Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of it's characters or locations.
Caves
Leo opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings. He thanked his luck he was born a Faunus, because the area that they had landed was pitch black. Being able to make out the vague shapes of the cave around him in the dust he crawled to his feet, shifting the rocks off of him as he did. Brushing the dust off his shirt he looked around for Yang. After a moment he saw a hand sticking out from below a pile of large rocks. Moving as fast as he could he began to tear the rocks off of Yang. Moments later he found her face. She had a large gash on her forehead, and a cut along her jaw.
Placing his hand under her nose he felt her slowly exhaling. 'Good, she's still alive.' He thought as he began to shove the rest of the rubble off of her. He finished clearing the debris and placed his arms under her knees and shoulders and tried to lift her. As she was lifted her head pulled back down and he saw that her hair had gotten caught under a very large boulder that had just missed her head. He starred back down at Yang in shock. 'Just how lucky is this girl?'
Placing Yang back on the ground he looked up at the boulder. Sliding his hands under the boulder he began to lift before he heard a snap and the cave lit up. Leo turned to his right arm gauntlet and saw that the elbow joint had been damaged in the fall, and the strain from trying to life the boulder had snapped it and caused sparks to begin to emit from the circuits. Leo let out a sigh, knowing that he had no way of lifting the massive rock with only one arm. Reaching into his coat Leo retrieved a small combat knife from within. He knelt down and lowered the knife to Yang's hair.
'Gonna need to cut this to move her.' Leo thought as he narrowed his eyes. As soon as the knife touched her hair Leo felt a hand around his throat.
"You move that blade and you lose your life." The voice made a chill run up and down Leo's spine as he turned to see that Yang had awoken and seemed to be absolutely furious. Her Hair had begun to glow a bright gold color and her eyes were glowing like hot coals. The cave had become illuminated by the glow.
Turing to face her Leo spoke. "I need to cut it so we can move. I can't lift the boulder."
The rage never left Yang's eyes as she spoke. "Then don't move it."
Leo turned his head to the side with a terribly confused expression. Yang growled and slammed her fist into the boulder. The impact caused Ember Celica to discharge and the resulting blast shattered the rock. Leo shielded his face with his left arm to block the chucks of rock that broke off when Yang hit it.
With the boulder reduced to rubble and the knife at a safe distance from her hair, Yang sat up and shook her head, knocking several pebbles loose and shaking off a large amount of dust. Her hair and eyes were still glowing brightly, but she wasn't as angry with her hair no longer in danger. She turned to Leo. "Was it really that hard to just destroy the rock? You had to go straight for the hair?" She asked.
Leo's eyes continued to scan the cavern in complete silence before turning back to Yang. "Think before you act! That explosion just now could have cause another cave in!" Leo scolded as he dragged her to her feet. "I may not be smart, but I am experienced."
Yang looked down to her feet in annoyance. Leo was right. With the unstable dust in the walls and in the shells in her gauntlet, the blast could have easily cause the cave to collapse, and Leo didn't know about her hair rules.
"Sorry. I just don't like when people mess with my hair. I've never had it cut since I was a baby." Yang said as she brushed dust off of her clothes. She looked to Leo and saw that he was still carrying the bags of dust she had given him, and saw that her bag had been mostly undamaged by the fall. Looking up she could see a faint light at the top of the hole. "Well, we better start climbing." Yang said as she began to scale the rocks. She turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Leo shook his head. "Too steep." He said. "We can follow the cave out."
"It's too dark to see sown here. We'll get lost forever! I spent two months on this island, the first three weeks of it were spent trying to map a small part of these caves so I could scavenge materials." Yang said as she looked around, only able to see the small area around her that her hair illuminated.
Leo shook his head again and pointed to his eyes. "Most Faunus have better vision at night. Cat based Faunus like myself and the girl in black have extremely enhanced night vision."
Yang turned to him in shock. "You know that Blake's a Faunus?!"
Leo tilted his head in confusion. "It was a secret?"
Yang crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't believe that they told you. You've only known them a week. It took Blake close to two months to tell her own team."
"No one told me that she was a Faunus."
Now it was Yang's turn to be confused. "Then how did you know?"
Leo was just close enough to Yang that her hair showed him raise his hand to his nose. "I could smell it. Humans and Faunus have a very different smell to them. Your friend and I are both feline based Faunus, so we have a similar scent." Leo said as he turned and walked away from Yang's light. "We can go this way."
Yang stood in the same spot for a few seconds before she began to tap her foot.
"..."
Leo walked back into sight. "Right. You can't see to follow me."
"Nope."
Leo grabbed her hand and turned to leave again. "Hang on to me and I'll find us a way out."
"My hero." Yang said sarcastically as they took off into the depths of the cave.
Surface
RWBY and JNPR screamed in panic as the Bullhead slammed into the ground with an unceremonious thud. Shambling out of the ship Jaune proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach onto the ground as Pyrrha watched her leader with concern. Sun and Neptune rolled out of the ship laughing as they hit the ground, their eyes spinning.
"Man, that was fun as hell!" Sun yelled as he tried to stand, failing to do so as he stumbled and fell on his face.
Blake looked at the monkey with a great deal of frustration. "I thought you two said you could pilot that thing!" She yelled as she held her head which had been slammed into Weiss's when they began to spin.
"Um, we did. And it was awesome!" Neptune said as he and Sun high-fived. Scowling at the two moronic boys she turned to make sure that her weapon was not damaged in the crash.
Ren helped Jaune to his feet, careful to avoid the puddle of vomit bellow him, and turned to the group of teams that were gathered around the Bullhead. Jaune held his head for a moment before speaking.
"Alright. So we're now on the island that Yang spent the last two months on before returning to Beacon. If what she told us is true, this island is overrun with large amounts of Grimm. I think our best hope to avoid a massive conflict is to keep to the shadows and use the trees to our advantage. I would like to avoid fighting Grimm as much as p-"
"YANG!" Everyone in the group turned to a hill nearby and saw Ruby standing atop the hill and shouting.
