Notice Me, Ruby!

Chapter 19: At The Ruins

Once morning came around, Ruby and the members of team LION packed their belongings and began to make their way to the ruins they needed to inspect for their assignment. The path was pretty rough, as they had to walk through some very dense woods that very few people even got near to.

If Ruby was completely honest, she was somewhat mesmerized by the forest around them, as she had never seen anything like it up close. When the redhead had been a child, she had often gone to play in the forest that was close to their home on Patch. However, the forest near her home was like a park compared to what she was walking through now. Ruby couldn't help but look in awe at the woods around her, even if some of her companions didn't share her excitement.

"Goddamn I hate this forest!" Isabella complained, not enjoying her surroundings at all. "Why did Oobleck have to send us in this godforsaken dump!? I doubt we'll find anything that is of any use to us anyways, when we get to the damn ruins!"

"Oh, shut your mouth!" Elaine yelled back at her teammate, not in the mood for her whining. "I don't like this any more than you do, but at least I'm taking it like an adult! We just need to go there, get what we need for our assignment and then we'll be on our way back to Beacon."

"Man, I can't wait to get back," the white-haired girl said still in a grumpy voice. "I've got a handful of games that are waiting to be cleared back in the dorm, so I really want to get this over with."

"You think you're having it bad? Do you have any idea how many of my favorite anime series and other shows are getting new episodes right now?" the redheaded team leader asked. "If I was back in the dorm, I'd be sitting at my computer, watching through every episode without a single stop. I can't help but wonder what great scenes I'm missing right now."

Ruby silently listened to the complaints of the two older girls. She felt bad now, as she herself was completely enjoying their journey, yet her friends weren't thrilled at all. The scythe-wielder wanted to argue and tell them how she felt about the whole thing, but remained silent. After all, thanks to her liking things that others didn't caused her to not have any real friends in the first place, so she didn't want to risk losing ones she had made only recently.

"I actually think this is quite nice," Oliver suddenly said with smile on his face, causing everyone to turn their attention to him. "This forest is just marvelous to look at and admire, and I really love the fresh air we have here. I honestly wouldn't mind staying here for longer."

"Ollie, are you joking!?" Isabella asked in disbelief. "You do realize we were attacked by a small army of Grimm not too long ago, right!? How can you enjoy this green hell!?"

"Well, the Grimm are an annoyance, sure, but we are more than able to deal with them," the large boy replied with a shrug. "I mean, isn't that what we have been training for?"

"Well, I'm certain that the rest of us don't-" Elaine began to say as she turned to look at the other members of the group, only to see Ruby staring at Oliver with a big, relieved smile on her face.

"Oh thank God, I thought I was the only one!" the redhead said happily, as she ran up to the tall boy to give him a hug, which surprised him quite a bit. "I was so afraid to say anything about me liking this whole thing that I just stayed silent! I'm so happy to hear that someone else feels the same way!"

"Hey, no problem, Ruby," Oliver said with a smile, as he gently patted the short girl's head. "Also, don't be afraid of liking different things, okay? If you do that, then you're just essentially denying a part of yourself, okay?"

Meanwhile, Elaine and Isabella were staring at Ruby and Oliver with wide eyes. Two emotions were currently going through them, as they thought about what they had just said and heard. One was surprise, as they had not expected their two friends to actually like walking through this forest. The second one was shame, as they remembered how Ruby had told them about how badly she had been treated for simply having different likes and interests. They must have brought some bad memories to the poor girl, even if it had been unintentional.

"Well, now I just feel like a jerk..." Isabella mumbled sadly.

"I know what you mean," Elaine said with a sigh, as she started to look for their last teammate, wondering what his opinion on all of this was. "What do you think, Nilo?"

The redheaded team leader was quite surprised to find the small boy tangled up in some vines ahead of them. He wasn't moving at all, as he feared that he would only make his situation worse by doing so.

"Ummm... Can you guys help me? I don't want to be stuck in this forest," Nilo asked awkwardly, feeling somewhat embarrassed over his predicament.

