"Brrr!" Nora shivered as they walked together, talking, "It's freezing out here!"
"Stop complaining," Weiss replied, "You're just not dressed warm enough."
"Hey, you're wearing a million belts for no reason!" Nora shot back, "Seriously, what purpose do those even serve?!"
"What about the fact that Jaune considered cutting his hair?" Blake said, "Ruby actually convinced him not to, and I'm honestly a little relieved."
"Since when do you care about Jaune's appearance?" Yang laughed, "What, you have a crush on him or something?"
"What in the world, Yang," Jaune muttered.
"Plus, Blakey, you cut your own hair," Yang brought up, "You sound a bit like a hypocriiittttt." She put her hands on her hips and pretended to make a judgmental face.
Blake just looked away with a slightly annoyed face.
"Do you not like it or something?" she asked quietly.
"What? No, I never said that," Yang quickly answered, "I literally just put together your mention of Jaune's idea of cutting hair with the fact that you yourself cut you hair."
"So do you like it?" she asked again.
"Uh, sure," Yang replied, almost sounding uncertain, "It's a bit to get used to."
Jay, who hadn't said a single thing yet and probably never intended to, just stared uncomfortably at all the weird humor-insults being tossed around.
"Uncle Qrow," Ruby said, stepping up next to him, "I didn't think you'd change your clothes, too."
"Eh, why not," he answered, "If anything, I was wearing that outfit for years. Longer than the rest of these people."
"I kinda wish I could've bought something new," she said, looking down at her bump, "Something that would fit me a lot more comfortably. This shirt keeps trying to go up because of the way my tummy presses it."
Qrow chuckled.
"You just gotta accept your consequences, kiddo," he said with a grin.
"Ugh, for the last time!" Ruby complained, "I didn't do that on purpose! Don't you understand that?!"
"Woah, woah, calm down pipsqueak," he said quickly.
"Speaking of which," Ruby went on, obviously gaining a very aggressive mood, "What's your take on all of this?! Do you feel mad at me? Or how about Oscar? Like, how do you even feel? You haven't shown me yet."
Qrow's eyes narrowed and his mouth flattened to a straight line.
"Listen, Ruby," he said, "Right now you need to control yourself."
"No!" she growled, "I wanna know your view on this situation!"
The other's exchanged glances, wondering if they were going to be delayed because of Ruby's emotional breakout. She would probably stop walking soon to 'talk straight' with Qrow. She did have a point though; no one knew Qrow's exact take on this. But that didn't redeem her quickly spiked mood.
"Ruby..," Oscar gently said, "Please calm down."
Almost immediately, her fiery mood faded and she calmed down. The groups eyes' widened in confusion, but then went back to normal.
"Alas!" Nora exclaimed, "Oscar has obtained the magical ability to restrain Ruby's emotional outbreaks!" She giggled to herself and continued walking with a slight smile on her face.
Ruby frowned but ignored it.
Hmph. Emotional outbreaks, huh? Then why do they make so much sense to me?! I wanna know if Uncle Qrow thinks badly of me and Oscar or not! It's so unsettling...
"So, Jay," Nora said with a bright smile, "Tell us a little bit about yourself! You haven't uttered a peep at all since you said 'um, hi', so I demand that you speak up."
Jay hesitated and his hands tensed up some.
"Well, uh..," he began slowly, "I'm shy."
"We know that, silly," Nora replied, "But I still wanna hear ya talk about yourself. You might be with us a looonnnngg time, so why not?"
He sighed as if defeated.
"Well..," he began, "Um, I haven't really socially interacted with anyone I'm not familiar with...This might be a little awkward is what I'm saying...erm, so yeah."
"Great!" Nora smiled, "So, go on. Tell us a bit about yourself!"
Jay almost stopped walking under the eyes of the group on him. But taking on a brave face and swallowing, he made his decision.
"Uh, I'm originally from Mantle," he nervously started, "But my dad moved me up to Atlas after...stuff happened...so then I had to start school there...and, um, I tried to get a job, but my dad didn't let me..."
"Oh wow," Nora commented, tapping her finger on her chin, "That sounds awful. What stuff happened?"
"I-it's personal, so I don't really want to share," he stammered.
