Here's another chapter for everyone. I hope you all continue to enjoy the story. Just a warning: I've decided to give Nora's canon semblance a bit of an upgrade/redesign to make her more in line with the other characters that have an element aspect to their semblance (Ruby, Yang, and Weiss) so the Deathstalker fight is going to be a bit more fun.
Chapter 7: Mysteries and Triumph
"Our world is one full of dualities: The two brothers and gods that created us; the light that drives us and the darkness that threatens to consume us; the Dust that protects us and the Grimm that hunt us; the pristine sun and once-whole moon… The Blue Rose and Traitor in Black… That which must be known, and that which none were meant to understand… With our swords, we protect a people. With our silence, we protect the world. We understand, but must never be understood. Of all our secrets we share only one: the most perfect corruption comes from within. It is our warning, in case we fail our eternal vigil against the night." -The code and values of the Rose Family, post-Sanctuary
Emerald Forest Temple
Ruby followed the others out as she glanced around, looking at the scene around her. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora were trying desperately to defend against a massive Deathstalker as a screech overhead warned of the approaching Nevermore. "Yang, do you think you could punch through its armor?" Ruby asked her sister.
Yang frowned. "Not without maybe blowing up half the temple, and I don't think we'll be passing this test if I do that." Ruby sighed before pulling out Crescent Rose and loading a magazine, much to Weiss' surprise.
"I thought you said you couldn't punch through a Deathstalker's armor," Weiss said as she followed her partner into the clearing.
"I can't, but its eyes aren't armored, are they? All I need to do is blind it and, as long as we stay calm, it won't be able to follow us." Ruby embedded the blade of Crescent Rose into the ground before glancing at Weiss. "Could you watch my back for me?" The moment Weiss nodded, Ruby activated both of her semblances. Everything slowed down around her as she felt the wind on her. She watched a leaf almost come to a stop in the air before she lined up a shot and pulled the trigger. Crescent Rose shook as the bullet flew towards its target, piercing a glowing red orb before everything started moving again.
The Deathstalker let out an enraged roar as Ruby pulled back the bolt and chambered the next round, snatching the used casing out of the air. It was at that moment she noticed the shadow approaching and glanced to the side to see the Nevermore flying low over the trees, Weiss facing away from it as she scanned the sky. The moment Ruby saw the feathers start to rain down, she pulled her scythe out of the ground and quickly pushed Weiss clear before moving to take cover, but it was too late.
Ruby heard the sound of the feather tearing into fabric before it embedded itself into the ground, causing her to turn around with wide eyes. "N-no!" she cried out before trying to tug on her cloak, trying desperately to get it free, but unable to convert it into rose petals or pull it out without causing more damage.
Weiss, who had managed to turn around before it happened, felt a chill go down her spine at how Ruby had gone from confident marksman to completely panicked the instant her cape had been impaled to the ground. "W-what's going on with her? She has the same look from last night…" Weiss shook herself out of her thoughts in time to see the Deathstalker closing in. She took a breath as she drew her rapier before stabbing the tip into the ground, a glyph forming around her before the Grimm was incased in ice. "Yang, help Ruby with the quill! I'll keep it in place!" she shouted over her shoulder before rubbing her temple, a dull throb already forming.
Yang nodded and ran over to Ruby before wrapping her arms around her. "Calm down Rubes, it's okay. I'm going to help you but you have to stay calm, alright?" Ruby looked up at Yang with tear-filled eyes and the blonde briefly saw red. She didn't know what was going on with Ruby, all she knew was that she hated seeing her little sister looking so vulnerable. She took a deep breath to calm herself before grabbing the feather's quill and pulling as hard as she could.
The moment the tip left the ground, Ruby quickly yanked her cloak out from under it and whimpered at the fist-sized hole. "Nononono, this isn't good, what am I going to do?" Ruby started rambling for a moment before she took a deep breath and looked at the crowd gathering around her. "We need to get out of here. We have what we came for and we can't risk fighting them anymore," she said with a slight tremble to her voice as she took off her cloak, carefully folding it up and tucking it under her arm.
The group nodded and started to run into the woods. "Weiss! Wait!" Ruby called out to the girl as they reached the tree line.
The heiress let out a groan as she rubbed her forehead. "Ruby, we don't have ti-" She stopped as she felt Ruby put something in her hand and looked down, surprised to see an aspirin in her hand before Ruby offered her a bottle of water. Weiss took the bottle and swallowed the tablet with a sigh before the duo continued to run.
"I just wanted to thank you for helping me back there… I'm not used to people going out of their way for me like that and I noticed you looked like you weren't doing too well. So, I guess your Glyphs cause you headaches when you use them?"
