Sorry that it's been two years since I last updated this story. I've lost interest in writing (or is it typing) the story because:
(A) after this current arc, I have no idea what to do with this story, and I can't think of a reasonable end to it.,
(B) I've stopped playing Azur Lane around the same time as when I last posted, and the last time I truly watch RWBY was when the finale to season 5 came out, so I lost somewhat interest in both source material.
(C) This story feels badly written and I'd rather want to start over and rewrite/type everything from scratch, if I ever do.
(D) the ending of the Texas short story, and the anchor bird guy was stupid and I regret both... constantly.
(E) this one is extremely minor, but something I realized after chapter Texas is that the USS Texas isn't even one of the Standard Battleships since they began with Nevada and ended with West Virginia. Meaning neither the 1920's South Dakota's nor the New York's, Florida's, Delaware's, and especially the South Carolina's wouldn't have technically fit the bill of Last of the Standards.
I wanted to at least let everyone know that this story for now was done instead of letting it just sit with nothing but radio silence. Thank you to everyone who read it, to those who enjoyed it, and those who left reviews. I hope the best for anyone who's ever read this story, especially with everything going on in the current world.
Also, anyone who thinks they could do this story but better, or change it slightly, or even make a side story or whatever else, go ahead and make it using any of these characters.
I wanted to leave what I've typed of chapter 7 part 2 so far just for anyone who wanted to know some of what would have happened. Even though it's not much it's still something.
Again I hope the best for everyone.
Qrow (PoV)
Out of all the things he'd ever expect Ruby to do leaving abruptly two days in a row was not one of them. Sure he thought that she'd probably do something stupid knowing that she was still a kid and all. But leaving with some random person to go try and save someone who as far as she knew was still salvageable, okay maybe not the best choice of words. Oh, ya that was another thing, how did she know that Texas was set to die in 4 months? He knew Oz didn't tell her while he "interviewed" her, so that'd mean that whoever told her had to be in the know. Yet with the events that had transpired, who was in the know would've had to have gone to Ruby, tell her that she could save the ship and offer to help, which just leads him to wonder who the mystery person was. Something just wasn't adding up, the council members wouldn't care, Oz would have told him plus he would have asked her the day they met. That left one of Ozpin's professors, or James, and both of whom would have told Ozpin.
While he was busy inspecting the room the pipsqueak was in, the distinguishable sound of shouting came from downstairs. Oh, boy.
"I told you dad that I'm going to go look for her!" His Niece shouted.
"And I told you that if you leave now, before you've even gone and entered Beacon academy, you'll be hopelessly unprepared for anything that could possibly happen!" He shouted.
"Then why don't you just go since you did go to a huntsmen academy?!" She shouted back.
"Because that's exactly what I'm doing Yang, I'll be leaving with Qrow so we can both look for Ruby while you stay here in case she comes back, while we're gone." He explained to both of them.
"Now wait a minute Tai I never..." He started before quickly being cut off.
"Qrow, so help me if I don't come with you, I will make you sober!" Tai interjected.
"Guess your coming along then." Qrow summarized.
'Great, now I have to watch out for someone who hasn't done huntsmen work in over 17 years.' He sarcastically mused to himself.
And with that Qrow left the house, but he still waited for Tai outside. He cared about Yang sure, but he really wasn't the sentimental type. Especially if something more important than getting the next drink or obtaining info for Oz, was currently going on.
He waited for, what he had guessed had been an hour later before Tai finally came out of his house. While he waited, Qrow had gone onto his scroll and went to the list of people Oz had him keep tabs on due to their semblances. And he had to thank Glynda later, because she had marked all the people whose semblance involved a form of teleportation. Obviously the first person on the list was his good old sister Robin. Oh boy would it be "fun" to watch her and Tai go at it... Verbally speaking. But then again her semblance involved her having a connection to the other person. Sure semblances adapt and change, but she still hasn't shown the ability to teleport to those who are close to the ones she has an attachment to. Plus she's literally never shown any interest in Ruby. Best bet would be to knock off the top few before going to Raven specifically. After all she wouldn't exactly willingly help them find Ruby even if she knew the location.
