A/N: Volume 3 OP: "The World" by Jonathan Young
Chapter 17
Red Like Roses
Off in the distance far from the City of Vale stood a lone mountain, its peak stretching high into the sky. As far as virtually everyone was concerned, it was just another mountain no different from any other. This, however, could not be farther from the truth.
To the few people who had been daring enough to adventure that far away from civilization, the mountain was known as a cursed place. Grimm swarmed around it in unnaturally large numbers and there was not a person alive who didn't feel a sense of dread upon approach that only grew the closer they got. There were many rumors as to why this might be the case but there were only two people alive who held the answer.
An impossibly long time ago during the early days of Soulkin, Salem had unleashed a Grimm so massive that its form could blot out the sun and it was so supremely terrifying that only the bravest of the brave could look upon it and not despair. Aside from the raw destructive power that its size entailed, it possessed the singular capability of creating more Grimm as globs of solidified curses fell like rain from its form.
This Grimm was known simply as the Wyvern. Its existence could not be found in any book but, as such things tend to happen, there were hushed legends of it or of a creature like it that could be found in many cultures. Still, even the most terrifying of those legends did not come close to the true terror of the actual thing.
The Wyvern was, without a doubt, the single greatest threat that Ozpin had ever faced besides Salem herself. The simple fact that he had been unable to kill it was a testament to that. As it was, sealing it within that mountain had been something that had only come at a staggering cost. There was no victory that day, only pain.
The Wyvern had laid dormant in that mountain for so long that even Ozpin had nearly forgotten about it on a number of occasions. No seal can last forever, though, and the grandest of purposes of Salem's attack on Vale had been to retrieve her greatest weapon; a dark miracle that she had never been able to recreate.
The world shifted as the mountain began to rumble. Boulders the size of buildings began falling off one by one, devastating the surrounding forest. All Grimm within several miles stopped and turned toward it as though to herald its arrival. The world would no longer be the same.
All at once, the top of the mountain exploded with the force of a nuclear bomb as an otherworldly roar seemed to tear through reality itself. In that instant, the people of Vale knew that something apocalyptic had been unleashed. They could feel on an instinctual level that perhaps their greatest enemy had arrived. Even from this great a distance, the amount of fear that the roar invoked in the already emotionally vulnerable people caused some of them to simply start breaking down.
For the defenders of Vale, this caused many of them to freeze as the futility of it all weighed down their souls. For the veteran Hunters, this simply caused them to redouble their efforts as their faces settled into masks of grim determination. They knew not what that nameless dread was but it didn't matter. The Hunt would continue all the same.
OoOoOoO
General James Ironwood resolutely marched forward escorted by two Atlesian Knights. As the Knights gunned down the lesser Grimm, Ironwood couldn't help but ruminate on this turn of events. From the very start, he had expected something bad to happen but this was on a scale beyond even his worst predictions. The death toll and damage from this historic invasion would be staggering. He would have to fight with the Council once this was said and done and see about sending humanitarian aid.
Ironwood's thoughts were interrupted when the two Knights were torn apart with surprising speed. Standing not too far away was an Alpha Beowolf; similar to the regular kind but larger and more armored. Ironwood didn't even halt his stride as he balled his hands up into fists and scowled at the monster. It roared and charged him but Ironwood met its charge with an uppercut to its jaw delivered with enough power to knock it on its hind legs. He then drew from the holster on his left hip a massive, black revolver that he twirled before placing it against the Alpha Beowolf's chest.
There was a massive "bang" as Ironwood pulled the trigger and punched a hole the size of his fist through the creature. He twirled the black half of Due Process once more before holstering it and walking through the creature as it faded away into smoke.
"What's going on‽" Ruby Rose asked as she and the rest of the students caught up to him. Ironwood turned to regard the gaggle of aspiring Hunters and silently lamented that this was to be their baptism by fire. As far as he was concerned, every single one of them that fought today and lived to tell the tale deserved to be given their full license.
"Grimm are crawling all over the city and, to make matters worse, some… vagabond has somehow seized one of my ships. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So I'm going to take it back."
Ironwood turned to continue on to his ship only to pause when one of the students asked "What should we do?"
After a moment, Ironwood turned back around and placed his hands behind his back, standing at attention as he gave the students their choice. "You have two choices: Defend your Kingdom and your school… or save yourselves." This caused a murmur to break out as the students exchanged uncertain looks. "No one will fault you if you leave. Let's move out!"
As Ironwood entered his ship, Ruby looked back at the gathered students. Their uncertainty was palpable and she could feel fear tingling at the edges. Ironwood's words hadn't helped matters. They were in way over their heads and were lost and confused. This was something beyond their worst nightmares and even some of the older students who had seen more combat than the others were hesitating.
