Rusted gold

Chapter 1

It has been a few 'days' here, if you can call them days since time works weird here, team Rwby found themselves together and now, they are on their way to the nearest town being guided by a mouse. Ruby and the others may have found this whole mess strange to say the least if not for what they went through. They also heard from Yang that a talking racoon stole her arm, how they manage to pull it off will forever remain a mystery.

"It's just one problem after another." Yang said out loud while holding herself.

"Don't worry Yang, we will get your arm back and then we can head to the tree once we are done" Blake said soothingly while walking next to her.

"I was not just referring to my arm" she said in a low voice that everyone caught while walking.

Everyone was thinking about it, it was hard not to since no matter where they looked, they were not in remnant anymore. Everyone was feeling down if not straight up depressed and they were struggling to think about anything remotely positive in their situation. The only thing keeping them afloat was the fact that they are together as a team and that none of them are gone... while not everyone.

Penny. Penny was gone... and there was nothing they could do about it. Everyone felt horrible but Ruby took it the worse. She was grieving and keeping to herself from the rest, they all saw her but decided in their heads that the best thing they could do for her was to give her space but remain close to her if she needed it and they knew she would.

All their plans were going great until they were cast to the wind in that rotten crossroad. Everything was going according to plan but in the very final stretch Cinder just had to show and she did what she did best, causing chaos and mayhem.

In the end it was not a complete loss, the plan for the most part worked, and they saved lives, but they lost the relic in the final fight, and then themselves right after. And now here they are, more lost than ever. At the very least they knew where they found themselves and still had each other to look out for.

After another hour of walking, they finally came to the town gates and headed inside to find the raccoon and get their bearings for the place.

As they walked into town, they took a look around and found it was not what they expected.

"Are they the town's people?" Weiss said walking into the town square, all around a mixture of toy people moved around town doing work and enjoying the day, all ranging from dolls to puppets and toy plastic figures all moving about. Most started to gather in the market when the wandering peddler finally arrived with new wears to share.

'Oi! That's the racoon!" Yang states as she moves towards the market with the rest slowly following behind. As they got closer, they slowed down to see the racoon start addressing the town folk about what he had found in his latest adventure.

"Come one and all! And feast your eyes on the greatest finds and treasure I Jinxy personally have obtained in my travels!" As he moves across his carriage, he drops items ranging from bits and bobbles but what stuck out to the team were 3 items. Yang arm, a green-emerald sword and a whitish rusted helm. As the town folk grew more curious about the items, he continued his pitch.

"Now I know most of you knew that before, I would usually change the items themselves when I trade but with the new order moving about looking for something in the new acres and have spread about looking for it, I must be more honest with my dealings with the new rules they have introduce" as the town folk nod. Most eyes were on the helm alone. The girls have no clue who it belongs to, but it appears the townspeople had an idea.

"Um... mister Jinxy sir, that helmet you have. Do you know where you found it?" one of the dolls said.

"Ah! Good question, I found the helmet in one of the fields several acres from here sitting on the ground some time ago but that's not what you're asking is it?" As he said that everyone quieted down to hear what he had to say as the doll nodded. "We'll I have good reason and faith that this helm belongs to one person, 'The rusted knight'".

This got a reaction from nearly everyone, even the girls who have read the story.

"That's right! The rusted knight is part of the story" Blake said while looking at it.

Ruby on the other hand was focused on one thing, the sword. As she looks at it, they fail to see the crowd begin to object.

"Jinxy! You should return it", "Hand it to the order! they can handle it", "Do the right thing".

Jinxy was taken aback a bit and quickly spoke to the crowd before it got worse. "Hey, we should all calm down, I know I should return it to its owner, but the helm was in the field with no one around so maybe the knight was done with it?". The questionable statement left a lot to be desired but before anyone can call out. Some of the crowd moved aside for someone walking though.

It was one of the people from the new order walking into the square looking for something.

Team Rwby had a good look at this 'person' who was not a person at all but was a creature who was made entirely out of a gem that was green in color but in the shape of a person. Jinxy saw the new arrival and froze up, it was long enough for the gem person to see what he had.

"Jinxy... we have been over this, and we have been fair to you with your dealings and methods, but this! if you were intentionally holding on to this helm". The gentlewoman sounding gem said.

Jinxy begins to panic a bit. "Jade it not what it looks like, I only recently got it!". As the latest town drama played out by the side of the platform. Team Rwby quickly and quietly went for the items they needed.

"Yoink!" Yang grabs her arm and moves away. Ruby slowly moves to the cart and grabs the sword before moving away as well, holding on to the blade very close to her.

They silently moved away from the market into a nearby alley to get their bearings on what to do now and attach Yang's arm back. Ruby looks at the green blade and sees her reflection on its surface. If she was being honest, she did not look good at all but in the corner she saw a different face altogether and quickly turned around, almost yelling.

"Easy, easy jeez you look like you saw a ghost or something" a glowing, floating cat says while looking at the rest of them. "And here I thought you human's were not easily startled compared to the rest out there".

"You're the cat!" Blake stated dimly.

"Why is it not obvious, or should I start meowing for your amusement?" The cat said sarcastically. "Now that I have your attention, can I ask just who you are?" It smile's cruelty.

"Hey Jade, you took a lot longer than expected", Coral said as she looked at her fellow order member and noticed a new item she had. "Wait...you actually found it?! WHO, WHAT, HOW?!".

"Relax Coral, just be glad we actually found the helm and for your information apparently Jinxy found it a while ago and did not report it" Jade said as she slammed her gem foot down on a nearby rock crushing it.

"THAT DAMN PEDDLER! If it was not for the codex for our ways...!" a small crack formed on Coral's surface.

"CORAL! You need to relax, and we need to get back home as soon as we can. He needs us". She says trying to calm her down.

"You're right... you're always right." She begins to calm down. "I just hope this helps him in some way". They start making the long track back home.

"I know... But we are starting to run out of things that can actually help him, IF we can help him that is". Jade looked down the best she could.

"Jade... you and I both know this helm is not going to help, how long can we keep this up." Coral almost sounds desperate. "he has not left the rooted grove for some time and the order is starting to worry". The silence was almost unending, until Jade spoke.

"I... Don't know. And this hurts us more than anything, especially Juniper. Poor creature hates this more than anything, unable to help. It is starting to affect his eating". Jade states as they move.

"I know, but there has to be something we can do! Anything! We can't leave him like this". Coral said as they left the gates into the forest.

"Coral…I know how you feel, I feel it too but there's not a lot we can do, we just have to hope for the best." with that said they were heading home where it was tense.

Author's notes

This is my first time ever writing a fanfiction story and after hearing RT is now dead, I wanted to at least try my hand at writing since I been lurking on this site since the release of season 9 which left a sour taste after watching it. I mainly read other works on here because of how they handled my boi Jaune and wanted to see if there were any decent stories...9 months later I read a shit ton on here and a few on Wattpad and now here we are.

Not sure if I want to make this story short or somewhat long, this is my first story so don't expect anything God-tier in writing, but I have a somewhat vision in my head for this and we will just have to ride it out.

And for those who recognize the names, you get a cookie.