AN: I'm glad so many of you liked the last arc so much!
So, yesterday, I was lucky enough to get a COVID vaccine but the side-effects left me feeling like shit, so I had all day to bang this out.
So, without further ado, let's get started with Volume 3!
Chapter 65
"Hey Mommy," Ruby said to the stone in front of her, on its lonely cliffside. She looked down at the inscription: Summer Rose – Thus kindly I scatter. "Sorry I haven't come around in a while. Things have been… well have been pretty busy. Oh, Dad's here, too!" she said, gesturing behind her at her father, who was standing a ways from her to let her have the moment. "He's, uh, you know… Dad." She shrugged. "Yang still isn't speaking to him. That's why she's not here. He's still teaching at Signal, and he's trying to get better, but I think it's just a little late for her. But he told me that he's going to be on some mission soon. I think he misses adventuring with you." Ruby looked down sadly.
"I miss you too."
She paused.
"Haven't gotten kicked out of Beacon yet! So that's cool. I think being on a team with Yang helps. Keep her in line… That was a joke. She's actually a really great fighter! You can tell she's learned a lot from Dad, Uncle Qrow, and Mom… Well, uh, Aqua. Well, she's technically our aunt but we kind of… adopted her as our mom. Not really how things go but it still worked out and we're all so happy for it." Ruby rubbed the back of her head.
"There are times when I wonder how things would have been if you had been around when Mom, uh, Aqua came here. You know her weapon, the Keyblade, and that I have one too. It's the coolest, most awesome weapon ever and I'm sure you'd love it, too… and maybe even be a little sad that you didn't have one of your own. I think the two of you would have been best friends, since she married Uncle Qrow and helped raise me and Yang."
Ruby smiled at the memories.
"She's strong, kind, awesome, can use magic, and she makes great cookies, especially for breakfast on my birthday. They might not be as good as yours, but that's not really fair. Still, I love them as much as yours." Ruby smiled brightly. "Oh, and then there are Weiss and Blake. They're my teammates! Together, we form Team RWBY! And yes, before you ask, that does cause a lot of confusion.
"Anyways, I made a bunch of new friends, and then I met some… let's just say, uh, odd teachers. Oh! We also stopped some bad guys, too! I guess it's like they say: 'like mother, like daughter'!" Ruby's face became a bit more somber. "I used to wonder why Ozpin let me into the school early and then I learned about the Maidens and the one that's kept under the school. You know, I used to think of him being like Uncle Qrow, but to find out he's protecting magical ladies… Kind of cool but I wonder how you would feel about all of this."
"Ruby! It's time!" a voice called from behind her.
"Oh! I gotta go! Dad's dropping me off at Beacon for the tournament match before he goes on his next mission. Wish me luck, but before I forget…"
Ruby reached into her pocket and pulled out a chain necklace with a star-shaped pendant made of white glass.
"For my birthday, the first birthday I celebrated with Mo- uh, Aqua, she gave me, Yang and our friend Cinder pendants like this. Where she came from there was a legend of an island with star-shaped fruit, and that if you make a copy of the fruit and give it to someone special, it forges an unbreakable connection. No matter what you'll always find that person. Well, it worked for Cinder even though we hadn't seen her in so long." Ruby knelt down and placed the pendent on the grave, just below the inscription. "I like to think that can apply to you, even if this is the best we can do. I hope it does and that we can all be together again one day." She turned around to leave, before looking back at the grave.
"I love you," she said, walking back over to Dad.
Along the way, her thoughts kept drifting to Mom, and the conversation they'd had earlier that morning.
Earlier that day…
"Are you sure there's nothing we can do to help you?" Yang asked. The sisters were in their mother's apartment at Beacon. Ever since that incident with Kingdom Hearts, the best way they could describe her was "depressed". She barely got out of bed, she wasn't eating much, and they sometimes could hear sobbing when they passed by her room to check on her.
"I don't know," she answered. "I think I just need time."
"Do you at least want to talk about it?" Ruby asked.
"I'm not sure what there is to talk about. I still need to sort through my heart, figure out what memories are real, and what was given to me by Kingdom Hearts. I know it was all fake, but Lar…" she choked up when she tried to say the girl's name. "I remember the pregnancy. I remember giving birth. I remember bringing her home to meet you both. I remember her first word, and the first time she called me 'Mommy'. And then I watched her turn to dust, something I caused, while she pleaded with me to stop hurting her. How am I supposed to just get better after that?" Ruby and Yang scooped her into a hug, and they could feel that she was fighting back tears. "I just don't know what to do."
"Whatever it is that you need, we'll be here," Ruby said.
"Yeah, you've always been there for us, no matter what," Yang said. "What kind of daughters would we be if we weren't there for you?"
"…I love you both so much," she said, pulling the girls closer.
"We love you, too," Ruby said. Mom eventually pulled away from them and wiped the tears that had managed to spill out.
"I promise, I'll pull myself together long enough to cheer you on in the tournament."
"You don't have to do that," Ruby said.
"I'm going to," Mom said adamantly. "You worked hard to get into the tournament, the least I can do is be there to cheer you on." The sisters shared a look before nodding.
