AN/ What fresh hell is this?! Back to back chapter uploads for the same story? I guess so, because I just didn't feel inspired for Shrouded Truth these last couple of days if I'm being entirely honest. No, I won't give up on it, I'll probably get to it next week, but for now, that one stays on the back burner. Also, taxes are not fun. But tax RETURNS are, because my bank account finally doesn't look like shit for once, so now I can really start thinking of moving out! Then I can drop thousands of dollars into airsoft, fucking $500 rifles and shit. Anyways, on to the chapter!
"OOooohhh. Ren, look! It's that awesome looking girl from earlier!" Nora shouted as she broke into a sprint, eyes focused solely on Ruby. "Hi! My name's Nora, what's yours? What's with the cloth on your face? Doesn't it make it hard to see? Or are you just so good you don't have to?" Nora rattle off, never pausing in her verbal barrage.
"NORA!" Ren shouted as he slowly walked to the group, trying to catch his breath. "My apologies for my friend here, she gets excited rather easily."
"It's fine, could have done without the shouting though." Ruby admitted, "The names Ruby, by the way."
"You already met Nora, my name is Lie Ren." Ren offered a hand, which Ruby took.
"The names Yang, this here is Blake, and that's Weiss." Yang introduced.
"A pleasure to meet you all. Nora, apologize to Ruby, quietly." Ren ordered the ginger, who deflated with the order.
"Sorry for being loud Ruby." Nora immediately sprang back to life after her apology, grabbing a white rook piece before proclaimer herself as queen of the castle.
Before anyone could think of what to do next, a loud scream filled the air, followed by a solid thud.
"Jaune?" Ruby asked cautiously, looking at the familiar aura.
"Yep, that's me." Jaune said shakily before falling out of the tree.
"Shouldn't you have a partner by now Jaune?" Blake asked, wondering why Jaune was still alone.
"I do, but I kinda got thrown away from her. She was, that way." Jaune pointed after getting his bearings straight. Ruby focused her aura, pushing it in the direction Jaune pointed, looking for a single aura. What she found instead though terrified her.
"I found Pyrrha, and she's being chased by a deathstalker!" Ruby drew her weapon, ready to rush off and help.
"How did you get partnered with Pyrrha if you couldn't even stay by her in a fight?" Weiss asked as she grabbed Ruby by the hood.
"Weiss, we have to help her, it's huge!" Ruby struggled against the firm hold of Weiss hand.
"And we will, but you can't just run off like that, then you aren't helping. Jaune, grab one of the pieces, then we'll go and help Pyrrha." Weiss ordered as she let go of Ruby.
"How are we going to take on a deathstalker? Even the smaller ones have thick enough armor to cause problems, if what Ruby said is true, what are we going to possibly do to it?" Nora asked.
"We don't have to kill it, just out run it. It'll be easy." Ruby said.
"For you maybe, but what about the rest of us? We need a plan." Weiss shot. Suddenly a loud screech rang through the air as a large black creature flew overhead.
"Looks like we have to run now!" Ruby shouted as she took off in the direction Pyrrha was.
"For the love of, come on, we got what we had to, let's save Pyrrha and get out of here!" Weiss shouted, only to find that everyone had already begun to follow Ruby.
As the nevermore followed the group, Ruby led the way as Yang pulled her away from trees and branches. Feathers rained down around them in sporadic bursts as the trees did little to hide them. Ruby was thankful that Pyrrha wasn't too far out, as the nevermore was proving far more annoying than it should have been. Thinking quickly, she pulled Crescent Rose and opened its compact rifle form. Jumping to maintain her momentum, Ruby twisted her body just enough to point the barrel at the nevermore and fired, scoring a direct hit. Turning her body quickly forward, Ruby kept up the random shots, throwing the nevermore off.
"See Ren, I told you she was so good she didn't have to see!" Nora shouted behind her. Ruby could only smirk. Finally, the sound of swinging branches and leaves were replaced by open wind and the chittering of the deathstalker.
"That, is a BIG, deathstalker." Yang paled at the size of the dark creature. The group skidded to a stop, watching as Pyrrha dodged the attacks of the giant scorpion creature while the nevermore flew ahead, landing on the ruins.
"Yang, where are we?" Ruby asked, extending her scythe to its full form.
"Looks like some kind of ruins, most of it is built into a deep gorge." Yang explained.
"Alright, Nora, distract the deathstalker, Ren, cover me!" Jaune ordered as he drew Crocea Mors.
"On it!" Nora responded by pulling her hammer from her back, already in it's grenade launcher form and began firing. Both Pyrrha and the deathstalker stopped at the sound of firing, the former breathing a sigh of relief as she backpedaled away from the grimm as multiple explosions rocked the creature.
As the grimm turned its attention to Nora, Ren was suddenly atop the deathstalker, shooting into the joints between its armor. As the creature roared in pain, Jaune grabbed Pyrrha and put himself between her and the deathstalker.
"Sorry about that Pyrrha, if it makes it any better, I got the relic." Jaune apologized as he kept his shield up.
"It's quite alright Jaune, but now that you're here, we can take this grimm down." Pyrrha said as she tried to catch her breath.
"Well until this thing is out of the way, we're not going anywhere!" Yang shouted as the nevermore dived on the four girls only barely missing Ruby.
