Chapter 39: Planning
Ruby was walking through the dense forest to Serena's home, excited to talk to the older female again. She had been a bit weird the last time she had visited and Ruby was intent on finding out what had caused it. When the cave that the girl lived in came into view, she called, "Hey, Serena! I'm back!"
Receiving no answer, she walked up closer to the cave. Maybe she's gone hunting,Ruby thought, entering the cave. The first thing she noticed was that the fire was out. That can't be right. She never lets it go out, even if it's summer! Continuing her inspection, she suddenly heard some noise behind her. Spinning around while wielding Crescent Rose, she let out a breath when she saw that it was only Ajax.
"Hey, boy. How're doing?" The animal didn't react at all and Ruby thought that it acted weird. Normally, Ajax would be all over her, smearing her face with slobber and requesting pats. But now, he just stood there and it was almost like he was lost.
"What's wrong?" she asked. This time, the Grimm did react and, grabbing her cape between his teeth, he began to drag her away from the cave, further into the forest. "H-Hey, slow down Ajax!" Ruby tried getting her cape loose but the animal had such a strong hold on her that she could do little more that simply follow him and try not to trip while in the process. It was when he abruptly stopped and let go of her cape that the young girl lost her balance and fell on her butt.
"Oww… You better have a good reason to drag me here and-" She instantly stopped her grumbling when she noticed Ajax sniffing the ground, soft whines coming from him. Standing up and dusting herself off, she walked over to where he was and squatted down beside him. On the ground were multiple footprints and marks, all in a mess.
Looks like they're from a fight, she thought. Getting up, she followed the marks until she got to a dead end. Huffing in annoyance, she had no clue what to do now. If Serena had been attacked by someone, then this was as far as she had gotten. Now what am I supposed to do? she pondered. Glancing down, she suddenly noticed what seemed to be letters drawn on the ground. Squinting her eyes, she could clearly read the word 'WF'. What's WF? Anyway, I have to inform Professor Ozpin about this!
She quickly rushed back, using her semblance to her advantage and when she arrived at the cave, she grabbed Serena's stick that was still there and told Ajax, who had somehow caught up to her, to stay there and wait for a signal from Serena. There must have been a reason why she had not called Ajax when she had been attacked and Ruby figured that the best thing she could do right now was to tell the animal to stay put.
"I'll bring her back, ok? You and the others stay in the forest and wait for a signal from her. Don't follow me back either, it would only create a mess," she explained to the Grimm. The animal gave a snort and ran off into the forest, most likely back to its pack.
When Ruby got back to Beacon, she immediately walked towards Ozpin's office. "Hey, Ruby!" she could hear her sister call, but she was too busy and chose to ignore her. Yang, curious about her sister's behavior, started following her, calling Weiss and Blake too.
"What's going on?" the Faunus girl asked, eyeing her partner.
"I don't know but Ruby's acting strange. Something's up," the blonde quickly explained, her eyes never once leaving the back of her sister.
"What could she want from Professor Ozpin?" Weiss questioned and only now did the other two notice that their leader was, in fact, heading for Ozpin's office.
"We better find out."
The three girls quietly followed the youngest of them all and hid above the elevator, glad that it didn't go back down unless someone called for it, and listened in on the conversation between their principal and Ruby.
"Ruby. You seem troubled. What can I do for you?" they heard Ozpin ask as he put down his coffee mug.
"I'm sorry for suddenly barging in but I have something important to tell you, Professor Ozpin." Ruby's voice held an unknown seriousness that the three females rarely heard.
"Of course. You may come in as well," Ozpin called out. The three girls cringed at being discovered already before opening the latch to the elevator, dropping down and walking in too.
"Yang? Blake? Weiss? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, eyebrows raised.
"We saw you earlier and you were acting strange so we decided to follow you," Weiss explained, resting a hand on her hip.
"This has nothing to do with you."
"Oh, it does. If it got you so riled up then it definitely has to be something big. And we're not leaving until we know what it is," Yang replied, crossing her arms across her chest to make it clear that they were not leaving any time soon. Ruby let out a sigh before turning back towards Ozpin who was patiently waiting for what the young girl had to say.
"I think we're in trouble. And I mean big trouble."
Ruby's cryptic answer only made the older man raise one eyebrow and he motioned her to continue.
"You see, a few months ago, when I was in the woods, I heard someone screaming. Acting on instinct, I ran over and met a young girl and an older one. The younger one was crying while the other one comforted her. I asked them if they were hurt since I was sure that the younger one had been attacked by Grimm but then…" Ruby paused, not knowing how the others would react to what was to come. Gulping once, she finished her sentence, "But then the younger one told me that the other one had stopped the Grimm from attacking her."