"Well okay then," Yang said with an evil grin, "We'll probably find out about it in the near future though, so be warned." Her wicked smirk widened as Jay's fear splattered over his face.
"Yang, don't be so mean!" Ruby chided, "He's younger than all of us."
"Yeah, so?" Yang shot back playfully, "I used to say stuff like that to you when you were even younger." She stuck her tongue out and winked an eye.
"True..," Ruby murmured.
"I don't have much support here, do I?" Jay sighed, surprising the group by the fact that no particular thing had been said to him and yet, somehow, he spoke.
"Not really," Jaune said apologetically, "But don't worry. It'll be hard to fit in at first, but gradually you'll find your place."
"Yeah, Jaune knows it," Ruby added, "He had it really tough back at Beacon Academy when we were training. He was a team leader and didn't really feel ready, but after a little while, he totally figured it out."
Jaune felt himself blush against his will. Ruby had just complimented him, which she did ever so often, but even after his aggression and anger towards Oscar and her whole situation had been expressed.
Man, she really is awesome. She was even the one who helped me to realized my place at Beacon as a team leader...UGH why is letting go of her so hard right now?!
He shoved all of his thoughts back into his head and focused on the wintry terrain ahead of them. About a fourth of the way to the next town. He glanced at his scroll, which contained everyone's aura levels. So far so good.
Everyone's aura was in the point between pale green and dark green, so judging by the amount left they had to walk, they would be perfectly fine.
They walked on and on, talking and laughing a large portion of the time. Ruby was feeling so much better mentally, now that Oscar was good to go. It was amazing just how much better things felt to her simply because Oscar was okay.
Oscar also felt pretty great. He could finally explore himself more because he wasn't slowly becoming Ozpin and the millions of others that were a part of him. The last while had been hard for him to understand, so he had a hard time figuring out who exactly he was.
As for everyone else, they seemed to be doing fine as well. The humor that was being expressed, as well as the laughs and smiles, seemed to indicate a feeling of mending that Ruby feared would never have happened.
At this very moment in time, for the first time since before Beacon fell, Ruby felt happy, satisfied, and at peace. Sure, there was Salem and all that, but they were all together right now and she had was all she needed.
It was about an hour later with about forty minutes to go, according to Jaune's estimation, when it began to snow again. Despite the fact that the sky had been perfectly clear, large gray clouds had consistently filled it during their trip. Now a gentle, cold breeze began to pick up while flakes of snow drifted down from above.
"As pretty as this is," Yang said, "Dang, this snow is cold!"
"We only have a little while left to go," Jaune encouraged, "Don't worry. Any ship we find should have a heating system in it."
"Oh, good!" Nora said, relieved, "It's frigid."
"Welcome to Atlas," Weiss mumbled flatly.
"How many times have you said that since arriving here?" Yang asked.
"Maybe like, four or five times?" Ruby suggested. Yang nodded.
"Sounds about right."
Suddenly, the snow where Jaune stepped sunk down very deep, all the way up to his knee. The snow they'd walked on so far went up to their ankles for the most part, but suddenly this part seemed very deep.
He took a tentative step forwards with his other foot and sunk even lower.
"Uh, guys?" he said, worried, "Don't step further yet. This snow's really deep."
"Too late!" Nora cried. She was buried in snow up to the top of her thighs and next to her, Ruby was up to her waist. Oscar, much heavier than the two of them, was almost up to his shoulders. The others hadn't stepped forwards yet.
"What in the world?" Oscar gasped.
Nora tried to grab her hammer from her back but found the snow to be very thick and heavy. The others tried to do the same but ended up with the exactly problem.
Qrow's eyes squinted and suddenly widened. The snow in front of those who had sunken in began to slowly fall backwards, a gap forming between them and the falling snow. It resembled a very miniature avalanche.
"What's happening?!" Jaune asked, terrified.
"Get out of the way!" Qrow shouted, taking a leap for Ruby and grasping her wrists. Planting his knees on the shallower snow, he yanked her towards him and struggled to pull her from her deep hole in the snow. The ground began to vibrate, intensifying every second, and more snow began falling. The gap widened much more, giving way to a dark crack with ice at the bottom.
