AN: So, I bought Elden Ring yesterday. Holy shit. I consider myself a veteran of Dark Souls, but even with that prior experience, Jesus Christ is that game hard.

Chapter 118

"Oh, yeah!" Ruby cheered, having defeated Weiss once again in the fighting game they were playing, each of them holding a scroll in their hands.

"You have to be cheating," Weiss complained. "No matter what I do, I can't win!"

"Don't worry too much, Weiss," Ruby said. "I've been playing this game for years, and Yang and Uncle Qrow actually do cheat."

"We do not!" Yang protested. "Here, I'll prove it! Let me get in on this!"

"But Weiss is playing," Ruby said.

"If Yang wants to knock you down a peg, then by all means, go right ahead," Weiss said.

"No excuses, sis," Yang said teasingly. "Let me grab my scroll, and then I'll kick your butt."

Yang hopped off her bunk and walked towards the luggage rack where her bag was. She reached up towards it when Blake appeared next to her.

"Here, let me help you with that," Blake said.

"Um, you don't have to do that," Yang said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Blake said, her ears flattening against her head. Yang sighed.

"Actually, Rubes, hold off on that game," Yang said, before turning to Blake and gesturing towards the door to their cabin. "Can we talk for a sec?"

"Oh, uh, sure," Blake said, following the blonde girl out into the hallway.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking, and Simba may or may not have helped with this, but I owe you an apology," Yang said.

"No, Yang, you don't," Blake said. "I understand—"

"Let me finish," Yang said. "I snapped at you, and I said some pretty hurtful things, and you didn't deserve that. But! I still think I was justified in feeling like you betrayed our trust when you left."

"I know," Blake said, looking down sadly. "And while I accept your apology, I'm sorry for running off like I did. I had my reason, or at least I thought I did, but it was still wrong of me to just leave when you, Ruby, and Aqua were in the state that you were in. I just…"

"Hm?" Yang asked.

"The reason I kept my distance from everyone at first when we started at Beacon was because I was terrified that when Adam finally caught up to me, any friends I had made would be in danger. I finally let down my walls and made friends, and well…" Blake's eyes roamed to the prosthetic that was serving as the replacement for Yang's right arm. Yang let out a deep sigh.

"I know you had reasons for leaving, that doesn't change the fact that I lost a lot of trust in you," Yang said.

"I see…" Blake said sadly.

"But… I'd be willing to let you earn it back."

"Really?" Blake asked.

"Yeah."

"I'd like that," Blake said with a smile.

"But we've gotta set some ground rules," Yang said. "And the first rule is no treating me like an invalid. I know you feel bad about me losing my arm because Adam is the one that did it, but I'm more than capable of taking care of my myself. Got it?"

"Yes," Blake said.

"Thanks," Yang said. "Well, I'd better go check on Uncle Qrow. He's…probably at the bar."

"Oh, uh, yeah," Blake said. I'll see you then. And thank you."

Blake turned around and walked back into the cabin, and Yang sighed. She had to admit that Simba had been right earlier. While she was upset with Uncle Qrow for falling off the wagon, she should have been more sensitive to his feelings. Mom had been his rock, she was the one that helped him get through the hard times, so when the hard time he had to deal with was losing the person that always helped him get through them, it made sense that he had no idea what to do other than try to numb the pain.

She owed him an apology.

She turned around to look for him, only to come face-to-face with the Huntsman with the ponytail, Dudley or something. The one that had tried flirting with Tifa before.

"Hey, there," he said, leaning against the wall with a smile that he probably thought was smooth.

"Hi," Yang said, crossing her arms and giving him an unimpressed look. "You need something?"

"What's your name, sweetheart?"

"It's definitely not 'sweetheart'," Yang said. "And I don't feel like you deserve to know what it is."

"Aw, don't be like that," he said, pulling out his scroll. He flipped through some pages before showing it to her. "Is this you?"

Yang's eyes widened at the sight of herself with her head in Mercury's lap.

"Damn, that guy's a lucky man," Dudley said, closing the video and stepping closer to Yang. "What do you say, want to go find someplace I can give you some… 'extra protection'?"

"What is wrong with you?" Yang asked. "You're a professional Huntsman. Don't you have a job to do? Why are you wasting time trying to proposition sex from your passengers?"

