The night air was cold.
It may have been in the middle of the summer, but in this area of the world, in the dead of night, it had become cold.
But Ruby had grown up on Patch. An island where in winter it got below zero degrees.
For the current night, a small cave was her and the rest of team JNPR's resting spot.
It was currently her shift to watch.
Although she had asked one person of the other three to stay up with her for just a tad longer.
"Are you sure about this, Ruby?" Ren asked.
"I'm sure. It's something that makes me at my weakest points. I need to become stronger, and need to know what to do in situations where it will be needed."
"How would you like to begin?" Ren asked.
"Teach me your style. How do you take people on hand to hand?"
"That is quite an advanced technique, I hope you know."
"I assumed that it would be. Which means that it would be a perfect place to start. Master the higher levels and everything else becomes easier."
"Is that how you got into a top ranked combat school two years early?"
"That and I kinda stopped a robbery."
"Right. Forgot about that."
"That's unlike you."
"I know. Weird."
"Has Nora affected you even more than usual?"
"I don't think that's possible anymore." he said as he glanced off to his childhood friend snoring while sprawled out across the cave floor."
"Whatever. Getting off track." She said.
"You're determined." he commented.
"Aren't we all?"
"You raise a good point. Now, let's start with your stance. Spread your legs into an L shape and until your knees are at a forty-five degree angle." Ren ordered the shorter girl.
Ruby obeyed the directions and shifted her legs, feet, and body weight to give herself a good balanced stance.
"Like this?" she asked.
"About that. Now this will be the beginning stance. Later, we'll get into standing upright."
Ruby nodded in confirmation.
"Alright. Now bring your arms up like this." Ren demonstrated bringing his right arm forward with his palm out, and tucked his left fist downward and pressed it lightly to his waist.
Ruby mirrored his arms positions and held the stance.
"Perfect, just like that."
"Natural?" Ruby asked. Thinking that she had beginner's luck.
"Not very. A stance is the easiest part of hand to hand combat. You will mostly be using this against a human. For someone who hasn't practiced with hand to hand their entire life, unlike me, I would highly advise against using these techniques against Grimm. I don't believe that it would end well if you try to do so."
Ruby laughed nervously.
"Don't be nervous. One thing about this technique is to not show fear or nervousness. That can and will be used against you." Ren stated.
"What is this technique?" Ruby asked.
"It's a technique called Floating Palm. It was created in the mountains of southern Vacuo many many years ago."
"And guessing by the name and the stance that I have right now, it's a palm based fighting style." Ruby guessed.
"Precisely."
"Which means it is very fast as well as powerful."
"Right."
"And now that I'm in the stance you're going to be teaching me a little... hands on."
"It's one of the best ways to learn."
"Says who?"
"My master who taught me, and his master, and her master, and so on."
"I guess that'll work then."
Ren nodded and held the same stance as Ruby.
"Now. I want you to attack me."
"How?"
"Think about it. Do you see any openings that you can use to your advantage? Anything at all?"
Ruby examined her friend and tried to find a flaw in his defensive stance.
"Can I be honest?" Ruby asked.
"Of course."
"I can't see anything wrong."
"That is where you are wrong. Look at my feet." Ren advised.
Ruby glanced at his feet and saw that his forward facing foot's ankle was slightly bent to the left.
"Good. You noticed." Ren commented. "Now just how will you handle?"
Ruby approached Ren with caution.
As she went to strike Ren's ankle with her own, Ren instantly retaliated.
With Ruby's ankle still mid air and aiming straight for his own ankle, he forcefully placed his open palm against her left shoulder, knocking the girl off balance. With another forceful palm strike to Ruby's back to knock her down, as she was now in his line of defense. The girl was now falling straight for the ground, before she felt a hand grab the back of her hood and pull her back up to her feet.
"That wasn't good, was it?" Ruby asked.
"No, not really." Ren replied.
"Drat." Ruby said, looking a little sad.
"Don't worry about it. My first time performing the technique with my master went along the same way."