Everyone who hadn't been sunken in before were pushed in by the moving snow and also partially buried like the others. One or two of them managed to stick their weapons onto the safe ground, but were slowly being pulled backwards.
"Why's the ground splitting?!" Yang yelled. She fought against the snow that was shoving her towards the crevasse and attempted to shoot herself out. However, her arms were completely immersed in snow and the shots just kicked some of the thick, packy snow up.
"Eek!" Ruby screamed. Qrow's feet gave out from underneath him as a wave of snow crashed into him, and all of them fell at once.
They were all screaming, but then were cut short as the ground was a lot closer than they had expected. Their fall echoed against the walls of the crevasse, which were ice. The ground was coated in about two inches of snow.
"W-what was th-that..?" Jay spluttered, gathering his wits.
"I dunno!" Jaune replied gasping.
Qrow looked very ominous with his sword drawn and his eyes glaring into the dark shadows that loomed behind them. A large shelf of ice jutted out from the top of the crevasse, making a dark space below. He looked as if he was waiting for something bad to happen, something that required the use of his weapon.
"What is this?" Ruby asked. She wearily stood to her feet, aided by Oscar, and caught her breath.
"I've seen these things before," Qrow answered very quietly under his breath, "They're like rapier-wasp nests, only dug into the snow. Once you step in the wrong place, you're dead meat."
His grip on Harbinger tightened.
"But where are all the Grimm then..?" Blake asked hesitantly.
"Probably in there," Yang said. She pointed to the dark place that Qrow was standing in front of. The wind above them was steadily getting harder, as well as the rate of the falling snow.
"I think there is a blizzard developing," Ren informed them, "We may have to either wait down here before resuming our trip or risk the danger of traveling in a worsening blizzard. The remaining distance is only close to half an hour, after all."
They exchanged glances, all ending up staring at Jaune with questioning eyes.
"Uh..," he said, "Maybe we should go for it. As long as we can get out of this weird Grimm-nest-whatever thing. At least there aren't any Grimm just sitting around in here-"
Almost ironically, a pair of burning yellow eyes appeared in the shadowy darkness. Glowing red flowed from them, and soon the wide jaws and terrifying face of a spiky Beowolf-type Grimm emerged.
"Ooooh this is bad," Jaune fretted, "We should get out of here quick!" He turned around and mentally calculated the height of the walls surrounding them. They really weren't that high; probably only 9-10 feet at the most.
"We can get over those walls!" he said, pointing to them, "Let's go, let's go!"
No real panic settled in until after several more frightening Grimm showed themselves out of the darkness. They were prowling and growling around, scraping the snowy ground with their claws. Their dead breath drifted from their mouths in white clouds.
Qrow backed away very cautiously, ready to strike at any time. Everyone else, including Ruby, pulled out their weapons instinctively, even as they approached the walls and planned their escape of the crevasse.
Ruby staggered from the weight of Crescent Rose once unfolded, but made sure it wasn't too visible. Oscar studied her carefully under his watchful eyes.
"C'mon!" Jaune shouted, "Let's shoot ourselves over it! Go! Go! Go!"
At that moment, seven Grimm at once leaped from their place with a loud howl. They pounced at Qrow and he quickly began dispatching them with his skillful blade. However, it was very difficult to keep up.
Jaune watched Nora run for him, so he held his shield up against his arm and braced himself. Nora leaped onto it, crouched, and then shot herself forwards after he launched her. She sailed through the air and landed in a somersault on the higher ground.
"Thanks, Jaune!" she called with a wave.
"No problem!" he called back.
Next, Weiss used her glyphs to let people up in the most convenient way possible before she herself ascended and joined the others at the top. Now just Ruby, Oscar, and Jaune were left to get out. Ruby could use her semblance, probably, but it was increasingly hard to use it lately. She also feared it was bad for her babies.
"Let's go!" Jaune shouted as they ran for the wall, "Jump off my shoulders!"
Oscar leaped onto his shoulders and held out his hand for Ruby. "I'll launch you up! Grab on!"
Ruby was about to listen before she glanced back and saw Qrow struggling to keep up with the seemingly endless outpour of Grimm. One of them snagged his cape and yanked him backwards, causing him to nearly fall into other's mouth.