Weiss let out a sigh and glanced at Ruby before responding. "Yes, but I have two questions. First, what's with you and that cloak, and second, why do you carry a bottle of aspirin around with you?"
Ruby let out a sigh. "Well, my secondary semblance, Analysis, is purely mental aspects: increased situational awareness, photographic memory, improved learning, and even awareness about my own body functions while I'm using it… Which means I get crippling migraines when I use it. I try to take one before I use it simply so the aspirin is taking effect around the time the downside kicks in." Ruby held her cloak, still visibly shaken. "A-as for the cloak… I'm sorry, i-it's complicated and I can't tell anyone I don't absolutely trust." Weiss' frustrated sigh drew her out of her thoughts before she smiled apologetically. "I promise that if I ever feel like I can trust you enough with it, I'll tell you, okay? I-it's just a Rose thing that I really can't just tell everyone about."
Weiss let out a sigh before she answered. "Alright, Ruby, I trust you…" Deep down Weiss was torn. "I understand that there's things you can't share to just anyone, but I'm your partner Ruby. Trust has to go both ways, doesn't it?"
Weiss was pulled out of her thoughts by a happy sigh from her partner. "There! Good as new!" Ruby said, a tone of genuine relief in her voice as she held up her miraculously flawless cape, causing Weiss to go wide-eyed as she put it back on. After a moment the Nevermore flew overhead, causing Ruby to glare at it. "Nox," Ruby growled, causing Weiss to flinch at how profane the word sounded on Ruby's lips. "I really want to kill that thing right now, I really do. If not for what it did, then because a Grimm that size shouldn't be this close to Vale or Beacon."
Weiss blinked at the sudden change in the faunus. "U-um… D-don't worry, I'm sure you'll get your chance…" Weiss muttered before facing ahead as they entered a clearing in front of a bridge. Just as they reached the bridge, the Deathstalker burst through the treeline, charging at them.
Blake looked over her shoulder and then across the bridge. "We can't all cross at once while both these Grimm are still around, we need people to stay behind."
Before Ruby could respond Pyrrha spun around, shield in hand as her sword turned into a rifle and started taking shots. "I'll stay here and try to hold it off!" she cried out before Jaune paused, turning to help her along with Ren and Nora. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang started moving across the bridge before the Nevermore dove down, smashing into the bridge and flying back up into the air. Yang watched it, igniting her gauntlets with a twitch before launching a fireball with a punch. While the other three were focused on the flying Grimm, Ruby looked around.
"Yang can't hit it with anything strong enough to kill it without risking this temple collapsing under us, Weiss would probably freeze to death if she tried to use her semblance on something that big, I'm definitely not trying to bring it down with mine, and I don't know what Blake's semblance is…" Ruby's ears perked up as she noticed the ribbon attached to Gambol Shroud, causing her to look at the pillars nearby. "If we can get it on top of that building by the cliff face, I might be able to slingshot myself up there and take care of it like that… But I'd need more momentum than my semblance can give me right now…" "I have a plan. Weiss, can you use your glyphs to boost my speed?"
Weiss glanced at her in confusion. "I suppose, but what would you-"
"Okay, good. Blake can the ribbon on your weapon stretch between those pillars?" As soon as the girl nodded Ruby continued. "Yang, I need you to see if you can make the Nevermore crash into the cliffside."
Yang grinned. "This is going to be fun isn't it?"
With JNPR
Jaune nervously watched as Ren dashed around the Deathstalker, keeping it distracted with a barrage of gunfire. They were lucky enough that they'd managed to avoid being cornered on the bridge, giving them the chance to maneuver, but the advantage was already proving useless. "Nothing we have can break through its armor… There has to be something…" His eye was drawn to the stinger swaying over its body and the narrow, unprotected connection to the tail. "That's it! Pyrrha, the tail!"
Pyrrha noticed what he was talking about and smiled. "Right!" she said before flinging her shield at it, slicing through the scorpion's tail and dropping the stinger directly on it, cracking the armor slightly. Ren managed to jump into the air and catch the shield before throwing it back to Pyrrha.
"Nora, hit it!" He suddenly felt as though he'd regret his idea as Nora showed a psychotic grin, pulling a dark blue Dust crystal out of a pouch before charging forward.
"Pyrrha, give me a boost!" She shouted before jumping on top of the redhead's shield, timing a shot from Magnhild with Pyrrha's jump to get airborne. Pyrrha and Jaune watched as she soared through the air, laughing maniacally as she drained the Lightning Dust, electricity crackling around her.
