Ruby calmed down, staring at her for a while before finding the strength to speak. Finally, she had something positive to say, "Well, for what it's worth, you're trying to change for the better." A pat on the shoulder accompanied her small smile. "But seriously, change the name."
"No, I actually like it!"
"Pyrrha, you were right; she is starting to forgive," Jaune said, holding her by her waist. However, she pushed herself up and replied, "No, she isn't Jaune, at least not yet."
"Hey, gossip train, Cole loved Weiss as a potential wife. I never needed a reason to be angry with her," she said, sitting near the cockpit door.
Yang smiled at the duo while thinking about how Ruby was still as kind as she used to be. However, that kindness was short-lived when Ren and Nora walked over to Weiss, filling her in on their mission and what was really going on.
"WHAT?!" Weiss shrieked, looking frantically at Ruby and Yang before running over to her and hugging her head to her chest. "I'm so sorry."
Before she could respond, Ruby exclaimed, "She doesn't know about her," and walked the others over to the seats, grabbing a small crate.
"Know about who?" Yang asked, looking around at everyone's downcast expressions. "What happened?" Everyone looked up and saw Rayla walking over to the group.
"I need to refuel the ship," she said, leaving the ship to do just that, also giving them space to talk. Jaune remarked, "We're still in the sky flying, and she's gone," holding a bottle of water out to Pyrrha.
"Yang," Ruby said gently, grabbing hers and everyone's attention, "the Reaper is an international assassin killing everyone involved with Cole's past and death... everyone except me, now Weiss, and Rayla, just to name a few. And he-" She struggled with her explanation, so Weiss took over. "Yang, we think he might have killed Blake."
She looked at everyone with disbelief and horror. "But Blake told no one about where she went. She was a great fighter, but her fa-there's no way!" Tears pooled in her eyes, blurring her vision as her heart felt like it was being torn out.
"Yang, she tried taking the White Fang back and make it a peaceful group again," Jaune said, interrupting her. "At first, we thought the White Fang killed her, but then we found this." He gave her his phone and showed her both pictures.
"Who's Reaper?" she asked, standing up in anger.
"I need to refuel the ship," ciri said, leaving the ship to do just that, but also to give them space to talk.
"We don't know. He's more or less a ghost story that has killed corrupt politicians and council members. Instead of exposing their crimes, he killed them and left it to Remnant to find them for themselves. Yang, Remnant is in discord on whether he's a blessing or blight since he's started doing this stuff," Weiss said, reading off a file Winter sent her. "But he was one wronh answer away from killing me, so I guess I was lucky."
"And considering how you treated him, he's most likely coming for you next, Yang," Ren said, rubbing his hand that Cole had broken once or twice.
"But we have a chance to get crossed off his list without dying," Nora said, grabbing their attention in full.
"How do you mean?" Ren asked, giving her an inquisitive look.
"We appeal to his better nature of judge and jury without the executioner," she said, beaming at them.
Right as she'd said that, Rayla came in the side door laughing. "You have got to be kidding me," she laughed, handing Ruby a package of small muffins and took deep breaths trying to calm down before Weiss crossed her arms and asked, "What's so funny? It worked for me."
"What are you talking about?" she questioned, taking a drink from a large Styrofoam cup. "I was laughing at how cheap drinks and fuel are here in Atlas; this is basically the kingdom of dust crystals and futuristic lifestyles."
"Rayla, you're full of shit and not as smart as you think!" Ciri hollered, catching everyone off guard and shutting Rayla up but not for long though.
She and everyone else looked at her with shock and surprise. "O-oh, I thought you were laughing at our plans," Rayla put her cup down and kicked her feet up sitting in a chair and smirked. "What plans are you working out with those heads of yours?"
Ruby stood up from the crate and replied, "The dolts over there think that just because Weiss appealed to the Reaper's merciful nature and let them live if he sees redemption in their efforts... but I doubt it." She sighed and took a drink from a flask, humming in delight.
"RUBY BRANWEN!" Yang roared, standing up and stomping over to her, taking the flask. "Is this really what Qrow would appreciate his daughter doing?" She held the flask, about to dump it out, but Ruby punched her in the gut, swiping the flask from the air as Yang fell to her knees.
"You may be my platonic sister, but you have no business telling me what I can or can't drink," she replied, giving the flask to Rayla. "And besides, I doubt that my dad would seriously punish me for drinking Vacuian strawberry juice."
Weiss looked at Ruby and scoffed, a smile slipping from her stoic frown. "You decked Yang in the stomach because she tried to pour out some strawberry juice?" she asked, trying not to laugh. "And here I thought you were the mature one."
Ruby glowered at the heiress and said after drinking from the flask, "Do you know what I had to do to get my hands on this stuff?" She saw the look Weiss wore disappear and answered the question when she shrugged, "This stuff is almost twenty thousand lien a quart; I'm lucky to have a dealer in Vacuo that gives me a crate at that price since everyone else turns it into wild berry ale."
