Chapter 8. Ruby, where are you?
I will be putting random easter eggs throughout the story. I do enjoy them. Also, I looked over the last chapter after I stopped seeing words floating around my house and my perfectionist side slapped me hard. I apologize for the mistakes that should not have been gotten through, most of them should be fixed as of 5/28. If you see a mistake such as unfinished sentences or something that doesn't make sense in future chapters, feel free to PM/DM me that it exists. I WILL correct it… my OCD demands it.
Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth not me. Copy and paste
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"Where did that dolt run off too?!" Weiss yelled. She was bristling with anger. The other three huntresses had made it to the top of the plateau before they had finally killed the remainder or the aerial grimm. They chose to dismount and once they had solid footing so that they could properly aim their weapons, it was a slaughter for the grimm. Weiss kept the grimm from rushing them in overwhelming numbers with large area blasts, while Pyrrha and Luna had brought down the few that were allowed through. They were so zoned into killing grimm that had wiped out about half of the aerial grimm before they had realized that Ruby had not made it to the top of the plateau with them.
The heiress paced back and forth in front of her other two teammates who were resting on their transports. "Weiss, we were most likely separated when we were caught off guard by the Grimm and then we were nearly blinded when we were hit by the blizzard at the top of the plateau." Pyrrha replies, trying to calm her team leader down. They were all worried about the youngest member of their team, but they couldn't just race back the way they came, and possibly miss her.
"Yeah Weiss, she was at the back of the group, so no one noticed, and we were trying to get to flat ground to fight. Why is it that you can sound like you don't care about your partner?" Luna asked, also agreeing with the champion.
"I do care about her," Weiss snapped back, "I would be able to visibly show more concern if she would stop being so rebellious and listen to me instead of questioning every decision I make." She give an annoyed sigh, "We won't succeed if we search blindly for her like we were for Glace, it is too large an area."
The blonde fangirl had an idea, " Weiss, isn't Winter able to track each of us by our scrolls? Maybe she can see where the Ruby is."
"That, is a great idea," Weiss dials in her sister's number as she give Luna a smile. "Winter, are your there?"
"I have always been here." The voice was a tone of both cold and calm. Weiss began to have the feeling of dread as Winter just let her words hang.
"Winter is something wrong? We were preoccupied with grimm, and this is the first availability for me to talk to you." Weiss asked.
"Fighting grimm… And how are you doing? In fact, how are all your teammates doing?" The Specialist questioned. Back in the command station back in Atlas, Winter was livid, she had been monitoring all of them, and couldn't do anything about it. She saw the moment that they were separated, she could tell when the daughter of Summer started fighting again.
"Well, they—"
"You have a teammate is separated from you! She is now alone and injured!" Winter snapped angrily, silencing her sister to let her know how dire the situation was. "She also is not responding to my attempts to contact her."
Weiss swore. Which very much surprised everyone, "Winter we need you lead us to her NOW!"
"She is either roughly 2000 or 2800 meters northeast of you, her signal is fluctuating between two different points. I suspect that her BARC speeder is severely damaged, but it is still transmitting its signal. She is also at ground level, which is 300 meters lower than your current position. You need to get to her soon, her aura has hit the red and very slowly dropping. I have dispatched members of the ACE Ops with a medical team, but it will take a more than an hour for them to get to her position, weather notwithstanding."
There are different points at which kingdoms or organizations set their standards at measuring an individual's aura capacity. At Beacon Academy, a person's aura is considered in the red if it hits around 15% of an individual's full capacity. In Atlas, a person's aura is considered in the red aura at about 30%. Winter had told them before the mission that she would be monitoring their team by the Atleasan standard, Weiss remember led this and had a little more hope. That this meant that even though Ruby was injured, she still had aura to heal until they got there. They still couldn't delay, or she would be out of aura soon.
"Switch the setting on your speeders ground tracking, set the program to 'unstable'. We are riding straight down the cliff, it is the fast way to get to Ruby." She yanked on left handlebar turned her speeder in a tight 180 and gunned it North, the other members of W_PA followed closely behind her. She relayed the situation to her other two team member over their headsets.