"True, but I'm not trying to be a master at this. Just trying to be able to handle myself in a one-on-one fight if I ever need to again, which with my luck, it will most likely happen."
"Yes, but it will-"
A sudden shift in the wind took his attention.
They had been practicing the technique at the mouth of the cave and feeling the cold wind and air against their skin.
"Did you feel that?" he asked.
"You mean how it feels like it just dropped another ten degrees? Yeah, I felt it."
"They're coming."
"They're getting kinda relentless lately. Must be because of me taking out that Beringel back at that town a few weeks back. They didn't seem to like losing that large piece so easily."
"It was something to be expected. I'll wake up Nora and Jaune, you keep watch."
"Got it."
'We can't keep running from them. We need to get to Mistral...'
Flashback
"Hey, Mom."
Ruby was now back at the top of the cliff on Patch, standing before her mother's grave.
The cold snow crunched beneath her feet as she shifted around nervously.
Team JN_R sat back, allowing the younger girl to have a moment.
"Well... I guess you might have seen... everything at the festival went... wrong."
No reply came from the stone plaque.
"And now, as I'm sure you know, I'm heading out to fix the wrong."
The wind blew through her hair gently.
"Like I said weeks back, like Mother like daughter. I'll come back someday. Whether this will be my last time standing here or not, we will have to wait and find out."
More silence.
"The silver eyes is I guess something that runs in the family. Uncle Qrow mentioned that you too had them. How they symbolize the life of a warrior. Hopefully I can live up to that title."
"I love you, Mom." Ruby said as she turned around to face her friends.
The inside of the bullhead was loud.
Cramped.
And humid.
Luckily they all had their own place to sit.
Save for Yatsuhashi who was happy to meditate on the floor, cross legged with his large sword sheathed on his back.
Velvet, Coco, and Fox sat on one side of the bullhead while Yang and Weiss sat on the other.
What was this, the seventh hour they had been in there?
They had entered the airspace of Mistral two hours ago. Now all they needed to do was try and predict with the pilot where they would be able to intercept and join them. Right now they were flying towards a village that was the most likely chance they hadn't been able to arrive at yet, one of Ruby's marked checkpoints on the map.
"How does it feel?"
Yang looked to Weiss.
"This question again?" Yang asked in return.
"I'm sorry," Weiss shot back. "I'm just curious is all. I don't meet many people with... new limbs." Weiss found it hard how to put her sentence together.
"Well, now it's more than just a new limb. It's also Penny."
"Right..." Weiss said. "Speaking of which, is she not talking?"
"No." Penny raised her own voice then. "I was simply reading."
"Reading?" Yang asked.
"Oh yes. Admittedly, being inside the arm is a bit of an upgrade as compared to my old body."
"Wait, seriously?" Coco asked. "I kinda find that hard to believe. You went from being able to control a body to being controlled by someone else."
"Well yes, while I did have my own body, I had more freedom of movement. But as I noticed when I did have a body, I was needed for a lot more tasks. Which cut into one of my favorite pastimes, which was reading."
"But can't you scan any piece of text like really quick?" Yang asked.
"I can, but it doesn't mean I have to do it really quick." Penny replied.
"That's fair." Weiss commented.
"I also just discovered that I could do this while reading through a few files earlier. Yang, hold out your palm." Penny ordered.
Yang then reached her arm outward and did as Penny instructed.
The green light in the center of her palm began to grow brightly. Suddenly, the entire cabin of the Bullhead was engrossed in the green light before quickly dissipating.
Everyone had shielded their eyes because of the green glow, save for Fox, but when it died down, everyone refocused on the robotic limb.
Standing there on the palm of Yang's hand was a tiny holographic Penny.
She wasn't wearing her old combat attire though. She looked to be wearing a slick pilot suit that had lines running down the sides. Everything consisting of Holo-Penny was colored in multiple shades of green, even her face and hair.
"That is… amazing." Velvet said. "It uses the same magic as my weapon." she said as she placed her hand on the magical box at her hip.
