Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rooster Teeth Productions
Co-Authored with ToxicExitoc
Please read the notes for artwork related to this chapter!
Hope
Pulling her scythe free from the stump, Ruby breathed a small sigh of relief at the lack of growling and straightened her back. They had been walking for nearly two hours, and judging by the distance tracker on her scroll, they had barely managed to cover a mile. Blake had definitely not been kidding when she'd said that the Grimm outside of the kingdom's walls were far more dangerous than any found in the Emerald Forest. From the moment they had entered the dead zone, it had been almost a constant wave of attacks from Grimm that Ruby couldn't help but notice were a lot smarter than the ones near Beacon.
Where the Grimm of Emerald Forest and Forever Fall were almost always taken care of with relative ease, the ones they had been fighting for the past two hours definitely had not been. Instead of relentlessly attacking and relying on numbers, they actually seemed to strategize together. Beowolves weren't knocking each other aside, instead they were surrounding and stopping them from focusing on one at a time. Creeps were constantly popping out of the ground to headbutt them, only to run away immediately and return minutes later. It was exceptionally annoying, but Ruby supposed that was what happened when the beasts weren't constantly being killed by students.
Thankfully though, both Blake's and Rodentia's experience in the wilderness, as well as their ability to sense when Creeps were coming, was helping a lot when it came to warning them of attacks in advance.
"We should keep going before another pack arrives." Rodentia said, sliding his scimitar back into its sheath on his hip. "The tower is just up ahead."
"And by just up ahead I assume you mean another hour?" Yang replied.
"Most likely." The man shrugged and began to walk away, earning a groan from the girl. "Welcome to life outside the kingdoms."
"Let's just keep going." Ruby agreed with the Huntsman and returned Crescent Rose to her back. "The quicker we get there, the quicker we can rest for a bit."
"Yeah, yeah." Yang yawned and shook her arms. "I just didn't expect the Grimm out here to be so tough. You really grew up with this?"
Blake shook her head and accepted a new set of magazines from Weiss. "The Grimm in Menagerie and Anima are a lot stronger."
Ruby could definitely see how that was the case. While the Grimm of Sanus were still not to be taken lightly, the continent itself was home to two fully developed kingdoms. And since both Vale and Vacuo took responsibility for aiding villages and exterminating Grimm, it did tend to be the safest of the five continents. Though, as strong as the Grimm might be in Atlas or Menagerie, they didn't compare to the Grimm that lived in the completely unexplored continent to the west of Solitas. Even Atlas' military had been rebuffed when trying to approach.
"Well at least we aren't fighting in the snow." Weiss shrugged, also unfazed by how much stronger the Grimm were. "I can actually let my aura down between fights out here."
"Hey." Rodentia called from ahead, half of his body obscured by grass. "Let's go."
"We're coming." Ruby called, motioning with her head for the others to follow.
Pulling out her map as they left the road and walked into the overgrown part of the forest, she saw that they were approaching what Yang had marked as a recent Kamaitachi hotspot. Since there were none of them on patch, she had never actually fought one herself, but Beacon's bestiary said that they were extremely fast and agile, though it also labelled them as a low threat Grimm to groups, preferring to pick off individuals instead. So trusting the information provided to her by past Huntsman, Ruby was pretty confident they wouldn't have any real issues getting to the tower; even if the hairs on the back of her neck did stand on end the second they stepped foot into the tall grass.
"We're being watched." She said to her team and sidled up to her girlfriend. "Can you tell where from?"
"No." Blake replied, her ears flicking back and forth to pick up any sound she could. "Wherever they are, they're too quiet for me to hear."
"Alright." Ruby breathed, activating her aura and letting herself feel around them. "Keep your ears peeled."
"Will do."
Not wanting to distract her girlfriend while she tried to stay on the lookout for them, Ruby moved back to walk beside her sister. They hadn't really talked since their disagreement on how to handle the unknown Grimm, but the woman still gave her a smile as they fell into stride together.
"You okay." She asked the blonde, returning the smile. "Seemed kinda worked up back there."
"I'm good." She shrugged, fiddling with her gauntlets. "Just… still don't like that we're leaving Zelen to deal with whatever's trying to get in."
"I don't like it either." Ruby admitted honestly. "I wanted to stay and help too, but Blake's parents take priority right now."
"I get that." That blonde breathed, and let her arms fall to the side. "I just keep thinking about if that had been Patch, and nobody had done anything about the Syren. The second that Grimm gets into the village, who knows what it'll do."