Ren paled as soon as he saw what was happening. "Get clear! Now!" he shouted, causing the duo to run toward the tree line. The sound of a grenade exploding above was their only warning as Nora's hammer plummeted, striking the Deathstalker and releasing a massive blast of lightning, scorching everything within 20 feet. After a few seconds, the angry ball of lightning died down, revealing Nora standing in a crater, Magnhild over her shoulder as she let out a laugh.
"Remind me to never make her angry…" Jaune muttered before a roar drew everyone's attention back to the Nevermore.
With RWBY
Ruby watched the Nevermore circle, Yang holding its mouth open and occasionally shoving a fireball down its throat before jumping away, leaving the Nevermore to crash into cliffside as Weiss surged ahead with her Glyphs. As Yang went to help Blake make the slingshot, Weiss jumped up and used a mix of her Glyphs and Flash Freeze to trap the Nevermore in place, quickly moving into position afterwards. Ruby smiled before jumping up, pushing Crescent Rose against the ribbon as Weiss used Gravity Dust to pull it back. "O-only you would come up with this plan," Weiss said with a smirk, trying to hide the chills her semblance caused.
"Yep. Just make sure you don't miss. I kind of like my insides where they are, thanks." Weiss simply rolled her eyes and launched her partner forward with a gesture, a trail of petals behind her as she fired off Crescent Rose to increase her speed. Just before Ruby could touch the cliff face, Weiss created a line of Glyphs going up the cliff, with Ruby landing on the first one. The faunus girl hooked her scythe under the Nevermore's neck and started running, relying on her semblance, the Glyphs, and constant fire from her weapon to increase her speed. As she reached the top of the cliff, the Grimm's body became trapped under the outcropping and she fired her rifle one last time, slicing clean through its neck and landing on top of the cliff, looking over the valley below as her cloak flowed in the breeze.
Weiss stared on wide-eyed at the sight, vaguely remembering an old story her grandfather, Nicholas, once told her about an encounter he had with a Rose. "I guess he was right… Maybe they really are more like protectors than the reclusive lunatics everyone claims they are…"
"Well, that was a thing," Yang muttered next to her. "I… Wasn't sure it'd work that well." She glanced at the other two. "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's get up there and get back to Beacon!" This finally snapped the others out of their trance as they quickly went to work, searching for a way up the cliff.
Cliffside Observation Area, With Bisman, RWBY, and JNPR
"Hey teach! We got those pictures you wanted!" Yang called out as the group walked into the building, noticing the blank screen on the back wall. "What's that about?"
Ruby immediately noticed Bisman pale as he glanced to the side. "W-well, I'm supposed to keep track of where everyone met up and, um… Look, don't be mad at me!" He quickly turned the screen on and was met by varied reactions from the crowd. Yang started sputtering while Blake and Jaune went wide-eyed. Pyrrha did her best to stand at the back of the group, desperately trying to hide her blush. Ruby was staring blankly at the screen, while Weiss…
"WHAT?!" the heiress screamed as she stared at a point with her picture next to Ruby's right in the middle of one of the so-called "romance" zones in the forest. Nearby was a point with Jaune's next to Pyrrha's while a point in the other zone had Yang's picture next to Blake's.
"T-there's no way this is serious… Right?" Was all that was going through Ruby's head before she looked at Bisman. "You lied, didn't you?" The way Ruby said it made it sound more like a statement instead of a question.
Bisman sighed before he looked around the room. "I-I have this tradition every year. During initiation, I pick one thing that I use to mess with the prospective students. Sometimes I scatter random objects around the forest and promise them extra credit or excused absences from certain classes, other times I might make up rumors about a larger-than-average Grimm that's entered the forest. I-I do it to keep everyone on their toes."
Ruby nodded, trying to keep her thoughts off the map. "So, you picked two random areas in the forest and made up a legend about them?"
"N-not quite… I looked at maps from previous years' Initiation tests, looked into the history of each team, and found out only a single pair was ever formed in either of those locations, both of which went on to form a single team… And the members of each pair did end up falling in love. The odds that anyone from this year would get paired up in those areas was so low I figured I could use that, not have anyone paired up there, and when someone looked into it they'd find that I wasn't entirely lying."
Ruby hummed for a moment. "So, you do this not only for your own amusement, but to teach the initiates a lesson." Bisman nodded while the rest of the group looked at her in confusion and she glanced around. "Think about it, we could be sent on overnight missions with Grimm nests, unstable ground, some other hazard that would be dangerous for a lone Huntsman or Huntress at night. Or we could be sent into an area where there's a possibility of a giant Grimm, or sent to retrieve some old artifact and be paid extra for finding others in the area. A Huntsman or Huntress needs to be smart and hold their own in a fight, but they also have to be alert and know to stick together in dangerous territory. He said something would happen that most people wouldn't want to deal with if they were paired up in those areas, even if it was minor."