These people didn't need a choice, they needed guidance. They needed a leader. While Ruby was in the same position as them, she would step up and be the leader they needed.
"Alright, listen up!" Ruby said in a voice that was loud enough to cut through the noise and grab everyone's attention. Acting automatically, Weiss Schnee created a glyph that was slightly above the ground for a grateful Ruby to stand on, letting her see over the crowd.
"I know that this is scary but this is what we were training for. I know that we aren't ready for something like this but we don't have a choice. The enemy is here right now." Several of the students looked around at each other but it was clear that they were all hanging onto her words with some of them already checking their weapons. Ruby felt her nerves start to eat at her as the weight of expectation bore down on her greater than it ever had before. Almost instinctively, her eyes darted over to Weiss and the sight of her partner's approving smile calmed her down.
"Each and every one of us signed up for this fight. We might not have the training and experience of full Hunters but that doesn't mean we're weak and helpless!" Several cheers started to go up as the uncertainty was steadily washed away. "The people need our help! They need us to stand strong and show them that they'll always be protected! They need us to be the pillar of strength that they can lean on! They need us to be Hunters! Now, who's with me‽"
The gathered students let out a great cheer as they surged forward and started to board one of the awaiting airships. Just before Ruby started to get on, she noticed Ironwood's dropship start to fall from the sky as two flashes went off inside it. Ruby's expression became resolute as she knew what she needed to do and turned away from the airship.
"Where are you going‽" Weiss asked.
Ruby half turned to look at her partner and answered, "Up to that ship. Someone needs to stop it."
"I'm going with you," Weiss said immediately as she walked up to her partner. She was shocked when Ruby held her hand out and stopped her.
"No, Weiss. I need to go it alone. You're going to be the strongest person here and I don't just mean physically. You can lead them, make sure they're where they need to be. You'd be better than me at that anyway."
Weiss searched Ruby's eyes for a long moment, conflict clearly waging within her. She blinked hard and her eyes were now resolute as she came to her decision. She then surprised Ruby by closing the distance between them and pulling her best friend into a hug. "Be careful," she whispered into her ear.
Ruby returned the hug before pulling away and saying "Always am" with a wink. Ruby then watched Weiss board the airship as the hatch started closing before turning her attention back to the colosseum. She needed a ride and she knew exactly where to get one.
OoOoOoO
Pyrrha Nikos ran for all she was worth to the docks, paying the ever growing horde of Grimm little mind. She wanted nothing more than to turn back around and go defend the innocent people in the arena, to try and redeem herself for killing Penny Polendina, but she forced her mind to stay on track even as she once again swallowed the bile that threatened to rise into her mouth. There were plenty of fighters in the arena. Her presence wouldn't change much. Besides, there was something that only she could do that would save far more lives.
Pyrrha wasn't entirely sure if she was grateful or aggravated by the fact that she wasn't currently alone. Jaune Arc, her leader and boyfriend, had intercepted her on the way out and was currently running just behind her. She had tried to push him away but he wouldn't budge on the issue. Even if she couldn't tell him what she was doing, the fact remained that an unprecedented number of Grimm were attacking and she had just come off of an intense fight. Being alone right now would be tantamount to suicide.
As they entered the docks, Pyrrha slid to a stop and looked around. "What's next?" Jaune asked as he came to a stop beside her.
Pyrrha looked at the array of ships lined up and chewed on her bottom lip. Even if she knew how to fly one of these (which she didn't), they would be needed for evacuating the civilians. "I… don't know. I didn't think this far ahead," she admitted.
Jaune looked around as well, the gears turning in his head as he took everything in. They needed a way to get down to Beacon and fast. When he looked over at the far wall, he cried out in excitement as an idea came to him. "What is it? Did you think of something?" Pyrrha asked as she ran with him to the wall that contained an array of spare parts. It took a little more searching but Jaune eventually pulled down a spare propeller along with a gravity Dust battery.
"Pyrrha, go over to that workbench and get me a drill, wire cutters, a wire stripper, and a socket wrench," Jaune ordered. Getting an idea as to Jaune's plan, Pyrrha did as she was told and returned a few moments later. In the meantime, Jaune had located the service hatch on the propeller and had gotten some extra wires.
"My dad's a bit of a mechanic. He loves tinkering around with these things and taught me a thing or three," Jaune said by way of explanation as he worked like lightning, screwing open the service hatch and scanning through the wires. It took a minute or two but Jaune eventually had success in wiring the propeller up to the gravity Dust battery. "The Dust will help us stay airborne but you'll need to keep the propeller spinning. Think you can do it?"
