Ruby! I told you this was a terrible idea!
Weiss screams loud enough for it to be heard as they were holding onto a Nevermore traveling at tremendous speeds.
"We're fine! Stop worrying!" Ruby tries to reassure.
"I am so far beyond worrying!"
"In a good way?" Ruby asks raising a brow
"In a bad way! In a very bad way!"
"Well, why don't we just jump?"
"What are you? Insane?!"
Weiss is met with silence as Ruby has already vanished.
"Oh, you insufferable little red-!"
Down on the ground in the Abandoned Temple, Blake is still staring skyward and pointing for Yang to look up.
"Blake, did you hear that? What should we do?" Yang asks
Ruby's voice is now heard as she's now falling right towards them, finally getting Yang's attention. "Heads uuuuuuuup!"
Just as she's about to hit the ground panicking, Jaune Arc comes flying through the air and crashes into Ruby, knocking her off course and sending them both into a tree to the left of where Blake and Yang are standing. Ruby is dazed by the rough landing as evidenced by the cutesy Beowolves and stars circling her head.
"Oohhhh... What was that?" A dazed Ruby asks before shaking her dizziness awaythe dizziness passes when she shakes her head.
"Eh-hem!" Ruby looks up to see Jaune hanging upside-down in a tree branch above her. "Hey, Ruby..." He greets.
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asks
"I..."
Before Yang can continue, several crashing noises are heard in the forest ahead of them, and an Ursa comes out, claws swiping, just as a pink blast of energy hits it in the back and it crashes to the ground, depositing its rider.
"YEEEE-HAAAAW!" Nota rolls off of the creature's back, then gets up and groans. "Awwww... It's broken." She dashes onto its neck and observes the carcass as Ren comes up behind her.
Ren's panting as he leans on the monster. "Nora! Please... Don't ever do that again. The minute he looks up she's gone but left behind a pink dotted outline of where his partner should be that Nora has run off again, and looks around frantically)
Said girl has made her way to the temple overlooking a golden Rook Relic. "Oooohh..." she's quick to grab it and starts singing, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
In the distance Ren yells "Nora!"
Nora stops dancing with the rook on her head, then salutes, dropping the relic into her hand. "Coming, Ren!" She then skips off to her friend.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake questions again.
"I..."
Once again Yang is interrupted, this time by a screech coming from their right. Pyrrha enters the scene as the scorpion creature uproots entire trees in its chase after her. Pyrrha narrowly dodges its giant claws and keeps on running.
"Jaune!" She shouts
"Pyrrha!" He responds
Ruby stands up, looking down at the monster below. "Whoa!" she then runs off of the branch and landing in a roll.
"Ruby!" Whines the clumsy blonde.
Ruby gets to her feet and finally sees her sister for the first time since they were sent flying off the cliff.
"Ruby!"
"Yang!"
The two raise their arms about to hug each other.
"NORA!" comes between the two and knocking them off-balance in surprise.
The scorpion Grimm continues to follow Pyrrha as she runs.
"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Blake yet again questions.
All of this commotion is now getting to Yang's head who growls and erupts with a small burst of fire. Her eyes flash bright red. "I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"
The tick-tock of a clock counts down the two seconds of Yang cooling down, Ren running over to a ditzy Nora, and Blake and Ruby looking up.
"Umm... Yang?" Ruby tugs on her sister's sleeve and points up.
Up above, Weiss is revealed to be hanging on a talon the size of her entire body that belongs to a gigantic Nevermore.
How could you leave me?!
"I said "jump"!"
"She's gonna fall." Blake warns
"She'll be fine." Ruby Brushes off
"She's falling." Ren states.
Jaune is finally out of the tree, panting until he looks up and grins at the sight of Weiss falling through the air, giving him the opportunity to jump off the branch with arms outstretched and catch her in a slowed-down moment.
Jaune gives her a smile "Just... dropping in?"
Weiss is speechless... and Jaune realizes why when they both look down.
