AN: And we are back! Sorry for the long update but here is the long-awaited next chapter of Bastion! This one is more character development than action os sorry:(.
Ps I was watching RWBY Volume 5 with my sister the other day and I had an epihfany. I realized that this fiction had allread taken many liberties from the real show and I thoguht hey since this is a character develpment arc why not make some changes? Especially to how a ceratin reaper likes everbody. It's a risk but I want ot see how it play out so here we go!
Ruby was muddy, cold and covered in blood. The acquired White Fang sleeping bag and she used that term lightly, might have helped her warm up but it was so tattered in staining, and so badly pieced together that it barely did a thing. As the room glowed red as her augmented eye read the white fang hold out. This is it? She thought tiredly as she laid her head on her makeshift pillow. The tattered remains of several white fang emblems all torn to shreds while she sighed softly.
It was late Ruby was dead tired and wanted nothing more than just lay her head down close her eye and go to sleep. And to her credit, she got halfway there before a voice entered her ear.
"Psst! Ruby! Psst! Ruby!" The irritating voice of Mika said as Ruby opens her fake eyes and glaring motion as the augmented appendage drew firing coordinates onto the girls face.
"Mika what? I'm tired I need to go to sleep." Ruby said to her sleeping partner already regretting her choice on as her partner now looked at her with a bright piercing green glare as she smiled an off-kilter grin to her.
"Let's talk!" "Talk? About what?"
"Talk? About what?"
"You know girl talk!"
"Mika is now the time to be doing this? In the middle of the enemy base?"
"Now is the perfect time to have some girl talk!" Mika said happily making Ruby open her other eye in irritation as the girl proved to be just as persistence and determined as usual.
"Girl talk?"
"Yeah, girl talk! We've been friends for over a month, but we've never had any good ole quality time! You know just us girls!"
"So you want to do this now? Of all time in the enemy tunnels?"
"Yup! What better time than the present? It'll be just us girls talking about all of our innermost secret desires!"
"Yes, we can spend all night talking about boys and painting our nail-
Ruby stopped herself instantly as she remembered how much like a certain heiress she sounded like as she gasped a hand over her mouth, Mika grinned at her.
"That's exactly what I mean! We can spend all night paint nails braiding our hair and talking about boys! What sounds better than that?"
Ruby had several things that were much better than that mainly sleep but was interrupted before she could say them.
"I can't see the harm in it. A calm voice from the side said as Hino rolled over in her sleeping bag her light brown eyes flickering in the fire like dollops of syrup as she eyed two girls calmly.
She brought a calming presence to the room as Ruby instantly felt calmed by her words. It was like someone had wrapped her in a warm blanket and it was as close to relaxed Ruby had been being in Bastion and away from Jaune.
"I don't see the harm, and it would be good to get to know my new friends better," Hino said gesturing to Ruby and Krix who was now sitting up her pink hair a mess knotted and wrapped around her head in battered tuffs as she glared bloody murder at them.
"What in Oum's name are we doing u at this ungodly time?"
"Mika wants to talk," Ruby told the girl who glared her sharpest stare at Mika who looked completely unfazed by it and went on smiling as usual.
"About what?"
"Girl talk!" "Girl talk." Ruby clarified as Krix glared.
"Girl talk… Why?"
"Because we never get a chance to have a discussion just us girls! It's always one of the guys with us means we can't have a good one on one girl talk!"
"Mika there are four of us. How do you plan on having one on one conversations with three other people?" Krix asked as Mika frowned at her.
"I don't mean literally! You know what I mean Krix! Don't be a party pooper!'
"If you don't-
"Krix. Mika is right. We should get to know one another since we are to be fighting as one. And besides, I doubt Mika will go back to sleep anytime soon." Hino said with a tired look as Mika nodded at her in affirmation as Kirx sighed heavily.
"Fine! Whatever, just don't keep me up ok?" Krix asked as she huffed once and turned in her sleeping bag facing away from the girls and going to sleep.
"Yay! Girl talk!" Mika said happily slapping her hands together before yanking Ruby from her sleeping position and forcing her to sit upright. Earn an actually terrifying glare from the adorable girl as her lone silver eyed glared at her while her prosthetic whined and whined as it's servos busily tried to find the most efficient way of taking her arms frown her body.
"So now that we are up just what exactly is your version of girl talk and what will we be talking about?" Hino asked Mika in her usual patient town as she brought her legs to her chest and rested her pneumonic gauntlets still coated in gore on them.
"I have no idea!"
"I'll kill her," Krix grumbled from over her sleeping bag, and Hino sighed.
"Krix that isn't a very nice thing to say. And besides, you know try to kill her is pointless. She is an immortal masochist you know?" Hino asked as Krix mumbled a reply as Ruby's ears picked up.
Pointless? What does she mean by pointless? Is Mika surprisingly sturdy? Or does she gave a regeneration semblance? Like that guy in the comic who after being military experiments on can regrow entire limbs! You know the guy who likes to eat spicy food and has an elegant mask?