When Weiss reached the edge of the plateau, she slowed down so she wouldn't launch herself off the cliff, she went off the ledge and went down, and then gunned her speeder.
Luna and Pyrrha quickly set the programs on their speeders and followed Weiss. The drop riding down the cliff was literally vertical and they drove down it at blistering speed. The redhead spartan following on the left side of Weiss while Luna was on the right.
Pyrrha was about halfway down, when went over an area of the cliff that concaved. The computer attempted to compensate and force itself back towards the surface, causing the BARC to nearly bottom out. However, the sudden push down caused underside of the hoverbike was punctured by a pointed rock that jutted out. Her speeder lost power and started falling uncontrolled. In the moments without power, the spartan attempted to substitutes the propulsion of the engine with her semblance. She had studied the design enough to know what parts of the BARC she could affect to keep it working. She was able to keep it going for only a few moments before the strain proved too much. She gave up on trying to keep the hoverbike running, instead she tried to keep it straight while it ground on the cliffside.
The noise was almost unbearable, metal screeched against rock.
Luna looks over, seeing the champion and her idol is in trouble and shouted "Pyrrha!" She pulls her bike to the left and closes the distance between the two.
Pyrrha sees Luna pull close, but she waits for a few more moments before making her move. As she approaches the ground, the champion grabs her pack and jumps off the speeder before it crashes. She jumps on Luna's speeder for a moment. Luna breaks to slow down her speeder. Luna was absolutely giddy, 'I can't believe it, I saved Pyrrha!'
The BARC sagged with the extra weight, before it started to grind against the cliff, Pyrrha jumped off. She used Luna to slow her momentum and then covers her armor and shield with her semblance, to slow herself further. The huntress landed well, bending her knees as her bronze combat heels sank a little into the snow.
Weiss had put her faith in the machines of Dr. Polendina when she drove off the cliff, she was more used to these break neck speaks as her time dilation glyphs. She could persevere dangers better than the other members of her team, maybe not Ruby as her semblance was purely speed based. As the Heiress neared the bottom, she throws down a larger glyph back and she pulled up, the g-force from that stunt was harsh, but she was on the ground and fine. Luna follows behind Weiss and uses the glyph in e same manner.
The BARC slammed into the ground, becoming a contorted pile of metal.
"You alright Pyrrha?" Weiss asked as she saw the champion land. She had made another calculated risk in order to get to get down the cliff faster, and it had almost backfired on her teammate.
"I am mostly unharmed, but I cannot say the same for my transport."
"I am glad that you are. What happened with your speeder?"
"There was a moment going down when it bottomed out on the cliff side. At that moment, I think something must have punctured the engine block and it lost power."
"Let me call Ruby to see if she will answer." Weiss tries again to call her lost teammate, however, the young Rose does not answer.
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The spartan reminisces over the speeder, "I feel bad that I destroyed Dr. Poledina's hoverbike. It seems that I will ride along with one of you…"
"You can ride with me, Pyrrha!" Luna offered over excitedly.
"I, I think it would be best if I were to ride with Weiss, she is a little shorter than you, so the combined weight will be less, as well as the strain on her, speeder." Pyrrha explained, justifying a reason not to ride with the excited fangirl.
Weiss nodded in agreement, she could also tell that the spartan wasn't entirely comfortable with the position she was in, her, she was much more… reserved, around the female Arc and she wasn't sure why. "Thank you Weiss and I appreciate the offer Luna." Luna's smile diminished, she is visibly disappointed, but she quickly got over it, they had to find their teammate.
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When they had found Ruby's broken speeder, the huntresses contacted Winter so she could eliminate the interfere caused by it and guide them to the next source of the signal. They finally came across a small flat area where there were unnatural formations of ice all across it, from spikes to pillars and even what could only be described as an ice kill box.
They dismounted. Weiss saw that they were nearly on top of Ruby's marker. The scroll signals got them within 30 meters, but there was still no scythe wielding reaper in sight.
Weiss was now in a panic. Forget the fact that Yang would kill her if she knew what had happened to Ruby out here. She promised the Ozpin that they were ready and she would keep her team safe. Right now, not only was she failing the Headmaster, she was also failing herself, but most importantly, she was failing her team.