"Wait!" she cried, "We have to help Uncle Qrow!"
"He can escape too!" Oscar screamed, "Get up!"
Ruby took his hand and he, with a ton of effort, heaved her up and out of the crevasse. She landed with a thud onto her back in front of Yang's feet.
Oscar leaped up and helped Jaune to him, pulling him up over the edge.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby screeched, "Get up here, quick!"
Qrow turned his head at the sound of her voice but was smashed in the side by a charging Grimm's head. He flew forwards and crashed into the ice wall. Ruby screamed.
"We have to help him!" she pleaded, "There's too many!"
"Ugh!" Oscar sighed, "They might just climb up here somehow anyway! We have to finish them off."
Jaune hesitated before nodding and calling them all together.
"Attack the Grimm!" he shouted. They all, except for Jay and Ruby who stayed, prepared their weapons and then leaped into the crevasse again.
Landing was no problem, and neither was instantly engaging in combat the moment they landed. This was what they'd trained for all those years.
Yang was grinning almost hungrily as she punched the life out of every Grimm around her. Literally. The smashing and crunching sounds that accompanied each of her blows was both satisfying and cringe worthy. Even though she was sweating after only a little while, she loved it.
Nora and Ren decided to do a paired attack take on it, Ren slicing them up and Nora smashing them afterwards with her hammer. Oscar, who could obviously fight with all his training, had his staff in sword mode and was slicing things like butter with the incredibly sharp, thin blade.
Weiss and Blake did their usual things, glyphs and bullets appearing every few seconds. Qrow, who didn't have to be smashed around as much anymore, caught his breath and continued fighting.
Ruby spun her scythe fitfully around and implanted it into the snow. Then she began wildly shooting rounds at the Grimm, being careful not to hit any of her teammates.
Jay watched them from the top, amazed at their incredible skill and speed. If that was what huntsmen were like, then he totally wanted to be one. Purpose and skill were the very things he lacked at the moment, in his opinion.
The way they sliced through things and used combinations of kicking, punching, and shooting all at the same time with seemingly unreal calculation was insane! If he could be like that? Well, that'd be amazing.
Even the fact that Ruby, who he could assume was in no condition to fight, was rapidly shooting her sniper rifle to contribute was amazing. No matter how the person was, their determination was so strong.
After a few minutes of nonstop Grimm-slaying, the numbers finally dwindled and then disappeared. They fell to the ground in breathless heaps and gave each other approving smiles and looks that basically worded, "Good work!"
"That...was a lot...of Grimm!" Nora exclaimed amidst gasps for air. The group gave a collective "uh huh" and continued heavily breathing.
"R-Ruby!" Oscar called heavily, "You okay up there?"
"Yeah!" she called back, equally, if not more, exhausted, "Sorry I couldn't come down!"
"No, no, that's perfectly fine!" he replied, "Thanks for doing that. You could've gotten hurt!"
"Yeah, I know."
Suddenly, a group of low growls sounded from somewhere deep in the walls of the crevasse and from the creepy dark spot.
"What was tha-" Yang began, but was cut off in horror when a swarm of more Grimm poured out from the shadows, viciously attempting to kill them all. A huge crack formed in the side of one of the icy walls and soon cracked open to reveal another crowd of more of them.
"What the-!" Yang shouted. She loaded her gauntlets and hurried to dispatch them. Due to the exhaustion everyone harbored, their efforts were much weaker. They were still able to manage them to some extent, but it was becoming very hard.
The moment one of them got whacked, they lost their groove and were soon dashed against the walls. It resembled the moment someone trips while running down a steel slope, ending very similarly.
Ruby gasped in horror and tried to shoot some more bullets at the nasty heads of the Grimm. One shot instantly killed one, setting Blake free. Second shot, other one lost its leg. Third shot killed it. Fourth shot freed Jaune.
Suddenly, she felt the ground around her tremble and slightly vibrate, as if something was digging through it a few feet below. She had just stepped to the side when a Grimm broke through the snowy surface and scared her half to death.
It wasn't like the other Grimm. It was larger, slimmer, and was pure white. What was normally red on the other Grimm was blue on this one and its whole body looked like it was made of the hard plates that decorated normal Grimm.
