Pre-Chapter Author'sNote: Two updates in the same year? Believe me, the person most surprised about this development is me.
More seriously, per usual: Standard author's note at the end of the story. Once more, a massive word of thanks to Unseen Lurker for helping me get this on track!
Onwards!
Strength of an Honest Soul
Chapter 13
This, Ruby thought tensely, must be what "deafening silence" refers to, huh…?
The silence that had settled over the clearing was downright uncomfortable for Ruby; it brought to mind the thick, soundless atmosphere of unsupervised classes and locker rooms back in Patch, or the hollow, echoing stillness of a crash after a particularly nasty vision. Even now, as she sat with Crescent Rose in its Rifle Form, slowly scanning the foliage before her and the chasm in the distance, she did her best to do so as slowly as possible, because this heavy, oppressive silence made the faintest rustle of her ruined clothes sound like a gunshot.
Maybe that was just her, but she was uncomfortable, and in great amounts of pain, and she could feel the anxiety coiling at the back of her throat and between her shoulders.
A sharp burst of scent in the air was all the warning she got before antiseptic sank its cold claws into the wound currently running down her back, and she shot her trigger finger out to rest on Crescent Rose's receiver before her hands tensed involuntarily. A low hiss escaped from between her clenched teeth, and a mote of fire ran all the way up her spine and settled on the right side of her skull, pounding in a way that made her vision swim slightly. As soon as it came, however, it departed, leaving her with naught but the ghost of a burning sensation flickering in the dull ache that had spread across her entire back.
"That's as clean as it's going to get," she heard Weiss say behind her, and she swallowed. "I haven't got enough adhesive wrap for the whole wound, so… I'll deal with the worst of it."
"...Thanks," Ruby muttered, trying not to cringe at how hoarse she sounded. Exhaustion was slowly but surely trying to wrap its coils around her, and more than once during the last few tense, silent minutes, Ruby felt darkness start to creep into the edge of her vision, only to be dispelled by the biting application of antiseptic. She tapped her trigger finger against her rifle's receiver, trying not to think about how the tension was knotting beneath her shoulders into what felt like wooden balls. The cause for her tension was comically simple. Despite having run headlong into what appeared to be a Tunneler nest, despite fighting off a nightmarish spider-creature from a horror novelist's imagination, despite beating the odds and escaping with her own life and her newly-rescued classmate…
…Now she was sitting here, alone, with Weiss Schnee - the girl with whom each of their interactions had gone horribly wrong - and…
She was scared. Plain and simple.
The euphoria of successfully extracting Mason from his dire circumstances was slowly but surely ebbing away under the tension of her expectations. Despite her best efforts, Ruby was already bracing for whatever little thing could set Weiss off this time - their previous interactions were volatile at best, even if Weiss was quick to try and help during the first one, and Ruby was half expecting a severe dressing down over the circumstances of their reunion. She chose to focus on the undergrowth, keeping her eyes and ears open for any disturbances, any details out of place, any aching groans from trees disturbed from below, just in case a stray Tunneler popped out and she could vent some of her tension by blasting the stupid armadillo-mole-rat-thing's head off.
A bit more rustling from behind her broke the silence settling over the underbrush as Weiss finished tending to her wound. The painkillers in the first aid kit were… not helping with the worst of it, and the occasional lance of pain regularly made Ruby clench her jaw as she kept scanning for enemies, but with the adhesive wrap and the gauze set, at least there wasn't any chance of infection. I hope, she thought to herself, shaking away the memory of what that spider-thing's poison did to that one Tunneler.
"The bindings should hold under normal movement," Weiss summarized softly behind her. "The wound isn't as bad as it could be but some sections along the arc are quite deep. Painkillers and aura boosters are a very short-term stopgap here; we need to get you proper medical attention. You, and your… our classmate here," she mused, slowly walking over and kneeling between Ruby and the prone form of Mason Eckstein. Ruby didn't bother trying to look at Weiss' face; instead she opted to do as she'd been doing since she'd managed to de-escalate the situation, sweeping Crescent Rose's barrel to and fro, inching her finger towards the trigger every time she saw an abnormal twitch and occasionally bracing the barrel on her knee to free a hand she could use to wipe the sweat from her brow or tuck a few damp strands of hair behind one of her ears.
As Weiss set about making sure Mason was properly situated, checking his pulse and breathing and making sure the antivenom that had been administered was at least achieving surface-level results, Ruby's mind strayed back to her wound. While Weiss had been quick to start looking her over for apparent injury, the injury to her back was what actually made the girl fall silent for a good while before the prim, cool and absolute order to sit down and make minimal movements came. Ruby doubted she'd have been able to tend to that particular injury herself, especially with the lack of actual antiseptic spray in her small kit.
I really need that utility belt, she thought glumly for a bit, making a mental note before her mind could fly off the handle and into a frenzy of dimensions, materials, and design, and with some effort after realizing just how dry her voice had gotten, she swallowed down her nervousness.
"Weiss?"
