Huh, who would've thought a festival like this could be so... boring.
Yang was always known for being the more... ecstatic of the two sisters, but even she could find herself the boring one from time to time; this was one of those times.
The young woman lazed about, watching as several others went about the celebrations, eager to experience the food and games that littered the field. Now Yang wasn't being bland by choice, it just so happened that when you've felt life threatening battles back to back for a while you started to find the more peaceful moments... lacking. If anything she found herself unwillingly worried.
While there was no real danger in sight, the fact that they'd been caught off guard so much had her keeping said guard up at all times. Things seemed almost too good, and Yang felt like it could all fall apart at any moment.
The brawler shook her head as she took a seat on a nearby stool.
Come on girl, you're getting too worked up. Keep this up and you'll end up pulling a Blake.
The blond sighed as she looked up to the shop keeper, waving to one of the nearby menu options posted above the stall in the back. The man nodded and passed her a drink. It wasn't alcohol, as most customers at the stall were young children of families. Instead it was a milkshake, a strawberry milkshake to be exact. Topped with cream and a glaze of chocolate it posed an appetizing sight.
Taking hold of the small straw poking out she lightly sipped. There was no rush at the moment, and her next match wasn't till later, so she intended to savor the time she had.
Low and behold her day looked like it would take an interesting turn, as right next to her a familiar face took a seat. Yang smirked a little, deciding she'd take the chance that presented itself as she looked over to Vermillion and spoke.
"Fancy seeing you here. Weren't you supposed to be with the others for lessons or something?" She asked as the boy cast a glance.
"No, Ruby wanted to spend some time at the stalls when everyone else left. The others let me have the day off as well to enjoy the festivities."
Yang flinched at that as she realized leaving Ruby alone probably wasn't the greatest idea.
"I'll have to make it up to her later then." She said as the guy chuckled.
"That makes two of us."
"Why's that?" Yang questioned as he let out a sigh of his own.
"I ended up talking with Pyrrha, and let's just say it didn't end the best. I left for a bit before realizing Ruby would be back. It was too late to return so I wandered around for a bit."
"So you came here out of boredom?"
"More or less. I spent some time reading earlier, but got tired of it rather quick."
"Lame story huh?"
"Not really, but I couldn't focus so there was no point in continuing." Vermillion admitted as Yang leaned back and rested on her arm.
"That sucks." She looked around for a bit before turning back to him. "Why not roam around with me then? I've got nothing to do either, and we could apologize to Rubes together when we meet up." Yang suggested with a plain look.
"I suppose I may as well." He spoke as Yang stood and stretched.
"Good, I was getting bored sitting here all day. We can go look for the others too, no use in leaving them out. Who knows, they might be available."
While on the outside Yang held a lazy look, on the inside she wore a heavy smirk. She'd been looking for a reason to spend time with him, and she found it. While the others had been able to look past his past actions Yang still hadn't been sure he was all that safe to be around.
She didn't outright hate the guy anymore, but the way he acted before had been... less than ideal. To be honest the brawler was more worried he might hurt someone unintentionally, rather than outright attack them like his first meeting with Weiss and Blake. But they all chalked that up to circumstance, and she begrudgingly agreed somewhat even though she still held a hint of sourness to it.
He was dangerous, but not malicious. From what she'd gathered he was more unlucky than anything. Each and every moment up till their last meeting had him wandering into trouble, and unfortunately that trouble found it's way back to her team.
The dance was the only time he seemed to actively attack anybody, and she had been willing to beat the ever-loving daylights out of him. That was until she learned what happened afterwards. Her talk with him told her everything. The way he spoke and moved showed that he wasn't lying... at least not fully. She believed what he said, but she had a pretty strong suspicion that he never told the whole story.
He was holding something back.
Now whether that was something dangerous or not she didn't know, but it was something. Yang was a simple woman, she didn't expect everyone to tell her everything, but she did expect at least some level of trust. If somebody was keeping secrets then she expected those secrets to not cause harm to her or the others.
