblance, shooting into the air, bringing Crescent Rose into her scythe function; and blurred downwards again, spinning to gain momentum.
The blade of the scythe-gun sank into the crevice behind the Deathstalkers flat head with a thick, meaty chunk that could be heard at a distance. Then Ruby blurred, transforming her arms and scythe into a cloud of bloody petals that exploded up and out from the Deathstalkers head, leaving an inky crater. The giant Grimm shuddered grotesquely before slumping over and expanding into ash.
With little time to celebrate, they regrouped and did it all again, their strategy paying off for the most part; at least until the very end. As they felled the last Deathstalker, and cleaned up the small swarm of Creeps that often seemed to accompany the giant Grimm scorpions, they heard a sudden bird call from overhead. Qrow then gave an immediate shout of warning, and that's all they got as suddenly several ugly, slobbering maws burst out of the cracks in the asphalt.
Weiss darted backwards as something black, long, and covered in far too many legs shot straight past her face. She felt the ground tremor beneath her feet and with a quick glyph, launched herself upwards as another set of jaws burst out of the ground where she had just been standing. At first blush, she thought she was being mobbed by a swarm of very small Centurions - the great centipede Grimm that often tunneled under the ground and could run you down over great distances - but that wasn't the case.
Weiss noticed the patterns along their bulbous, long bodies and promptly recognized the laughing skull markings from her studies. Gravediggers. She started to warn the others, when the ground beneath her feet rolled and shook, very nearly tripping her.
Her blue eyes widened in shock as ten more burst upwards from beneath the ground, trying to ensnare her with their ugly, sticky maws and pull her under the ground with them, where they would swarm her. She fought the urge to become nauseous as she danced around their grotesque strikes, and finally hopped onto a glyph platform a millisecond before getting snared herself.
"Get off the ground!" Qrow was bellowing hoarsely over the squealing shrieks of the worms. The Huntsman was dodging a fresh dozen of the twisting abominations himself, his own scythe sweeping rhythmically around his perimeter. They were having a hard time getting a hold of him due to his Semblance it seemed. "Up, get up, now! Don't let them touch you - Yang! What the fuck did I just say !? Blake - go get her ass out of there, now !"
Weiss fought the urge to check on Yang herself, focused as she was on crafting more platforms for her teammates and Qrow; she was rapidly building a network of platforms that would elevate them out of range of the inky masses of burrowing Grimm and lead them up to the fifteenth story of a blasted out sky-scraper to their collective right.
Fractions of seconds felt like full minutes as Weiss watched the others fleeing from the rolling wave of vile death snapping at their heels. Finally, Qrow was up. Then Blake and Yang, Blake having utilized her Semblance to bait the Gravediggers into attacking a fire Dust replica while she freed her partner from the worm that had ensnared her.
"Sorry! Sorry, it was a reflex!" Yang apologized, panting on top of a glyph nearby as she burned off the sticky, black goo the Grimm had secreted when she'd punched it. "My bad!"
Qrow said nothing to this, his body taut as he observed the ground below them, while Blake hovered a little as she ensured her partner was physically fine. Weiss, meanwhile, was frantically hunting for signs of her partner, whom she had lost track of briefly.
"Where is she-" Weiss started, unable to keep the urgency out of her voice, when a sudden blur of red petals bolted up the side of the tower across the street from them. Weiss felt her stomach drop like a stone.
Ruby had apparently led a large portion of the Gravediggers away from the team while they'd been struggling to get out of range, and was now barely ahead of the tidal wave on her heels.
Suddenly, Ruby pivoted and propelled herself across the gap, her Semblance fully engaging to maintain her momentum; she had Crescent Rose in it's rifle configuration and was firing Ice rounds into the wormy tower chasing after her. The Gravediggers shrieked, freezing and fracturing like a macabre ice-sculpture, before being shot to pieces as Ruby flew through the skidded across the floor between the lot of them.
"Is everyone ok!?" Ruby popped up, hurrying over to inspect them. "We good?! Yea?!"
Weiss felt her frame relax a fraction as the others made various sounds of assent, collecting themselves and as they brought their weapons to bear. Below them, the Grimm squealed and then, much to Weiss' horror, collectively made a noise like a chorus of unhinged chuckling. Weiss exchanged a nervous look with Blake and Yang, the three of them frozen in place by the sound.
Are they supposed to make that noise? Or is this more unnatural Grimm behavior, like with the Unseelie?
Seeing the looks on their faces, Qrow spoke up, snapping them back to the here and now.
"Rubes, get a handle on this or I'm pulling us back!" Qrow shouted over the neurotic tittering.
The entire road was now covered in roiling waves of Gravediggers, and with their pale skull markings, the street now looked like a boiling black river of the dead; like a scene straight out of a myth, one of the many dead religions lost to time.
