Before I let you all read this; if you read Fevered Visions; another unfinished fic of mine; you'll notice similarities for the first few chapters. This is effectively a reboot of that story as I wish to retell the story; due it's outdated nature plus my own naivety. There's more to come; trust me; it'll change.
Darkness creeped in Ruby's mind as a voice rang out, chanting words to her. "Misfortune. I bring misfortune to others." Every second it echoed as she tried to sleep. If she thought she had a moment of silence it would strike again. "I guess you could call me a bad luck charm."
Yesterday, she was in Oniyuri on the way to Mistral and while traveling through the abandoned city, she ran into some very odd scorpion faunus who called himself Tyrian. He claimed that he was there to take her to his queen. He attacked her, only for Ruby's uncle Qrow to intervene and take control of the battle. Ruby was sure that Qrow had called Tyrian's queen "Salem".
Sadly, that bitch Tyrian, stung her uncle. While Tyrian was eager to giggle and bask in his slight victory, Ruby found it was quite easy to make sure he would never get the chance to poison anyone else ever again by cutting off his tail.
As haunting as the threat of being kidnapped was; something more urgent was in Ruby's restless mind: Ozpin's mission. That night, Qrow had told her about Ozpin's mission: Ozpin, in league with the other headmasters of Remnant, all worked towards a common goal. To keep the Kingdoms out of a Grimm woman named Salem's controls. Qrow's statements brought a new clarity to the events atop Beacon Tower, and why it was important. Qrow also spoke of the brothers; two gods watching over the world before they had abandoned it long ago.
Though perhaps the biggest revelation came after a small argument, when Qrow ended up telling her and the others about his semblance. It made Ruby shudder to think that a semblance was the reason her loving uncle was so distant in her life.
She had been traveling with Jaune, Nora, and Ren for a few months now. They'd started their journey at Ruby's house on the island of Patch and made their way eastward towards the city of Mistral, arriving at Anima via a ship known as the S.S. Pride. They chose this route because all paths were leading towards Haven.
Since their departure from Vale, the journey had become rougher. It seemed no one was watching the roads for Grimm anymore; everyone was just watching out for themselves. Grimm attacks were common for the team; effectively known as RNJR by now. Fortunately, by the time they'd gotten to Mistral, all four kingdoms still had their borders open. They had gotten this far without breaking down. Perhaps everyone was dealing with the new dangers on their own terms?
Unfortunately, that was not to be the case as Jaune was in the middle of his own nightmares. To start with,he was still pissed at Qrow for what happened to Pyrrha, as they had all been told Pyrrha had agreed to becoming a maiden; and that she gave her life for that. But on a more pressing note, now it seemed that Ruby, his best friend, was being tracked by what seemed to be assassins or kidnappers! He just couldn't stand it at all. Why Ruby of all people?! But despite all that weighing him down; all Jaune could really think of was a nightmare, eerily similar to the night the silver light flooded Beacon.
Jaune opened his eyes to see himself running side by side with Ruby, as they exited a battered tower. The rain didn't help Jaune either as he felt the water began to weigh him down. The first thing he noticed they were in a different city than either Beacon or Oniyuri, with smoke arising from the mountains around them.
"What…was all that?" he asked Ruby, worriedly. He noticed Ruby was just staring down at the ground, and even within the rain he could see her tears dripping down her face.
"You must go." Ruby said in the rain "I'm sorry, Jaune." She smiled at him, lying to herself as tears fell from the glowing silver eyes.
"This isn't your call Ruby; let me-" Jaune was cut off by Ruby coming eye to eye with him.
"It's what I can do. I'll make sure you get to leave." The sound of Crescent Rose changing forms was heard as Jaune just stood there, his eyes watering. "I'll be alright." she finished as she turned and scattered into rose petals, her trail leading right up to the tower, then upwards, the petals swirling around the tower in a spiral motion.
Jaune started to cry, and he finally remembered why this was so familiar, before he quickly scrambled for his scroll and dialed Yang's number. "No! Ruby!" he shouted as he cried into his scroll, "Yang!" he shouted into his scroll as he heard the call click live. "Please, you need to stop her!"
"What?" came a voice over the scroll, but it wasn't Yang's voice through. Jaune instead recognized the voice as Weiss Schnee's.
"Ruby…" he said into the scroll, trying to form a sentence out of his words, "She went up the tower to fight Salem… you need to help her! Ruby can't fight her alone, she doesn't stand a chance!" Jaune finally screamed into the phone, Weiss was his and Ruby's only hope now.
"Jaune, what are you talking about, where are you?" asked Weiss.
"Don't worry about me! Please…save Ruby." His voice trembled as he tried to stop the tears. He knew he couldn't stop Ruby, and neither would they be able to, but he knew he had to tell Weiss; for Ruby's sake if not his own.
"Where is she?!" asked Weiss, her voice slowly becoming concerned over the scroll.
"She's at the main tower! Please, you have to do something! For Ruby!" he shouted into the scroll as he threw it, as he started to scream.
"Jaune? Jaune!?" shouted Weiss over the scroll, as Jaune started to cry uncontrollably. The rain comforted him as it fell down on top of him and his shield.
"No…I've already lost Pyrrha….I can't lose Ruby too…!" He shouted to himself, alone in the darkness, as a flash of lightning shook the skies above and the world turned to white.
