*Author's Note**Yo, time for revenge. A few of you seemed somewhat confused, so allow me to clarify something. At the end of the last chapter, it was not Pyrrha plotting revenge, but Ruby plotting it. Pyrrha is the one Ruby assumed was leaving the dorm, and is her first intended target of revenge. Sorry if any of you were confused. Pyrrha will not be getting her time to shine yet.*
*Pyrrha*
Today seemed like any other for Pyrrha. She woke up before the rest of her team, got ready, and decided to get some training done. She often went for training early, occasionally running into Ruby. At these times, Pyrrha would try to spar with Ruby, or in some way mess up her training and attempt to injure her. But somehow, someway, Ruby always got out of it unscathed. During their spars, Ruby would dodge everything with a grace and fluidity that made Pyrrha wonder why this small girl chose hunting instead of dancing. And when she tried to sabotage the targets to retaliate at Ruby with a rather crudely made outwardly exploding plate, she just dodged those too. It's like the girl was hand crafted by some god or another, and had an "Untouchable" sign stapled to her forehead.
Contemplating her chances of success this morning should she run into Ruby, Pyrrha continued to the training grounds. When she got there, she noticed it was quiet. No Ruby. But upon further inspection, she also saw that it had not been used yet. Now that was odd. Ruby was always here before Pyrrha, and usually left some sign or another of her training; boot prints, bullet holes, clouds of rose petals. Something. Feeling this was a little unnatural, Pyrrha cautiously entered the training grounds.
"Ruby?" Her only answer was silence. Thinking that maybe Ruby had decided to sleep in for once, Pyrrha shook off her bad feelings, and decided to start training. Today was Saturday, which always meant target practice. And she always used the same target for practice; the one three down from the far left. Without realizing it, Pyrrha was walking into Ruby's trap. The moment Pyrrha's foot touched down before the target, she felt a prick go through her sole. Looking down, she noticed a small tack was stuck in the ground. Bending over to try and pick it up, Pyrrha all of the sudden became dizzy. Losing her balance and consciousness at the same time, Pyrrha fell face forward onto the ground, completely unaware of the small, red clad girl who had been watching her from above the entire time.
Waking up a few minutes later, Pyrrha found herself face first in the dirt, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Chalking it to her imagination, she got up and was about to get in some firing practice when she'd heard a noise behind her. Looking back, she saw the object of her affections, Jaune. But what was he doing here? Jaune slowly walked towards Pyrrha, closing the gap with confident strides. When he was but a foot from her, he gently cupped her face in his hands, and began to lean forward.
Then, he was gone. And before her eyes, Pyrrha saw him again. Only this time, it wasn't just Jaune. Ruby was also with him. And they were holding hands? What?! Wait, is he going to kiss her? No no no no no! To her horror, Pyrrha saw Jaune slowly lean in for a kiss on Ruby's soft lips, unable to move. Desperate as she was, Pyrrha could not take a step, or pull her precious javelin out and stop this madness. And she watched, as their lips met in a passionate embrace, unable to close her eyes, unable to look away, unable to stop this madness. And it hurt. It hurt her something fierce.
And all this while, Ruby watched as Pyrrha writhed on the ground, agonizing over something or another. Ruby had put a special hallucinogenic toxin combined with a sedative on the tack she had placed where Pyrrha usually does her marksmanship training. The toxin was a special one, derived from a Deathstalkers stinger. In normal doses, it would paralyze a person. In minor amounts, it would cause the infected to deal with hallucinations of their worst fears. Combined with the sleeping drug, it would give one Nightmares they would be unable to wake up from for a few hours at the least. Satisfied that her plan had worked, ruby left the Amazon to her suffering. On her return to the dorm, Ruby noticed someone leaving. A certain bubbly, orange haired Valkyrie.
*Nora*
It was yet another good day to Nora. She woke up, hand pancakes with plenty of syrup, and was ready to go and have some fun. Normally on the weekends, she would go to the Emerald Forest and wander around, looking for Ursa to fight. She had this odd dream of wanting to fight off a large pack of them, skin them, and make lien off of selling Ursa-skin rugs.
Going to her locker, where she kept her hybrid grenade launcher/war hammer, Magnhilde, Nora input her lockers pass-code. Upon opening the locker, Nora pulled out her weapon, stored it on her back, and left for her fun. Upon getting to the cliff where the students were originally launched back during the initiation, she unfolded Magnhilde. You see, her original landing strategy was that she used the recoil from Magnhilde to slow her descent until reaching the ground, using the pressure from one last blast from the dust loaded grenades to cushion her fall. After Jumping off this time, she found that Magnhilde wasn't firing right. Scratch that, it wasn't firing at all. For the first time in a long time, Nora had found herself without her trademark Cheshire grin, scared. She managed to avoid the worst of it by hitting a few branches and trees on her way down, but the impact still jarred her and left her dazed on the ground.