Pyrrha stared at the device for a moment. The idea was simplicity itself in theory but she'd have to be constantly altering a powerful magnetic field at a very high rate. While she wouldn't have to get it spinning nearly as fast as they normally do, the task was still daunting.
Not that she had any real choice in the matter.
"Of course," she said as she took out Akoúo̱. Jaune got up after flipping the propeller over to the proper side and Pyrrha placed her shield onto it before cautiously getting on. Jaune got on next and wrapped his arms around her waist as Pyrrha poured all of her power into her Semblance to try and get the propeller spinning. It started picking up a good bit of speed and started to lift them off of the ground before slowing down again. Pyrrha was pale as a ghost, sweat rolling off of her brow as she struggled to catch her breath. It didn't matter if she was exhausted. She could do this. She had to do this.
Jaune watched on, concern written across his face as their makeshift flying machine moved in fits and bursts. Pyrrha was clearly still too tired from her fight and he could see the metallic red aura of her Soul Surge briefly flicker into existence. If only he could give her his energy, to extend his Aura to her. He clenched his eyes shut and squeezed his girlfriend a little more as he prayed to whatever god might be listening to grant him this one miracle.
Jaune wasn't sure if his prayers were answered or if it was just pure happenstance but he felt power drain from his body and go into Pyrrha and felt their souls briefly touch through their Auras. Pyrrha started in shock as energy rushed into her and she started to spin the propeller with a surprising amount of ease. She looked back to Jaune who simply nodded as he focused on concentrating on her. Pyrrha smiled before returning her attention back to her job.
With Jaune's help, Pyrrha got the propeller spinning fast enough to lift them into the air and actually stay that way before moving them out of the safety of the docks and into the awaiting storm. Once they left the ground behind them, Pyrrha was forced to swallow her nerves as the great abyss known as the sky opened up beneath them. They were hundreds of feet up in the air over the City of Vale. If her concentration broke now, she wasn't entirely sure if she and Jaune could survive that fall.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Pyrrha poured all of her concentration into the task at hand. Beacon wasn't all that far from Vytal, thankfully, but each foot felt like a mile to her nerves. Worse yet, while nervousness didn't normally attract Grimm, there were so many of them that some of the smaller Nevermores were coming their way. She had to do something but she couldn't do anything. Her control wasn't precise enough to allow for the high speed movement needed to evade and she couldn't spare even an ounce of concentration to attack with Miló.
Thankfully, she had a wonderful boyfriend on board and thus could focus on flying while his white sword cut a shining arc through the air, easily cutting through the small Nevermores. Jaune throwing his weight around like that, even if he tried to limit it, tested Pyrrha's control of their makeshift flying machine but it was a challenge she managed to rise to.
Pyrrha wasn't entirely sure if they were in the air for three minutes or three years but the grounds of Beacon were steadily approaching. Somewhat distressingly, if predictably, they could see that the Grimm were attacking the festival grounds there, too, but that currently wasn't their concern. Pyrrha— or whoever she might become— could handle it once she claimed the power of the Fall Maiden.
Once they were firmly above ground, Pyrrha relinquished her control and let them drop the last couple feet. Finally safe on solid ground once more, Pyrrha bent forward with her hands on her knees as she struggled for air. Jaune placed a concerned hand on her shoulder before massaging her back, doing his best to calm his girlfriend's racing heart even as he quarreled with his own.
Eventually, after one last deep breath, Pyrrha straightened and wiped the sweat from her brow. She scanned Beacon to determine where, exactly, they were when she caught sight of Professor Ozpin in one of the main building's doorways. Despite the distance, she was positive that he was looking right at her before turning and heading inside.
Pyrrha exchanged a look with Jaune before saying, "Come on. We're almost there." Jaune simply nodded in response and remained silent as he followed his girlfriend toward the building.
Jaune had no idea where they were going or what Pyrrha needed to do but he couldn't shake the bad feeling he had about all of this.
OoOoOoO
Ruby grit her teeth to stop them from chattering as she held on to her rocket locker for dear life. Out of all of the ideas she had ever had, riding one of the rocket lockers through the night sky and a swarm of Grimm in order to reach a flying battleship was definitely one of the stupidest. It was the only way she could think of to reliably get to the captured battleship, however, so she had already steeled herself for the inevitable tongue lashing she was going to get from Weiss and possibly Yang later.
Ruby leapt off of the rocket locker as it reached the airship, grunting from the impact as she hit the hull in a roll. She was idly aware of the rocket locker impacting somewhere near the bridge but her focus was on the handful of Grimm that had decided to come her way. They were barely more than a distraction, however, as she took them down in an instant with a flurry of slashes before turning her attention to the ship. She needed a way in if she wanted to do anything. A maintenance hatch or emergency exit or anything.
