Chapter 3

Mercury couldn't keep the grin off his face. Sure, their plan had failed and Roman was dead, but they were going to get a chance to fight! Emerald would call him childish but he couldn't care less, she had a versatile Semblance while he only had his legs and training.

He knew that in the grand scheme of things, his usefulness was outweighed by Torchwick. At least Roman had brought along Neo and all of her talents. Oh, he knew Cinder valued his abilities it's just that they were exclusive to battle.

Of course with Roman gone, they were in a bit of a pickle. Thankfully Neo had reported back, otherwise, they would have had to wait until Ruby Rose's return to realize what had occurred.

Beacon was so sombre now. Everyone mourned the loss of such brave huntresses! Of course, most people knew them only by name and had never interacted with them. Just their weird form of comradery he supposed.

It was strange for Mercury, to be surrounded by all this compassion and care. His father would have told him how stupid they all were. He would have called them plenty of things, but instead, he was dead. It brought a smile to his face. It was the murder he enjoyed the most.

There was no remorse for the asshole he'd had for a father.

And there wouldn't be any regret when they finally acted. It didn't matter what he felt about these people. He'd kill them all if he had to.

His survival was all that mattered to him.

"You really want that?" Coco wasn't sure what to make of their temporary resident. Ruby had been perfectly polite and she was real quiet which fit in well with her team of introverts. But how much of that was Ruby, and how much was the aftermath of the mission?

"I do. You said you were good at this so-"

"Ooh no. No trying to appeal to my pride to force me into this girl!" Ruby backed up a little bit. And then she went for the puppy dog eyes. Damn it. "Look I'm not opposed to this, why would I be? I just don't get many people asking me to help!"

Fox scoffed from the other side of the room. "That's because nobody else is crazy enough to let you decide on what clothes they wear." Ruby winced a bit, still not used to Fox's Semblance.

"Fox, I will make all your shirts pink." She pointed at him and narrowed her eyes.

"My point exactly." Velvet giggled from her bed.

"Fine fine, I'll help you! What did you want again?" Coco sighed.

"I wanted you to help me show off that my teammates are still with me." Ruby gave her a determined glare.

"Alright alright. You brought some of their clothes too, didn't you? Let's see what we have to work with here…" Coco sighed as Ruby gave her a smile.

It was one of those smiles that really got to you. It made Coco want to protect her. They hadn't been friends before, closer to acquaintances. But she'd change that.

Ruby needed as many friends as she could get.

Jaune stretched as they landed on the beautiful, soft ground around Beacon. It didn't move or sway in any way that made him feel sick!

So much better than the Bullhead.

"Well, at least he didn't vomit this time around!" Pyrrha's voice was only slightly strained.

"Didn't stop the dread from setting in. What kind of Huntsman gets sick in a Bullhead!" Nora loudly asked the world at large.

"Nora. It's perfectly common for people to have motion sickness." Ren tried, as usual, to calm her down.

"But nobody talks about it!" She gasped. "We should hand out pamphlets telling people that even Huntsmen can get sick!"

"Alright, guys! We need to go report to Professor Goodwitch!" Jaune interrupted. "I know we are all tired but we can rest after we're done!" Jaune turned and marched onwards, trying hard to ignore the way his legs still wobbled. He could and would conquer his motion sickness!

"Hey, Jaune… don't you think people are looking at us a bit too much?" Pyrrha's question caused Jaune to look around. They weren't late like CFVY and they weren't so popular that it was a big thing.

But apparently everyone was watching them, though Jaune couldn't quite figure out what kind of looks they were getting. The only thing that came to mind was… pity?

"Something isn't right… we should hurry." Jaune and his team picked up the pace, speed walking past the other students. It didn't take them long to reach Goodwitch's office.

The blonde woman looked up from the paperwork that covered her desk. Her face went from mildly annoyed, through a bit of shock and eventually landed on… pity? Again? What's going on?

"Ah, team JNPR. It's good that you're back. How was your mission?"

"It went well! We caught a criminal and learned a lot! Umm. So since we got back people have been giving us weird looks…" The professor winced before she stood and stepped around her desk towards them.

"Well, something happened… You see, team RWBY…"

Jaune's heart broke as she told them. As soon as she was done he said his goodbyes and rushed out of the room. His team was just behind him.

He had to find Ruby! He knew she had been in trouble! If he had only followed his gut, maybe they would all be here right now! Weiss! Yang! Blake! All gone because he didn't follow his own instincts!

He found Ruby in the cafeteria, sitting with team CFVY. She was there, but she wasn't. Even with all the distance between them, he could see she wasn't quite right. Her usual smile was gone, her innocence had been destroyed.

He pushed past several people as he made his way over. Tears began to gather and then flow down his face.

"Ruby!"

"Jaune?" Ruby turned to him with wide eyes before she jumped out of her seat and in a rush of petals appeared in front of him. He pulled her into a hug. She is so small. She almost seems fragile…

She teared up too, and the rest of JNPR joined the hug as they arrived.

Ruby is in pain, but we are her friends! We'll stand by her, no matter what!

It had been a few days since JNPR had returned and Ruby had moved into their dorm. She and Coco were still working on her new outfit ideas, but there was more to do than her outfit.

She needed to reforge Crescent Rose.

As Ozpin had said the facilities were open to her, she had everything she needed to redesign her weapon. But it wasn't going to be the same. She wanted to be all of her team, and that was more than just an outfit change.

"So what are you thinking about adding?" Jaune asked. She was almost always accompanied by a member of JNPR. She appreciated it however there were times when she wanted to be alone. They were accommodating though.

"Dad is gonna be teaching me hand to hand, so I wanted to add something that represents Weiss and Blake." She unrolled some blueprint paper and started working. She wasn't the best at drawing, but when it came to weapons it didn't matter much. As long as she knew what it meant.

"Alright… so what did you want to add?"

"Weiss used a lot of Dust, she would have Dust coat her sword before she used it. I'm thinking something similar. I don't have the skill for what she did, don't have enough time to train it. But I can add some more Dust effects!" Ruby drew out a red Dust crystal.

"For instance, if I coat the blade in Burn Dust then I could burn through things or maybe even send out a wave of fire! Once I get Good enough anyway." She put the crystal away.

"That sounds awesome! What about Blake? Are you going to start swinging on ribbons or something?"

"Pft. No." She waved her hand and laughed a little. "Blake also had a gun! It could fire a lot more often than my sniper, so I'm going to add an automatic weapon!"

"Where's that gonna fit?"

"Well, I figure that I could make it swap to an automatic weapon in its more compact form, less accurate but I can fire a whole lot more. And when Crescent Rose is fully out it'll be a back to a sniper rifle!"

Ruby had been thinking hard on it and how to make it all work and now she was close to managing it. She'd originally hoped to also add a shotgun like Ember Cilica but no luck. They could do wondrous things but there was only so much one could fit into a weapon.

Ruby buckled down and spent the next couple of days working hard on recreating her weapon.

But soon enough, Crescent Rose 2.0 was complete and it was time to begin her training in earnest. Her enemies wouldn't rest on their laurels so she couldn't.

Soon Ruby would hunt them down and claim her revenge. She couldn't wait for that day to come.

A/N: Sorry for the day-late chapter, but here we are. JNPR is in a rough spot, Ruby looks to changing her wardrobe and enhancing her weapon. Hope you all enjoyed!