Pyrrha chuckled and asked, bumping her hip into Ruby's butt, "So who got you the dealer anyhow?"
"A lady has her secrets, Nikos," she said, bumping her back. Rayla raised an eyebrow, walked back to the controls, and gasped, throwing the others to the ground by accident when she hit full speed and flew low to the water. Ciri knew about Ruby's drink dealer because she drank the same stuff, but Ciri and Geralt mixed it with 200-year-aged vodka and gave Ruby a recommendation for said dealer.
"Professor Rivia, mind my Vacuian, but what the fuck's going on!?" Jaune asked, looking out the window, seeing nothing but gravity dust crystals suspending small islands.
"We've found ourselves in the heart of a lancer wasp hive; shut up and let me focus on keeping us all alive!" Rayla exclaimed, sending shadow tendrils outside but quickly faded due to the speeds and lack of shadows to cling to. "Damn it, this thing is too fast."
Ciri heard this and called out to them, "If it gets bad out there, I'll need you all to fight them off and mind your dust use. Those crystals are volatile and insanely unstable."
Rayla groaned in frustration, saying, "Jaune, Ren, and Nora, you're on aura watch." They nodded and got in the center of the cargo bay near Rayla.
"Yang, Ruby, and Pyrrha, you three go out there and deal with any lancers getting too close." They nodded and went to the shadows that took them outside on the top and wings of the airship.
"I'll use my gravity glyphs on them," Weiss said, casting them on their boots and burning the glyphs into the bottom of them.
"Professor Rivia, I need you to slow down so we can fight these things," Rayla called out and slid towards Jaune, putting his hand on hers.
"You'll use your semblance to act as everyone's amplifier if they hit the yellow or orange range of aura," she instructed jaune tossing his scroll showing everyone's auras.
"What about us?" Nora asked, cracking her knuckles.
"You and Ren are emergencies in giving your auras to Jaune if he runs out too fast."
Both frowned but nodded all the same.
Jaune went to work amplifying their aura until they glowed their respective colors.
Rayla aided them where she could, but the ship was still moving too fast for her to fully help fight. This was the best she could do for now.
Without warning, a crystal erupted in a thunderous explosion, hurling lethal shards and earth in all directions. The ground quaked violently, as if a colossal mixing bowl had collided with a beach ball, leaving only the airship's rumble and the wind's eerie whistling.
Jaune, catching his breath, sank to his knees. "Oh man, that was too close. Professor, what caused that?"
"I warned you about the volatile dust out here," the professor replied gravely.
"Good thing nothing came out of it."
Their relief was short-lived. A faint buzzing and scratching signaled impending doom. A colossal swarm, black and red, emerged like a menacing cloud, filling the air with spears for stingers and saw blade-like mandibles.
Weiss, horrified, screamed at Jaune, "You just had to open your big mouth, didn't you?"
"I thought we were okay," Jaune stammered, desperately using his aura to fend off the approaching threat.
Ciri shouted, "Hang on, everyone!" as Weiss cast protective glyphs to keep them stable amid the chaos.
"Eyes up, you two! Lancers incoming!" Ruby warned, firing shots at the encroaching danger. Lancers surrounded them, relentless and undeterred.
Yang and Weiss, back to back, held their ground, pushing the creatures back. Pyrrha joined forces with Ruby, delivering strategic advice. "Aim for the underbelly and necks, armor is weakest there."
Ruby grinned, rallying her team, "You get their attention, and I'll cut their heads off."
With a coordinated effort, they fought off the lancers, creating a path for Weiss to summon reinforcements. Jaune's amplifier strained under the pressure, and the situation grew dire.
"Ciri, hold on to something!" The bullhead twisted and turned, causing screams from everyone on board.
Ruby, acting on instinct, jammed her scythes into the hull. Pyrrha and Nora held on, ensuring Yang's safety. Weiss summoned barriers, shielding them from the relentless onslaught.
As Ciri aimed for an opening in the islands, she urged, "Hurry inside, you four! Those barriers won't hold for long!"
Ruby, with a swift move, threw Yang inside, sealing the hatch behind her. Tension rose as Reaper, a menacing figure, appeared, threatening Ruby's safety.
Weiss pleaded, "Reaper, leave my friends alone!"
Reaper, ominous and taunting, responded, "I'm only here to talk."
"Bullshit!" Yang protested, straining against her restraints. Reaper, undeterred, began cutting into the bullhead.
In a daring move, Ruby used her semblance to kick Reaper off the airship. As she descended into the safety of the hull, Rayla grabbed her, attempting to shield them with her shadows. The bullhead crashed, water splashed, dirt tore through the air, and they collided with a Cliffside, rendering them unconscious. The stakes soared as their fate hung in the balance.