Ruby flinched as the word left her mouth, and she fought back a cringe at how raw her voice sounded. Nonetheless, her call was enough to draw Weiss' attention, and as blue eyes met Ruby's own, she tried as best she could to minutely piece together what she saw there. Growing impatience, definitely, as Ruby realized she'd called as Weiss was still checking Mason's status. But concern too, open concern, as those eyes flicked to Ruby's shoulder and the wound that crept up to it. Weiss' opened her mouth to speak -
"...Thank you."
- and Ruby cut her off with that same hoarseness in her voice. She tried not to focus on the way Weiss' brow arched with slight surprise, but while she still had the girl's attention, she cleared her throat and licked her dried lips. "I… I don't think I'd have been able to deal with… Well, with this," she said, shrugging her injured shoulder slightly and wincing under the sudden lance of dull pain and why did I do that? She thought with a subdued shudder. With not even a shuffle, however, Weiss was by her side again, checking the dressing with an expression both irate and concerned.
"Don't do that," she instructed lowly, her fingers deftly working the dressing again to check its integrity. "I told you earlier, what I've done here is a temporary solution. Aggravate this and it will get worse," she admonished.
"Sorry," Ruby meekly replied, sitting still, hardly daring to breathe until Weiss was satisfied that her wound was still as okay as it could be under the circumstances. "And… thanks again," she said. "I was kinda worried about it. Couldn't see how bad it was, or how deep it went, or… Signal, uh, really stressed how important proper first aid is on the road," she rambled, her voice shaking a bit. "So… You, uh… I just-" She paused for a bit, wrestling with her words, trying to sit still under Weiss' scrutinizing gaze. "...Thanks," she said again, lamely.
Weiss studied her for a bit more, blue eyes keen and analytical, before she stood up and took up a vigil of sorts between Ruby and Mason. "I… I don't know where to begin," she said with a slight exhale. Her hands quickly came to rest on her hips as she locked eyes with Ruby again. "I think I've got a clear picture of what happened here. The webbing and the poison is the most alarming part, so I have to know: was it really an Arachne?"
Ruby paused, as she made to answer, as recollections of the fight in the cavern below flashed past her mind's eye. The long, gangly limbs, the four glowing eyes, the webbing, the claws and that distorted, unnatural voice, all of it made her shiver slightly. But the fact that stood out to her the most was that it was definitely not one of the infamous spider Grimm. The Grimm didn't speak. They didn't act the way that thing did. But… that just made the situation all the more perilous. And so, swallowing down bile and bitterness, Ruby shook her head, and resorted to her most tried and tested defense over the years:
She lied.
"Y-Yeah. Or at least, it looked the part. I had nothing but my scroll for light down there and the thing was big. So big it couldn't properly fit into the tunnel I escaped through," she warbled. "It, uh… It was fighting some Tunnelers. Killed about five of them before it came at us."
She could see Weiss pale slightly at the news, and Ruby could honestly understand why. 'Territorial disputes' between the Grimm were depressingly rare, but it only ever happened when one old enough to actually adapt to the point of claiming a hunting ground was involved. And if this (completely imaginary) Arachne was old enough to try and defend territory, well… That meant it was old enough to lay a lot of eggs. And that was a hypothetical that'd given even the staff at Beacon nightmares.
Weiss cleared her throat, and shook her head slightly. "Tell Ozpin about it when we get back to Beacon, in as much detail as you can," she instructed, a frown settling on her brow. "Normally this is the part where I ask what you were thinking in this case. Going down into whatever place covered you in all that dirt and grime and dust, that I understand, but the fact of the matter is you engaged an Arachne!" She scolded, and Ruby winced even as her own hackles rose. As she was corralling her confidence to at least try and retort, however, Weiss' frown dissipated, and she exhaled.
"And… you did it to save someone's life."
Weiss' admission not only sounded like a gunshot in the relative silence of their surroundings, but it also served to knock the heat clean out of Ruby's stomach. Slowly, Ruby's eyes settled on Mason's prone form again. The blue tint around his lips was dissipating as his aura flickered across his skin in almost electrical arcs, and the spasms and twitches he was falling victim to during their climb up to the surface were coming on much less frequently. While the boy's aura would probably be down for the count for a good few days during his recovery, it was already fighting off whatever poison that monster dosed him with. He was safe now. And that fact made Ruby smile, even through the pain her own bumps, bruises and injuries caused.
"Yeah…" She admitted softly. "That… That was all I focused on. Through, uh, through the panic, and the terror and the… the uncertainty. I just focused on him. Kept telling myself I couldn't leave him down there."
Silence reigned for a short while after that, before Weiss calmly sat between Ruby and Mason again on their rocky perch. "Incredibly foolish," she surmised, lacking heat despite attempting to convey it, "but incredibly noble too." She paused for a while, before giving Ruby a flat look. "I hope this was just an isolated incident however. Noble or not, what you did was still very dangerous. At the very least, going forward, consider telling me what you plan on doing if you see a situation like this happening. You're far from a registered Huntress yet - you need help." With that said, she held out her hand. "Scroll, please. I'll get my details added for you so you can keep your finger on the trigger."