"This route is one of the safest around," Dudley said. "I've done this hundreds of times, and both me and Dee have never been needed. So leaving the train defenseless isn't going to be an issue here. So come on, what do you say? I guarantee you, I won't disappoint."

"I highly doubt that," Yang said. "The guy from the video was an asshole that broke my heart into tiny pieces, but I'd much rather fuck him again than go anywhere near you."

"Listen—" Dudley said, reaching out to grab Yang's arm before another hand grabbed his wrist.

"I'm pretty sure she told you to back off," Riku said, having been the one to step in.

"What are you, her boyfriend?" Dudley asked. "Pretty unimpressive, if you ask me."

"No one did," Yang said.

"And besides, I don't have to be her boyfriend to see that you're being a creep," Riku said.

"Whatever," Dudley said with a scoff and pulling his wrist free of Riku's grip. He turned around and walked away.

"I had that covered," Yang said.

"I know," Riku said. "But I wasn't going to just do nothing. It's not my style."

"…Well, uh, thanks anyway," Yang said a little sheepishly, realizing that she had been harsher than she needed to be. Again. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," Riku said with a friendly smile. "But, what did he show you?"

Yang's eyes widened in surprise briefly. "That was a video my ex-boyfriend took of us without my permission. We were supposed to fight against each other, but instead he shared that video with everyone. Basically, the entire world saw me naked."

"Wow," Riku said. "That's horrible."

"Tell me about it," Yang said. "And the worst part is, it turns out he was working for Salem the whole time. I don't really think him doing that to me was anything personal, it was just to get people angry and start attracting Grimm to Vale. It almost hurts more to know that the most humiliating thing to ever happen to me, was just to cause an outrage."

"Salem really just attracts the worst of the worst, doesn't she?" Riku asked.

"…Yeah…" Yang said, her mind wandering to Cinder. Supposedly, she was being controlled by Salem. But if that was true, and Mom and really freed her like she had claimed to, then why did she turn her into a Heartless?

Before Yang could think about any more, the train suddenly lurched, and screams from the other passengers could be heard.

"What the-?!" she yelled.

"Come on!" Ruby shouted, running out of the cabin, Blake and Weiss following behind with their weapons drawn.

"What's going on?" Riku asked.

"Grimm!" Weiss said. "Yang, get your weapons!"

"Got it!" Yang said, quickly running back into the cabin and getting the left gauntlet for Ember Celica from her bag.

"Do you need my help?" she heard Simba ask.

"No," Yang said. "It's better that you stay in your charm. Don't want to freak the passengers out any more. It won't help keep the Grimm away."

"Okay."

"You lied to me!" Emerald shouted as she approached Sephiroth in the hallway. The man turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh?" he asked. "And what exactly did I lie about?"

"Cinder!" Emerald shouted. "You lied about Cinder! You said that you'd make sure she didn't get hurt! You promised me!"

"I did promise that, didn't I?" he asked rhetorically. "And how exactly did I break that promise?"

"She's gone!"

"But Raven didn't hurt her," Sephiroth countered. "The Keyblade Master freed her heart, and then the Heartless was responsible for her disappearance. I promised that Raven wouldn't hurt either of you, and I kept that promise."

"I didn't want her to leave!" Emerald argued.

"Yes you did," Sephiroth said.

"What?" Emerald asked.

"While it's true that you wanted Cinder to stay at your side, the guilt of being part of her enslavement was eating you up. Deep down, you're happy that Cinder is gone. She's free to be the woman she wants to be."

"That's a lie," Emerald said, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"It's not," Sephiroth said. After all, I can see into your heart. There are no secrets from me. And do you want to know one more harsh truth?"

"W-what?" Emerald asked.

"You're better off without her."

Sephiroth's hand flew up to catch Emerald's arm, the woman in the midst of swinging her hand in an attempt to slap him. Her eyes widened, as she realized what she had almost done in her anger.

She had forgotten how powerful he was.

"I-I…" she said, trying muster up the will to apologize, but the man's eyes seemed to burrow into her soul.

"It's fine," Sephiroth said. "I understand why you did what you did."

"W-what do you want?" she asked. "What are you after?"

"What do I want?" Sephiroth repeated the question before chuckling. "I want you, my dear."

"W-what?"

