*Author's Note**Welcome to chapter 21. Yeah, the last one was too Pyrrha centric, but you'll see a little more of her for now. A couple of you had an interesting thought; PyrrhaXCardin? Now, what would give you the insane notion that I would do that...? :) Well, the dark swirling mass of psychotic ideas in my head aside, let's get this show on the road*
For the past week now, Pyrrha had been ditching her team quite often. She was hard to track, and nobody could really tell where she was going. After class, on the weekend, and even sometimes at night. She was nowhere to be found. With this happening on a consistent basis, Weiss, Blake, and Nora were starting to feel concerned for Pyrrha.
As it so happened, Pyrrha was out again this night. Where she was? Well, only five people could really tell you. One of the five was Pyrrha herself. The other four were the members of the rather infamous Team CRDL, a team of known bullies. Russel Thrush, Sky Lark, Dove Bronzewing, and Cardin Winchester. For the past week, Pyrrha had been secreting off to meet with them team when possible to discuss their plans to messing with Ruby and possibly breaking her and Jaune up. Each of the five had their own reasons for disliking it. Russel, Sky, and Dove just hated the two being a couple, feeling insecure about Jaune having gotten a girl before they did. Cardin had more of a grudge against Jaune, and couldn't stand to see him happy. And Pyrrha was in love with Jaune and couldn't stand to see him with another girl.
Out of them all, Cardin and Pyrrha had the most intense dislike of the couple, which led to the two often gathering to plot against them, even when the other three aren't available. Over the past week, Pyrrha and Cardin had spent more time together than Ruby and Yang. The entire time, they only discussed various ways to try and trick Ruby, embarrass her, take her out of the game for a while, or get Jaune to look away from her. After a week and a half of planning, plotting, and scheming, they were ready to begin.
Their plan was rather simple, and complicated at the same time. The first phase was to sabotage Ruby's Crescent Rose. With slight knowledge in craftsmanship, Pyrrha was able to create a magazine of special, unstable bullets. While the four guys from CRDL distracted Ruby in the morning, before she could grab her weapon from her locker, Pyrrha would switch out the clips without letting Ruby find out. After this, the plan gets complicated. The goal was to get Ruby in a spar and have her injure herself, taking her out of the game. Almost immediately afterwards, they would pit Jaune against a stronger opponent, like Cardin or Pyrrha. During Jaune's fight, they would try to incapacitate him. Following this, they would make sure the two were put into separate rooms. With them unable to see each other, Pyrrha would swoop in and begin to take care of Jaune. After long enough, Jaune would fall for her and leave Ruby. Simple. Or so they thought.
That day began like any other. Except that as team RAYR was grabbing their gear from the lockers, team CRDL came by and started to harass them. While the team was busy dealing with the four least popular students on campus, Pyrrha quietly snuck behind the rest. Using her high-level control over aura, she masked herself as well as one could. Then using her semblance, pulled on the magnetic metals in Crescent Rose to move it from the locker. Successfully acquiring the weapon, Pyrrha switched out the rounds in the magazine with her homemade ones. After switching them out, she used her semblance again to move the weapon back to it's original place. Confirming the job was done, team CRDL got out and left the rest of the young hunters to their devices.
Fast forward to Goodwitch's class. The students were pairing up for duels today to earn a grade and raise their standing in the class. As usual, nobody wanted anything to do with Ruby. Whether it was her somewhat beast-like fighting style, her insane speed capable of allowing her to leave even the greatest of faunus' vision, or her weapon which was the bastard child of two of the most powerful and sinister weapons ever crafted, an anti-matter sniper rifle and a massive Grim-reaping scythe. Whatever it was, people avoided fighting her as best as they could. And the poor person who got stuck with her was almost always placed in the infirmary. But this time, someone decided to fight her.
"I'll volunteer to face Ruby." Pyrrha decided to pair up with Ruby, earning gasps of shock and awe from her peers. Despite her fame and skill, most of the students in Beacon placed Ruby on a similar level to Pyrrha. Every student in the room had been waiting for this; the fight between the famous Champion from Sanctum, and the wild-child known for her ungodly fighting skill. This fight would be good. Very good. Getting themselves into place, Ruby and Pyrrha set themselves up, getting into their respective stances. On Professor Goodwitch's mark, they began. Or, they would have, had Ruby's weapon not misfired. Bringing her weapon in front of her, Ruby noticed the problem only too late. The rounds in her magazine and the one in her weapon's barrel exploded, knocking her back out of the ring causing Crescent Rose to impale her in the thigh.
"RUBY!" Yang all but mowed down the crowd before her to reach her little sister, pushing and knocking any student unlucky enough to be in her way out with enough force to leave quite a few bruises. Reaching her sister, the older blonde cradled Ruby as she writhed in pain. Pulling the blade from her sister's scythe out of her leg, Yang compacted Crescent Rose to it's gun form, hung it at her waist, and ran with Ruby in her arms to the infirmary at full speed. Even Professor Goodwitch did not try to stop Yang, despite her having left the class, run in the hallways, and injure several students in the process.
