What Defines Us - Chapter 32 (Patreon)

“Weiss?” Ruby asked as the platform locked in place - her feet giving a little jolt against the ground as it did so.  

Glancing at the new environment, she found that the platform they’d taken into the arena was now a seamless part of the battlefield - which was nothing more than a massive oval covered in large, white tiles that shimmered with hidden energy.  Surrounding them were huge risers that towered into the sky. The seats of those risers were filled with spectators - most of whom were on their feet as loud cheers rained down to the arena floor - whistles, claps, shouts, and everything in between.  

The seemingly never-ending cheers kickstarted Ruby’s adrenaline and filling her with an urge to fight and be awesome for everyone in attendance.  She was ready to do her best - no matter how good or bad that might be.  

But, she was also confused as heck.  Because why was Weiss here?

Oh.

Well, duh.  Of course Weiss came to take their teammate’s place.  Why had it taken Ruby so long to figure that out?  It was exactly the type of gesture she expected from Weiss - who was, without a doubt, one of the sweetest people in existence.

As her heart swelled with gratitude for the girl standing in front of her, she smiled.  

Who cared if her partner was too busy to make the trip?  Weiss showed up like she always did. Whenever Ruby needed something, Weiss was there to be supportive or encouraging or just really, really pretty to look at.  Those were only some of the reasons Ruby liked her so much.

And honestly, she’d rather spend time with Weiss anyway.

“You’re gonna fight with us?” she asked, taking a step forward and reaching out.  But this time, unlike all the previous times, Weiss didn’t move closer. Instead, she stood rigidly in place and never broke Ruby’s gaze.

“Oh look!” one of the announcers shouted from above their heads, making Ruby looked up in surprise to find groups of large speakers placed around the giant arena.  “The whole team’s here!  Put the photo up on the screen, Ren!”

The whole team?

“I’m not in charge of that -”

“Someone put the photo up!  Team RWBY is back!”

What did they mean by the whole team?

“Weiss?” she asked again, taking a step closer only for Weiss to remain fixed in place and nod to something above Ruby’s head - towards the ceiling of the stadium.  Following Weiss’ gaze, Ruby found a video screen hanging high above them with ‘TEAM RWBY’ emblazoned on it for the audience to see - with a video clip playing underneath showing -

The four of them.

Wait, it was RWBY?  Not RUBY?

W...as in, Weiss?

W as in what??

“Yes!  Ok, I wanna do the intro - let me do the intro, Ren!  We have the fiery Yang Xiao Long in yellow, and her feisty partner, Blake Belladonna, in black.  I’ll tell ya - don’t make EITHER of them mad.”

“You would know, Nora…”

A ripple of laughter rolled through the crowd as the announcers’ voices echoed from the loudspeakers.  But Ruby found it just a little bit difficult to focus on what they were saying because...the video...it was kind of showing...

“And thennn we have the super poised Weiss Schnee in white, and her partner, aka team captain extraordinaire - the one, the only, the super speedy, Ruby Roseeeee!”

The crowd erupted in cheers at her name - their applause becoming a wall of movement that blurred together around her.  But what she’d just heard - Weiss Schnee in white. Her partner -

“This year we’re not giving you guys any cover!” the girl announcer explained before laughing gleefully.  “There’s nowhere to hiiiiideeee!”

“The first round will be Beowolves -”

“And they look hungry!!”

On cue, Beowolves began materializing from thin air around the edge of the circular platform Ruby was standing upon.  Ten, twenty, thirty, forty - too many to count. The creatures let out growls and howls that sent shivers of anticipation down Ruby’s spine while the crowd gasped.  A large timer appeared on the video screen, counting down from thirty to the beginning of the first round.

Cool, Beowolves, but that was nothing compared to what she’d just learned.  

Even though there were hundreds of Grimm and thousand and thousands of people watching, the only person she cared about was Weiss.  And Weiss was watching her closely - her eyes never leaving Ruby while waiting for a reaction. On the outside, Weiss looked calm, but Ruby could see that her free hand - the one not clutching Myrtenaster - was trembling.