Jaune felt a chill race up his spine. "QUICK! Someone grab her before she alerts the whole island!" Quickly sprinting over to Ruby Weiss clamped her hands over the girls mouth and pulled her to the ground. Peaking over the side of the hill she could see several Beowolves in the valley below the hill.
"Are you trying to get us killed!?" Weiss whisper/shouted as she glared at Ruby.
Ruby looked back with a mixture of fear and surprise before she turned a bright shade of red with embarrassment. "Mpffs" Ruby said through Weiss's hand.
"What?" Weiss asked. She removed her hand from Ruby's mouth.
"I said sorry." Ruby looked over the hill and saw the Beowolves disappearing into the forest. She grinned. "They didn't hear me!" She said as she turned to Weiss.
Weiss glared at her leader. "I don't know how. I'm pretty sure that the teachers back on the Leviathan heard you!" She scolded Ruby as they walked back to the group. "You need to think before you act Ruby!" Arriving back with the group she saw that they were working on digging out the right wing of the Bullhead. Pyrrha was focusing on trying to use her Polarity to lift the massive ship while Nora was actually trying to lift it. Neptune was using his trident to dig the the wing out while Sun, Ren and, Jaune were trying to use the large branch of a fallen tree to pry it out.
Ruby looked around, but she couldn't see Blake. "Hey, where's Blake at?" She asked. She heard a panicked scream and saw Jaune get catapulted away from the tree when it snapped. The blonde boy landed in front of the two girls with a thump.
Groaning he got to his feet and began to pick the various splinters from his hand. "I sent her out to patrol the area around the crash. She's the sneakiest so I figured that she'd be the best choice." Jaune said as he looked up from his hand to meet his fellow leaders eyes. "She should be back soon. Until then, come help us get this thing free. We have no way to get back to the ship without it."
Ruby and Weiss Join the effort to free the Bullhead with little success. Glaring at Sun and Neptune Weiss growled slightly. "You two sure did a great job wedging this thing into the ground."
"Guys!" The group turned to see Blake returning to them. Walking out to meet her they could see that she was slightly winded as she ran up to them.
"Blake! Is everything alright? You look tired." Jaune asked as she reached them.
Blake shook her head. "No, I'm fine. But look at this!" She pulled out a bright red shotgun shell casing. "I found this one and a bunch of others just beyond the trees!" Blake turned and pointed to the forest that she had just come from.
Jaune turned to his team then back to Sun and Neptune. "You two stay here and finish freeing the Bullhead. The rest of us are going to go and investigate the area over there. I trust that you two can defend the Bullhead from attacks?" Jaune asked as he continued to stare at the two. They got into mock salutes and nodded their heads. "Good. Okay guys, lets go find Yang."
The two teams made their way through the forest by jumping through the tree branches, stopping every so often to help Jaune along. Poor boy was an excellent leader, though he didn't do terribly well in the field. Finally arriving in the clearing, the group was shocked t see the sheer level of devastation that had befallen the area. Jaune walked forward to the lip of the large crater with his mouth hanging open.
"What the hell happened here?" He asked.
"CFVY said that when they found her, Yang went into a berserk rage that took CFVY an entire week to calm. I imagine that what we are seeing here is the end result of that rage." Blake said as she scanned the horizon, expecting to see more Grimm.
Ruby, Weiss and JNPR were shocked beyond belief. They knew that Yang was especially dangerous when she was mad, but she only ever really reached that level of anger when something ruined or altered her hair. What they saw before them was an entire valley leading halfway up a mountain and a coastline that looked like it had been hit by a meteor shower. The only way they could think to describe it was the result of pure primal rage, and the complete annihilation of anything that stood before it.
"Ruby, you sure that Yang actually needs our help?" Jaune asked, his skin turning even paler as he continued to survey the area. "She seems to be able to handle herself pretty well... And she's got that big guy with her too! Whats his name again? Leo! Yeah that's it, Leo."
Ruby shook her head. "I was listening to the transmission on my scroll. Yang and Leo sounded like they were in trouble before it was cut off." Ruby turned back to Blake. "Where did you find those shells Blake?" Ruby asked.
Blake led the group for a couple of minutes before they arrived at a large crater, with several fresh burn marks from Yang's weapon. There were shell casings all over the area, along with signs that she and Leo had fought some very large Grimm.
Ruby turned to the mountain on the opposite side of the crater. "I recognize this area, I could see it on the video feed from the bridge. Yang and Leo were each fighting their own packs of enemies. Leo had some Beowolves sneak up on him over there." Ruby said as she pointed to the right where there was the start of a large cone like trail leading across the crater. "And Yang was fighting some Goliath's over there. They beat their Grimm's, but Leo's mask was damaged in the fight so I couldn't see how they did it."
Pyrrha looked to Ruby in surprise. "Yang was fighting a Goliath on her own?"
"Sort of, she had help from Leo with the first one, but then he got attacked by the Beowolves, so she had to deal with the other two on her own." Ruby said as she reached down to collect another shell casing.
JNPR was stunned. They'd had to fight a Goliath on their last mission, and they hoped they wouldn't have to do it again anytime soon. It took everything their team had to find the weak spots and kill it.
"What about this trail?" Weiss asked as she traced the trails outline with her hand. "What did this?"
Ruby shrugged. "It wasn't there when the fight started, so it must have happened shortly after the camera broke."
Nora saw something shining in the dirt and ran over to collect it. She reached down and pulled the other half of Leo's broken mask from the dirt. "Hey guys! Look what I found! It was just sitting here in the dirt! What do you think it is?" Nora asked as she ran over to Ren.
The quiet boy took the chunk from Nora and examined it. "This is a part of Leo's mask. It appears that we now have the source of the video feed being cut." He said as he traced the claw marks from the Beowolves past several split circuits.
