I'm amazed with how quickly I've finished this chapter. I think it's because I've been waiting for this one for a while now. It also ended up as one of the longest chapters I've written for a chaptered story. Honestly, I just couldn't wait for you all to read it. I really hope you guys like it as much as I think you will!
"I appreciate the increasing frequency of our meets, but unfortunately the logistics of delivering Amity are actually keeping me quite busy today. Sorry, Oz, feel free to carry on without me today."
"I'm afraid this is too important, James. I am sorry to impose, but I must insist you attend."
"Did something happen?"
"Not yet, but it may."
"Normally I would be glad to blow off some paperwork, but the council is watching the Vytal Preparations closely."
"It's about Ruby."
"…"
"James?"
"I'm on my way."
Ironwood reflected on Ozpin's call from within the elevator rising to his office. What was Ruby getting up to this time? More nonsense about Light and Darkness? Another mysterious figure for her to spill all their secrets to? Or perhaps she was finally dropping all pretenses and attacking them. That would certainly set everyone else straight. Maybe they will finally start to listen to me.
The elevator opened to reveal the normal ensemble, Ruby included. I guess she's not attacking. Yet. "Alright, Oz. What is so important that you would risk the ire of the world council to address it?"
"I wish to discuss… us," Ozpin chose his approached carefully.
"Us?" Ironwood asked.
"Our brotherhood," Ozpin clarified. "Lately there has been a lack of cohesion. I think a discussion about how certain recent decisions were made is in order."
Ironwood crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "You mean all the decisions you have made without me?"
"Decisions made without you and you being outvoted are two different things," Qrow reminded him.
"Excuse me?" Ironwood frowned.
"What Qrow means to say," Glynda jumped in with her most compassionate voice, "is that despite how things may appear, we do value your opinion. We trust you James."
"All we ask is that you trust us," Ozpin closed.
"I do trust you," the general assured. He then pointed to Ruby, "it's her I don't trust."
"Let us put that aside for a moment," Ozpin continued to steer the conversation. "What we are trying to establish is that we have never made a decision without your presence, without at least hearing what you had to say. Agreed?"
Ironwood opened his mouth to argue, but quickly closed it. As much as he felt ignored, he couldn't exactly say that they had left him in the dark. "Fine. Where is this going?"
"The autonomous decisions you have made without us," Ozpin stated plainly.
Ironwood was unsurprisingly offended. "I would never betray this group!"
"We decided, as a group, to trust Ruby," Glynda picked up. "However, it seems you have been spying on her behind all of our backs."
Ironwood so hated the sight of the Keyblade wielder that he missed a shape cowering behind her, until penny took her cue to leave her hiding place.
"Penny?" Ironwood questioned, "what are you doing here?" He stared down Ruby, "what did you do!?"
"Ruby did not 'do' anything," Penny defended. She looked to Ozpin for reassurance before saying what he had advised her to say. "General… I… have moral objections to my current mission. Beyond that…" she took a moment to calm her nerves. "Beyond that, I wish to leave Atlas."
There was a beat of silence.
"Given the situation, I presume you know what Penny is?" Ironwood asked Ozpin.
"We do," Ozpin nodded.
"Then you know Penny cannot 'want' anything. She is a machine," Ironwood deadpanned.
"No!" Penny put her foot down. Her confidence was rising by the second. "I have a soul, you made sure of that. I have a heart, too. It doesn't matter that I'm made of metal and circuits instead of flesh and bone… I am a person. I do 'want', and I know what I want."
"No, Penny, you can't!" Ironwood argued. "She's done something to you, I'm sure of it! She's been trying to undermine me at every turn!"
"Undermine you?" Qrow immediately jumped to his niece's defense. "I'd say she's given you a hell of a lot more leeway that you've ever given her!"
"We can't trust her, we know nothing about her!" Ironwood stated for the umpteenth time.
"We know plenty, James!" Qrow countered. "We know what she's capable of! We know she's an expert on things we still know very little about! And we know she is on our side!"
Ruby felt a now-familiar shiver. She didn't like where this was going.
"We also know she had further information she refuses to tell us!" Ironwood was nearly screaming at this point, and black smoke rose from his shoulders.
Ruby stepped forward, refusing to allow herself to be ignored like last time. She held up her palms as a show of peace. "We can talk about this as long as you want until you're satisfied," she assured him. "But you need to stay calm."