"Good to see that at least someone agrees with us," Elaine said with a small chuckle, as she went to free her teammate.

After having their little moment, the group continued on their way to the ruins. It didn't take them long until they finally reached their destination, and once they did, Ruby's eyes went wide over the scenery in front of her.

The group had arrived to what was an ancient city built from stone that had many large buildings, with a huge temple in the middle of the whole area that was the largest structure there was. Some of the buildings had begun breaking down due to the passage of time, but most of the structures were still up. The many roads that went between the buildings were all paved with stone as well. However, the one thing that really caught Ruby's attention was how the plants had begun to cover all of the buildings, making it look like nature had taken over the whole place.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" Oliver said to the young redhead with a smile, having noticed her amazement. "This is one of the things I really enjoy about working on these assignments. I get to see places like this."

"It's really amazing," Ruby said with a smile on her face, as she admired the ruins in front of her. "When I was a child, I often dreamed of exploring places like this as a Huntress."

"Well, I guess your dream just became a reality," the tall boy said. "Also, I'm sure you'll get to see more places like this in the future as well. It kind of comes with the job, you know?"

Suddenly, Elaine whistled rather loudly in order to get the group's attention. Once all eyes were on her, the third-year team leader began to explain their assignment and how they would proceed in order to complete it.

"Alright, listen up! Oobleck gave us a list of things to discover and record on our camera. We need to find as many of them as possible, before we can return back to Beacon. The more we find, the better," Elaine explained. "First, we need to find all sorts of areas and specific buildings for this city. These include things such as the market square, the church or temple and the home of the city's leader. And third, we need to find some sort of an interesting object and take it back to Beacon with us without damaging it, so that it can be researched. Any questions?"

Ruby raised her hand immediately.

"Yeah. What kind of an object will we be looking for exactly?" the young team leader asked. "Also, is there anything else that we'll need to do, while we are there?"

"Well, the object doesn't have to be anything specific. It just has to be something that could hold great value in terms of research. The more rare or mysterious the object is, the better our final score in this assignment will be," the third-year team leader answered. "As for anything else that we need to do, there is a small list of different smaller things that we should look for, while we are doing our investigation of the ruins. These are things like art and signs of Grimm activity having been there. Any other questions?"

Having received her answers, Ruby didn't have anything left to ask. The others in the group didn't have any questions either, which meant that they could start their assignment.

"Alright, if everyone's ready, I guess we might as well get to work then!" Elaine said with a small grin, as she took out the camera headpiece she had been given and got it ready. "Let's move out, team!"

The group quickly made their way to the ancient ruins and began to work on their assignment. It didn't take them long to find most of the things they were required to discover, which were then recorded on Elaine's camera. They even discovered what seemed to be different types of claw marks on some of the buildings, telling them that Grimm had most likely been the reason behind the city's downfall.

With most of their work done, the students were now going inside the buildings, hoping to find some sort of an object that they could take with them to Beacon. For the most part, they weren't able to find anything that wasn't broken. It seemed like the Grimm had caused quite a lot of destruction during their attack, so most of the objects that were discovered had been broken into numerous tiny pieces.

"Have you guys found anything yet?" Elaine asked while going through some rubble, hoping to discover something underneath it.

"Nothing good," Ruby answered. "So far, I've only found shards that might have been part of a jar or something, but nothing all that good."

"Well, let's keep looking," the older team leader said with a sigh. "If nothing else, maybe we can take those shards with us. It's better than nothing."

"That would really suck. I doubt anyone would have any use for a pile of clay shards, you know?" Isabella said in an annoyed tone while throwing a fully intact clay jar into the air with her hand. "I mean, all I was able to find was this thing, but even this isn't-"

"Hang on! Where did you find that!?" Oliver asked with wide eyes, noticing the object his teammate was throwing around. The other members of the group also looked at the white-haired girl and went wide-eyed.

"Oh, this thing? I just picked it up in one of the rooms here, while-" Isabella began to answer.

