A/N: So last week Defenestrator was going to post the chapters because I was... asleep? Or maybe she was posting Catnip and I was posting Search. Either way, Search got totally missed! We didn't realize till a few days into the week, so instead of the short chapter we'd planned on, here's a nice, solid, medium-length chapter to make up for that.
Also, in case anyone hasn't noticed, we are now on a pretty serious alternate timeline- anything goes from here on out! (But that's nothing new.)
Anyway, enjoy the ride,
- Fiercesomest
It was still a few hours till evening, and some of the others still had work to do. Explanations would have to wait.
The determination to stay awake to find out what happened still gnawed at the back of Ruby's mind, but her limbs were lead and she had to keep blinking hard so her eyes didn't get that sleepy, fuzzy feeling as she let Weiss drag her back to the supply tent where there gear was being stored.
Weiss sighed a frustrated sigh, a hand buried in the back of her team leader's collar, "You need to rest."
"But I can still listen," Ruby whined. She was so tired, though. Every step felt like her limbs weighed ten more pounds. "And it's not fair- you heard what happened already. Can you just tell me?"
"It's better coming from Pyrrha," Weiss huffed to cover the fact that she'd spent most of her time here chasing people out of Ruby's tent so she could rest peacefully, scolding Fox for his lackluster medical knowledge, and trying to aura heal her comatose partner. She had no idea what had happened to Beacon.
Ruby gave a long whine and turned to Blake, "Blake? Pleeeease?"
Blake fell silent, continuing to watch the ground as they walked. It was the only way she could avoid those imploring puppydog eyes.
Beacon had fallen. All of Vale had fallen. That was... essentially, the extent of what she and Weiss had been told in their two days at the campsite.
After dragging the sisters to their respective tents (with a great deal of help from Yatsuhashi and Sage) there had actually been incredibly little time to grill anyone about their current situation.
Amber eyes flicked to Weiss. While Ruby was out cold, the heiress had shifted into the most fiercely protective partner Blake had ever seen, more intent on guarding Ruby than on gathering information.
Blake sidestepped a twisted scrap of Atlesian paladin. There hadn't been many people around to ask in the first place. Only three people seemed to stick around camp during the day - the girl who never came out of her tent, Jaune, and whoever was manning the medical tent. Pyrrha tended to patrol the wall's perimeter, and everyone else went out into the field. Always searching. Blake's brows furrowed. What... or who were they looking for?
The first day, she had tried talking to Yatsuhashi... but his stoicism had apparently risen to new heights. She couldn't even begin to describe the face he'd made when she'd asked about Velvet.
The second day, Sage had been much the same when she asked about Sun. Hearing Ren mention Neptune today had been an extremely welcome surprise that she hadn't realized how badly she'd needed. But hearing just how short Ren's definitive list of people was…
What had happened to the others?
Two days and they knew so little.
When Blake looked up, they had already arrived at the tent. Ruby was still locked onto her with hopeful blood-red eyes. Weiss stood at Ruby's side, and Blake dared not cross the ice-blue glare practically burning a hole through her forehead.
She offered Ruby an apologetic smile. "... The sooner you sleep, the sooner it will be evening."
Evening arrived right on schedule.
Gold-red streaks of setting sun peaked through the holes in the crumbling stadium walls, scattering the camp with intermittent patches of light. Twilight was normally a fairly silent hour at the camp. This evening was much the same, save for the steady crunching of steel-plated boots across the ground.
"You're pacing again." Ren opened one eye and looked up at Pyrrha from his position cross-legged on the ground. She had stopped mid-stride, looking abashed. "You pace when you're worried."
Pyrrha gripped her own arm, casting a fretful glance at the safety gate behind them. They were waiting on Neptune and Nora's return, after which they would have their small gathering to bring team RWBY up to speed. That thought set Pyrrha back to pacing.
Ren watched her for a few rounds more before sighing and nimbly hopping back up to his feet. "What's wrong."