Glancing up again, Ruby took a good look at the video playing on a loop above their heads.  That was her - and that was Yang - and that was Blake - and that was definitely Weiss…

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Weiss finally called out, raising her voice to be heard over the crowd.  “This wasn’t how I wanted you to find out, but...it took me a while to find the courage to be here.  I hope you can forgive me.”

It was true??  

“Wait,” Ruby said, shaking her head in disbelief.  All the signs pointed at one conclusion, but sometimes it was smart just to come out and bluntly ask.  “You’re our teammate??” 

All this time it was Weiss?  But that didn’t make sense! 

Or did it?

Raising Myrtenaster to just below eye level, Weiss gave a tense, sad smile while the audience counted down from five.

“The best teammate you ever had,” she said softly before racing towards the Beowolves when the timer reached two.

Dumbstruck, Ruby turned to Yang for answers or...something.  But Yang just shrugged and tapped Ruby on the shoulder as the timer reached zero and the Beowolves lunged forward in unison.

“Come on, Ruby - let’s show ‘em you haven’t lost a step.”  

Pounding her fists together, Yang raced off to engage the nearest pack of Grimm, leaving Ruby to turn to Blake for advice.

“Fight now, talk later,” Blake recommended before tearing off after Yang.

Fight??  How was Ruby supposed to fight right now??

The first Beowolf to reach her lunged towards her head, but she cut it down in two quick moves.  

“You guys!” she whined as the next Beowolf disappeared just as easily.  Defending herself on autopilot, she searched for Weiss at the other end of the arena.

Weiss.  Her partner.  

Three Grimm leapt towards Ruby at once, forcing her to use her semblance to spin herself in a series of rapid circles that caught them all in her blade.  Without Thorn, that move had been impossible because the force of the motion tore Crescent Rose from her grasp - now it was as easy as eating pie. 

Turning in a half circle, she launched her weapon into a crowd of approaching Beowolves, watched them disappear, then summoned her weapon back to her.  Catching Crescent Rose in one hand, she swept low then high to dispatch a group of Grimm that thought they’d gotten the drop on her. They hadn’t, obviously, because now they were dead.  Er - or gone. 

Even though this was a simulation, it was lifelike enough to get her adrenaline pumping.  And with her adrenaline pumping, it felt like she was prepared to fight a war on this slick and empty arena floor.

Maybe fighting would be easy.  So what if a bomb had just been dropped on her life?  She could focus on the enemies. That wouldn’t be hard to do, especially with the swarms of fake Beowolves in all directions.  Plus, she loved fighting with Weiss! Maybe because -

Nope.  Focus, Ruby.  The fight!

Picking a clump of Beowolves, she blasted into them and sliced them to bits in seconds.  More replaced them as soon as they fell, but that only meant there were more for her to kill!

The simulated Grimm looked real - and their movements were real - but when they were destroyed it became obvious this wasn’t real at all.  A cloud of black didn’t disappear into the air like in the wild, but instead the Grimm shattered into shimmering pixels that vanished in far less time.  The effect was actually pretty cool - it was like a shower of silver confetti!

Letting a group of five surround her, she jumped in the air and used her semblance to blast herself in circles - extending Crescent Rose to create a circumference of death.  A shower of silver glitter burst into the air before her feet even touched the ground.

Beowolves were pieces of cake.  Not literally, although that’d be much more scrumptious.  But they were easy to slice through - like butter! With every jab and pull and spin, more fell.  More replaced them, but then they fell as well.

In a brief interlude, Ruby picked out her teammates to make sure no one needed help.  Blake and Yang were fighting together, and Weiss - Weiss froze a line of eight Grimm to the ground before using a glyph to shoot through them like an arrow.

So cool.  That was Ruby’s partner.  

