To you, the reader, I thank you for reading the prologue and hope you're excited for this chapter and future ones ahead! Thank you for being part of a new story in the making.
Chapter 1 here is where changes will start to be obvious. In the prologue, it was practically copy-pasted from Volume 4 because I needed an anchor to start the story from. Now, though, I can start diverting from canon. Yes, I definitely will be diverting from canon. Certain things not directly related to the main group will stay the same (like Cinder trying to get Raven on her side, Jaques practically abusing Weiss to the point where she leaves Atlas, etc.), but things happening to the main group will change. Thus, those things won't be shown in the story. Once the Butterfly Effect starts changing events outside the group, I'll start venturing outside of the group's PoV.
Not only that, but fights will definitely change. I will not do the Battle of Haven like Rooster Teeth did it in canon. I will not have it be the pile of shit it was in canon. I know I'm spoiling this now, but I'm saying this because I was really disappointed in it (as, I'm sure, many of you were). So, there's that expectation to fulfill. I plan on rewarding your patience for when I reach that point in the story.
There's not really much else to say, other than to please enjoy reading the story! I hope your time here is as special to you as it is to me. Have fun~
~Chapter 1~
Ruby ran back to the rest of Team RNJR, barely noticing the loss of a large chunk of her Aura. The Nuckelavee did notice her return though, and its twitching head stared directly at her as it launched its unoccupied arm at her. She dodged the obvious attack and slashed Crescent Rose at the Grimm's limb, causing the grotesque beast to shriek in pain and bring its arm back to itself while Ruby joined her friends.
"Is he okay?" Jaune asked, switching his eyes from her to the Nuckelavee as he slowly backed up, his sword and shield held at the ready.
"I don't know, Jaune," Ruby replied, her worried but angry face glaring at the offending enemy. "We need to finish this up, and fast. He doesn't have much time left. I-I gave him a little Aura, but–!" She was interrupted as the Nuckelavee threw its stretching limbs in her direction, forcing her to pause the conversation and dodge the fast appendages.
"Guys," Jaune yelled, his comrades now fully on guard against the Nuckelavee, "go in a circle! Keep moving and don't let it focus on anyone!"
Following their leader's command, the group ran around their enemy while firing their weapons at it. Nora, doing the same, fired grenades at its back, before she mechashifted Maginhild into its hammer form and ran at it. With a knowing look in his eyes, Jaune sprinted in a spiral around the Grimm himself, before he and Nora struck at one of its front legs in tandem. The Grimm shrieked, no longer as annoyed as much as it was in pain, and it backed away to prepare a counterattack. Before it could, though, it shrieked again, now holding up its back leg as it stumbled forward.
"Did...did it step on something?" Nora wondered. Not letting this chance go to waste, she ran under the beast and slammed her hammer with all her might against its exposed ribcage. An echoing crack echoed through the town, and the group couldn't help but wince as one of the stake-shaped bones shattered under the force of the blow.
Ruby, meanwhile, looked behind the horse to see what happened to its back limb: right in the middle of the sole of its hoof, a thin metal object protruded out of it. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was the tip of a broken sword that had likely been shattered against its back when the town was destroyed.
"Uncle Qrow, did you..." she murmured, her eyes suddenly glowing up in hope. "Guys, guys I think we can win this! Keep doing what Jaune said, but keep hitting its limbs! Its back foot has a small blade stuck in it!"
Upon hearing the exclamation, they could almost hear another crack, this time from Ren himself as he quickly looked at Ruby, and then back to the Nuckelavee. A look they hadn't seen on his face since before the Fall of Beacon — a smile, though lacking of its former innocence — slowly crept its way onto his face as he charged at the horse-like Grimm.
"Ren, what're you-" Jaune exclaimed. Ren would not be stopped, though, as he dashed forward, nearly colliding with an arm thrown by the handicapped Grimm. He continued to run forward before being violently thrown back, its other arm managing to collide with his chest.
"Ren, stop! What're you doing?!" Jaune yelled, looking towards his crazed friend before he's forced to return his attention to the Grimm and dodge another thrown arm. He proceeded foward, with Nora trailing behind him as the two followed Ruby's instruction. Jaune struck at its uninjured hind leg, hoping to force it down, but the tactic didn't work as intended.