Her partner took up next to her, silver gaze turning to steel with determination.
"Yang!" Ruby called out over the cacophony. "We need firepower! Start breaking those big clumps up! Swap to explosive rounds and use lots and lots of Dust! Go wild, sis!"
"On it!" Yang shouted, eager to make up for her blunder earlier. She started showering shotgun blasts down left and right on the writhing bundles of Gravediggers that were crawling up the skyscraper towards them.
"Uncle Qrow, Blake, you guys are covering the rear and perimeters! There's stuff coming up the staircases and sides, make sure none of it makes it to us!"
Blake disappeared into rubble behind them, while Qrow swapped his scythe into it's sword configuration for close quarters.
"Weiss!" Ruby shouted, gesturing with Crescent Rose. "BIG boy gouts of fire Dust - light this sucker up before they can swamp us! You will be pulling heavy duty with your Semblance, but I will make sure you don't run out of aura!"
Weiss nodded promptly, already bringing Myrtenaster to bear; she exhaled slowly as she carved up several fire glyphs and, holding the image in her mind's eye, immediately began to rain hellfire down on what was likely hundreds of Grimm writhing beneath them.
Fortunately, fire was extremely effective. The Gravediggers screeched and burned quickly; but more took their place immediately, wriggling out of the charred ground like grinning maggots from a bruised corpse. Ruby posted up next to her, and began peppering explosive rounds into the faces of the twisting Grimm below.
Between Weiss' efforts, Ruby's and Yang's, the entire street was largely engulfed in fire Dust and explosions. Glass showered, smoke billowed, and the Grimm screamed and squealed and gnashed their teeth.
This went on for nearly twenty minutes. Fortunately, they had more than a surplus of Dust and bullets; she had ensured it personally before they left, considering the nature of their mission. Still, it inspired her to find a way to bring even more in the future, as they were tearing through rounds and Dust supplies like Nora through an all you can eat breakfast buffet.
Not to mention their aura levels! Ruby even had to inject Weiss with aural boosters, twice , so that Weiss could maintain the constant Dust storm with her Semblance. She'd never needed to utilize aura boosters before, and she wasn't a fan of the feeling. they made her heart race like too much caffeine, but it got the job done. She was sweating profusely from the heat and the genuine strain of it all, nearly lost in a trance of focus.
During all of this, other Grimm were being drawn to them as well. More Beowolves and other smaller Grimm kept rushing out of the staircases behind them. Blake and Qrow handled these ambushes exclusively, protecting their backs while they focused on their extermination efforts. On top of this, Qrow was also keeping an eye on the situation as a whole, preparing to pull them out of the encounter if it reached an overwhelming point.
Weiss was hoping it wouldn't come to that, as she wasn't eager to leave this many Gravediggers on the loose so close to Vale. These Grimm were notorious for digging deeper than any other Grimm type - deeper even than some Kingdoms laid their walls and below ground Dust barricades - and coming up to engulf entire towns all at once.
In fact, Gravediggers in a big enough swarm could technically be considered a Settlement Killer, as they could grow to encompass tens of thousands of the wormy Grimm and operated like a hive. So Weiss wanted to ensure they decimated the infestation here and now, so it couldn't grow even bigger and spread back towards Vale or a nearby Settlement in the future.
Another five minutes passed, and finally, finally, the wretched things began to ebb out. The air was clogged with Grimm ash, and the stink of burning black matter had Weiss coughing as she tried to get the acrid taste of it out of her mouth.
"Think that's the whole swarm!" Qrow finally declared, inspecting the ashen streets below them. "We need to move! Find a safe place to recover and then we'll take a good rest! Let's go!"
Naturally, no one argued this point as they moved as a group, searching for the most tactically safe location to have a recovery period. The rest stop turned out to be a bar a few blocks over that had been closed and boarded up before the catastrophe.
Ruby cut the chains holding the door shut and ushered them all in, her face so uncharacteristically serious it honestly startled her. Weiss paused at the door frame for a millisecond, brushing a concerned palm over Ruby's shoulder. Ruby blinked at the gesture, apparently pulled from her thoughts, before smiling at her reassuringly. Weiss accepted this for now, but couldn't fully dismiss her concern as she made her way inside and allowed her partner to handle the door behind them.
Inside it was dim, and very dusty, but the building wasn't destroyed like the ones they'd encountered so far. It was perfectly preserved, like some ancient animal trapped in amber; while the rest of the city was more like an exposed grave.
Tch, how gothic. I need to pull it together.
"Y'all take five," Qrow instructed, moving towards the back of the building. "I'll make sure we don't have any, ah, surprises."
