Revelations of Strife
The trip back to the dorms was a long and quiet one. Half of the way, Ruby just cried in her sister's arms, as everyone else tried to process this. Even the implacable Azura was shaken by this. For everyone to see such brutality, savagery, cold-blooded merciless killing intent… It was enough to make one's vein's turn to ice. Once they arrived back at Beacon, the 12 huddled into Team RWBY's room, and the majority looked at Yang for answers.
"So, when were you going to tell us?" Weiss asked, breaking the silence with her words as she looked squarely at Yang.
Yang flinched at that. "It wasn't my place to say. It was Ruby's…" She tried to explain.
"So, we are just going to ignore the elephant in the room of WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?" Zhan yelled, forcing some of the others to cover his mouth to quiet him.
Azura glared at his partner. "Zhan. Enough. We will get to that soon." He coldly told his partner and friend.
"Yang, would you please explain to us what's going on with Ruby? This whole situation. We need to know if you want us to help." Blake said politely, verbally extending an olive branch to her partner on the topic.
Yang looked to her baby sister at that, nonverbally asking for her approval. At that moment, Ruby looked… so much smaller than normal. So much more fragile and afraid. The normally spunky, vibrant, sweet girl she knew her little sister to be… was not there at that moment.
"Ruby is what is known as a Beastman. Technically, she's half-Beastman. Her mother, Summer Rose, was a full blooded Beastman." Yang explained, which stunned everyone.
"She was?" Pyrrha asked in shock.
"That explains why she was so proficient in combat, and the strongest Huntsman of her generation." Rena said, crossing her arms as she listened.
To everyone's surprise, their resident samurai prince said nothing on the topic. His eyes merely looked at the sisters sympathetically before looking down, unable to look any of his friends in the eye. This told the others all they needed to know…
"I don't get it." Jaune simply said, scratching his head.
"Azura knew." Ren said with a deep sigh, squinting his eyes at the revelation.
"Come on, Azu. You can't keep secrets." Nora groaned.
"It was not my place to say. This was Ruby's burden to bear, her secret to tell. I suspected for a long while but only found out during the incident with Cardin recently." Azura said with a deep sigh of his own, hating having had to keep such a secret from the people he had come to call his friends.
"So why did Ruby… do that?" Ember nervously asked.
Azura looked at the two sisters at that, asking without saying to be allowed to explain this part. Ruby flinched and Yang placed a hand on her shoulder. Looking up fearfully, Ruby nodded, giving her crush her consent.
"Beastmen take on behavioral characteristics of the animal they're based on. Ruby is a Red Wolf Beastman. And, if you know anything about wolves…" Azura started to explain only for Blake to continue where he left off.
"They're extremely protective of their pack. Of those they care about." The monochromatic ninja princess finished for him.
"That explains way more than it should…" Rena said, looking away a bit.
"I'm sorry for worrying you, Ruby…" Jaune said, sheepish about all the trouble he likely caused for her earlier in the school year.
Ruby gave a weak smile and shook her head. "It's okay, Jaune. I would've been worried about any of the others too if it'd been them…" She told her blonde knight friend.
Weiss felt something hit her in the pit of her stomach. She did not quite know what it was, but it noticed the feelings that were eating her up inside. Clenching her fist, she had listened long enough and could not stay quiet anymore.
"Ruby… why didn't you tell me? I know we've… had our differences… but I thought you considered me your friend." The normally stoic ice queen told her team leader, sounding hurt in that moment.
This shocked everyone, and no one said a word. Until Ruby did.
"I didn't want to look my best friend in the eyes, and for you to know that I'm a monster. I didn't want to do that to you… to any of you…" Ruby said, curling up.
Weiss sighed at this. "Ruby… I've never had friends before any of you. I just… I don't know how to feel about this. I'm mad… I'm hurt… but I'm also worried. Worried about you." The Schnee heiress told her Beastman friend.
Ruby stood up and finally looked at her. "That's why I was trying to keep you all safe. Safe from me. Every day I feel the beast clawing at my mind, wanting to get out. To keep it back, to keep control… if I lose focus for a second, bad things happen. I didn't want to snap and hurt anyone. Especially you…" Ruby explained before Weiss cut her off.
"Ruby… we both may be inexperienced at having friends, but I know you better than that. You would never purposely do anything to hurt any of us. If we'd known, we could've helped calm you down more so you wouldn't get into as much trouble." Weiss told her in a more lecturing tone, her voice dripping with concern and care.
"If I lost control, then none of that would have mattered. The idea of hurting any of you in any way… I already did it to Azura once. I lost control, my anger got the better of me. Thinking back at all those times, I could have snapped at you Weiss… I could have done the same thing to you…" Ruby said, starting to tear up again.
"Ruby… please. Don't try to shut us out. Let us help you. Let me help you…" Weiss told her sadly, reaching out to try to place a hand on her friend's shoulder.
At that moment, something inside Ruby broke down. To everyone's surprise, she rushed past Weiss, through her friends, and rushed out the door. A trail of tears being seen on the carpet.
"Ruby!" Weiss called out in concern for her team leader, partner, and friend.
"Don't run off!" Blake called out as well.
"Well, that went pear-shaped fast…" Jaune tried to say before the monochromatic duo turned their feelings on him.
"You shut your mouth, Arc! This isn't the time!" Weiss snapped at him, on the verge of tears.
"Weiss, you need to get a hold of yourself." Yang said, grabbing Weiss by the shoulders and making her look at her. "Do you want to make things right with Ruby?"
"Of course I do! She may be a wolf girl dolt… but she's my wolf girl dolt." Weiss told her.
