"Remember our mission!" Blake cried. "We're here for the relics! Then we have to get away alive! Even if we have the numbers, I don't like our odds."
"No…" Ruby whispered to herself. "We don't know if the others are still in the forest. I'm not running! Jaune, come on!"
Ruby ran and snatched one of the relics. Jaune did the same. With her primary objective complete, Blake would just have them run. If they got away but the Grimm just lingered, then any of their peers that would show up would find themselves in trouble. They had to at least try to kill them.
Ruby Burst straight up into the air, reassembling herself high into the sky. There had to be somewhere more appropriate for this fight then just out in the open. Green, green, and more green, as far as the eye could see. Then she saw a cluster of gray. Ruins. And a narrow bridge connecting one side from the other. They'd be able to run across, but the Grimm wouldn't. She looked for the sun, and when she oriented herself, she Burst back down.
"Ruins to our south! We'll be able to use the landscape to our advantage! Yang! Can you distract them?"
"On it!" Yang cocked Ember Celica and focused on her heartbeat. Her heart began thumping in her chest. Three targets. Two right in front of her, and one high above. For a few sucker punches, nothing too crazy. "Go, Ruby, go!"
Ruby took off, and the others followed after her. Yang tore off towards the King Taijitu. She was going to be burning through her Aura, using both Hot and boosting her speed. She leapt and slammed her fist into the King Taijitu's head. The moment she landed she changed course and sped at the Deathstalker. She ducked under its claws and uppercut it. As it hissed at her, she jumped back and then took aim on the Nevermore up above. Yang jumped as high as she could. Letting out a fierce scream, she kicked in its direction. A powerful aura wave followed the arc of her foot, flying up at the Nevermore as it dove down towards the group of students.
Yang landed, breathing heavily. She went Cold and ran after the rest of the group.
"There they are!" Ruby cried, when the ruins came into view. "The Deathstalker is too big to cross the bridge! If it tries, it'll just trip over itself!"
Ruby and the others started crossing the bridge. Once she had crossed the midway point, she heard the Nevermore's cry. It slammed into the bridge, cutting the two groups off from one another. Ruby was stuck with Weiss, Yang, Jaune, and Nora. Pyrrha and Ren were stuck on the other end with the Deathstalker and King Taijitu. Where was Blake? Ruby's eyes darted down and she saw a black and white shape falling amongst the gray.
"Blake!" Ruby cried.
She was about to Burst down to get her when Blake flipped in mid-air. Something flew from her hand and hooked onto the edge of the bridge right in front of Ruby. Blake swung around and launched herself into the air before landing on Ruby's side of the bridge. The Nevermore swooped down and the rest of them dashed out of the way. What were they going to do with that thing, when they were all stuck on the ground? Ruby shifted Crescent Rose and started shooting. Yang and Blake followed her example. The three of them all used their weapons, but white symbols appeared behind Weiss, icicles flying through them into the air.
"Wait!" Jaune said, gesturing to Nora. "Pyrrha and that other guy are all alone! That gap, though…"
"Oh, that?" Nora snickered. "Leave it to me!" She ran forward with her hammer.
"Wh-what're you going to do with that?"
Nora slammed her hammer into the bridge, breaking it and sending Jaune launching through the air. As he screamed, Nora hopped onto the head of her hammer and aimed, launching herself over the chasm with a launch of a grenade.
Jaune crashed into the ground. Picking himself up, he saw that Pyrrha and the boy in green were in trouble.
"Hey," Jaune said. "Your name, and your friend's. What are they?"
"Nora and Ren!" She told him.
"You've seen that King Taijitu before?"
"We killed its other head. We thought it just gave up."
"So it has a bone to pick... Ren!" Jaune called. "Bait the Taijitu to the Deathstalker! Pyrrha, keep it off of him!"
"What do I do?" Nora asked.
"Wait. I have an idea, and you're the clincher, Nora. Just wait, and your time will come."
"That sounds boring as hell, but if it gets us out of here alive, I'll give it a shot!"
Ren ran under the Deathstalker's claws. Before it could pursue, Pyrrha shot it. The King Taijitu lunged once Ren was in its line of sight. He dodged it, and it kept going after him. He skirted about, making sure it didn't bite right through him. The closer he got, the more he understood what Jaune had in mind. The next time the Grimm lunged, Ren dodged.