Weiss scanned the ground. "Where's the rest of it?"
"Must have gone with them when they left. When the video cut is when I left to get you guys, but when I got back to my room to grab Crescent Rose I could hear Leo and Yang talking to each other." Ruby said as she unfolded her weapon into its scythe form. "I over heard Yang talking about going back to her home on the island to collect some things when we were on the ship." She raised the scope to her eye and began to scan the mountain top.
Jaune looked around the area they currently stood. "Where do you think Yang lived? It could take us day's to comb the entire island."
"That's not our biggest problem right now." Ruby said.
Jaune turned to her. "What do you mean? I thought our whole reason for coming down here was to find Yang."
"It is, but Yang said that while she lived here the Grimm were relentless."
Weiss, Ren and Pyrrha were the first to catch on and readied their weapons.
"So we've been lucky and they're not here." Jaune said.
Nora and Blake switched their weapons into their gun forms.
"No. When we were flying down there were Giant Nevermore's circling a nest on the top of the mountains and there were herds of Goliath on the ground." Ruby trained her eyes on the tree line and got into a combat ready stance.
"Jaune, get your sword ready." Pyrrha said as she raised her shield, eyes beginning to glow. Jaune looked to the teams and saw that they were all preparing for combat. Reaching back he gripped the hilt of Crocea Mors as the ground began to shake.
"We've been led into a trap." Ren said.
The forest around them erupted into a chorus of howls and roars as Beowolves, Ursa and Goliath's burst from the tree's, Nevermores began to circle high above in the sky and King Taijitu burst from the ground. Each hunter quickly prepared their weapons as the Grimm drew closer. Ruby made the first move, leaping forward using her semblance she began to spin with her blade becoming like a tornado of slashes as she tore through the first line of Beowolves.
Nora flipped her weapon's lid off and began to fire volley after volley of grenades into the massive crowds, limbs flew into the air as the grenades blew the Grimm to pieces upon impact. More quickly took the fallen's place as the swarm of Grimm continued to swarm around them.
"Weiss! We need something to slow them down! NOW!" Ruby yelled as she continued to jump from Grimm to Grimm, slashing as many as she could before they could grab her. Weiss began to spin Myrtenaster's chamber until it came to rest on a bright red light. Weiss raised her sword into the air before plunging the blade into the ground. The area for close to three hundred yards around became covered in ice. The Grimm that were charging quickly lost their footing as they crashed into the ground and began to slam into each other. Weiss grinned and jammed the blade further into the ground and the area erupted into icy spikes, impaling the Grimm that were caught in the trap.
"Aww... Now Weiss has more kills than me!" Nora shouted as she turned to smack an Ursa with Magnhild.
"Not the issue to be focusing on Nora." Ren said as he calmly cut down a Beowolf.
"Yeah, we've got bigger issues. Like what were going to do when they reach us!" Pyrrha said as she shot at a Goliath in the distance. Of the few dozen Goliath's that had emerged, only six had been brought down by Weiss's attack.
"I'm not too worried about the Goliath's, I'm far more concerned that the Nevermore haven't attacked yet!" Jaune said as he rolled out of the way of an Ursa Majors attack. Swinging his sword in a quick upward strike he managed to cut off the beasts arm. Having stunned the beast he quickly spun and slashed at the Grimm's gut, felling the bear like creature.
Jaune took his brief pause in the chaos to look to the sky where the Nevermore were circling. There were four of the giant creatures that were slowly descending towards the small group of hunters. The Nevermore were waiting until the group became overwhelmed by the ground Grimm and would allow for them to swoop in and grab their meal with ease. Turning back to the fight Jaune narrowly avoided the King Taijitu that lunged for his head.
Blake continued to shoot at the approaching Grimm as she turned to cover Weiss. "How many more times can you do that Weiss?!" Blake yelled as she slashed at an approaching Boarbatusk. Weiss brought the chamber to her face as she examined the dust she had left.
"Only one more time." She said, lowing the weapon to look Blake in the eyes. Blake groaned as she turned back to see Ruby land before her. She was panting hard as she propped herself up with Crescent Rose. The group was given a small break from the fight as the Grimm began to traverse the field of icy spikes. Turning back to the crater they could see several King Taijitu waiting for them to pushed back into the pit.
Ruby looked over the other hunters that she had dragged down to the surface with her. The Grimm were beginning to pass the spikes and were closing in on their position. "I hope Yang's having a better time then we are.
Cave
Leo sprinted through the cavern while carrying Yang over his shoulder. They were being chased by Deathstalker's and Creep's that had found them while they were going through the caves.
"Why aren't we fighting?!" Yang asked as Leo turned another corner.
"You can't see!"
"But you can!"
"That's why I'm running!"
"What the hell's that supposed to mean!?"
"LOTS OF GRIMM!" Leo shouted, becoming fairly annoyed by their constant arguing as he was trying to find them a safe way out of their current predicament. Rounding another corner Leo came to an abrupt halt. He was standing at the edge of an underground ravine. Yang turned to see why they had stopped. The ravine was filled with light from the various strip lights, and dust crystals.
"I know this place!" Yang said as she climbed down from Leo's shoulder. She walked to the edge of the cliff before looking down over the ravine. She seemed to be scanning for something as her head followed the path of the ravine. She stopped and stared right at one of the large dust crystals. "There!" She said as she leapt off the cliff.
Leo lurched forward to grab her but just missed her as she fell through his fingers. He turned to see that Deathstalker's rounding the corner. He quickly made his decision and followed Yang over the side of the cliff. Leo wasn't as graceful as Yang, who landed carefully among the various boulders. Leo bounced off the walls of the cliff as he crashed into the ground, his armor taking most of the damage.