Ruby thought as Hino sighed heavily.
"Mika, why did you wake us up if even you didn't; have an idea for a topic of conversation?" Hino said before Mika gave her a simple response.
"I was well..kind of hoping that I would get my ideas from you all and so.."
"You don't have any solid ideas on the topic do you?" Hino asked s the girl nodded.
" Make that a slow death," Krix added before Mika spoke.
"Oh! I know how about boys! That' always a good topic of conversation!" Mika added error is tuning her sharp green eyes to Rub making the younger girl squirm uncomfortably.
"Ruby! You like Jaune right? I mean it's obvious to me that you have a crush on him and want nothing more than to jump his bones, and use your semblance to ride him off into the sunset! But what about you? Do you know you have a crush on him?"
Miaki asked s the younger girls paused flushed and balked all at once as her face mirrored a tomato as she began to squawk. As her face ent, the color of her cloak and her yes went haywire as it extended in and out of her head whirring wildly in the process.
"Wh- Wh- What!? I do not have a crush on him! And I- I- I- wouldn't use my semblance for that!" Ruby yelled blushing wildly as she fought down a host of emotions as Mika grinned at her.
"Oh really? Because that doesn't look like the face of a girl without a serious case of the love-struck to me!"
"Mika!"
"Ruby there's nothing wrong about have a crush on somebody. Or being... creative with your semblance, it is a manifestation of your soul why not use it to enhance the most intimate experience you can have with someone?" Hino asked as Ruby fought the urge to squeal as the older girl kept talking.
" And why not Jaune? I mean you and him seem to get along well, and he looks to be a good man. He had been taking care of you ever since your arrival here despite his own situations correct?" Hino added making Ruby blush fiercely and mumble out an inaudible string of words.
"But but! I don't-
Ruby's words die in her chair as a bright blush came over her face as Hino gave her a knowing look and Mika grinned at her.
"Aww, our little girl has all grown up! And now she wants to finally have a boyfriend! How adorable!" Mika said in her most condescending voice making her eat an glare from Ruby that amounted to the effect of water on a window pane for fear and intimidation on the girl as Hino chuckled.
"Mika do not tease her. It's hard enough to work up the courage to ask somebody out. You should know." Hino said making Mika go quietly she briefly lost her smile and Hino continued.
"So Ruby you do like Jaune in a romantic way?" Hino asked the girl as Ruby flushed, ducked her head her prosthetic retreating as far back into her skull as possible before nodding once and making Hino bow in a way that Ruby was all too familiar with.
It was the same nod Yang used whenever her BSS or Big sister sense proved right about something, and she was vindicated in some way or another. It was a look Ruby had grown to positively loathe throughout her life. Although when coming From Hino the look did not inspire as much loathing as Hino looked like she was honestly understanding her and wanted nothing more than to help. Not to tease taunt or annoyance Yang would, but she simply was acknowledging her instincts and pushing forward to better help the girl with her situation.
"For how long have you harbored these emotions?" Hino asked as the girl blush and began to think.
"Since way back at Beacon. Jaune was…. Jaune was special to me even then." Ruby admitted Hino nodded sagely to her.
"What made him so special. If you don't mind me asking."
"Well… When I first got to Beacon, he was one of the first people to believe in me. You know?"
"Elaborate," Hino said calmly as she shut her eyes and let a pleasant smile come to her face as the firelight made her rich tanned skin positively glow in the rooms dim light.
"Well… For instance… If you don't know when I got into Beacon, I got in early. I was two years younger than anybody else in my year, and I had some difficulties getting along with my classmates." Ruby admitted as Hino nodded at her.
"They didn't respect you for being so young?"
"More or less," Ruby admitted to her as she sighed deeply and continued talking.
"I mean my sister liked me! But that's more of her not willing to let anything bad happen to me like what happened to my uncle, so she more or less treated me like a china doll that would shatter if the slightest thing touched it. Or she treated me like a near dead child that would die if somebody breathed in my general direction."
"So your friends didn't trust you and you sister underestimated you?" Mika asked in a strange moment of clarity as she looked at Ruby not with a menacing grin or a hungry started but honest and genuine empathy. An emotion Ruby was convinced the girl was incapable of showing. "They didn't think I would be a good leader. Most of them thought I was just a kid who just happened to be the best choice on a team that would have torn itself apart at the seems should any other one be elected as a leader.'
"Well, at least you had a partner right? I mean your partner must have like you right?" Mika asked as Ruby grimaced.
"Not... exactly… Like is a strong word for my partners feelings towards me. At least at first." Ruby said as Mika cocked her head at her.
"Not exactly?"
"Well at first. My partner… She... she hated me."
"Hated you? But why would she hate you?" Hino asked as her face took on a concerned looks Ruby felt a series of uncomfortable feeling coming from inside her.