Pyrrha froze under his piercing pink gaze. "It's getting late, so I was thinking..." she turned her back to him, "We should talk to team RWBY tomorrow."
Ren's eyes narrowed. "Pyrrha."
"It's... it's just, I would hate to wake Ruby at this hour, and Yang is still-"
"Pyrrha," Ren gently tugged on his teammate's shoulder until she very reluctantly turned back around. She still wouldn't look at him. "...You're avoiding them."
"I'm..." Pyrrha crossed her arms. She looked as though she was trying to fold in on herself. "I'm just waiting on Nora and Neptune..."
Ren stared her down. Pyrrha's downcast eyes looked almost hazel. "Why are you avoiding them?"
They fell into silence - a stalemate of wills - Ren refusing to supply a suggestion that Pyrrha might latch onto in defiance of supplying a true answer.
Just when Ren was about to leave things be and return to meditating, the darkening sky lit up as though it was daylight again for a single moment - a snaking column of electricity connecting from the clouds to a nearby point just outside the stadium's walls. A resounding crack of thunder followed in the lightning's wake.
"Nora's signal," Ren breathed, adrenaline flooding his system in a singular, sickening wave.
Pyrrha flung her arms wide, pulling the safety gate apart in one fell swoop.
They immediately spotted Neptune roughly one hundred yards away, his shock of unnatural blue hair impossible to miss as he ran for dear life as quickly as his lanky legs could carry him through the forest.
They weren't as prepared to see the massive horde of Grimm chasing after him, each one identical to the next - shining red eyes, snarling masks of bone, oddly opaque smoky black bodies in a distinctly human shape, each and every one of them sporting a painfully familiar tail.
They'd found Sun. ...or at least, his clones.
The clones rushed along the ground and through the trees as fast as liquid smoke. There was no sound of their breathing, no yelling, just the shush of leaves and beat of their feet on the ground behind Neptune as they raced to catch him in the short span of open ground before the colosseum gates. Two came together, joining arms and allowing a third clone to spring off of them, lunging forward, fingers curled like claws to catch Neptune's jacket.
Clawed ashen fingertips brushed Neptune's collar.
"Duck!"
Neptune dove forward, rolling right under Pyrrha's spear as it flew straight through the clone reaching for him, taking out half a dozen more as it vanished into the horde.
Pyrrha watched him roll back up into a full sprint. She whipped to face Ren. "Help hold them off."
Ren nodded, dashing straight out into the fray.
Pyrrha followed, but stopped just outside the gates long enough to slam them shut.
The massive gates sheared off the view of the western sky, throwing the forest into complete shadow but for the ember-bright glow of the clones' eyes as they coursed into the open break past the trees, shadowy mouths split into manic grins as they threw themselves at the humans that had so foolishly leapt into the fight.
A pained scream sounded out somewhere among the trees and, as one, the shadows checked, some stumbling over others, the majority that weren't smashed into ash by Pyrrha's shield or Ren's Stormflower doubling over. They clutched their legs and dissolved into the night.
"Got him!" came Nora's voice from somewhere deep beyond the treeline. A snarling, wounded sort of animal sound accompanied the shout.
"Sun!" Neptune nearly dropped his weapon, immediately scrambling in the direction of Nora's voice.
"Wait!" Ren called after him but stopped short, tossing a brief glance over his shoulder at Pyrrha.
She shook her head and waved for him to follow, catching her spear as it returned and settling into a defensive stance, presumably to guard the campsite. He nodded to her.
Ren turned and chased after the sounds of Neptune crashing through the underbrush. He cringed - the noise and decidedly panicked nature of Neptune's sprinting was only going to draw more Grimm. "Nora!" It was difficult to focus while in motion, but Ren tried to seek out her aura, reaching out with his own to feel for her location even as he called, "Where are you!"
