A/N: Just a forewarning: I may or may not arbitrarily decide to drop this. If you really are interested in the story? Too bad for you.
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The next day...
Blinking upwards, Ruby let loose two shots. The recoil from Crescent Rose drove her skyward, setting her up for the kill. The rounds hit the Deathstalker on its back, punching jagged holes in its carapace. The thing roared, raising its massive pincers up along with its tail. A false opening, if she dove now the stinger would impale her.
That was where the twins came in. Elise and Erik darted over, remarkably fast as they kept on a simultaneous attack run. The Deathstalker saw them and tried to strike, but the two presented an equal threat, making the Grimm hesitate on which one to attack first. It was a delay they exploited by each leaping onto the pincers, their trusty cutlasses (imaginatively named Lefty and Righty) sinking into the nerve clusters controlling the claws.
The Grimm tried to slam its pincers together, but the two nimbly jumped out of the way. For a moment Erik seemed to shimmer and fade, while Elise practically glowed. When it swiped at her, she shimmered out at the same time he started to glow. It launched its stinger at him, missing the teen by an uncomfortably close margin. He was saved by a powerful tug from his other arm, his sister taking the chance to yank him out of the way. Ruby descended with her treasured scythe extended, bringing the weapon into a vicious slice that severed the tail before it could retract.
Just as she landed with a powerful thump, the Kettu siblings charged once again, this time they were both glowing. With a war cry both of the cutlasses were plunged into the Deathstalker's eyes, tearing through the soft tissue and into the vulnerable mass underneath. In unison the twins yanked their swords out, taking a moment to admire the scorpion's disintegrating form. Ruby didn't, she was already on the move the second she confirmed it was dead.
A glance showed her Raoul was fine; a half dozen Beowolves were upon him, but between his own durable Aura and the heavy chainmail he was fond of, their powerful blows weren't fazing him. With each swing of his mace Striker he sent one flying away, though only a few died from the first blow, necessitating either a second one or someone else to finish them off. As she blinked past him a Beowolf had its head knocked clean off, dissipating into ash. The twins were right behind her, going to help him out.
Valentine was having some trouble however. He cleaved a Beowolf in half, only to get sent flying by an Ursa which took the chance to get him while he was distracted. To the boy's credit he only bounced off the rocky ground once before he got back on his feet. In a seconds time he had Foe-Smiter in rifle form, firing off a single Dust charged bullet at the creature.
It missed. Ruby sighed to herself as she closed in, feeling some regret at doing what many in faraway Signal academy derisively termed "cherry picking" by carving the bear in twain while it was occupied by Valentine. She didn't like stealing kills, it made her feel like she was taking advantage of others. Nevertheless she consoled herself by promising to tell him about proper aiming.
Landing hard, she locked eyes with the last Grimm in sight, which was another Ursa. For her, the monster was no real issue. To the young students, especially Val, it might pose a problem. Not one as bad as the Berigel which led this pack, a threat she dealt with first to avoid any hassles.
She blinked closer, though she had little intention of slaying this one. Valentine darted over, Foe-Smiter held at the side for a slash. To help she flashed within a meter of the Ursa, making it swipe at her. Blinking away easily, it was left wide open for him to attack. With a loud cry he swept his axe up, beheading the monster in one go. The creature was already disintegrating before its head hit the ground.
Out of the corner of her vision Ruby saw one more Grimm, a tiny Boarbatusk. Shrugging nonchalantly she fired off a single shot, impacting between its eyes. It dropped immediately, dissolving away just as the teen realized it was there. His attempt to react was awkwardly cut short, and he lowered his axe bashfully.
A quick sweep confirmed the area was clear. Ruby saw only four other living things in the area, all of them in good condition. Valentine was checking around too, his breathing heavier than hers from the short fight. Raoul was tromping his way back to the camp, Striker resting on his broad shoulder. The Kettu twins were flanking him, giggling over some inside joke. All of them looked unharmed. Giving a deliberate glance at Valentine, Ruby waited for him to make the necessary call instead of stepping on his authority.
It took him a few seconds longer than she liked, but he called out, "Everyone alright?"