"Not magic," Penny said. "This is all technology. Although I cannot move off of the light of Yang's arm or else I will simply dissipate. Like so." Penny then stepped off the green light and Penny shimmered into nothing.
"But, I'm still here." Penny's once again disembodied voice said. "I've just returned back inside Yang's arm, essentially."
"Technology sure has come a far way." Coco said.
"Far is a bit of an understatement." Yang said.
"Hey!" The pilot called from the front. "Someone might want to come take a look at this!"
Yang stood up from her seat and walked up to the cockpit doorway. Weiss was just behind her, trying to get a view over her shoulder.
Yang looked out the window and saw the night sky.
"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Yang asked.
The bullhead pilot tilted the aircraft to the left at a small angle for them to get a decent view of the ground ahead of them.
Something on the ground was exploding in short bursts.
Short, pink bursts.
"Those are Nora's grenades!" Yang shouted.
"One of the four?" The pilot asked.
"Yeah. Get us over their combat area." She ordered.
"There are Nevermore's in the sky so this is going to be hot. I won't be able to land this down there. If they're using that much munitions, there is bound to be dozens upon hundreds of Grimm."
Weiss pushed past Yang and looked out the window herself. She focused her eyes and spotted the rapid gunfire.
'Ren...' she said to herself.
One small pop of a flash was all she needed to recognize a familiar high caliber scythe.
"They're all down there. I'm only assuming all of them though. With Jaune not having a ranged attack it makes it hard to-"
Suddenly, a large blaze of light expanded over a small area. A square of space was covered facing upwards. Weiss spotted Nevermore feathers bouncing off of the shield of light.
"What... was that?"
"I think that might have been our sign that Jaune is down there as well."
"That was not Jaune. How could he do that?" Weiss asked, wanting to completely deny the fact that that attack was performed by the scraggly bumbling blonde.
"If it is him, then it means that he's been practicing. A lot. And that is something that we're going to need."
"I guess you're right." Weiss said.
Yang turned around to the back of the bullhead and got the attention of the others.
"Alright guys. Showtime."
Ruby ran forward with Crescent Rose held behind her back. As she approached a beowolf, she sliced it in two with one quick strike. The two halves flew into the air in separate directions. Jumping up, Ruby kicked both halves with her strikes infused with her aura. The two halves soared through the air to knock down two other beowolves.
Quickly transforming Crescent Rose into its rifle form, Ruby shot down two griffons that were diving right for her.
Ducking down, she dogged the paw of a giant Ursa.
Using her semblance, she shot around to the back of the Ursa and extended her scythe so that the blade was straight. Pulling the trigger, the blade flew around the legs of the beast, cutting it down at the trunks.
'Timber!' she said to herself.
Nora knocked a beowolf to the side with her hammer and brought it back down atop another, replacing it's skull and turning it's spine to dust.
Shifting her hammer back into grenade launcher form, she fired three shells into a group of charging borbatusks. Their now mutilated and disheveled corpses flew through the air and were completely dissolved into ash and shadows before they hit the ground.
"Ruby!" she shouted. "I need a lightning dust crystal!"
Ruby twirled her blade downward flying past Nora and slicing another beowolf in half.
Mid spin, Ruby reached into a pocket and pulled a decently sized orange crystal.
"Coming over!" she tossed the red haired girl the crystal and vanished into a flurry of rose petals, suddenly on the backside of three beowolves.
Catching the orange crystal, Nora opened the tubes of her grenade launcher and placed the crystal in one of the tubes.
Approaching them was a group of almost twenty beowolves. They needed to thin out the herd.
And Nora was always the person who was the expert in that field.
Closing the tubes and shifting Magnhild back into it's hammer form, she channeled her aura and semblance for a powerful attack.
"Incoming!" Jaune shouted across the battlefield, letting Ruby and Ren know exactly what Nora was planning.
Feeling sparks of electricity spark off her, she lifted her hammer into the air, preparing to swing the devastating weapon.
The beowolves approached her without any caution as to what might happen to them. The only thing in their eyes was pure blood lust. What they couldn't tell was that Nora's sky blue eyes held the same stare.