"I've told you before that you're special," Sephiroth said, leaning closely so that his face was close to hers. She instinctively tried to back up, only to back into the wall, her wrist still gripped tightly in his hand. "But you're special for reasons even Salem and Cinder could never have imagined." He braced his other hand against the wall next to her head, trapping her against the wall. Her eyes widened as his face inched closer to hers.

He suddenly released her wrist, and stood up taller.

"No," he said. "It seems you don't want this yet. When you're ready, you know where to find me."

He turned around and walked away.

Emerald hadn't realized how quickly her heart was beating.

Ruby quickly climbed up on top of the train, seeing her uncle, Cloud, Tifa, and the two other Huntsmen already engaging the Grimm. There seemed to be a whole hoard of them, mostly Manticores, with a large Sphinx leading the pack. Her Uncle and Cloud charged forward, using their swords to slash Grimm in two. Dee charged his mace with electricity, and ran forward, but was stunned when the Sphinx roared. A Manticore flew past Ruby's head and snatched up Dee.

"Dee!" Dudley yelled in despair as Dee was carried off into the forest.

"What's the plan, Ruby?"

"Don't let anyone else die!" She yelled, summoning her Keyblades and running towards the Grimm. Suddenly, a lot of small portals opened up, and a swarm of small Heartless appeared. They were yellow, had wings, and looked almost like insects with pointed tips.

"Go on ahead!" Riku shouted to the other members of Team RWBY. "Ruby and I will handle the Heartless!"

Oscar opened up a window to try and see what was going on, only to jump backwards as a Manticore snapped its jaws at him.

"Shall I?" Ozpin asked.

"No, I'm keeping control," Oscar said.

"What's going on?" Jaune asked. Before Osar could answer, the train jolted again. The teens looked at each other, nodding in determination.

"This isn't working!" Ruby said in frustration. No matter how many Heartless she and Riku took down, it didn't seem to dwindle their numbers any more. One of the insects charged at her, spinning to turn its pointed nose into a drill. Ruby spun the Master Keeper to stop the attach, and swung Crescent Rose to kill it.

"I think I have an idea!" Riku said, killing several with one slash. "Follow my lead!" He built up a blue flame in his hand, and launched it upwards, the flame breaking up into several large fireballs before falling back down. Ruby was confused for a second, before she realized what he wanted. She jumped up into the air, spinning both of her Keyblades as she approached the falling fireballs. As the fireballs hit her Keyblades, they broke up even smaller, and turned into a rain of fire. The fireballs hit a lot of the Heartless, taking out at least half of them.

"Oh yeah!" Ruby cheered as she landed back on top of the train.

"TUNNEL!" she suddenly heard. She turned around, and saw that the train was, in fact, approaching a low tunnel.

"Oh, man!" Ruby yelled, using her Semblance to scoop up Riku and fly back inside the train.

Qrow shot at several Manticores, punching holes in their wings and making them fall out of the sky. Cloud sliced one of them in half, and used his Semblance to launch three magic swords, each one impaling a Manticore. Tifa lunged forward, punching a Manticore in the face so hard that Qrow could hear its neck snap. Qrow suddenly heard very loud gunfire, and saw that Dudley had managed to activate the train's turrets, and metal plating had closed over the train's windows. The shots from the turrets managed to shoot down several Manticores.

"Ah, yes!" Dudley cheered. Qrow used his scythe to swing at the Sphinx's legs. The large Grimm tried to bring its paw down to crush Qrow, but he transformed into a bird a flew above it, changing back and attacking it from above. The turrets fired at the Sphinx's back, and it let out a loud roar. Two of the Manticores broke off the pack, attacking the turrets and destroying two of them. Qrow could hear the passengers scream as the attack jostled the train.

"Those turrets are making the Grimm attack the train directly!" Cloud said.

"There are people in there!" Tifa said worriedly.

"You should stop him," Aqua's voice said. Qrow shook his head.

"Hey!" Qrow angrily shouted at Dudley. "What are you doing?!"

"Why is it always something?!" Nora shouted in frustration. She, Jaune, and Ren drew their weapons and joined the fight, with Oscar running up to Qrow.

"How can I help?" he asked.

"You can get that idiot to shut off the turrets," Qrow said. "They're just drawing the Grimm towards the passengers!"