Ironwood looked around to room. His eyes stopped on the Keyblade wielder. His eyes closed and he took a deep breath. They opened bright yellow. "No. I'm not listening to you any longer. This group hasn't been lacking trust, it's been lacking action. I'm done waiting for the rest of you to come to your senses."
The general's hand started to hover toward his holster. "I will bring the full weight of the Atlas Military down on our enemies, I will root out our Maiden Thief and save our world, but first… I'm finally going to take care of the threat that's been in front of us this entire time!"
Faster than anyone could hope to stop him, he drew his pistol and fired at Ruby. His shot was clearly amplified by the Darkness he was succumbing to. There was a flash of red light as Ruby summoned Crescent Rose, but it was unclear whether she managed to block the blast. Either way, the sheer force launched her backward and straight through the window.
"James, what the HELL!" Qrow yelled.
"Ruby!" Penny screamed, dashing to the window Ruby was flung through.
Ironwood's aim remained steady. The Darkness seeping off him only seemed to intensify. "I am sick of the 'wait and see' mentality around here… I will do what I know must be done…" The general turned around and stepped toward the elevator. "'Wait and see' me save us all…"
"Ruby!"
The relief in Penny's voice prompted Ironwood to turn back around again. Ruby slowly rose into view from outside the window until her method of survival was made clear by the sight of her Keyblade Glider. Ironwood scowled and raised his pistol once more.
"General," Ruby addressed him with a steady voice. "I don't want to this, but you're running out of chances to give me any choice. Lower the gun and calm yourself. Before you lose yourself…"
"Calm myself…" Ironwood scoffed. "And be rid of the one thing you fear? No… I will use this power to save Remnant from you." He began to squeeze the trigger.
The allure of watching Amity Arena drift across the sky wore off pretty quickly. A lot of people remained in the courtyard, but they had mostly dispersed into smaller social groups rather than stay one large crowd. Blake and Weiss were in a conversation with another first-year team while Yang skulked close by, waiting for Ruby to return from wherever she had vanished to this time. Their only clue was a message nearly forty-five minutes ago simply saying 'Ozpin meeting'.
An explosion shook the very ground around them. All eyes turned upward where a dark shape surrounding by what could only be described as living shadow plummeted from Ozpin's office in the tallest tower all the way into the courtyard. If one squinted, they may make out a bright glint following it down. Yang was one of those who squinted. "Oh no…" the blonde took off toward the falling shapes.
Weiss and Blake turned to each other. "There's few things that could scare Yang like that," Weiss noted.
"Let's go," Blake agreed, and the pair sprinted after their blonde teammate.
The dark shape hit the courtyard and rolled across the ground. A humanoid shape could be made out inside the Darkness, but few could tell who it was. Ruby soon followed, dispelling her Glider and calling Crescent Rose in weapon form to her hand. "Everyone!" she shouted, "get to safety!"
No one moved.
Ruby raised her Keyblade and summoned a bolt of lightning, which struck the tip and startled everyone around her into listening. "IN THE CASTLE, NOW!"
"Ruby!" Yang called out her approach, "what's going on?"
"The general," Ruby answered, pointing to the swirling Darkness with her weapon.
Weiss and Blake arrived to hear this response. "Ironwood?" the heiress asked. "He's in that somewhere?"
"He is that," Ruby corrected.
"How do you mean?" Blake questioned.
"He lost himself to Darkness," Ruby answered.
The clouds began to form solid shapes. A canine limb the size and breadth a large tree stomped out, cratering the ground beneath its paw. The rest slowly solidified into a massive dog-like Heartless. Half black flesh like a Pureblood Heartless, with the other half made of what looked like cybernetics, split perfectly down the middle. Its head remained mostly untouched by machinery, and sported razor-sharp teeth and large, permanently angry yellow eyes.
When later pressed by her Masters while recounting this event, Ruby would dub Ironwood's Heartless 'War Dog'.
"'Safety' goes for you too," Ruby told her friends.
"Nuh uh," Yang shook her head.
"We're a team," Blake reminded her.
"And we've got your back," Weiss assured.
War Dog threw its head back and howled before pouncing. "Pinch it!" Ruby leapt upward while bringing her Keyblade down, striking War Dog square on the nose and burying his muzzle into the concrete. The momentum of the strike carried Ruby further into the air. Blake and Weiss jumped into position on either side of the head, reared back, and struck simultaneously.