With a steadying breath, Ruby crouched down and placed her hand flat against the hull. With a pulse of prana, she used Structural Grasp to try and find what she needed. The ship was way too big and her skill way too low to capture much of it but it was far faster and more accurate than looking the old fashioned way.
Ruby diligently worked her way around the ship, pausing to use another pulse of Structural Grasp before dashing off to the next spot, but her work was stopped not too long after it began as she heard a click and saw the area around her light up. She spun around and brought Crescent Rose up to see Neo with a Scroll in hand. She stuck her tongue out at Ruby as she slid her Scroll back into her pocket but her cruelly playful expression was replaced with one of shock as Ruby practically materialized in front of her, closing the five meters that separated them in an instant. As it was, she just barely managed to get her umbrella, Hush, up to block Ruby's scythe.
Not one to be deterred by Neo's last second block, Ruby followed through with that swing and launched into an intricate series of attacks, Crescent Rose a veritable blur as she danced around Neo to attack her from every conceivable angle while leaving no openings. Neo was forced to put her all into defense even as she started to worry. She needed to use her Semblance if she wanted to get out but Ruby wasn't leaving her an opening to do so. Even if she used it, it would just be shattered before she could move away.
Neo wasn't alone, however, and this knowledge gave her comfort as she subtly shifted from just defending herself to trying and controlling both her and Ruby's positioning. That was easier said than done but just a little bit of success was all she needed and that was exactly what she got. Her worried expression turned into a triumphant smile as she caught sight of her salvation. Whether it was due to that tell or to her own instincts, Ruby's eyes widened before breaking off the attack and dashing away just as a flare flew past her.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite thorn in my side. I'm getting real tired of your shit, Red," Roman Torchwick said as he sauntered up to Neo, casually twirling Melodic Cudgel the whole time.
"What are you two doing‽ Without these ships, the Grimm will destroy everything!" Ruby said as she carefully shifted her defense and got into an ideal position.
"That's the point! All this," Roman gestured vaguely around him, "is going to be ash! You heard that bitch's little speech, didn't you?"
"But why‽ What do you get out of this‽"
"It's not about what I get, it's about what I don't lose! Do you think that you and your goody-two-shoes little friends are the only ones with something that you can't lose‽ Wake up call, Red, we all do! Like it or not, that bitch is gonna change the world! You can't stop it, I can't stop it, so I'm gonna do the smart thing that lets me keep what I hold dear!"
With that, everything was made clear to Ruby. Roman was a terrible person but he was fighting to protect his precious something or maybe someone. Could she blame him for wanting that? What's more, what if she was in his position? What lengths would she be willing to go to in order to protect all her precious people? She didn't know the answer to that question and it scared her more than a little.
Ruby stared at Roman from across the ship, Crescent Rose held tightly in her trembling hands. Ruby was afraid. She had just watched her sister break another man's leg for no reason, even if trickery was involved. She had just seen one of her friends get torn to pieces by another one of her friends. She had seen more death in the last few minutes than she ever wanted to see in her entire life. She was more than afraid, she was terrified.
But she knew that was wrong. Ruby was now a magus and to be a magus was to walk with death. She had never wanted to be anything other than a Huntress and to be a Huntress meant to stare down death on a regular basis. When her desired profession and unique talents both meant that death was such a close companion, there was no room for fear. To be afraid meant to hesitate, to hesitate meant to make mistakes, and to make mistakes meant death. From the moment Ruby chose this path, death had become the one companion she knew she would always have.
Why should she fear the thing that had been with her basically her entire life?
Ruby took a deep breath in and blew it out, stilling her trembling hands. There was no room for fear inside her. She was a Huntress, she was a magus. There were lives that needed saving and monsters that needed slaying.
It was time for her work to begin.
(A/N: Play "Red Like Roses Part 2 [Full Version with Buildup]" by Jeff Williams)
"If this is the way you're gonna be, then I have no choice but to stop you," Ruby said coolly as she glared at Roman and Neo.
"You? Stop us? Ha! I'd love to—" Roman's words were cut off as Ruby materialized before him, Crescent Rose glinting in the light as it was poised to strike. Before the blow could land, Roman was pushed to the side at the last moment by Neo's umbrella which she then turned on Ruby.
Ruby and Neo returned to their deadly dance but Ruby knew that this was an unstable situation. She was reasonably confident that she could beat Neo on her own if things continued this way but Neo wasn't on her own. If she wanted to come out victorious, she needed something more. She needed to be more.
Lucky for Ruby that she was always more and could always go harder.