Grinning wildly, she brought the hammer down upon the ground before her.
As the head made contact, she pulled the trigger on the shaft. Using her semblance to amplify the power of the lightning dust crystal.
The ground shook and it sounded like a dust-jet just broke the sound barrier while sitting in place.
Shock waves pulsed from the hammer.
Suddenly, the ground began to crack and split apart. Dirt and rock flew into the air.
Bolts of lightning flew into the sky and arced through the fissures made in the forest floor.
Beowolves fell into the cracks and exploded into shadows as the high amounts of lightning melted the insides of their bodies and burned them to a crisp.
The others had heavy amounts of rock crushing their soft bodies.
Jumping over the fissures, Ren bound over to a small group that had somehow escaped Nora's devastation.
Leaping onto the back of one beowolf, Ren fired a burst of dust bullets into the back of it's head. Black blood spewed from the exit wound and Ren jumped onto the ground.
The four surviving beowolves turned towards him, their claws at the ready and fangs bared menacingly.
Ren stood there, unnerved, unfazed by the attempts to scare him away and instill fear.
Then he made his move. Charging at the one directly in front of him, Ren kept his dual dagger pistols by his sides.
The one beowolf charged right back at him. Just as he expected it to. A beowolf never backs down from a challenge.
Ren dove down to the ground into a slide, going under the strike of the monster. Hooking his blades on the lower legs of the beowolf, Ren sliced right through like a stick of butter.
The beowolf fell to the ground and Ren spun up and around, firing a single bullet into the back of the head of that beowolf as well.
The other three stared at Ren with a newly learned caution. Not wanting to waste time with them, Ren sprayed StormFlower at the three. Each one dropped fast and dissolved into ash just like the rest.
Jaune had been able to hold his own, for the most part.
He had become accustomed to fighting everyday for the past few months. And it was just getting harder and harder, yet easier and easier. Easier for the fact that he was getting better with his sword play, even his aura and semblance became more and more easily controlled. But the hard part of all of this was the fact that the more they went on, the more that problems seemed to get in their way.
Jaune shield checked an Ursa minor to the ground. The large beast landed flat on it's back and tried to roll back over. Jaune quickly jumped onto the bears stomach and sliced right through it's neck. The Ursa let out one last roar before it's voice faded into nothing, just like it's body.
"Jaune!" Ruby shouted. "Above!"
Directing his attention to the sky above him, Jaune spotted three Nevermores in a V formation. Swinging their wings back, they launched a flurry of supersonic feathers at the group of four students.
Raising his shield above him, the other three crowded around him to be shielded as well, not wanting to be impaled by the feathers.
Jaune focused his aura and semblance to his shield and let it out in a burst of energy. The blinding golden light illuminated the sky around them. The feathers either bounced off the shield of light or were burn to ash before they made contact. Under the shield though, the temperature remained the same. The other three made sure that no Grimm on the ground got close to Jaune, as this defense mechanism left him vulnerable and at times, very tired. This was a trick that he and Pyrrha managed to come across a month before the tournament. But whenever he used it then, it was barely enough to cover even his own body, or just a few inches over his actual shield. Now though, he had managed to manifest the vast amount of energy needed to perform the move perfectly without a hitch.
When the feathers stopped flying towards them, Jaune recalled the aura and energy back to his body. Still looking to the air, he could see the Nevermores circling around to come in for another attack.
But Jaune noticed one other thing that to him seemed out of the ordinary for a while now.
"Guys... Is that a bullhead?"
The side door opened and the wind began to billow in everyone's faces.
"What's the plan of attack?" Weiss asked.
Yang looked down at the ground below them and saw that there was still Nevermore's circling above. That was obviously going to be a problem.
She could see her sister and friends on the ground below. They were beginning to look up at their bullhead in wonder.
More and more Grimm were beginning to converge on their position.
They needed to clear out the area fast.
"Headfirst..." Yang suggested.
"What!?" Weiss asked. "Are you crazy?"