Ruby had always loved how much Yang cared for smaller communities. Despite being close to Vale, Patch was still a village that was constantly under attack by Grimm and growing up there had shown them what was needed to survive such things. It was hard work, and required constant rebuilding, fortifications, and patrols. Everyone contributed to that, and Yang had always been eager to help with those things. When she was growing up, the woman would frequently help out at the farms or the stables, she was always willing to use her strength to help with construction, and Ruby knew the woman had loved every minute of keeping the people she loved safe.
"Well we know it lives out here somewhere." Ruby smiled hopefully at her sister. "Hopefully we can take care of it for them before it does anything."
"Hopefully." Yang grumbled, retracting her gauntlets back into their bracelet form.
Reaching out, Ruby put a hand on her sister's wrist and clicked the button to eject one of the shells. With a small pop, the shining red tube jumped into the air and Yang's hand shot out to catch it with ease. It was something she had done when they were younger and Yang had first made the gauntlets. She remembered wasting hours laid on the grass just popping the shells out and letting her sister show off by catching it, and clearly Yang remembered too as a fond smile pulled at her lips.
"We're not going to le-"
"AHHH!"
"Weiss!" Ruby shouted and pulled out her scythe as she turned in time to see her partner fall to the ground.
Attached to the heiress' back was a large, weasel-like beast. White armor ran down the spine of its pitch black body and disappeared into a large, fluffy tail that Ruby knew was likely for balance. Its head was also plated, but six bright orange eyes peered out at them as the sharp fangs were locked onto the back of Weiss' neck. Preventing the girl from escaping were four boney limbs that were wrapped around her chest and pinned her arms to her side, each one curved into a vicious looking scythe and tipped with red.
"Hold on!" Ruby called, seeing blue light shimmer around her friend as she struggled against the Kamaitachi's blades. "We'll get it o-"
"Ruby, look out!"
Yang cut her off the second she stepped forward as another Grimm shot out of a nearby tree. Giving her scythe a spin, she deflected a swipe from one of the curved legs that had been aimed at her throat and jumped backwards as the second Kamaitachi landed in the overgrowth in front of Weiss. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yang pitch her arm back and toss the shell that had been ejected earlier at the creature, only for it to dart out of the way with impressive agility and disappear back into the trees.
"Blake?" Ruby asked expectantly.
"I still don't hear it." The girl replied, arriving at her side with Saber. "The damn thing's too quiet."
"Alright. I'll ge-"
The second she attempted to take a step towards her partner again she detected movement to her side and moved her leg just in time as the scythe like limb lashed out at her legs and carved a smooth crescent pattern in the grass. Before she could correct her stance, the beast had already vanished again.
"It's protecting the other." Saber noted and pulled out a flintlock from his holster and pointed it at the one on Weiss' back.
Unfortunately, just as when they made to move towards her, the Kamaitachi revealed itself once again. Just before he could squeeze the trigger, it leapt out of a nearby tree and sank its teeth into his arm, the force dragging the man to the side. Seeing it as an opportunity as Blake and Yang spun around to attack it, Ruby activated her semblance and rushed over to Weiss. Unfortunately, before she was even half way, a blur of black and a white zipped past her.
Stabbing one of its legs into the ground, it spun in a circle like a top and sent blades of grass and weeds everywhere. Unable to see properly but sensing something ahead of her, she stopped and carved her scythe upwards, the smooth metal blade gliding against bone before feeling a heavy body slam into her chest and tackle her to the floor, Crescent Rose slipping from her hand. Her vision was a whir of black and white as the Kamaitachi trampled all over her, the razor sharp tips of its legs slamming into her stomach and thighs and gradually chipping away at her aura.
It only lasted a few seconds though, and the weasel jumped away from her as Yang landed on the ground with a crash and made an attempt to grab the slippery Grimm, only for it to disappear back into the brush.
"Guys?" Weiss' voice came frantic from a short distance away
"It's too fast and it keeps hiding!" Ruby called, picking up her weapon as Yang pulled her back to her feet. "Blake, can you-"
"On it." Blake said with a nod.
Taking a step back, the girl sheathed her sword and closed her eyes. Opening then again, she twisted in place and fell to a knee while tearing the weapon back into two parts. Jumping over the large wave of purple energy as it tore through the grass, Ruby landed next to the girl and was happy to see that it had worked. While it was still ankle high, the grass was no longer obscuring their vision and they all had a clear view of the Kamaitachi using its legs to slash away at the heiress. Upon seeing that its cover had been blown, however, it turned to look at them and let out a noise that was halfway between a scream and a bark and charged at them.