Leo crawled to his feet with a groan. Looking back up he saw that the Deathstalker's and Creep's were not following. "Of course... They can't climb." He said as he turned to look for Yang. After a moment he saw her sprinting along a path leading to the crystal she had been looking at. Growling he quickly raced after her.
Yang reached the crystal she had been looking at and dropped to her knee's, clawing the away the rocks at the base of the crystal. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Leo glaring down at her. "What the hell was that?!" He shouted as he dragged her to her feet. "Where was the warning?! Why did you just jump?!"
Yang grabbed his hands and moved them back to his sides. "We were being chased. I saw an opportunity and took it. Now I need to hurry and grab what I came for." She said as she returned to her digging. Leo switched his weapons on and inflated the tanks and began to scan the area around them. The Grimm lived in these caves and likely knew the layout of the tunnels. They were going around and when they reached them Leo hoped to be gone.
Leo turned and saw Yang was still digging. "We don't have time to play in the dirt."
Yang glared up at him and turned back to her digging. "This has a purpose. I just need to free this crystal."
Leo spun around and stared at her like she was crazy. "YOU WANT THE DAMN ROCK!?" He shouted, his voice reverberating off the walls, knocking small rocks free from the cliffs.
"Keep you damn voice down! Your weapon is sound! We don't want the whole island to know that were down here! And no, I don't need the crystal, I couldn't even carry the damn thing. I need what is buried below it." Yang said as she continued to dig.
Leo growled and shoved Yang to the side. "If you just keep digging then it will take forever to get what you need." Leo grabbed the crystal and began to pull. Yang heard a loud cracking and turned to see Leo raising the crystal up over his head. This was quickly followed by a snapping sound echoing through the chamber as the crystal fell behind Leo then joined by his right arm.
Leo looked down to his arm on the ground and cursed. "Well Fuck!"
Yang's hands rose to cover her mouth. She had seen worse shortly after her exile, but she had not expected to see Leo lose a limb by simply lifting a crystal. "What the hell..."
Leo's head snapped over to Yang with a look of shock, quickly realizing that she had no prior knowledge of his condition. He reached over to Yang with his remaining arm and waved to calm her down. "No, don't worry. It is a false arm. They both are." Leo said as he tried to calm Yang down.
Yang starred at his arm that lay on the ground. "How?"
It was a question that Leo was all to used to being asked. He looked down at the broken limb. "The ah, White Fang don't deal well with traitors."
Yang shook her head and went back to digging, trying to push the thought of the atrocities that the White Fang commit from her head. Yang felt around in the rocks until her hand bumped something under the rocks. She began to grin.
"So, what is this thing your looking for anyway?" Leo asked as he pulled his arm off the ground and placed it in his bag.
"My baby."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I'm sorry what." Leo asked, standing completely still. He had heard her, he just didn't believe her.
Yang grabbed what she had found and yanked. Her arm burst forth from the dirt with a very worn and badly damaged Ember Celica. "I lost her my first night here." Yang said as she cradled the gauntlet in her arms. "I came down here looking for supplies and got lost. The Grimm that was guarding this crystal attacked me and it caused the ceiling to collapse."
Yang turned back to Leo to show him the remains of the left gauntlet. "I got trapped by the falling rocks and my gauntlet was stuck. When the Grimm began to claw their way through the rubble I needed to choose. Stay and die... Or leave my weapon and run. I regretted my choice everyday." Yang had tears in her eyes.
Leo looked down at the broken gauntlet and sighed. "How poetic. You find your left arm, I lose my right." Yang looked at his right hand that was hanging out of the bag. She smiled softly and placed her weapon into the bag at her side.
"When we get back to the ship, I'll have Ruby fix us both. I said some pretty rotten things to my team when I last saw them. I think we may need to talk." Yang said as she turned and began to walk towards the opening of the ravine. She stopped when she heard a loud creaking noise. She turned and saw Leo lifting the dust crystal over his head. "What are you doing? The last time you lifted that thing your... arm, fell off."
"It's heavy, but if I rest it on my shoulder then I can handle it." Leo said as he started towards her.
"Why are you even bringing it along?" She asked as she turned and began to walk beside him.
"I saw your fight back at school. This stuff makes some powerful ammo. If were going into True Remnant then we need the best weapons that we can get." Leo said as they began to walk up the path. "You said that you recognized the area. Do you know how to get us to the surface from here?"
Yang nodded. "This leads to the surface. I came down this way the first day I got here trying to escape from Brutus."
Leo turned to her and gave her a confused stare. "Who's Brutus?"
Yang continued on in silence for a moment. "Brutus is the largest Goliath that I have ever seen. Standing at least three times the normal size with a large crack in his mask. I encountered him on my first night on the island and he nearly killed me."
Leo followed her in silence for a moment before speaking. "I hope I never run into him."
Surface
"Hey Neptune, any luck with the engine?" Sun asked as he turned to his blue haired friend.
Neptune emerged from the side of the Bullhead and shook his head. "How about you? Seen any Grimm yet?"
"Just a few Nevermore's in the distance. I figured that the island that turned Yang's heart cold would have been a bit more, you know, gruesome." Sun said as he relaxed atop the machine.
"I know. I assumed that there would at least be some attacks, but we've been here for close to three hours and haven't seen a thing." Neptune said as he continued to twist bolts in an attempt to get the engine on the wing working again.
Sun cautiously looked around the treeline. "I still am worried that we haven't seen any Grimm attacking us yet. This place was supposed to be abandoned because of the extreme amount of Grimm attacks. If that was true, where are all the Grimm." Neptune said as he kicked the turbines. It sputtered to life for a moment before dying again. Neptune sighed. "We should have brought some tools with us when we left the ship."
Sun continued to focus on the woods letting his eyes drift to the Nevermores in the sky. "No. There are Grimm on the island. And I know why we haven't seen them yet." Sun could smell something on the wind. Something he hated to smell. Blood. "Neptune, we need to hurry and fix this ship." Sun said as he jumped down and joined Neptune at the engine.