"Oh, God." they hang on to each other wide-eyed as their moment of suspension ends, their weapons flying behind them. "Oh, noooooooo- Oomph!"
Jaune does a faceplant into the dirt, limbs splayed out. Ruby other hand uses her pedal burst to try and catch Weiss she succeeds... but forget where she was and pummeled herself into a tree. Her eyes once again spiraling.
The Death Stalker is still hunting Pyrrha, but she manages to land on her side at the feet of the heroes.
"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang says sarcastically
Ruby's quick to shake off her dizziness. "Not if I can help it! She declares. She then sounds a battle cry and rushes towards the Grimm.
"Ruby, wait!" Yang shouts
Ruby, still screaming, fires Crescent Rose and charges at the oncoming Death Stalker. When the two meet, the Grimm swipes Ruby away and she is knocked back.
Ruby recovers slowly. "D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" She tries to reassure.
Ruby turns back to the monster and shoots it in the skull, running away from it and sheathing her scythe as the Death Stalker now goes after her.
Yang starts running and shouts "Ruby!"
Ruby rushes towards Yang, but the Nevermore caws above them, flapping its wings and releasing lines of sharpened feathers the calamus of one of the feathers was able to pin Ruby's cloak to the ground.
"Ruby, get out of there!"
"I'm trying!" Ruby shouts back now struggling to break free.
The Death Stalker approaches, raising its golden stinger above a scared Ruby and heading down on the helpless girl.
Yang reaches out in vain "Ruby!"
A white blur races past Yang and reaches the stinger just as it's about to pierce her, Ruby braces herself.
"You are so childish!"
Ruby opens her eyes to the sight of the stinger encased in ice and lowers her arms from their futile position over her head as she stares at her savior.
"Weiss...?"
Weiss removes her rapier from the ice. "And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer."
"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this."
"You're fine." Weiss then walks away.
Ruby breathes a sigh of relief, then closes her eyes and clasps her hands as she gratefully whispers: "Normal knees..." she gets up and stares at the Death Stalker as it struggles to escape with its tail trapped in the ice "Whoa!"
Yang rushes up to Ruby and gives her a hug which Ruby grunts at upon receiving.
"So happy you're okay!" the two stare at each other for a moment, then look up at the Nevermore still flying overhead and screeching.
"Guys? That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?" Jaime asks.
"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss answers with the huntsmen in training look over to the relics.
"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby adds
"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind!" Jayne comments.
Ruby goes over and grabs a gold knight (identical to the one Yang picked out) and Jaune takes hold of a gold rook, smiling at each other. The Death Stalker continues to fight its bonds, cracking the ice a little in the process.
"Time we left!" Ren announces.
"Right." Ruby waves to the others. "Let's go!" She leads the group while Yang smiles in admiration. Blake approaches her.
"What is it?"
Ruby leaps on a boulder and motions the group onward) "Nothing..." Yang answers Blake too smiles in realization.
An overhead shot shows that the group is heading out of the forest and into another abandoned series of structures as the Nevermore follows them from the air. They spread out when it passes above, concealing themselves behind some of the stone blocks with their allies as it perches on a high column and caws.
"Well, that's great!" Yang shouts annoyed.
Jaune looks behind at the Death Stalker bursting onto the scene.
"Ah, man, run!" the group emerges from their hiding spots, causing the Nevermore to rise up into the air.
"Nora, distract it!" Ren shouts
Nora obliges, running out from her block and jumping through the feather projectiles before reaching behind her and launching several heart-topped shells from her grenade launcher, bursting into pink electricity when they hit the Nevermore and causing it to retreat. She is unaware of the Death Stalker rushing up behind her until Blake and Ren perform a cross-slash with their Gambol Shroud and StormFlower against its shell. Weiss lands next to Nora so she can create a jumping platform beneath them and leap to safety while Blake and Ren are now being chased.
"Go, go!" Pyrrha shouts who then stops running beside Jaune and gets out Miló, firing red shots alongside Ren's green blasts for a second until it reaches them and tries to swipe, prompting the group to run again.