But with full sightlines and nowhere for it to hide, they were ready. Stepping in front of her team, Ruby shifted her hold on Crescent Rose and slammed her foot into the back of her scythe's head to kickstart its momentum, but kept her strikes low. As she deflected blows from the creature's bladed limbs, she felt Yang jump over her head and land on the other side of it with Blake darted around to the side and made a beeline for Weiss. Seeing that, the Grimm tried to pull away again and dart after her, but Saber dashed in to intercept, his scimitar turning into a naginata and gliding smoothly through the air, forcing the creature to jump back to avoid him.
"Get Weiss free and handle that one!" Ruby called to Blake as the trapped Grimm continued to bark at them. "We have this."
With peace of mind at knowing Blake would not let her down, Ruby reared her scythe back and prepared to attack.
Pulling the trigger, she blasted off and brought her scythe up where its head would have been. At the same time, Yang pushed herself off with a shot from her gauntlets. Proving to be as agile as she suspected, the creature twisted its body out of the way of the blade and raised its tail to be flat against its back, the mass of fur dampening the Yang's monstrous blow that would absolutely have shattered it's spine, but instead sent it crashing into the floor. The second it landed, its arm slashing out and slid across their ankles sending pain up Ruby's body despite her aura.
Before it could attack again, a loud gunshot from Saber's flintlock tore through the silent forest and the bullet flew between the both of them and struck the floor and exploded in a cloud of purple that launched the Grimm into the air. Seeing an opportunity but not in the right position to capitalize on it, Ruby twirled her scythe and slammed the blunt end into the creature's side to send it tumbling through the air into Yang's waiting arms where she knew it would meet its end. Sure enough, though it tried its best to wriggle free by stabbing at the blonde's eyes, she simply turned her head away and wrapped her fingers around it's thin body.
"ARGH!" She grunted and tore the Kamaitachi in half, dropping each side to the ground without a second glance. "Stupid thing!"
With theirs taken care of, Ruby looked towards Weiss and prepared to rush in to help if needed. Thankfully it wasn't, and they were just in time to see Blake decapitate the other as it struggled to free itself from the block of ice it had been encased in. laying on the ground, free of it's grasp, was Weiss, her arm raised and the bracelet on her wrist shining a bright white.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked, rushing in and offering a hand to her partner.
"I'm fine." The heiress breathed, accepting the help and brushing off her skirt. "You sure took your time though."
"Sorry." She apologised and pulled out her scroll. "You should probably stay between us till we get to the tower. You're on orange."
"Yeah, yeah." The girl groaned, massaging the back of her neck and moving to stand between Blake and Yang. "I am definitely not going to be the one climbing it though."
"Fi-na-llyyyyyyyyyyyy."
Dumping herself down onto a large slab of concrete the size of her body, Ruby laid back and let out a long sigh. What was supposed to have been barely an hour's walk to the tower had turned into two hours of them fighting their way through the forest of Kamaitachi. After every pair they fought, another pair would show up a couple of minutes later and try to cage one of them. Fortunately, after the second pair they were used to it and prepared for them, but that didn't mean taking on two extremely fast and agile Grimm wasn't tiring. It also didn't help that an Ursa had shown up during one of those fights and made everything so much more complicated.
Eventually they had broken through though, and finally emerged from the woods and into a large clearing filled with debris. Large slabs of chiseled rock littered the area, even the smallest of which was taller than her while the biggest was easily around fifteen feet high. Along the left side was a withered stone wall that was almost double the height of the largest rock, and in the centre of everything was a massive tower that expanded well beyond the treeline.
If she wasn't mistaken, the ruins they were sat amongst had likely been a castle at one time in the past. How long in the past, she had no idea; but given that most of the debris was sticking out of the ground, she felt it had to at least be a few thousand years for the planet to have swallowed so much of it. But she couldn't help but wonder how such a thing had even been made that long ago. The maneuvering of such massive pieces of stone would be difficult even by present days standards, but the still standing wall showed that the castle was likely made entirely of them. And if those people had made such a mountainous structure, how had they ever fallen to Grimm that were likely weaker than the Grimm of present day? If they had failed to hold out, how long could Vale or the other kingdoms survive?
"So which one of us is climbing that thing?" Blake asked, seating herself on the edge of the rock.
"Not me." Weiss and Yang replied immediately, the former sitting down on a glyph while the other sprawled out on the floor like a starfish.
"I'll uhhh…" Saber looking up at the massive tower of stone. "I'll keep watch down here."