Ruby broke off the attack with a burst of Speed and started to zip around Neo, coming in and out of view as she surrounded the other girl with a veritable hurricane of rose petals. Neo smirked as she read Ruby's movements and extended the hidden blade of Husk before thrusting at a specific point. Her smirk turned into shock as her blade sailed straight through Ruby's afterimage.
Roman had recovered by now and was about to fire off another flare to help Neo when he was forced on the defensive as Ruby appeared behind him. He was appalled to find himself giving ground as Ruby pressed the attack with a ferocity that he had never seen from her before. Gone was the little girl who had beaten up a couple of his men outside a Dust store and in her place was a Huntress fighting evil.
Neo charged into the fray and Ruby found herself having to break off her attack to be the one focused on defending for a change. She backed off with another burst of Speed and switched Crescent Rose into gun mode to fire off a couple shots. While her shots were easily blocked, it stopped Roman and Neo from pressing forward and that's what she wanted.
Ruby dashed to the side of her opponents and fired off a couple more shots before charging them with all speed. She easily managed to duck under Roman's flare before flipping over the two of them, dodging Neo's thrust in the process. She then made to swing at Roman but it appeared that the two of them had adjusted to this heightened level as Roman stepped into the attack to block it while Neo came from behind him to blast Ruby away.
Ruby rolled across the hull of the ship before getting her legs back under her and sliding to a stop. Roman and Neo were on her again in an instant and Ruby found herself pushed to her limit to keep up with the both of them. As it was, it was taking everything she had just to stop them from flanking her and she was taking glancing blows in the process.
If this was her limit then all Ruby had to do was break through it. Faster, stronger, more precise, more skilled. She flooded her body with prana and used a low power Prana Burst to break through Neo's attack before thrusting the head of her weapon into the other girl's chest and sending her flying with a gunshot. Roman took that moment to go for another swing at her head and she rolled with the blow before twirling Crescent Rose and nailing Roman with a rising strike that knocked him into the air.
Ruby was unable to follow up as Neo rushed back in to block the attack but this was an outcome that Ruby had foreseen. She kicked the other girl in the shin before catching her in the jaw with an elbow strike. As she was stunned and Roman was just recovering, Ruby rushed past her and caught her clothes with the tip of Crescent Rose. She used her weapon to drag Neo a quarter of the way across the ship before lifting her into the air and slamming her down, shooting her all the while.
"Neo!" Roman cried out as Neo coughed up spittle as she bounced painfully against the hull. He managed to catch back up with surprising speed and fired a flare into the hull in front of Ruby before rushing through the smoke to swing Melodic Cudgel at her. Ruby easily blocked the attack by bringing Crescent Rose up but Roman smirked just as Ruby noticed that he had attacked with the handle end of his cane. With a mighty yank, he pulled Crescent Rose from Ruby's hands before going in for a thrust aimed at Ruby's sternum.
Having thought that disarming her was checkmate, Roman was completely caught off guard when Ruby brushed aside his cane before lashing out with a palm strike that nailed him in the floating rib. Ruby once again couldn't press her attack as Neo came at her from behind with a wild swing. Ruby tried to duck under the blow but was too slow and found the umbrella slamming into the side of the head and sending her tumbling across the hull.
By this point, Ruby was far too skilled to let something as simple as that completely stop her and she had a few tricks up her sleeve. She caught her tumble and soared through the air upside down as she made a finger gun with her left hand and pointed it at Neo, a dark purple energy coalescing around her fingertip.
"Gandr!" Ruby cried out as she fired the simple curse at her opponent. While this caught Neo beyond surprise, her instincts were enough to bat the curse away but she scowled as she felt it pull at her vitality more than it should have. While it didn't do as much damage as hitting her with Crescent Rose, it was still greater than a normal gunshot and just as fast.
Ruby righted herself and slid to a stop as she fired another Gandr at Roman only to scowl as his form shattered. It seemed that Neo had finally started to use her Semblance but this was something that Ruby had prepared for. She couldn't rush after Crescent Rose quite yet since that was likely what they were expecting, so, instead, she closed her eyes and focused on her instincts while sending out rapid pulses of Structural Grasp through her feet. When she "saw" Neo enter the range of her divination, she smirked and swayed to the side to dodge Neo's thrust before catching her in the jaw with a left hook.
While Ruby's tactic effectively nullified Neo's Semblance within a certain radius, it did nothing to help her detect ranged attacks. Her instincts screamed at her even as she could just barely make out the sound of a flare coming her way. Since she didn't have the time to dodge, she spun to face it and brought her arms up in a crossguard, blocking the attack but still being knocked back and breaking her concentration on Structural Grasp.