The eight race over the ancient stone bridge, not noticing the Nevermore closing in on them until it uses its giant wings to shatter the path right in the middle, forcing Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora, and Jaune closer to the central collection of columns and leaving Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha on the other side with the Death Stalker. Ruby fires at the retreating Nevermore while Blake is beaten back by the scorpion.
Jaune coming to the edge of the gap in the bridge. "Man, we gotta get over there! They need help!"
Nora runs up beside him. "Let's do this!"
Jaune looks down at the misty abyss. "Yeah, but, uh... I can't make that jump."
Nora gives the inexperienced huntsman in trainer a diabolical smile. Laughing as she knocks him back, turns her weapon to its full-length hammer form, and jumps to the edge of the bridge.
Jaune realizes what she's about to do "Oh, wait! (too late, she slams the hammer into the bridge and throws Jaune to the other side, yelling: "No, no, no!"
Nora places one foot on the hammer and fires it off the collapsing section of bridge, launching her to slam its face right in the center of the Death Stalker's skull. She fires it just as the stinger comes down to get her, and blasts back again to avoid its reach, accidentally knocking into Blake and making her fall from the edge. Blake sees the Nevermore above her and launches her whip so the gun's blade sinks into the edge of the bridge, circling around and leaping onto the aerial Grimm's back. She dashes all over its body, slashing the entire time, before jumping off and landing on the ruined platform at the top of the columns next to Ruby, then going over to Yang and Weiss.
"It's tougher than it looks!" Blake shouts
Yang readies Ember Celica. "Then let's hit it with everything we got!"
The Nevermore approaching, Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and Yang set their weapons to fire a barrage of blasts at the bird, which proves to be in vain as the Nevermore effortlessly dodged and tanks each blasts until it crashes through the columns and platform. The girls leap from one section of falling stone to the next until they reach the higher bridge on top, just below the cliffs.
"None of this is working!"
Ruby watches Blake whip over to another section of the area and Yang firing round after flaming round at the Grimm. "I have a plan! Cover me!" She blasts away as Weiss raises her blade and heads into the fray
Down below, the Death Stalker is still battling Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha.
"We gotta move!" Jaune announces as they all rush towards it.
The Death Stalker aims a claw at Pyrrha, but she deflects it with her Akoúo shield and slashes it with her blade. The scorpion recoils and swipes at her with its other claw, but Jaune is there to deflect it with his shield, knocking it back so Pyrrha can leap over and attack its face. Ren runs up firing and gets on the stinger when it tries to hit him, shooting at the base between it and the tail while Nora fires more grenades at the attacking claws. Pyrrha hurls her javelin straight into one of the monster's ten eyes, making it throw Ren to the side.
"Ren!" Nora shouts
Ren hits the side of a stone block hard and falls to the ground, not getting back up. Jaune, though, manages to stand and notice the stinger is hanging limply.
"Pyrrha!"
"Done!" She raises the shield and hurls it like a discus, slicing the stinger off and causing it to fall into the Death Stalker's head as Pyrrha retrieves her rebounding shield.
"Nora, nail it!" Jaune orders
"Heads up!" she jumps on Akoúo, Pyrrha leaps as Nora aims her blast down to give herself a maximum lift, and she smiles the entire way up before twirling down until her hammer slams its head into the stinger, driving the point through the Death Stalker's head and crushing the bridge beneath it.
Jaune and Pyrrha bound over the monster to the land behind it, and Nora fires up and away behind them as the monster falls to its doom. Jaune hits the ground on his back, Nora lands on her bottom, Pyrrha manages a crouched pose, and Ren simply walks over to them, panting and groaning until he just collapses. The other three get up and watch as the Nevermore is peppered with firepower.
Yang is still burning through her ammo on the beast, landing a blow at its face and causing it to head right towards her, but she leaps for its open maw and forces the beak wide as she attacks.
Yang screams and fires a round with each syllable, "I! Hope! You're! Hung-! ...-gry!" She looks behind her and jumps back from its mouth onto a ruin, causing the creature to crash into the cliffs.
