The 'Lone' Hero of Vale - Chapter 16
Link's POV
It took me a while to calm down...to wipe the tears away, knowing they'd stop coming, to get rid of those powerful, yet evil golden eyes.
Everyone was cleared out...I couldn't even hear the demon inside of me, the voice that haunts me every single day, even that despicable monster was cancelled out.
I still couldn't process it...
Ruby practically broke things off before we even became a thing...
But why? Did I so something wrong? Is there something wrong with me, physically? Mentally? Who knows
I let out a loud sigh, not caring if I have awakened anybody, which clearly I have, because I could hear Yang, Weiss and Blake talking about...who knows...who cares? Because at this time...I don't
All I can think is...why must this world always forsake me, in any chance it gets...?
Everything Ruby and I said to each other...the night we kissed...the night we...never mind, was it all for nothing, why would she just want to break it off?
All I could do now is stare out into the sky, and look at the moon, it's so tender, but also very broken...which my heart can relate too.
But deep down inside I know my feelings for Ruby won't fade...but it seems her feelings for me have.
Wait! What am I saying?! No they haven't! She was hesitant and her main reason for breaking it off was the fear of one of us dying and simply putting more of a burden on the other person, or did she just say that to spare my feelings? I don't know and it's driving me nuts thinking about it!
She did say she'd never get into boys after all...looks like she was right.
Silence, all I could heard were the faint sounds of stealthy grimm walking along the destroyed city
What now? What happens from here? Will Ruby and I still be friends? Will I have anybody left...
3rd Person POV, a few hours passed, with Link finally letting Yang take over on watch
"U-ugh.." Ruby lifted her head out of her pillow, which was wet from drool and tears, noticing Zwei was up on all 4's, scanning the area
"Zwei it's late...go back to bed." Ruby yawned before emerging wide awake when Zwei ran off
"Zwei? ZWEI!"Ruby called out and sighed, getting up, grabbing crescent rose, looking around, Blake and Weiss were asleep, Yang was on watch...but Link was nowhere to be found
"L-link...?" Ruby looked around before shaking her head "Gotta find zwei." She spoke firmly before running off
"Where did he run off to?" Ruby said, thinking about both Zwei and Link in the process
Elsewhere
Link found himself in a dark corner of the broken down building that he, Team RWBY and Professor Oobleck were camping out in, sitting in the darkness, enjoying the peace and quiet, not caring if he was followed or if there were grimm around. All he wanted right now was to be alone, and to finally accept what has happened.
"Phew..." Link exhaled air calmly and briskly "I feel, a little better now." Link put up a weak smile, only for it to fade quickly
"Maybe it was for the best, when she first said those words I thought she was just completely thinking about herself, but I can see now why she'd want to break it off before it got anymore serious, she's looking out for herself and me as well..."
The gloomy look on Link's face suddenly started to change
"Despite the fact that she may hate me and I may hate her now, I do still love her though; I never want to see her get hurt. She may not be my girlfriend, hell she may not even be my friend anymore, but she's still my comrade, and I'll never let my comrades die!" Link nodded and got up, dusting off his clothes, and pounding his left fist into his right open hand, he decided to make his way back to the team, where he surely expected a scolding.
Within seconds of being in sight, Oobleck, Yang, Weiss and Black were all looking at Link
"Umm..." Link shook his head and was ready to come clean, but when seeing that his colleagues were concerned with another situation, he ignored his explanation "What's going on?"
"Ruby is gone." Yang said with the same cold tone Link gave to her
"What?" Link's eyes widened, his fists balled up.
"We're glad you decided to come back just in time." Oobleck said, with a more serious tone "Ruby may be in trouble." Oobleck said nothing more and led the way outside
In reality, Zwei led the way, as he was the last one with Ruby, luckily for the group of 5, the location Ruby was last spotted at was just around the corner. Upon seeing a giant hole in the ground along with crescent rose scattered on the floor like a piece of trash, Link's rage continued to grow
"Ruby's scythe!" Yang called out
"Do you think she fell?" Weiss said. looking down
"FELL?!" Oobleck stood inches away for a plummet to his death
"Down there..." Weiss pointed at the hole
"Oh my..." Oobleck looked down before he began to freak out once more "Of course... of course! of course! OF COURSE!"
"What is it?!" Blake asked
"How could I be so stupid?!" Oobleck ran around Link, Weiss, Yang and Blake
"Dr. Oobleck, what's wrong?" Yang exclaimed
"Mountain Glenn! Yes!" Oobleck looked right at Yang "An expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of grimm!" Oobleck moved over to Blake "Previously home to thousands of people" Oobleck zoomed over to Yang again "Working people, commuting to the city, the main city." Back to Blake "Developed a subway system to the inner city." Oobleck now moved over to Weiss "Grimm attacks increase! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter!" Back to Blake "City evacuates into metro tunnels!" Now Oobleck sped over to Link "And what do they find?!"
Oobleck paused for a slight second...then quickly crouched to face Zwei
"The South-East quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves" Oobleck pointed at Zwei's nose, receiving a lick to the finger
"DOC!" Yang spoke up "What are you saying?"
Oobleck sprang up, grabbing Yang by the shoulders
"My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network, we're looking for an UNDERGROUND CRIME NETWORK!" Oobleck shouts
"They've been working in caves?" Blake questioned
"No no. Mountain Glenn was Vale's first attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to a perimeter defense and transportation. The city developed a subway system to carry citizens from the new territory to the main kingdom. Sadly! Without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect it's borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start."
Oobleck now looked down into the deep hole
"And as the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival. They took shelter beneath the city, in massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway. And they cut themselves off from the surface."
"S-so...An underground village?" Yang asked
"In a manner of speaking, yes. A...a safe haven. Until...an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean grimm. After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb."