"Ruby!" She shouted, not hearing any response. "Ruby!"
"Ruby where are you!?" The Arc joined in.
Pyrrha got on her scroll, "I'll try reaching her over scroll again." She listened as it rang, "Come on, Ruby, please answer!" Her prayers were answered. She heard the signature beep on the line, it was an indicator that the scroll receiving the call was answering. "Ruby thank goodness you answered, where are you? There is no sign of you." Pyrrha said while looking around.
"We're nearby. Please tell me you are Ruby's teammates," A male answered, his voice cracking.
The champion's blood ran cold "Who is this!? What have you done to Ruby!?" She shrieked. At this Luna and Weiss dashed back to her to listen.
"I-I'm am with her right now, but she—she is hurt. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I couldn't protect her." The male on the line choked.
"Where are you?!"
"If you find field of ice pillars and spikes, we are a short walk east. There is a small shelter, it's out in the open but it will be nearly invisible since is covered in snow and ice."
"We were calling her earlier, why didn't you answer then?"
"I didn't hear her scroll, I'm, I'm sorry."
"Can you come out and signal to us?" Luna, Pyrrha and Weiss kept their scrolls out and began searching eastward on foot and spread out.
"I can't come out, I'm… holding her, I'm scared to move her."
"Then stay on the line until we find you!" The Heiress demanded.
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The female Arc was the one who found the shelter… by walking right into it. "What the?" It really was nearly invisible.
She knocks on the natural camouflage wall, "Hello?"
"We're inside." Called out the male voice.
"Hey girls. Found it," she calls out. The other two huntresses left the two remaining BARC's where they were as they rushed over to their teammate.
Luna shifts Stalhrim to axe mode, she coats her weapons in her aura, and delivers a hard strike to the wall. Breaking a large hole in the wall.
Weiss steps in first. The first and only thing, well the only people she sees in the small shelter is, the undeniable figure of Glace, Glace who was indeed cradling Ruby. She could see the bandages with bloodspots just starting to bleed through.
his eyes were hidden, glassed over by white ice, but the ice lens were cracked and ice trails streaked down his cheeks, as if… he had been crying.
Weiss steps forward and levels Myrtenaster at his face. With the all the authority of a Schnee, she makes her demands known, "You will release my partner or we will make you by force."
"You are her team, that's good."
"Luna" Pyrrha whispered, "Who-"
I don't know, I can't see his eyes and his hair is so frosted over so I can't tell the color," Luna. "Maybe Torshiro, but I can't tell." She whispers back.
She continued to stare at him, there was a warm familiarity about him, the logical part of her said that she didn't recognize him, but there was another part of her that said that she knew who was right in front of her.
The Winter Knight glares back at the Heiress, "Your partner is badly injured as well as poisoned. I don't have the medical supplies to treat her, so all I am really doing is keeping her comfortable as she is dying… There is nothing I can do."
"I can help her." Luna, she holstered her shotgun and rushed to Ruby's side.
"Luna, wait…" but the Arc ignored the Heiress, instead she listened to what her gut was telling her, and it was saying that he wouldn't hurt her or any of them. She sits in front of him as he is holding the injured young reaper.
"What have you done so far to treat her?" Luna asked
"It's cleaned and bandaged it, but I don't have anything to treat the venom bite."
"Venom?" She carefully removed the bandages and moved her shirt up to get a closer look at the wound. Luna noticed that Glace looked away as she lifted Ruby's shirt and winter suit. He had some modesty.
It was gruesome injury, he had done a surprisingly good job at cleaning and dressing it. However, the scariest aspect of the injury was the visible black veins that had could be seen traveling out and away from the wound and up through her body from. It looked exactly the same as something that you would see from blood poisoning caused by an infected wound. It had been less than an hour and the blackened veins had already spread across most of her torso.
"Oh my Oum, this is really bad. I will stabilize her but Glace, I am going to need your help. What did this to her?" Luna, channeled her semblance and poured her aura into the injured girl. The Legend raised an eyebrow as he watched her silver aura pour into the young redhead. As it turns out, the blonde huntress had one of the few semblances that could interact with other people's auras. Incredibly useful especially right now.