"We're fine." the twins said in unison.
"I'm good." the big teen said. Valentine quietly sighed, likely in relief.
"Gotcha. Someone go check out the airship, make sure its okay." he directed.
"On it." the twins said excitedly, taking off in an instant. With that accomplished, he surveyed the camp he shared with team RWBY, checking to see how badly it suffered the Grimm attack. To his satisfaction the damage was minimal.
"You okay?" Ruby asked him, snapping him out of his inspecting. Raoul walked up to them, lowering his mace to the ground once he was by them. She too felt it was safe enough, and put away Crescent Rose for the time being. Valentine finally retracted his axe, only once he noticed everyone else had done the same.
"I'm good. Raoul?" he asked, to which the big teen grunted neutrally.
"Good." Valentine said. His teammate and his senior/friend started to move away, but when he sighed they paused, the latter taking a second to glance at the red forest.
"Ruby, if you don't mind me asking, did something about that pack seem weird to you?" he asked carefully.
Raoul shrugged, his chain mail rustling with the movement. "This is the real wilderness. Grimm out here are worse."
"He's right. Ones close to Beacon tend to be weaker since they get pruned so often." Ruby agreed.
In truth, she too thought there was something off about the diverse Grimm pack which attacked their camp. Not at the variety, that part was odd but far from unheard of. It was subtle, she didn't notice until after the Berigel was slain. But she began to see how they attacked with reckless abandon, showing only a hint of tactical thought. Based off the size of them, they should have been mature enough to show something more than mindless violence.
"Oh, okay. Well, at least you guys are here." Valentine commented.
Ruby nodded in agreement and turned back to the trees again with a guarded look. When her scroll beeped she grabbed it, quicker than she meant to. Seeing the upperclassmen occupied the two teen trundled back to the camp to clean up. The clock showed it was the scheduled they were supposed to check in, to her quelled disappointment. Currently her screen showed two icons blinking, pictures belonging to Weiss and Yang. Touching the glowing surface, she briefly wondered why Blake wasn't on yet.
"-hing on this end either, oh she's on. Hey Ruby, how's things at the camp?" Yang greeted cheerfully, her voice tainted with the usual distortion wireless chat caused.
A quiet sigh left her. "A pack of Grimm hit the camp. Everyones fine, but some of the food was wrecked." she reported, glancing over the mild destruction.
"Nothing too bad?" Weiss asked in concern.
"Just some of the juice. So, I'm guessing no luck out there." Ruby said, her tone showing some of her disappointment. Both girls sighed.
"Not a thing. Found some pretty rocks though." Yang tried to cheer her up, despite knowing it was pointless.
"No sign here. Say, have either of you heard from Blake in the past hour?" Weiss suddenly asked.
Ruby frowned. "I haven't actually. Hang on, I'll-"
Just as the words leave her lips, the scroll beeped again, the last team member's icon popping up to join the chat. Tapping on it, the dark haired girl's picture lit up.
"Hey Blake, anything-" Yang began.
"What are you guys doing right now?" the faunus demanded.
"Um, just checking in, why?" Ruby answered carefully, raising an eyebrow at the screen.
"Get back to the camp, I'll meet you there." was all Blake said before she cut the connection, leaving all three of them confused and worried.
Fifteen minutes, a raid in the Bullhead cargo hold, and a hasty explanation to VERE later, Ruby found herself trekking along a natural path, following after Blake. Yang and Weiss were behind her, neither of them in any better state than she was. For whatever reason the dark haired girl refused to look at any of them, she simply powered forward along a route only she knew. In the meantime Ruby kept her attention on the surroundings, warily tracking the treeline. Several shapes which were likely Grimm darted in and out of sight, stalking the four. Keeping her gaze on the trees, Ruby put only enough attention to keep track of where her feet were falling.
When Blake stopped in place, she accidentally bumped into her. Recovering quickly, she let out a quick "Sorry." before looking to see what made her cease moving. The reason was her staring into a dark cave, one roughly ten meters in diameter.
"Creepy." Yang commented.