"Sun?"
Sun whipped around to see Yang walk up from a large hole in the ground on the other side of the field. She was followed by a massive crystal being carried by Leo. "Yang! Hey Neptune, look! It's Yang! We found her!"
"No, I found you. Why are you guys off the ship?" She asked as she walked up to the crashed ship.
"We all came down to get you. Once we get the Bullhead working again then we can get the others and leave." Sun said as he greeted the two hunters as they walked up to the crash.
"Others?" Yang asked. "Who else came down with you?"
"The rest of your team, and team JNPR. They should be-"
Neptune walked out of the ship and saw the three by the wing. "Holy shit! Dude where'd your arm go?! And how can you even lift that thing?!"
Leo looked to the blue haired boy and dropped the crystal with a loud crash. He turned to Yang. "Who are these two? They were not among the students chosen to join this mission." He said as he glanced back and forth between the two boys standing before him.
Yang turned to Leo. "They're some friends that stowed away on the ship." Turning back to Sun with a glare Yang spoke. "Where is my team."
"They went that way. Few hours ago Blake said that she found some evidence of your last known location." Yang looked in the direction that sun had pointed. Her eyes quickly darted to the sky when she saw that the Nevermores were above the area.
"Leo, drop the bags and the crystal in the ship. We need to hurry." Yang said as she raced off towards the Nevermore. Leo gave one last look at the two hunters before her threw the crystal into the ship and started to run after Yang.
Sun turned to Neptune. "I can smell blood Neptune. We need to get this thing working now."
Mountainside Crater
The small group of hunters was tiring. They had been fighting nonstop for over two hours, and the Grimm swarm had barely thinned. Ruby was unable to use her semblance due to overuse, Weiss and Blake were running out of dust, Jaune and Pyrrha were back to back fending off Grimm left and right in an attempt to guard the flanks while Ren and Nora used their guns to provide cover.
The King Taijitu in the crater were writhing in the pit. They could see their meal being pushed ever closer to the edge. The group of hunters had now been confined to a small forty yards of fighting space. And it was shrinking fast. The Grimm had grown as the Goliath's pushed the hunters closer to the mountain, having been joined by both Giant Deathstalker's and Creep's.
Ruby rolled to the side to avoid a massive barrage of feathers that rained down upon them, killing several Grimm that were unlucky enough to get within range of the attack. She turned to the rest of her friends. "We can't keep being pushed back! Does anyone have any ideas?" She asked as she cut down another Beowolf. Pyrrha was using her semblance to move her and Jaune's shields around like high speed mobile buzz saws while Jaune and Ren used their blades to cover her.
Ren turned behind him and looked straight at Nora. "Nora! I think now is the time to use 'that' round!"
Nora turned to him with a sad face but nodded. Jaune killed an Ursa and turned to Ren. "What is 'that' round?" He asked as he turned again to block a Beowolf's claw.
Nora flipped the lid off of her grenade launcher and emptied out her weapons ammo. Reaching into her pack she drew out one large orange round that fit into the center of the gun. Nora aimed the weapon high into the air and the chamber began to spin rapidly before exploding. Nora fell back as the large explosive sailed out over the crowd. Jaune watched as the smoke trail fell right into the dead center of the swarm. Moments later the center of the crowd erupted into flashes followed by a deafening boom.
The Grimm stopped their attack and turned to see that over two thirds of the swarm had been vaporized. Jaune stood there in shock. He turned to Ren. "Why the hell didn't we use that an hour ago!?" He yelled while they had a brief moment to think. He turned when he heard a muffled sob. Looking over at Nora he saw that when she fired the round, Magnhild had been destroyed. Nora was on the ground collecting the broken pieces of the hammer while she had the chance.
"That's why she never uses it Jaune. We made our weapons together the day we were accepted to the hunters academy in the mountains." Ren said as he walked over to his distraught friend.
Jaune thought for a moment before speaking. "You guys went to the Fallen Academy..." He said as he quickly realized that he knew nothing of his friends pasts.
Ren nodded. "Yes, though at the time it was called Hope Academy." Ren knelt down and handed Nora a piece of her weapon. "We can talk more of my past when we have made it to safety. Until then, we still have lots of Grimm to deal with."
Jaune nodded. He turned to the rest of the group, who by this point had stopped fighting as well and was watching them. "The Grimm haven't attacked yet because Nora sacrificed her Magnhild to scare them. They are creatures of fear and despair so they will be ready to attack again soon. Ruby, now that their numbers have been thinned, your job is to slip in and out of the pack killing as many as you can." Ruby nodded and took off into the crowd.
"Blake, you and Ren will provide Ruby with covering fire while Pyrrha and I kill the ones that get close to us. Weiss, I need you to kill those King Taijitu's in the pit so that we have somewhere to retreat to if we need to. Can all of you handle your missions?" Jaune asked. Each one nodded and went to work on their tasks, Ren and Blake immediately began to gun down the Grimm that they could see near Ruby. Jaune turned back to Nora and knelt down. "Nora. I'm eternally grateful for your sacrifice. And the second that we get back to the Leviathan, I promise that we will rebuild her. But right now we still need your help."
Nora looked up to Jaune, tears still streaming from her eyes. "I need you to use your semblance and your remaining grenades to keep the crowds under control. Nora, can you do that?" Nora's usual perky demeanor was nowhere to be found, she had given into her depression the moment she was asked to use the special round. "Nora. If you can't do this then we may very well die here. I know that you miss her, but right now we need you to be strong. Ren needs you to be strong. He wouldn't have asked this of you if he didn't believe that you were stronger than it."
Nora looked at him and nodded, wiping the tears from her face. "O-okay. I'll do it." Nora said as she grabbed a grenade in each hand. She rose to her feet and began to hurl the grenades into the grouped up Grimm. Each grenade was followed by a trail of smoke and sparks as Nora used her power over electricity to cause the grenades to explode.