Yang looked to Weiss. "At times, yeah!" Yang shouted over to the pilot. "Thanks for the ride! We'll handle it from here!"
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Actually." Coco interjected. "When those Nevermore get taken care of, can you bring me in for some close air support?" she asked the pilot.
"Sounds like a plan!" he replied.
"Alright." Coco said. "Weiss, use your glyphs to get the others to the floor safely. That seems like the best course of action."
"I guess you're right." Weiss swiped her hand down and everyone's ankles and bottoms of their feet were suddenly covered in white glyphs. "These should do the trick."
Yang was still looking out the side of the bullhead doors, timing it just right.
"Yang, what are you planning?" Weiss asked.
"What?" Yang replied.
"You have that "I'm-planning-something-that-will-look-awesome" look. But in reality, the thing that your planning is completely stupid and dangerous."
"Don't overreact, Princess."
"Don't overreact to what!?" Weiss asked.
"This." And Yang jumped out of the bullhead.
Weiss looked out the door and saw her flight path was right on an intercept course with the lead Nevermore.
"YOU EXPECT ME NOT TO OVERREACT TO THAT!?" Weiss shouted out the door at her blonde teammate that was now plummeting towards the ground.
"Guess that's our cue as well." Velvet said, jumping out of the aircraft but taking heed by avoiding the Nevermores.
"Yatsu, Fox, Weiss. You guys need to get down there as well. Give them the support and clear the area." Coco ordered her two teammates.
The two semi-silent boys nodded and jumped out the side of the aircraft after the other two.
"What are you going to do?" Weiss asked.
Coco smirked at Weiss. "Air support." She simply stated.
"That will not be happening until those griffons and nevermores are out of the area!" The pilot shouted.
Coco sighed. "Take those things out before I get too bored."
Weiss nodded. "You got it." She unsheathed Myrtenaster, and jumped out of the Bullhead.
The wind rushed through Yang's hair.
She rotated between glancing at the ground below her to the nevermore that she was on a collision course with.
'Ten seconds until impact.' Penny stated.
'You knew what I was going for?' Yang asked.
'It was kinda obvious.'
'Fair enough.' Yang said as she released her arm back ready for the punch. "Here we go!"
The nevermore was beginning to turn around for another run at the other on the ground.
'Gotta hit it now.' Yang said mentally.
Smashing down onto the nevermore, Yang felt it suddenly begin to fall to the ground from the impact.
Running up to the head of the nevermore, the known weak point, she unlocked both Ember Celica's on her wrists, the separate pieces sliding into place and locking up into combat mode. The shells ready to be fired.
Grabbing onto one of the stronger feathers, Yang used her other arm to fire a single shell into the right eye of the Nevermore.
The terrifying bird let out a great screech of pain and began to flail about, trying to get the huntress of itself.
Jumping over the head, mid air, Yang fired both of her gauntlets at the other eye, completely blinding the large bird.
Letting herself fall, Yang continued her descent to the ground. Looking over at the other Nevermores, she saw Velvet jumping down from one of them and Yatsuhashi falling from the other, it's head completely severed. That seemed to be a thing that happened a lot when they were around, Nevermore were suddenly decapitated instantly.
She saw the Bullhead begin to descend even further than it had been, obviously trying to avoid the griffins that still flew in the air.
'As long as the Nevermore's are dealt with, that'll be enough and we can pick off the giffins from the ground.' she said as she angled her body straight down toward the ground.
The glyphs on Yang's feet began to react, thankfully they hadn't faded when she landed on the nevermore. Turning her body just before the ground, the glyphs activated and completely cushioned her fall. She felt no effect from the high velocity impact with the ground. Although the dirt around her flew into the air, creating a small cloud of dust around her.
Standing there with her guard up, she waited for any movement to be heard.
Without any warning, a beowolf lunged through the dust.
Only to be met face-to-fist with Yang's… well… fist.
As the beowolf's face impacted the gauntlet, a shotgun shell tore through it's skull and instantly dissolved into shadows.
"No warning there, Penny?" Yang asked.