Ruby blanched slightly, bewildered. "I, uh, I… Listen…" She stammered. "W-Wouldn't it be a bit unfair to you, just to call whenever I need to go f-fight Grimm and expect you to come running?"
Weiss' look turned even flatter. "What are you talking about? If you're fighting Grimm and I'm not nearby that means one of us has done something very wrong."
Ruby's mind stalled, and Crescent Rose's barrel slipped off her knee and bumped into the opposite calf. "S-Sorry, what?"
Weiss' frowned. "I'm chalking this up to an adrenaline crash of sorts because you had to have been listening when Ozpin made his speech up on the cliff," she said plainly. "We made eye contact. Several times now. We're partners for the next four years, for better or for worse."
Whatever part of Ruby's consciousness was responsible for reminding her to breathe suddenly stopped for a crucial second. Her mouth opened and shut with an audible click as recollections of her previous interactions with Weiss bull-rushed their way to the front of Ruby's mind, and all the panic and mania and dejection and recently anger that came with them. As her heart started hammering just a bit faster in her chest, in her ribs, in her throat, she found herself wondering just what a four-year tenure would be like with Weiss in close proximity during missions and assignments, and the possibilities made her blood run cold.
"I…" she began, her voice wavering and her stomach churning as she spoke. "A-Are you sure that's… Like, I'm- Well, I, I said earlier, I can t-take care of myself… Y-You shouldn't have to partner with…"
Her memories flickered, unbidden, and whispers and echoes of part heartbreak spilled back into her thoughts. Fragments of occasional snide remarks, of the buzz of whispering and murmuring whenever a teacher had to escort her out of class during one of her episodes, and the wall of curious eyes she'd be surrounded with when she got back. Recollections of stilted conversations, that started and ended with exchanged hellos and left her mulling about on her own again. And as much as they hurt, the ghosts of conversations between her dad, and Uncle Qrow, and Yang, before Ruby had met Uriel. All the frustration, all the pain, all the telltale indicators of family members rapidly nearing their wits' end.
"...You shouldn't have to partner with someone you're not comfortable with," Ruby said, not daring to meet Weiss' eyes. She busied herself with scanning the undergrowth with her rifle again, aware that the sudden fixation seemed laughably deliberate but unwilling to do anything about it. "I'm sure Professor Ozpin will understand. I'll… I'll talk to him myself if I have to."
She allowed herself to keep focusing on the center of Crescent Rose's ring sight as she swept the rifle left and right. A few years ago situations like these would still be unfair. It wasn't the first time after all. But after meeting Uriel… Context lessened the sting of these encounters a good deal. It didn't abolish it - there'd always be hurt in realizing that somebody she'd met was best kept at arm's length - but it helped. So she stayed quiet after her admission, and soldiered on.
At least, until…
"I… don't do this very often," Weiss spoke slowly, her voice and tone measured, as though she was carefully considering what to say in the circumstance. Ruby looked over, and saw a discomforted expression on the girl's face, but nonetheless, their gazes locked, and held. "I was taught for years now to show absolute confidence in my decisions going forwards, even if…" She paused and took a breath. "Even if some bias on my part can shine through. But… it's difficult to be confident in something that's… so absolutely wrong."
She steeled her gaze, and let her discomforted expression fade as best she could.
"...You're not the only person that did something foolish today," she said, finally. "At the very least you had the best of intentions spurring you to do what you did. I… Didn't." She paused, and swallowed. "I was wrong. I was wrong, and you were right. This is Beacon Academy, and Professor Ozpin has been overseeing and training new generations of Hunters for decades." She stopped short, again, wrestling with something inwardly, before continuing.
"Irrespective of your age, irrespective of your background, you wouldn't be here if Ozpin didn't think you deserved it. And… I didn't realize that." While Weiss seemed conflicted about what to say at some points, she'd yet to break gazes with Ruby - and so Ruby held that gaze firmly, even if she was starting to shake as well. "If… If this emergency situation hadn't happened," Weiss continued, "then your injuries would have taken you out of the running for initiation. You risked your life, and… and a shot at an outright prodigal achievement, to save someone else's."
Gazes still held, even with trepidation sinking its fingers into Ruby's chest and clawing at her throat, Weiss continued.
"I… misjudged you. And for that, I… I am sorry."
It took several seconds for the words to finally register in Ruby's mind; several painful seconds, where some paranoid instinct of hers waited for the catch, for the other shoe to drop, and in those seconds her jaw, her tongue, her voice, they simply refused to work with her. The ice in her blood had all but evaporated but the feeling of fingers clenching her lungs together still persisted. A weight had settled behind her eyes and only after trying to blink it away did Ruby realize the wetness creeping into her vision. No, no, that's just… Ugh… She thought in circles, using a hand to try and dab the tears away before they spilled over. The sting of dirt in her eyes only worsened the effect, however, and Ruby was left teary-eyed and wet-cheeked anyway as she pawed at her face. Her attempts to clear the sudden weight between her eyes only elicited a wet snort from her, and she quickly fell into a coughing fit in sheer embarrassment.