"Yeah! What's her deal! You seem like a nice girl!" Mika said as Ruby frowned deeply as she remembers her earlier painful Beacon days.
"She didn't think I was a good leader and she was vocal about her superiority and my… Shortcomings. She even went the headmaster himself to formally request me being removed from my command. "
"She went to your headmaster?" Hino asked in a show a genuine shock as her closed eyes took on a distraught expression as Ruby felt a pang of ice into her ears. As she saw Hino's face
"But why didn't she think you were a good leader? And what qualifications did she could have over you?" Mika asked in her second most serious tone of voice as she eyed her evenly.
"Well, to be honest, I wasn't the best leader when I first started. I nervous, naive and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and was beyond over my head in my position. And for a while, her claims were completely justified."
Ruby admitted as the two girls paused and allowed her to continue to talk.
"I didn't know the first thing about leading a group of my peers who were all more experience and far more skillful than I and who all had better qualifications to being a leader than I. And for a while, I had no one that talks to about it. That's where Jaune came in."
"He helped you with being a leader?" Hino asked as Ruby nodded to her.
'He was in a similar situation to me. He was also put on a team with people who were all far more skilled than he was and all treated him like he didn't; know the sharp point of his sword to his boots. They acted like he would fall over dead if the wind so much as blew in his general direction."
"I'm assuming Jaune was not as talented as he is today?" Hino asked as Ruby nodded her head.
"Yeah when Jaune first came to Beacon…. He was less than powerful regarding combat or well anything that wasn't a strategy. He always had a knack for the tactical side of engagements, better than anyone I knew especially myself."
"I take it that he was a far cry from the white knight that he is today and that his team took his protection into their own hands?" Hino asked as Ruby nodded to her.
"Yes. In short, they were smothering him. His partner had to personally take his life into his hand when she stopped him from being bullied. His teammate even broke one of his bullies legs!" Ruby said with a slight grin as Mika cocked her head.
" I find it hard to believe that a school like Beacon just let a student break another student's leg? I mean this is Beacon, not Bastion. I don't think that they would have as lax of a guideline for students as Bastion does."
"Well, Nora was never one to care for rules. And her partner helped her hide evidence. Anyways long story short. Jaune and I were being guarded by our teammates. And while it was nice it was also stifling. They refused to let us breathe they refused to let us grow."
"They were stopping your progress. They thought they were helping you, but in fact, they were inhibiting your growth." Mika said s Ruby agreed surprised with her level of insight into the matter.
"Yes. In fact even after out initial hurdles when our team accepted us and we became a functioning unit our times still refused to let us be. They always thought we were weak, fragile and in need of constant round the clock twenty-four-hour protection. They never let us grow, and in the end, it was suffocating."
" And for a while, we were stuck. Muddied in our teams constat dotting we stopped getting better we stopped improving and we began for a while we began to stagnate... Those were bad times and in the end, it took Jaune coming to me to break us out of it."
"What did he do?" Hino asked as Ruby paused and took a deep breath
"He offered to fight me," Ruby said with a saccharine grin as Hino blinked in confusion.
"He offered to fight you?" Krix said as she had evidently been unable to go to bed as she rolled over in her bag and stared blearily at her.
"Yes. It turns out his partner was making him fight her after hours to train him to get better. And while it was working her way of training was…. Intense. And while he wanted to get better he wanted a partner that was a bit less….
"Passionate?" Hino asked was Ruby gave her a confused look.
"More like a partner that didn't try to stab him in the heart while somehow trying to get into his pants in the least subtle manner humanly possible," Ruby answered as Mika nodded.
"So he wanted to be able to improve without getting felt up?"
"More or less and so we trained. I trained him. And over the days and weeks of nighttime training and after already being each other's best friends the feelings they just came."
"I take it he doesn't know about said feelings?" Hino asked akin Ruby sigh.
"No. I never told him By the time I worked up the courage his partner already confessed to him, it the bluntest manner possible and he accepted."
"How did she confess?" Hino asked as Ruby blushed.
"She asked him out after the first time he landed a real blow on her in the arena. Using a move that I taught kissed him in full view of the call before asking him to be her boyfriend. Needless to say, he accepted, and that was that." Ruby said with a pained visage that Hino instantly caught.
"You seem to have an issue with his partner besides stealing your crush is that so?" Hino asked as Ruby gave an explosive sigh as she balled her fist together so hard she swore she felt blood.
"Yes. I have several issues with his partner." Ruby admitted grinding her teeth and growling in a purely non-Ruby like manner.
"Like what?" Hino asked confued to the small girls suddeny and physical change in demenor. She knows that love makes fools of them all and that she shoould be patein wewpiclly with someon so young an-
"Because she's a bitch that's why," Ruby said as the girls gaked.
Time stopped, the fires stopped, the world stopped as Both Hino and Mika apt loudly, and Krix raised an eyebrow. Did... Did Ruby Rose just call somebody bitch!?