While Neo and Roman's plan was brilliant in the abstract (even if they had no way of knowing of Ruby's magecraft), it had a major flaw in this particular execution. Now that she had an idea as to where Roman was, Ruby held out her left hand, all five fingers glowing with curse energy. "Gandr Shotgun!" Ruby had no idea if any of her spells hit home but that didn't matter. What did matter was that she finally had the opening she needed to retrieve Crescent Rose from where it had landed dangerously close to the edge of the ship.
The instant that Ruby had her weapon back, she twirled around and knocked Hush out of the way before hitting Neo in the chest with the sharp butt of Crescent Rose. With a quick spin and a mighty yell, Ruby caught Neo in the crook of her scythe before throwing her off of the ship.
"NEO!" Roman shouted as he faded into view and futilely reached out for his partner. "You're gonna pay for that, Red!"
Ruby was evidently not the only one who could push harder as she found herself being pressed by Roman's attack. While she managed to get her back away from the edge of the ship, she was struggling to find an opening as Roman brought all of his hatred to bear on what was now his mortal enemy. The full weight of his unbridled killing intent was enough to make Ruby hesitate for a brief instant and that instant was all Roman needed to break her guard before catching her square in the face with a flare.
When Ruby slid to a stop, she dashed backward out of the way of Roman's slam even as she became surrounded by the red aura of her Soul Surge. Roman's eyes widened in fear but there was nothing he could do to stop what was coming.
"Fairy Law," Ruby announced as she charged at Roman with all speed. Her form flickered and blurred as she shifted Crescent Rose into sickle form before seeming to turn into a solid red mass as she began flying while twirling through the air. Roman brought his arms up to block but the effort was futile as he was hit a thousand slashed in the blink of an eye as he was dragged into the air as Ruby angled her flight upward. When Ruby had passed and returned to normal, he was then hit by the second phase of the attack as the countless rose petals that always trailed Ruby's Semblance came crashing into him like a thousand small knives. "Thousand Petal Storm!"
(A/N: End song)
Ruby landed on the hull of the ship, her breathing heavy as she turned around to regard her foe. Roman crashed down with a heavy "thud" and groaned in pain even as he struggled to his feet. It was clear that his Aura had broken and his white suit had been torn to shreds.
OoOoOoO
Roman Torchwick was afraid. He never signed up for this. He knew that Cinder Fall was building up to something big but honestly? He didn't think she had a chance. He was certain that someone was going to stop her at some point. He had just been biding his time until he could steal a lot of money and then run off with Neo to some remote corner of the world while everything crumbled around her.
But now? Now, he was standing atop an Atlesian battleship surrounded by a horde of Grimm, Neo had been thrown off the ship and was probably dead, his Aura was broken, and that stupid red kid was basically holding a gun to his head. More than afraid, Roman was terrified.
How did this happen? He was supposed to be smarter than this. He was supposed to be luckier than this. Hell, that Ruby Rose had gotten her ass kicked by Neo alone earlier this year! There's no way she should have been able to now take down not only Neo but him at the same time! And yet here he was. Reality was staring him right in the face. He hurt way too much for this to be a dream.
Actually, was there something beyond terrified? Roman was pretty sure that's where he was right now.
OoOoOoO
Ruby was confused as Roman started laughing. It was weak at first but it quickly grew in volume until he was basically cackling, his head thrown back like he had just heard the funniest joke. "Congrats, Red!" Roman began once he calmed down. "Ya won! Ya beat me! But guess what? I get the last laugh because it. Doesn't. Matter." He brushed himself off to try and make himself look more presentable, paying no heed to the blood that was slowly staining his white coat. He scowled when he reached up and found that his bowler hat was missing.
"I've already won!" he continued. "I've won and you've lost and you wanna know why‽ Because you're playing the hero but this is the real world! The real world is cold! It's cruel! It beats you down and takes everything from you that you don't take back! But I'm smart! I do take back! When life gives me lemons, I don't make any godsdamn lemonade, I burn life's house down!" He started laughing again with nervous energy as Ruby realized that he had completely lost it.
"Go ahead and keep playing your little games, Red, but me? I'll keep on winning! I'll do what I do best, what I always do: Lie, cheat, steal, and SURVIVE!" Roman threw his head back as he broke down into a full on psychotic laugh. Ruby was unsure as to what to do about this but it turned out that she didn't have to do anything. So focused was she on Roman that she didn't notice the Alpha Griffon until it landed right behind Roman.
"Roman! Look out!" Ruby called out as she tried to reach him in time. Roman stopped laughing to look at the Grimm only to let out a little "Oh" as it bent down and swallowed him whole. Ruby quickly dispatched the Grimm after that but she had been too late. The Griffon had already broken his body down with its curses and thus Roman Torchwick faded away along with the Grimm that had eaten him.