Despite Yang's attempts, the Nevermore recovers quickly, and Yang smiles as she spots Ruby and Blake on the broken columns with Weiss rushing to the battle. Yang passes her while the Nevermore starts to fly back up, but Weiss hops over to the ruin it's lifting off of and freezes the tip of its feathery tail to the ground, leaving it stuck in the same spot despite its flapping. Weiss back-flips into a glyph jump and lands on the other side, running to the group.
Blake fires the pistol portion of Gambol Shroud over to Yang, and the two tighten it between the columns so Ruby can jump on the center with Crescent Rose and bend it back into Weiss' black sigil, right next to the caster.
Weiss: Of course you would come up with this idea.
Ruby: "If I show you what I can do, will you please give me a second chance?"
Weiss: "Are you seriously trying to show off right now? Must you always be childish?"
"I'm not, I just want you to know I can actually fight."
Weiss smiles, "I already knew that."
The ice begins to fail as the Nevermore struggles to free itself.
"Hurry!" Blake warns them
"Ruby now!" Yang adds
"Okay! Here we go Weiss!"
"Finish it off!" Weiss tells her before
she turns pulls the glyph back turning it from black to red and releases Ruby at such a speed that the ground behind her launch cracks, rose petals flying from her ascent. With each new shot, she gets closer and closer to the trapped Grimm until her scythe catches the Nevermore's neck in its blade and causes them both to fall to the cliff wall. Weiss raises her sword and creates a series of white circles up the wall, which Ruby dashes through by firing the entire way up.
Yang, Blake, and an exhausted Weiss watch her climb up with the bird in her grasp until, both warrior and monster crying out, Ruby reaches the top of the cliff, circles up, fires one last shot, and rends the Nevermore's head from its shoulders in a shower of petals.
She lands beside the severed head as the body of the giant Nevermore falls lifeless to the ruins and crevice below while the girls and, farther away, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren watch in amazement.
"Wow..." is all Jayne can say.
Ruby, her cape and petals flowing with the wind, looks down to her friends as they peer up.
"Well... That was a thing!"
As it turns out Shion Zaiden had been overlooking the entire fight scene. Afterwards she informed Ozpin of what she witnessed.
"It seems they've already found it's hiding place."
"Then we should prepare for the worst."
"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." The screen of the auditorium shows each of their profiles as the boys are lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continues. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"
The audience gives a wave of ovation, while four students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces fill the screen.
"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR."
Amid the clapping, Nora laughs and gives Ren a hug.
"Led by... Jaune Arc!"
Jaune is clearly taken aback by this. "Huh? L-Led by...?"
"Congratulations, young man."
A grinning Pyrrha offers a friendly shoulder bump to Jaune, but her "fine leader" is knocked over and falls to his butt in front of the laughing audience.
"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"
Weiss looks to her right surprised, where Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister.
"I'm so proud of you!"
Weiss turns her head away in disapproval briefly revealing a small black vessel on in her neck.
"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year."
... before going into the night and seeing the moon through a window, providing a view to the outside for a shadowy room filled with shelves and a desk in the back, where Roman Torchwick is getting a call on his phone. The muffled conversation ends, and Roman angrily slams the phone down, sighing. He holds a cigar to his mouth and puts his symbolized lighter to the end, just as a man in a gray mask and black hood comes with a trolley. Roman holds out a collection of Lien, which he places on the table and the man takes.
"Open it.
The masked man does so with a crowbar, revealing a large amount of Dust crystals of varying colors - orange, blue, white, red, green, cyan, gold, yellow, and more. Roman picks up a blue gem in his hand and looks at the loot.
"We're gonna need more men..."
(Hey all, so there's been a change of plans, after watching Ice Queendom I have decided that I will be including the events of RWBY: Ice Queendom in this fanfic. Despite what I initially believe it does in fact take place in the correct timeline with a few minor changes. I will only be including scenes that weren't featured in the original show. So certain changes will not be added. I will be going back to change scenes from the previous chapters sooner or later.)