"Ren! How many times do I have to tell you," Nora emerged from a tangle of downed trees, gritting her teeth as she dragged Sun out from the mess of branches. But it wasn't Sun. Well, it was, per say, but his face... red markings spiraled off the mask and up and down his arms, a bloody accent to the bone plates protruding from his arms and back. His dirty white shirt hung in tatters from his shoulders. One of his legs stuck out at a distinctly unnatural angle. "use the sloth call. We didn't practice it so you- whoops!"
Nora jumped, dropping Sun as he lurched, snarling and lashing out at her with clawed hands.
A pink wall of aura flashed into existence, harmlessly deflecting the claws assaulting it.
Ren landed at Nora's side, watching with gritted teeth as Neptune ran in and jabbed his glaive into Sun's side, electricity lighting the area for a few seconds before he let up and dropped to pin his partner to the ground, or, struggle to anyway.
Holding their current barrier firmly in place, Ren leaned a bit closer to Nora, touching shoulders with her. "Where did you find him?" he asked, keeping his eyes trained on Neptune and Sun in case he needed to erect a new barrier.
A long half-snarl, half-whine seeped from Sun's slack jaw as he twitched with the residual effects of the electricity. Now that he lay mostly still, it was easier to see that he was filthy, his arms and shirt and mouth crusted with dirt and what could have been blood.
"He was in one of those old wrecked Atlas ships," Nora sat down hard in the leaves, the battle light fading from her teal eyes as she let Neptune handle his partner. Magnhild at her back as she worked a crick out of her shoulder to avoid thinking about what he had been doing when they found him. "Do you think we can fix him?"
Ren lowered his barrier, but kept one pistol trained on Sun even as Neptune tried desperately to get a response from him. He couldn't take his eyes off of the fallen Faunus - Sun's grisly visage dredged up unpleasant memories of his own brush with a similar fate when he'd been afflicted by that ancient Grimm toxin - an experience Ren hoped never to repeat. "...We should get him back to camp."
"No!" Neptune whirled around, his fists curling ever tighter in the remaining scraps of Sun's shirt. "No - there's no way - Grimm die in captivity!"
Nora blinked at the tension in Neptune's fists.
"But he won't be in captivity," she looked between Ren and Neptune like this was a foregone conclusion, "He'll be hiding in those maintenance hallways. Did we not talk about this?"
"No, no we did not talk about this at all-" Neptune stopped short at the sudden volley of shots Ren fired over his shoulder. A lone Beowolf that had just slinked out from behind a tree fell dead behind them.
"We need to move," Ren stowed his pistols and knelt down to help lift Sun, trusting Nora to cover them should any other stragglers appear, and even though Neptune wordlessly cooperated, his brows stayed deeply furrowed in reluctance.
Weiss sat in the half light of the storage tent, watching over her sleeping partner. Despite all of Ruby's complaining, she'd fallen asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pack they'd been using as a makeshift pillow. She lay still now, eyes closed, her breathing deep and even. One of her hands lay across her stomach, and the other was in Weiss's. She'd waited till Ruby was asleep before returning to her aura healing attempts.
Soft white light, like moonlight, like snow, suffused the two figures. Weiss closed her eyes, focusing. She didn't know what was wrong with Ruby exactly- no one seemed to be forthcoming with ideas either- but Jaune hadn't woken up and Ruby had, and Ruby was going to again.
To be fair, she highly doubted that Jaune Arc had been trying to aura heal a dog, of all things. It had worked for Ruby once, even. But it certainly hadn't worked this last time.
Now Weiss sat with her like she'd been doing for the past... three days? Two? The white light of her aura flickered as she moved her left hand to rub her temple.
Silent as the shadows cast upon the pair when the tent's flap opened up to admit the starlight outside, Blake poked her head inside, amber eyes wide in the dark, watching Weiss work. She stood there for a while, as if weighing her decision to finally step inside and wordlessly sit beside her teammates.
Weiss looked up at the rustle of cloth, the light of her aura fading back out. "Is everyone back?"
