Chapter Text
Jaune Arc caught the downstroke of a Grimm’s claws on his shield, before reaching up and jamming the tip of Crocea Mors right into its chest. No finesse, no technique, just desperate strength. It worked: the Grimm (he wasn’t even sure what type it was) began dissolving into black mist. Unlike every other time that day, no more Grimm came charging at him, and he finally had a minute to catch his breath.
Ahead of him the other members of the Rescue Team RWBY! Party (Nora’s idea) were pushing into the horde of Grimm. Qrow Branwen, Taiyang Xiao Long, and Winter Schnee had formed a wedge and were carving through Grimm with the fury of people on a mission to rescue family. Jaune’s teammates Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha were covering their flanks with less skill but no less enthusiasm.
This had been their life for the past ten months, especially after the fall of Beacon: travel the globe, look for portals, fight past the hordes of Grimm that always streamed into them for whatever reason, and fail every time to actually reach the damn thing. Sometimes he wondered if maybe taking the offer at Haven had been the better idea.
Every time he thought that, the words of General Ironwood came back to him. It was Ironwood, after all, that was providing the location of the portals, the transportation to them, and the resources needed for these battles. And it wasn’t concern for Team RWBY that motivated him.
~o~
Jaune shifted uneasily. General Ironwood had just agreed to do everything in his power to help them succeed in crossing the portals and rescuing Team RWBY. It was everything they’d come asking for. And yet, the tension in the room hadn’t abated an iota.
“Cut the crap, James,” Qrow, ever irreverent, cut in. “We both know that you’re not doing this just to rescue four, admittedly promising, students. I know the Council in Atlas, they’re veritably howling at you to defend their borders. What did you promise them to let you spend even this much on an apparent wild-Lagomorph chase?”
For a moment, Ironwood, standing at the window of his office, said nothing. Just… stared out over the landscape. Then…
“Because if the worst comes to pass… if we truly, irrevocably fail to stop her… then the portals represent our last hope.”
“An escape plan,” Taiyang stated.
“Precisely.”
While the thought of abandoning Remnant was… wild, crazy, and more than a little terrifying, it did make sense. The Grimm were pressing Vale hard with Beacon gone, and the number of destroyed villages they came across traveling to the portals… Jaune preferred fighting to save Remnant, but he sure didn’t mind having a backup plan in place.
It also came with a ton of logistical headaches he didn’t even want to think about. So while Qrow got up in General Ironwood’s face over cowardice or something like that, Jaune tuned out the conversation in favor of mentally going over the map for their latest trek. Maybe there was a romantic landmark he and Pyrrha could slip away to…
~o~
Jaune was shaken from his reverie by someone jogging up to him: Ren, panting and clearly out of Aura. Stepping up, Jaune placed his hand on Ren’s shoulder and, using his Semblance, transferred over a large chunk of his own Aura.
“Thanks,” his teammate said.
“No problem,” Jaune replied. “How’re things looking at the front?”
Ren shook his head. “We’re making headway, but not fast enough. Story of all of our attempts.”
Jaune sighed. Too much to hope for, apparently. He pulled Crocea Mors out of the dirt where he’d stabbed it.
“Well, back into the breach.”
As was often the case, the team got within sight of the portal before it closed. Much swearing was passed around, swearing that they abruptly choked on when the portal reappeared bare seconds later. Only the fact that the remaining Grimm seemed just as surprised as they were prevented them from getting immediately overwhelmed.
When the portal closed again and then reopened again, there was no more shock. The team fell upon the surrounding Grimm with a fury borne of hope. Why the portals were reopening over and over was unclear, but dammitall, it was the first break they’d gotten in a very long time!
They were within a hundred feet of the latest portal when four people tumbled out.
“Ack!”
“Well, we’re definitely back, I can see Grimm! … That’s a lot of Grimm, actually.”
“Who has their elbow in my face?!”
“Sorry, Weiss.”
Jaune stared. He couldn’t help it. After all this time…
“Ruby…?” he breathed.
During these missions, Jaune had wondered how Team RWBY had been doing. For some reason, his mind always fell on them being like castaways on some deserted island: lean, tanned-leather skin, tattered clothes, wild hair. The Team RWBY standing up in front of him didn’t look like any of those. They were healthy, had even bulked up a bit, and wore what looked like brand-new clothes, jackets and in Yang’s case a floral button-down shirt over skintight bodysuits, bulky black boots covering their feet.
The combination of awe, relief, and pure joy on their faces, though? He’d nailed those.
“We’re back…” Ruby breathed. “We’re really ba-!”