Ruby took a moment to catch her breath even as she struggled with the odd sense of sadness for not having been able to save Roman. The guy was scum but he was still a person and no one deserved to be killed by Grimm. What's more, no one deserved to be summarily executed even if she acknowledged that sometimes there was little choice in the matter.
Casting aside those thoughts for the time being, Ruby returned her focus to her mission. While Roman and Neo were no doubt the ones at the helm, simply stopping them wouldn't magically make all of Atlas' robots start behaving normally. With how much time that fight had taken, she decided to throw away any semblance of subtlety and gave up looking for an entrance. Instead, she moved to where the bridge should be and started pouring prana into the hull in a purposeful attempt to "fail" at Strengthening it. The metal groaned under the strain as it began to bulge outward. It took a lot of prana but, after what felt like an eternity, the metal finally gave and exploded outward like a popped bubble.
Ruby hopped down through the hole she made and immediately covered her mouth and nose as she was hit with the overwhelming stench of blood. She had entered into a hallway and it was clear that there had been a desperate fight as bullet holes and ricochet marks were everywhere. Given how much trouble Ruby and her team had dealing with Neo's Semblance, it was only natural that the soldiers would be completely helpless against it.
Ruby pressed onward down the hall, swallowing the bile that rose up in her throat as she came across dead bodies. It wasn't long before she came to what had to be the bridge. The only problem, she realized as she looked around at all of the computers and interfaces, was that she had no idea how to even begin to do what she needed to.
Thankfully, she remembered that she had the number of someone who should.
Pulling out her Scroll, Ruby rapidly went through her contacts before finding the number of Winter Schnee, Weiss' sister. "Come on, come on, come on. Pick up, pick up, pick up," Ruby chanted as each ring was dragged out to an eternity. Ruby's suffering didn't last for long, though.
"Ruby? What's happening? Is Weiss alright?" Winter answered from the other end of the line. Ruby let out a sigh of relief.
"I dunno, probably. Listen, how much do you know about what's going on in Vale right now?"
"Frustratingly little. All I know is that you are currently being attacked by a horde of Grimm of an unprecedented size."
"Yeah, well, a couple of crooks somehow hacked into the systems of one of your battleships and now every robot has turned on us. Can you stop it?"
"What? But that— Of course I can. I take it that you're on the ship in question?"
"I am."
"What happened to the General?"
"I don't know. He got on a Bullhead to take back the ship himself when the hack happened and his ship went down."
Winter hummed in response, "I see. Are you on the bridge?"
"I am."
"Good. In roughly the center should be the captain's chair. Sit in it." Ruby did as she was told. "On the right hand side should be a console. Tap it to activate it." Ruby once more followed directions and let out a surprised squawk as the chair rose into the air and was surrounded by numerous displays. "Do you have me on speaker?"
"I do now."
"Computer! Initiate command override! Security code Mike, Sierra, Whiskey, Bravo, Delta, one, seven, six, eight—" When the audio suddenly cut out, Ruby looked down at her Scroll in confusion only to have that confusion compounded with dismay as she saw that she no longer had service. There was only one reason she could think of that she'd suddenly lose service and it was exceedingly bad but she could only focus on one exceedingly bad thing at a time.
What was the rest of the code? If Ruby could simply figure that out, she could finish giving the override and save countless lives. But how could she possibly know what the rest was? She was vaguely aware that Atlas' military used words and names for letters for clarity but that was it. Was it just a random string of letters and numbers or was there something more? Was it something that she just might be able to guess?
Mike, Sierra, Whiskey, Bravo Delta. M-S-W-B-D. Then there were the numbers, 1-7-6-8. 1768. A year? What happened that year? If it was a year, what was so important that Winter felt justified in using it for a code? Did the letters contain some clue? M-S-W-B-D 1768. M-S-W-B-D 1768. Ruby clenched her eyes shut as her mind raced at a million miles per hour. She needed to figure this out. She needed to stop this train and no one was here to tell her how to do it. If only Weiss was here. She could probably—
That's when it hit her. M-S-W-B-D. My Sister Weiss' BirthDay.
"Zero, five, zero, four!" Ruby screamed out.
Her heart stopped as there was an infuriatingly long delay before a synthetic voice said, "Acknowledged. Command infrastructure rerouted. Awaiting orders."
"Fight off the Grimm!"
"Acknowledged. Executing command."
Ruby let out a sigh of relief and sunk into the captain's chair. She couldn't even begin to believe that that worked. She didn't let herself relax for too long, though, as there were still people in danger and she had one last problem to solve before she could help them:
How would she get down from the ship?