Upon hearing the danger of this hole, and knowing Ruby could be dead right at this moment. Link couldn't contain his anger anymore, and wanted to let his inner demon rampage, but he was able to suppress it
"If Ruby is down there..." Link and Oobleck spoke at the same time, both drawing their weapons, with oobleck revealing that his thermos wasn't just any regular thermos, it was more of a club "We must find her."
"Now?" Link looked at Oobleck
"Yes." Oobleck nodded "Show me why Ozpin favored you to be by yourself"
Link did not hesitate and immediately jumped down, landing on his feet, he saw the underground 'village' that Oobleck pointed out, but before he saw anything else, a door opened behind him
"Freeze!" Two faunus workers with white fang gear approached Link, both holding guns
"..." Link looked at them closely, reaching for his sword
"One more move and you die!" One of them shouted
"Hmph..." Link smiled "You've got more problems than just me."
"Huh?" Both of them saw Link's eyes go upwards, up to the hole that Ruby first 'created' and down from it came Yang and Blake, they both made quick work of the faunus 'guards' with just one move
"Thanks." Link nods
"No problem!" Yang nods back "We knew you could take them but at the same time we won't let you have all the glory."
"Right now isn't the time to brag!" Weiss exclaimed, dropping down her own way, using multiple glyphs as opposed to just jumping down like Yang, Blake and Link.
"Miss Schnee is right." Oobleck as already right besides all 4 of them, despite nobody seeing how or Zwei in fact, got down there. "Right now our priorities should be on finding Ruby."
"Got it." Link frowned and walked towards the edge, getting a full view of the underground area
"Link?" Yang walked towards him
"I know." Link nods as he let out a sigh "Let's go." Link gave a thumbs up as he dropped down yet again
"Oh come on!" Weiss exclaims "There's stairs you know!?"
"Too late." Yang winked and dropped down as well
"..." Blake said nothing and followed them
"Professor?" Weiss asked
"We don't have the time for stairs, come along Miss Schnee!" Oobleck, with Zwei on his head leaped off as well.
"Fine!" Weiss shrugged and followed them.
Moments later
"Intruders!" More faunus henchmen began to shout and shoot their guns, what was the cause? Yang and Link beating down and knocking out anyone opposing them, Link took the gunshots with his shield and Yang followed up by leaping above Link and punching the faunus henchmen, a simple combination attack.
"Give me my sister back!" Yang began to put more power within each punch, incapacitating each incoming faunus with just one punch. "YAHHH!" She continued to fire shotgun shells, damaging the already abandoned and worn down building, causing one to partially fall apart, this finally scared off the remaining faunus, who began to run away
"I'll lead the way." Oobleck said and ran past his team.
"There she is!" Weiss point at Ruby, she was sat down right behind Roman Torchwick "She looks OK."
"That's good." Link mumbled and noticed Ruby springing up in the air, jumping on Torchwick's head and leaping off his head to run away from his 'grasp.'
"SOMEBODY KILL HER!" Torchwick shouted as he fired off flares from his cane while four faunus behind him fired off their guns
Though it seemed impossible, Ruby was able to dodge all the bullets, without using her semblance as well, she stopped right in her tracks when she saw more faunus right in front of her with their guns aimed... "Damn!" Ruby brought up her arms to cover her head
Before the faunus could fire their guns though, it was two explosions that saved Ruby, one being from a single shot fired Yang's gauntlets while the other one was Link firing off his rifle, having the red dust selected, it created a fire like explosion.
"Ruby!" Yang shouts with happiness as she wraps her arms around her sister and swings her around
"Are you okay?" Weiss asks
"Yeah yeah I'm fine, I'm fine! But listen! Torchwick's got all kinds of weapons and robots down there"
"What?!" Blake says with anger as she returns Crescent Rose back to Ruby
"Yeah, he's got Androids, mechs, they're all loaded up on the train cars! I saw them when I was being dragged further down this place."
"That's ridiculous!" Oobleck spoke up "These tunnels are sealed, the tracks lead to a dead-end. Where could they possibly be going?!"
Suddenly...a loud screeching speaker could be heard, the voice heard was that of Roman Torchwick
"Get to your places, we are leaving now!"
Right as Torchwick said the final words, the train began to move
"Well it looks and sounds like they're going somewhere." Yang had her eyes on the train
"I'll call Jaune!" Ruby was quick to reach for her scroll
"I already tried calling Pyrrha, no signal." Link said as he began to run towards the train
"Hmph!" Ruby turned her head, showing clear jealousy that Link was a step ahead of her.
"So what do we do?!" Weiss asked, but before anyone could answer, Blake was already right behind Link
"We have two options!" Oobleck spoke up "Number one, we walk away and report this back at Beacon, or number two-!"
"Grrr..." Ruby watching Link lead part of HER squad made her cut Oobleck off completely "We're stopping that train!" Ruby frowned and chased after Blake and Link, with Yang, Weiss, Oobleck and Zwei right behind her.
(9/29/17) Pulled down and edited - The ending is WAY different then what the original chapter 16 provided, why was it changed? 2 reasons. #1 - A reviewer(Lostandforgotten) said this chapter was a bit rushed, that reviewer was right, this one and chapter 15 were rushed because I was going back to school soon so I wanted to get something out, but then I ended up not posting anymore anyway so these rushed chapters were for nothing, hence why they're the most edited. Reason #2 - Link's inner demon fully emerging or even taking over Link briefly is a special reveal that should be saved for a special character, it should be for someone personal to Link, and to be honest, Torchwick is the worst candidate lol. He's not technically after anyone personally, so I'm saving Link's inner demon emerging for someone else, who? You'll find out soon; Minor details were fixed too xD