"So Tai, you ready to go on a little adventure to who knows where; so that we could hopefully find where on Remnant Ruby actually is?" He joking inquired.
"Umm yeah, why else would I have come with you?" He confusingly asked.
"Well I just wanted to ask, since you know this is your first time coming into the field since retirement. Unless you count school field trips as "into the field"?" He sarcastically remarked.
"Yes, I'm absolutely positive that I must come with you to find her." He adamantly told him.
"Good because, this'll be like those "field trips" except just about everyone wants to kill us." The drunkard buzzard stated.
With all that wrapped up the pair departed towards Patch harbor. Where they boarded a ferry towards Vale proper.
"You know I just realized something Crow. How will we make sure that Yang doesn't attempt to follow us?" Tai worried at her potentially getting hurt or worse trying to follow them.
"Well if push comes to shove Yang does have that one free save from Raven." He nonchalantly retorted.
"Qrow! How is that comforting?" Tai asked.
"What, its not impossible that Raven hasn't noticed or been responsible for Ruby's disappearance and use this as a weird daughter mother bonding experience between herself and Yang." The aptly named man reasoned.
"But, then that would require her hoping that both you and I do nothing to try and save her.
(3 weeks Later...)
"Ugh" was all that came out of Ruby's mouth.
Her entire body ached all over and she was being blinded by the suns intense rays.
"What happened?" She asked as she started to look around.
She felt all sore and she hurt and...
"Yang, Yang where are you?" The Ruby desperately called out.
"Hey look who Ffffinnally woke up! After having a cat nap for Three Weeks!" Purifier shouted behind her.
"Purifier what do you mean, and where's Yang." Ruby frightfully asked the infuriated person behind her.
"What do I mean? Well I mean exactly what I said, you passed out after seeing a fake copy of your sister die in front of you. Meanwhile I had to make sure no Grimm, Bandits or other things harmed you "precious" little head as Tester put it while you got your beauty sleep." Purifier angrily ranted off.
As she was doing so, Ruby could see what looked to be a giant hammerhead shark as well as several drones float around Purifier.
"SsssSo that wasn't the really Yang?" Ruby fearfully tried to confirm.
"No! Do you have any idea how much more work that would have taken?! To both kill your real sister and somehow bring her back to life, it's not like she was made by a wisdom cube where she can be revived nor is she attached to something physical that can be repaired that'll fix holes in her chest."
"Oh, so why did you guys do that then?" Ruby somberly asked.
"Because, you have a special "gimmick" (kind of like Enterprise, if you removed all the cool parts about it, and only kept the glowing eyes)..." She muttered to herself.
"Anyway, you've got a gimmick that allows you to turn Grimm into stone or whatever. Not that it really matters since humans are immune to it. Also, Did you know this part of the woods seems to be literally crawling with bandits, cause I didn't. If I didn't know any better I'd say we stumbled upon a hive of them, not that I was allowed to check." She grumpily complained
"Umm, no I've never been to Mistral, and what do you mean by being able to turn Grimm into stone?" She hesitantly asked.
"Ugghhh, I mean you should read from this book, in this chapter, on this page, in this paragraph." She animatedly expressed.
She "helpfully" pointed at the paragraph in question and as Ruby started reading it she quickly realized what Purifier meant.
"Oh my gods I get to turn Grimm into stone all by looking at them." She excitingly cried.
"Ugh yes, but from what it says here that's if it's used incorrectly. The correct way to use it is when it starts producing light from the users vision that is able to disintegrate them. The point is, is that you need to learn how to make your eyes function as laser beams." She ecstatically told her.
"Anyhow you need to finish about, I'd say three decades worth of training in about three months and a week or your friend Texas will join Enterprise as the leading brand of refrigerators."
Purifier suddenly gained her excitement back at the thoughts of how she was going to train Ruby.
"Umm is it okay if I ask a question?"