"Right!" Oscar shouted, running towards Dudley, who was shooting at Grimm with his rifle while the turrets kept firing automatically. "Stop! You've gotta shut the turrets off!"

"Are you crazy?" Dudley asked. "No way!" a blast from a turret knocked a Manticore out of the sky. "Yes! Another one down!"

"Stop!" Oscar shouted again, putting a hand on Dudley's shoulder. "We have to lure the Grimm to the back."

"What does it matter if they're dead?" Dudley asked, shoving Oscar away. Oscar looked back over at the Grimm, but noticed that they had disengaged, and were keeping their distance from the train. "Where are they going?"

Oscar's eyes widened, and he turned around. "TUNNEL!" He dove to get back inside, and Dudley followed behind him.

Oscar found out that Dudley wasn't quite fast enough, as he heard a sickening crunch, followed by a pained scream.

"I said turn those damn things off!" Uncle Qrow shouted, picking up Dudley and shoving him against the wall, showing no regard for the man's obviously-broken arm.

"Those things are keeping us alive!" Dudley shouted.

"Us, sure, but they're putting the passengers in danger!"

"I'm the one they hired for this job, okay?! I'm in charge here!" Dudley yelled.

"Yeah, great job so far," Cloud said sarcastically. Ruby looked out the windows, and saw the Grimm still following the train. She then looked back at the terrified faces of the passengers and walked towards Dudley and her uncle.

"Get off me!" Dudley shouted.

"Look, if you bozos had been doing your job instead of shaking down passengers, maybe we wouldn't be in this—" Uncle Qrow was interrupted by Ruby putting her hand on his shoulder, before she looked at Dudley.

"Please just shut off the turrets," she said.

"Trust us," Jaune said, reaching his hands towards the man's broken arm. "We know what we're doing." Jaune activated his Semblance and Dudley's arm started glowing, the healing process having begun.

"…Fine," Dudley said, and Ruby nodded with a small smile.

"Ren, could you use your Semblance to mask everyone on this train?" Nora asked. "With the guns off and emotions hidden, they might lose track of us!"

"Hm, I never attempted to affect this many people," Ren said.

"Well, you've never had Jaune's help before," Ruby pointed out.

"He could amplify your Aura!" Weiss said.

"Yeah, that's an alright plan," Uncle Qrow said.

"Don't look so worried, Ren," Nora said. "You can totally do this!"

"I'm afraid there's one complication…" Ozpin said, gesturing to the Relic hanging from his hip. "The Grimm are also attracted to this."

"What's that?" Dudley asked.

"None of your business," Uncle Qrow snapped. "Oz, are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't you tell us that?!" Yang shouted.

"This would have been nice to know before we got on a train full of civilians!" Riku said.

"I—" Ozpin tried to say.

"It doesn't matter right now," Ruby said. "Every second we're on board this train, we're putting everyone else in danger. Get the passengers to the front cars, you'll mask the emotions and kill the turrets… we just can't come with you. If we cut the back cars with us and the Relic on them, we can deal with the Grimm. You just make sure the rest of the train makes it safely to Argus."

"I'll go with you," Riku said. "Might as well Keep the Heartless away, too."

"Just promise that you'll meet us there," Jaune said.

"Promise," Ruby said with a smile. She watched as Nora walked over to Oscar.

"Ozpin, can you give us a minute?" she asked. Oscar's eyes glowed for a second, before returning to normal. She pulled him into a hug. "Be safe. Please?"

"I will," Oscar said. "I'll be with two Keyblade wielders and a bunch of Huntresses." They broke the hug after several seconds. Oscar took a deep breath, and quickly leaned forward to peck her on the lips. "For luck," he said with a massive blush on his face. Nora smiled sweetly at him.

Ruby couldn't help but smile at the scene.

Blake jumped down to the connecting cables and sliced it in half, allowing the front of the train to continue forwards. She looked up, and noticed a figure in a long black coat, carrying a familiar sword. She stepped backwards, startled, but the figure was gone. She sighed, realizing it was just her imagination, and jumped back onto the train, seeing her team already fighting the Grimm

"We need to ground it!" Ruby shouted, blocking a fireball launched by the Sphinx.

"Let's go!" Riku said. "Freeze!" he shouted, launching a Blizzaga spell at the Grimm's wings, freezing them.

Blake and Uncle Qrow fired their weapons at the Sphinx's frozen wings, shattering them.