"Then, we'll see you there," Yang said.
True to her promise, Aqua was there in the stands to cheer on Team RWBY, Zwei sitting in her lap. She was seated next to Team JNPR, Marlene perched on Jaune's shoulders, wearing the cute pink dress Ruby and Weiss had bought for her. In her hands were little flags with "RWBY" written on them that the little girl was waving enthusiastically. Peter and Bart were in the announcer's box, giving their live commentary on the match, between Team RWBY, and Haven's Team ABRN.
Amity Colosseum was really something. It was an entire flying arena capable of holding thousands of spectators and traveling to the different kingdoms every time the Vytal Festival rolled around every two years. The battlefield itself, positioned in the middle of the stadium, was capable of shifting to different biomes for territory variety, and was currently set to half volcanic rock, and half icy glaciers.
Despite the match currently underway. Peter and Bart felt it necessary to remind the audience of the rules of the tournament. She wasn't sure why it was necessary, since she was pretty confident most people knew the rules. The tournament was composed of three rounds. The first was comprised of battles between full teams of four, with the winning teams sending two people to the doubles round, and finally a single fighter to the singles round. Aqua shook her head in amusement at her colleagues before bringing her attention back to the fight.
She was just in time to see Blake clothesline a girl named Reese Chloris with her ribbon, only to kick her outside the arena, the girl slamming into the barrier separating the ring from the audience.
"Ooh, a double whammy!" Peter announced. "Reese Chloris is eliminated by ringout and Aura level!" Next to Aqua, Marlene cheered loudly for her friends. Aqua cheered, too, only not quite as loudly.
"Oh, she really should have worn a helmet," Bart commented.
Team ABRN's leader, Arslan, used a rope to swing herself around and avoid Yang, who was using her shotgun blasts to propel herself towards the fellow brawler. Using her glyphs, Weiss slammed the two males on the opposing team, Nadir and Bolin, into each other. She conjured up a whirlwind to lift them into the air, and then froze the air around them, trapping them in a large ice ball. It landed on the ground and rolled toward Arslan, who drove a fist into the ice, shattering it.
"Yang!" Weiss called out, making a slide out of ice. Yang blasted herself along the ice, grabbing hold of Blake's thrown pistol. Ruby launched Blake forward, and she swung Yang around, sending the blonde flying at the three opponents.
They didn't even have enough time to scream before Yang sent all three of them flying out the battlefield.
The buzzer sounded, announcing the defeat of the trio.
"And that's the match!" Peter announced. "Team RWBY is victorious!"
Aqua stood from her seat, clapping with more enthusiasm than she had been able to muster in a while.
"Is anyone else starving?" Ruby asked, her team having gathered at the fairgrounds after their match. Mercury and Cinder had joined them, Yang holding the grey-haired boy's hand tightly, their fingers intertwined. Ruby stole the occasional glance at Cinder, kind of wishing that they'd hold hands.
"I may have worked up an appetite," Blake said coolly, but blushed deeply when her stomach growled.
"Gee, if only there was somewhere on campus to get food around here," Weiss said sarcastically, gesturing to all the stalls around them. "Oh, wait." Ruby put her hand on Weiss's shoulder sympathetically.
"It's okay, Weiss, I forget about the fairgrounds, too," she said.
"I was being facetious!" Weiss yelled, smacking Ruby's arm away.
"Well, if you were hungry, why didn't you say so?!" Ruby asked. Weiss scoffed.
"Come on!" Yang said. "I know just the place." As Yang began to lead the group towards a stall, Weiss's scroll rang. She took one look at who was calling, and declined it.
Weird.
"So, you guys did pretty well in your fight," Mercury commented.
"Aw, thanks, babe," Yang said, hugging his arm as they walked.
"I heard your team progressed to the next round, too," Blake said.
"Sorry we missed your match," Yang commented. "How'd it go?"
"It was no trouble," Cinder commented. "We've decided that Mercury and Emerald will advance to the next round. How about you?"
"Well, as the leader of this team, I thought long and hard about this decision," Ruby said.
"We put it to a vote," Weiss interjected.
"Yes, well, I decided that we should put it to a vote," Ruby said quickly.
"We voted for Weiss and Yang," Blake said.
"Don't think we'll go easy on you if we see you later down the line," Mercury said.
"We won't either," Yang said. "I don't care how cute you are." Cinder suddenly received a message on her scroll.
"Sorry, but we're needed elsewhere," she said. "We'll have to catch up later."
"Aw," Yang said with a pout, before giving Mercury a quick kiss. "We'll see you later, then."
Team RWBY sat on stools at a stall called A Simple Wok.
"I'll have a bowl of the regular, please," Yang said to the man running the stall, a man Ruby was certain looked really familiar. In response to Yang's order, a large bowl of noodles slid in front of her.
"Ooooh," Ruby said, staring at Yang's bowl. "I'll take the same." Another large bowl was slid in front of her, and she clapped her hands excitedly.
"Do you have anything with a low-salt-?" Weiss asked, only for a normal bowl to be slid in front of her. "Um, okay…."