"I found it by accident. Some Grimm ran in there, when I went after them... well, c'mon." Blake powered inside rather than continuing. Ruby followed her in without a second thought, but the blonde and the white haired girl hesitated for a moment. Finally they sighed at the same time and walked after them.
Once inside, the prize of Blake's raid was revealed: glow sticks. She started cracking the simple lights and dropping them, illuminating the dark and cold space. The light wasn't much, just enough to show the outline of the cave tunnel.
"So, what'd you find?" Weiss asked guardedly, feeling her weapon's grip.
"I would've told you back there, but you have to see it for yourself." Blake answered enigmatically.
She retrieved her scroll, activating its flashlight and shining it out. The pane of light the device gave was blinding in comparison to the dim cave, and the other girls needed a moment to see whatever it was she was pointing at.
"Whats here that's so... so..." Ruby trailed off.
A black curved pillar was in view of the light; from what she could tell, it was roughly a meter wide. A large chevron shaped indentation was placed on the outer edge, the tip pointing inwards. In front of the indentation was a rectangle carving set inside of an inner line, with a strange glyph carved on she had never seen before. When Blake moved the light, it showed another small symbol, then another, curving up and over. Two more flashlights appeared, the others wanting to see the statue too. In the process the ground in front of the statue was lit up, showing them stone steps worn away close to oblivion.
It was a single massive ring, almost seven meters tall.
"Woah." Yang said softly, gawking. The one word reverberated off the walls, creating a disquieting echo effect.
Ruby tore her eyes off the statue, her gaze falling on Weiss. "Is it like the thing from your dream?"
"Exactly like it." she replied amazedly.
Yang approached the thing carefully, coming to a stop in front of one of the indentations. When she planted a hand on the surface, she frowned.
"This isn't rock. Feels a little like metal actually, not any kind I've ever seen before." she observed. Craning her neck up, she furrowed her brow in concentration. "Four, five, six..." she counted under her breath.
"There's thirty nine symbols etched on it. Eight of those little chevrons, maybe nine if there's one buried underneath. I counted them when I found it." Blake interrupted, earning a short scowl from the blonde.
Ruby was frowning too, albeit in puzzlement. She hadn't heard of anyone building something like this; the statue had to be a group effort, it was too large to be a one person creation. On the flip side, the cave looked well worn by time, showing no sign of any recent activity. Glancing at the ground, she saw paw marks and some scratches on the floor, yet the thing looked untouched.
It didn't make sense to her. If the statue was old, then the Grimm should have destroyed it a long time ago. If it were new, then there would have been evidence of it coming here. Human footprints at the very least, to say nothing of all the heavy equipment needed to bring it in here.
"I also found this." Blake said, interrupting her thoughts. Ruby looked over, seeing her fix her scroll's light on something else, a few meters away from the ring.
"An altar." Yang guessed.
Weiss walked slowly over to it, keeping her own light on the thing. It was fairly large, topped by a slanted circle with a number of raised button like stones on it, each one had a glyph etched in place. After a few seconds she confirmed the symbols were identical to the giant ring. In the center was a large red jewel bigger than her hand, smooth and spherical.
"What do you guys think?" Ruby asked, gazing around the large construct again. Weiss circled the altar, coming to a stop in front of the rows of symbols.
"Its old, that's for sure. No clue what its made of." Yang planted her hands on her hips, frowning at the ring.
"I'm thinking we should call this in." Blake opined, looking it over for anything she missed.
"Same here. Not what I was hoping we'd find out here, but I suppose this is worth it." Ruby said, a hint of dejection in her tone.
"An archeological find, neat I guess. Wonder who built it?" Yang asked idly, looking over the structure.
"Some long dead civilization is my bet. Personally, I'm wondering why. Someone went to a lot of effort to make this thing, and they stuck it way out here in a cave. And I've never seen any glyphs like these before." Blake added.
Yang shrugged. "Some egg-head can fill us in. Right Weiss? Weiss?" she repeated when the white haired girl didn't respond at once. She turned around, slower than her sister and her friend.
Weiss was standing completely still, staring at the altar blankly. She ignored all of them, even as Blake discretely toed closer to her. The only movement she made was the shallow rise and fall of her chest.