Oh!  Should she be fighting next to Weiss, like Yang was with Blake?  The plan had been everyone for themselves, but partners stuck together, right?

Spooling up her semblance, she decided that maybe she’d take a lap around the arena and see if Weiss needed any help.  It was pretty obvious that she didn’t, but Ruby could still offer, right?

Crouching her knees before blasting towards the nearest Beowolf, she destroyed it with a single slash of Crescent Rose before continuing in an arcing path that swept her through as many Grimm as possible before nearing the side of the platform Weiss had on lockdown.  

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby noticed a huge group of Beowolves spawn in the middle of the map and race towards Yang and Blake.  Figuring that her sister had that situation under control, Ruby cut through another Beowolf and flew towards an isolated group of three at full speed.

Lifting Crescent Rose into an attack position, Ruby was just about to take care of this last section of Grimm when they suddenly disappeared - and left Weiss standing in their place.  

Slamming on the brakes, Ruby tried and failed to stop in time - and collided with Weiss instead.  Not hard enough to knock her over or anything! But hard enough that it was a weird forced hug of sorts.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ruby mumbled while quickly separating herself from Weiss and blushing profusely.  

That had been a lot of touching…

“It’s alright,” Weiss replied with a blush of her own before briefly turning away and scanning for more enemies - although there were none nearby since she’d just cleaned up the last of them without Ruby’s delayed attempt to help.

After staring at each other for a second too long, they both flinched in surprise when a massive explosion shook the arena.  Turning towards the sound, Ruby watched a giant fireball shooting into the air - taking the rest of the Beowolves with it while a loud chime rang out.  Glancing up, she saw that their countdown timer had stopped as well.

Apparently, the Grimm got a little too close to Yang.

“Kaboom!!  I told you not to make her angry!”

“Er...good job!” Ruby said to Weiss while Blake and Yang regrouped with them for the next stage.  

Wow, she felt awkward.  About as awkward as Weiss currently looked while rubbing at her elbow.

“Thank you…”

Ruby’s focus had been so tunneled in on the Grimm that her attention to the rest of the stadium had faded to the background.  Now that the enemies were gone, the noise of the crowd came back to her ears - cheering and clapping and whistles of appreciation.

“This one time I beat Yang in an arm-wrestling competition.  She was so mad, she pushed over a wall in the cafeteria!” 

“Nora, that was you.” 

“I demand a rematch!”

When the crowd laughed, Yang chuckled - her eyes still red from battle as she swung her arms back and forth.  

“How’re you doing?” she asked Ruby.

How was she doing?  Well, there was that whole Weiss thing, but when they only had thirty seconds until the next round started - time that was already ticking away - right now didn’t seem like the best moment to talk about that.

“That was great!” she said instead, focusing on the fight and not all that other stuff. 

She’d been worried about making a fool of herself or getting them disqualified in the first round, but they’d made it through no problem!  And now her veins were practically vibrating with energy. So much adrenaline!! That first round hadn’t been bad either - it was actually pretty easy!

“Team RWBY breezes through round one, as expected.”

“I’d say Team RWBY ‘schneezed’ through round one!”

“No, Nora.  We’re not doing that today.”

“What’s next?” Ruby asked while bouncing on her toes.  She was ready for more pretend Grimm - or something to keep her mind occupied for a bit longer.

Low, dangerous growls were her answer - the deep rumblings causing the crowd to collectively draw in a breath.  Pumping one fist, Yang then pointed over Ruby’s shoulder. 

“Hell yeah!  Ursa!”

On the bright side, at least someone was excited to see the rows and rows of giant, towering Grimm with cinder blocks for paws.  Seriously, their claws were probably longer than Ruby’s arm. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but not by much!

“Those are big…” she muttered to herself, clutching Crescent Rose in anticipation while the Ursa shook their heads and sniffed the air before letting out more growls that sounded really, really angry.  

Big was only a good thing when used to describe pieces of cake or bowls of ice cream.  Big Grimm usually meant powerful Grimm. And powerful Grimm meant hard to kill Grimm.