It snarled and shoved itself at her. She screamed and lifted herself forcefully upwards using the handle of Crescent Rose. She used her temporary height to roughly kick the thing in the jaw and thrust herself away from it.
This left her momentarily breathless, though, and before she knew it the beast smacked into her face with its fortunately smooth but unfortunately very hard forehead. If it had been spikey, that would've been a major issue.
She was thrown backwards and landed on her back in the snow, skidding a foot or two before stopping. She lay stunned while her children began moving around as if confused. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and curled up into a ball.
The white Grimm pawed at the ground and then ran towards her again.
"RUBY!" she heard several people shout from below. She was too scared to look anywhere besides the ground where she lay, but she could hear them scrambling around.
Several shots were fired at the white Grimm. Suddenly, the moment before the bullets hit, the Grimm froze where it was, tensed, and let out a quick growl. Its skin hardened into a crystalized ice-colored shell and when the bullets hit it, they exploded as expected, but not damage was sustained to the Grimm.
Ruby gasped. She heard several alarmed shouts from where she was curled up.
The snow was melting on her coat and staring to soak in, making her feel very, very cold. But she refused to allow herself to move from her curled up position. She was too weak and cold, starting to feel numb where the snow was most effective.
"Ruby, MOVE!" came Oscar's desperate scream. She summoned the little bit of strength that was lingering in her and rolled awkwardly over, just in time to avoid getting crushed by the monster.
She heard hurried footsteps crunching in the snow, swords slashing and slicing, and gunshots firing. Then she heard much closer sounds of Oscar wildly fighting the white Grimm and the white Grimm roaring and snarling.
She heard Oscar cry out in pain and noticed now that his voice was much farther away than before. She weakly lifted her head over her shoulder and saw him land several kilometers away after receiving a crushing blow to his chest and leg.
The Grimm's claw pierced the back of his calf and was drawn upwards a little, allowing a stream of blood to trickled out from it and land in the snow where he skidded.
"O-Oscar!" she cried, worried. He skidded in the snow and slowly tried to get up.
The monstrous white Grimm turned its head towards Ruby and then charged her. She panicked, but it was too late to do anything in her curled up form. Its head crashed into her shoulder and sent her sprawling again.
Jaune pulled himself over the edge and pointed his sword at the thing, hatred in his eyes. It let out a deafening roar before jerking itself suddenly towards him, mouth wide open. He parried it quickly and tried to cut it, but it instantly hardened itself yet again where he tried to hurt it.
"How-?" he pondered angrily, only to get whacked back into the crevasse during his momentary shock.
"Jaune!" Ruby cried. She felt pain pulsing through her body from the two blows dealt to her. Yes, they had literally just been two blows, but since she practically had no aura now, they were some bad blows. Close to as if she had no aura at all.
Now she was starting to shiver very hard. She was cold, wet, and hurting in her forehead and shoulder, not to mention was was incredibly weak and somewhat breathless. She had to move, though. She needed to, or that thing would easily kill her.
Then she made an awful realization. Oscar was a while away, probably still recover from the hit he took. Jaune was in the crevasse, which still had Grimm in it. She was completely vulnerable and that Grimm was charging her.
She felt her eyes trying to close against her will due to her exhaustion and pain. The sounds of the Grimm were coming closer and closer as it ran wildly at her. Her weapon was too heavy to hold...
"RUBY!" Jaune and Oscar both screamed in unison. Both of them saw the horror that was about to happen and immediately, at the same time, acted the best they could.
Jaune used all of his strength and willpower to tear himself up the crevasse and back onto the ground where she was.
Oscar, holding his cane in sword mode, made a mad dash for her. His leg throbbed and the flow of blood increased as he ran with full force exerted on it.
Ruby forced her eyes open just in time to see the frightening sharp claws and the widely opened mouth filled with teeth directly above her. Its moist breath blasted into her face as it roared again and it was nearly upon her.
In a moment of complete fear, adrenaline pumping through her veins, she summoned every ounce of strength she possibly had left in her and moved to the left. Something, anything, to reduce the amount of damage she was about to sustain.