Silence fell upon the room and the three older girls at first didn't get what was so important until they ran Ruby's narration in their head again. Their eyes widened and Ruby knew that they had figured out what she was actually saying.
"What do you mean 'stopped'?" Bake asked, eyes furrowed in confusion.
"I mean it exactly as I said. She stopped the Grimm. Not killed, but stopped."
"That's impossible!" Weiss said, not believing what she was hearing.
"I thought so too. But then there was a Grimm right behind them and he didn't attack us, just went up to the older girl. She told me and the little girl that he was her friend and that he wouldn't do anything to us. And he didn't; all he did was growl once and then go back with the older girl.
"Me and the little girl, Azuna, went with her and she invited us to tea. We talked a lot and later on Serena told us about her power to actually control Grimm. She was living all by herself in the middle of the Forever Fall forest and she said that she even flew on a Nevermore once. When I left, I asked her what she planned on doing with that power and she said that she only wanted to live in peace. I visited her several times after that and we both became good friends. She even taught me how to tame Grimm."
"So you mean to tell us that a girl was living in the forest, friends with Grimm, and we never heard of or saw her?" Weiss was the first to speak, her voice holding disbelief.
"She prefers to stay in the forest and doesn't come to the city very often. But do you remember the incident three months ago, when Vale was attacked by Grimm?"
"Of course I do!" Now she sounded offended.
"Then you certainly remember a person wearing a black cloak standing next to me just before you guys got to me, right?"
"That was her?" Yang asked.
"Yep. She helped us a lot back then and it's thanks to her that no one died," Ruby replied with a smile.
"So the rumors about the Grimm Tamer…"
"…are actually about that girl," Blake finished for Yang, arms, too, crossed over her chest.
"So what makes you say that we are in trouble?" Ozpin suddenly asked, sipping some of his coffee.
"Well, when I was visiting today, Serena wasn't home. At first I though she was just out hunting but Ajax was acting strange and he dragged me deeper into the forest. There were multiple footsteps and traces of a fight there. And another thing, there was a word drawn on the ground."
"Which was?" Ozpin inquired and everyone leaned forward a little in anticipation.
"WF. I don't know what it means, but they must be the one who kidnapped Serena."
"The White Fang." Every head turned to Blake who was glaring at the ground, golden eyes alight. "WF are the initials of the White Fang."
"So that means…"
"That we are in more trouble than I thought," Ozpin said, clasping his hands together and resting is chin on them. "General Ironwood has notified me two days ago that their base on the border between Atlas and Vale got destroyed. Apparently, three males got in and destroyed their entire equipment. It will take them some time to rebuild the base. For the moment, Atlas won't be able to intervene directly. And if the White Fang has a person that possesses such power, then we can be certain that they are getting ready to launch a big attack."
"But why now? Why not two weeks ago, when the Vytal festival was still going on, or back then when the Grimm were attacking the city? Why did they wait so long?" Yang questioned, eyes slightly starting to turn red until Blake laid a calming hand on her shoulder and her eyes returned to their usual lilac color.
"Maybe precisely because the Vytal festival is no longer going on," Weiss interjected, drawing attention to her. "With the Vytal festival going on, there were a lot of military and security here. It would have been hard to plan and execute such a big assault without anything going wrong. But now, all military has left and security has weakened considerably. We are the most vulnerable right now so it would be wise to strike."
"Indeed, and I have a hunch that Beacon will be their first target," Ozpin interjected.
"What makes you say that?" Yang asked, not understanding why they should be the primary target when there were other, much more important and bigger targets than them.
"Because we are the only line of defense that Vale has at the moment. If we fall, then so does the entire kingdom," Blake explained.
"I thank you for telling me this Ruby. I will immediately alarm the other students and teachers. Glynda!" An adjacent door opened and said woman stepped inside. "Please tell all personal and students to get ready for a fight. Beacon is under attack and no one is allowed off campus without my consent. We are officially at war and everyone is to be ready for battle at any moment." The woman's eyes widened slightly but she left in an instant, setting on the alarm that told everyone that they were under attack.
"I believe you three will have to get ready as well. And Ruby," he stopped the young girl who was halfway out the door to get ready. "We will try anything to get your friend out of there unharmed."Ruby gave him a smile in appreciation and left.
A/N: I do not own RWBY or its characters. I do, however, own my OC Serena and any other OCs that appear in this story.
We're about to have war people! Just like in the series...
But I have to tell you that the final fight won't be extremely long and the fight scenes will probably not be anything special as well since I'm not so good at writing them. But I'll still try to pack in enough action, so look forward to the next chapters!
And please review and tell me what you think! Even if it's something negative just tell me what you think! I always love knowing what people think about my stories.
On a side note: anyone else caught a cold or the flu. I did and it sucks. I feel for any of you who're going through the same as me.