And we are back! Now, for the stunning conclusion of this story!
REAPER IN RED
Chapter 4
The six of us quickly became eight as Jaune Arc and his partner, a one Pyrrha Nikos joined our ragtag group. Of course, chasing them was a deathstalker who immediately thought that I looked much more appetizing than the two he was chasing.
Around the same time, the giant nevermore me and Weiss used to find this place decided to take a swing at me as well. And I couldn't forget about the zombies, only a dozen dozen or so finding now as the perfect time to create a horde and close in on us.
"What do we do!" Jaune shouted, gripping his sword tightly.
"Split up!" I shouted, "you guys take the deathstalker, we'll get the nevermore. Zombies are open game."
I darted off, hoping that at least someone was listening to me. Luckily, I did not need to worry long as my sister was hot on my trail. It sent a pleasantly warm feeling through me to know that my sister trusted me, even though all she knew about me was lies. Maybe one day I could tell her the truth-
I shook that dangerous though from my head and placed my attention back on the giant nevermore which was chasing after us, flapping its massive wings to surge forward. I turned back to how the others were doing.
I breathed a sigh of relief, seeing Nora and Pyrrha stopping the deathstalker in its tracks, keeping it from chasing after me. Now I only had to focus on a single giant grimm hoping to kill me.
I felt myself pulled backwards as a spiked feather pierced through my red cloak, pinning me to the ground. With a cry of fright, I gazed up at the nevermore sending down another volley directly towards me.
I tried to duck out of the way. Before I could, a wall of ice appeared over me, flowing out from my partner's sword. Ice dust solidified, blocking the piercing tips of feathers just over my head.
"What now, in this brilliant plan of yours?" Weiss to the rescue as usual. She cut me free as I thanked her.
"Ruby!" Yang gripped me in a deep hug. "I thought I lost you!"
"You will… if you keep… strangling me." I gasped. She let go with a simple apology and all our attention was back on the flying grimm, circling us in the sky.
"Blake, can you get me up there?" Yang mentioned, cocking her wrist-bound weapons. Blake nodded in confirmation, tossing the end of her weapon to Yang, gripping onto the other side herself.
"Keep that thing busy you two, while me and Weiss handle the zombies."
"Got it."
"Sure thing, sis."
"It's Weiss and I." Came the replies.
Trusting my sister and partner to keep the nevermore from striking me while my back was turned, I rushed ahead in a cloud of smoky red rose petals, Weiss behind me using a glyph to keep up with me as much as she could. Holding my scythe aloft, I swung down, slicing through an undead vertically, each half collapsing. I spun my weapon into its gun form and let loose two shots, each piercing through the skull of a zombie.
Crescent Rose let out a cacophony of sound as each fired round found its way into the skull of the undead horde as they closed in on us. Weiss was throwing herself around the forest, bouncing off of her glyphs, striking and slashing at zombies with refined grace.
Diving behind a tree to keep from being overrun, I watched in amusement as the diminishing horde of the undead was torn down by Weiss's precision strikes. With a swipe of my own weapon, I tore through a handful of zombies as they encircled my partner.
"Saved your life!" I shouted, darting to take down the last of the undead.
"You did no such thing!" Came Weiss's harsh reply.
"So totally did! Come on let's help out Yang."
A shrill caw echoed through the tree line, the nevermore carrying Yang between its beak as the huntress in training fired shot after shot down the beast's gullet. "Why. Won't. You. Just. Go. Down. Already!"
She swore as the nevermore threw her off of it to land hard on the ground.
"Ugh… anyone have any more ideas?"
"I think I just might have one." I said, rubbing my chin, watching the giant grimm bird circle the sky.
"Why not let somebody else say their plans?" Weiss fumed, hands on her hips. Staring back at her, she glared at me, "I'm not saying that I have an idea. But maybe those two do."
"I'm all ears, Rubes." Yang said, lifting herself off the ground.