Hino thought as everything she knew or thought she knew about the small kind girl and she couldn't even think of somebody in a nonpositive manner but not only did she clearly think little of another she even vocalized it!?
" Why do you say that?" Hino asked n her calmest voice possible as Ruby sighed explosively.
"Because she is. She thinks she was helping Jaune to get better, but she really wasn't. She was trying to get Jaune to be another her. Only teaching him one fighting style and still have the gall to be surprised when he kept losing arena fights. Even if they were not Bastion fight losing still sucks."
" Even if he keeps his life she never changed her teaching style. She just kept teaching him the same moves over and over again like she was possessed."
"The definition of insanity is-
"Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Ruby finished Hino's sentence as she kept talking.
"You see at first I thought she was just a bad teacher. But as time when on I saw what she was really after."
"And that was?"
"You see in context she was helping Jaune to get better, but in reality, she was doing the exact opposite. Sure she was trying to make him able to not die in the first thirty seconds of a fight but more than that she was making him dependant on her. She wanted to make Jaune constantly rely on her for protection."
"Jaune's partner was not the most socially apt person in the world and coming from me that is saying something. And even if she might have been the strongest in Beacon when it came to making friends she was downright terrible. So upon meeting Jaune the first person to treat her like normal, she grew attached."
"Like a postcard?" Mika asked trying to get Ruby to smile, but Ruby instead grimaced and ground her teeth.
"Like a leech." Ruby spat as spat onto the ground as she glared into the small dying fire.
"We all saw it. The little things the way she looked in his direction when he came into a room. The way she turned his head and hung off his every word. The worried looks she got whenever he was in the slightest amount of danger. The sheer venom in her eyes when she glared at others when another girl so much as bumped into him in the hallways." Ruby said with a grimace shaking her head causing her fake eye to retreat into her skull as she kept talking.
"At first I was not angry at her. We liked the same boy, but that was no reason we could not be friends right? Wrong."
"After the issue at the forever falls where Jaune was severely injured fighting an Ursa. She talked to me, and I learned something about her."
"I learned she was scared. She was scared of Jaune getting hurt scare to lose her partner and friends. At first, there was nothing wrong with this I did not want Jaune to die either, but then she kept talking, and I saw something in her. She was complaining not about Jaune getting injured but about his new fighting style and how she had no idea where he had learned it and wished he would stop using it."
"After our talk, I was still in the blue about her. She gave me some hints as to what I now know but nothing concrete. That was until Jaune came to me to get better. We started sparing in our free time and in two weeks he went from getting the pants beat off of him and barely hanging in there to consistently winning arena fights. He got better. He started to win he started to excel. And when I looked to his team to see there cheering faces I saw his team shouting his name waving a banner all overjoyed at his progress. All of them but one that is."
"They were all ecstatic about their leaders progress. All but one. His partner I still remember that look she had on her face. While her friends faces shone as they shouted and cheered and support her face had a look of such fear, anger and sheer hatred in her face that I swore she was seeing a different reality than us. It was as if I was seeing into a mirror that reflected the ugliest parts of somebodies personality. I soo found out that I was not staring into a mirror but looking at her real self."
" You see she looked as Jaune's victories like they were the end of the world and I soon found out why."
"She was scared. She was terrified that the only person to treat her like a normal person would get better learn to fight and leaver her. So she stifled his training purposely. Never enough to be noticed and just enough improvement as to not arouse suspicion, but she was sabotaging him on purpose. And when my training paid off. "
"It happened one night on the Beacon roof. I came to see Jaune for our nightly training only to see him and his partner yelling at each other. Normally this never happened Jaune is far submissive to really yell at his partner and her too apologetic to argue. So them yelling was highly unusual until I found out what they were arguing about, it was me."
"Why were they arguing about you?" Krix asked propped up on her knees as he pink eyes were reflected sharpen in the orange-red glow as Ruby gave her a mournful look.
"Remeber how I told you that I knew she was sabatoging him? Well on that night I found out for sure that she was indeed sabatoging him. I heard from the far end of hte wall that Jaun ehad tld pyrrha how he beed getting training frm me and she lost it. "
"She exploded demanidng that Jaune immeidently stops his training. That he cut all ties ot me outside of calss and that if he didn't, she woul not only stop being his freind she would tell Ozpin about something. Whatever it was I had no idea, but it made Jaune go pale as she yelled at him."
"After that Jaune left looking like a ghost, and I finally had enough. I waited until he left a crying partner on the roof as I confronted her. I asked her with the hell was wrong with her!? I asked why in the world she would have him refuse training that was making him better? I mean didn't she want to see him improve to see him excel and do better? The answer a resounding no."
"As it turns out she did not want to see him get better. She did not want him to improve not at all. She still thought of Jaune as weak. She still saw him aw a weakling unable to defend himself. One whom she needed to constantly protect and coddle like he was a damned child. I hated her for that. I yelled. I yelled so loudly it through my throat would go raw."