The Grimm, now wizened to their ploy, suddenly hopped away from the group. At the same time, Ruby fired a shot from Crescent Rose's barrel that ended up missing its leg, hitting the side of a building instead. She frowned tiredly before looking at its new location. As she saw the Grimm readying an attack, she readied what Aura she had remaining, not seeing Jaune colliding with her. As she recovered from the tackle, she looked up to see its stretched arms twisting around itself like a demented pair of Bullhead propellers. Indeed, as she looked where Nora was at, she saw the girl slowly getting up from being flung from the demon, her pink Aura crackling like static around her before failing.
"Nora," Ruby shouted. Ren, still with a maniacal look on his face, doesn't notice this as he continues to attack the beast before being thrown yet again, now sliding to a halt near Nora. He tried and failed to get up, his jade-colored Aura failing like Nora's before it.
"Cr-Crap-" Ruby stuttered, before she grabbed Jaune on instinct and rolled to the side to dodge another attack from the Nuckelavee. While he hadn't collapsed in the same way Ren and Nora did, he was just as tired as Ruby if not more so, and the attack would have definitely injured him.
"Thanks, Ruby," he weakly muttered, pushing himself up and running carefully at Ren and Nora to help them. A quick glance showed Nora pushing Ren under a building, with the Grimm (still with the blade in its hoof) galloping at the two. Ruby grimaced, noticing the Grimm had learned to mostly ignore the pain from its injury. As she got up to ascend atop a building, she saw Jaune lifting his shield at the Grimm, holding it at bay.
In an effort to relieve Jaune of his burden, Ruby shot at the Grimm's back, dodging the arms it stretched at her. Firing more bullets, this time as propulsion, she continued to sustain fire at the thing until it finally removed itself from where the others were located. Only, it doesn't run at her, deciding to instead glare at the building where Ren and Nora walked out from under. As Ruby circled back around to them, she found the expression on Ren's face to no longer be manic but instead focused — a familiar look of focus that gave Ruby some hope.
"Ren, you good?" Jaune asked, a mix of determination and apprehension adorning his chiseled features, a bead of sweat running down his brow–
Ruby, no! Stop, this isn't the time for that, she thought. Pay attention to the Grimm, not to him. No room for distraction here. Point your scythe, angle your knees for a fast – too far! Okay, like that. Just like always...get ready on his signal. Okay.
"Ren," Ruby said,, ignoring the blush on her face as she now glanced at her ninja friend while still keeping her attention on the Nuckelavee, "if Jaune and I take care of its arms, can you and Nora take care of the horse?"
"I've got the horse," Nora replied, the same look of focused determination from Ren appearing on her own face. She had some tear-marks lining her cheeks, Ruby realized, but she looked at Ren to get his confirmation rather than continuing to concentrate on her.
"I'll take care of the rest," he said confidently. Ruby and Jaune grinned, happy to see their friend back to his normal attitude. The four glared heatedly at the mistake of nature, which was still twitching like mad. As though knowing the fight was reaching its climax, it elongated the bone spikes along its back and screeched an unholy screech that gave them no choice but to drop their weapons and cover their ears. Immediately after, though, they had to pick their dropped weapons as the Nuckelavee charged.
Ruby propelled herself and hopped from building to building, firing her weapon to distract it. As it threw its arm towards her, she jumped from the ceiling and quickly propelled herself downwards. Twisting herself in mid-air, she slammed the point of her scythe into its arm, opting to point the barrel of its rifle chamber at the body. She noticed her Aura take more than a visible hit from landing on the ground so hard, her reserves nearing empty at this point. She now realized that she'd given Qrow a lot more Aura than she thought she did, if this was how low her Aura was.
She looked at Jaune and Ren, the latter having taken Jaune's shield which he used to slam into the Grimm's other arm. As Jaune sank his blade into the demon's wrist, Nora descended gracefully from a nearby tall (and miraculously still standing) building, her timing in sync with Team RNJR's actions like they were in Team JNPR at Beacon. Twisting much like Ruby did, Nora used her new momentum to crush the head of the horse, pulverizing the area where the horse's brain would normally be. Indeed so, the horse collapsed like a rag doll, leaving the human-like body to thrash around in agony while Ren walked meaningfully towards it with his knife and killed it.
