Chapter 6

Pushing past a hanging tree branch, Weiss stood atop the elevated piece of terrain, Ruby dragging along behind her. She used her hand to guard her eyes from the sun, scouting around the general area in search of wherever the temple laid. Sighing, Weiss shook her head, turning around and beginning to walk in another direction. Ruby scoffed, waving her arms up in front of Weiss while she spoke. “Do you even know where we are?” Ruby questioned, Weiss shooting her a glare, looking back forward while trying to ignore her. “Yeah, you don’t. You only wanna lead because you’re a control freak know-it-all.” Ruby further prodded, Weiss remaining begrudgingly silent while the two continued walking. Before Ruby could speak again, Weiss groaned out in anger, her face red while she stopped in front of Ruby. “Can you just shut up already?! My goddess, you talk so much, and you’re never actually saying anything important!” Weiss snapped, Ruby grimacing, her eyes tearing up slightly while Weiss continued. “Maybe I could’ve found the way to the temple if you weren’t whining the entire time!” “How - how is it my fault that you can’t find it?!” Ruby retorted, Weiss stepping over towards her, poking a finger into her chest while she spoke. “Shut your mouth and let me focus. And stop crying,” Weiss forcefully wiped the back of her hand across Ruby’s eyes, exhaling deeply before finishing her thought. “You’re embarrassing both of us.” Ruby huffed, pushing Weiss away, her face bent into a scowl. “Stop acting like you know me! You don’t!” Ruby spat, Weiss stepping backwards while Ruby continued. “You wanna treat me like I’m a stupid kid?! Fine, I’ll act like one!” Ruby yelled out. “Ruby - ” Weiss watched helplessly as Ruby took out her Crescent Rose, transforming it into its scythe state and blasting a barrage of rounds into the ground beneath her, launching herself into the air. Groaning out, Weiss mumbled some expletives to herself, using her glyph to boost herself in the direction that Ruby was propelling herself in.

A beowolf lunged towards a pair of students, its charge ended prematurely when Pyrrha sliced her gladius through it. She turned to see Jaune kicking away a smaller Creep, the bipedal creature hissing as it burrowed back into the ground. She couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight, Jaune turning back to her, panting for a moment before managing to get his words out. “You…” He began, placing his hands on his legs while bending over, his breathing growing heavier. “You good?” Pursing her lips, Pyrrha brought her arm up, revealing a bite from one of the creeps, a couple of teeth marks having broken the skin. “One of the smaller ones got me, but I doubt it’s a serious injury.” Jaune shook his head, bringing both of his hands forward and gripping Pyrrha’s lightly bleeding arm, Pyrrha looking at him in confusion. “Uh… J - Jaune?” Pyrrha questioned, her confusion ending when she noticed her wound starting to rapidly heal back, a ripple motion echoing around her aura while Jaune mended her. “Oh. Wow, that’s… that's quite a semblance you have.” Pyrrha spoke, Jaune nodding, a warm smile starting to form on his face from the compliment. “Thanks.” He replied, the two standing across from each other for a moment, Jaune looking around the nearby forest while rubbing the back of his head. “So…” Jaune began, Pyrrha raising an eyebrow. “What are we doing, again?” “The relics.” Pyrrha answered. “Right, right. Uh… let’s check in there.” Jaune walked over to what appeared to be a cave sticking out from the earth, cracking off a branch from a nearby tree while Pyrrha stopped by the front of its entrance. “I’m pretty sure they said the relics were inside a temple, Jaune.” “But it could be, er, a secret shortcut, or something.” Jaune answered. Pyrrha let out a bit of laughter, inhaling deeply before speaking again. “If you say so.” Wrapping a rag around the top of the branch, Jaune then managed to set it alight, gesturing for Pyrrha to follow him while he lit his way into the cave.