"Whatever you can suggest will definitely be better than Yang's 'fire down its throat' plan." Blake shrugged.
"Weiss, Yang, I need you to keep it busy. I'll… distract it and get it to follow me to the cliffside. Once we get there, keep it off of me and flying as close to the cliff as possible."
Weiss and Yang nodded.
"Blake, stay close. You're going to be doing the same thing you did to Yang."
"Yeah! Another 'fire down its throat' plan! I knew we were sisters." Yang cheered, as Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose.
With a nod from me, my partner and sister ran off. I fired down to the ground, lifting myself into the air. Spinning my weapon, I let a single shot ring out, hitting the giant nevermore's wing, getting its attention but doing little real damage.
A mighty caw sent it barreling towards me. I involuntarily "eep!"-ed as gravity pulled me down just before its talons grabbed a hold.
"Come on! We have to go quickly." Blake ran beside me, firing behind her at the quickly closing in monster.
As we reached the edge of the forest, near to the cliff, I noticed an old stone bridge. "There!" I pointed.
I put on a burst of speed, sending rose petals trailing behind me. The nevermore flew over Blake, at me. As it descended, talons open wide, ready to strike, it shrieked, feeling weight on it's back. Yang landed on the nevermore, punching down on it's wing, just as Weiss created a glyph, freezing the bird in place. It struggled from the attacks, leaving me and Blake to find the perfect distance to be thrown from.
Weiss , attention still on her glyph and the grimm, jogged next to us. There was sweat running down her forehead as she struggled to maintain the glyph against the creature's strength. "Whatever you're going to do, I suggest you do it now."
"Can you hold it in place a little longer?"
"Can I hold it in place a little longer." She admonished.
"Well can you?"
"Of course I can!"
Holding onto the end of Blake's ribbon weapon, I ran in a circle, letting the ribbon go taut and feeling myself lift up as Blake threw me up towards the nevermore. I opened my weapon to its fullest extent. Just as Weiss's glyph broke, my scythe slammed into its neck, pulling it along with me towards the cliff.
With a final punch, Yang back flipped off the nevermore giving me a wink as she hurtled to the ground and my feet landed square on the vertical cliff-face. I watched as small glyphs lined the cliff. In a silent thank you, I sped forwards, letting the glyphs hold me as I ran up the cliff. Reaching the top, I threw myself up, letting my scythe complete its arc, tearing through muscle and tendon.
The nevermore's head fell from its body, evaporating into the air, as its massive body plummeted to the ground below. My hood blew in the wind. I stared down at my partner and team. We had together taken down such a massive monster. One of the biggest creatures of grimm I had ever seen in my life. Trying to look serious; like a superhero after her big finale, I gazed off into the distance.
Nope. My serious demeanor cracked as I fell into a fit of laughter. I jumped up, shouting my joy and kicking my feet into the air. We had done it. We had done it together.
"For collecting the white rooks. Yang Xiao-Long. Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. And Weiss Schnee. Together you will form Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose!"
I cheered alongside my sister, hugging her tightly as she ruffled my hair. We did it! Not only were we in Beacon together, now we were on the same team! This was a dream come true. Well, maybe not a complete dream come true. We would have been partners as well as teammates then. But Weiss was not so terrible all the time and I liked Blake. And they all were strong enough that I did not need to fear that I would be reaping them anytime soon. So, it was good enough for me. As I looked out at the clapping crowds and then back to my cheering sister, I repeated that thought. Yes, definitely good enough for me.
We exited the stage and waited for the final group to be called. "And lastly, we have Pyrrha Nikos. Jaune Arc. Nora Valkyire and Lie Ren. Together you will form Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc!"
I cheered loud along with the rest. Even if he was an Arc, he was still friendly to me. Maybe even a friend.
"I heard that they took down the deathstalker with its own stinger. How metal is that?" Yang commented, clapping.
"So cool." I smiled happily. Today was a good day.