"Yes, and you do realize this in turn counts as a question right?"
"Yes, but who..." Her question was chopped down before she could ever finish.
"Good because your training begins, Now!"
And with that Purifier punched Ruby in the guts with the literal weakest punch she had ever thrown in her life. Said punch managed to send poor Ruby flying into a tree.
'How does she hit as hard as Yang, yet she put's less effort and power into her punch than she does?' Ruby was baffled at the thought.
"Alright so I want you to get about that strong. Sound like fun right well don't worry your little training regiment will require sooo much more. But again if you manage to impress me with your improvements I'll answer one of your questions." She yelled to her all the while retaining the same excited smile plastered on her face.
It was honestly starting to scare Ruby a lot.
"Okay so how do I-..." She was quickly interrupted.
"That's for me to know and you to do as your told, okay?" She rhetorically asked.
Ruby dared not answer.
"Great, so I want you to run around this lake, for the rest of the day, without using your semblance." She demanded.
Since Ruby didn't have any choice in whether she wanted to or not, she started jogging around the entire lake.
"Oh, and before I forget your doing it till sundown. Good thing you woke up at 6 in the morning right?"
Instead of asking whether she could take brakes or not, she decided that it'd probably be safer not to ask. Though in truth it seemed to Ruby that she'd potentially made a giant mistake in coming here. Yet, if she hadn't then she couldn't repay the debt she owed Texas, if only she could make metal or something.
3 hours later... (Purifier POV)
So Purifier, how do you consider this training? If anything it looks more like your trying to murder her?" Observer questioned while watching what was currently playing out before her.
There was Ruby still running around the lake being chased by Purifier's drones shooting at her heels all the, while the girl constantly tried to outrun the amassing blob of Beowulf behind her.
"Oh, hey Observer what are you doing here? I though you were searching for a good location to set up a new stronghold." She matter of factly inquired. Ignoring the previous question and statement.
"Well as it turns out Tester had discovered a secluded area that's perfect as a forward operation base. If I remember it's somewhere south of Menagerie." She recalled.
"Ah, so near where that giant dessert continent is right?" Purifier checked with her compatriots exquisite memory.
"Precisely the spot. All we have to do is keep a low profile, until the base is complete. Which should give or take a few months." She relayed out the plan.
"And until then, who will remain in charge of said base?" Purifier further inquired.
"Why Tester of course, unless you would prefer just standing around whilst the drones finish the base." It sounded like a question but ultimately both knew that Purifier was not one for idle construction projects.
"You know Purifier I must say I'm rather impressed. Not only have you not left that girl's side for over three weeks, but you also didn't kill her. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were listening to me on something you found tedious, now why exactly have you stayed around for so long?" The ever watchful observer puzzled.
"See these bandits passed on by two weeks ago and ever since they've been scouting around here. The best part was that I intercepted a message from their boss, who said. "So you found the Girl good now I can get my brother to leave us alone." And the best part was how supper serious she was. Anyway, so I've been taking advantage of these constant bandits to work on my drones target practice. And I must say it has definitely paid off." She chattered while observing Ruby's constant dodging all through out.
Whilst watching Ruby getting chased around by an absurd horde of Grimm and the two trigger happy drones was fun, Observer did have to continue checking on the status of Cinder so as to confirm whether or not to continue with War Plan Thorn. And not just reengaged War Plan Ash.
"Well then Purifier I'll leave the rest up to you once again, however I will continue watching you, so don't remain too comfortable without me." She ominously decreed, before leaving Purifier again to her own devices.
'Hmm, now that I think about it perhaps it might be best to accelerate the program just a tad bit. Surely any and all enhancements would out weigh any of Cinder's experience as an assassin with pure brute force. Only way to really gauge something like that would be via baptism by fire and steel. Perhaps this leader of these bandits could work? And now that I know she has the stamina to remain running at top speed for three hours, whilst being chased all she'd need now would be a firepower upgrade and some combat training.' The deranged powerhouse pondered while communicating to the drones to fire at the Grimm.
'Although...