“They’re clumsy and slow.”

Turning to her right, Ruby was surprised to find Weiss standing near her elbow.  Not too close, but close enough that it would look like they were standing together to an outside observer.  

Because they were standing together!  And why was it surprising that Weiss was here?  Of course she was here! She’d come to fight with Ruby, just like Ruby wanted.  

But she’d also wanted to meet her partner - which she’d already done like forever ago when Weiss showed up at dinner.

Ugh.  This was so confusing. 

“Uh, well I hope so!” Ruby replied, sparing a quick glance towards the rapidly disappearing time until the potentially-deadly Grimm decided standing around wasn’t fun anymore.  

Turning to the side, Weiss gave Ruby a small smile.

“Use your semblance to get behind them, and you’ll be just fine.  Promise.”

Wow, that was super easy.  With one simple promise, Weiss wiped most of Ruby’s nerves away.  Of course, she already knew how Ruby should handle the Grimm because - yeah, nevermind that for now.  Use her semblance, get behind them. Sounded like a piece of cake!

“Thank you, Weiss!” she replied with a grin.  Her gratitude was genuine, but Weiss responded with only a half smile before turning her full attention to the Ursa horde in front of them.  

If the Ursa were clumped together like this, that probably meant that as soon as the round started…

When a chime rang out, the Ursa did exactly what Ruby expected - meaning they all charged forward as one giant wall of angry Grimm.  One Ursa was intimidating...this army was formidable, to say the least.

“I’ll keep their attention.  You guys get behind ‘em!” Yang shouted over the growls and thumps of stampeding feet.

She had no idea how Yang was going to ‘keep their attention’ by herself, but she trusted that her sister knew what she was doing.  Seeing no other options, Ruby did what Weiss suggested - searching for an opportunity to sprint through the oncoming Grimm. Her eyes were glued to the incoming horde while looking for a sliver of an opening that she could burst through without getting caught between two or more Ursa.  The opening didn’t have to be very big. It only needed to be enough for her to slip through - there!

Darting forward, she squeezed her way through the first two rows of Ursa before skipping to the side when the Grimm in back blocked her original path.  For the briefest of moments, she was stuck in the center of a deadly mass of claws and glowing red eyes, but the back rows presented an alternate path that she took without hesitation.  Brushing past several Ursa, almost knocked off balance by several more, she managed to make it through unharmed. 

Well, almost unharmed.  Their awful stench hurt her nose!  That was one added bit of realism she could’ve gone without.  The sounds were great and the designs were awesome, but did they really have to add the smells?

The second she found fresh air, she slammed Crescent Rose into the ground and propelled herself through a quick about-face.  Tightening Thorn when the momentum attempted to separate her from her weapon, she released perfectly and kicked up her feet as she flew forward - drilling into an unsuspecting Ursa’s back.  At the speed she was going, there was enough force in the blow to knock the Ursa into the one in front - three of them colliding and tumbling to the ground like bowling pins. Strike! 

Huh...maybe it’d be cool to have drills or some kind of weapon in the bottom of her boots to do more damage!  

One of the Ursa in the back of the crowd noticed her, so there was no time to think through that idea before engaging the creature.  As expected, Weiss’ advice was spot on - they were slow and kind of dumb. Ruby was a lot faster. 

Ducking under a huge paw flying towards her head, she burst behind the Ursa so quickly that it nearly tumbled to the ground just trying to track her movement.  WIth the creature off balance and exposed, it only took five perfectly-placed blows to send silver sprinkles into the air.

That was her first real-fake Ursa kill!

Most of the Grimm had continued to Yang, who was managing to hold them at bay while Weiss, Blake, and Ruby thinned them out from behind.  She had no idea how Blake and Weiss had gotten through the horde, but they must’ve catapulted over somehow. Could they jump that far? Blake probably could.