The two navigated through the cave for a moment, Pyrrha squinting her eyes, placing her hand along the stone walls of the cave system. “Are you sure this actually leads anywhere, Jaune?” Pyrrha questioned, Jaune looking over his shoulder towards her. “I mean, it can’t be this long for no reason, right?” “It very likely could.” Jaune shrugged, turning a corner and pointing his torch towards a gleaming, golden-looking bit hanging from the wall. “See!” Jaune called out, quickly walking over to it and grabbing it, struggling to pry it from whatever was holding it. “It’s - it’s kinda stuck, but it’s… definitely, probably a relic.” Pyrrha stared at what was unfolding in front of her, stepping back once she began to realize what was happening. “Jaune.” She urgently spoke, Jaune looking back towards her, still trying to rip the relic out from the wall. “I don’t think that’s a relic.“ “Of course it is! It’s golden, it’s - ” The “relic” began to lift him up in the air, Jaune looking down to see a row of red, beady eyes emerging from the darkness below.

“Huh.” Yang let out, stopping in front of the forest temple. It was a decrepit, stone building built in a circular shape, littered with cracks and growths of moss. A set of stone stairs led up to the main building, with lines of torches built alongside the left and right ends of it. Yang found herself questioning the structural integrity of the building while she and Blake ascended into it, the faunus woman’s weapon transformed into its longsword and sickle state, with the sickle rested on Blake’s hip and the longsword on her back, the two’s handles connected by a ribbon. As Yang stepped onto the stairs, she noticed Blake walking up in front of her, the human woman’s attention moving from the dubiously stable structure and to Blake. Though Yang tried to move her lecherous gaze, she couldn’t help but feel allured by Blake’s physique, her eyes widening as she watched Blake march up the stairs from behind, the faunus woman’s tail stiffening behind her. “Think this is it. If you’re done staring at my ass, let’s go grab one.” Blake spoke, Yang stammering for a second, letting out a bit of awkward laughter before managing a response. “Sorry, it’s just, y’know… a nice view.” Blake chuckled at Yang’s comment, shaking her head before turning to the entrance of the ruins.

Within were the relics they were after. Each of them were modeled after chess pieces, with a row of both white and black pieces. Noticeably, however, were a lack of any pawn pieces, as well as a missing white bishop, Yang not thinking much about it while stepping over to grab one. “Uh…” Yang hummed. Blake looked over at Yang. “What?” Blake prodded, Yang pointing at the multiple different pieces. “Which one should we pick?” “Does it matter? Just grab one.” Blake answered. Not wasting another moment, Yang grabbed the knight piece at random, then went to exit the building. Blake followed behind her, the both of them stopping when a shrill, high-pitched cry echoed throughout the forest, Yang raising her eyebrows as she looked in the direction of the noise. “Uuf. You think that girl’s gonna be okay?” Yang asked, Blake shrugging while the two stepped back down the staircase.

Yang heard an amalgamation of noises heading her way upon reaching the bottom of the stairs; a chainsaw revving, a series of lightning strikes, and an especially familiar weapon being fired rapidly in succession. With a wide smile on her face, Yang watched as Alex landed down in front of her, reeling his chainsaws in from the nearby trees he was using for mobility, the agitated blades fitting neatly within the arm-cannons they were mounted in. The next to land was Gilde, him conjuring a lightning strike beneath his feet to soften his fall, chuckling to himself. “It looks as if we’re not the first here.” Gilde spoke, Yang crossing her arms while she stood in front of him. “Neither were we. Someone already came ‘n grabbed a bishop.” The last to land was Ruby, her petal busting down onto the earth. Initially Yang went to congratulate her, but she then noticed two things. One, that Ruby didn’t seem to have a partner. And two, that Ruby was visibly rather upset about something, an irritated expression on Ruby’s face while she marched forward impatiently. “Hey…” Yang spoke, Ruby looking over at her. “Everything alright?” Blowing a raspberry through her lips, Ruby shook her head, drawing in a deep breath. “Why couldn’t we just be