" I shouted at her, telling her that he was getting better. That my training was working and how could she possibly think he was too weak to succeed?"
"And even then she denied it. She said he was far to reckless for his own good. That making him improve to much to fast would only lead to disaster, and I would only lead to him getting himself and others hurt or worse.'
" She screamed at me telling me I was hurting him. Can you believe that?! Me?! His best friend was trying to hurt him by making him better!? I didn't I called her out."
"I told her she was just jealous. That Jaune was getting better, and there was nothing that she could do about it. That Jaune would only continue to grow and improve, and soon he would no even need her."
" That she would be left behind by him. And she agreed. She broke down and told me how she loved him and that she couldn't bare the thought of him leaving her behind!"
"She clearly did not know him very thoroughly," Hino said shaking her head in a disapproving manner as Mika nodded.
"I got to agree. If she thinks for even a second that Jaune would ever abandon her or anybody really she is a fool." Mika added in a sharp tone as Ruby nodded.
"I told her as much. I told her how much I pitted her and that how I also liked Jaune. I told her that soon me and him would be together and she would be the one left behind. I left her crying alone on the roof waiting for the next day when I would confess to Jaune. I had it all plane doubt it would be after class under the tress of the Beacon courtyard. I would confess to him he would say yes and would live happily after. Then she stole him from me."
" It was all me. It was my hard work that led to he results of his winning, it was my efforts that led t him finally succeding and you know what I got in return? What happened form all my efforts came to pass you know what happened? She stole him from me. She took him in front of the whole damned class and I lost him... I lost him forever..."
"Why is that? Are you giving up on him?" Hino asked both eyes open in a confused manner. As she eyed Ruby inquisitively. Cocking her headto her right in a manner that reminded Ruby far too much of a certain blonde brawler who she missed with all of her heart and would do anything to see again.
"Yeah. He already has a girlfriend. What else could I do?"
"You can fight for him. Just because he is dating somebody today does not mean he will be eating them tomorrow." Hino said as Mika nodded her head.
"She's right Ruby. You can't just give up on him because he's' with somebody else! You got to get in there and win him back! You need to fight for your man! Show him what he's midding and what he has to gain!"
Mika said giving her an empathetic grin as she pumped her arm in the air. " Never give up! Never surrender! I mean if we gave up just because someone we loved was not interested in us or in a committed relationship with another we would never get anywhere! I mean look at Hino and Kage! She loves him and refuses to give up on him!" Mika said proudly as Ruby turned to Hino who glared at Mika in return.
"Hino…. What is your relationship with Kage?" Ruby asked the girl raised her head in an instant.
"I love him," Hino said simply and with such force that it made Ruby blush.
"You love him? Then why aren't you together with him?"
"Because Kage is…. He is complicated. He doesn't want a traditional relationship and he is not prone to a traditional romance of any sort so dating him is…. Difficult. To say the least"
"But you do love him, right? Shouldn't you pursue him no matter the cost?"
"I do… I haven't; given up on him in five years."
"You've known him for five years?"
"We were in the army Vacuoan fourth division. We fought together for a time, and I just fell. Hard. He had a fire in his eyes then that refuse to go out, and I loved that." Hino admitted Ruby bowed her head.
"Um, Hino I don't want to sound rude but…
"But?"
" How… how do you love Kage?" Ruby asked eating the icy look she was fed by Hino as she went on.
"I'm not saying that you can't love him! It's just...
"Just. What?"
"Why!? I mean what has he done to make you love him?"
"He's nice. We fought together. He gives me gifts from time to time. I think he's cute."
"Gifts? Like what?"
"Like these. My boots are a gift from Kage he made them himself and personally gave them to me after I finished training him in hand to hand combat. They are very special boots.
" Is there any other question of why I would not date him?"
"It's just Kage doesn't seem very expressive! It's like he was the emotional capability of a brick! I just don't see how you could find anyone like that attractive!" Ruby shouted making Hino nod her head and give a deep sigh.
"You have never seen Kage fight. Ruby may look dead to the world but trust me when he's in a real battle he comes alive. And there's nothing like it."
"What do you mean? I have seen him fight. He fights like a machine!"
"That's my point. You have seen Kage be efficient. You have never seen him in a fight. Let me tell you a story, Ruby." Hino said as she put one arm smiled as she smiled at her younger friend.
Fire. Pain. Blood. Glory. That was all Hino could think about as she brought down the rules but to its face. The Grimm snarled at her in anger as it roared in pain as the but of her GK9 smashes into its teeth shattering the pearly white objects and making the monster howled in pain. Hino was on fire!
Not literally well yes literally but she was alive! Her veins sang as her heart pumped searing blood into her body as the Grimm fell backward bleeding profusely from its snout as she leaped on it.
As the Ursa fell back, she never let up as the lifter her stock rifle before slamming it against the monsters south. Slapping hard against its flesh and bone plate as metal met bone and muscle. WHAP!