Meanwhile, everyone was stunned. Nobody could believe that Ruby Rose, the girl deemed a weapons and combat prodigy, the girl who got accepted into Beacon two years early, the girl who despite her age was given her own team to lead, would have her weapon blow up in her face. Even Pyrrha and team CRDL didn't realize that their plan would be so effective, and even they were shocked at what had just transpired. But they passed it off, and tried to focus on the next part of their plan. Which consisted of getting the now almost-hysteric Jaune to spar with Cardin and become injured himself. If only he used a gun it would have been easier. After long enough, they managed to convince Professor Goodwitch to continue the lesson, getting another duel set up. And they managed to get it to be a match between Cardin and Jaune.
Looking to one another to confirm their plan, Cardin and Pyrrha exchanged a quick and knowing glance. Setting himself up, Cardin stood before an off-looking Jaune. Cardin readied his weapon, preparing to strike down Jaune on Goodwitch's mark. But Cardin didn't realize that Jaune was currently having a maelstrom of emotions swirl in his head. Ruby had just been hurt before him. And he had to deal with this lecture? This was all a pile of bull! The moment Goodwitch gave the mark, Cardin struck. Only, he missed. Completely. Where Jaune was a second ago, there was only empty space. Looking up, Cardin saw that Jaune had put some distance between them. Pulling Crocea Mors from his belt, Jaune readied his sword and his shield. Glaring at Cardin with a look of pure murder in his eyes, Jaune charged forward. Picking himself up, Cardin swung his mace from below, trying to catch Jaune off guard. After having trained with Ruby for so long, Jaune knew how to use his Aura to improve his senses, and gain a better understanding of what was happening around him. Feeling that the mace was coming, Jaune moved his right leg to block the shaft of Cardin's mace, preventing it from moving any further. With Cardin's weapon out of the deal, Jaune pulled his left arm back over his right side, and smashed into Cardin from below with his shield. His natural strength, improved by the weeks of training with Ruby and augmentation via his Aura, had allowe dhim to send the larger male flying out of the combat stage and into the crowd on onlooking students. Walking with haste over to his fallen foe, Jaune butted Cardin with the hilt of his blade, completely knocking him out and leaving him unable to continue.
For the second time in one day, no student in attendance could believe their own eyes. Jaune Arc, known as one of the weakest freshmen, had just decimated Cardin Winchester in just two moves. Not a month earlier was Cardin regularly beating Jaune in sparring matches. Despite this being the first time in several weeks that Goodwitch has had spars in the classroom, nobody could believe that Jaune could make such an improvement so quickly.
"The winner is Mister Arc." After confirming Jaune's victory, Goodwitch moved to ensure Cardin's safety. From the sidelines, Pyrrha began to grow mixed feelings. Not only was she utterly shocked at how much Jaune's fighting skills have improved, but she also felt something towards the now battered and beaten Winchester. A mix of pity and regret? Or some sort of worry? She felt horrible for what had happened to him at the hands of Jaune, but she also felt incredibly turned on by Jaune's seemingly sudden growth. With her feelings confusing the hell out of her, Pyrrha only barely noticed Jaune as he turned and began to walk towards the exit.
"Mister Arc, where do you think you are going?" Pyrrha wasn't the only one who seemed to notice Jaune leaving, as Goodwitch had called out to him seeing his attempt at egress.
"Professor Goodwitch," began Jaune in a tone more serious than Pyrrha or his other friends had ever heard from him before. "I am going to check up on my leader. I can not be here with a clear conscience and remain un worried so long as I don't know her condition. With that being said, may I be excused from class?"
Looking back to Miss Goodwitch, Jaune waited for permission or rejection. After a few second, she nodded her assent and allowed Jaune to leave. The entire time, all Pyrrha could do was watch as Jaune left to be at her side again. Watch as her plan fell through, unable to stop him or keep him to herself. After Jaune had left, Pyrrha's mind was in a slight fog. All she could do was move over to the now recovering Cardin, and show what concern for him she could. She could not gather her own thoughts at the moment. All she could do was sit down with her injured cohort, and try to make some sense of what had gone wrong and what had she not done right.
*Afterword**Writing about Ruby getting injured was almost physically painful, but somehow I soldiered through it. Anyhow, so yeah. Some of you can probably predict how the next chapter will work, more or less. But I plan to make it work, end it with a bit of a bang. I do hope that it doesn't turn out too predictable. Also, I'm going to throw you a bone here. The next chapter will contain ***** ***** ****. Yup, that's right. **** *** ***** **** ******* ****. ** *** ****.*
*Yeah, right. Did you actually expect me to post a spoiler? :) Well, take a guess or two. You'll likely be able to see what's coming next. As a little challenge, I wonder how many of you can actually guess what those *'s mean. Ahh, whatever. The next chapter won't be too far behind. I'll see you guys then. In the meantime, enjoy this chapter and leave a comment or two if you have any complaints or suggestions. And when my hiatus begins, I'd be more than glad for a few suggestions to pop up. Some ideas for when I get back to writing. Well, that's all. See you next time.*