Solving that mystery would have to wait because what mattered right now was killing Grimm as fast as possible.  That was definitely something Ruby could do!  And, since they were only simulations, she didn’t need to be concerned about her health!  Well, she should be a little worried...she didn’t want to get knocked out of the round by doing something stupid, but for the most part she could fly around killing Grimm with everything she had!

One Ursa, two Ursa, three Ursa, four.  Distracted by Yang, the big Grimm were surprisingly easy to get rid of, and their ranks dwindled by the second. 

Now Ruby understood how Yang planned to hold their attention - by allowing them to surround her then relying on her strength to physically push them back.  It seemed just a little dangerous, but she was handling it ok so far!  Plus, at the rate they were moving - with Blake and Weiss knocking down one Ursa after the next - Yang only needed to hold out a little longer...

In the middle of zipping around, then through, another Ursa, Ruby suddenly felt her feet skip unnaturally across the ground while hearing a weird clank-ing noise beneath them.  

What the heck was that?

“Ruby!” Blake shouted over the sound of Ursa growls before ducking underneath a paw.  “The arena’s going to spin! Hold onto something!”

“Spin?”  

That didn’t make any sense, but Ruby still tried to search for something while also dodging a huge set of claws hurtling towards her head.  What was there to hold onto though? The entire platform was nothing but flat, white, super-smooth panels.

In crazy unison, her teammates all skipped away from the Ursa - Yang jumping and planting both feet into a poor Ursa’s face before propelling herself out of the crowd.  Blake immediately plunged Gambol into the ground while Yang landed a safe distance away and punched her arm through the floor. Weiss used Myrtenaster to create her own lever to hold onto.

By the time Ruby thought to use Crescent Rose, her feet had flown out from underneath her and she hit the floor - sticking her arms out at the last instant to soften her fall and keep her from potentially breaking her jaw.  The remaining Ursa had also fallen over - not that it mattered because the next second she was sailing off the edge of the arena towards the risers filled with people.

The Ursa instantly disappeared once they slipped from the platform, but Ruby wasn’t bound by whatever program ran the show.  Nope. She flew right towards the crowds - until an ice white glyph appeared directly in her path. Without thinking, she spun, planted her boots squarely on the glyph, and rocketed back to the arena.

Just like the grapes had done!

And, just like the grapes, she was now shooting entirely-too-fast towards the still-spinning platform.  

She tried to stick the landing, but all she ended up doing was tumbling forward before sliding towards the other edge of the arena.  With no leverage to use Crescent Rose, she tightened Thorn’s fingers - causing an awful screeching sound to rip through the air until the reinforced metal broke through the floor panels and stuck tight.  Locking Thorn in place, she hung on until the world finally slowed to a stop.

Of course, her world was still spinning when she got to her feet.  After taking one wobbly step forward, she stopped and leaned on Crescent Rose for balance.  Her ears were still working though! Fine enough that she could hear applause over the sound of one of the announcers giggling. 

“They had NO idea that was coming!”

“Ruby almost flew into the stands, but got last-second help from her partner.”

Upon hearing the word, Ruby immediately sought out Weiss - finding that she was walking over to join them.  Each step looked like it was measured, as if she was trying not to stumble like Ruby knew she would if she tried to walk right now.  Blake was walking normally, of course, but her balance was crazy good. And Yang was stumbling, but she made it to Ruby first.

“Should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy,” Yang huffed while dusting debris from her hand.

“That’s probably what got the first team,” Blake added before her eyes drifted up to the clock and then back to Yang.  “We need to be ready for it to happen again. Or else Ruby will get to say ‘hello’ to her fans.”

“I mean, that’s fine with me!  But I’d rather no land in someone’s nachos!” Ruby answered before laughing and turning to a rather silent Weiss.  “Thanks for the assist, Weiss. You really saved me there!”

“Of course, Ruby,” Weiss answered with a smile and small nod.

