When something wonderful happens, you can't wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement.
A/N: The next chapter is here, hope you (the reader) enjoy it. The underlined sentence doesn't have anything do with what's in this chapter at all, the next one will be relevant to it's chapter though.
Chapter 42:
The fog shifted, it fell over the group suddenly, cloaking them in impenetrable dew. "Well that's just great how are we supposed to see through this?" Ruby asked.
"Do not worry Ruby. I'm sure the Soldiers know where they're going, all we have to do is follow them." Yang said hoping to appear brave for her sister, although in truth she was just as nervous.
"I sure hope so, after all I don't want this plan to fail. A lot is hinging on if we fail or succeed." Ruby said. The fog was light but slowly grew heavier, making it even more difficult to see. What was once a seeing distance of 10 feet was now reduced to only a few feet, visibility for the Soldiers hadn't reduced since their helmets had scanners that could penetrate almost any substance, which included fog.
"Great now I can't see the Soldiers." Blake said. All four girls huddled close together, Ruby leading them with Yang Weiss and Blake following close behind.
"Wait maybe we should ask…Hey Soldiers! Could you somehow allow us to follow you? We can't see through this fog, and it's growing thicker." Weiss shouted, when she did the fog thickened and shaped around team RWBY. The four girls could sense, hear, and feel the Soldiers surrounding them on all sides in a protective cluster.
"Guys that's not Fog we're experiencing. That's dragon smoke." Blake said.
"Well if that's dragon smoke them we must be close to dragon, right?" Yang asked.
"Sh." Ruby said bringing a finger to her lips. Instantly the group of Soldiers and Beacon students froze. Ruby extracted herself from her friends, and walked through the Soldiers. Ruby walked silently and somewhat shakily, but she managed to go in a straight line despite the permeating smoke.
"Where is she going?" Yang asked.
"Well she pulled out Crescent Rose before she left, so…she could be going to find Dragon." Blake said, speculating. Weiss stayed silent, she also was wondering why Ruby had suddenly walked off.
"We detect that she is simple scouting ahead. You cannot move, and we cannot proceed uninhibited so she went ahead to find the source of the smoke and eliminate it thereby allowing us to move forward with our mission." A dozen Soldiers said simultaneously, the rest said nothing; silently tracking Ruby's progress.
"I always and sill find it creepy when you people talk like that. I know you guys find it more…efficient, but it still creeps me out." Yang said. A roar sounded, and the group heard Ruby scream a bloody war cry in response.
Ruby POV
After I heard Dragon's roar, I screamed back defiantly. I still couldn't see through all the smoke, but I could still hear plenty fine. A heavy swooshing sounded to my right, and I ducked. Despite my maneuvers I still go clubbed. I couldn't see what hit me but it still sent me bouncing painfully across the uneven heat scorched ground. Dragon roared again and I could hear a great flapping sound, I stood and simultaneously swung upwards with Crescent Rose.
The first swing didn't do anything, so I used the momentum to go for another swing. The second attack was fast, and it I scored a hit. I felt steel bite into soft skin, scraping past impossibly hard scales. I'd struck a point where the scales couldn't form, the ankle.
Dragon roared in mild discomfort, the sound morphed into pain when I tugged viciously on my scythe. The smoke disappeared and was replaced with blinding sunlight. Dragon shot flames into the sky, her smoke illusion had disappeared. Dragon reached down and swiped Crescent Rose up in her claw. 'Why Ruby what's this? I don't think you need this anymore.' Dragon thought in my mind. She then snapped my weapon in half…and I awoke.
Ruby woke up franticly and started whimpering. Realizing what she was doing she stopped, and looked at her scroll's clock. It was 7:00 am, 'Time to wake up' Ruby thought. Yawning Ruby got up from bed and went to go take a hot refreshing morning shower. Today was the Day Ruby was going to present the new mini assignment to headmaster Ozpin, and hopefully ask him about the Grim Sphere to see if he had any useful information that would be helpful.
After the quick but vitalizing shower, Ruby put on her usual attire and walked out the door. Walking down the hall towards the dorms main exit, Ruby thought about what she would say to Ozpin. Finally deciding on a plan, Ruby walked towards the office building of Beacon. Stopping a janitor on her way into the building Ruby learned the exact rout that would take her to the office of the headmaster's office.
Finally coming to the door and knocking Ruby waited. A voice sounded from beyond the doorway inviting Ruby to come in. Twisting the knob and stepping forward Ruby finally saw the interior of Ozpin's office. It wasn't what Ruby excepted it to be, unlike the professor's office the headmaster's office hardly had any furniture in it at all.
"Come in Ruby and shut the door behind you. What is it you need?" Ozpin asked.
Ruby did what Ozpin said. Ruby looked around, indeed Ozpin's office didn't contain much furniture at all. Except for a low table for someone to lie down on, and a seat in front of a medium height table for resting arms on. On a third table in the corner sat a tattoo kit. Ozpin gestured to it and said, "This is my professional tattoo kit. I use it for it's purpose, for tattoos."
"I'm here to purpose a plan. I want to kill a dragon, and destroy the Grim Sphere. Any advice?" Ruby asked.
"Do you have the Grim Sphere with you right now? If so I purpose a way to get rid of it, and benefit you. As for the dragon? Blake Belladonna should have read a few books on dragon slaying, ask her." Ozpin said.
"Alright I'll ask Blake how to kill a dragon. And yes I actually do have the Grim Sphere with me. I brought it here to see if you could tell me how to destroy it completely." Ruby said.
"The Grim Sphere is made of tangible darkness correct?" Ozpin asked. When Ruby nodded Ozpin continued with, "Well how about I take the darkness and tattoo it onto your skin?"
"Sure that'd be great. Uh...it would cure this drug like addiction to...the darkness, right?" Ruby asked.
"Correct, and you'll get some cool tattoos out of it. I'm sure Weiss will appreciate it." Ozpin said.
Ruby felt guilty at the mention of Weiss. Trying to hide her guilt Ruby sat on the stool resting her arms on the desk. "I want my hole body done." Ruby said, feeling self conscious. Getting tattoos would hurt, Ruby hoped the amount of pain she was about to endure would make up for her cheating on Weiss with Alice (which she still hadn't told Weiss about).
"Okay first I'll do your face...no arms first. Can I have the Grim Sphere?" Ozpin asked.
Ruby reaching into her red satchel hanging off her shoulders, she pulled out the artifact and handed it to Ozpin. Ozpin dragged the tattoo kit over to the table Ruby was sitting at. Placing the roiling sphere of darkness next to the kit, Ozpin rolled up his sleeves and grabbed the tattoo needle. Scraping off a piece of darkness Ozpin pulled, and the darkness came of in what looked like string. The entire Grim Sphere looked like a ball of string that could be unrolled.
Once Ozpin inserted the darkness into the tattoo needle and started to use it on Ruby's skin, starting at her wrists, the substance came out like black ink. The color was a definite black and completely blocked out Ruby's pale skin.
"I'm merely warming up the needle at the moment, what theme do you want?" Ozpin asked. He had drawn random dots on the inside of Ruby's wrist.
"Roses...vines, thorns...and the flower of...life. GAHHHH..." Ruby managed to get out before she started to scream, she clamped her mouth shut and trying to fight off the pain she thought, 'Any pain would be worth it...if only Weiss will forgive me. She's smart, she'll ask Alice what really happened. Alice will probably tell her, I only hope she will forgive me. I now realize the reason I did it...was because Dragon was controlling my feelings through the Grim Sphere. Once Ozpin tattoos the entire damned Grim Sphere on my skin, I'll be finally free of her influence.'
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