When Ruby felt the resistance of the Grimm's flesh disappear, she ignored the massive cloud of black smoke and immediately folded her weapon down into its compact form, rushing to where Qrow was located. Her uncle looked calm, but in a good way; he was conscious and looking better than he did before, and he congratulated her for a job well done against the Grimm. She took his hand in hers, tears trying to escape for the second time today as she heard Jaune proclaim of something approaching. She looked up, and to her delight there were two airships landing in the middle of the open space where they had fought the Nuckelavee previously. She looked back at Qrow and smiles a giant smile, a peaceful twinkle shining in her silver orbs.
Qrow Branwen would tell you he's lived a pretty shitty life. A lifetime of bad luck, a broken team, and plenty of memories drowned in the glorious beverage known as booze. He'd also tell you, though, that he's has plenty of moments that have more than made up for it.
Indeed, as his niece — his strong, persevering niece...his smiling, curious pseudo-daughter who shouldn't have had her innocence shattered so thoroughly — walked beside him as he's lifted on a stretcher into one of the airships, he thought that his gods-awful luck could be pretty lenient sometimes.
Something feels quite odd to him now, though. He thought it was just the poison, but he swore he could feel...something under his eyes, like some gust of wind that got past his Aura. A headache that started off small increased in intensity, but he'd become used enough to them by now. Still, he closed his eyes, using the wind blowing through the airship to soothe the absolute pain he felt.
When he next opened them, he was treated to Ruby smiling the most precious smile you could ever see on her face. He'd joke that he could die right now a fulfilled man, but he felt that the disgust from saying such a bad joke would kill him before Tyrian's poison could. He gripped her hand, as weak as his grip currently was, to let her know everything would be alright. He blinked, his eyes irritated by that feeling again. He focused on Ruby again, before glancing off to the side at a familiar face with a bittersweet smile.
Hey Sum, he thought, Heh, you'd think I'd have started hallucinating from the poison sooner than this, though maybe it's just cause I'm so close to death. Still, I'm happy to see you with that amazing smile of yours again.
He glanced back at Ruby again, who was looking off into the distance at the fast-approaching city of Mistral. You'd be proud of her, Sum. She's gone through so much, way more than anyone her age should have any right to, and she came out swinging for it. If you could see her now, you'd — well, I guess you'd hug her first, wouldn't you?
Yeah, he contemplated, what she needs right now is a hug. I'd do it for you, but I'm kind of...indisposed at the moment. Though, I suppose I'm the one needing a hug, if I'm having this kind of conversation with myself.
The image of Summer continued to smile at him, her familiar white cloak billowing in the wind behind her. Satisfied with his little speech to himself, he closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into a more peaceful slumber than he'd had for a long time.
Hey sis, I hope my letters have been reaching you and Dad. Hand-written stuff's never been super reliable, but I guess it's all we've got these days. Anyway, in case you haven't been getting them, I want to say I'm sorry for leaving the way I did. I know you told me it was a reckless idea, and after everything I've been through, I can definitely say you were right. It's been hard, on all of us, and I'm not just talking about the monsters we fought out here.
Every step we made took us further and further away from the things we knew and every morning we woke up wondering, if just over the next hill would be something good or something terrible. It's scary, not knowing what's going to happen next. And the things we do know now, just how bad it can get, it almost makes it all worse. You told me once that bad things just happen. You were angry when you said it, and I didn't want to listen. But you were right, bad things do happen, all the time, every day. Which is why I'm out here, to do whatever I can, wherever I can, and hopefully do some good. We've all lost something, and I've seen what loss can do to people. But if we gave up every time we lost, then we'd never be able to move forward. We'd never have a chance to see what beautiful things the future might have waiting for us. We'd never have the strength to change; whether it's ourselves or the world around us. And we'd never be there for other people who might one day be lost without us.
This is what we were training for, Yang, to become Huntresses, to be the ones to stand up and do something about all the bad in the world. Because there are plenty of people out there who are still lost and even more who will try to gain everything they can from their sorrow. Believe me when I say, I know it can feel impossible, like every single day is a struggle against some unstoppable monster we can never hope to beat. So we have to try, if not for us, then for the p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶w̶e̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ people we haven't lost yet.