Suddenly, Ruby hopped back, several Nevermore feathers piercing the ground in front of her.
“Combat situation, you dolt! We can celebrate after we take out these Grimm!” Weiss admonished.
“Right!” Ruby declared, waggling her fingers. “Let’s see if I can actually pull this off! Black Ring!”
A wide circle of utter blackness spread out from Ruby’s feet, quickly encompassing both the rescue team and the oncoming Grimm. Jaune let out a yelp when the stuff started to suck him in, but he only sank up to his ankles before the blackness vanished.
“Shoot, I thought that would work,” Ruby whined, standing up. “Oh well. Doing it the old-fashioned way! Pull!”
At that word, Yang and Weiss shifted to be back to back, and struck. Yang threw a punch at a knot of Grimm - a punch that somehow resulted in a massive shockwave that blew a hundred-foot section of Grimm into the air. Weiss, meanwhile, conjured up a line of glyphs, and with a flick of her wrist did the same thing, the shockwaves coming from the glyphs.
Judging from Winter’s gobsmacked expression, that was not a normal use of Schnee glyphs.
Many of the Grimm outright dissolved from the impact, but many others remained intact in the air, to say nothing of the remaining fliers. Those Grimm were met by Blake and Ruby, moving impossible fast and somehow jumping off of thin air, and were sliced to dust in the blink of an eye.
Grimm being Grimm, that just prompted them to attack harder, and Jaune’s attention was swiftly taken up by the oncoming horde. Still, he caught glimpses in between fighting. Ruby was a blur, constantly on the move, Grimm falling to pieces in her wake. Blake was a whirling dervish, and were those clones of hers attacking?! When had she learned to do that? Weiss had apparently swapped her ice for fire, her sword leaving trails of heat haze behind it and her glyphs spitting gouts of flame. And Yang?
Well, she’d always been the most openly impressive of the team, and seeing her erase Grimm by the dozen with single punches just reinforced that impression.
In a shockingly short time, the Grimm horde was destroyed. Panting, Jaune gaped at Team RWBY. Even considering they were fresh, they weren’t even a little fatigued! The unfairness of it all was buried under pure awe.
Team RWBY had gotten badass.
While everyone gaped, Ruby broke from her team, zipping up to the still-open portal. Whereupon she immediately stuck her head into the thing. “Situation clear, Doctor! We’re good to go! Just lock onto the signal in two weeks!” A pause, presumably as whoever was on the other side of the portal spoke. “Yeah, yeah, I won’t forget to ask, geez! Keep your shirt on! … Okay, we’re good!”
With that, she removed her head, and the portal collapsed. Shaking her head, she turned around to meet Jaune’s eyes, gasping.
“Jaune?!”
Weakly, Jaune raised his hand and waved. “Hi?”
“Pyrrha? Nora? Ren?” Ruby continued, running right by Jaune. Of course… he turned to follow her, watching her zip up to every member of their team in a trail of overwhelmed expressions. “Dad! Uncle Qrow!”
She paused in front of Winter, giving her a quizzical look. She opened her mouth-
“Winter!”
Weiss chose that moment to answer Ruby’s unasked question by running up to Winter and wrapping her up in a hug. A hug! From Weiss!
“I’ve missed you so much!” Weiss cried out, heedless of Winter’s stiff body language and uncomfortable expression.
“I’m not seeing things, am I?” Jaune asked as he walked back to his team.
“If you’re seeing things, I’m seeing the same thing,” Pyrrha faintly responded.
“I mean, they were gone for ten months, we had to expect some personality changes,” Nora chimed in, Ren nodding sagely.
Silently, Jaune and Pyrrha acknowledged the point.
“Oh, for crying out loud… just hug her back already, Snow Queen!” Qrow and Yang interjected in unison. The two gave each other surprised looks, then matching grins and thumbs up. Hesitantly, Winter reached her arms out and did so.
“But seriously, what are you all doing here?” Ruby asked.
“What are we- you all vanished off the face of Remnant for ten months!” Taiyang answered. Or, more accurately, shouted. “We didn’t know where you were, or if you were okay or… or…”
Jaune winced. They’d all been trying not to speak out loud the worst possibility. Seemingly hearing the words unspoken, Ruby and Yang both walked up to their father and wrapped him up in a group hug.
~o~
By unspoken agreement, the group had made their way back to their base camp. Team RWBY, still clinging to their loved ones like barnacles, had taken in the military tents, the size of the camp, and the many technicians with their bulky instruments, and sent them quizzical looks. They’d been met with an answer of “Later”, which was accepted. Logically, their story came first.
