Our Piece of Hell; Chapter Three

A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know it's been a few weeks, and I know I shouldn't be losing interest so little into the story, but… I have no excuses except for lack of interest, really. I was thinking about this story a lot though, telling myself that I would write the next chapter the next weekend, but I never did until I made a DeviantArt account and posted chapter one there, so then I was like 'Screw it, I'll write the next chapter.' And here it is.

I am aware that I spelled Vale wrong in the previous chapter, I just thought it was spelled that way, but after seeing episode 8 (before I actually started writing part of this), I realized, 'Oh, god I spelled Vale wrong!' Good thing nobody is a super hardcore RWBY fan and criticized me for it. I dodged a real bullet there. But I'm also really glad they showed a map of the city so that I could bring some aspects of that into the story, and I could talk about it more openly without having to be worried about ruining the entire real RWBY universe. Because RWBY is totally real. Now, enough of me yammering on, enjoy!

Ruby screamed as Yang came flying at her, a large grin plastered on her face despite the dangerous situation she was in. But, before she hit the ground, she ducked into a roll in front of Ruby, summersaulting into her sister and accidently pinning her to the ground. "Hey, sis! What's up?" She laughed at her own joke before climbing off of her.

Ruby stood up as well, hands on her hips. "What did you do?"

"There's this kid, Sky, I don't think you've met him, but he told me about these awesome launch pads! I wanted to test them, which he said he was perfectly okay with, so I did! And let me tell you, they. Are. So. Cool."

She shook her head in mock disapproval before asking her question. "Yang, do you know what part of Vale has all the clubs? Particularly the Dusk?"

She smirked like she knew something. "Why? You got a date?"

Ruby's cheeks reddened slightly and she glared at her sister, hands clenched in fists. "N-no! I just said that I'd meet some kid there tonight at 8!"

"What's his name?"

"Why do you assume it's a guy?"

"Well, is it?"

She bowed her head in defeat, mumbling. "Yes."

Yang waved her hand in an act of dismissal. "Whatever. You're lucky I plan on going out for some drinks tonight anyway. Mind if I tag along? I promise I won't crash your date by getting too drunk."

"Yang, you're only seventeen!"

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Oh, please. Don't tell me I don't look eighteen! And eighteen is the legal drinking age! I've done it plenty of times. The only problem is, on our side they recognize me. Or they recognize my bike."

She gave her a look before caving in. "Fine. Just don't kill yourself. We have to find Nora and Ren…" As soon as the words left her mouth, an excited squeal reached their ears, unmistakably Nora's. They both turned to see Nora skipping up to them, a few black feathers clinging to her clothes and stuck in her hair.

"Oh, hey guys! Do you know where I can find another big raven-bird? That was so much fun!"

Ren came running up behind her before leaning forward, hands on knees, breathing heavily. "Nora. Never do that again."

Yang stared at her for a while with a look of awe on her face before a smile started to form on her lips. "Did you just ride a Nevermore?" (A/N: A few weeks ago in class I came to the realization that the giant raven-thing is called a Nevermore because that's what the raven said in The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. I know, right? That's really clever! Then I went on the Wiki and it said that, so it made me feel kind of disappointed… oh well.)

"Yeah, it was fun! But then I broke it and it couldn't play anymore." She frowned, saddened slightly.

"Where did you, er, park it?"

"On the cliff top, of course! Wanna see it?"

"Do I!" Yang started to follow Nora, dragging Ruby by the arm, who, in turn, grabbed Ren. She started taking them to the cliff, where, surprisingly, a dead Nevermore could be seen lying from a distance. Yang started to run after Nora, who had picked up the pace. A few feet from the body, Ruby's hand slipped from Yang's grasp and she fell forward onto the ground, already having let go of Ren a few feet before. She slowly started to get up, hearing some rustling as Yang and Nora poked at the giant bird. As she rose to her feet, she froze, seeing the cliff a few feet in front of her. Images flashed through her head as her feet numbly moved toward it.

"Summer? Where did you go?" Her lips moved unintentionally and she stopped right at the edge of the cliff, all noises becoming faint and fading into the background. She saw a snowy forest in front of her, a grave resting on the cliff side. She stared down, her cloak whipping in the wind around her legs, the snow bleak and cold, stinging her face.

"How's the view?" A voice directly in her ear startled her so that she was shocked out of her memory, turning around quickly to see who it was and losing her footing, stepping back, her foot meeting air and she started to fall. She almost started to panic, a short scream escaping her mouth, but she snapped her mouth shut, drawing out Crescent Rose and slamming it into the face of the cliff. She swung back and forth before bringing herself back up, landing cleanly in front of the person who had startled her. He had burnt-orange hair and blue eyes that were almost the same color as Jaune's.

"Ruby!" Yang came running towards her, skidding to a halt before gazing at her with worried eyes. "Are you okay?" She turned to the boy, anger clear on her face. "What the hell? I could kill you right now, you-" She raised her fist to punch him, but Ruby cut her off, both in speech and action.

"Chill. This is my job." She drew back Yang's fist before raising her own, hitting him clean on the jaw. He was knocked back, hitting the ground a few feet away. "You're lucky I don't put my scythe through your gut. Baka."

He groaned, standing up unsteadily. The other boys who she hadn't noticed with him came and helped him up. "You're going to pay for that!" She pointed her scythe at him, raising one eyebrow in a come-at-me-bro position. "Later. Why are you even here? You're no student."

"None of your business."

"Are you from the other side?"

She remained silent and felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over, surprised to see a man with grey hair and a cane looking over her at the boy.

"She is here at my request, Cardin. Now, please mind your own business and stop causing trouble with other students. Return to your studies. All of you." Cardin scowled at him once before turning quickly, storming off with his goonies following him.

As soon as they were gone, Ruby turned to the professor, her shoulders sagging down from their once defiant pose. She looked down, her bangs covering her eyes. "You're going to send me back, aren't you?"

"Actually, no." She looked up suddenly, startled. He sighed. "My name is Professor Ozpin. Ruby Rose, you are an extraordinary fighter. I also know what it's like to have very few options." His eyes gained a sort of far-off look to them, but he continued. "So, I will let you stay on school grounds. I will alert the teachers of a few more students' presence here, so you will have full permission to be here. I only ask that you are careful. Some students might recognize you here. With that, who are you your friends?"

She stumbled at first, surprise still evident in her features. She pointed at each one of them in turn. "T-that's Yang Xiao Long. That's Nora Valkyrie. That's Lie Ren."

He nodded in some sort of recognition, eyes wise and full of knowledge. "The only thing I regret is that I cannot protect you if one of the Shades of Grimm tries to retrieve you. I will be taking my leave now. Stay vigilant." He walked slowly back to the building in the middle of the campus, sipping his coffee along the way.

"Whoa, you're so lucky! We almost got busted!" Yang's comment burst the silence. "Oh yeah, are you okay? You kinda got knocked off the cliff and stuff… what happened to you?"

"I kinda spaced out, but I'm fine, thanks to Crescent Rose!" She folded it back up, stroking it and making a weird cat noise.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Can we just go?"

"Go…?"

"You'll see!" She grabbed her hand and Nora's, pulling them along towards the brilliant city below the falls.

A/N: Yes, this took much, much longer than it was supposed to, but I kind of forgot about it for a while. Hopefully it was still of good quality. I was going to start talking on and on about other things that somewhat related to this, but then I decided that everyone waited long enough. The only relative thing is that I got my hair cut like Ruby! It was so long before, but now it's short and awesome. Until next time! ~SC