"Sorry, the dust affected my sensors. I was partially blind."
"Guess we'll just have to get out of the dust then."
Jumping into the air and launching both of her fists back, Yang flew through the air and out of the smoke.
Looking down, she saw a dozen beowolves turn their heads upwards at the blonde brawler. To keep her in the air, she fired down at them. The explosive rounds blew apart every single one of them.
Landing on the ground once more, feet first, she found herself in a small opening amongst the madness.
"Yang!" A voice called. Yang turned to see her fellow blonde sprinting at her full speed.
"Jaune?" she asked.
"Get out of the way!" he shouted.
"Yang! Dodge!" Penny shouted at her.
Turning around, Yang saw an Ursa Major charging right at her. Obviously not liking all the damage that she had done to it's friends.
Jumping out of the way, she expected Jaune to do the same, but he was on a collision course faster than her with the nevermore.
Before she could yell at him to get out of the way, his shield made contact with the hard bone plating of the Ursa Major's head.
And it stopped as if it hit a wall.
"Jaune?"
"That's the name!" he said as he struggled to hold the ursa back. "Can you stopped being a little shocked and blow this thing's brains out?"
"Uh-yeah." Yang said as she quickly jogged over to the side of the ursa and blew four shotgun shells into the side of the it's skull before she finally cracked through the armor. "One more!" and she fired off one more shell and listened as the inside of the head mushed and burned from the vast amount of heat generated from the explosion of the shell.
When the Ursa finally stopped resisting, it was as if someone had just let go of the other end of the rope that Jaune was holding onto and he spilled down to the ground, but quickly recovered himself, standing back up on his feet.
"You've grown, vomit boy." Yang commented.
"I mean, maybe. It's been only a little over a year since we've seen each other."
He said.
"Where's Ruby?" she asked.
"Cutting right to it, huh? Ok. She's over there?" Jaune said as he pointed off into the distance.
Barely squinting, Yang was able to make out a sea of rose petals engulfing legions of grimm.
"Wow." was all she could say.
"Yeah, your sister ain't so little anymore." he said.
"That could be taken many ways, you know that, right, Jaune." Yang said slightly threateningly.
"You know what I mean. Come on, if you want to get to her, we're going to have to fight our way to her. I saw the others you came with landing a little closer to her, along with Nora and Ren."
"So they sent you to get me?"
"I more along the lines of volunteered myself."
"Well, let's get going."
Yang and Jaune blasted, hacked, bashed, and slashed their way across the battlefield.
At times, Yang would look around, trying to find any other of their friends amidst the chaos. The easiest one to spot was always Coco, who was in the bullhead firing a hellish amount of bullets on the helpless Grimm below.
She could see pink explosions on the other side of the field and a sudden pillar of ice encasing several ursai and beowolves in place from time to time.
So she knew that at least most of them were still powering through.
"Yang!" Jaune called. "Griffon, incoming!"
"Boost me!" she called as she began to sprint for the blonde haired boy.
Jaune sliced a beowulf down and quickly crouched, his shield raised in the air. Yang knew that he and Pyrrha had practiced this move dozens of times, so he was well acquainted with what he needed to do.
Jumping up, Yang landed on top of his shield and locked the new shells into their respective chambers.
"Here we go!" Jaune shouted below her.
Yang's body suddenly felt weightless as she was launched into the air.
Firing the shells from her gauntlets, she gained a greater burst of speed.
Looking forward, she spotted the griffon that Jaune had called out. And she had flown right into it's flight path.
Reeling her right arm back, she delivered one of the hardest punches she had ever thrown.
Before the shotgun blast went off, she could tell that the griffon died.
She had brought her fist directly down on top of the head of the griffon. The bone shattered into dozens of pieces and spread throughout the inside of it's head.
The moment that the shotgun blast went off, Yang found herself splattered with dark red blood that quickly vanished into shadows, but she still felt as if she had the red smile covering half of her torso.
The head of the griffon had imploded, no longer holding any real sense of shape and not resembling the head that it used to be.