His eyes burst open, as Jaune awoke from his nightmare, shivering from the residual adrenaline. Looking around, he checked on the rest of his team. They were all resting soundly. Even Qrow was fast asleep up against a tree. He sighed in relief, noticing the embers of the campfire still flickering, creating a golden glow on Ruby who was across from him. 'What was that all about?' he thought to himself. 'Why did it feel so real and natural?' Jaune pondered those thoughts as he tried to fall back asleep, trying to keep an eye on Ruby to make sure that Tyrian didn't come back for her
The morning dawned slowly on the rest of the group. Qrow awoke in a fit of coughs, and he looked down to see that his cut had started to ooze purple.
"Well… that's unfortunate" Qrow muttered as he fell unconscious.
"Uncle Qrow!" shouted Ruby as she rushed over to check his temperature. His head was burning from the fever caused by the poison.
Ren stepped aside and took a good look at Qrow's cut. "We need to get to Mistral, and fast. I don't know how bad the poison is."
"How bad are talking about?" said Ruby, tears almost falling from her eyes. "Do we have time to stop or-
"We need to rush to Mistral-" Ren snapped, turning to Ruby as he shouted. "Ruby, can you run back to Oniyuri? Your semblance will let you search more land quickly, go get a stretcher and fast!" Ren asked, a look of worry in his eyes.
"Right… do you think that town will have medicine?" Ruby asked, with a great deal of concern in her voice.
"Oniyuri was never finished Ruby, so I doubt it, but I still think there might be a stretcher." Ren stated, as Ruby nodded, acknowledging what Ren had said.
"Right…" Ruby rushed off, turning into a pile of petals as she ran towards the now long abandoned city.
"Jaune, go clean out the fire." Ren ordered to the blonde man standing at the fire pit.
"Right." said Jaune as he started to kill the fire.
"Ren… what's gonna happen?" asked Nora, looking at her partner, as she hoped for a sign.
"Nora… I don't know… without the map, we don't know how far it is to Mistral…." Ren paused as he started to remember his past. "Hopefully it isn't that far…Oniyuri was only a one to two day trip from..." Ren's words slowed as he remembered that fateful night, when the Nuckelavee Grimm slaughtered his parents in Kuroyuri. Nora could feel Ren's mixed emotions, as she had her own memories of Kuroyuri that night as well, and she knew the look on Ren's face whenever he started to think about the event.
"Ren, are you okay?" asked Nora, cutting into Ren's train of thought.
"Nora, I'm fine!" shouted Ren quite angrily.
"Ren, you alright?!" shouted Jaune from the distance.
"Yeah Jaune." said Ren more quietly as he shook his head to settle his thoughts. The anger rose but he tried to shrug it off; only for Nora to try to hug him. He pushed her off in the anger and so she sat there with him; as they watched Qrow.
It wasn't long until Ruby returned, her head low as she came back with only two wooden poles.
"Nothing?" asked Nora, worried for Ruby.
"Nothing, I only found these poles which I can string together with my sleeping back as a makeshift stretcher." Ruby solemnly spoke out to her teammates.
It wasn't long until Ruby lifted Qrow onto the stretcher when it… started . Ruby didn't know what it was as she and Ren moved Qrow onto the stretcher; all she noticed was Qrow stirring and then, poof! His eyes were open for a few moments. "Summer? Is that you?" He asked in Ruby's direction, unaware he was hallucinating.
"No, It's me, Ruby, Uncle Qrow." Ruby answered, confused at her uncle's words. 'Why did he call me by my mother's name?' Ruby pondered for a second.
"Ruby…." Ren stopped to think about what he was taught in health class. "He might be hallucinating."
"He's hallucinating?" Ruby asked out loud to herself, unaware of what Ren meant.
"Well….-" Ren stopped as Jaune walked up to the group, which caused Qrow to start speaking again.
"Great...so you're going to be on my team, Taiyang?" said Qrow in a sarcastic tone as Jaune walked past him, scaring Jaune for a second. Jaune shuttered as Qrow's near soulless crimson eyes stared at him while talking.
"He's seeing things that aren't there… or rather, as it seems, because of the poison, he sees Ruby as this Summer person, and Jaune as this Taiyang person." concluded Ren, as he tried to understand what was happening to Qrow.
"Summer's my mother… and Taiyang is my father…" Ruby paused for a second, to think it over, "Both of them were on the same team as my Uncle Qrow. Uncle Qrow's told me that I remind him a lot of my mom…" Ruby took a breath, smiling after her last statement. 'Yeah, I really must remind them of mom, don't I?' she asked herself sadly. "And you all saw my dad Taiyang, he's blonde like Jaune… and he can be a goof ball as well." she finished giggling to herself at her teammates expense.
"Hey!" yelled Jaune,as Ren and Nora joined in a quick chuckle with Ruby.
"But." Ren started, ending the moment of happiness. "We need to get going, if he isn't treated soon, his condition will worsen, and we don't know how bad it's affecting him..." Ren said.
"Jaune, help me with my uncle." Ruby commanded her teammate, trying to get a grip on
"Me?" asked Jaune. "Why me?"
"Well…." Ruby trailed off trying to explain it. "He sees you as my dad, so it might be better if he sees someone he thinks he knows." Ruby added. "Plus you're the strongest here."
"Ruby's right." Nora replied as she took charge. "I'll stand back behind you two and that leaves Renny to lead the way!"
"We need to get going then." added Ren, as he started to head towards Mistral. Ruby and Jaune nodded in agreement as they picked Qrow up and started to head towards the direction of the city of Mistral. It was gonna be a slow journey ahead for them.