"Her? She's our leader?" Weiss's shrill complaints continued through Team JNPR's applause.
The day was not over yet.
The crowds began to depart the main hall, splitting off into groups of two and four. Some went towards the dormitories to find their rooms, while others ventured towards the cafeteria. Team RWBY left the hall together, but it was quickly clear that we would separate. Weiss and Blake agreed that checking out our room was a better way to spend the evening. At least there was somebody Weiss did not yell at.
My stomach had other ideas on how to spend my time, as it chose then to grumble. Yang and I waved goodbye to our partners -Blake in particular. She's just so much more friendly- and joined the mass of people heading to the cafeteria.
"So, what do you think?" Yang nudged me with a bright smile
"I like the school. It feels… fascinating. A brand-new experience."
"Can't disagree with you there. We're now officially Beacon students and we kicked ass today. I bet it just gets better from here on out. You think we'd get a chance to take down anything stronger than a grimm?"
"Grimm, ya. Giant nevermore grimm? I hope so! Maybe a Chimera. I've never fought one of those."
"Me neither. Wonder if there are any in the forest. Probably nothing bigger than that. Just low tier Salemites. And the occasional giant grimm. Could you imagine sending initiates into a Reaper filled forest?" Yang joked. I tried to laugh along with her.
"Ya. Reaper filled," I muttered.
I let Yang take control of the conversation. It diverged from initiation to back home and Tai -dad- and what he was doing then. Then the conversation turned back to classes and finally to teammates.
"I like mine. Blake's so mysterious. Cute too, but don't tell her I told you that. I spoke with her a bit before you and the ice queen landed. Heh, still can't believe my baby sister flew in on the nevermore she later decapitated. How do you like the ice queen? Become best friends yet?"
I shook my head, downtrodden. "No, I don't think she likes me much. Even less now that I became leader. Why did I become leader? I just wanted to be a normal teammate. Normal knees too."
"You are a teammate, Rubes! Now you're like teammate plus! Now you get to boss people around as well. Maybe even boss ice queen around some more. Wouldn't that be entertaining."
There was a ding from our scrolls. Lifting mine up, I walked through the cafeteria door that Yang held open. "Yang, it looks like we got our class schedules. Most classes are full teams. Looks like… I have three classes that I'm by myself? Are you taking these?"
Yang glanced at my scroll. "Team Leadership? Combat History 101? Basic Leadership Principles? Nu-uh. Looks like those are some extra classes just for you team leaders."
"More class?!" I asked excitedly.
"Ya, I'm sorry for that Rubes," Yang replied, taking my genuine excitement as false. "I'd hate to have extra class too. Don't worry, I bet we'll be able to help you. My wonderful prodigy baby sister-leader! Let's get some supper."
Ha, just kidding. There is so much more coming. And we finally broke the 10,000 words mark. That's so awesome.
lasereye27 - Summer definitely died much later.
JackTheSpades - To your first point first: Yes, you will see exactly how Reapers are viewed in the world. It was (so far) my favourite chapter to write. As for your second point, I definitely understand what you're saying. Ruby's age was never a really important thing when I got started, so I didn't really take the time to plan that part out. Which makes it even sillier of me, when I read back through my notes and realized I already created a basic aging system for Reapers. So *reading off my notes here* 'Grim Reapers age parabolically in a way. Their aging slows down exponentially until they are at the height of their power, stay that way for a few thousand years, then age exponentially faster.' Hmm, that seems like important information the writer should remember. (All this stuff would be revealed eventually in story, but it's not really that important to anything plot related, so I feel fine sharing it here) So, the age may definitely be something I will revise in the future, especially if it is confusing my dear readers. And yes, you are definitely correct in everything you said.
Oh, and another thing! I love getting criticism and critiques of my work, be it constructive or otherwise. So really, thank you so much for taking the time to let me know what you think! *gives you a cookie before Ruby notices*
See you all again in two weeks.