“This is pretty easy!” Ruby observed, avoiding that topic while swinging Crescent Rose from side-to-side.  “I kinda thought we’d get knocked out already!”

“The first two rounds are usually easy.  This is where it gets interesting.”

As Blake spoke, two giant creatures began to form on the arena floor - one on either side of them.  Coiled like garden hoses, the Grimm grew larger and larger by the second. Their identity was revealed when unmistakable forked tongues, huge fangs, and red eyes appeared.  Ruby’s own eyes followed the snakeheads as they rose high into the air, towering above the arena floor and weaving back and forth while locking onto her and her teammates as prey.

“Oh...my...god…” she breathed out.  

It was a King Taijitu.  Two of them. And they were huge.  Like really, really, really huge.

“Ohhh Ruby loves these!” 

Ruby turned towards the speakers - the source of the commentary - before looking back at the snake in front of her.   

“I don’t think so…” she muttered to herself.  

How could she possibly love these things?  They made her skin crawl. And look at them!  There was nothing lovable about them. Ursa were kind of cuddly, like bears.  Beowolves had the whole ‘somewhat relatable to dogs in a weird way’ thing going on.  King Taijitus had none of that. They were scaley, and big, and had two freaking heads!

“Split up?” Yang suggested, looking to Ruby for approval.  “You guys take one - Blake and I take the other?”

When Ruby numbly nodded, Yang grinned and slapped her on the back of her shoulder.  A little hard, but that was only because Yang was so amped up right now.

“We’ll take the left!”

“They’re fast.  Be careful,” Blake added before turning towards the left King Taijitu with Yang.

“Goooo Ruby!  Tie ‘em in knots!”

The chime sounded, the round started, and Ruby watched the snakes slither forward.  But they approached far more cautiously than the Ursa or Beowolves had. So...they were bigger, faster, and smarter.

Eh, so that confidence she’d just been feeling was now gone!

“They’re fast, but you’re faster,” Weiss said quietly while they watched and waited.  “You can do this, Ruby.”

Without another word, Weiss slid smoothly to one side, drawing the attention of the white snake’s head.  The black snake remained focused on Ruby - unnervingly, unblinkingly focused. When she took a step to one side, the head moved with her.  Moving to the other side, again it followed. Unlike the Ursa and Beowolves, this Grimm was waiting for her to attack first. It wasn’t going to throw itself at her willy-nilly - it was strategizing as much as she was.

Which was interesting.  That meant she’d have to outthink it.  This wasn’t just plowing through Grimm fodder - this was a game of who’s smarter.  That did make this a bit more fun than the first two rounds - strategery was always fun!

When Weiss was in place on the opposite side of Ruby, the King Taijitu stopped moving with both heads trained on them.  They were standing just outside of where the snakes could lash out and reach them. At least, she hoped they were standing far enough away.

But time was wasting away.  They needed to get this done fast, but she didn’t want to rush into anything and get destroyed!  The sound of shotgun blasts rang out from behind her, interspersed with rapid bullets and an occasional hiss of anger while the crowd cheered in earnest.  Yang and Blake had just engaged their King T. - now it was time for Ruby to stop waiting!

Tie them in knots...actually, that was a good idea.  If they were fast, maybe they were too fast.  That was a problem she had a lot of the time.  That’s why she ran into stuff a lot (at least, that’s the excuse she used).

With red eyes trained on her, she began jogging in a slow circle around the beast.  The eyes followed as the head swiveled to track her progress. The white snake’s head hardly acknowledged her when she passed behind Weiss, but the black snake trailed her the entire time.  Perfect.

Picking up the pace for the next lap and moving within striking distance, Ruby kept a lookout for the incoming attack out of the corner of the eye.  Another lap was made without incident, so she moved even closer and hoped that Weiss understood what she was trying to do. The bait had to be perfectly timed…

Fangs suddenly shot out towards her - faster than she’d expected, but thankfully not fast enough that she couldn’t blast forward out of the way.  The King Taijitu flew past behind her and immediately turned to follow as she raced towards Weiss. 