"S-Sorry, I-" She tried to speak between coughs. "I just… S-Sorry… This…" She took a breath, steadying herself, blinking to clear her vision and taking a deep breath against the straining ache in her lungs. "I'm not… This… doesn't usually happen."
Weiss looked pensive for a moment - or something resembling pensive, through Ruby's blurry vision - before her voice rang out again. "I know we didn't exactly make the best first impressions on one another," she said, "nor second, to be completely honest. And I… I'm still worried, about you. But… I… think we should start this acquaintanceship over," she said confidently. "...If you're willing, that is."
"I-" Ruby hiccuped, interrupting herself in short order, before giggling softly and shaking her head. "I'd like that." She sniffed again, clearing her nose, and felt at least some of the tension in her shoulders bleed away. Maybe… Maybe this'll work out after al-OW! She winced, as the pain from her wound chose that moment to pulse. Okay, ow. More tension? Is tension good? Owww… "I'm, uh… I'm Ruby. Ruby Rose. I'm from a little island called Patch, I, I attended Signal Academy for the last two years until, uh, I guess I got… scouted? By Professor Ozpin? After Yang and I stopped a Dust Store Robbery…"
Now that her vision had cleared up, she saw Weiss nod. The girl's features were still mostly schooled, but a bit of wishful thinking on Ruby's part made her think the slight upwards tilt at the corner of Weiss' mouth wasn't imaginary. "I am Weiss Schnee," the girl said confidently. "I am currently the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, and I received most of my primary education in Atlas, privately." She trailed off, before continuing. "I chose to come to Beacon due to its illustrious status among the academies. I thought to myself, any nation that can rely solely on Hunters for protection over a standing army must turn out some exquisitely trained Hunters."
Ruby cut off her own giggle, and it turned into a half-snort in response. "You're, uh… You're not wrong. Well, I guess, it's not really fair for me to say anything since, y'know, family, but, eh…" In lieu of shrugging she bobbed her head from side to side. "Uncle Qrow is really amazing. He taught me how to use a scythe. He's got quirks, yeah, bu-"
The stone beneath them rumbled and shifted, drawing a yelp from both of them, and the ground before them swelled and rose, splitting apart as something burrowed outward into the foliage. Bone-white spikes pierced through the burrowed trail, and a few dozen feet away, the ground gave way in a burst of dust and soil as a Tunneler emerged from the dark below. A skull-faced head the size of Ruby's torso swayed side to side on a thick, muscular neck, and an array of pale white plates locked together into a natural suit of armour down the length of its body, with every odd plate sprouting a sinister barb.
In the time it took this beast to breach the soil and get half its immense bulk into the open, Crescent Rose was primed against Ruby's shoulder, the ring sight trained precisely over the Grimm's now pale, lidded eye. Weiss had, at some point, soundlessly risen to her feet as well, an admittedly cool-looking rapier with a revolving cylinder built into its guard held gracefully at the ready.
Neither of them uttered a word, and Ruby hoped - above hope - that Mason didn't make a sound either, unconscious as he was.
Tunnelers, Ruby knew, were neither blind nor eyeless, as so many kids' shows and storybooks spun them. As she watched a dark, semi-opaque membrane slide down over the creature's red eyes, she recalled this. They were simply highly sensitive to light, and when lured to the surface, shielded their eyes and relied instead on their above average sense of hearing and-
The Tunneler trudged forward, and with the rise and fall of its clawed paws, Ruby saw the short, tendril-like sensory organs there at the bottom of its limbs, reaching like blades of grass down towards the earth.
- an utterly alien sense of perception via vibrations, Ruby remembered. This was why she and Weiss hadn't dared to move yet, and why she was regulating her own breathing so hard her chest was starting to burn. Mason, thankfully, didn't stir. Which meant that, if they were lucky, they could wait out this particular Grimm.
Please go away, Ruby thought to herself, rather petulantly. I'm hurt, I'm low on aura and I just made a new friend. Please go away. Her finger still rested along the side of Crescent Rose's receiver, and the ring sight deftly stayed focused on the creature's eye. A quick sideways glance, barely an inch of her head, showed her that Weiss had her thumb resting on a trigger linked to her rapier's cylinder too, and upon closer inspection Ruby noticed the barrel-like flute subtly and neatly etched into the flat of the blade, probably for allowing Dust application. Huh. Neat. Wonder if she'll-
Ruby felt the vibration on her chest mere seconds before her Scroll blared to life, the shrill tone indicating another emergency broadcast. Not even a split second after the device had started emitting what sounded in the sudden silence like a death wail, the same damning sound poured from Weiss' scroll as well, and with a furious, low, stuttering growl, the Tunneler turned to the rock they were seated on.