"Uhhh... You do realize that's an important historical object you're throwing around right now?" Ruby asked nervously, hoping that the older wouldn't drop the jar. "I'm pretty sure we can take that back with us and we would fully accomplish our assignment."

"Wait, really?" the dark-skinned girl asked in a surprised voice. Unfortunately, her surprise had been so great that she was unable to catch the jar, as it fell from the air. The ancient object fell to the floor and shattered into tiny pieces, causing everyone in the group to turn pale. "...Oops?"

"OOPS, MY ASS!" Elaine yelled angrily at her careless teammate. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE, YOU IDIOT!? NOT ONLY WAS THAT SOMETHING WE COULD HAVE USED FOR OUR ASSIGNMENT, BUT YOU JUST DESTROYED A REAL ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECT! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO EXPLAIN THIS TO PROFESSOR OOBLECK!?"

Before the argument could get any worse, Ruby stepped between the two older girls and held up her arms to both of them. Both Elaine and Isabella saw that the younger girl had a frown on her face as well.

"STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" Ruby yelled. "I know that we are all tired and frustrated from this work, but we can't just start fighting among each other like this! Any group that starts doing that is doomed to fail, so we must avoid that at all costs! We haven't searched this whole area yet, so there is still a chance that we might find something, but we will need all of us for it. Okay?"

Elaine and Isabella seemed to calm down and stepped back from the younger students. Both had ashamed looks on their faces.

"Sorry, Ruby. I shouldn't have let my anger get the better of me," the redheaded third-year apologized.

"I'm sorry, too. I should have been more careful," the dark-skinned girl said in an apologetic tone.

"As long as you both are ready to admit your mistakes and calm down, then everything is fine," Ruby said, taking a step back after seeing the two older girls calming down. "Now, how about we take a break, before continuing our work? I don't know about you guys, but I'm a bit hungry."

As the group began to put down their equipment and make themselves comfortable, Elaine kept her eyes on Ruby. The young redhead had once again shown just how skilled she was as a team leader. Not only was able to calm down a raging Oliver, but she was able to remain calm and sensible, when even the older and more experienced team leader had lost control of her emotions.

To be perfectly honest, Ruby could possibly be the closest of them to being a true Huntress.

While the group was resting and eating some of their food that they had taken with them, Ruby kept looking towards a certain direction, clearly in deep thought. Nilo noticed this and decided to ask what was on the scythe-wielder's mind.

"I-Is something wrong, Ruby?" the shy boy asked, getting the redhead's attention. "You seem to be lost in thought and you keep staring at something. Is something bothering you?"

"It's nothing. I've just been thinking about something," Ruby answered. "It's about that large temple in the middle of the city. I've been wondering why we haven't gone there yet. After all, it could hold all sorts of interesting things in it."

"The reason for that is quite simple. It's very risky," Elaine began to explain. "You see, we aren't the first group of people that has come here in search of archeological findings. A long time ago, a scientific expedition made their way here as the first people to discover this. Unfortunately for them, they were apparently attacked by a very dangerous Grimm within that temple, leaving only a few survivors behind. Ever since then, any group that has come here has stayed away from that temple."

"Haven't they ever tried sending Huntsmen there to clear out the temple?" the younger girl asked. "With a big enough group of skilled Huntsmen and Huntresses, I'm sure that Grimm could have been dealt by now."

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Oliver said. "Not only is the thing hiding in there a very strong Grimm, but it has made that temple it's personal home. It most likely knows every possible passageway and hole that place has, giving it home field advantage."

"Not only that, but having a large group of people inside a tight, closed space isn't a good idea," Isabella added. "No matter how good a Huntsman is, they're not all that strong, when they can't move around without bumping into their allies."

"The final addition to the whole mess is the fact that there are a lot of influential people that want the temple to remain unharmed as much as possible, meaning that the place can't just be destroyed in order to bring it down upon the creature," Nilo said. "From what I've heard, there are still heated debates over what course of action should be taken regarding that place. Some want to kill the Grimm no matter the cost, while others demand that the temple needs to be kept safe."