"An older ground dweller, not ancient by how it looked, but it was smart enough to wait until we were distracted and let our guard down." The silver-eyed girl's injuries started closing, but it was very slow. The black veins started to dim into a more gray.
"How are you doing that?" Glace asked. He knew that aura could do a lot, but Ruby was beyond what aura could help her. Yet, it looked like he was wrong. Something he was very glad about.
"it's my semblance, Medication, I can give others my own aura or transfer aura from other people to each other. It not only replenishes another's aura, but it also works as an antidote. It costs a bit of my own aura, but I have a large aura pool and don't have to worry about running out. My parents said that it's a trait that runs in the family. It also works better when I have more people because of the bonus side effects that can come with it." Luna answered
"Really, what kinds of effects?"
"Give me your hand." Luna orders. "It's easier if I just show you how it works, and I assume that your semblance is an ice based one."
The Winter Knight hesitantly takes her hand, before he sarcastically remarks, "Is it that obvious."
She notices the grey metal cuffs on his wrists but ignore them, because she is focused on a more important issue. As Glace takes her hand, he felt a slight tug on what felt like his soul.
"I need you to relax, you need to be willing for this work. Do you want to help her?"
"Yes, I do, its my fault that she got hurt."
And with those words he felt his aura flow, leaving him and 'move' into Luna, it was strange because he could feel it move through her and change as it flow into the injured huntress in his arms. The silver blue and silver aura from the two became crimson after it started to glow and surround the young reaper.
Pyrrha laid a hand on his shoulder, "It's not your fault Glace. You said that a grimm did this. If that is the truth, you are not to blame."
Ruby had been shaking from the cold, as the aura flowed into her, she stopped shaking and her wounds started to close at a faster rate. Even though she was healing at a rapid rate, the newly healed skin was discolored meaning that she would now have a light scar, it wouldn't stand out that much if someone were to see, but it would be there. Once her wounds had closed, she opened her eyes. The silver orbs looked around and focused on the blonde hair and blue eyes of the female Arc, "Hey Luna, owie, that hurt." As she sat up, Glace let her go. She then looked over to the Legend, "Hey Glace, next time we walk through ground dweller infested land, you're carrying me." She said with an angry yet very adorable pout.
"Glad to see you're alright Rubes," Luna said ruffling her hair a little, "how are you feeling?"
"I'm not cold anymore, my tummy still hurts a little, and the world has stopped spinning. So I think I am feeling better, though I don't know what hit me."
The Winter Knight took a moment to drape his coat over her shoulders. He had a slight blush on his face. "An older centinel. You are going to need this more than me right now. Your outfit has a, uh, a tear in it."
Ruby for the first time, looked at her outfit. Her combat skirt was fine, but her black blouse and winter suit had suffered. It currently could not cover a large section of the left side of her torso. She quickly put on the winter jacket and zipped it up, "Warm," she said dreamily.
Pyrrha sheathed her weapons on her back, "Thank you doing everything in your power to protect and help our teammate. It means everything to us that you stayed with her."
It stung in the kind way, she was not blaming him, but it didn't take away the fact that he failed. Before the Winter Knight could respond, Weiss stomped over to Ruby, "You Dolt!" Weiss really wanted to smack her teammate on the head, but refrained as the Reaper was still recovering. "Do you have any idea how worried you made me! Don't do run off like that again!"
"You were worried about me?" Ruby asks timidly.
"OF COURSE I WAS!" The Heiress shouted. "As irritating and childish and rebellious as you can be, you are still MY partner on MY team. I have a responsibility to make sure you come back from the mission ALIVE. So if you put me through a scare like that again, so help me, I will tell your SISTER!" Ruby paled at that.
While Weiss was lecturing Ruby, Glace looked back to Luna, "Could you explain a little more what your semblance is, it is still not making sense. I mean, she was bit by a centinel! I didn't think aura could help with venom."
"Normally you would be right, but my semblance is a powerful healing based one. It's something I learned when I first used it. I can also purify a persons' body of all types of toxins and poisons that aura cannot normally heal them of. But, the longer a person has been afflicted, the harder it is for me to help them. Thanks for taking care of the little one, we know that she can be a handful some—most of the time."