Weiss summoned a black glyph beneath the Sphinx, trapping it in place.

Yang's eyes burst into flames, and a large icicle, formed above her head. "It's time for you to chill out!" She launched the icicle, impaling the Sphinx in the torso. Ruby locked on with her Shotlock, and used her Semblance to launch herself forward, slamming her Keyblades into the icicle and pushing it further into the Sphinx's body.

The Sphinx roared, but as it died, it launched a fireball, which impacted the rails in front of the train.

"Oh shit!" Yang yelled, realizing the train was going to crash.

"Genie!" Blake shouted, and the magical being appeared in a puff of blue smoke.

"I'm on it!" Genie said, and the group found themselves covered in a protective bubble.

Just in time, as the train flew off the track and crashed into the snow.

"How about you give me a challenge next time, Blake?" Genie said as the barrier surrounding the group disappeared.

"Thanks for the save, Genie," Blake said. The blue man saluted and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke. Ruby looked around, and saw the wreckage of the train strewn about the forest. They were lucky that Blake thought quickly enough to summon Genie.

"Is everyone okay?" Uncle Qrow asked.

"I'm fine," Weiss said.

"Yeah," Blake answered. They suddenly heard the sound of metal crunching. They quickly turned toward the train, and saw bumps appearing, as if something was trying to force its way out from inside. They all drew their weapons and pointed them at the wall of the train.

Finally, the side of the train busted open, and out stepped a woman with long black hair, and a cat tail.

"Tifa?!" Blake exclaimed.

"What you doing here?" Yang asked. "Weren't you supposed to be in the front of the train with the others?"

"Well, I was going to, but then I saw a—"

"Still alive!" a new voice called out. The group turned and saw a short old lady carrying a cane with a skull-shaped head, and weird goggles on her face. "That sure was a close one, huh?"

"Yeah, I saw her, actually," Tifa said.

"Two of the wanted criminals, Cinder Fall and Aqua Branwen, were recently seen by a family on their farm outside of Mistral. According to the witnesses, the suspects invaded their home and attacked them, but left without injuring anyone. The other alleged perpetrators of the attack are still at large. They are considered armed and dangerous. Anybody with any information on these suspects are advised to share it with the authorities, but not to approach them."

Cinder and Aqua pulled their hoods up as they heard the news broadcast, cautiously stepping out of the alley into the rainy Mistral streets. Cinder looked around her as she walked down the street, eventually seeing a picture of a spiderweb with a spider in it etched into a wall.

"This is the place," Cinder said. Aqua nodded, and the two of them entered the building, stepping into a restaurant. Cinder immediately noticed that most of the people in the restaurant bore spiderweb tattoos. Her focus eventually rested on a large woman in purple, and she and Aqua approached her.

"That's far enough," the woman said, and two of her bodyguards stepped forward, blocking her path. Cinder reached into her pocket, and tossed a sack of Lien onto the table. "Okay," the woman said, and the bodyguards stepped back, allowing Cinder to take a seat across from you.

"You're Lil' Miss Malachite?" Cinder asked, surprised at the moniker considering the woman's size.

"I'm Lil' Miss Gon'-Skin-You-Alive if you ever take that tone with me again," Malachite said, before looking down at the sack of money. "Looks like your life's savings."

"Not mine," Cinder said.

"Cute," Malachite said with a laugh. "What do you want for it?"

Cinder pulled out her scroll, and showed off pictures of Ruby, Yang, and Qrow. "I'm looking for these travelers."

"Well, sweetheart, you came to the right place," Malachite said. The door to the restaurant opened behind her, and Cinder jolted as she looked at it, just seeing a man enter. Malachite chuckled. "A little jumpy, hmmm? You know, I used to be afraid of spiders. Want to know what I did about it?"

"Learn to kill them?" Cinder asked.

"Oh no, the world needs spiders," Malachite said. "I just made the spiders work for me." Cinder took a look around, and realized that everyone had that tattoo. "Give us a week, we'll find your travelers."

"Thank you," Cinder said, giving a slight bow before she got up, and she and Aqua left the restaurant.

AN: I don't really feel like I have much to say about this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it, though.

I would like to remind everyone that this story has a Tv Tropes page! I'm looking forward to seeing it filled out!

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!