Instead of ordering, Blake nodded to the man. He returned the gesture before disappearing into the back. When he returned, he dropped a large bowl of noodles in front of her topped with fish. Her eyes practically lit up and she drooled over her meal. Weiss reached into her pocket and handed a credit card to the man.
"Aw, Weiss!" Yang said. "What's the occasion?"
"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round," Weiss, only for the card to be thrown back at her like a ninja star, becoming embedded in the counter. The man pointed to register, which said DECLINED. "What?! How can my card be declined? I was barely into my monthly allowance!"
The girls' food was snatched away from them, with Blake slumping forward onto the counter, tears in her eyes.
"Maybe I could help?" Pyrrha asked as Team JNPR approached the girls with Marlene in tow.
"Big Sis RuRu!" Marlene called happily, the girl being scooped up in Ruby's amr sand deposited on her lap.
"Marlene!" Ruby called out, just as happily. Yang looked back up at Pyrrha.
"You don't have to…"
"But she could!" Blake said quickly.
"Well, I think you all earned it after that battle," Pyrrha said.
"Mind if we join you?" Jaune asked.
The group was still sitting around the food stall, their bowls now empty. Marlene's was much smaller, given her younger age. The little girl was still perched on Ruby's lap, happily kicking her legs out in front of them.
"Are you sure it's wise to have eaten before a fight?" Ren asked Pyrrha.
"Of course!" she said. "It will give us energy!" Nora, for her part, belched loudly.
"Ew!" Marlene exclaimed with a giggle. Jaune splayed himself over the counter.
"If I barf, I'm blaming you," he said weakly.
"Oh!" Nora said with a wicked grin. "Aim it at the enemy!"
"Nora, that's disgusting," Ren said. "But if you feel the urge…"
"Got it," Jaune said, giving a weak thumbs-up.
"Well, we should be off," Pyrrha said, standing up.
"So, you think you guys are ready?" Ruby asked.
"Of course!" Nora said. "We've got a world-renowned fighter on our team, one's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, Jaune, we trained all year, our weapons are awesome, Glynda barely yells at us anymore, and uh… Jaune!"
"Are you gonna take that?" Ren asked.
"She's not wrong," Jaune groaned.
"I'm kidding, he knows I'm kidding," Nora said. "His Semblance is actually pretty awesome, he just needs more practice with it. Don't be so nervous! The worst that can happen is we lose, that's just a few more years of walking around school with everyone knowing we're failure, our friends will slowly abandon us to preserve their social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, Ren and I have no parents, we have no home left to go to, we'll be officially renamed Team Lose-iper!" her rambling ended with her sobbing and slamming her head into the counter.
"So, yeah, we're feeling pretty good," Ren said.
"Don't ret," Pyrrha said. "If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines, and not, well, murderers."
"Yeah, don't sweat it," Yang said. "We've all faced way worse before."
"Let's see," Blake said, counting on her fingers. "Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath, you guys fought a cult…"
"And that's all while we're still in training!" Ruby said. "Oh, imagine what it'll be like when we graduate!"
"Maybe then I'll be able to pay for a meal," Weiss muttered to herself.
"Would Team JNPR please report to the battlegrounds immediately!" Professor Port announced over the intercom.
"Yes, like they were scheduled to, several minutes ago!" Professor Oobleck added.
"Well, it looks like this is it," Pyrrha said, as her team got up to walk away.
"Go get 'em!" Ruby said.
"Can we watch their fight?" Marlene asked.
"Of course!" Ruby said, putting the girl down and standing up.
That was when she heard a weird jingling sound. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of jewelry. She took a look at it, and it seemed to be a metal charm with an image of a circus tent drawn on it.
"What the?" she asked.
"What is it?" Yang asked.
"This charm was in my pocket," Ruby said. "I've never seen it before. Do you know what it is?"
"Nope," Yang said. "Never seen it before in my life."
"It was in your pocket?" Blake asked. Ruby nodded. Weiss sighed.
"I'm really starting to get sick of weird things happening."
"I wonder who's gonna win," Mercury said, sitting next to Emerald with a bag of popcorn.
"As if we didn't already know," Emerald commented. Cinder, who was sitting behind them, took an unpopped kernel from Mercury's bag of popcorn and used her Semblance to pop it.
"Just because you know how it's going to end, doesn't make it any less fun to watch," she said as she popped the kernel into her mouth.
"And now, Team JNPR of Beacon versus Team BRNZ of Shade!" the fat one, Port, announced. Cinder recognized the leader of Team BRNZ as the one that tried to flirt with Ruby at the dance.
Yes, this was definitely going to be fun to watch.
The battlefield randomizer settled on half forest and half rocky wasteland. The two teams in the ring prepared for combat.
"Three, two, one, begin!"
AN: I always thought it was weird in canon that Pyrrha was the one who said the line about not having to fight murderers for once. In the show, Team JNPR was never involved in any of the White Fang or Torchwick stuff. I at least gave them to whole Yevon thing, so now the line makes sense.
I kind of skipped over the fight with Team ABRN because it really wasn't necessary. I'm considering kind of skipping over all the fights in the tournament, actually. It seems too redundant. I don't know, would you guys want me to?
As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!