"NO!" Oscar shrieked.
He and Jaune met the beast at the exact same time, both eyes shut in fear. Their blades sunk deep into its body, as it had been in mid attack and hadn't hardened itself with his crystalline armor. Jaune's sword into its neck and Oscar's far into its back.
Silence.
They dared to open their eyes, very slowly, and looked at each other. Then they very, very slowly averted their gaze to the snow.
It was stained in blood, spattered all over its glittering white surface. It wasn't Oscar's blood. Was it Grimm blood? Did Grimm bleed?! Did this particular Grimm bleed, or...or...
Oscar's eyes widened with shock and horror. Jaune's took on a similar look, but with more heartbreak in it.
Torn through the thick wool of her coat and the leathery fabric of the shirt underneath it was a gaping wound. Blood steadily ran from it, staining the layers of clothes she had and the snow beneath her.
Three very notable claw marks had ripped through her sleeve. It would've gone a good lot into her arm had her sleeve been any less puffy and light. Instead, there were some thankfully shallow, but bleeding, marks below the rips in the sleeve.
"N-no..," Oscar choked. He staggered to her and fell to his knees in shock. A small red spot appeared on the snow under his leg. The Grimm behind him disintegrated into a white cloud and his cane fell to the ground without anything holding it.
He covered the wound with his hands, relieved to see it was more by her ribs than to her stomach. In fact, the horrible wound didn't start or end up anywhere that would directly damage the babies. At least it looked like it.
Ruby's eyes were closed now and she began painfully breathing in short breaths. She was clearly unconscious, and Oscar scooped her up in his arms.
"Jaune, we need to help her now," he said frantically. Jaune swallowed almost tearfully.
"Yes, we do," he replied weakly. He heard the sounds of fighting continuing in the crevasse below and his hands bunched into fists. The swirling snow and frigid wind had increased so much that it was pretty much a blizzard now. Chaos, chaos, chaos.
"Listen, Oscar," Jaune instructed with dead serious eyes, "I need you to take Ruby and get out of here as fast as you can. Take her to a hospital in the city and make sure she makes it out alive."
"What..?" Oscar questioned, confused, "But...but what about you guys-"
"We'll be fine," Jaune cut him off, "Right now you have the highest aura level out of all of us. If you hurry, you can get her to safety before it's too late."
"Can't you just use your semblance?!" Oscar protested.
"No!" Jaune shot back, "If I could, I would, but then my aura would drop completely and I'd freeze to death before we could even make it to the next city." He sounded like he was fighting the urge to cry with that last sentence.
"I'd hardly make an impact on the wound anyway," he finished hopelessly; "It'd be a waste."
Oscar felt completely helpless. He was somewhat weak too, with the weather ebbing away constantly at his aura after he'd taken a few hits. No, he had to do whatever it took to get Ruby to safety. She HAD to make it, no matter what.
Besides, he loved her too much to let her go like this. They'd come too far for that.
"Yes, sir," Oscar said with a nod, "Thank you...for trusting me."
"No time for anything else," Jaune sighed, "And I don't trust you that much...I just know you'll do anything to keep Ruby alive, just like I would. Now go! Get outta here before it's too late! We'll meet back up with you at the city."
Oscar gave a terrified nod, held Ruby tighter, and then, after glancing back at Jaune one last time, he broke into a sprint and lunged into the blurring white storm.
Big. Oof. Chapter starts out happy and humorous, ends in doom and devastation. Sugoi ne?
Ruby's now bleeding and dying in Oscar's arms while he frantically blazes through a raging blizzard towards the closest city in hopes of finding a hospital that could save her life. THE SUSPENSE! THE DRAMA! It was part of the story plan, though, so deal with it. Also, I tried to keep the obnoxious detail that I usually put in fights to a bare minimum, so hopefully that flowed better.
I also bet this was highly unexpected from you guys. :3
I apologize for the delay; stuff came up on Friday so I couldn't get this out till now. -_- Massive thanks to ArthurSG for catching some grammar errors and giving suggestions!
The beginning was really just my take on some of the new designs that were introduced way back in Volume 7. (HAHAHAH "way back"; that was literally last year.)
Thanks for reading and tune in for more chapters!