"...Darn," Ruby summarized.
"...Unfortunate," Weiss' statement came simultaneously.
The Tunneler roared, a guttural, bass-rich, bleating sound that shook the shrubbery around it, and charged, its immense mass shaking the soil beneath it.
Before it had even taken its first step, one of Crescent Rose's bullets bit into the eye socket of its pale, bony mask, fragments of Dust-forged lead splintering off and burying themselves into the soft flesh beneath as four bolts whitish Dust slammed into its head area. Two rebounded much like Ruby's bullet did, while one shattered into rime across its head and another pierced into the gums of its open maw.
Ruby switched tracks the moment the first salvo of attacks hit; biting through the pain in her shoulder she quickly aimed down and sideways, finding that vulnerable spot in the Grimm's limb-plating and loosing another bullet. With a meaty rip and muffled thud the shot pierced and punctured just as the Tunneler sought to place its weight into it. Its natural plating, however, locked together just as the limb was on the cusp of giving way, and - with a grind of bone - held just long enough for the creature to resume its charge with another deafening roar.
"I'll expose a weak point!" Weiss called, dipping forward and launching herself off the stone towards the creature. A quick and elegant movement akin to a pirouette took her out of the way of the Grimm's opening swipe, and the rapier's blade glowed red, slashing into the creature's side. The weapon itself scraped harmlessly across the armoured plates, but burning dust settled quickly in-between the segments as wisps of smoke, thin and string-like rose from the muscle beneath. A line of glyphs on the ground allowed Weiss to slide away from the creature as though she was moving on ice, and she avoided a desperate attack from the Grimm as it brought its full weight down into a horrific slam.
At the tail end of her array, Weiss straightened, and took up a stance as the cylinder of her rapier spun. The blade lit up purple, and a spinning glyph beneath her shifted into a triplicate array; with the tip of her weapon trailing light, Weiss slashed at the air four time, each strike carving a hanging arc of violet light there, and at the end of her flurry, the triplicate glyphs locked in place and dissipated, sending four arcing beams of light slashing outwards at the Tunneler. The first two slammed into its side, breaking off some barbs and cracking a plate or two. The third went high and snapped the line of dorsal spikes on the creature's back clean off, and the fourth-
Odious, thick and viscous black liquid seeped from a newly opened gash in the creature's neck, and a side of its jaw hung limp beneath its snout. But the Grimm roared and faced Weiss again, so Ruby moved.
Mustering what little bit of Aura she had left, Ruby propelled herself forwards into a flanking position in a burst of rose petals. As she came skidding to a halt she both saw the two pillars of ice striking out at the creature's flank and felt the wave of cold that radiated off them. But it provided her the opening she needed - there, half-prone on the ground, her back screaming in cold, piercing protest, she shouldered her rifle, deployed the magnifiers and turned her ring sight into an actual scope, sighted the ghastly wound that Weiss' attack had opened, and fired.
Crescent Rose's muzzle spat flame, and the Tunneler's roar was silenced as its head jerked uncomfortably. Ruby heard her bullet tear through malign flesh and ricochet off bone, once, twice, and a third time, eviscerating whatever passed for organs in the Grimm's skull, and with a lumbering groan, the creature fell, cloying smoke rising from it in thick columns as its disintegrated into wafts of dark.
Relieved and in great pain, Ruby let herself drop prone, her breaths coming out in great heaves as she spat at blades of grass trying to creep into her mouth. Twisting her head up uncomfortably, she saw Weiss skirt around the decomposing Grimm and rush towards her. "Ruby!" She heard the girl call, even as she blinked away the sudden swimminess in her vision. "Are you okay?"
Shakily, Ruby raised a hand and half-heartedly balled it into a thumbs-up. "Th-That dust-slashes move… w-was awesome," she replied, spitting out grass again and laboriously climbing to her feet. She could see her aura flickering around her arms, pale and dull, and her back screamed in protest again. "Huuuuugh… T-Tomorrow morning is gonna be awful…" she groaned, standing in a hunched position.
"You…" Weiss started, before sighing and circling Ruby to inspect her bandage again. "I would have been fine maneuvering it a bit more for you," she said tersely.
"Had to be quick," Ruby answered, trying not to slur and she hobbled over to the stone again. "Dunno if any others are coming. Didn't want you to get bogged down when I'm… well, hurt." She sniffed. "Ow."
Weiss remained silent for a while, before allowing herself a muted sigh. "Thank you for your consideration," she remarked dryly. "But I'd rather you be safe and stable. And not undoing my bandage work with unnecessary movements, thank you kindly."
Ruby, despite still treading water in talking with Weiss Schnee, offered a weak grin in response. "Sorry. Just… Instinct, you know?"
Weiss seemed to be on the verge of answering, when the stone beneath Ruby vibrated again. The soil shook ever so slightly, and the foliage trembled around them. "...This initiation is a disaster," Weiss surmised sourly, turning around to face the undergrowth as a multitude of smaller yet similar burrow-trails headed towards them. "How many bullets have you got left?"