Also, Nora was visibly vibrating in anticipation and probably would’ve exploded if there’d been any delay.
Sure enough, once everyone was sitting down on the logs surrounding the camp’s fire, she did indeed explode. Verbally, thankfully.
“Okay, I’m done waiting! Where the heck have you guys been?!”
“Where on Remnant did you learn to do all that?” Winter added. “Weiss, you showed off at least two new glyph techniques.”
“You’re okay, right? No one’s missing an arm?” Taiyang asked fretfully.
“Whoa, okay, easy on the questions,” Blake interjected, holding up her hands in a warding gesture. “It’s a long story, and the answers to a lot of the questions I’m sure you guys have need to be put into proper context. Which means you get the long version anyway, so save your questions for now.”
“But to answer two of them, not on Remnant, and just a few scars from electrical burns,” Yang cheerfully added.
Silence met this declaration. Then, Qrow reached into his pocket for his flask, unscrewed the cap, and took a deep swig.
“Alright, hit us.”
Ruby took the lead, saying, “Well, Team JNPR probably remembers the exact day, but we were looking at the mission board…”
~o~
Ten months ago…
Ruby stood amongst the chattering students of Beacon Academy, scanning over the mission board. Behind her she could feel the stares of her teammates, which made her stand up a little straighter. Southeast, southeast… she was looking for something in the southeast. That was where the intel their little late-night excursion had gotten them said the White Fang were doing… something. And that was why they needed to go there: to find out what the heck those guys were doing.
Also, because Blake was gonna go stir-crazy and not sleep again if they didn’t do something.
Finally, Ruby’s eyes alighted on a mission on the right side of the board. She squeezed her way closer to the board amidst a stream of “Excuse me”s and “Sorry”s to get a closer look. On reading it, she let out the breath she’d unconsciously been holding. Search and destroy. Pretty normal mission-
Her silver eyes widened. That was a really high threat rating! The thought occurred to her that maybe it wasn’t a mission for first-years, but there was only one way to find out! Reaching out, she tapped “accept mission”.
Sure enough, it flashed red denial. Great. Now what?
“I think that mission is perhaps a bit too high-level for your team, Miss Rose.”
Whirling around, Ruby beheld nearly the last person she wanted to see (thank goodness it wasn’t Professor Goodwitch!): Headmaster Ozpin, calmly taking a sip of his coffee while examining her. Behind him Ruby could see her team pushing their way through the now-thinning crowd, so at least she’d have backup soon.
Alas, that did not do her nerves much good. “H-Headmaster, sir!” she stammered. “I was just, uh…”
Frantic, she sent mental signals for her team to get over here and bail her out already!
“Don’t blame Ruby, Headmaster,” she heard Blake interject, which all but made her melt into a puddle. Saved! “I’d heard stories about the area, and wanted to see it while on a mission. I was very… insistent.”
Glancing around Ozpin, Ruby saw Blake bow her head in apology at her.
“I apologize for putting you on the spot, Ruby.”
“It’s okay! We all agreed we wanted to check it out. Bad luck with the mission rating, huh?” Ruby chirped. Leaning back in, she saw the Headmaster staring at the board, something… sad sitting on his face. Huh. Guess he was familiar with that area, too. “Headmaster?”
Only the tiniest of twitches gave any sign of how lost in thought Ozpin had been. “Yes, I can see how you might gain an interest in that area,” he said. “Regardless, that is a mission too dangerous for a first-year team, no matter how talented.”
Ruby opened her mouth to protest – they needed to see what was there-!
Tapping the screen, Ozpin dismissed the mission. “I’ll make sure someone is sent there to take a look,” he said. Ah. He knew, then. Somehow this fact neither surprised nor embarrassed Ruby. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a book-sized Scroll, tapping at the screen. “In the meantime, if you’re still interested in a more challenging mission, I do have something that just came in.”
Beckoning the rest of her team over, Ruby leaned out to look at the Scroll. There wasn’t much: a fuzzy picture of a rock, some charts on Grimm activity (which were very high, holy cow), and a description of a-
“This meteorite landed in the countryside outside Vale a mere few days ago,” Ozpin explained. A flick of his finger scrolled the page down, to a new image that looked like a spider having a seizure. “It would have gone unremarked but for the fact that General Ironwood’s airships detected some sort of exotic energy spike upon impact, and the fact that it has attracted a considerable number of Grimm to the site. Needless to say, everyone who knows is very interested in finding out what is attracting them. Especially since Atlas has detected more of this exotic energy, presumably from smaller fragments of the meteorite.”