I miss you so much. I miss Weiss and Blake too. But I think you'd all be proud to know I made it to Mistral. All of us did, and we even ran into Uncle Qrow along the way! He's going to take us to see Professor Lionheart, the Headmaster of Haven Academy. And, he told us some things that you're gonna wanna hear, things I can't trust will make it to you in this letter. But maybe, if you joined us, he could tell you himself. With Beacon gone, they'll need dad at Signal more than ever, and I know you need to focus on yourself before I can expect you to come out with me. But it sure would be great to get Team RWBY back together again.
Until next time, your loving sister, Ruby Rose.
Oh! Uh, PS. I'll be sure to give you the address of where we're staying at Mistral! I'd love to hear back from you and Dad, and I can't wait to fill you in on whatever's going to happen next! Now that we've made it across Anima, I really think things are gonna start going our way.
Urgh, still in pain, Qrow thought. He grunted, barely able to move himself under the covers he was under. He noted that he was laying on a bed, which was a lot more comfortable than perching on a branch. He opened his eyes, seeing his niece crouching beside him with a somewhat-worried look on her face. He forced a tired smile, which was enough to bring a relieved expression to the surface.
"Hey," he croaked, moving his aching arm under his head in a more comfortable position, "aren't I normally the one saving you?"
Her smile shined like a star in the night sky, and she wiped some shed tears from her eyes as they started to fall down her cheeks.
"You know," he continued, "your Vomit Boy there did a pretty good job with that thing. All of you did, honestly. I, uh, didn't really see most of the fight, but–"
"Uncle Qrow," she interrupted, laughing, "you didn't see any of it. B-But Jaune was great, and Nora totally crushed it, you should've seen it! And Ren...well, um..."
"I saw some tension with the Lie kid there. I, um...I won't ask about it, but I hope he's doing better?"
"Yeah, he is," Ruby answered, holding his unburied hand. "Let's just say that it had to do with the Nuckelavee, and he...well, he and Nora are doing a lot better now. If I didn't know them as well as I do, I'd say they're finally together-together. But, well...I guess we'll have to wait and see to know for sure, huh?"
Qrow chuckled, quickly forcing himself to stop with the pain in his head and side acting up again.
"Hey," she said, "take it easy for now, okay Uncle Qrow?"
"Yeah, sure kiddo. Kinda thinking I don't have much of a choice, do I?"
She chuckled herself, before looking at him with a soul-piercing gaze. "So, um...Uncle Qrow, a couple things happened during the fight."
"Like what," he questioned, a frown adorning his face. Considering she's asking him, he had a feeling he knew what the subject was.
"Well," she twiddled her fingers, her eyes trailing off to the side, "the Grimm kinda ended up being a lot...easier than we thought it'd be? It got a blade tip stuck in its hoof, and it got so distracted by it that Nora got to deal a huge blow to it. Right to the rib cage! Man, you should've seen it, she was like 'wham!' and it was like 'argh!', and then, well, the rest of the fight happened."
"And you're asking me if my Semblance had anything to do with it," he confirmed, getting his answer from her nod. "It probably did, I don't know. I was pretty out of it the whole time. But hey...I'm glad I helped you out in some way, kiddo."
"Thanks, Uncle Qrow," she said. "Not just for that, but...for everything. Everything you've done and still do. I don't think I say it enough, but–"
"Rubes, please. It's fine. I'm just happy you're safe."
"Well, still. Thanks. Oh, um...I'm writing a letter to Dad, you wanna put anything in?"
"Nah, you go do your thing. I need that rest more than I thought I did."
Nodding again, Ruby walked over to a table on the other side of the room where a pen and paper rested. Qrow, however, stares at Ruby's previous location, his smile transforming into a deep frown. For the whole conversation, Qrow had been forcing himself to not get distracted by the sight before him, but now with Ruby off writing her letter he had nothing keeping him from it.
Where Ruby had crouched seconds before, Summer Rose was now floating. Her cloak no longer billowed in the wind like on the airship, and her smile was replaced by a contemplative frown.
Qrow...we need to talk.
His eyes and mouth widened, his pain forgotten, as his former team leader's voice rang in his ears like a bell chime. Okay, he thought, I really think I need to lay off the booze for a bit.