Simple secrets were fine, but it was the more dangerous kind that made her worry.
"There's Blake." Came the voice of Vermillion as Yang followed his line of vision.
"Great, let's go see if she's got some time to spare."
The two marched over, not very quietly as the girl looked up from her book. Yet her look seemed different than the usual calm indifference she often wore. Yang could swear her partner held something of a soft smile at their approach. She wouldn't complain about it though as an openly happy Blake was a rare sight to behold.
"Hey Blake! Wanna waste time with us? We're bored." Yang asked with a smirk.
"Sure." The girl answered as she shut her book and stood.
Yang's eyes widened slightly at that. She wasn't expecting it to be that easy. Then again their time at Beacon had been weird anyway, so she assumed it was just par for the course.
"So what did you have in mind?"
"Well, I was thinking about getting the group together to plan for the next match. It's just going to be Weiss and yours truly, so I wanted to get some ideas flowing on how we handle it." Yang explained as Blake raised a brow.
"You want to talk about that. What about the festival? I thought you loved these sorts of things?"
"Don't get me wrong I love a good party as much as the next gal, but things have been... iffy for a while. I just can't seem to get this sort of mucky feeling out of my gut. So I thought 'hey, why not actually make a plan for once'. Thought it might make me feel better." Yang told as Blake narrowed her eyes with a sly smirk.
"Who are you and what have you done with Yang?" Blake questioned playfully as the blond brushed her off.
"What, I'm not that bad?" Yang returned with a smirk of her own.
"I suppose so. It is a good idea however, but I don't know if Weiss is busy or not."
"Then join the party, we'll go bother her together!" Yang spoke as Blake rolled her eyes.
"Fine, you've got me."
.
.
"Any luck?" Questioned Ozpin as Ironwood shook his head, letting out a small swear under his breath as he looked over the report.
"None. Our top technicians weren't able to find any sort of tampering."
"And we both know that's not the case."
"Don't remind me." The general grimaced as he scanned over the report once more, scrutinizing each word to be sure he wasn't missing anything. "From what we've gathered some information appears to be stolen, yet it was nothing overly important... and that worries me."
"What did they take?" The headmaster questioned as Ironwood scrolled back through the document and dragged the cursor to highlight several sections of text over the holographic display.
"Student schedules and a few from the teachers as well... but it's all several weeks old." The general explained as he looked through.
"Clearly useless for whoever it was."
"Think there might be any other motives?" Ironwood asked as Ozpin let out a hum.
"Perhaps. Bring up the supposed stolen schedules; I want to have a look at them." Ozpin requested as Ironwood did so.
The screen flickered as the document opened. Ozpin leaned closer as he gazed at the list of tasks, his eyes narrowing as he spoke once more.
"The festival."
"What about it?" The general questioned as Ozpin grit his teeth.
"These have nothing to do with it, which means-"
"It's a distraction, or a trap." Ironwood finished as Ozpin nodded.
"They wanted us to find it, otherwise we never would have."
"They intentionally chose these because it has no relation to the festival." The general explained with a slight growl. "Whether they want us to believe the festival is the target or not is any guess."
"Then we'll assume it is." Ozpin told as he rubbed his chin. "It's too big of an event to not take advantage of."
"Or it's just a scape goat for something worse. They may want us to focus on the festival so they can work somewhere else." Ironwood suggested as Ozpin sighed.
"They chose the perfect place to draw attention. Right now we have no choice but to keep watch over everything."
"And we can't do a damn thing about it." The general scowled as he stood, shutting off the screen with a hefty breath. "So how do you want me to handle this, without my full tech team I can't really have any deeper searches done, and they're back at Atlas."
"You have a small security squad though. Have them split into groups: one to keep an eye on Amity arena and the other to scout over the city." Ozpin said as he brought out his scroll.
"And what will you do?" Ironwood asked as the headmaster started a call.
"Make a few changes to the tournament bracket. We can use a few extra eyes, and who better than some bright eyed students looking for extra credit."
.
.
