Finally managed to finish up the last part of this! Man, I'm on a roll lately. Content warning for mentions of blood, murder, and other canon-typical violence. Enjoy!
"What happened?" Yang demands, worry making her tone sharp. She had shown up mere minutes after news of the disaster at the rally had gotten out, followed closely by Blake. So much for letting those two enjoy their date night.
As for what happened—that's exactly what Ruby has been attempting to wrap her head around. One minute she was having a good time hanging out at Robyn's rally with Penny, and the next nine people were dead, Penny had been framed for murder, and Tyrian had resurfaced, this time in Atlas. Truly a whirlwind of a night.
And yeah, apparently, he was the one who'd poisoned her. Ruby tries her best not to think too hard about that part. She can still remember the taste of blood in her mouth as she struggled to breathe, the pain and weakness and overwhelming fear of knowing that something was terribly wrong but not knowing what it was—
She shakes her head quickly to clear it. They don't have time for her to freak out right now. "Basically, the rally was going fine, then this guy named Tyrian showed up, murdered nine people, made it look like Penny did it, and then vanished." Both Blake and Yang obviously have questions, but she doesn't have the luxury of enough time to answer them right now. "Look, I'll give you the details later, but we need to get going. I need to report to Ironwood about what happened."
"Alright, fine." Yang gives her a stern look. "But I'm holding you to that, Ruby." Ruby sighs.
"And you're sure that the man you saw was Tyrian Callows?" General Ironwood's face is dark and serious—well, more serious than usual, anyway. Throughout her explanation of what had happened, his expression had grown more and more concerned.
"Yes, sir," Ruby replies, nodding. "I recognized him from the last time I ran into him, when I was traveling through Mistral on my way to Haven. He's kind of difficult to forget." She laughs nervously, resisting the urge to fidget. "You can ask Nora, Ren, and Jaune if you want to confirm what I'm saying."
Ironwood waves a hand dismissively. "No need. If you say that you're sure, then I trust you." He leans forward slightly. "Might I ask about the details of your last encounter with him?"
"Sure," Ruby says, although she really wishes that the topic had never come up. It's not something that she likes to think about, ever. "He found us when we were searching a recently attacked village for survivors. At first we thought he'd just run into us by accident, but now I don't think it was an accident at all."
"What makes you say that?" Ironwood asks, now looking curious.
Ruby's mouth feels dry. "Well, he knew who I was, even though I'd never even seen him before. I think that Salem sent him after us—after me."
Despite how exhausted Ruby feels, Ironwood doesn't seem tired at all. "Do you know why she would have done that?" he asks her, folding his hands and placing them on his desk in front of him.
Not for the first time since she got here, she's grateful that she reported to him on her own. Nora and Ren have already been questioned, and the Ace Ops are still down in Mantle, securing the scene. "No," she says, although at this point she feels like she might be able to guess why. "Maybe for revenge?" she suggests. "Since I was the one who stopped Cinder at Beacon?"
"Perhaps," Ironwood muses. He looks deep in thought. "That's definitely a possibility. Before you go, is there anything else that you noticed about tonight's events that you feel is important for me to know?"
"Yes, actually." Ruby finally gives in to the urge to slump a bit. She's so tired, but her brain feels like it's buzzing, full of questions and worry. "He—Tyrian—implied that he was the one who gave me the poisoned coffee."
"Did he?" Ironwood's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Well, that is rather enlightening—and rather disturbing. I'll have to look into that matter further." He sighs heavily. "Well, thank you for your time, Ruby. Now, go and get some rest. I can assure you that they'll be plenty of work to do tomorrow, and I'll need you to be ready."
"Yes, sir."
"So, what happened?" Yang demands as soon as she steps into their dorm. On either side of her, Weiss and Blake are also looking at her expectantly.
Ruby sighs. She'd been hoping that while she'd been talking to Ironwood, her teammates would have given up and decide to wait until the morning, so she could go to bed in peace. Naturally, she had no such luck. And she's too exhausted to deal with this right now.
So, she stalls. "Look, guys, I'm really tired. Can we just get some sleep, and talk about this in the morning? I promise I'll tell you everything, just not right now. Please?"
The other three agree, although reluctantly. With a sigh of relief, Ruby changes into her pajamas and crawls into her bunk. It's been a very, very long day. She needs to sleep. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better, despite the interrogation that awaits her in the morning.
Unfortunately, her sleep is anything but restful. With his reappearance in her life, Tyrian manages to invade her dreams as well, and she wakes several times during the night, gasping and trembling. In her nightmares he's succeeded at poisoning her poisoning her again, and she fights to breathe as she feels it affecting her, tasting blood as it pools in her mouth as she coughs. Or, she's back in that ruined village in Mistral and he's somehow managed to separate her from her friends and capture her, and now he's dragging her back to Salem.
And this time, Qrow isn't there to save her.
By the time she wakes up and sees sunlight starting to trickle in from the window, she feels anything but rested. But she's not feeling eager to go back to sleep, either. She sits up with a groan, scrubbing tiredly at her eyes, and opens them to see three pairs of worried eyes staring at her. Guess her rough night was pretty obvious.