She'd been dreading having to wake Ruby up. Well, more dreading that she might not be able to, but it was past time they were told what had happened to their school. And Vale itself. She'd been watching Ruby like a hawk, but that didn't mean she hadn't noticed the thick, black smoke from fires in the city proper marring the skies earlier in the day.
Blake stared off into space, unsure how to respond. A deep terror ate away at her, leaving her feeling as though she'd just been gutted.
Sun... what had happened to Sun? Blake been so happy to see Neptune dash into the medical tent for supplies that she almost missed seeing Sun through the tent's opening as Nora carted him away... even that brief glimpse of him, black and red and white and every color that Sun was not... Neptune's tears of joy upon finding her and hearing all of RWBY was safely at camp - Blake could tell he was crying for so many other reasons as well. So many that Blake was suddenly far less sure of just how much she wanted know about what had happened.
At this point though, it didn't seem like they had much of a choice. "Pyrrha is asking to see us in the medical tent," she spoke softly, finally daring to look at Weiss. The heiress's ice blue eyes were rimmed with red, bloodshot, as though she was minutes from dropping just as hard and fast as Ruby had. "...Whenever we're ready."
"Alright," Weiss reached to give Ruby a gentle shake, "Ruby? Ruby, wake up."
She didn't.
"Ruby," Weiss said, more threatening this time. Her team leader stirred, and her eyes flickered open. Weiss couldn't see the color in the dark, but they weren't glowing. Her shoulders drooped with relief, "We're going to the medical tent."
Ruby had been dreaming of snow. She scrubbed at her eyes to get the sleep out.
"Hey," she greeted her two teammates with a long, still-waking-up sigh. It was dark, and cold even in the tent. Weiss's hair stood out in the black a little. She propped herself up on her elbows, bleary with fatigue, "Is Pyrrha there? She's going to tell us stuff, right?"
Blake smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Yes, I think so."
The wind made an eerie, howling noise as it passed over the rim of the colosseum, making the hair prickle up at the back of Ruby's neck. The same rim blotted out all the stars that weren't directly overhead. The moon hadn't risen high enough to be visible yet.
Crescent Rose felt heavier than usual at her back. She knew Weiss was tired. Blake was tired. They were all tired- after all these weeks of travelling... Ruby steeled herself. They had to know what happened.
Their footsteps crunched on the dirt path as they reached the medical tent. Ruby got to the flap first, shielding her eyes from the lamplight as she ducked in.
The center of the tent was a little bit clear. It looked like Fox or someone had rearranged the few cots to make room for a single crate, spread with a map of the area. The upperclassman in question sat cross-legged on the end of Jaune's cot, by his legs. Jaune looked pale in the light of the Dust lamp. A sheen of sweat gleamed on his forehead.
Sage Ayana, of team SSSN sat on a low crate nearby, but by virtue of his stature and tall green hair seemed almost level with Fox. His yellow-green eyes seemed to glow in the light, and the tattoos circling his neck almost moved in the shadows.
Nora was present, but she looked anxious, wringing her Magnhild's shaft like she had something else she needed to be doing.
Robin, the little fox faunus, was nowhere to be seen, but she could have been sleeping behind any of the piles of medical supplies stacked around the tent.
Blake was the only one who had caught sight of her, the tiny tips of her fox ears poking out from beneath the warm blankets where she'd snuggled down against Yang. The brawler in question was awake, but she remained flat on her back, one arm curled around Robin, amethyst eyes heavy with fatigue.
Not that it mattered much if Yang dozed off. Unless Pyrrha decided to start shouting the details of what had transpired, Blake doubted she'd be able to hear much anyway. Fortunately Blake had managed to unearth a broken pencil and piece of scrap paper to take notes for her before gingerly sitting herself on the cracked crate closest to Yang's cot.