"Then take a deep breath, pull yourself together, and go after her and make it right. If you want to have Ruby as your friend, if you want to save this, then you have to be willing to fight for her friendship." Yang said sternly, a fire burning in her eyes.
Drying her eyes, Weiss nodded. A determined look on the ice princess's normally calm and cold face and a fire of resolve burning in her own eyes from the depths of her soul. She stood up and got ready to move as Blake stood up as well.
"I'm going with you, Weiss. I haven't been as good of a friend to Ruby as I would've liked, and I want to talk to her. I want to try to be better." Blake told her, placing a hand on her teammate's shoulder.
"Thank you, Blake. It means a lot to hear that." Yang answered her teammate with a hint of joy in her voice.
"When this is all over… I have a secret of my own I have to admit. It's only fair to you, Ruby, and the others." Blake told her partner, a slightly fearful look in her eyes.
"We will hold you to that. Right, Azura?" Yang asked, turning to her blue partner in crime.
Azura stood up with a smile. "Correct, Yang. But, first, we need to find Ruby. I have… a bad feeling right now…" He replied with a frown, his words sending a chill up the spines of everyone present.
"What kind of bad feeling, boss?" Zhan asked.
"Ruby is going to be getting into trouble out there without us around to help her. I can feel it. I do not know how, why, or at whose hands. I just know…" Azura replied ominously.
Later in the Forest
"RUBY!!!" Weiss called out as loud as she could.
"RUBY!!" Blake called out just as loudly, the first time Weiss had heard her yell.
"I know she can run fast, but she can't have gone that far." Weiss groaned with concern.
"We'll find her, Weiss. We just need to be patient and keep looking." Blake replied, taking off her bow to let her cat ears out as she listened for any signs of their team leader.
"It's just… what if we can't make it in time…" Weiss nervously said, looking down as tears form in the corner of her eyes.
"We can't let ourselves think like that, Weiss. We WILL find her. I know it." Blake told her, trying to calm her friend down.
At that, Weiss got eerily quiet. Whether it was because she was thinking or did not know what to say, Blake did not know. But she soon realized she would have to get through the emotions that were clouding Weiss's mind to ensure they would find Ruby. In a rare moment of outward affection, Blake pulled the Schnee heiress firmly into a hug.
"B-Blake!? W-What are you…" Weiss said with a blush, in shock at what was happening.
"Giving you the hug you obviously need. I'm not good at this sort of thing but let me try." Blake told her teammate, trying to calm her down.
"I-I don't need a hug… I'll be fine…" Weiss said, trying to firm herself up against this gesture.
"From how emotional you are right now, I'm fairly certain you do." Blake told her, patting Weiss' back as she continued with the hug.
For a moment, Weiss stood there stunned. Her family life admittedly had not made her well equipped for displays of affection, but she thought she would be good enough to handle a hug. Yet now, being held by her only Faunus friend… embarrassingly, she did not know what to do. Something Blake noticed.
"It's okay, Weiss. Just let it all out. This isn't any easier for me than it is for you." Blake sympathetically told her.
At that, Weiss's arms shakily wrapped around her friend. She never really thought about it, hugging someone else, but it did not feel too bad. In fact, it was… actually rather pleasant. For several minutes, the two held each other before finally breaking the hug.
"Thanks, Blake…" Weiss nervously said. "Right, back to business at hand."
Blake nodded at that. "Right. We have to find our team leader."
"By the way… let's please pretend that this never happened." Weiss nervously told her friend.
"Agreed. Now then. If I were an emotionally ravaged, hormonal teenage wolf girl, where would I run off to?" Weiss asked into the void, trying to wrack her brain for the answer.
"I… think I've found a clue." Blake said, pointing to the trunk of a nearby tree. Or, at least, what was left of it.
Aside from the trunk being snapped, already a dead giveaway something powerful had come through there, something else was apparent. Claw marks near the entire bole of the tree. Yet their size was too small for even a Beowolf, and no other Grimm they knew had claws that could cause their shape.
"Those marks… they look like what Ruby put into Kong. If we follow these parts, we will find Ruby." Weiss said determinedly. "After that dolt!"
"Right behind you." Blake replied as the two took off, following the claw marks and snapped tree trunks.
In a Different Part of the Forest
The sudden crash of a falling tree broke the quiet of the forest. Soon afterwards followed by the frenzied sounds of a distressed animal clawing at a tree. Panting heavily, her clothes caked with sweat, she was forced to put her hands on her knees. She knew her dad and sister would not approve of what she did, but she put their voices out of her mind. She needed to get this out of her system.
"Weiss… why can't you make things easy…?" Ruby muttered through her heavy breathing.
Soon, she heard echoing voices from the darkness of the forest. Voices chuckling practically right in her ears. Familiar and annoying voices.
"Heheheh…! Well, well, well! It looks like the little freak's been hiding something from everyone…!" The deepest of the four voices sneered.
"Cardin…!" Ruby growled and turned to face him. He had seen too much. And she was not in the mood to play nice.
However, before she could attempt to flush him out of the shadows, something hit her arm. Wincing in pain, she instinctively grabbed it and yanked it out. Blood began to trickle down her arm as she held it up. A sickly, ebony-black dart that glistened like a Dust crystal. Yet she could not look at it long, as her vision began to go blurry. Soon her head began to swim, and her knees wobbled. Somehow, she was losing strength, and fast. Forced to her knees and losing her vision, she saw Cardin step out of the shadows before her. A large safari rifle being unfurled off his back from beside his mace.
Cardin broke open the action and began to pull out from his pack two massive dust rounds. "I wonder how this one is going to look stuffed." He said ominously with a smirk as he loaded the rounds and snapped the action back shut.