Ruby grimaced as the soil around them burst in almost a dozen places, and several smaller yet no less fierce Tunnelers came pouring out."A-About 18 rounds," she huffed. "Enough to deal with these and some change, but we'll have to look at a retreat if m-more come after these," she said.
"It's something to consider," Weiss answered with a cool voice - one that her expression of concern betrayed utterly. "We should at least try to hold this position. There's enough of an opening in the canopy for the Bullheads to see us - especially if I use my Dust…"
"I can…" Ruby huffed. "I can keep an eye on your blind spots," she supplied. "Spare my shots to ward off those that get close to here and those that get around you. I-It's not ideal, but…"
"It's quite ideal," Weiss answered primly, her rapier at the ready. She took a deep breath, and a conflicted expression appeared on her face. "I… I'd hoped we'd have done more than exchange names before this, but… I'll be trusting you here."
"I-I've got your back," Ruby said, eyeing the smaller, less-armoured Tunnelers. "...I promise."
Her words seemed to be a signal of sorts - the moment she'd finished speaking Weiss shot forwards towards the Grimm, a line of small glyphs on the ground enhancing her movement. An unfortunate Tunneler opted to leap at her, no doubt sensing her approach, only to be skewered without another thought as she pushed forwards. Another glyph brought her to a skidding halt, and she lunged towards a gaggle of them on the side, her rapier weaving from vital to vital like a snake lashing out. Three more Tunnelers collapsed into smog when her flurry was done, and from the clouds of dark two of the Grimm tried to pincer her. Confidently Weiss stepped forwards and met one's teeth and claws with a deflecting swipe of her rapier, and Ruby - having shouldered her rifle just as Weiss had started her assault - blasted it out of its leap with a shot that cleanly severed its spine.
It was only when half of the dog-sized Grimm remained that Ruby's senses picked up something amiss. As she wrestled with the familiar smell that suddenly drifted into the air, a faint, muddy odour that reminded her of rainy days back on Patch, she fired off another shot at a Tunneler trying to flank Weiss. That left five-
She froze.
There were still five Tunnelers.
What the-?
Something beneath them shifted, and a violent tremor shook the earth beneath their feet. Ruby instinctively grabbed hold of the stone beneath her as she yelped, and quickly hooked her heel into Mason's side to stop him from bouncing off their safe perch. The quake shook the very trees around them, and in the distance Ruby could hear the snapping of stone and the shifting of earth as the ground itself gave way. "N-Not good…" She mumbled, racking her brain. Tunneler hierarchy, based on Grimm Studies, almost always had a queen or mother figure at the head of the hive. And from what she recalled about Tunneler Queens…
She shuddered.
"There's more!" Weiss called out, flinging shards of ice at a trio of smaller Tunnelers that had just broken through the foliage to join the attack. "Lots more! And that quake felt bad! We have to-"
"I-I think it's the queen!" Ruby interrupted her, struggling to her feet, one hand already reaching out to Mason's prone form. "I don't know why but I think the queen's coming! We need to fall back!"
Soil cracked and sputtered and churned and shrubbery and foliage tore as almost half a dozen more Tunnelers rose from rapidly-thinning undergrowth, and even now Ruby could see the ground around their exitways tremble and shudder as a series of softer quakes ensued. She strained her hearing, and cursed under her breath as she swore she heard a muffled, muted growl, much deeper than the other Tunnelers', faintly echoing from the various tunnel openings. Not good, not good! "We need to leave now! We can-GAH!"
The large stone she was standing on shifted, tilted almost on its axis and tossed aside, sending both Ruby and Mason flying off. Ruby grit her teeth, trying to control her fall as best she could, but the moment her injured side slammed down on the ground her vision turned white for the briefest of moments and a ringing sound danced in her ears. Even then, even with foggy vision and an injured back and her pale, dull aura just barely holding on, Ruby managed to fight through the pain and aim - at the larger Tunneler, similar to the first one they fought, as it was tossing her stony perch aside and shaking dust and dirt off itself. Only vaguely did Ruby realize the signs of battle - claw marks and acid burns - on this one's armour plating.
For a few moments, sound faded as Ruby desperately tried to steady her aim, seeking an opening, a weakspot, anything that could drive the Grimm before her back. She fumbled with the receiver, blindly looking for the catch that would drop the magnifier and turn her scope back into a ring sight, but the numbness creeping into her fingers, born of the stinging, burning pain in her shoulder, rendered the struggle futile. She could see flashes of light off the side, white and blue and purple and red, and she saw arcs of Dust arc every which way through her blurry vision.
The Grimm's claws clacked against the ground, and its head slowly turned towards her. Its maw opened, and even through the ringing, Ruby heard its roar. Then-
Light.
A beacon, bright and burning, slammed into the greater Tunneler's side, and Ruby blinked under the shockwave and fragments of muddied bone plate were sent flying. Blows that sounded like cannon fire pushed the Grimm further and further away, and as Ruby shook her head to clear her vision-
Yang?