Ruby gulped nervously. "Um, Weiss? You okay?"
One of Weiss's hands lifted up, for a moment hovering over the stone slab. Then the flattened palm dropped onto a seemingly random symbol. The glyph she touched lit up, at the same time one of the chevrons moved. It clacked forward over a symbol, then retracted with a glow. The inner ring with all the glyphs began to creak, smoothly sliding.
Ruby jumped with a squeak, blinking away several meters as she yanked out Crescent Rose. Yang wasn't nearly as fast, but she had Ember Celicia at the ready facing the suddenly rotating ring. Blake stared numbly at the sight of the active object, snapping her head to Weiss. She was still blank faced, fixated on the altar.
"Weiss, what did you do?" Blake demanded. Weiss didn't answer her, or gave any indication she even heard. Instead her hand darted over to another glyph, touching it and making the symbol light up with a strange ringing noise. Another chevron lit up, the grinding inner circle rotating to another position.
"Weiss, stop!" Ruby barked in alarm. She hit another glyph, then another, then another. Each one made another part of the ring glow, forming a circle. When she hit the sixth one Blake tackled her, trying to stop her friend's apparent madness. She was slow by just one second, enough time for the girl to slap the red crystal in the center.
The edges of the ring erupted into whitish blue light, in the blink of an eye it blossomed out into a cascade of glowing water. Ruby fired off a shot in panic at the bloom of glowing water which reached out to them with a powerful 'kawoosh." The high powered round did nothing to stop the bloom coming for them.
Just as quickly as it appeared, the bloom drew back into the ring. Behaving like no water she had ever seen before, the stuff settling into a line within the circumference. The entire process took no more than a few seconds.
Under Blake's full weight Weiss blinked, shaking her head as the light returned to her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but once she saw the ring she was struck dumb. Just as they all were.
A surface of glowing water was now set in the ring, rippling to some unseen force. All around the cave there was a bluish light, hazily illuminating everything. Alone it made the few lights they brought along look inconsequential. Around the active statue the light was wavering just like it would be in water, patterns which would be mesmerizing if it weren't for the ninety degree puddle suspended in place.
Ruby was the first to recover, realizing to her quiet embarrassment she had fallen down. Picking herself up, her silver eyes were glued on the glowing water blissfully hanging in place, distantly aware of the others also staring at the amazing sight.
"What the...?" Weiss murmured.
"What did you do?" Yang said breathlessly.
The heiress snapped her head to the blonde angrily. "What did I do?!"
"You touched the altar and made it do this." Blake said, unable to tear her eyes off of the sight as she rolled off the smaller girl.
"I... I did?" she asked confusedly.
"Oh don't tell me you don't remember." Yang said laconically.
"I don't! I remember just looking at it, next thing I know I'm on the ground and that, that thing is there." Weiss snapped, gesturing angrily at the sight.
Yang rolled her eyes, taking her attention off the thing long enough to notice her sister slowly walking towards it. "Ruby, what are you doing?"
Cautiously the red toned girl walked up to the shimmering surface of the puddle, craning her neck up. She saw many things which were impossible to explain, such as the inner edges of the ring glowing slightly brighter than the water itself. Or that she couldn't see any part of the chamber behind the water. Hesitantly her hand came up to the wavering surface.
"Don't touch it." Blake snapped.
"Can you please get away from that thing?" Weiss insisted, her voice laden with worry.
Yang stomped to her, not fast enough to stop the girl's hand from brushing over the surface. She hesitated at the last second, seeing her sister's face showing an expression she hadn't seen in a long time: child-like wonder. Her own hand hung in midair, pausing midway towards grabbing her shoulder. Trailing her lilac eyes to the simmering puddle, she saw Ruby's hand gently dip in and out of the water, gently plying over the stuff. Curiously none of the liquid left the line, it passed right through her hand with no resistance.
"How does it feel?" she quietly asked.
"Its like water, but not. I can't feel anything on the other side though." she answered softly, finally dropping her hand from the strange stuff.