"You worry about the deathstalker! We'll take down this nevermore!" Ruby shouted as she fired more shots at the large avian grimm. As Yang, Blake and Weiss followed suit, the sky became alight with the elements. The nevermore cawed as it swooped low in another dive, aiming for Blake and Ruby. Diving away from the nevermore, Ruby's breath hitched as her foot slipped, leaving her to plummet below. Trying to catch the blade of her scythe on the stone, Ruby began to panic as it bounced off the hard stone.
"I got you Ruby!" Blake shouted as she swung below, catching Ruby.
"Thanks Blake, it's narrower than I thought!" Ruby shouted over the rushing air. As the duo came up, Blake set Ruby on her feet. With another loud caw, he nevermore dived again, instead aiming for the bridges the girls were using.
"Everyone, higher ground!" Was all Yang said as she ran for the larger central structure. Ruby followed close behind as they each found their own way up. Ruby was thankful that she didn't have working eye sight, as the wind coming from below was enough to blow her around.
"It's too strong, we aren't doing anything to it!" Weiss shouted as it dived with Yang in its mouth, unloading shot gun blast after shotgun blast. As the nevermore flew up, Yang dropped back down to the platform.
"Anyone got any ideas? Cause I'm open to suggestions!" Yang asked as she reloaded Ember Celica.
"Where is it right now?" Ruby asked, noting the nevermore was currently stationary.
"Against the cliff wall, why?" Blake asked.
"Weiss, freeze it in place, Yang, Blake, make a slingshot!" Was all Ruby ordered as she began to pelt the nevermore with dust infused bullets. Acting Quickly, Weiss summoned a glyph, loosing a torrent of ice, freezing the nevermore's tail to the ruins. With the slingshot now ready, Ruby jumped back, using her scythe to rest on the ribbon of Gambol Shroud. With Weiss using her glyphs, she held Ruby in place as more appeared behind the nevermore.
"I really don't trust this plan of yours." Was all Weiss said.
"Just make the shot, I'm counting on you to make sure I don't die." Ruby said casually as Weiss could only bring herself to sigh loudly.
"And now you can fly." Was the only warning Ruby got as Weiss sent her soaring. Using Crescent Rose to assist her speed, Ruby braced herself as she neared the nevermore. Suddenly she felt resistance as her blade found the neck of the grimm. Bracing herself as she stopped on the wall, Ruby summoned what strength she had and with the help of her semblance, she pulled the nevermore free of the ice and pulled it up. Ruby could only imagine what this looked like, here she was, a blind fifteen-year-old, running up the side of a cliff with a massive grimm in tow.
Her thoughts were cut short however as the grimm suddenly stopped. With renewed vigor, Ruby pulled as hard as she could, adding a shot for extra power. With one last pull, Ruby found herself free, with the sound of a crashing nevermore blissfully filling her ears. Before she could begin to worry about falling, Ruby felt something below her.
"Stand still you dolt before I have to save you." Was all she needed to hear.
*Later that night*
"And finally, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. You four collected the white knight pieces and will be together as team RWBY. And you will be led by, Ruby Rose." Ozpin spoke calmly as Ruby did a double take, looking at Ozpin. Unable to focus on anything else that was said, Ruby just followed Yang in shock. Here she was, two years early and now the leader of her team. As she went on with the rest of her night on autopilot, Ruby was secretly thankful that nobody had tried to get her attention.
"Oh man, that was great! Did you guys see how Ruby took down that nevermore?" Yang shouted as she changed into her orange tank top.
"It was impressive I must admit. Though I wish she wasn't so reckless." Weiss commented.
"I think it was rather smart, there was no way any of us could have killed it conventionally." Blake admitted.
"Ruby, what do you think? Ruby?" Yang asked, turning to see her sister having already been dressed for bed and out cold.
"I figured she would be up and talking our ears off." Weiss spoke, surprised to see the younger girl had already gone to bed.
"Usually she would be, must have pushed herself a little too hard I guess." Yang admitted.
"Be that as it may, we might want to do the same, classes do start tomorrow." Blake suggested as she stowed her book away. As the other three members of team RWBY clambered into their respective beds, none were aware that Ruby was very much still awake, and wrestling with her own thoughts.
'How am I supposed to be the leader? I can't even see the space I'm in let alone lead a team. Maybe I can talk to Ozpin and he can make someone else the leader. Maybe Weiss would make a good leader.' Ruby thought. Sleep would not come easy to her tonight, leaving her ample time to fill herself with more self-doubt. Ruby was glad that she always wore that black cloth, nobody would see that she had begun to cry.
AN/ And that's a wrap! So, I should probably explain what is going on right now with Shrouded Truth. I'm not changing anything about it or giving up on it, however I've written myself into a hole so to speak. I got to a point I wanted, which was the whole reveal of Ozpins inner circle, but I never thought passed that, and now I have to try and come up with a way to continue it from there and work a team dynamic into this all as well. Basically, it boils down to I failed to plan ahead and now I'm paying for it. Like I said, it won't go anywhere, and I will get back to it, but for now I have to put it on the backburner. I don't like leaving stories hanging, but once I can figure out how to push it forward, you guys will get a new chapter, Anyways, until next time, have a great day!