"I see... I guess that's why haven't gone there yet," Ruby said thoughtfully. "Not only would we be putting ourselves at great risk by facing that Grimm, but we could face many legal issues, if any serious damage were to happen to that temple."

"Well, I doubt we would get into too much trouble, since we do have Professor Oobleck's backing," Elaine said. "He is a respected person in the field of archeology and has a lot of influence in that area. I'm sure he would assist us, if something were to happen. Though, it's still best to stay away from that temple. Nothing good would come out of us going there."

Ruby kept looking at the temple, thinking about what she had just been told. While she couldn't help but feel like she wanted to go explore the temple and possibly take on the Grimm that was hiding there, she knew it wasn't a good idea. The Grimm was obviously a very strong opponent, so it would be very risky for them to even get close to it. Besides, no matter what type of glory or greatness they would get from defeating such a beast, Ruby was not willing to put her friends in danger for it. It was just not worth it in her opinion.

"I'll go take a walk. I don't feel all that comfortable just sitting down," the scythe-wielder said as she stood up and started to walk away from the group. "Little exercise should help me relax a bit more."

"Don't walk too far and keep your Scroll close, okay?" Elaine said. "While we may have cleared a large number of Grimm yesterday, there could be more nearby. You never know just when and where they'll pop up."

"I'll be just around the corner, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about," the redhead responded with a small smile. "But I will call you guys, if anything happens."

Ruby walked out of the building she and team LION had been in and began to make her way down the street. As she was walking, the redhead kept looking at the ruins around her, wondering what life must have been like there all those years ago. But as much as she admired her surroundings, Ruby also found them somewhat creepy as well. With no living people anywhere in sight and the buildings in a state that made them look like they could collapse at any moment, the whole are was like one big ghost town. To add to that, there was apparently even a large monster in the middle of the whole place.

As Ruby was going around, she noticed something a bit strange in an alley between two large buildings. The alley itself was very narrow, so that only one person could fit to walk through it at a time. However, what was stranger was a single tile that seemed to be a different color.

With her curiosity piqued, the redhead decided to go and investigate the tile. Upon getting closer to it, she found out that the reason the tile had a different color was because of the fact that it was made of a different material. Perhaps in the past it had been painted to look like the other tiles, but with the layer of paint now gone it's true appearance was there for all to see. And unlike the other tiles in the alley, this one was made from metal, instead of stone, with a good amount of rust covering it.

The metallic tile was so out of place that Ruby couldn't help but wonder what it was. It could even be a secret pathway to something that no one had seen for who knows how many years. The young team leader tried to lift the metallic tile in order to see what it was hiding, but couldn't even make it budge. The whole thing was so badly covered in rust that it would require a lot more strength to make it move.

Luckily for Ruby, she knew the perfect person for this.

In a matter of seconds, Ruby was back at the metallic lid, but this time she had the members of team LION with her. The older students had been quite surprised, when the younger student had suddenly appeared in front of them in a cloud of rose petals. Ruby had immediately began to tell them about something she had found with such excitement that the older students had at first had trouble understanding what she was saying. After she had calmed down, the scythe-wielder had told them about what she found and had guided her companions there.

At the moment, Oliver was the only one in the alley, since only one person could fit there at a time. The tall boy was taking a closer look at what Ruby had discovered and he was quite intrigued by it. This was definitely an unusual find.

"Hey, Ollie, what does it look like?" Elaine called out to her teammate. "Is it something good?"

"This is definitely something good. REALLY good," Oliver answered. "I think Ruby might have found a secret pathway somewhere. Do you want me to open it?"

"Well, hot damn. You just keep making things better for us every chance you get," the third-year team leader said to Ruby with a smile and a tone that was full of surprise and pride. She then turned her attention back to her bigger teammate and said, "Yeah, please open it up! I'm sure we all want to see what that thing's hiding underneath itself!"