"Yang, uppercut!" Ruby shouted as she began to fall back down. Yang pulled back her fist, loaded a Dust round, and struck War Dog's brow as hard as she could. War Dog's head rocketed upward in time to meet Ruby's falling strike. A quick Scan told Ruby they had some respectable damage, but there was still a ways to go.
War Dog raised it mechanical front paw, which burst with energy and became coated in lightning. The paw slammed into the ground, releasing the energy in a wave that was impossible for RWBY to dodge. It followed with a swipe from its black front paw which went to wide to strike Ruby and Yang. Blake managed to shadow-clone herself out of he way at the last second. Weiss, however, took the full brunt of the attack.
"Weiss!" Ruby cried. The heiress was flung at Beacon castle, bouncing off the wall. Her aura flashed, barely holding together while she crumpled on the ground. The Keyblade wielder raised Crescent Rose to cast a cure spell, but noticed a shadow pass over her before she could incantate. The mechanical paw attempted to crush her, and Ruby raised her guard at the last second. The ground beneath Ruby cracked as she barely caught the paw with her Keyblade.
A shape rushed out of Beacon's front doors and slammed into War Dog's mechanical leg. Pressure lifted off Ruby and the young Keyblader managed to push the offending limb away and Qrow landed next to her. "So this is Ironwood?" Qrow asked, still wrapping his head around things.
"It used to be," Ruby clarified.
War Dog attacked again. The remaining fighters dodged with ease, with Qrow sticking close to Ruby. The two strategized as they danced around the beast.
"You're the one with experience," Qrow pointed out as he dashed to avoid War Dog's bite. "Where do you need us?"
Ruby parried and slapped away a paw slam. She watched carefully with Scan as she did so. How easily Weiss had been taken out had her thinking, just how much of that earlier damage was actually done by her teammates? How much was done by Ruby alone? Keyblade training enhanced her strength to super-human levels, she knew it was inevitable she would leave 'normal' fighters in the dust. The damage she was doing now, mentally compared to the chunk of damage from before, told her that she might already be starting to do so.
And if strengthening her light on her own these past months has had this much affect on her body, what could she do with her magic?
"Just take care of Weiss," Ruby told him bluntly, breaking off for a moment before shouting at War Dog, "Hey, Iron-jerk!"
War Dog turned its head to the Keyblade wielder.
"If there's still any of you left in there, then you know I'm the one you hate!" Ruby slapped her own chest, "COME AND GET ME!"
Yang, Blake and Qrow watched, dumbfounded, and Ruby sprinted away and the giant canine tore after her.
Blake was the first to gather his senses, "is she really going to try and take that thing alone!?"
"Are we certain she can't?" Yang pointed out.
"Damn it, Ruby!" Qrow took off after his niece.
"Wait, Qrow, Weiss!" Yang tried shouting, but her cried fell on deaf ears.
Blake took a look back at the heiress. She seemed bruised but not broken. Her eyes turned back the direction Ruby ran. She didn't know what the right choice was, but she knew she didn't have long to decide. "Sorry, Yang," was all she offered her partner before running off after Ruby as well.
"Seriously!? Come on!" Yang groaned loudly.
Glynda stepped out of Beacon's doors in time to see Blake run off. She caught Yang's attention, "do you need help?"
Yang sighed. "Just keep students inside," Yang told her. "I doubt any of us want them to see whatever Ruby does next. I'll get Weiss to the infirmary."
Glynda nodded, accepting Yang's plan.
Across campus, by the edge of the Emerald Forest, Ruby finally felt comfortable engaging War Dog. She found a lamppost to start Flowmotion, and jumped to twirl around it. War Dog grinded to a halt nearby, momentarily confused by the sudden red aura around its prey. Ruby jumped off the pole, arcing upward before beginning to come down. War Dog raised its maw, ready to counter.
What it didn't know was that Ruby wasn't aiming its head. She passed right by his razor teeth and summoned Crescent Rose in time to deliver a heavy, Flowmotion enhanced strike to his mechanical arm. Ruby wasted no time turning around, and had plenty of time to see and counter the black paw speeding toward her. "Reflaga!" The black paw crashed into the magic barrier, which burst instantly and dealt significant damage itself.
Qrow and Blake arrived at that moment, and both stopped short. They realized that maybe, just maybe, Yang had a point about them not knowing just how strong Ruby was. It wasn't often the young Keyblade wielder got to go all out, and it was a sight to behold.