Looking down on Nora from the cliff above, Ruby found that her sabotage of Nora's weapon had gone smoothly. After all, for someone like her who could build and maintain weapons with the expertise of a master, something as simple as jamming the firing mechanism was child's play. Leaving behind the downed Valkyrie, Ruby went to find her next victim.
*Ren*
Ren's morning started like any other. Woke up, Ruby was gone, Yang was snoring, and Jaune was cuddled in his bead. Just another morning for him, huh? Well, his mornings were nice and peaceful, and he liked them this way. Nothing could ruin them except for maybe Nora. But not bunking with her gave him plenty of space from his suffocating childhood friend.
Getting up, Ren prepared himself for a shower, like he always does. He grabbed his towel, change of clothes, and his special shampoo. Ren entered the bathroom and locked the door behind him,a habit he had gotten into ever since Yang nearly killed Jaune for entering when Ruby had finished her shower and was only in a bath towel (a memory that Jaune struggles to keep, despite the trauma of Yang's merciless beatdown of him threatening to suppress it.)
Stepping in for his shower, Ren did as he always did. Arms, legs, torso, and then hair. After pouring his shampoo on his head though, he noticed a nauseating smell in the air. Sniffing around for the source, he noticed that it was coming from his shampoo bottle. Someone had exchanged his usual lilac scented shampoo for some kind of foul concoction that smelled of wet Ursa. Grabbing someone else's shampoo (he didnt know who's, but it kinda smelled like roses), he tried to wash the stuff out of his hair. But even after one or two washes, the smell wasn't leaving. Just what the hell was this stuff?!
Ruby, despite being angry, did still have manners. She couldn't see for herself how her surprise was working, but from Ren's grunts and complaints, she could tell that her plan had worked. When Ruby was younger, she had learned from her father how to make a kind of chemical that was absolutely repulsive smelling. And with it, she had made her fair share of stink bombs during her youth. Oh well, th smell would go away after about half an hour. Lucky he got away so easily. She figured he didn't deserve to suffer too bad. He always seemed so nice, so Ruby had assumed he likely didn't want to go with the stalking plan originally.
*Weiss and Blake*
Back in their dorm, Weiss and Blake were still fast asleep. Pyrrha had had the entire group training until late the previous night. With such little sleep, most people wouldn't be able to function. The only reason Pyrrha had been up was because she was used to getting little sleep and could function for a while without sleep. And Nora was just hyper, so she had not gone to bed at all that night.
Now if Blake and Weiss had been awake, they would have noticed a red-hooded figure silently make it's way into their room. But alas, they could not. While sleeping, most Hunters could tell, by detecting Aura, if there was someone nearby. But Ruby was an expert at hiding her Aura, so she walked through the dorm, completely undetected by the two sleeping girls. Slipping out two small phials from her pouch, Ruby first opened the one with a clear solution. This solution happened to be cat pheromones. The other bottle, which contained a purple liquid, was catnip, mixed with a very powerful aphrodisiac that was meant for cats.Yeah, most people didn't seem to notice, but Blake's bow was rather odd. Why else would she wear it constantly? It seemed very likely that Blake was a faunus, and the most likely type was cat-faunus. She covered the heiress with the colorless and oderless pheromone. For Blake, she had slipped a spoonful of the purple mixture into her mouth.
Before leaving, Ruby left a small alarm bomb. A device of her own design, the alarm bomb was a little something that let off a loud wailing alarm that sent sound waves off of surfaces in random patterns and at different volumes and frequencies, making it hard to locate the source of the noise. Fortunately, it only lasted about 15 seconds, but it would be enough to wake them up. Stepping outside, Ruby had counted down the seconds until her little surprise woke the two up. After the alarm had woken them up, Ruby patiently waited for the main event. A little later, her patience was rewarded, by the sound of what appeared to be a scuffle. Blake was furiously trying to get at Weiss. Some bangs, crashes, and very... suggestive sounds were coming from the room.
Smiling at her success, Ruby moved on to her final target. The ringleader. The mastermind. Her older sister. Yang.
*Yang*
For Yang, Ruby had felt some guilt at first. She was her older sister, and that had to count for something, right? Too bad Ruby doesn't play fair.