"You ready to talk now?" Yang asks, nudging Ruby's legs aside and taking a seat next to her on the bed.
Guess she's managed to put it off long enough. She sighs for what feels like the millionth time since last night. "Yeah, sure."
Before she can start, Blake steps forward and presses a steaming mug of coffee into her hands. Ruby takes a sip, basking in the warmth from the drink. "Thanks." Blake smiles warmly at her. Ruby takes a deep breath, and begins.
"So the guy who attacked the rally last night, Tyrian? That's not the first time I've seen him. We ran into him when we were traveling to Haven . . . "
After breakfast, and after Ruby finally opens up and tells them about what happened at the Rally and with Tyrian, her teammates manage to convince her to take a nap, since she's clearly still exhausted after her restless night. Besides, the three of them need to have a chat of their own.
"So that's not the first time this guys has gone after Ruby," Yang says, clearly fuming. Twice this jerk has attacked Ruby, and both times she hadn't been there to protect her sister. The entire situation leaves a sour taste in her mouth.
"And then there's all the people he killed at the rally," Weiss points out. "Who knows how many people he's hurt? He needs to be stopped." She sighs. "I wish there was something more we could do."
"There is," Blake chimes in. "We're huntresses now, right? Our job is to protect the people. And this guy is clearly a threat. So why don't we get to work tracking him down and bring him in?"
Yang beams at her partner. "Now you're talking."
"But will Ironwood agree to let us go after him?" Weiss wonders aloud.
Blake shrugs.
"We'll convince him," Yang declares. "I'm not giving this guy another chance to go after my sister."
"Team RWBY would like to request that we are assigned the mission to track down and capture Tyrian Callows," Ruby announces, before stepping back in line with the rest of her team.
Ironwood's ever-present frown deepens. "I already have some of my top operatives assigned to that task. The four of you are needed elsewhere."
Yang steps forward. "No offense, sir, but he poisoned Ruby. He went after one of our own. We need to be the ones to go after this guy."
"We'd like to be able to help in any way that we can," Weiss chimes in.
"Please, sir," Blake says earnestly.
"Very well." The general sighs heavily. "I will assign the four of you to the task force that is currently working on tracking him down. But I do expect you to stay on top of your other duties as well. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir," the four of them chorus, before filing out of his office.
"Let's get this guy!" Yang whoops as soon as they're out of earshot.
But finding Tyrian Callows turns out to be easier said than done.
"How do we find this guy?" Weiss asks, after their first fruitless day of searching. "Ruby, you've interacted with this guy the most. Do you have any ideas?"
"Hmm." Ruby frowns at the reminder. None of those interactions had exactly been pleasant. "Well, I know that he must have been working with whoever rigged the election. His attack was too well coordinated with it for them to be unrelated."
Blake's eyes light up. "I can check for evidence of hacking in the voting system Atlas uses," she announces. "I've hacked Atlas tech before, so I know what to look for."
"Just don't let Ironwood hear you say that," Weiss mutters under her breath.
"And he's pretty hard to miss, even in a crowd," Ruby muses. "Even if he was disguised, if someone saw him, I bet they'd remember him. I'm going to check on Penny and make sure she's doing okay after what happened at the rally, but I think afterwards I'll go patrol the streets of Mantle and see if anyone has seen any signs of him."
"And I'll go with Ruby," Yang says quickly.
Ruby looks a little annoyed at her sister's over-protectiveness, but she agrees. "Okay, but you do realize that we're going to have to split up if we want to cover enough ground."
"Fine by me," Yang replies.
"And what about you, Weiss?" Ruby asks, turning to her partner.
"I'm heading to the Schnee manor," Weiss replies. "Theres no way that my father won that election through legitimate means. I'm going to do some snooping and see if I can get some answers on what shady moves he might have pulled. If I'm lucky, it might help us find Tyrian, and whoever he's working with."
"Sounds good." Ruby nods. "Make sure to stay in touch, and keep the rest of us updated if you find anything!"
Out of all the things that could have happened tonight, Tyrian Callows had not been expecting to be cornered in an alleyway by four angry teenage girls. Not that he lets his surprise show. "Hello, Ruby," he says casually. "Good to see you again. And I see that you brought company this time, how nice." Ruby glares at him.
"Don't talk to her," snaps the blonde girl, scowling at him. "In fact, don't even look at her."
"You made a mistake, messing with a member of team RWBY," declares the Schnee brat.
"And now, we're taking you down," the dark-haired faunus girl finishes quietly.
The odds certainly don't look good for him at the moment: cornered, outnumbered, weapons at the ready and pointed at him. But Tyrian refuses to show fear in front of these children. He'll take his chances. Not to mention, he does have a goddess on his side. And a few tricks up his sleeve.
"Bring it on, ladies."
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you liked it.
The key to writing fight scenes well? In my case, it's avoiding writing them altogether and just ending the scene of a cliffhanger.