Chapter 6: Trial 2 Begins
-24 hours before Trial 2-
The realm was ever stagnant and unchanging, the constant cold and ominous feeling of the city was staved off by the familiarity of their campsite. The last few days had been more of an adjustment than a learning experience, as everyone began figuring out exactly how to manipulate the system. Gaining information on their items and statuses, even the very environment seemed to be loaded with text, all to catalog a codex of sorts built into the system manual.
Still no direct information on what the system was, how this place came to be, or what events transpired to turn it into the apocalyptic wasteland it was now. Perhaps as the trials proceeded they'd uncover more information, but for now, things were at a dead end.
Team RWBY Prime sat together while team ASHNRWBY was off gathering supplies. They were trying to figure out how to pace things going forward, none of them knew what to expect or how to prepare. Ruby's mind, however, was elsewhere.
As the red leader sat at the table, the others were conversing but she was far too drawn into her mind. They'd been here for days and they had no indication of time flow on the outside world. What if a day here was months outside? Maybe even years? Every second passing here was eating away at her. It was one gnawing question that ground away at her mind and spurned forth several more: "Did they fail?". Were the people of Remnant okay? What about everyone else in ORNJ or Penny?
Penny...
The smiling orange-haired girl flashed across her mind, her dear friend, a bundle of purity that deserved the world...
Yang dragged her hands across her face, "What do you guys think we should do?"
Weiss snorted, "You're going to have to be more specific than that."
"You're talking about the next trial, right?" Ruby said quietly, staring holes into the table.
Yang nodded, "Yeah…" she wanted to comment on her sister's moodiness but refrained, now wasn't the time.
"They offered to teach us their techniques… but with only a day left and no information on the next trial I'm not sure how much we can accomplish," Blake frowned as she gazed at the ticking holographic clock in the sky.
Yang hummed, "Well… if we can't really learn anything right now… then what about synergizing with them?"
"How do you propose we do that?" Weiss looked at her curiously.
"Maybe… what do we know about them? What can they do that we can't?" Yang asked the question earnestly, but the sentiment somehow tore into Ruby forcing her to quietly swallow her emotions.
"Well… their Blake can use some weird shadow powers…" Blake said thinking back.
"And their Weiss can use strange ice powers without Glyphs," Weiss said.
"And they have this Aura technique thingy that other me talked about but I'm not really sure…" Yang continued.
Ruby dragged her hands across her face, this conversation was getting nowhere, and right now she didn't have the mental capacity to entertain it, "We know little to nothing about those other four…"
"Maybe we can just leave it up to them?" Blake suggested, trying to be a glimmer of hope.
This made Weiss look at her incredulously, "Are you serious? You want us to just… sit back and let them handle it?"
Blake shook her head, "No… I mean they're also us, remember? Maybe instead of trying to adapt to them, we just do what we do and let them adapt to us?"
Yang snapped her fingers, "Oh that's actually a smart idea!"
Ruby looked at the clock and sighed, "Fine, we'll go with that. Keep doing what we're doing and let them follow up. If the second trial is anything like the first one then we'll need to be in top form. I suggest we get as much rest as we can before then."
The three other members of Team RWBY looked at each other worriedly, something was seriously off about Ruby. Weiss felt the worming guilt building in her again as she clutched her hands to her chest… she had to tell Ruby eventually…
-One Hour before the Trial-
The hour was upon them, the ticking clock counted down every second until events would unfold. Tension seemed to be palpable in the air as anticipation marked them all... except Ruby whose mind could do nothing but worry. She had to mask it, she had to keep it in, this nervousness and anxiety was not what her team needed right now.
Everyone was making their last-minute preparations, sharpening their blades, repairing their equipment, and ensuring all inventories were packed.
Ruby was sitting on a tree stump, Crescent Rose in her lap as she stared up at the ticking clock with a dark look on her face.
The soft sound of cautious footsteps on the soft grass made her briefly glance back to spot Weiss standing there pensively.
"Weiss?" Ruby asked, trying to fix her demeanor.
"Ruby… look there's something I need to tell you… it's about Atlas." She started nervously.
Weiss continued to fidget and Ruby just sighed and gave her a light smile, "Weiss you know you can tell me anything…"
"Well… that's just it, I…"
The clock began to tick louder as the seconds counted, "Oh, hold that thought Weiss, looks like we're up. Put on your brave face, we got work to do."
"No…" Weiss said adamantly, "I… I need to say this now or I might never be able to again!"
Ruby faltered, "Alright, Weiss what is it?"
"Penny… a-at the end of Atlas… b-before we all fell…"
The red leader felt her blood run cold, her heart beating so hard that all the blood roaring in her ears got louder as if trying to drown out Weiss but her words were clear.
"Penny… she didn't make it…"
Ruby was struck cold, her eyes locked forward, unblinkingly staring at Weiss, "W-What...?" she choked out, "Please don't tell me you mean..."
The clock was ticking.
Weiss could only nod in confirmation, the grave look on her face was deathly serious.
The final tick, resounding like the slamming of heavy metal against concrete grated her ears.
Before she could even process what was happening the timer hit zero and a flash of light warped the entire safe zone.
Ruby felt her body hit a cold hard floor after she stumbled through space practically drifting with the invisible currents. The crash was hard enough to break her out of her daze as she was sent careening across the floor.
"Ugh… where…?" she looked around to find herself standing on a translucent holographic floor that fed into a dark abyss, around her was a swirling myriad of colours, matching in reds, purples, and blues that seemed to cloud the sky.
Getting up across the room was Nova as he too rose to his feet and glanced around confused, "Uh… what's going on? Is this the second trial?" he looked at Ruby Prime.