Yang crashed back onto the ground by landing on top of a beowolf, taking it out with one quick blast from Ember Celica.
It was then that she looked around and noticed something.
"The Grimm are… retreating?" she wondered aloud.
It was something that was almost unheard of and rarely seen, but the Grimm were beginning to scatter and completely flee from the huntsman and huntresses that were seemingly unstoppable.
She wanted to chase after some of them, but she knew that was stupid and reckless without someone having to shout it at her, that someone most likely being Weiss or Ruby.
"YANG!" she heard a familiar cry from behind her.
Before she could turn around fully, she was tackled to the ground by a red blur.
"You're here! You're here! You're here!" Ruby shouted over and over, giving her sister a hug that she had long awaited for.
"Yeah, I'm here. Finally forced myself to get off my ass and stop moping about."
As she was saying this, the bullhead landed and Coco hopped off.
"'Myself'?" Coco asked. "I had to come to your home and almost slap the hell out of you to get you to even think about finding your sister. By the way, hey Ruby."
"Coco? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked as she got off of her sister and stood back up.
"Joining you guys." she simply stated.
"I can see that, but why?"
"Wanting to make the world right and hopefully bring the people who caused the fall to justice."
"That sounded a little out of character for you." Ruby commented.
"I can be serious sometimes. When someone pisses me off to an extent, that is when the scary determined side of me comes out."
"Well, I'm glad we can now have that extra determination." Ruby said.
"RUBY ROSE!"
"Uh-oh." Ruby said, knowing exactly what was about to happen. She was about to get the largest scolding from Weiss she had ever gotten.
Ruby turned around to face her partner who was stomping over towards her.
Obviously, Weiss hadn't been pleased with their reunion being thrown into the middle of a warzone.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was about you!?"
Or it could have been about that as well.
"Ummm…" Was the caped girl's only response.
"How can you just go off with the rest of JNPR on a course of vendetta?"
"Weiss this is more than ju-"
"And not take me with you?"
"...Wait, what?"
"Why not take me with you? You're not the only one who was upset about the loss of Beacon."
"I know you weren't the only one. But what was I supposed to do? Go up to Atlas?"
"Yang didn't seem to have any trouble with it." Weiss mentioned.
Ruby sighed. "I had no idea where your home was, Weiss. I wouldn't know where to go and we needed to set out before the trail went cold."
"It's been months Ruby, don't you think that the trail would have gone cold a long time ago?"
"I'm hoping that you're wrong, and that's why we're still going."
"Well at least your relentless determination has yet to change." Weiss commented.
"It's only been a few months, do you think I changed that much?"
"Few months?" Weiss almost shouted. "Ruby, it's been almost a year."
"Well… fair point."
"And to answer your question, yes, I kinda did think that you changed a lot in the time."
Ruby smiled and quickly pulled Weiss into a hug as well. The ivory haired girl looked like she was about to resist, but reluctantly accepted the embrace from her partner.
After the others went on and greeted each other, they all stood there for a moment.
"So, what now?" Yang asked.
"Tell me we're not going to be going on the bullhead?" Jaune asked holding his stomach. "I know it will get us there quicker, but…"
As he said this, the engines of the bullhead fired up and the hover jet took off into the night sky.
The four members of RNJR looked on in longing for the bullhead to return to them.
"Sorry, it was kinda part of the deal. He would only take us to you guys. Now he's got to head back to Atlas." Yang mentioned.
Ruby suddenly looked deflated. "Oh well, more walking."
"Eh." Nora said. "We're used to it by now."
"Yeah I know."
"Don't lose your backbone now, little sis." Yang said, placing her right hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"I'm not, it's just…" Ruby stopped her sentence completely.
"Yang… where did you get that arm?"
'She's only just noticing!?' Yang shouted in her mind.
"She got it in Atlas." said Penny.
Ruby's eyes widened and she began to look all over the place, looking for the disembodied voice of her friend.
"Whoever did that, stop it, right now." Ruby said, her voice being the most serious than she had ever been. Admittedly, the tone in her voice kinda scarred Yang.