The King Taijitu bit the Deathstalker's tail. It hissed and turned, gripping the snake Grimm with one of its claws. It slammed it into the ground and stung it in the head.
"Pyrrha, Ren," Jaune started, "go for its stinger!"
At Jaune's word, the two set off. They leapt as one. Pyrrha and Ren cut through its tail at the same time, and the Deathstalker's stinger fell to the ground and disappeared into smoke along with the King Taijitu as it died.
"Now, Pyrrha, stab it in the eye! Ren, keep it distracted!" Jaune turned to Nora. "It's your time, Nora. Drive Pyrrha's spear right through that thing!"
"On it!"
Right as Pyrrha thrust her spear through one of the Deathstalker's eyes, Ren started riddling it with bullets. It went for the more immediate threat, completely ignoring the charging Nora.
"Pyrrha, be a doll and boost me up!"
"Coming right up!"
Pyrrha angled her shield and Nora hopped on. Pyrrha launched her into the air and Nora twirled, lining herself up with the Deathstalker's face. It was a small target, but nothing she couldn't handle. She fired her grenade launcher, the recoil sending her down even faster than she was already going. She pivoted and swung her hammer, sending the spear right through the Deathstalker. Jaune blocked it with his spear. It knocked him back, but better to fall down than have Pyrrha's weapon fly into the abyss. The Deathstalker exploded into smoke, whatever devilish innards it had completely torn apart by a speeding bullet of such a great size.
Ruby heard Nora roar in triumph as the Nevermore circled overhead. When it was directly above them, it cried and flapped its wings at them.
"Quills incoming. Everyone, to me!" Weiss yelled.
The three others ran to her as the Grimm's massive quills sped towards them. Once Yang and Blake were at her side, she conjured a large Glyph that blocked all of the quills that hit it. Ruby was almost under the Glyph when one of the quills pinned her cloak. It yanked her back and Ruby grasped at her neck as her own clothes choked her.
"Ruby!" Yang cried.
Ruby pulled herself and tried freeing her cloak. It definitely wasn't working. Her clothes went with her when she Burst, so it wasn't like there was no hope. The Nevermore dove at Ruby, and seeing its monstrous physique barreling towards her, she froze. Another Glyph appeared in front of Ruby, stopping the Nevermore in its tracks. Ruby collected herself and Burst back to the others.
"Thanks, Weiss!"
"No one's dying on my watch, if I can help it!"
"That's your semblance?" Ruby asked. "Those icicles and barriers?"
"My Glyphs can do a lot, can't they?" Weiss smirked.
"I have an idea," Ruby said. "Blake, your weapon has that… lasso thing on it, right?"
"Oh, yeah!" Yang added. "And she used it to clothesline a Grim earlier! But… a bird is probably harder to deal with than a Beowolf."
"That's fine by me. Yang, I'm going to need you to bring it down for me!" Ruby looked around for a suitable place for what she had in mind. "Right there, across from those two pillars!"
"Right!" Yang fired Ember Celica right below her, shooting herself into the air.
She shot herself through the sky and landed on one of the pillars. She fired at the Nevermore, and the sheer audacity irritated it. As it rounded on her, Yang reloaded Ember Celica, cocking them and going Hot. She barely recovered any of her Aura, after such a short time, but any power was better than no power. The Nevermore swooped down, sweeping Yang right off of her pillar. She grabbed onto the top of its beak and planted her feet on the bottom.
"I! Hope! You're! Hungry!"
Each of her words was punctuated by her firing right down the demonic bird's gullet. She jumped out of it and used the shells she had remaining to slow her descent. Yang landed near Blake, who had wrapped Gambol Shroud's ribbon around one of the pillars in the ruins. She tossed the other end to Yang, who forced it into the opposite pillar. The Nevermore landed across the way from Yang and Blake. Weiss was standing between the two. With a wave of her sword, her Glyphs shot icicles at the Nevermore, freezing its tail feathers to the stone as it tried to fly away.
Ruby launched herself upon above the ribbon and weighed it down. Weiss held it in place with one of her Glyphs, slightly adjusting it to make sure Ruby would hit her mark.