Reaper charged his lightning into his suit and roared, dropping into the ground, splitting it into a web-like design in a fifty-foot radius and accidentally spooked Grimm away from him like scared pups in the woods.
In hindsight of scaring Grimm into running away, it made him chuckle. "As entertaining as this is, I can't let you take my hunt from me, little Grimm."
Grabbing his belt, he fished out four bricks of dust and slipped them in his forearms and calves before being noticed.
In response to this challenge, the bigger ones all lunged at him, only for them to be struck down in a barrage of orange-gold lightning bolts. For the first time, he took off his mask, exposing his face. But this was a special occasion.
"grimm blender is a better nickname" he said humming 'all eyes on me' as he ran over to everyone's crash site. Pretty soon he stumbled onto a few bandits closing in on his prize so he used his lightning to sprint like he did with Jacque and just as one bandit got into the hole that he made he activated the rest of his armor and stabbed one of them through the back with his entire forearm soaked in blood and inside the bullhead.
Ripping his arm out reaper punched him in the face and kicked the bandit aside.
His voice took on his more terrifying tone but the guttural rumbling and the hissing was still there. "you should go before I rip you apart and feast on your aura" he exclaimed charging up his lightning up and fired at their feet. "I promise, you'll regret crossing me."
Reaper stood there watching them stand there digging in their heels and not listening nor backing down so he decided he had to deal with all eight of them.
Flicking his sword in a fluid circle they yelled and charged him so he couldn't comprehend the fight but they were so uncoordinated reaper almost laughed when he dodged two of them just in time to watch them hit each other and quickly went down, reaper rushed a woman with a whip sword and dressed scantily but that didn't matter to him cause his eyes were for looking at a different woman, he let her wrap her weapon around his left arm and hooked it into his fist.
"what would you describe a sudden shift in a fight" he said keeping her in place as she tried to pull him in only to force his mask off his face.
Reaper let his mask fall in the sand they all got a good look at his face and slowly realized why he was so terrifying to say the least.
"I don't know what!?" she growled straining to pull him anywhere and saw him spark a bit then froze for a second
'oh fu-'
"shocking" he grinned evilly and let all of his orange gold lightning go to her and watched her scream and burn on the sand. Within in seconds her body burst like a balloon and soaked the sand in her red matter. The other five shook In terror and ran off.
"I thought that guy was dead" one of the men screamed "it doesn't matter Harrison, just keep running!"
For reaper, It was entertaining to watch his prey to run like headless chickens but even if the were going to be written off as crazy he couldn't take that chance showing he wasn't very merciful. Using his lightning bolts he shot all five men through the back and chest leaving smoking holes the size of baseballs burning through as they all went down, soon to be grimm chow.
With his back to the bullhead he latched the mask back over his face and ran back over to finish his personal mission, 'fuck what he wants, im not killing them if they can't help it' He thought as he got to the ship.
"that's far enough demon!" a bandit exclaimed trying to sound intimidating if not for his voice cracking and only made it worse when reaper jumped on the bullhead seeing said bandit holding his target hostage.
"now that I have your attention-" he began only to be interrupted by reaper laughing, "what's so funny demon, I could kill this chick and you can't do anything about it!"
Instead of compliance he got hysterical laughter. He lost control of his laughing when the bandit got angrier, "I said shut up and back up or I'll kill her!" instead of listening he just kept laughing.
"dude seriously, stop laughing I don't want to die here!" yang yelled trying to break free but due to not having the strength to do so, but for a moment she broke free but the bandit quickly hit her in the face with the butt of his pistol and put her in a choke hold.
"you seriously don't get it do you?" reaper asked clutching his stomach laughing like a madman.
"what are you getting at?" he asked seeing the eyes from behind the protective glass lenses. He grabbed yang by the back of her neck to shield himself from her.
"you kill this girl and you'll be doing my job for me, but first, I need to judge her...if she's changed during her time in prison I'll kill you and leave, but if not I'll let you kill her then I'll kill you to protect the white one"
Yang stiffened at that and gasped 'the...white one?'
He let her go and was about to interrogate her when the Bandit stopped him. "what about her?"
Following his aim he saw weiss unconscious next to jaune and the others. Smiling under his mask he replied "she's a changed woman, already judged and deemed fit to keep living...plus she's the most beautiful thing on remnant, so you see, I can't let her die"
"b-but you're the Reaper!" he hollered stretching out his arms "you're a cold blooded assassin accredited for dozens of kills in almost two years!"
Reaper snarled as he rushed them quickly shoving his needle blade into the pirate's forehead and ripped it out spraying blood all over the left side of his mask and said "I merely kill those who see chances to live but ignored it every step of the way" falling to the ground yang tried to get away but was punched by what felt like a freight train to her head knocking her into the side of the bullhead.