WHAP!
Her rifle stuck, again and again, the beast snout. Making it cry in pain and anger as she blew its jat line. The things head disintegrated in a mess of pulp and brains before it finally began crumbling. As she looked to her right, the world was a vision of hell.
The fourth division had been called to quell a Grimm incursion on a nearby village on the border of Vacuo, and it was a massacre. By the time they arrived the Grimm had slaughtered half the villagers. Men women children it mattered not to the things. As they arrived guns baling only to be overwhelmed by the monsters themselves. As the battle-ravaged, their unit had already lost half of their number as two hundred men, and women laid ripped apart in various piles of meat and bone on the ground.
She reloaded her rifle before she saw him.
Venk kage. Her heart thumped as it skipped a beat. He was glorious. He was currently before smacked backways by a massive bengriel that was attempting to disembowel him. As the monster leaped at him, Kage howled in anger as he fired at it. For some reason, the boy had gotten it into his head that firing a shotgun in one hand and an assault rifle in the other was the most efficient way to kill the monstrosity, as he and the Bengal fell into an help of bullets shrapnel and blood.
"It was glorious! Seeing him fight with that passion, that skill! I just wanted him to take me rip off my-
"Hino!?" Ruby suddenly asked blushing fiercely as the calm woman shared a rare moment of embarrassment at her story as Mika chuckled at her.
"Easy there Hino. We both know Kage isn't the type to rip the clothes off of a woman know you know right?" Mika asked causing the girl to blush brightly before Ruby spoke.
"Mika? Don't you love Kage as well?: Ruby asked suddenly forgetting her words and the tension they might cause.
"Of course I do! He is my one true love! And one day I'm going to break past that damned shell of his and make him my own!" Mika admitted cheerfully as Ruby blushed at her candor.
Not wanting to make any ward tensions with the group Ruby turned to the fully aroused Krix who was staring at them with a bored expression in her pink eyes.
"Krix! Anything special about you!?" Ruby asked trying desperately to keep the fragile peace in the room.
"Not really. I'm just an R class student. Like any other R class student."
"R class? So you have mental issues?" Ruby asked before slapping her head at her comment.
"Yup. I have some types of schizophrenia, along with other issues. That makes day to day life without medication… uncomfortable."
Krix said as Ruby squirmed uncomfortably in her seat already regretting this conversation.
"How bad is it?"
"I need to take the equivalent of three pills a day every day. One every eight hours. The pills normally make me have bad headaches and occasionally body paralysis but If I don't take them things get bad.."
"How bad?"
"Well at first I get happy. Really, really happy. Then I get anxious. Then I start talking to myself. I tend to wander around aimlessly for minutes, hours or even days on end babbling incoherent nonsense without seeing to my most basic needs."
" I won't bathe, sleep, eat, or use the lavatory. And I just bad for that period. That's only if I am left alone and assuming no one tries to interrupt me."
"What if they do try?"
"I get violent. Very violent. I apparently like to stab people and don't know when to stop."
"Is there a cure for schizophrenia?" Ruby asked hopefully as Krix shook her head.
"No. Well, at least not my kind. The only way I get to still be a huntress is the collar on my neck. It injects chemicals into me at regular intervals and in such doses that combat my illness but not enough to cause me any ill effects. It's the best thing to ever happen to me."
"But just because you have a mental illness doesn't mean you should not be a regular huntress! What happened to you before Bastion?"
"Before I was studying at Shade Academy and I had no idea about my condition. It was in my second year in Shade that I figured it out in a less than pleasant way, and I was forced to tell my team. They were very supportive and told me they wouldn't change how they treated me. And for a while, they didn't. And everything was back to normal I was a regular team leader like any other team leader. Then one day I ran out of my medicine on a mission."
"And?"
"I killed them," Krix said in a calm voice a violent tremor ran past her hands.
"I Stabbed them all in their beds and murdered them while they slept. When they found me, I was wandering the forest covered in their blood and other things before being taken away. After my actions, the trail would have put me into a mental ward for the rest of my life until Ludo himself came into my courtroom as a lawyer and made me an offer I couldn't refuse."
"He told you to come to Bastion?"
"Exactly. He said that I had great potential and that he couldn't' no wouldn't let such a gift go to waste and asked me If I still wanted to be a huntress. I said yes. And the rest is history. Now If you excuse me I'm gon get some sleep before we all die tomorrow. I suggest you all do the same." Krix said before turning over in her bed and beginning to snore.
I might die?Ruby thought as an old hand gripped her chest. It was hypocritical to the extreme for Ruby Rose of all people to be afraid of being killed. She had a body count in the upper double digits and still climbing after all, and this was no different. But state she did not want to die.
"Don't worry Ruby. I promised Kage I wouldn't let anything happened to you." Mika said as she put a supportive arm around Ruby's shoulder as her paperwhite skin was reflected in the firelight frantic it an eerie glow as it did.