Neptune was nowhere to be seen - probably tending to Sun if Blake had to hazard a guess. Yatsuhashi was likewise not present, but she suspected his absence had less to do with his excuse of guarding the gates, and more with his desire to avoid discussing the other half of his team.
Pyrrha sat before the crate holding the map, head bowed and silent as she stared into the small oil lamp they'd placed on the map's center. Ren sat beside her, arms crossed and eyes closed. They'd been sitting that way for a few minutes now, the air crackling with tension and heavy with apprehension.
After what seemed like years, Pyrrha finally lifted her head. "I..." her eyes danced across each face in the room in quick succession, then fell, defeated, back to the map. "I don't know where to start."
Ren opened his eyes, placing a hand on her shoulder. He looked to Ruby. "What do you want to know?"
Ruby felt calmer, meeting Ren's eyes. He didn't look at her like she had something wrong with her, or avoid looking at her altogether. It didn't make choosing a place to start her questions any easier, though. She approached the crate and sat down on the dirt floor of the tent. Weiss hesitated, torn between looking after her charge and sitting on the ground. Reluctantly, she took a spot on a crate next to Blake.
Ruby glanced at the rough map. It was marked with downed ships and Grimm sightings. There were a lot of Grimm sightings. "I guess... when did it start?"
Pyrrha folded her hands in her lap, eyes darting from Fox, to Sage, and back to the map. "...The tournament."
Ren nodded, "The one-on-one rounds, to be more specific."
Pyrrha could still see the look of fear in that boy's eyes - what had his name been... Mercury? Velvet standing over him, looking equally terrified. His leg bent completely sideways from her pinpoint strike. His aura had already broken. The match had already been called. It was a miracle she hadn't been imprisoned.
That should have been the first sign that something was awry.
Pyrrha bit her lip.
There was no way they could have known.
"Excuse me, is this the dorm for Team RWBY?"
Pyrrha looked up from her scroll to find a short ginger-haired girl with eyes as green as her own standing before the very door she was looking for. Abandoning her message to Jaune and quickly stowing her scroll, Pyrrha came to a stop next to the newcomer. "Yes it is."
"Oh fantastic!" The girl threw her arms in the air and practically skipped in excitement. "How do I open the door?"
Pyrrha's curious smile faltered just an inch, "I'm sorry, they're not here. Their mission was delayed because of a snowstorm." Ozpin had been quick to reassure them that their friends were fine, but sadly, he'd also said they were likely to miss the entire tournament. "Who are you looking for?"
The girl's crestfallen expression recovered in almost an instant. "My friend Ruby! Do you know her?"
Her grin was infectious, and Pyrrha couldn't help but grin right back. "I do. She's my friend, too."
A gasp of intrigue. "If you are Ruby's friend... and I am Ruby's friend... Does this mean... that we can be friends as well?!"
Pyrrha laughed. This girl was so strange, but in such a pleasant way. "I suppose it does. What's your name then, friend?"
"My name is Penny!" She stated with delight - a look that dissolved into confusion over the hand Pyrrha was offering her. "Oh!" She took Pyrrha's hand and shook it. "And what is your name?"
There was always a distinct pleasure in finding someone that hadn't heard of her. "Pyrrha..." She recognized this girl now. From Atlas. She was a fellow finalist, and she was... heavy. Her hand felt heavy, and very solid. Something made it extremely difficult to pull away when Penny's pocket beeped.
"I'm sorry," Penny checked her scroll and pouted. "Oh, Ciel is looking for me. I have to go!"
Pyrrha nodded, trying not to think about the odd tingling sensation the other girl left in her wake. "Good luck in your match tomorrow!" she called after Penny, who had already taken off down the hall, "Scarlet is a tough opponent!"
Penny stopped just before rounding the corner and positively beamed. "His name is like Ruby's, so I like him already. Goodbye friend Pyrrha!"
There was no way anyone could have known.
"Ruby..." Pyrrha forced herself to meet Ruby's gaze. "Do you know... a girl named Penny?"