"Yang!" She cried hoarsely, recognizing the blazing blonde hair and the furious red eyes. Ruby felt a pair of hands take her under her arms and gently hoist her up, and she lulled her head around to see the dark haired girl from the previous night - was it Blake? - slowly helping her to her feet. The girl's voice was muffled, but Ruby could read in Blake's lips the question "Are you alright?"
"Mmm… M'fine!" Ruby responded, shaking her head and getting some stability in her posture. "Help… Help Weiss! Th-they're surrounding her!" Blake's brow rose in surprise at the request, but Ruby spared no time in ambling over to a close-by tree and bracing herself against it. Crescent Rose's current magazine had four shots left - and as Ruby shoulder her rifle again, concern and panic wrapped its icy fingers around her heart as she watched Weiss' desperate dance, bereft of any grace, as the white-haired girl desperately fended off attacks from an alarming amount of Tunnelers. Already some superficial cuts and tears dotted Weiss' clothing, and exertion was written plainly on her face, eyes frantically dancing this way and that as she fought off an assault that just kept piling on.
Again the ground beneath them shook - and this time a bellowing roar poured out from the holes left in the Tunnelers' wake. It flooded out from the underground and shook the soil beneath their feet, and Ruby's fingers dug into the bark of the tree as she fought to keep herself steady..
Four more Tunnelers - big ones - breached the surface in the distance, their roars being the final nail in dispelling the ringing in her ears completely.
I promised.
Crescent Rose barked four times, and four smaller Tunnelers around Weiss dropped dead just as Blake seemed to materialize from the dark smog a few feet from her, a sour expression on her face. Ruby pulled the magazine release and an empty clip fell to the ground, and her aura flared as she strained to reload.
The larger Tunneler - the one that had loomed over her - went soaring across the clearing, its side reduced to a shredded, mangled, smoking crater, and in a blink, Yang was by her side.
"-uby! I'm here! Wh-What happened to you?!"
Ruby shook her head. "A-Answers later, please, Yang," she spoke, and she cringed inwardly at the high note her voice reached as her shoulder pulsed again. Her sister immediately snapped to action, a rare look of focus popping onto her face despite the concern still etched into her features and the sheer panic in her red eyes.
"What do you need, sis?"
"Queen's c-coming. I think. W-We need to retreat," Ruby huffed, watching Blake and Weiss slowly but surely inch towards them. Blake was fast, and her use of body-doubles - a Semblance? - allowed her to play things a bit rougher. The two girls had taken up an almost frantic back-and-forth as more and more Tunnelers rose from the rapidly-collapsing ground. Some of their tunnels had even started collapsing again under the heavy quakes. "Weiss and… B-Blake, right?" Upon seeing her sister nod, Ruby continued. "Weiss and Blake are… are fast. I… I have a plan, but we need to go. N-Now!" She said as she pushed off the tree. A spike of pain lanced up the side of her skull, and Ruby held her breath, a cold shard of fear spiking into her heart as she waited.
Please… Please, not now… Not a vision. Not now, please!
Her breathing ragged, she ambled over Mason. There was no amber tint to her vision, no distortion to her hearing. Just delirium, Ruby intoned to herself, just delirium. "Weiss! Blake!" She called, as she and Yang finally reached unconscious Mason. Yang was contributing to ranged support, each punch spitting a shell of fire dust at those smaller Tunnelers that tried to flank the two more agile girls. "W-We need to retreat! We can find one of the ruins, or an open field, or m-more people, but we need to go now!"
Finally the other two girls reconvened with them, and Yang joined them in forming a diamond formation around Ruby. Blake's twin blades and Weiss' rapier and Dust mastery kept the sides of the approach to them clear, and Yang, allowing frustration to seep into her again, took to breaking any Tunneler foolish enough to approach with her fists. "How are you still standing?" Ruby heard Blake ask over the cacophony.
"R-Retreat," Ruby huffed. "We gotta retreat!" Crescent Rose barked again, blinding one of the larger Tunnelers long enough for Yang to drive it several steps back with a powerful haymaker and a furious roar. "R-Running retreat. I can… Ugh. I've got s-some aura left, I can d-do overwatch, make sure you guys don't get flanked. Y-Yang…Yang!"
"I'm listening!" Yang called back, still fighting against the larger Tunnelers as they tested her defenses and openings. "What's the plan?"
"Y-You need to take Mason…" Ruby answered. "Y-You're the strongest here, carrying him sh-shouldn't be a problem. You'll have a hand free, I'll be covering you… B-Blake, Weiss, can you two hold the flanks down?"
"Absolutely!" Weiss responded, sending another volley of dust at the Tunnelers.
"I can!" Blake answered too, as her blades cut short yet another Grimm's life. "Who's going to cover you though?"