"Guess I'll go then." Ruby groaned and pushed herself up onto her elbows to look at her girlfriend. "Wanna join me?"
"Sure." Blake said with a small smile, standing up and offering out a hand.
Happily taking it, she hopped to her feet and stood beside her girlfriend. "We'll be back soon."
Receiving nothing but dismissive waves from her best friend and sister, they turned away and pushed themselves through the heavy iron door at the base of the tower into a large room. Just like outside, it was littered with broken stone and destroyed bookcases. Littering the floor were what looked to be metal book bindings, their wrappings and pages long since disintegrated.
The only thing in the room that seemed to have actually survived the test of time was a single banner on the opposite wall. On its face was what looked to be a kingdom's insignia, a large staff with a circular top, inside of which was a sideways eye. It was definitely not one she had ever seen in the school's textbook, but something about it felt familiar.
"Isn't that the same eye that was on the ruins in Patch?" Blake remarked, pointing at the insignia. "The window was shaped the same."
Looking closer at the banner, Ruby noticed that Blake had a point. "Huh, it is. Weird. Oh well," She walked over to what looked to be a broken staircase and glanced up to see a hole. "Wanna give me a lift?"
"Mmm?" Blake hummed and pulled her eyes away from the banner. "Oh, yeah."
Placing her foot in Blake's hand, she pushed herself off and reached up to grab the edge of the hole. Once she was through, she turned around and reached down to help her teammate up.
"Thanks." Blake grunted as she stood up, her amber eyes gleaming in the dark as she looked down on her.
"No problem." Ruby smiled.
With the staircase being rather narrow, the two of them were pressed tightly against each other to fit; and despite the fact they were in the middle of a mission, Ruby couldn't help but blush a little. Wanting to at least indulge in a little bit of privacy, she reached up on her toes and pressed her lips against Blake's for a few seconds, happy to feel Blake respond in kind.
"You should lead the way." Ruby grinned as their lips parted. "I need to save my battery life."
"Mhm." Blake hummed in a suspicious, yet humorous tone. "I'm sure that's the only reason you want me to go in front."
"Wh-What?" Ruby blushed as her girlfriend started climbing the stairs. "I can't see, remember?"
"Likely story." The girl chuckled.
"Agh. Just… go." She blustered, gliding her fingers along the wall to keep her balance as she climbed.
They climbed in silence for a few minutes, making sure to take slow steps as they were uncertain as to the stability of the staircase. Every now and then, Ruby would feel pebbles underneath her boots and Blake would call out a crumbled step, causing her to hop over a gap. At one point, she even had to boost Blake up to another level due to how much had crumbled away.
"So…" Ruby grunted, pulling herself up with some help from her girlfriend. "Are you still nervous about seeing your parents?" She paused and shook her head. "Sorry. Stupid question. Of course you are. Ignore me."
"It's fine." The girl said in a quiet voice. "I am, but I'm more scared at the minute. What if we find the group and they'r-"
"They're not." Ruby said with as force as she could muster. "Saber said they have his best fighters with them."
"And you said it yourself. Anything can happen." The girl let out a sad sigh. "I'm just… preparing myself for all possibilities."
"That's… fair."
Ruby could hardly deny her that. Though she wanted to make sure Blake stayed hopeful, she knew it would be wrong of her to make the girl expect an outcome that might not happen. After all, while she was choosing to stay optimistic about finding her girlfriend's parents, it was true that anything could happen; especially outside of the kingdoms.
"Just promise me you won't give up hope."
"You're at my side." Blake said with fondness in her tone. "I couldn't even if I wanted too."
"That's right." She grinned despite not knowing whether Blake was looking or not. "And that's why I'm the best girlfriend ever."
"I'll definitely fight anyone who says otherwise." Blake mumbled.
Ruby giggled slightly as she finally spotted light up ahead and the stairway began to widen. She had sorely missed Blake's flirting over the last few days during their argument, so for the girl to be teasing her was a huge relief.
Eventually though, the staircase came to an end and they were greeted by an archway, the large metal door that had previously slotted into it lying on the floor in front of it. While it wasn't as spacious as the one below, it definitely seemed like it had once served as a lookout point of sorts. Despite most being destroyed, there were a few spindly wooden frames, one of which still held a solitary rusted spear that would likely crumble to dust if she even touched the blade.
"How d'ya think this kingdom fell?" She asked, still curious as to what had happened to it. "It seems like they knew what they were doing to build all this."