There was an electric crackle, and suddenly the entire puddle shorted out. The chamber was plunged into darkness, mitigated only by the tiny lights they brought along. They seemed insignificant compared to the sight which overwhelmed them.
Ruby turned back around, seeing the anxious expressions of Weiss and Blake in the dim light. An insane plan was forming in her mind, but for it to work, she needed to discover several factors. The most important was the reason for her next question. "Weiss, do you remember what buttons you touched?"
The blanching of all three of them was not unexpected.
"Have you lost your mind?!" her sister demanded incredulously, recoiling in shock.
"We have no idea what this thing is or what it does! for all we know its some kind of execution machine." Blake shot, stomping her foot on the ground.
"Why would someone go to all the effort of making this thing just to kill people?" Weiss spoke up as she got off the dirt. Ruby smiled at her, glad that she had one supporter.
"Call me crazy-" she began.
"You're crazy." Yang interrupted.
"-Crazy, but I think this is some kind of, I dunno, a gate." Ruby finished.
Blake frowned. "That's assuming a lot."
"Weiss, you said this thing is exactly like the thing from dream." the pale girl nodded. "What if this is what happened to JNPR? They found this thing, turned it on, and stepped through it to there?"
"One problem with that." Yang said, crossing her arms. "Lets assume for a second you're right. How come they never came back?"
"I think I have a idea for that." Blake offered, waiting until everyone to look to her before she lifted up her scroll. "In tech history, around forty years ago the predecessors to scrolls were small blocky machines, called mobiles. You didn't have a contact list, you had to manually type in the ID code for each device, they called it dialing the number. This went away with digitization. What if this thing works the same way?" she gestured to the altar. "All these symbols, they're numbers to get to wherever this thing leads."
"Tech history?" Yang asked.
"One of my electives. There's a problem with that line of thought however." Blake's tone darkened. "Say this is how it works. We dial this number and step through, then this thing closes down just like it did a minute ago. What's this gate's number?"
The color in Ruby's face drained away. "So, if it closes..."
"We'll be stuck on the other end." Weiss finished grimly.
"Exactly. Of course, its just a theory." Blake concluded.
Ruby turned back to the ring. Her features hardened at the sight, but on the inside her feelings were roiling. She knew her friends would leave soon, no more than a few weeks at the most. Her next decision could preempt that shattering, leaving her alone in her mission. All for something she knew nothing about.
By her side her fists clenched; she made her choice.
"Weiss, turn it back on." she commanded.
"Ruby..." Yang half pleaded.
"You and Blake are coming with me. Weiss, stay here and turn it back on in a half hour or so. We'll just scout around, then come back through. If we find them, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, we'll bring them back. Even if we don't find them, this is an amazing find. Its a win-win, no matter what." she explained. Yang recognized her tone and knew that she was going to do this, no matter what.
"Alright." she sighed. By the altar, some kind of control mechanism, Blake made up her mind. Carefully she walked closer to the odd discovery, joining the siblings.
Weiss looked over the circular rows of symbols, no two exactly alike. When she lifted her hand to the surface however, she felt her intuition at work. Frowning, she hit the same glyph, or at least she hoped it was the same glyph, seeing it light up and the first of the triangular chevrons clank forward. Ruby and Yang got out of the path the watery bloom came from; both girls had a feeling it wouldn't be wise to be in the path of the thing.
Finishing with the red crystal in the center, the cascade ballooned out as it did before. Without as much shock clouding her mind, Ruby was able to note how far the roaring water moved before it retracted, noting the bloom stopping at the edge of the worn steps. She was still scared, no matter how much she denied the fear. At last the bloom drew back to settle into the stable puddle which glowed so interestingly.
"If this doesn't work..." Blake muttered as she walked up to the sisters, both standing before the surface.
"It will." Ruby insisted, turning Crescent Rose to its rifle form. Yang still looked unconvinced, but she faced the puddle with Ember Celicia at the ready. Blake had Gambol Shroud out already, apprehensive at being so close to the shimmering surface. She alone heard the quiet breath of "I hope." leave the team leader's lips.
Ruby Rose squared up her shoulders, put her fears aside, and walked into the puddle.
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A/N: Fixed, thanks BS Dude!