The Huntsman disappeared from view as the girls threw their stuff on the ground and tables, pulling out water and wiping ink and ash from their faces and clothes.
"Holy rigatoni," Yang exhaled loudly as she set her water bottle down on the bar. She was giving Weiss an appreciative grin as Weiss continued to clean the Grimm ash from her face. The black matter combined with the imagery of the maggoty Grimm and her own bleak imagination was making her think of grave dirt and she needed it off her skin immediately. "Weiss! You wanna swap out with me and be team bruiser on the weekends? Cause you were packin some heat for a snowflake! That was kinda badass!"
"I want to throw up," Weiss hummed, dabbing her cheeks primly as she ignored the flutter in her chest. "Those things were disgusting."
Blake chuckled, having perched nearby on the bar to start doing weapons checks, insisting Yang hand Ember Celica over to her while Yang broke out the lunch and Dust supplies. Blake was the only one Yang allowed to perform in field weapons checks on Ember Celica, besides very occasionally Ruby, who Yang frequently went to for mechanical questions. Ruby, meanwhile, was dispensing more aura boosters and checking everyone for injuries, having pulled the boosters from the little pouch at her belt that was deeper than it looked, courtesy of her father.
"Here," Ruby pressed the boosters into her hands insistently. Weiss met her eyes briefly and saw that she was worried. "That was really rough, I'm sorry."
Weiss paused, setting her dampened handkerchief down.
"Why are you apologizing?" Weiss asked, feeling a little incredulous.
Ruby paused, scratching the back of her head sheepishly.
"I um. I feel I should have done more to prevent that situation from happening to begin with? You got put in a difficult position, and-"
"Do you think I can't handle being put in difficult positions?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow. Yang made a bizarre noise from the bar, likely having been prevented from making an uncouth comment by Blake. Weiss ignored them.
Ruby's cheeks were blushing, a tamer color than Weiss's own embarrassing wildfire blushes, but still quite noticeable. Weiss could see, in that moment, why perhaps intentionally making someone blush was fun.
Not that she would ever do so on purpose, of course.
"N-no! I don't think that- like, at all, no way," Ruby waved her hands as she grew flustered. "But it's my job to um - make sure things get spread out more fairly, so that it doesn't burn one person out, and that's just like- you know-"
Weiss was having a very hard time looking even mildly irritated with her partner; not that that was an uncommon problem because, flustered, floundering, doltish Ruby was honestly one of her favorite things in the whole world. She could, despite what others might believe, watch this literally all day. However, she also knew that that was kind of mean, and she did not actually want to tease her that much.
Much, anyways.
"Ruby," Weiss started carefully. "I like that you can depend on me in a situation that extreme. That makes me happy, because it means you trust that I am competent enough to pull it off. And it's not like I could have managed any of that, if you and the rest of the team hadn't been protecting and supporting me. So please stop worrying about 'burning me out' and actually eat some lunch yourself? You didn't touch breakfast at all, and your Semblance burns through calories like crazy."
Ruby cleared her throat awkwardly, mumbling something under her breath. Weiss squinted at her suspiciously, while Ruby gave her a nervous grin.
"Aaawww," Yang teased, while dutifully passing out the protein bars, gel packs and jerky. "You two are soooo cute."
"YANG," Ruby yelped, trying to unsuccessfully steer her sister away. "Let's uh - let's make sure you've got enough BULLETS!"
"I will never not need more bullets," Yang lifted her arm as Ruby hung off her like a little red chimpanzee. "I am in a perpetual state of always needing more bullets; but you should probably listen to Weiss and actually eat something. You get kinda cranky when you crash."
Ruby blew a raspberry at her sister, swinging from her arm.
"I'm not a child! I am team leader, and I will eat whenever I dang well please!"
"You can't manage people if you can't manage your blood sugar," Blake hummed from where she was inspecting Gambol Shroud, a piece of jerky hanging from her mouth.
"Tchhhh fine! Fine!" Ruby groused, grumpily taking the food from Yang's hands and hopping over to the bar to inhale her food. How she managed to never choke, Weiss had no idea. "Fine! Friggin - harridans!"
"Excuse me, what?" Weiss's brows rose exponentially.
Yang snickered, with food in her mouth like an absolute barbarian, moving back to join Blake.
"Harridans!" Ruby declared again, slapping the bar with her palm. "Termagants! Viragos!"
"Oh man," Blake drawled, inspecting Ember Celica's chamber. "She's really pulling out the big guns now. I might cry."
"I am offended, and yet also so proud at the same time," Yang pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye. "You really do listen to me!"
Blake muttered something, and Yang swatted at her leg gently, beforing demanding the return of her weapon.
"I am NOT a termagant, you take that back!" Weiss squawked, pressing a hand to her chest. Ruby grinned deviously.