Oliver did as he was told and used his hands to simply tear the rusted metal lid from the ground, revealing stairs that led underground. The berserker stepped out of the way a bit in order to let his team leader take a look and decide what to do next.

"So, what are we going to do, Ellie? Will we go in or will we leave it at that?" Oliver asked.

"Do you even need to ask? Of course we are going in!" Elaine answered. "There's no way we're going to leave something like this uninvestigated!"

It didn't take long until Ruby and the members of team LION had gone down the secret passageway they had found. Luckily for them, the path became much wider as they went along it, allowing more than one person to go at a time.

The tunnel they were in was very well-made, as the walls and the floor were covered in tiles, making it easier to walk along it. There were also torches on the walls around them, but the students didn't need them. All five of them were carrying flashlights with them as part of their equipment, so they could walk around in darkness without worries.

"Man, this is one long tunnel!" Isabella said as the group was walking. " Any idea what could be at the end of it?"

"Hard to say. It could honestly be anything," Ruby said as she kept looking around. "This could either be some sort of a secret escape tunnel, meant for a noble or someone of that type of status. My other guess is that it could be a maintenance tunnel of sorts, meant for the people that would come and work on the sewers."

"Well, whatever it is, we are going to find out!" Elaine said with a big smile. "And the glory for finding this goes to you, Ruby!"

"Huh? M-Me?" the young redhead asked in a slight shock. "A-Are you serious?"

"Of course! After all, you are the one who actually found it!" the older redhead answered. "Without you here, I'm certain that we would have never found any of this!"

The other members of team LION told Ruby how they felt the same way as their leader and that the scythe-wielder should be proud of herself. Once again, Ruby felt how people were actually looking up to her, instead of looking down on her. Her own teammates had never expressed such pride in her at all.

"Thanks, you guys," the red-cloaked girl said with a small blush on her face. "This really means a lot to me."

"Hey, no need to get so shy and all!" Isabella said with a grin and slapped Ruby om the back. "Now, let's go and see just what you have discovered!"

"S-Sure..."

Once the group reached the end of the tunnel, they came upon a door. They opened it and found what seemed like an even larger tunnel with a big stream of water going through the middle of it. They looked around and saw that there were multiple doors lining the tunnels walls on both sides of it. However, the doors were made in such a way that they blended in with the background, making them almost impossible to spot. They were clearly not meant to be used just by anyone, but a select few that knew of their locations.

"Which way do we go now?" Oliver asked. "Do we go and inspect one of the doors or do we turn left or right?"

"Hang on a second," Elaine answered and dug out her compass. "Let's see... We came from the south, right? In that case, we should head north, which means we should turn left. If we turn right, we'll most likely head out of the ruins themselves."

With their course set, the group turned left and began to walk. Almost everyone in the group was imagining the things they would find at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps some sort of a hidden treasure or archeological wonders that would make them famous? They couldn't wait to find out.

However, the only one in the group that wasn't feeling excitement was Ruby. For some reason, the little redhead felt like there was something important that they were missing, and that they should actually be turning around. Unfortunately, she lacked the courage to say anything about it.

At the end of the tunnel, the found another door. Without any hesitation, Elaine opened the door and the group walked in.

What awaited on the other side made their eyes go as wide as possible.

The group had arrived at what seemed like a large chamber with pathways on all sides. However, what truly surprised the group was what they saw on the ground everywhere. There were treasures of all types everywhere they could see. Gold, precious jewelry, gems and all sorts of other valuables were just laying there, waiting to be picked up.

"I think Christmas came early for us, guys," Elaine said while mesmerized by what she was seeing. "Because we just found the biggest hidden present in the world!"

As the members of team LION ran to the chamber, looking at all the treasure they had found in excitement, Ruby stood still. The redhead couldn't explain it, but for some reason she felt this overwhelming presence around them. Like there was someone or something watching.

From the corner of her eye, Ruby saw movement in one of the pathways to her left. While it was so dark that she couldn't properly see what it had been, she could tell that it was very big and NOT a human.