"Not hard to guess." Blake shrugged and walked over to one of the large gaps in the wall that served as a window. "The same things humanity keeps failing to learn from."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, walking to another that was a few feet away.
"War and Grimm." Blake said with a shake of her head. "Despite having a common enemy we should be united against, people always chose to fight each other instead. Wars over land were common in the past, especially around the time this castle was likely made, and wars always bring Grimm. And yet, instead of learning from that, we're still doing it. The four kingdoms are separated by more than borders, and even humanity is separated into humans and faunus. Both fighting each other instead of working together."
She let out a sad breath and looked down.
"Even me, the daughter of someone who always preached peace, fell into violence. With how easy we fall into old habits, I sometimes wonder if humans and faunus are just destined to destroy themselves."
Looking over at the girl who was resting on her elbows, Ruby knew she couldn't deny there was some validity to her points. After all, it had only been less than eighty years since the Great War, and less than sixty years since the Faunus Wars. just as Blake said, people still fought; but that's not all they did.
"I don't think we are." She smiled at her girlfriend. "You're right about us fighting each other. I wish we didn't, but we do. But then we always find our way back to peace, and our bond grows stronger because of it. I mean, just look at us right now. Human and faunus working together on a mission to save your parents, who are on their way to Vale to talk about… uhhh… peace stuff with the council."
Despite the topic, Blake gave a short chuckle at how little she knew about what the meetings were actually about.
"The war might not have been good for people, but Faunus now have more rights than they've ever had. And while I know it's not perfect and more still needs to be done, it's progress. Right?"
Blake fell silent for a second, clearly thinking about what Ruby had just said. Letting her girlfriend think it through in silence, she leaned forward and looked at the surrounding area. Though most of it was just trees and hills, she was very happy to spot what definitely looked like a river a few miles from their position. Excitedly, she pulled a pair of binoculars that Weiss had brought from Zelen out of her rucksack and zoomed in on the area, a wide smile pulling at her lips.
"You really are just full of hope, aren't you?" Blake said in a quiet voice.
"Yup." Ruby grinned happily, pushing herself away from the wall and handing the binoculars to the raven-haired girl. "Because being hopeful usually pays off."
As the girl accepted them, Ruby pointed out in the direction she had been looking and awaited the reaction. She didn't have to wait long before the girl let out a strangled chuckle filled with nothing but pure relief.
"Smoke." She whispered.
"White smoke." Ruby grinned. "A campfire by the river. Just like you said."
Blake pulled the binoculars away from her face, and Ruby saw a single tear fall down the girl's cheek. Thankfully, Ruby knew it was a happy one from the smile on the face, and held her hand out to accept the device back. However, much to her surprise, she instead found herself pulled forward, and lips pressed against her own.
It wasn't heated in any way. There was no tongue, or even movement; but the passion behind it caused Ruby's heart to race as she allowed herself to sink into her girlfriend's body. Unfortunately, as much as she wished that kiss in particular could have lasted forever, Blake pulled away a few seconds later and looked down on her with something in her eyes that Ruby had never seen before. Something she could quite place.
"I…" Blake paused, the hand on her bank balling into a fist for a second. She looked like she was about to say something, but after a blink and a small shake of her head, whatever had been in her eyes vanished. "Thank you. For holding on to hope when I can't."
"You don't have to thank me for that." She replied with a happy smile, wondering what Blake had been about to say. "Now," she pulled away and took out her Scroll to check the compass. "Let's get to your parents."
Kamaitachi Art
Hello everyone. Before the notes, I please ask that you check out the artwork done by my friend CloverPatch and leave a like. She is an amazing artist, and an even more amazing person, and she was kind enough to allow me to use her creation for this story. So please show her some love.
twitter com/Clover_Patches/status/1274082502525804544
Raalm's Notes
Hello everyone. I hope you had a good time reading this chapter. There isn't really much to say here as its mostly just the start of the chapter, but we mostly wanted to have a little more of the groups personalities shine. How they look at life and the things that are important to them, so I hope you enjoyed it.
It was also really fun working with CloverPatch to figure out how her creation would attack and hunt, and then crafting a scene around that. She was super awesome and a joy to work with, so please give her some love. There were also a few easter eggs in this one, I wonder if you can spot them.
Chapter 53 - Nightfall will be going up on the 27th of January.
I know this is a day earlier than it should normally go up, but RWBY: Amity Arena is shutting down on the 28th and it is a game/community I have been heavily invested in for a few years so I want to spend that day hanging out with friend in game and enjoying the last day.