"Castigator!"
Weiss puffed up, eyes narrowing in mock outrage.
"Castigator?! Oh I'll show you a castigator!"
Ruby pretended to hide under her hood, unable to conceal her playful grin, while Yang hooted and Blake stretched theatrically on the counter.
"Oh yea, baby, castigate me ," Blake teased from her seat on the bar, smiling innocently when Weiss glared at her. Yang loudly whispered 'hypocrite', gaping at her partner's coy smile. Blake's smirk widened a tiny fraction as Weiss sized her up.
Finally, Weiss folded her arms and gestured flippantly.
"Save it for Professor Goodwitch, bottom ," Weiss declared imperiously, waving her away and hiding a laugh as Yang sputtered, eyes widening in hilarity. Blake's mouth parted a little in surprise, but for only for a moment as she leaned forwards, ears flicking.
"Aww, is someone projecting again?" Blake asked, grinning smugly when Weiss's blush started up at her tone. "It's ok, you don't need to prove anything to me. Unless you really want to."
Yang continued to literally die, while Ruby looked utterly bewildered about the nature of the conversation. Weiss could feel her cheeks heating up already, but she was determined to not give up and let Blake win. Blake always won games of 'embarrassment chicken', even with Yang. Not that Yang got flustered easily either ; it was because eventually? Yang would give up . It was next to impossible to fluster Blake for any length of time, at least where it was visibly detectable. Comments that would leave Weiss utterly floored would slide off Blake like water, before she returned the quip to it's sender with three times the devastating effect.
On top of that, she just made everything she did look so effortless, it wasn't fair. Weiss would honestly give a lot for the chance to fluster Blake, if for just a moment.
"Oh? Is that statement a fact or a request?" Weiss flicked a speck of Grimm ash from her lapel.
"Hmm," Blake kicked her feet slowly over the floor. "How about an order?"
"Sorry, but I don't run this operation like a drive-thru," Weiss cocked her head. "Unlike some people."
"What, I can't get fries and a shake?" Yang grinned roguishly. Yang loved stupid banter, especially stupid banter where Weiss caved and joined in.
"You and I both know you couldn't afford them," Weiss droned flatly. Yang pressed her hand to her heart as if shot.
Blake started to laugh genuinely, her gold irises glowing with mirth.
"Yea, I could tell you were going for more of a sit down eatery vibe," Blake replied drolly. "Typical pillow princess."
"That- oh god dammit," Weiss cursed, her face lighting up as she glanced away. Victory would not be her's this day.
Huffing, she waved Blake off in defeat, who was still chuckling as Yang hiccuped with laughter, her Semblance flaring a little.
Ruby was glancing between the three of them, confusion blatant. Finally, their leader tossed her hands up in exasperation.
"What the heck do drive-thrus have to do with being a bottom?!"
Yang hiccuped - loudly - and charred part of the bar, swiveling on her barstool while Blake pressed a hand over her mouth to conceal her laughter. Weiss' eyes widened.
"Ruby!" Weiss hissed, her face still red. Her partner shrugged at her.
"Like seriously!" Ruby insisted. "I don't get it-"
"How do you even know what THAT is?!" Yang sputtered. "Wait! What has Nora been telling you?!"
"Oh yea, Yang, like you guys are all just too subtle for me or something. Yelling lewd jokes at lunch all the time," Ruby rolled her eyes and shook her scroll at them. "I'm demisexual, not deaf. Also, I have a scroll? I can just look up the definitions of things. You taught me to look words up that I don't know, remember? Soooo this is ultimately your fault."
Yang gasped in outrage, though whether she was completely serious or still playing Weiss was having a hard time determining. Blake however looked utterly delighted by all of this.
"What! No it is not! Wait, what the heck is a demisexual?!"
"Look it up, ya big dork," Ruby sniffed, folding her arms and tossing her nose in the air.
Blake smirked, shaking her head as she finally slid off the counter.
"Yea ya big dork, look it up," Blake teased her partner, before brushing past a still blushing Weiss.
"What the fuck are ya'll yellin about?" Qrow came back into the bar proper. He had, apparently, still been ensuring that the building held no unpleasant surprises. He took a quick look at Weiss' still red face and snorted. "Nevermind-" Weiss glared at him "We got about another five minutes before we should get movin again, there's a big pack over to the east that's driftin this way. We don't want to get caught between it and whatever is ahead of us."
RWBY switched gears immediately at this news, going from jokes and snacking to finishing up the last of their weapons and aura checks; and it was within promptly six minutes that they were out the door, weapons in hand. Before leaving completely, Ruby paused and locked the door behind them all once again, leaving the forgotten tavern in tact for decades to come; and their team name forever carved into the countertop at the bar.