partners, Yang?” Ruby asked, Yang raising an eyebrow while Ruby continued. “Because now, I have some dumb stupid idiot that hates me, and we’re never gonna get along and we’re just gonna fight all the time and get kicked out - ” “R - Ruby, relax. You’ve only known them for, like, not even half an hour. Where’s all that coming from?” “I don’t - I don’t know, it’s just…” Ruby turned to see Weiss walking in through the flora, her visibly exhausted and covered in foliage. Ruby rolled her eyes, turning away from her and walking towards the temple. “Let's get the relic and leave.” Yang laughed out, placing both her hands on Ruby’s shoulders, turning her around to face the slowly approaching Weiss. “C’mon, Ruby, you gotta get along with your partner.” Ruby bucked against her sister when Yang began pushing her towards Weiss. “Okaaayyy…” Yang droned, Weiss pointing a finger at Ruby, her face bridled with rage as she got closer to her. “You’re gonna say you’re sorry for ditching her.” Yang ordered, Ruby reluctantly nodding her head in response. “You!” Weiss yelled out, stopping her march once she got in front of Ruby. “I - I was yelling…” Weiss inhaled. “I was yelling your name, and you just kept going and ignored me, I could’ve - I could’ve been ambushed, or I could’ve fallen into a trap, or…” Weiss stopped her lecture for a moment, brushing the dirt and leaves from her clothing while regaining her breath. “I’m sorry for leaving you behind, and - and for calling you a control freak and a know-it-all and stupid and probably some other things.” Ruby’s voice trailed off towards the end of her sentence, Yang sucking her teeth at such. “Okay, you know that was a shitty apology, Ruby.” “No!” Weiss interrupted, balling her hands into fists and placing them down by her side. “I’m tired of the empty apologies! I just want you to actually listen to what people tell you, is it - is it really that hard?!” Weiss questioned, Ruby bowing her head down while she answered. “N - No.” “Then please. Listen to what I’m telling you. That’s all I want. Okay?” “Okay.” Ruby responded, the both of them sharing a short-lived smile, ending when yet another battered-looking student came running towards the temple, waving his arms around while yelling something incoherent. “Why’s everyone running in here like they’ve got something chasing ‘em?” Alex thought out loud, the party of students all facing Jaune once he ran in, him looking back to see Pyrrha just behind him. “Jaune?” Gilde asked, walking over in front of Jaune. “There’s a… there’s a…” Jaune failed to get the words out, Gilde cocking his head. “There’s a what, Jaune?” “Big scorpion… thing - ” The aforementioned Death Stalker came speeding towards the group of students, Pyrrha holding her arm out while looking back towards the people behind her. “Everyone, back up! We need to fight it as a concentrated force!” Pyrrha commanded, her words holding little weight over Alex and Gilde, her looking up to see the two boys flying up in the air towards the grimm. Reeling his hand back, Gilde depleted a portion of his aura, summoning a large bolt of electricity in his hands. As the Death Stalker went to grab Jaune, it instead received the bolt directly into its abdomen, it screeching while the electricity coursed through its body. While it was stunned, Alex landed on top of it, aiming one of his cannons just below its stinger. Biting his lip, Alex fired the cannon, the chainsaw flying out and piercing into its unarmored tail, spraying black blood out in every direction. The grimm flailed its body around, desperately clipping its claws towards Alex while trying to throw him off of its body. “Shit! Gilde, I’m slipping!” Alex yelled out, Gilde landing down in front of the Death Stalker, unsheathing his halberd from around his back. He stabbed the tip of the halberd into one of its eyes, the creature too distracted with Alex to even notice. Narrowing his eyes, Gilde pulled the trigger along the bottom of his halberd, the high-caliber rifle mounted just below the halberd’s blade firing repeatedly into the creature. Alex looked up to see Ruby petal bursting over towards him, him backing up once she landed right in front of him. “Get out the way!” Ruby shouted, Alex nodding and stepping off to the side, watching as she wedged the tip of her scythe under the Death Stalker’s carapace. With one shot, she managed to begin prying it off, the Death Stalker thrashing itself around, Ruby nearly