At this moment, Ruby finally realized where they were. Her face turned pale and she quickly ran to Elaine, hoping that she wasn't too late to warn her friends.

"Ellie, we have to get out of here now!" the scythe-wielder yelled in a panic. "If we stay here any longer, we'll be in danger!"

"Huh? What are you talking about, Ruby?" the third-year team leader asked, while her teammates stopped looking at the treasures and also turned their attention to the first-year student. "How are we in danger?"

"I just realized where we are! We're-" Ruby began to explain, but saw something moving behind Oliver. "OLLIE, LOOK OUT!"

The large boy was able to turn around just in time, before what seemed like a giant snake Grimm came from behind him and tried to bite him. Oliver's back hit the floor, as he struggled to keep the beast's jaws from closing in on him. However, even with his superhuman strength, it was proving to be a tough challenge.

Had it not been for Ruby acting quickly, the berserker might have ended up in quite some pain. The red-cloaked girl used her Semblance to quickly dash to the snake and the used her scythe to attack it. The blade of her scythe dug deep into the Grimm's head, causing it to scream in agony, before retreating back the way it had come.

"Ollie, are you okay!?" Ruby asked the berserker, who was slowly getting back up.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Oliver answered. "I owe you one."

"W-What the hell was that!?" Isabella asked in shock from having a Grimm surprise them like that. "Where did it come from!?"

"That's exactly what I was trying to get at," the scythe-wielder explained while still holding her scythe in her hands, ready to defend herself and her friends. "I'm certain that the tunnel we followed led us to the temple, where that extremely dangerous Grimm is hiding. All these tunnels that we have gone through must be some sort of an elaborate secret escape path for the people in the temple, but that thing made them it's hunting grounds."

"So you're telling me that we walked straight into the place we were meant to avoid, without even realizing it?" Elaine asked, which got her a nod from Ruby. "Okay, we are getting out of here RIGHT NOW! Don't bother picking up anything, as it would only slow us down!"

The team leader didn't need to repeat her command, as everyone in the group began to run back the way they had come, running past the treasures that were covering the floor. They knew that their lives were more valuable than any of the valuables they could take with them.

However, as they were running, Ruby once again noticed movement in the darkness. This time it was close to Isabella. Knowing that the dark-skinned girl was in danger, the scythe-wielder activated her Semblance and used it to push Isabella out of the way of the attack.

Unfortunately, Ruby wasn't fast enough to also avoid the attack, which is why she ended up in the jaws of the Grimm, before being pulled into the darkness the monster had come from.

"RUBY!" the members of team LION screamed in horror, as they saw their friend get taken away from them and disappear from sight.

Author's notes: I was originally supposed to finish the whole "assignment with team LION" thing with this chapter, but I got so inspired that it actually became a bigger thing. I hope you guys don't mind and are willing to read this a bit more. The next chapter will definitely be the end of this assignment.

There were some people asking about the question Isabella was going to ask Ruby. That thing has unfortunately been pushed to the next chapter, as I want it to come up once Ruby and team LION have finished their assignment. It's nothing major that will affect the plot. Just something fun I thought of.

Also, I would like to say that I am very grateful and relieved to see how well you all have taken the OC's I made for this story. I was originally very worried over how you all would react to them, so I'm happy to see that they have been taken in so well by you all.

I have even seen some people support the idea of Ruby/Elaine, which I am truly happy to see. Unfortunately, no matter what happens, I won't be changing the Yang/Ruby pairing of this story. I originally envisioned and planned this story to have that pairing, so I will keep it.

However, I have been thinking about the idea of making this story Ruby/Yang/Elaine, depending on what you all want. Despite my own personal policies when it comes to using OC's, I might add Elaine into the pairing, if you guys are behind the idea. But I still want to specify that I MIGHT consider this. The whole thing depends on two things.

1. If you guys want to see this story turn into a Ruby/Yang/Elaine story.

2. If I can find it in myself to write it.

So please tell me what you think and I'll try to come up with the solution that hopefully makes as many of you as happy as possible.

Until next time.

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.