Pyrrha smiled as she watched Jaune raise to his feet, sword in hand. She moved his shield over to him and he gratefully accepted it. Jaune walked over to Pyrrha and readied his blade. "Told you that you'd make a great leader." Jaune smiled.
"I'll believe you once we get out of this." Jaune said as he scanned the swarm. They were still heavily out numbered, but the explosion left only two Goliath's standing, and killed every one of the Giant Deathstalker's. The threat level of the Grimm had been reduced significantly thanks to Nora. The Grimm had noticed their own being killed again and began to move against the hunters.
"Well everyone. I hope that you enjoyed your very brief break, I'll see you all when this is over." Jaune said as he raised his blade.
Jaune moved to swing his blade before he fell over onto the ground. The ground began to shake as even the Grimm froze in their tracks. Jaune looked to the forest, expecting for a second swarm, even larger than the first to burst forth from the forest, but what he instead found made his blood run cold. Walking into the clearing from behind a hill was a Goliath. Standing taller than the hill itself with one large crack going from the top left on its mask to the middle right. It's legs and body were covered in scars from it's previous battles and it's trunk held close to ten trees above it's head.
Without warning, and moving terrifyingly fast for such a large Grimm, The Goliath threw the tree's directly at the hunters.
"EVERYONE DOWN!" Jaune yelled as he grabbed Pyrrha and jumped down into the crater. As he slid down he noticed that Weiss had not yet cleaned it out. "Shit!" Stabbing his sword into the wall Jaune halted their descent several yards above the snakes. They looked up at their prey, now within attack range, and began to slowly slither towards them.
Pyrrha held onto Jaune tightly as the snakes got ever closer. "Jaune, now would be a really good time for one of your plans." She said as she pulled her feet up the wall. There was a loud crash from above them, followed by a couple of trees falling past them into the pit, managing to kill one of the King Taijitu.
"Well... um, we both have metal armor, can't you use your semblance to carry us up?" Jaune asked as he looked down at his partner. Pyrrha turned to her leader with an exasperated expression. "Yeah sorry, it was a dumb idea." He said as he felt his grip on the sword beginning to loosen. Suddenly Jaune's face lit up. "Oh! What about your maidens powers? Can't you do something with those?" Jaune asked as he pulled Pyrrha farther up until she was resting on his shoulder.
Pyrrha thought for a moment before raising her palm. "I don't know what this will do, but here goes." She said. The sky above the crater began to darken as the wind picked up. Jaune could feel himself beginning to press against the wall as the wind whipped against his face and armor. The King Taijitu seemed to notice the change with their prey and attacked. They began to lunge for Jaune and Pyrrha before they were hit with a barrage of grenades and impaled by spires of ice.
Jaune looked up and saw that Nora and Weiss had gone to work attempting to save them. He felt Pyrrha raise off of his shoulder and saw that she had begun to float. Moments later he felt himself being dragged skyward. Jaune and the King Taijitu had gotten caught in a man made tornado that had Pyrrha at the center. Jaune screamed as he saw the ground getting farther and farther away. He sailed past the Nevermore that had been circling them, much to their surprise, and watched as the King Taijitu slammed into the Nevermore, catching them in the deadly vortex.
Jaune finally reached the top of the funnel with the rest of the Grimm, and felt completely weightless. This only lasted for a moment however, as the next moment he was falling back to Remnant alongside the Grimm that were unfortunate enough to get caught. Jaune was flailing as he felt his grip on his blade tighten. 'Well, at least I'll die with my blade in hand.' He thought as he began to pick up speed.
Weiss looked up at the falling blonde and grimaced. She knew exactly what would happen if someone was to fall from that height. Switching the chamber on Myrtenaster to a yellow dust she began to spin the blade around while creating a large icy ramp below Jaune. "Pyrrha! You need to make Jaune stop spinning!" Weiss yelled into the tornado. She could see her red haired friend in the center, but she couldn't get through to her. Panicking Weiss looked back up to Jaune and saw that he was still spinning as he fell faster and faster towards the ramp.
"Thanks Weiss!" She turned as she saw a red blur race past her up the ramp. Turning to see what passed her she saw the blur crash into Jaune and stop him from spinning, while dragging him back into the air a few feet. She realized that it was Ruby and noticed that she had managed to save Jaune for the time being. Watching as the tow began to fall towards the ramp, Weiss added more ice and speed glyph's along the path into the field of Grimm. Reaching the ice ramp Ruby threw Jaune to the side into Nora and Ren and continued down the path, cutting down Grimm on the path.
Jaune thanked his teammates as he turned back to Pyrrha, who was still in the vortex. She had her back turned to the group as she continued to slowly ascend higher. "Pyrrha! Were safe! You can stop now!" Jaune yelled as he attempted to get his partners attention. Pyrrha continued to ignore her leader as the sky grew darker. June turned as he heard loud crashes and saw that the King Taijitu that had been in the pit had begun to land in the field and disintegrate, taking several unlucky Grimm with them.
There was a thunderous crack as lightning began to rain down around the valley. Jaune and Ren dove out of the way of a massive bolt that crashed directly into Nora. Jaune groaned as he rolled onto his back and sat froward. He saw a bright pink glow ahead of him and saw that Nora had absorbed the entire blast. She was crackling with pick electricity as he entire eye glowed a bright pink. She had a huge grin on her face as she picked another grenade off the ground. She looked out over the crowd of Grimm, her grin never faltering.
In the next second, moving faster than the rest could follow, Nora hurled the grenades out over the crowd, then jumped directly into the crowd. Jaune panicked and started after her before Ren grabbed him. "Don't! She has been over charged by that lightning, she'll be fine for now. We need to work on getting Pyrrha to calm down!" He yelled as he turned Jaune back to the vortex.