The others glanced at each other wearily before muttering an acceptance of Ruby's explanation as Bisman sighed. "Now then, before I can accept any of your extra credit, which I will be counting as double in apology for my… Deception… I need you to present your relics. Also, since the eight of you are most likely exhausted after fighting two giant Grimm, neither of which should have even been there, I'm allowed to give you the option of either receiving your team assignments now and being dismissed for the day to rest, or proceed to the ceremony… Which won't start for another hour or two." At the chorus of groans, he nodded. "Very well, everyone please show me the relics you collected." Once he saw them he slid his chair over to the nearby monitor.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. Since you collected the white knights, you will be assigned to a team, designation RWBY. Your team leader will be Ruby Rose." Bisman cleared his throat as Yang happily hugged Ruby, noting Weiss' lack of a reaction. "Your dorm room will be 315 in building C, it's on the left-hand side of the path to the docks from the courtyard." Once he received a nod from each and handed them their keys, he glanced at the other four in the room. "Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie. Since you collected the white rooks, you will be assigned to a team, designation JNPR. Your team leader will be… Jaune Arc." He glanced at the surprised boy with a sigh. "Ozpin decided who the leaders would be, I just came up with the designation. If he says you're the leader, he must think you have the potential to be one. Anyways, your dorm room will be 316 in building C. I trust you heard me explain where it is to team RWBY, correct?" When they nodded he handed them each a key, making sure to drop it into Nora's hand when he saw a spark arc off her. "If you have extra credit, please transfer it over via the terminal behind you on your way out."
He was about to turn away when Ruby spoke up. "P-professor Bisman?" He glanced back at her expectantly. "You said we get extra credit for a translation of the texts in the temple, right? W-would it be okay if I hand that in another day?"
He blinked before smiling. "Of course. I'm honestly surprised anyone can actually read that. Even a partial translation would help me out with my work since I've collected a long list of old Draconian texts." When she smiled back he glanced at the group. "Go get some rest. Classes start the day after tomorrow." The group cheered as they left, leaving Bisman to slump into his chair. "Thank the gods. I have no idea how I'm still alive right now…"
And this chapter is done. Bisman just barely dodged a bullet there. I thought I'd use this chapter to have some fun with Nora's new and improved semblance. Since we're on that, I'll name off a few of the canon ones that have changed and how they've changed.
Yang's semblance, which will be called "Dragon's Fury" for this, still centers around flames and strengthening her attacks when she's hit. However, it's split into three aspects: elemental for the flames and, obviously, increased strength, which can be triggered independently but are tied together by the third, a reactive trait that amplifies them whenever she's hit. Her flame aspect, when active, causes her aura to radiate heat, with each hit she takes causing a burst of extra heat, slowly cooking anyone that attacks her. Actively, she can use this to set things on fire at a range of up to 5-20 feet, depending on how many hits she's taken. In the story, she actually uses this semblance and a special type of dust to ignite Ember Celica instead of standard Burn Dust. Her strength aspect is mostly unchanged, except that she can choose to use her Aura to fuel her strikes if she hasn't taken any hits.
Nora's semblance, which I'm calling "Discharge," is mostly based around an elemental and strength aspect as well, in this case, lightning/shock. As in canon, she can absorb electrical attacks and use them to strengthen her muscles, but she can also build up a static charge, either through everyday activities or by converting part of her Aura's energy, for the same purpose. More than that, however, is what was demonstrated in this chapter; Nora is able to store an electric charge, regardless of its source, and use it for offense or defense, either creating an electrical shield around her, directing a burst of lightning at a target, or releasing it in a single hammer strike for immense damage.
By far the most complex "canon" semblance is Ruby's primary/family semblance, which I've started calling "Rose Storm." I'll actually be leaving the explanation of how this one works, and the specifics about how semblances function in this story, to Bisman in the next chapter. Yes, the new teacher I added in will actually be teaching finally. No, there won't be any scenes of him making anyone's desks explode or anything.
The quote at the beginning of the chapter is meant to be a bit grim. Remember, Ruby is the last Rose left alive, meaning that if she dies, the "eternal vigil" it speaks of will come to an end without anyone knowing what they were standing guard against. Not even Ruby understands yet, though she now has something that might tell her…
Please leave a review if you have any questions or input. I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you in the next chapter.