A/N: And here we have quite possibly my favorite chapter of the story thus far. There's just so much in it that I think I did really well from Ruby's character growth to Ruby and Weiss' absolutely flawless teamwork to perhaps my favorite fight and to how I've structured the Battle of Beacon. I'm so excited that we're finally in these chapters even if that means that the end of Volume 3 is looming ever closer. In case it wasn't obvious, the way the Battle of Beacon is structured is that we'll have one chapter focused on each of Team RWBYS with interludes featuring Pyrrha et al before everything wraps up in V3C22. This also means that we're now back to the chronological order fuckery since I'm covering so many events that happen concurrently.
Yes, this does mean that we won't really be seeing our boy Shirou again until V3C21. When he does come back, it's in in a big way, though.
Focusing on the actual events of the chapter now, you may notice that I have drastically upped the threat level of the Wyvern. This happened due to me introducing that massive unidentified Grimm in the previous chapter. I wanted the Wyvern to be the strongest Grimm ever seen and thus had to tweak some things, one of which being drastically increasing its physical size. It works out because not only does it make the climax all the more spectacular, it also explains why there was a Grimm sealed inside a mountain.
I really hate how Ruby doesn't feel like she's the protagonist throughout most of the show. In canon, I think it was Sun who just said "Well... Come on!" to everyone after Ironwood's bit which got them moving. Having Ruby step up to the plate as leader just felt more natural. Similarly, I hate how Ruby VS Neo and Roman went down in canon. She just straight up loses that fight. She sends Neo off using Loony Tune logic and then just loses to Roman who then dies via Grimm ex Machina. Our heroes never once got a full W on Roman. This was one change I knew that I needed to make right from the outset. Ruby comes out victorious and her victory causes Roman to start freaking out which draws a Grimm to him that eats him. It just works so much better.
As for Ruby's skill as a magus, right now, the only spells she can properly cast are Gandr, Gandr Shotgun (which is just firing Gandr five times at once), Structural Grasp, and Reinforcement. She's dabbled with Projection and Alteration but, at the moment, she decided to not bother putting too much effort into learning Projection since she has a perfectly good Shirou right there who'll always be better at it than she'll ever be (and he'll also always be better at using Alteration, Reinforcement, and Structural Grasp than she ever will be since he can only properly cast a handful of spells and thus he takes those to their absolute limit). She'll pick it up in the future, though, since its uses are practically infinite. She'll also learn more spells in the future once she's had time to more or less master the theory and then had time to really focus down on learning spells.
Another stupid thing in canon is that, if memory serves, after Roman and Neo are dealt with, Ruby just leaves the ship and the whole robot problem is never addressed again. That was another thing I had to fix. Fun fact: I actually wrote Interlude 13 after writing this chapter since I needed to set up Ruby and Winter exchanging contact info.
Seven of the thirteen reviews I got for the last chapter rose to the challenge and I thank you all for it! While it's not a sample size that I can use to really judge anything by, it's still nice to know people are actually reading these things. I'd like to give a very special shoutout to TheHokageNaruto who actually went for the extra credit and, holy hell, did they succeed. For that, I'm actually upping my reward. PM me a name fitting a RWBY character and I'll use it whenever I need a random name. If you want to include extra details then go ahead. Just know that they won't, in any way, be even remotely major.
Review time! As always, your words of praise and encouragement mean a lot to me!
Dasgun:
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:3
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Artyk04: Dammit, that's a good idea. It won't happen in Volume 3 but I had something something planned for Volume 6 and I might tweak it a bit.
vinayakdj1: Yeah, that might have been more prana efficient but he needed to get up fast. What's more, the motorcycle sequence was a lot cooler and I did want to show off Shirou's increased ability with spellcasting since that will come into play more and more as the story goes on. He's still severely limited but he can work within those limits to do incredible things.
As for the number of Grimm, they had actually started to be drawn in by the negative emotions caused by Yang breaking Mercury's leg for seemingly no reason. Couple that with Penny being seemingly murdered in cold blood for no reason coupled with Cinder's speech and things went downhill fast.
I don't know what walls you're talking about.
As stated in this chapter, Neo's Semblance is OP as hell and Roman and Neo are actually pretty damn strong on their own. As for Roman piloting the ship, that's less to do with him and more to do with Dr. Watts' virus that Cinder uploaded all the way back at the dance.
TheHokageNaruto: No, seriously, this is masterfully done. I didn't think anyone could actually do it and yet you did. You magnificent bastard, you should be proud of that one.
Thunder Dragon: Rejected.
Well, that's all from me for now. I'll see you all next week for the Weiss chapter!