When Yang woke up, her world was dark. She had no idea why. Clawing at her face, she managed to brush the darkness from her eyes. Wait, why was the darkness in strands? Reaching up to her hair, Yang pulled a fistful to her face. Her hair. Her precious gold-colored locks. They were pitch black.
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY HAIR?!" Looking around, Yang saw a mass of red by the front door. It was Ruby. And she was holding something in her right hand. A small bottle with some inky looking substance inside. "Ruby." At this point Yang was forcing a smile, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. She was hoping she wouldn't scare Ruby away, because if Ruby needed to be pounded, Yang wanted her within arm's reach. "What happened to my hair? Did you do this?"
Wordlessly, Ruby simply held the tiny phial up, and shook it slightly a couple of times. Seeing Yang begin to get up, Ruby started to move backwards. Yang, not wanting to let Ruby escaped, crept her hand towards the nightstand by her bed, where she kept her Ember Celica ready and waiting. But reaching in her drawer, she found her gauntlets were missing! Looking over to her baby sister, Ruby pulled her other hand out from behind her cape. In it were the 2 bracelets that expanded into Ember Celica.
At this, Ruby dashed from the room. Not five seconds later, she could hear the door to her room burst open, as Yang tore it from the hinges and chased Ruby. That's right sis, keep coming. As Ruby ran, Yang followed. Several times Yang had reached for her hood, and each time came back with just a fistful of Rose petals.
"Using your semblance to run away? That's unfair Ruby!"
Not paying her sister any mind, Ruby kept running. Playing with Yang. Toying with her. Eventually, Ruby spotted her target. Slowing down, Ruby let Yang catch up to her. Then, she suddenly stopped, and turned towards Yang. Still smiling, she let Yang approach her rapidly. Jaust a few feet away, Yang took a swing at Ruby, and hit a cloud of rose petals. And the bespectacled blonde behind it. Wait, did she just hit-?
"Miss Xiao Long," began a very angry Glynda Goodwitch. "My office. Now!" All Yang could do was meekly nod her head, and squea out some weak form of assent. Following Professor Goodwitch, Yang looked behind her to see Ruby smiling. Not her usual, innocent, and very heartwarming smile. No, this one was sinister. As she was contemplating the meaning behind that smile, Ruby seemed to mouth some words.
"This is what you get." she seemed to be saying. As Ruby watched her big sis get taken to what was considered the most terrifying room in the entire school, she felt that all was right with the world. Yang would suffer for having underestimated her, and having spied on her date.
*Epilogue*
After their rough day, the members of team NNWB and RAYR sat down together to eat, sans the new couple. Over the course of their dinner, the members decided to talk about their days. How odd events seemed to have plagued them all. Pyrrha's hallucinations, Nora's accident, Ren's shampoo mishap, and Yang's hair problems. Blake and Weiss had some... issues, but neither seemed to want to talk about it. Though they were making a lot of eye contact and there was some blushing involved.
"Wow," began Pyrrha. "What a day, huh? How could we all have had such bad luck though?"
"Guys, I think I may know what happened." And Yang told them about having chased Ruby, how Ruby had tricked her into hitting Goodwitch, the creepy smile Ruby gave after that, and the words she seemed to have been saying. "I think Ruby may have found out that we followed her on their date."
"Wait! So you're telling me that little runt found out about the spying, and she went this far for revenge?! That is unbelievable!"
"No, Ruby's always been meticulous about revenge. Not to mention, our dad taught her a lot about different kinds of toxins, poisons, and chemistry. And due to her love of weapons, she picked up a lot on the subject of gyro techniques."
"Pyrotechnics."
"Whatever Blake. Anyhow, from what you all have said, it sounds like Ruby's doing. Pyrrha, Ruby knows plenty of different things to cause those kinds of visions and pains. Nora, Ruby could tear apart any weapon blindfolded, so yeah. Ren, again, Ruby is great with chemicals and stuff. Blake and Weiss... I have no idea what happened to you, but she likely did it. Anyhow, bottom line is Ruby got us good."
"Then I say we get her back."
"Don't bother. When she wants revenge, Ruby is unstoppable. And no matter how hard you try, you could never take revenge on her. She's too fast. And she's wily. We couldn't catch her, and we couldn't trick her. She found out about us spying on her, and she got even. Not much we can do about it."
"What about your hair?"
"Errgh! DAMNIT RUBY!"
*Afterword**Well, that was a thing, huh? Anyhow, my next arc will likely be the lat one for a while. I'm shipping out for the Navy in less than a week, and I'll be on hiatus for about 2-3 months, depending. So, I'll try to make my next arc end with a bang, as it'll likely be either a long hiatus, for the last chapter of Love is a Knight-mare. Sorry.*