Okay so maybe it would have been better to ignore the rumors.
Ruby knew that was a lie, even as she rushed from cliff to cliff in an attempt to get closer. As much as she hated it she needed to kill the beast. There were no rumors of such a large Grimm that she recalled from her time; meaning that it must have died in some way before the settlers first arrived. Killing it now wouldn't do any harm.
She hoped.
If it did then she'd gain some new memories and alter her plans accordingly. Either way the colossal needed to die, and she was set on being the cause. Ruby set off into short bursts as she scaled the cliffs, all the while stone and dust broke in her wake.
The Grimm either didn't see her, or didn't care, which only gave her a chance to observe it closer.
Along it's spindly bones looked to be several pulsing veins, with each setting off it's own dull glow. It was almost rhythmic in it's movements as it stumbled aimlessly in random directions. Every now and then it seemed to change it's direction and head someplace else. It would never make more than four steps before choosing to move elsewhere.
She set her gaze on it's worm-like head. The thing appeared to be slurping the Grimm straight from the sky, and she didn't know whether she was disgusted or intrigued; although she was lost on where it put the swallowed Grimm, as the beast appeared to have no stomach of the sort.
Perhaps it melded with them, or maybe they turned to smoke similar to when they died. Regardless of what happened it must have had some effect on the creature, as Grimm rarely did anything senseless. Even their small territorial relations with local wildlife was later discovered as a sort of breeding grounds for them, even if their 'breeding' consisted of puking up black sludge which then formed into more Grimm.
Ruby froze atop one of the spires.
The creature had faced her, and looked to stare directly into her very being. It was completely still, and the horde of black above seemed to faze, creating a pseudo-grey sky. The newly formed fog spread almost instantaneously across the land, and the only visible spots left in the dense mist were the very tops of the rocky spires. She stared back with silent threat, as if to challenge the beast.
It accepted.
It's limb tore through the air at speeds faster than it should, ripping apart the fog which gave less than a second's glance to the skies above. That second proved invaluable as she'd spotted the Grimm hoarding above had started to dive for her, granting her the idea that they were in some way controlled by it.
Ruby leapt into the air and used her scythe's sniper rounds to propel her form above the spire as the beast's limb shattered it. A burst of winds from below knocked her up, and she found herself dazed for a moment. In a panic Ruby took petal form as she felt herself scatter more than usual.
The Grimm above dove for her just a moment too late.
Taking to her physical state she aimed and fired at several dive-bombing Grimm, which launched her rapidly towards the colossal as the targets exploded into smoke. Facing the creature she angled her body away from multiple chunks of sludge which had ripped from the ribs and launched her way in rapid succession.
Even the very bones looked to want her dead, and at that point she wasn't really surprised, only annoyed. Her focus was drawn to the very ribs which tore themselves apart to strike her, going from sturdy bone to wriggly tendril in no time flat. Ruby responded accordingly by delivering several quick swipes to the appendages as they darted for her.
It let out a deafening roar, one that shook the landscape and seemed to clear the air of it's grey haze. Her eyes trailed upwards to gauge the placements of the horde, only to be presented with an interesting sight. Each of them appeared to have morphed into some sort of writhing mass, condensing in on themselves before rupturing in a spray of gunk which evaporated mid-fall.
Her eyes returned to the colossal as it shot towards her, ribs reformed as the sludge looked to pelt it's appendages. The aged rose leapt, her body twisting ever so slightly as she angled herself between the open spaces of it's spindly form, which allowed her to slip through it unscathed as it crashed into the cliffs.
Ruby looked back at the beast, feeling no real sense of threat.
She knew it had to die, and she also knew she had an easy out, but the question was whether to use it or not. Looking to the creature as it struggled to free itself from the rubble which trapped it momentarily she held out her hand. A flurry of smoke pulsed up her arm, building and condensing in her palm before flaring outwards as it left the form of a certain ancient relic in her grip.