"Y-Yang," Ruby answered, looking at her sister. Yang still had her teeth gritted, still had her focus on the Tunnelers before her, but Ruby saw the tension in her sister's back and shoulders, and saw her blazing blonde hair bob as she nodded. "Y-You guys cover Yang. Yang covers me. I-I'll cover you. W-Wait for a lull in the attack, on my mark we-"
The ground rumbled, and churned, and quaked, cutting off Ruby's further instruction. Before them the very earth swelled and cracked and peeled as small clouds and tufts of dust started puffing forth from the sundered hill rising before them. Whole trees toppled to the side, their roots pulled free from upturned soil and fresh mud, and the hill split to reveal a creature ripped straight from someone's nightmare.
It bore only a superficial resemblance to the other tunnelers - the head was still vaguely mole-like but its snout took more after a crocodile than a mole-rat. Its front teeth were malign and twisted and razor sharp and both its gums and its palate were dotted with smaller fangs. Bereft of a traditional Tunneler's bony armour, this titanic creature's midsection was instead bloated and ulcerous, ever-churning and twisting and quivering with each laboured step, and between the layers of clotted, chunk-like fat, Ruby saw what looked like seams, that quivered and peeled apart with every errant movement, leaking a pungent, viscous black liquid. This gargantuan, rotund Grimm slowly pulled itself from its muddy tunnel, its grotesquely swollen figure covered in dust and dirt, and from beneath its skull-like faceplate, six baleful red eyes glared down at them.
"O-Oh no…" Ruby groaned, craning her head to look up at the disgusting Grimm.
"Q-Queen Tunneler…" Weiss supplied, her own eyes wide with panic, an expression quickly mirrored by Blake and Yang as they all slowly stepped back.
The Queen Tunneler regarded them with much less bestial instinct than the normal ones did; a sinister flicker of hatred and malice shone in its six eyes, and its jaw quivered as it looked at the four Hunters in training. It less lumbered and more dragged itself forwards, two powerful forelegs digging deep into the mud and soil and pulling itself further from its own tunnel. It glared at the four girls, bubbling saliva dripping from its maw, before pushing itself up onto its forelegs, rearing back and releasing an unholy screech of a roar for all to hear. Ruby saw its sides, where those fleshy seams leaked black ichor, started to pulse and churn and contract - and as the other Tunnelers bayed and bleated and roared with their monarch, Ruby sucked in a breath.
"NOW!"
Her instruction was heard even over the calamitous noise, and as she launched herself backwards in a plume of rose petals she saw the others spin on their heels and bolt. Yang scooped Mason up with one arm and slung him over her shoulder with almost enviable ease, while Blake quickly reloaded the pistol built into one of her blades and Weiss anxiously cycled her rapier's cylinder.
Please, Professor, Ruby begged inwardly, skidding to a half from her burst and shouldering her gun, ignoring the line of fire now searing happily along her back. Please be on your way…
Ruby knew what her fellow initiates were capable of when she devised her plan. Even Hunters in training were a cut above the normal people in terms of physical ability, even those who had smaller reserves of aura available. They'd made it about fifty meters away when the Queen Tunneler directed its roar to their wake, and as she peered down the sights of her rifle, Ruby locked eyes with this malicious monster.
Hate shone there, balefully as ever, and something unspoken passed between Ruby and this nightmarish creature.
And then, with that malice still shining in its eyes, despite the immense mass it carried with it, the Queen Tunneler roared. Her children, large and small, all gave chase, breaching away from the shattered soil and stone and onto the more solid ground where Ruby knew their odd sensory organs could keep track of them.
And as Ruby shot back again in a cloud of petals, she heard the monarch's roar, and the Tunnelers' pursuit - and her friends' retreat - began in earnest.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Post-ChapterA/N: And that's a wrap!
At the very least, I didn't make you guys wait a year for another update. I think this is progress - for me, at least. Now I just need to work on narrowing the gap between chapters and I'll be golden. I'll consider this a personal goal. A Midyear's Resolution, if you will.
Candor aside, one or two important things to note!
On the topic of Volume9: I will be disregarding 99.99% of what happened in Volume 9. This is not Tumblr or Reddit - I will not rant at length or deride the Volume proper. I will simply state that I absolutely did not agree with the direction, writing, events and executive choices made regarding the volume and as such, I refuse to entertain its existence in this fic, and every other RWBY fic I will ever write, to varying degrees.
Bumblebee? That's a big, fat 'Maybe'. I respect that the pairing is established canon, however, I am still exploring how different circumstances have shaped Yang as a person and will shape Blake as a person in this story going forward, so Bumblebee is as up in the air as anything else. I noted in an earlier chapter's A/N that the pairings are undecided. This has not changed.
I think that's it. Once again, big thanks to Unseen Lurker for always being down to help lay the groundwork of an ever-evolving story and for always being down to listen and offer input. And a massive thank you to everyone that read, reviewed, or reached out to me via PM regarding this story. Even if I didn't get to responding, I saw your messages, and I appreciated every one of them!
Next time: Big Mama comes to play, and we end the initiation arc with a big hookin' fight.
Until then!