falling off of it hadn’t Alex grabbed onto her. “Gilde! What are you doing down there?! We need another bolt!” Alex yelled out, Gilde grunting while struggling to hold his halberd still. “My, agh… my aura’s running pretty low, I can’t make another one.” Gilde replied, him looking back to see Jaune running over behind him. “Just in time! Jaune - ” Before he could give the command, Jaune placed his palms on Gilde’s back, his aura already beginning to rapidly regenerate. The Death Stalker charged forward, Ruby nearly falling over in front of it. Gilde and Jaune weren’t as lucky to keep their footing, Gilde falling under the weight of the giant grimm while Jaune held onto him. “S - Someone help!” Jaune yelled out, trying to pull Gilde out from under the creature. Pyrrha's shield came flying around towards the creature’s stinger, Alex managing to hold it still long enough for the shield to cut off its tip. A mixture of venom and black blood spilled out, Alex shoving Ruby out of the way of the coming hazardous liquid, then barely managing to roll out of the way himself. Falling onto her back, Ruby looked up to see the acidic substance melting away the creature’s chitin armor, propping herself back up on her feet with her weapon. She looked over to the situation unfolding next to her. With the help of Pyrrha, Jaune managed to pull Gilde out from under the Death Stalker, him wheezing out in pain as he was carried back to the group. Narrowing her eyes, Ruby quickly thought up her next course of action, jumping up into the air with her weapon spinning above her head. With the Death Stalker busy with trying to catch Alex, Ruby managed to catch it off guard, landing onto its head and stabbing her blade into its softened chitin armor. With one more shot, she was able to use the recoil to pry off the carapace on the creature’s head, Alex watching wide-eyed and standing still in awe. The grimm swatted its claws at Ruby, the human managing to duck under its attacks, before sliding to its side and swinging her scythe’s blade up into the thinnest point of its arm. With one fell swing, Ruby managed to sever the limb, the grimm letting out a shriek as it stepped backwards. Widely grinning, Ruby dropped her weapon, dashing over towards the severed claw and lifting it up. As the Death Stalker weakly flailed its remaining claw at Ruby, she parried the attack away, before lunging forward and driving the severed limb into the grimm’s head. A menacing giggle left Ruby as she brought her boot up and stomped down onto the claw-embedded head of the creature, shattering the weakened chitin apart and causing the Death Stalker to limply collapse as a partly butchered corpse. With a satisfied sigh, Ruby stepped off of the creature, bending down and picking back up her scythe before holstering it on the back of her waist. “Prey slaughtered.” Ruby triumphantly spoke, resting her hands on her sides and looking behind her. “Let’s go, everyone…” Ruby looked around to see those who didn’t flee, counting Alex, Yang, Nora, Lie, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Gilde. “Did everyone… run off?” She thought, slowly walking towards the group as they circled around a furry object.

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“Oh Vohses, it’s so cute! Look at it!” Alex proclaimed, kneeling down and gently lifting the beowolf cub from the ground. It nibbled at him while the others neared it, with the exception of Pyrrha and Jaune, who were currently bringing Gilde back to the others. “Aww. Look, it’s tryna eat you.” Nora stated, pointing her finger at the creature’s snout while it softly gnawed its teeth on Alex’s arm. “Man, y’all better keep that fuckin’ thing away from Ruby.” Yang added. “What? Why?” Alex asked, turning the carried beowolf towards a slightly apprehensive-looking Lie, watching as Lie reluctantly brought his hand up and patted the being on its head. “What’s that Alex has?” Ruby asked, Yang wincing as Alex presented it to Ruby. “Look! It’s so cute.” Alex cooed, Yang shaking her head while she turned and walked away. “Yeah, I don’t wanna see this shit right now. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” “You’re such a dumb broad! I wanna show my lil sis the cute baby grimm.” Alex remarked, earning a shrug from Yang as she left towards the others. “Is that a baby beowolf?” Ruby asked, Alex nodding, grinning as he brought it towards her. “Yeah! Look at it, its little tail is wagging!” Narrowing her eyes, Ruby reached her hands forward, Nora and Alex watching as she took the beowolf cub from his hands. “Hehe. Feel how soft its fur is.” Alex spoke, Ruby snickering, holding the cub’s front limbs over her arm while she used her other hand to reach into her ammunition bag. “Aww… it looks cold.” Ruby whined, Alex raising an eyebrow, looking back towards an equally confused-looking Lie and Nora. “Hehe. Don’t worry. I’ll warm it up.” Before Alex or Nora could intervene, Ruby pulled out a red dust crystal from her bag, before piercing it through the cub’s throat. “R - RUBY!” Alex shouted, watching in horror as Ruby then threw the cub into the ground, it letting out a pained gurgle as the crystal in its neck lit up in flames from the force. Taking out her weapon in its rifle form, Ruby then fired a shot point-blank into the cub’s head, causing a fiery combustion to blow apart the upper half of its body and leave the other half covered in flames. Lie watched with raised eyebrows while Nora retched slightly, her covering a mouth with her hand. “Oh my…oh my goddess, th - that was one of the most traumatizing things I’ve ever seen.” Nora lowly spoke, holding her hands over her stomach while a nauseated expression formed on her face. “What the fuck, Ruby?! Why’d you do that?!” Alex questioned, Ruby turning to him while she holstered her weapon. “What? It’s a grimm.” “That was a baby grimm! And you just, like, murdered it in the most horrific way possible!” “So? It doesn’t matter how they die.” Alex sighed, shaking his head while he walked up to Ruby, bringing his hands forward and taking her in an embrace. “I don’t know what happened that made you this way, lil sis. But we’ll get through it. Together.” “Oh my gosh, you’re so overdramatic.” Ruby teased, pulling away from him while running back to the others. “...the people here are way weirder than I could have ever anticipated.” Lie thought out loud, earning a slight giggle from Nora as the two followed behind Alex to the other side of the forest.

“I’ll be honest, I, uh…” Ammolite began, taking a puff from his cigarette while looking at two students standing before him. They were none other than Penny and Zephyr, the ginger android holding a bishop relic in her arms while Zephyr stood idly, staring over the cliff. “Didn’t really expect any of you to be here already. Got here before I could even land the damn aircraft.” Ammolite narrowed his eyes, Penny tilting her head while she replied. “Is that bad?” She asked, Ammolite shaking his head. “No, no, can’t knock you for being leagues ahead of everyone else. It’s only their fault that they’re this slow and stupid.” Pulling out what looked like a stopwatch, Ammolite raised his eyebrows, calling over Zephyr while raising the device up in front of his eyes. “Ready for next command, Master Sergeant Losa.” Zephyr spoke, its voice faintly masculine under a layer of a radio-like static. “Mhm. When’d you two get here?” “Approximately 23 minutes, 15 seconds, and 617 milliseconds prior to this message.” The stopwatch read 42 minutes and 20 seconds since the students were deployed, Ammolite nodding his head. “Good Qhukhena. Guess I couldn’t expect anything less from a couple of tinheads.” “Thank you, Master Sergeant.” Penny replied, Ammolite eyeing her. Clicking his tongue, Ammolite stuck his stopwatch back into his pocket, brushing the dust off his uniform’s shirt. “Think that might be a new record. Might only count living beings for that, though.” Penny smiled, Ammolite looking over at Zephyr, the android not uttering a single word. “Your friend’s not much for words, aren’t they?” Ammolite asked, Penny shaking her head before answering. “Zephyr knows plenty of words, and not just in Remnant Common, either.” Ammolite gave her a disappointed look, Penny simply standing still with the same smile on her face. Sighing, Ammolite shook his head, slowly turning away from the androids. “Whatever. We’ve got some fleshy students coming this way.” Stepping over the top of the cliff, Ammolite watched as the majority of the second wave stopped in front of the massive piece of terrain, grinning wide while pulling out a remote door controller from his breast pocket. “You might wanna go down there and help them, tinbot twins.” Ammolite spoke, Penny cocking her head while speaking. “Why?” She asked, Ammolite chuckling to himself before speaking. “Because what they’re about to fight’s a whole lot harder than a scorpion.”