A thunderous roar caught their attention as they saw a shockwave burst from the tree line, carving through the Grimm. Turning they saw Leo and Yang burst forth from the trees riding an Ursa Major. Yang looked out over the massive swarm with a stunned expression. "They must have gathered every Grimm on the damn island!" She said as she killed the Grimm they were riding with a swift hit to the back of the neck.
Sliding off of the dead Grimm Leo scanned the battle field. "I'm amazed that they managed to fight a horde of this size for so long." He said as he shifted his remaining arm into a gun, while only the left tank began to inflate.
"No offense, but I don't think air is going to do much against these guys." Yang said as she refilled the ammo in her gauntlet.
"Not just using air this time." Leo said. Yang turned to him with a questioning stare as he opened his coat. Inside the coat were several glowing vials with various types of dust. He grabbed a red vial and brought it to his mouth before sucking it all down into his lungs.
Yang's calm stare faltered as she watched Leo eat the dust. "What are you doing?! Dust is highly toxic! You can't just eat the stuff!" Yang yelled as Leo moved the now empty vial back into his coat.
He shook his head and blew into the mouth piece in front of him. The tank on his back began to glow red. When he finished the mouth piece retracted into his collar and he looked down at Yang. "Wan't eating it." He said as he raised his arm to the swarm. Gripping the trigger on his palm he began to fire a barrage of fire based breath missiles from the gun.
"YANG!" She turned quickly as she was tackled to the ground by a fast moving red blur. She looked down to see a sobbing Ruby clinging to her shirt. Ruby looked up to her face. "You're okay! I was worried about you!" She said as she buried her face in Yang's chest.
Leo took a moment to look down at the girls before going back to shooting the Grimm.
"Of course I'm okay Ruby, why wouldn't I be?" Yang asked. "I spent two months on this island, one more night wasn't going to kill me." She said as she got to her feet, trying to pry he little sister off of her.
Ruby refused to let go of her. "We heard you fall!" She wailed, still clinging to Yang, who was now becoming annoyed that her shirt was getting wet.
Yang and Leo shared a confused glance before Yang looked back to Ruby. "How did you hear us fall? AH! Were you guys following us?!" She asked, finally breaking free of he sisters grip.
Ruby pointed at Leo's face. "His mask has a camera and microphone in it. Professor Tyme was watching you guys on the monitor in the bridge with the other adults."
Leo froze. Switching his gun into a dormant state he reached into his bag and pulled out his remaining chunk of the mask. He looked closely and saw several small wires sticking out along the cuts. He turned and threw the mask back into the forest before returning to the Grimm. "Going to need to buy a new mask."
Yang looked back at the mask behind them then down to Ruby. "Well, even if I was in trouble, I told you that you guys aren't ready for this level of Grimm combat yet!" Yang said as she scolded her sister.
Ruby was about to respond before a loud horn like sound drew the attention of everything in the valley. following the sound back to its point of origin, Ruby remembered the massive Goliath that had appeared not but a few minutes earlier. Yang visibly paled as she stared at the Grimm. "It's him..." She said as she began to back away.
Leo and Ruby turned to look at Yang. "You recognize that Grimm Yang?" Ruby asked.
She nodded. "He's the reason I never left this island. He's the reason I had to leave my other gauntlet behind." She said as she continued to back away from the massive Goliath.
Leo turned to stare at the Grimm in the distance. One defining feature was the large jagged crack in its mask. "Brutus."
Yang nodded, now having backed up into a tree. "We need to run." She said as she grabbed Ruby and started towards their team. Leo turned to follow, trying his best to move while firing his gun
"Yang wait! We can beat that thing if we all try! It's just one Grimm!" Ruby said as she tried her best to keep up with her sister while being dragged.
Yang shook her head. "No, we need to leave now! I'm not losing something else to him!" She yelled as she made her way over to the rest of her team.
Ruby turned back to see that they had lost Leo several yards back in a pack of Grimm. She was about to tell Yang until she saw him jump out of the pile before sprinting up to them. Ruby turned see that they had reached the rest of the group, and she noticed that Jaune was missing.
She turned to Ren. "What happened to Jaune and Nora?" Ren pointed out over the now dwindling swarm. Ruby could see Nora tearing Grimm apart with lightning, but she couldn't find Jaune. "What about Jaune?" She asked. Ren pointed up into the tornado, and Ruby could just make out the shape of two people high in the twister, though one seemed to be clinging to the other for dear life.
She turned when she heard the howls of Beowolves, and saw that the swarm had started to retreat. She turned to Weiss and Blake. "WE DID IT!" She cheered as she dragged her team into a hug. The hunters all let out a collective sigh of relief at the sight of the Grimm leaving.
But Yang was still focused on the one Grimm that was still making it's way over to the group, trampling on the Grimm that got in it's way. "Yes, yes, cheers all around, but right now we need to leave!" She said as she began to push her team in the other direction. Ren glanced up into the twister where Jaune was trying to help Pyrrha.
Pyrrha was still fueling the tornado, and as she continued to use her powers, the lightning became more erratic in its nature, striking ever closer to her friends. Her left eye was glowing bright yellow, and she was only vaguely aware of the blonde leader clinging to her right arm. She could only hear the sound of the wind.
Jaune was clutching his chest due to a lack of air in the vacuum. He pulled himself down to where he was face to face with his partner. "PYRRHA! PYRRHA CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" He yelled as loud as he could manage, attempting to catch her attention.
She turned her face to him before focusing on his form. The wind began to smash into him in an attempt to knock him off of her. He tightened his grip on Pyrrha's arm as the wind began to slash at his skin, causing shallow cuts and scratching his armor.
Jaune knew he had to stop her, but she wasn't listening to him. He looked around to see it there was anything he could use to get her attention. Seeing nothing and thinking quickly he pulled out his shield and unfolded it. Wrapping his legs around her stomach he reared back with his shield. "Please forgive me Pyrrha." He said as he bashed his shield into Pyrrha's face as hard as he could.