"Hey, I found him before all of you! If you all hadn't made it into a race to get to the top, I wouldn't have gotten singled out by the stupid pterodactyl." Ruby pouted crossing her arms.
Glace stared at her for a moment with a blank face before looking back at the other huntresses in the ice shelter. He couldn't hold it back, he cracked and broke into a shit eating grin and ruffles her hair, causing her to slap at his hand, "I am announcing my first an official statement. She's adorable."
The tall redhead and blonde huntresses burst out laughing while the shorter white haired huntress put a hand over her mouth to hold in her laughter. This caused Ruby to whine even more, "Oh come on! I don't need another Yang." Her eyes widened in horror as she thought of him becoming a second Yang.
"Don't worry, you may be tiny but you are still mighty." The other girls were now clutching their sides. She giving him a pleading look. "Please, stop before you turn into Yang."
His grin stayed big, "Well, I don't know who this Yang is, just like all of you, but she sounds like someone I should get to know, a fun person."
Ruby buries her head in the Legend's chest rapidly pounds on his "No, no, no, no, no! Please, please don't."
"Fine, I won't become Yang, whoever she is. Now, what are you all doing out here?" She hugged him, "Good boy." He let her hug him. It was the least he could do after what she just went through.
"I got why you are here from Ruby earlier, before, you know, but who are you and who wants me now? Last time it was a writer for a movie."
Weiss, "we were sent on a mission to bring you back."
He stiffened, "Who. I asked who are you, and who sent you?"
"General Ironwood sent us and we are huntresses from Beacon Academy."
They could tell that he was defensive now, "That makes no sense. Who are you that the general of Atlas would ask for help from huntresses from a different continent?"
Weiss bristled at the comment, "I am Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, this is Pyrrha Nikos the Four Time Mistral Tournament Champion, my Ruby Rose daughter of a former member of the renown team STRQ, and Luna Arc from the Arc family in Cadia. We are here to bring you back."
He sighed, "You know that I am still out here for a reason and I have no plans on coming back."
Ruby got worried, so she decided it was time for her to help. "You need to come back with us." She then hit him with her most powerful technique. The sad puppy eyes. "Please." He saw those eyes, he tried to resist, but that look had enough power in them that he couldn't directly say no to them.
"F-fine, if you answer this question and I will come with you." With that, he was able to look away from those silver eyes.
"What is your question?"
"What is the reason that the King of Vale ended the Great War?"
Glace had no intension of actually going back with them even if they did get the answer right, which was already a slim chance. They may be good people, few that he has come across, but they will be in danger with him nearby. If they got the answer right, he would go with them, for a bit, and then ditch them the first chance.
Pyrrha and Ruby were clueless so they didn't answer, Weiss thought about it, the wording was strange, but she knew the answer She turned to Luna, to see if the blonde has any insight. She could see that the gears were turning in her head, but she looked unsure if she should answer the question. The team leader of WRPA decided that she would answer. It made sense as she had the best education growing up back in Atlas.
"This is a well-known historical event, but not exactly simple to describe. The King of Vale arrived at Vacuo to defend the Kingdom. By the best of accounts, he fought and single handedly defeated the combined armies of Mistral and Mantle, though there still are still mysteries surrounding how exactly he was able to accomplish defeating two armies and the grimm hordes that were attracted." Weiss recalled.
Luna was watching him the entire time, as the Heiress was explaining, she got an uneasy feeling when he started smiling in the middle of Weiss's explanation. It was a smile that said, 'I just won'. Which meant that Weiss's answered had somehow been wrong, at least in his mind. There was more to this wasn't there? It was another gut feeling. This was a part of history that was surrounded in confusion because of the unfathomable loss of life, the absolute carnage that followed, and the major reformation that the world had gone through afterwards. Even her ancestors who fought in the war had… OH. Oooh. Was this about her family's hand in ending the war? How would he know anything about them? If Weiss was wrong, then she needed to take this as a shot in the dark so they wouldn't lose him.
If he was a bit more normal, then she probably could have talked to him as a friend, if she could identify him. It was just the damn ice that his features that figuring out who he is impossible.