"What do you mean, Ruby?" Penny asked again.
"Really," Ruby said with the same tone of voice, "not funny."
"Ruby." Yang said, with a small grin on her face. She opened her palm, arm outstretched.
The green light glowed once more and the figure of Penny appeared in Yang's palm.
"Salutations, Ruby."
Ruby looked like she was about to drop Crescent Rose.
Her eyes wide with shock.
"How… What… Why…" Ruby couldn't form a coherent sentence. So many questions were flowing through her mind. She felt so confused. She looked to the rest of RNJR for help but they looked just as surprised.
"There were… a few things that happened in Atlas." Yang said, scratching the back of her head.
"You will be explaining all of it." Ruby ordered. She looked at the holographic Penny. "Both of you."
"Sounds like a perfect time to catch up." Penny said.
"Yeah. And Yang can tell us all about her super cool new arm!" Nora said with her usual endless supply of positivity.
"Yes she will." Ruby said, holstering Crescent Rose. As she did, she looked off to the horizon and saw the sun beginning to rise.
"Looks like you and Ren didn't get any sleep." Jaune mentioned.
"That's fine, I can keep going for-" mid sentence, Ruby let out a great yawn, her voice going higher than usual. "Excuse me."
"Nice try sounding tough, sis." Yang commented.
"So, what's next?" Velvet asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Coco replied. "Haven."
Ruby nodded. "Haven. We're close, and maybe we'll get there faster now that we have a larger group."
"Ten people can attract a lot of attention." Ren said.
"Well. We can make it work." Jaune said.
"Let's get moving." Ruby said as she waved everyone towards the east.
The group began to follow her, but Yang couldn't help but look back in the direction that she knew Vale was in.
'Let's hope that the group will soon turn to eleven.' she thought to herself, quickly catching up to the group.
Back at the abandoned warehouse district in Vale.
"So you got the letter and decided not to go?" Sun asked.
"And face them after I abandoned them? After I ran from all of my problems again? When I practically left my partner unconscious without her knowing what had even happened? I couldn't bare to see the betrayal in their eyes. The betrayal in her eyes."
"So you're running from the problem that was caused by running from your problems." Sun stated.
"Shut up, Sun." Blake replied.
Sun shook his head and raised his arms in surrender. "Alright, I get it. I won't pry. But do you really think that this is the best decision?"
"We need to show the people once and for all that not all faunus are bad. Not all of them support the White Fang of today."
"And this is the best way that you could think of doing it? Where did you even find this thing? And it's in a good condition too."
"I have contacts. Contacts that will even support our cause."
"Well, let's get to work on said cause."
Sun walked away from the spot where they were standing.
Blake stood there for a few moments longer, staring at the object that Sun had commented on.
Then she looked at the paper in her hands.
A message from Professor Qrow. A request from him to join with Ruby and the others.
She couldn't.
She wanted to, but she couldn't.
There was some things that she needed to handle.
One was the White Fang.
The second was Adam.
She shoved the slightly crumpled letter into one of her pockets, then turned away from the object.
An old White Fang flag that was hung against the wall.
The blue background and the peaceful white wolf head.
The symbol of peace between the humans and the faunus.
From here on out, things would change.
And that is it.
My first complete tag on this site.
I gave a little bit of an open ending. Mostly to get everyone's minds turning on the possibility of what Blake could be doing in the show.
And now, for a bit of credits to the people who supported this story along the way.
28GarnetAquarius
Amira25
Dragon and Sword Master
Gakuen
Jiore
KeenEyedWinter
KnightSpark
Lamenaza
MartunaMajor (Thanks for all the editing jobs as well!)
Natural Born Flamer
NobleMETA
PURVEYOR26
Shadow Nightblade
SilentRage5
Sonicthehedgewolf
Titan Liger
Bri333865
Insertacleverpennamehere
Jax-was-here
As well as everyone else who had read and enjoyed the story and those who favorite it after this upload!
I hope you all enjoyed!
And I'll see you all, very soon.
-angelsixtwofive