War Dog lunged with its open mouth once more. Ruby was prepared, and leaped over the beast's maw. A short flip later and she was standing right in front of one of its large yellow eyes. She didn't hesitate to swipe the bright orb with Crescent Rose. War Dog roared and threw its head back, subsequently tossing Ruby into the air. War Dog decided once more to try and capitalize on this, opening its mouth for its foe to simply fall inside.
Ruby easily corrected her position in the air. She only had a fraction of a moment to plan, and decided to play it by instinct. Her Keyblade was pointed downward at the Heartless, and she cast right down its throat with a devastating "FIRAZA!" The fireball that left her Keyblade was nearly the size of Ruby herself, and exploded in the back of War Dog's throat. The beast lurched backward, and Ruby fell safely past its now closing mouth, taking the opportunity to slash at its neck as she passed.
Even after her calculations earlier, her next Scan revealed more damage had been done that Ruby had guessed. The young Keyblade wielder had never fought at this level before, and she had to admit it was exhilarating. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this amped up in a fight, she felt like she could do anything.
Anything… maybe I could do…
War Dog was still dazed from swallowing the fourth-teir fire spell. Ruby back up quickly, putting some easy distance between her and the Heartless canine. She pointed her Keyblade at each of the front paws in turn, "Graviga! Graviga!" The concrete beneath the paws themselves began to crack, at it became obvious that War Dog couldn't move it's legs.
With War Dog immobilized, Ruby straightened her posture and focused her magic power. She recalled her fight against the Maiden Thief, how much energy flowed through her in order to cast the megaflare. She knew she would need a similar amount of energy now, thankfully she had bought herself the time she needed to build it up.
A magic circle appeared under Ruby's feet, the sheer energy flowing outward fluttering her clothing and hair. An identical, though much larger, circle appeared in the sky above her, tilted so that it faced War Dog. Ruby raised her Keyblade above her, then thrust it back forward to aim at War Dog as she cried the incantation.
"METEOR!"
The magic circle above her flashed, transforming into a massive flaming rock, larger than War Dog's head, which shot out like a bullet and exploded against the giant Heartless's form. The beast was lifted from the ground and thrown backward by the force of the explosion, sliding briefly as it landed before falling still. Black smoke escaped its form, along with a large crystalline heart that faded into the ether.
"Holy…" was all Qrow could muster at what he just saw. "I guess she really could handle it herself…"
"Just how powerful can she get?" Blake wondered to herself. And how has magic on this scale never been recorded?
Victory was sweet. But it was also brief.
The unmistakable sound of a Dark Corridor turned all three sets of eyes to the black portal. It faded as quickly as it appeared, leaving behind a thin figure in a heavy black coat.
"It's you!" Ruby jumped into her combat stance. She barely had a sliver of magic energy left, but that didn't mean she wouldn't fight.
"You really do appear out of thin air…" Blake remarked, recognizing the Black Coat Figure from what Ruby told them of her side of the Mountain Glenn mission. She raised her weapon, just in case.
The Black Coat tilted its head at Ruby. "You've been getting stronger."
Ruby didn't respond, only continued to stare Black Coat down.
"I followed my Darkness. Listened to it. I finally know what to do…" The Figure raised their hand, "you're not the only one who can get stronger…" The ebbing Darkness from War Dog suddenly began rushing into the Black Coat Figure's palm. There it was absorbed, and Ruby swore she could see the vapors coming from the Figure's shoulder growing darker with each pulse. Once all the shadow was taken in, the Figure closed their palm and lowered their hand.
"Steal as much Darkness as you want," Ruby taunted, "I'll still beat you."
"Maybe. Maybe not," the Figure spoke with a non-committal shrug. "But we won't find out today." Another Dark Corridor appeared to swallow the Black Coat Figure once again.
Blake's combat instincts told her to pursue the enemy. Her curiosity was probably just as much to blame if she was being honest. Whatever her influence was, the truth remained that Blake's next choice was to dash for the dark portal.
"Blake, stop!" Ruby shouted quickly. "Don't!" The Keyblade wielder ran to intercept her teammate before she could do something incredibly stupid.
"I'm not letting him get away!" Blake explained, ignorant of the danger she was heading for.
Ruby put one last desperate push into catching up, and managed to close her hand around Blake's wrist… unfortunately, most of Blake had already entered the Dark Corridor. Ruby's attempt to intercept her only resulted in the Keyblade wielder being pulled in behind her as the portal closed.