"Hold on. You are not asking for historical lesson. You're questioning us about something that history doesn't tell." Luna exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, Pyrrha looked confused about this as well.
"Yes, do tell," Glace prompted, almost mockingly. Almost.
"You are not asking about history anyone owning a scroll could look up." Weiss realized, "Luna you're a genius! But what is the answer he is looking for?"
Glace smiled and nodded, "smart, but do you actually know the question then?"
"I have a strong guess. Yes the King of Vale defeated the combined armies of Mantle and Mistral but… you want the how did the King know." The blonde huntress squinted at him, "This is part of the history of the Arcs, but how do you know this?"
"But the Arc's fought for Mantle." Pyrrha stated, "They were unmatched warriors who won many battles. Why would they have helped Vale?"
"They were bound by an oath. The Arc's did not support the war, but we were bound to fight and die for the throne of Mantle. However, Jeanne Arc and her husband Sieg Arc did not believe that the war was just, when the King of Mantle ordered that both the armies of Mantle and Mistral were to attack Vacuo, Sieg found one of Vale's captured spies and sent him back to Vale with the information. That is why the King of Vale showed up to defend Vacuo. They fully expected to die in the battle against the Warrior King because they were leading the armies, but he spared them." Luna answered, "Mantle losing the Great War freed our family from the oaths. The King of Vale also granted them amnesty as one of his final acts as King. As long as they promised to fight for what was right. He trusted the word of the Arcs, because the motto of the Arcs…"
Both the Luna and the Legend spoke at the same time. "Is an Arc never goes back on their word."
He smiled, "Clever, You guys really are who you say you are. I guess I gotta go with you now. "
"Just like that?" Pyrrha, "You only wanted the answer to this one question?"
"To be honest, none of you were actually supposed to know the answer." The Legend revealed to them, "But if you insist, we play a few games of 20 question for double nothing."
The champion quickly recanted, "I think we will pass. Thank you for being so cooperative."
Glace waved a hand and tore down the rest of the wall that Luna had broken through.
The others gathered the BARC speeders, he started walking east, again. The others followed him as Weiss got back on her scroll to talk to Winter.
"Sooo, Who are you?" The young Rose asked.
"Glace."
"Oh, come on, there's no way that's your real name. Who are you really?"
"Are you really sure about that?"
"Yepp, you always tell people to call you Glace, you never say that is your name. Wy are you trying to hide?"
"Because, reasons, now stop asking." Glace replied dismissively.
"Nope." Ruby cutely replied, again popping the 'P'.
"Ruby, you… you can't just 'nope' to people request for privacy."
"Nope. You can't just hide from the world and refuse help. Especially when you need it."
"You think I need help?" Glace asked.
"Of course, you've been helping people all these years, it is only fair that you finally get help in return."
"How do you I won't just make a storm and ditch you?" he questioned.
Because you will make sure we get to a safe place first. You said it was your job to protect me. Then you will try to ditch us." She gave him a piercing look and pointed a finger at him, "I'm watching you."
He opened his mouth to respond. She had him there, he wasn't just going to leave them, at least not right away. So he closed his mouth and shrugged.
"I guess we'll see what happens, now since we will be traveling together until you are now, I say we get-"
"I have been looking for you Winter Knight." A deep voice boomed, from the distance. They turned and saw the silhouette of a very large man striding towards them.
"Really… Really?! How many more people are going to show up today?" Glace practically yelled, "Is today: Meet with Glace Day and I am the only one who missed the memo?! What part of the barren artic tundra is welcoming?!"
"Maybe a couple more." Luna chimed in cheekily, "We kind of called for a pickup from Weiss's older sister, right after we found you."
Glace facepalmed hard, "Oh, for fucks sake. It is."
"Swear!" the youngest of them squeaked.
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Author Note: I know this chapter is a little shorter, I'm not stalling, it's for pacing reasons. Otherwise this chapter would be more than 10,000 words, and I would never be able to finish editing and proofreading it. Currently 8,000 word is about the limit that I can write, edit, proofread and post for one chapter. These chapters recked me because I knew the main point that I wanted to happen, but I didn't think about what else led up to it until I started writing it. The next chapter is going to be a bigger one.
Next Chapter: Facing the Giants.