It had the desired effect as it managed to knock Pyrrha into unconsciousness. He felt her body go limp and grabbed her. He did not however expect that when she lost consciousness that they would also be swept away by the twister. "Not again!" Jaune yelled as he and Pyrrha were dragged high into the sky.
As they flew higher and higher, Jaune felt his back slam into something hard and turned to see that he had crashed into the open door of the Bullhead. He turned and saw Sun and Neptune at the controls.
Sun turned back to grin at him. "Pretty good timing huh?" He said as they flew out of the vortex. Quickly they did a nosedive towards the others in the group. Jaune hurried and fastened Pyrrha into a seat before they hit the ground. Sliding across the grass he could hear Sun and Neptune arguing.
"I told you! That's not the landing gears!"
"And I told you, that I was going to be the one landing us this time!"
Jaune hurried to the door and let the others inside. Yang and Leo raced past him and threw Sun and Neptune out of the cockpit. Yang grabbed the controls while Leo made sure that the crystal was fastened to the cargo wall. Seeing that the rest of the teams had entered the ship Yang made the machine lurch forward before tearing off into the sky. Jaune grabbed the wall and hit the button to close the doors.
Sun and Neptune climbed into their seats grumbling about wanting to fly back to the ship. Yang looked out of the window, down below on the ground, Brutus was starring up at them. She glared at him before flying off towards the Leviathan.
The Leviathan
Doctor Oobleck was waiting in the hanger when he heard the alarm go off. Turning to the screen beside him he opened the doors and a Bullhead raced into the room, sliding across the floor as it tried to stop. Finally coming to a rest at the opposite end of the hanger, the door to the back opened and the students began to file out.
Oobleck glanced down at his watch. "You know that it is quite far past your curfew students. I suggest that you all head to your rooms immediately." He said raising his book back up to his face.
"Indeed. Nova and Qrow were beside themselves when you all left without permission." Tyme said sliding out from under one of the nearby Bullhead's that had been damaged when the students had left the Leviathan earlier that day. He threw his wrench into a nearby tool box and wiped the oil from his hands. "Leo, you will be bunking with team JNPR for the rest of this trip. I decided that it would be in your best interest's to have your room switched."
Oobleck looked over to the group of students and saw Pyrrha unconscious, Nora carrying a pile of mangled metal, and Leo missing an arm. He paused for a moment then leapt from his chair. "Good heavens! Young man what happened to your arm?!" He asked as he raced over to Leo.
Tyme looked over to Leo's arms and noticed the metal hand protruding from his pack. It then dawned on him that no one on board the ship had been told of Leo's condition. "Dr. Oobleck, you needn't worry yourself, Leo has prosthetic arms. He lost them when he was younger, the details of how it happened I leave up to Leo to share." Tyme said as he walked over to Leo. Leo moved his arm over to Tyme so than the man could examine it. "I should be able to have it fixed for you in a couple of days." Tyme said as he took Leo's arm from the pack. He was visibly struggling to hold the device, as each arm weighed close to three hundred pounds.
Leo nodded his thanks and walked back into the ship to retrieve his crystal. The students gathered their things and quickly made for the elevator. Climbing into the elevator they rode it back to the dormitory level. Creeping past Qrow's room, they peaked inside and saw Winter sprawled out on the bed, with Qrow sleeping with a bottle of whiskey in his hand on the couch.
Continuing on to their rooms, careful not to wake the rest of the adults, RWBY crept into their room with Sun and Neptune behind them, while JNPR walked into their room. Closing the door behind them, Jaune laid Pyrrha on the bunk above his, and sat down on his bunk below. Nora dropped the mangled remains of Magnhild on the desk and walked over to her bunk above Ren's. Jaune watched as his team crawled into their beds before rising to his feet.
"I'm going to go wait outside for Leo. You guys better get some sleep." Jaune said as he watched his team crawl into their beds before walking to the door. He stepped outside and closed the door behind him. Turning to the hall he noticed the window across form the door. Jaune walked over to the window and propped himself up on the railing. He looked down at the island below. He could see new the sheer amount of damage that Yang had done to the island from the sky. The ship suddenly lurched forward as it began to move.
Jaune turned to see Leo walking up to him. Leo had left the rest of his arm with Professor Tyme, now having ditched the stump that reached to his elbow, instead now having only a hole that looked like it connected to various wires and gears at his shoulder. Jaune greeted him before opening the door to the room. "You can have the bunks over there on the end." Jaune said as he pointed at the far end of the room.
Leo nodded his thanks and took off his coat, that Jaune now realized was just a vest, and crawled into the bed on the end. He took the lower of the two, his massive size causing his legs to hang off the bed by about two feet. Jaune opened the connecting door to RWBY's room to see that each of the rooms occupants had already gone to bed. He closed the door before walking to the light switch for his own room. He flipped them off and walked back to his own bed, not even bothering to take off his clothes as he flopped down onto the bed. He felt his eyes grow heavy as he lay there, one thought played over and over in his mind while he waited to sleep.
'Qrow's going to kill us tomorrow.'
And that marks the end of chapter 4! I wanted to expand more on Leo and Yang's time in the cave, but I just couldn't think of anything fun to do in the cave. I also wanted to use this chapter to attempt to show that Yang and Leo are not the only power houses that this fic will have, even if Jaune may not be the best fighter, in my ind at least, he's a tactical genius.
As I am expecting to get several questions about this, or get flamed for it, allow me to explain Leo's strength as simply as I can. His false arms each can hold close to 1 ton, while his legs have had several years working the fields to develop the necessary strength to carry it. The one thing you all need to remember is, RWBY is an anime, and people in anime tend to get ludicrous strength and durability from doing menial things. *cough* One Punch Man *cough*
In the next 2 chapters I hope to have the crew reach True Remnant, so leave me a review and tell me what you thought, or follow the story if it interests you.