“So, search and destroy like the one Ruby was looking at earlier?” Yang asked.
“Ah, not quite. Though of course you may slay some Grimm if you think you can safely do so,” Ozpin answered, putting the large Scroll away. “No, we merely ask that you scout the site. Report anything unusual, locate suitable campsites for… say, twenty people and considerable equipment. A science team with professional Huntsman escort is being assembled.”
“Scout out the meteor and camp sites, don’t provoke the Grimm. Probably need to pack for a few days, right?” A nod. “Got it,” Ruby said decisively. “Anything else, Headmaster?”
“Pack heavy on ammunition, just in case,” Ozpin replied, nodding. “Good luck, Team RWBY.”
And with that, Ozpin turned and followed the flow of students out of the hall.
Sighing, Ruby turned around to face her team. Despite the save with Ozpin, she had failed in her objective. She was especially not looking forward to Weiss’ reaction, which her inscrutable expression didn’t help with. Was she fine? Annoyed but hiding it? Building up into an explosion of icy fury?! There was no way to tell! “Sorry, guys. I couldn’t get us that mission.”
“It’s fine,” Weiss sighed, her expression devolving into annoyance not aimed at Ruby. “Nothing for it, with the Headmaster there.”
That was… a better reaction than she’d expected. Yay! “Blake?” she asked the teammate who they’d done this to help.
“I… wish we could be checking ourselves,” Blake said, pained. “But if we can’t trust Ozpin to investigate, then we can’t trust anyone. I still want to stop the White Fang, but I… recognize that it won’t happen immediately.”
“Good, because if you got all grumpy and sleep-deprived again I was just going to pick you up and carry you back to bed whether you liked it or not,” Yang teased.
Weiss mock-glowered at the blonde, Blake took a swipe at the back of her head, and Ruby yelped out “Phrasing!”, but the tension was gone, both from Ruby and the rest of the team. Yeah, it wasn’t the outcome they’d wanted, but there was somebody on the case, and now they had their own mission to focus on.
“Alright!” Ruby declared, clapping her hands. “Let’s pack and get ready to leave! Load for Goliath on ammo, people, you heard the Headmaster.”
With murmurs of assent, her team followed her back to their dorm, where they were all promptly consumed in a whirlwind of packing. It was a process made both easier and harder by Weiss whipping out a set of checklists, of all things. Easier, because thank goodness there was something to tell her what to pack, and harder, because Yang and Weiss insisted on getting in an argument over whether to bring their gun kits. Ruby had jumped in in favor of bringing them, which ended the argument, but also left Weiss in a complaining mood.
“Why do we need to bring our gun kits?” she demanded as everyone packed their last items. Naturally, she’d finished first. “The ammunition I understand, given the number of Grimm reported, but our gun kits? Mark my words, we are not going to need them. What’s the worst that could happen, leaving them behind?”
The room froze. Ruby had been in the middle of weighing whether she could stuff some cookies into her pack, and she remained in that position, sandwich bag of cookies hovering over her pack while she stared at Weiss.
“You did not just say that,” Yang said in a strangled tone, jabbing a finger at Weiss.
Weiss’ face, a picture of confusion, lit up with dawning understanding and then mild contempt. Rude!
“Really, don’t tell me you believe that hoary old superstition,” she said, arms crossed.
“You don’t say things like that!” Yang repeated, throwing up her hands. “The universe is always listening!”
“Weiss, my dad and uncle are both Huntsmen, and they take this super seriously,” Ruby said, pleadingly. “It’s not just a superstition.”
“Please, I’ll believe it when I see it. In fact, let me prove it.” A grin spread over Weiss’ face, and then she said, in the most haughty, prissy, stereotypical pampered rich bitch voice imaginable, “That volcano’s-!”
That was as far as she got before Yang’s fist met the top of her forehead. Aura or not, the blow sent Weiss crouching, clutching the spot she’d been hit.
“A bit much, don’t you think?” Blake remarked.
“I’m not risking it,” Yang retorted, getting a silent shrug in response. “Let’s just go before Ice Queen here decides to taunt the universe again.”
“We’ll be fine. Honestly…” Weiss huffed, rubbing her head as the team trooped out the door.
~o~
Team RWBY stood knee-deep in the dissolving dead, scuffed and dirty and watching the portal they’d just run through snap shut behind them. Slowly, they scanned their surroundings, taking in the jungle canopy around them – and through a gap in the trees, the blooming rays of a rising sun.
As one, Blake, Yang, and Ruby all turned to glare at Weiss, who very pointedly was not looking her teammates in the eye.
“... Alright, maybe I was wrong…”