"Thanks, Mika I feel better for it," Ruby admitted before Hino spoke up.
"I can sense your fear. You have nothing to fear Rose. I will make sure you see tomorrow."
Hino said calmly before clapping her hands.
"Tomorrow we shall be victorious! It has already been spoken!" She said in a stern voice as smiled openly.
'Here we go." Mika said sarcastically as she laid back down into her sleeping bag which was little more than a loosely stitched together amalgamation of old white fang flags and cloth.
"You just got her started!" Mika said as Hino cracked her massive hands before speaking.
"Ruby, do you feel lost?"
"Yes?"
"Do you feel like your life has lost all direction? Like you are wandering without a purpose?"
"Kind of, why are you asking me this?"
"Because If you're feeling lost like you have no purpose like there's no hope left, then I have come to save you."
"Save me? How?" Ruby asked the girl's claiming smile came to her face.
"Ruby let me ask you a question have you ever heard of the light? And the one true prophet?" Hino asked as Mika groaned.
"Oh great! You just got the religious person to talk about religion. I swear she's worse than Kage about this!" Mika groaned as Ruby look confess to the girl.
"Kage is religious? I've never seen him pray."
"That's because Kage speaks to the light in his own way," Hino said ber sliding over to Ruby.
"Now sit while I speak to you of the truth." Hino said as Ruby slid over to her resting her small hear on one of her massive biceps as the taller girl began to speak.
"Well, this is going to be a great way to die!" Krix said as she and Mika began to stretch their arms. It was exactly nine am in the morning, and the plan was about to begin. Early this morning their orders from the Death Korps commanders had changed. They were now to find and exterminate any white fang in the immediate vanity of the are of operations than to return to base for a rendezvous for extraction.
In another positive turn of fate, their mission was made significantly less complicated by the fining of a more up to date blueprints of the base. The current underground is split into three sections both with a control center they would need to access to get to open the emergency release switch and evacuate to the top of the fight.
To be honest, it was sheer luck that the central switch needed to be flicked first and that only the other two needed to be switched simultaneously as this meant they would need to split their firepower in half instead of a quarter and three fourths.
"Ok, you know the plan! We fight our way to the control rooms and starting at nine twenty! Exactly! We start flipping the switches if we fail to open we will repeat this process every two minutes until we are successful! Any question?" Krix asked as her weapon snow firmly in assault rifle from as the girls nodded no.
"Well let's go," Krix said as the group split up. It was decided then the two groups would be comprised of Krix and Mika and Ruby and Hino as they split up.
Hino had destroyed their entrance from earlier using her drills making it so that no white fang could come in and surprise them from behind. It does make the unable to retreat as they could not afford to cave in the tunnels leading to the release switches for any reason. As the girls said, their final good by their real fight began.
I'm sorry! Hino thought as she punched forward with her drill turning a skull to red pul as she killed the first Fang members to oppose her. There was over two dozen fang in the hallway, and that number was only growing. As she shifted her weight to one massive leg and swung one of her drills to the right grating an another skull to red pulp smashing his body against the wall with a messy thunk. As she was once again covered in fresh blood.
As the fang fourth she moved like a glacier. Slow but implacable her ever stop careful thought out and consider as she smashed body's to blood smears and ground limbs into bloody past Hino felt such a severe and profound sense of sadness she was almost brought to tears.
This is so depressing! Hino thought as she brutalized the fang members. Turn body parts into macabre red streamers of flesh and bone, rendering faces and bodies into unrecognizable jumbles of cartilage.
As she killed the fang, she felt herself nearly burst out in tears at the injustice of her action. Unlike most people, Hino did not hate the white fang. In fact, she loved them. Like she loved all of the beings of the light. She did not view the fang as mad or evil but merely misguided. They had never heard the word of the light or the one true prophet bless his name so how could they know to act any better?
And to send them howling to their deaths before they could even taste his word? It was a blasphemy so perverse that she had already resigned herself to over a hundred prayer of redemption father the fight was over to attempt to make up to the light for denying it of its children on earth.
As another drill stuck a chin as her drills ruined his face and turning the white tunnel walls into a watercolor canvas his head was ripped off from his shoulders earning a bone-chilling crush.
Before being ground down into nothing Hino resigned herself that this fight was a necessity for completing her mission and that the light took all life when they died, so there was no real harm in the killing. As she fought, she saw something that caught her interest.
There. Hino thought as she spied down the hallway as several white fang operatives were unloading an overly large and complicated piece of machinery. From over here, it was clear that in was a gun emplacement.
"Can't have that," Hino said calmly after pulping another Fang member before aiming her gauntlets and clicking her feet.
SHINK!
The sound of metal filled the air as several metal stakes emerge form her boots as she was yanked from the ground.