Qrow could only blink emptily at what he had seen. He waved a tentative hand in the empty space where the portal was a moment before. Yang had finally caught up while he was feeling the air, and surveyed the surroundings. "Uncle Qrow?" she finally asked.
"Yeah?" Qrow answered absently.
"Where are Ruby and Blake?"
"I honestly have no fricken' idea…"
Darkness was pain. The philosophical implications of that realization was something Blake might contemplate later, but at the moment it was a purely literal observation. Jumping into the dark vortex tunnel felt like jumping into a vat of acid, burning her skin and torturing her psyche. She was quickly reaching a point where she would do anything to survive, even if it meant following Ironwood's lead…
Ruby was having a better time, if only slightly. The enchantments of her clothes helped, but only so much could be done against the raw Darkness that the Corridors pulled one through. She had an idea, though it was mostly an ad-lib of a plan. The words Occam's Razor flitted through her mind as it formed. Perhaps they could free themselves of this darkness if there was an overwhelming light.
But where to pull that much light? Crescent Rose should do it, but I might need a larger conduit if I want to save Blake too…
The plan was set. Ruby still had a grip on Blake's wrist, which she used to pull the girl close and wrap her gauntlet arm around her. She summoned Crescent Rose into the opposite hand, pumping as much light energy as she could find within both herself and the weapon into the darkness around them. She brought the fist still holding her Keyblade down on her Armor Switch, pouring light into that as well. The glow began dull, but quickly became brighter and brighter until…
There was an explosion.
They were thrown out of the Dark Corridor long before they reached the end, just as Ruby hoped. They hit concrete hard, separating from each other and rolling across the ground. As she was both in much better shape and panicked for her friend, Ruby was quick to find her feet at dash to Blake's side. "Curaga!" was cast without a second thought, and she saw Blake slowly relax as the corrosive Darkness left her being.
Amber eyes opened slowly, looking up and down Ruby's form. "Ruby? Is that you?" she asked.
Confused, Ruby looked down at herself. Instead of black and red cloth, she found herself looking at bronze and light-rose tinted plate and mail. Her hands found her head, where she felt not skin, but the metal and vizor of her helmet. My armor… A smile began to grow across her face, until her eyes found Blake again. I can celebrate later, she told herself, I need to tend to her first.
Ruby dispelled the armor with a thought, revealing the her Blake was familiar with after a flash of light. "Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?"
"I don't know… sore?" Blake answered. "Not in pain anymore, so that's nice…"
"Do you… feel like yourself?" Ruby asked carefully. "Do you feel a kind of… hungry strength deep inside, bubbling like it wants to boil right to the surface?"
"Um… no?" Blake was confused by the line of questioning.
"Thank the light," Ruby sighed. "That means I can do this…"
"Do wha-"
SLAP
Blake was definitely awake after that, and rather shocked too.
"I told you not to jump into the portal!" Ruby scolded.
"I didn't want the Black Coat escaping!" Blake shouted back, still offended by the slap. "I figured you be behind that!"
"Well it didn't exactly feel pleasant, did it!?" Ruby screamed. "Raw Darkness like that can do a lot more than kill you, Blake! I mean, you know I know stuff you don't, so why didn't you listen!?"
Blake flinched. She had no response to that.
Ruby could tell Blake knew she did wrong now, and used a heavy sigh to expel her anger. "Blake," Ruby spoke calmly now, "you're lucky you're still alive. But you're even luckier that you're still you. Jumping headlong into Darkness isn't just dangerous to you. it's dangerous to everyone you might hurt if you become… something else."
Like Ironwood.
"I get it…" Blake responded solemnly. "I guess… I was just tired of everything we do going nowhere… It felt they were taunting us, showing up just to disappear again. I promise, next time you tell me whether or not to do something… I'll assume you have very good reasons to say so."
"Good," Ruby smiled. "Now we just gotta figure out where we landed," the Keyblade wielder stood to take in her surroundings. "Let's see if we can't find out where… we… are…" Ruby's face fell. "Uh oh…"
"Ruby?" Blake had stood as well, and was currently looking out over a nearby balcony ledge to view a large city that appeared to be built in circular layers. "I've been to every major kingdom on Remnant, and this looks like none of them."
"Yeah…" Ruby commented. She was looking the opposite direction Blake was, which happened to be a massive castle they had landed right in front of. A castle with tall, symmetrical designs that were decorated with spikes and round, cartoony skulls. A sign above the front door read 'Death Weapon Meister Academy'. "Yeah, I'd bet it doesn't…"