Ruby Prime looked at him, then frantically looked around, "W-W-What…?" she croaked out, her heart hammering against her chest, her brain trying to process the revelation she'd just received.
As she spoke the system started displaying text again.
System: "Welcome Challengers to Trial No. 2. This trial features challengers in groups of two, Each pair will need to overcome a series of tasks to escape this room and complete the trial. Good Luck!"
Nova glanced at Ruby Prime, "I guess we're working together…" he noticed her demeanour, his basic instincts kicked in and instantly he was at her side helping her up, "Ruby…? What's wrong?"
Ruby Prime stared at her hands, the empty space between her and the floor, "I… I…" She had to keep it in, not now... now now!
System: "Challengers! Welcome to Trial No. 2, the trial of two! Pairs will have to overcome the labyrinth to complete the trial! Good luck!"
Once the system message disappeared the entire room shook violently as the space fanned out into a large open field covered in a dense, gloomy fog. The sky was dark and stormy but no rain poured down, only harsh winds and thunder, lightning crackling across the clouds.
The ground trembled as the earth shifted, manifesting in the dense fog, a grand maze of stone rose out of the ground, climbing dozens of feet into the air, dirt fell and stones came crumbling as it continued to grow higher and higher until its dark, ominous shadow loomed over the two.
"Well, that's not creepy at all," Ruby muttered, trying to swallow the tsunami of grief that was overwhelming her on the inside.
Nova gazed at the towering structure, "Can't I just fly us over?" he questioned before attempting to fly up using his scythe Helios as a pseudo-broomstick. He made it as far as the roof of the maze before hitting an invisible wall and coming crashing back down.
"Ow…" he rubbed his head, "That's out of the question I guess…" he looked at the silent Ruby Prime, "Dude, are you okay?"
Ruby's lip quivered slightly before she sucked in a deep breath and weakly looked back, "Y-Yeah… let's just go…" she trudged into the maze.
"HEY WAIT THERE'S PROBABLY TRAPS IN THERE!"
They walked in silence for the most part, Nova trying to refrain from cracking jokes to lighten the mood, he could sense it was a bad idea.
The maze wound and twisted in perplexing directions, going left to end up right, heading back to proceed forward. It didn't help almost all the walls were identical save for the ruined cracks in the stone, mossing growing over it and the vines that climbed, creepers hanging from the top of the maze. They could feel a foreboding sensation against their backs the entire time like they weren't alone in the maze.
Nova's hearing didn't pick up anything besides their footsteps and breathing… which was horribly concerning.
The dragon Faunus was tugged along on Ruby's aggressive storming of the maze paths, there was no rhyme or reason to her choices of paths, she just went whichever direction she saw first. It was like she was trying to run from something that he couldn't see.
Soon enough they were at a crossroads again and this time Nova stopped in front of her, "I think we're lost..." he said dryly.
The reaper looked both ways and began walking down the left, "This way." She didn't dare contemplate stopping, for if she were to stop, then she'd be forced to confront those suppressed emotions, this was not the time... but when was it ever?
He looked at her stumped, "How do you know where we're going?!"
She didn't answer him.
The maze paths diverged and narrowed for several minutes before eventually widening again, a pattern that kept repeating over and over. The cracks became repetitive, the stone placements seemed to be the same, and the left, right, left turns, and corners were at the same angle. They were going in circles and Ruby couldn't see it. Taking a piece of chalk out of his inventory he marked an 'X' on one wall before they moved forward, he had to be sure.
Four more crossroads and three corners and sure enough, the 'X' was on the wall just to Nova's right. They'd come full circle from a different angle. Either the maze was playing with them or Ruby's lead was failing. It didn't matter which was the problem because right now they needed to pause and assess the situation, but the reaper didn't have any intention of stopping.
"Ruby, slow down!" he tried to grab her hand but she immediately flinched and retracted her arm, looking at him coldly.
"Woah, easy…" he held up his palms in surrender, "We've been walking around for hours but we haven't made any headway… fuck I think we've made this corner like six times already."
She looked around and noticed a small X marked in chalk where Nova had placed a marker. Her eyes widened in horror, once more in her blind rage to run from her problems she had created more. Her intrusive thoughts became louder, "Another failure to add to the list..."
No, if she didn't acknowledge it then she could continue to push forward. What were her options, have a mental breakdown or run off adrenaline? Caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Just like everything you do..."
"Then what do you want us to do?!" she responded harshly, spinning around on him, "It's a maze! You don't plan a maze you don't know the map of!"
Nova folded his arms, "Look all I'm saying is you've been plowing in a direction aimlessly. We need to work this from another angle, take it slow. Think before we jump!"
"Then what do you suggest we do?! Huh?! Sit down and draw a map?!" she growled forcing him to take a step back.
She was a bottle of explosive emotions right now, he had no idea what brought this on but he needed to mediate the situation before it got out of hand.
He took a deep breath, "Look, you're not my Ruby. I get it, I don't expect you to do the things she does but…"
"BUT WHAT NOVA?! DO WHAT?!" she yelled so loudly her voice ricocheted off the walls and bounced far.
As the sound died, the normally silent maze, a loud roar echoed from somewhere deep in the maze… and whatever made it sound large…
Suddenly the sounds of scrambling, heavy, footsteps running toward them began to echo around the maze and their eyes grew wide.
"RUN!" he yelled, his eyes growing wide in alarm.
Ruby snarled and reached for Crescent Rose only to find nothing there as her hand grasped thin air. "Shit, they took our weapons!"
"Took you long enough to notice now MOVE YOUR ASS!" he grabbed her cloak harshly and yanked her behind him as they bolted off into the maze.
Now onto the next chapter