Hino loved this feeling. The feeling of air blowing past her face and the shocked faces of the fang members as she was suddenly yanked off of her feet and was suddenly flying over their heads. As he grasped hooked right on the guns emplacement, Hino clicked a button on her gauntlets as it shot the fang.
Several dozens you shot into the gun crew of the weapon as two out of three glowed bright blue.
Excellent the pellets were a great invention for Bastion students. Pellets were a term for a weapon that shot several ultrasonic dust rounds at you. While not harmful in any real way the would still trigger your aura if they struck you showing her who did and who did not have their aura unlocked as a grin came to her face as she slammed her boots into the aura locked gunner making him gak as twelve steel stakes entered into his chest while she simultaneously slammed her gauntlets into the remaining crew and crushed their faces into pulp before falling forward.
Instantly the fang panicked. Seeing two of their members getting their heads pue as watch as the figure later ripped their comrade's torso in half as she moved her feet. Revealing several grisly steel spikes before she clicked her gauntlet first a string of pellets fired off as she lept into them.
Ruby was having a good day. As she ducked backward slashed once taking a leg from a man and striking the aura of another as an electric current filled her legs. Yes. Ruby thought as she ducked backward and fired her rifle twice killing once and injured another as she jumped forward.
After the debacle of the tunnel fight against the Cackler horde, Ruby had been drilled constantly by kage in CQC combat techniques. Saying that she either needed to learn how to fight with her weapon in closed environments or she needed a new weapon.
And since Ruby outright refused to use any other weapon but Crescent Rose she learned how to fight with it.
: Enemy to the left. Move back ten feet. Slash. Fire. Jump three yards to the left. We are doing well. Good work
Her eye said to her displaying an alarmingly level of consciousness that Ruby was determined to have Felicia look at as soon as she got back to Bastion but until then she needs to first survive and the three dozen or so white fang in front of her were going to make her work for it.
Slash forward. Jump back. Slash to the left. Jump to your fight. Fire twice jump back. Rinse wash repeat. Ruby thought as she repeated her silent mantra as she began reaping a bloody tally amongst the fang. As she sliced into bone her body gave a jolt an she felt it coming back to her.
It was a different sense of electricity than an arena fight. Where her body was alive with passion no this time, it was more dull and composed. Hino had spent all night lecturing her about the light. And how all she needed to do was open up as a whole and admit she was but a part of something far greater then herself and all of her worries would disappear.
At first, Ruby had been skeptical but after an hour or two of conversation, Ruby was finally seeing the bigger picture. She was put part of a larger entity a growing living thing that needed her as she needed it. With out the light she was nothing, without her the light was nothing. It felt good t be apar of something like that and killing had started to feel good again too!
It still felt good and was nothing like the anarchy of the charge across the badlands but still it was a nice feeling. As she fought her way across the hall ignoring the piles upon piles l of messy flesh that Hino had left behind as she butchered her way to the end of the hallway as Ruby finally meet up with the girl who was doing a perfect backflip ripping the torso off of fang member with her boots?!
Before she ducked backward at girl exchanging an quick glance amongst the others as they charged the finals door to the command center. There was a flash of light before they burst down the door at the far end of the tunnel revealing a room full of dials, knobs, fang, and guns.
"Well! We did it!" Mika said happily as she began the delicate and time-consuming process of adding to her fur she began to skin the ears of an antelope faunus girl of some type Krix spat in disgust.
"You really are a psychopath you know that?" She asked with plain disgust as Mika shrugged her shoulders.
"I've been told that before you know?"
"Anyone ever tells you your it insane and should be put down like a dog?'
Krix asked as Mike stopped her stomach voiding habit as she flashed Krix an enigmatic smile.
"Anyone ever told you that you sound like a bitch?" Mika asked flashing her a sharp smile as she fluttered her emerald eyes at the girl as Krix glared at her.
"If we didn't need to work together I would have killed you long ago. And do the world at large a favor."
"Tried. You mean you would have tried to kill me. Like so many others and when you failed you would spend the rest of you admittedly short life running from Kage who you would pray to your gods that he finds you first os your death would at least be quick or me. Because If I find your first that's when the real games begin!" Mika said happily as Krix spat on the ground.
"I should put you down."
"Do it," Mika said as she slashed her way down the fauns animal parts Krix growled raised her rifle and fired.
BANG! Krix fired the weapon once putting a pink bolt right through Mika's head entering her skull and blowing out her brains as the girl sailed backyard before collapsing into a bloody pile firelight the end of the command center…..
AN: Well there we go! Another Bastion chapter done and done! I'll be honest I did not see me giving Ruby that character development when I first started this chapter but it came to me and I like it so it stays. I got the idea form when Ruby was talking to Ozpin about how she lost people she loved and I was like did you really have a close relations ship to Pyrrha? Like did the talk in the show? Really? We never really get to see Ruby notlike people espically peopleThe next one should come out sooner then this so don't worry!
Jaune torchwick is next if you follow me so until then happy holidays!