The sword of destruction was special in many ways even for a relic; it also just so happened to be the only one she could summon and dismiss with her darker power. True to it's namesake the weapon could destroy just about anything, and yet she debated on using it. An easy win would be got, but the cost of such a victory was what held her.
Ruby didn't know whether she'd run into anything like the colossal, and as such didn't know whether to save the sword's use for later. The first strike back at the castle had hit her with a massive increase to her corruption, and while she needed that eventually she also knew it couldn't be too soon.
She looked to the beast, and then back to the blade. Most gigantic Grimm weren't exactly all that difficult - at least for her - and she could kill it fairly easily given time, but that was just the thing.
Time.
It was a resource she ironically didn't have a whole lot of. Salem would eventually succumb to madness, and once that happened Ruby would need to be at her destination. Otherwise all the work she put into everything would be for nothing.
You are quite the little nuisance aren't you?
The ragged reaper stared at the sword as she twisted her wrist and gazed at both sides, feeling the power that pulsed outwards to match the beat of her heart. The relic to most was a tool designed to destroy, and yet she knew it's real purpose. It was no tool for the world, nor was it constructed to protect or unite. It's purpose was far more sinister. The sword was a prison, a trap for what it truly held: it's one defining power.
Death, pure and simple.
The sword could only kill, be it living or not the weapon was made to eradicate everything in it's path. That was it's purpose, and Ruby scoffed to herself as she took to the sky avoiding another dash from the beast.
The power to kill was always trapped within the blade, yet the ability to destroy the landscape and other non-living things belonged exclusively to the shell itself and lay separate to it's death-bringing energy. The other relics were nothing like it, and she almost laughed when she first learned why. But that was useless at the moment, whether it killed life or land using the sword would still corrupt her.
Ruby burst apart into petals which weaved throughout the colossal as it soared up into the air. The woman took form upon the beast's gaping maw, standing on the rim as she stared into the abyss within. She let a broken smirk fill her features as she felt the power course through her.
When in doubt aim for the neck.
Ruby fell back and sped down along the side of the slimy head, only to turn and strike at the last second. The shock of energy lasted less than a second, yet it burned her with a sick sense of pleasure. Even as she burst into petals she felt the darkness swell within.
The beast's body dropped faster than the head, crashing into and ripping apart the ground as nearby stone followed along, creating a sort of desert pen. The long tendril of a head looked to still be moving as it touched down into the newly formed arena of stone.
Ruby reformed upon the nearby edge of the new crater and watched as the now much smaller Grimm tried to wriggle towards her. It survived even without it's body, something she wasn't exactly surprised by. Colossal Grimm had a habit of being more durable than most; able to continue fighting even after losing nearly all of their body so long as the head was intact.
The woman debated whether to finish off the creature, yet decided not to waste the time. It could barely move, and the walls of the newly formed canyon kept it trapped within. Maybe in time it would learn to dig and tunnel like the worms of Vacuo, but Ruby didn't care. Nobody would arrive at Menagerie for several hundred years, and she was almost certain someone would kill it eventually.
Yet Ruby felt the a small pain flow through her, one she knew signaled her ever growing corruption. It was dulled however, perhaps due to her minimal use of the sword's power. Regardless of the reason she understood she was one step closer to being overtaken. She would have to be careful from then on.
Letting the smoky haze seep from her arm the relic was coated, only to disappear as she let out a relaxed breath. Ruby held the hand over her chest, feeling the lick of power locked within as the blade's energy swelled through her skin. While she needed to physically carry the other relics the sword was able to return to it's energy form; a power exclusively available to her for the duration of the mission.
Looking outwards she set sights on her destination in the distance as she started down the cliff.
Author's note
...
Back with another chapter, this time I don't really have much to say as I did that for the last one.
Yang made an appearance, and she's scheming so there's that; Oz and Ironwood try - and fail - to figure out what happened at the tower; and Future Ruby breaks out the sword again to deal with the colossal.
All in all not much really to say, other than V spending time with the quickly forming group. How will that turn out? I'm sure it'll be fine.
That's all for now so let me know your thoughts.
See you next time.