"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked.
"Watch closely, Ruby. I'll show you what a Schnee is capable of."
"Looking forward to it."
"End this, Ruby!" Weiss released her Glyph, and Ruby went flying.
Once Ruby was airborne, she Burst the rest of the way to the Nevermore, coming out of it at blistering speeds. She hooked Crescent Rose around its neck, landing on one of Weiss's Glyphs. A glistening white pathway of snowflakes appeared before Ruby, leading up to the top of the cliff. She pumped her body full of her Aura, giving her legs and arms extra strength. She began dragging the Nevermore up the cliff, firing Crescent Rose for more speed and force.
The Nevermore croaked and gurgled in pain as Ruby's scythe began tearing through its neck. She fired one final time and her feet were flailing in the air. She felt Crescent Rose tear clean through the Nevermore's head. Ruby landed on the top of the cliff, watching the Nevermore's titanic corpse scatter as dust in the wind.
"To think that worked," Weiss said.
"You have quite the sister," Blake added.
That's why I'm so proud of her," Yang said.
Ruby looked out over the ruins. No Grimm in sight. There was no way of knowing just how many of Beacon's students were still looking for that monument. No matter how many of them there were. A single pair, of a dozen pairs, Ruby was relieved to know that three massive threats to their safety were dealt with now.
Ruby was feeling sore back in Beacon's amphitheater. Her Aura did a lot of heavy lifting in making it possible for her to even stand after what happened earlier that day. How was she still standing? Professor Ozpin appeared on the stage again, Scroll in hand. A holographic screen was behind him.
"It's good to see you all alive and well," he said. "Glynda and I were watching your performances with great interest. Some of you were extremely smart out there. You used your intellect to take full advantage of your surroundings to avoid any confrontation with the Grimm. Some of you fought valiantly and overcame. Some of you fought bravely but realized when you needed to pull back and live to fight another day. Some of you went above and beyond, overcoming overwhelming odds to band together and felled titans. You returned to us, relics in hand, and for that, you deserve your rewards. I will call you forward, and you shall know your teammates, your partners."
Professor Ozpin called people up four at a time. It didn't take very long for Ruby to put together the 'rules' of the process. Pairs who took corresponding relics were made into four person teams. All of their names were words. Or, at least, their names were supposed to be words. There was a team "Cardinal", but it was spelt "CRDL". Half the word was missing. How do you get "Cardinal" out of that?
"Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Jaune Arc. The four of you all retrieved the White Rook pieces. From this day forth, you shall be known as Team JNPR. The role of leader falls onto the shoulder of Mister Jaune Arc."
Pyrrha looked proud for Jaune, who was just dumbfounded. Nora just looked happy to be there, and Ren looked completely indifferent to what was going on around him.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long." As Jaune's team left the stage, Ruby and the others ascended. Ruby gave Jaune a little comforting pat on the shoulder as she passed him. "You four young ladies, henceforth, will be known as Team RWBY. As you might have guessed from the name, your leader… is Miss Ruby Rose."
"Wha?"
Ruby and Weiss gaped at the news. Yang seemed cautiously optimistic, and Blake didn't really know how to feel. Considering how little she knew Ruby, there wasn't much of an opinion for her to have. Ruby understood how Jaune felt a lot more now, as she went down those steps. Her, a leader? The other three were having a conversation, but Ruby had tuned them out. The pressure of being a leader threatened to crush her before she had even been in the position for more than a few minutes.
The first letters in a team were the leaders, were they? Her parents and uncle were Team STRQ. That first 'S' was her mother, Summer Rose. She had been a leader once. If she could be a leader, then Ruby must've had it in her to do a good job, too. She wasn't expecting to take a trip back to Patch already, but she really wanted to talk to her mom all of a sudden. She had promised her dad a phone call, and with how she was feeling, a phone call was definitely something she thought she could use.
Author's Note
I'm just including a quick note at the end to ask people to leave some feedback, if there's anything in particular they want me to know. The story is fully planned out at this point, but there are always ways I could deliver a better experience for people and to make the journey there more enjoyable. Imagery, dialogue, chapter length, anything like that. If there's something you like and want me to keep doing, or something you think could be adjusted a bit, I'd like to know what you think.