Right on cue - even though there’d been no cue - Weiss feinted forward and taunted the white head into an attack.  When it flashed forward, both of them dove out of the way and the two heads collided together with a smack. Rolling back to her feet, Ruby briefly smiled when the sound of laughter reached her ears - but there wasn’t time for much else as the giant snake struggled to reorient itself, shaking both heads and hissing in very loud, very scary anger.

“Don’t give it time!” Weiss shouted while sending streams of red Dust towards the eyes to prevent them from locking on again.  Nodding, Ruby raced towards the creature at its nearest point to her - prepared to attack.

That’s when she heard it again - a clank as her feet stuttered against the ground.  

This time she reacted instantly, slamming Crescent Rose into the ground and locking Thorn in place as the floor suddenly spun in the opposite direction as before.  This instance was much shorter than the first, and she released herself the second the platform stopped - timing it perfectly and propelling herself straight towards the white King Taijitu with Crescent Rose raised in greeting.  The Grimm jerked backward as she slashed at it - making her miss by mere inches before her feet jumped again.

Leaping away as a set of fangs whipped past her ear, she waited until the last possible second to plant Crescent Rose in the ground as the arena spun - using the momentum to swing herself around and launch herself back to the creature the instant she’d lined up the perfect trajectory.  

The arena was still in motion - the King Taijitus ducking their heads while spinning in a rapid circle - and Ruby was now flying through the air as one of the creatures unwittingly approached her path.  

A matter of milliseconds before they collided together, one red eye locked onto her and immediately attacked.  A giant mouth snapped towards her - jaws open, fangs fully extended.

Drawing Crescent Rose back, she flung the weapon forward and watched it slice through the soft, exposed skin of the Grimm’s inner mouth.  Immediately recalling her weapon, a second blow was delivered from behind as Crescent Rose shot back to her and a last-second blast of ice shoved the white head to the side before she ended up inside its mouth.  

As the white side of the King Taijitu began to fall, Ruby caught Crescent Rose and spun in the air to strike out at the black head pursuing her while she fell to the ground. 

At least she’d been planning to attack, but a white blur shot through the snake’s head from below and sent a shower of silver in the air as Ruby landed and slid a step backward before everything came to a complete stop.  A few seconds later, Weiss dropped from the sky and landed in a crouch with Myrtenaster still at the ready.

She looked so cool.  Like a huntress from the movies or something.  It was rude to stare, but Ruby couldn’t help it.  Weiss was so poised and pretty and awesome!

After briefly glancing at Ruby, Weiss turned to the other side of the arena.  Ruby’s gaze followed to find that the other Grimm was already half crippled and had somehow gotten one of its fangs stuck in Yang’s grasp.  While it struggled to escape, Blake sent a flurry of blows to cut it down. In a matter of seconds, she must’ve hit the beast hundreds of times - and she could’ve done even more if it hadn’t disappeared in a cloud of glitter an instant later.

But they were done.  They’d done it! The crowd was cheering and everything!

“That wasn’t so bad!” she told Weiss, both of them breathing a little heavily from exertion.  When Weiss smiled in return, this time it was a real smile.

“I knew you could do it.”

“Not without you!  Teamwork!” Giving a little hop of joy and a grin, for a split second it felt like nothing had changed.  It wasn’t until Yang and Blake rejoined them that Ruby remembered that tiny little bombshell from a few minutes ago.  But this was still awesome and fun! And she was glad Weiss was here versus some stranger.  Plus, they made a good team - what with Weiss pretty awesomely taking out that King Taijitu right when Ruby had caused enough distraction that it was vulnerable.

“Team RWBY has little problem with the arena this time - dispatching those King Taijitus easily.”

“They need to spin the floor faster!  Can they do that? Can I be in charge of that?”

“For the safety of our contestants, I’m going to say no -”

“Oh nevermind, I thought of one!  The ‘RW’ part of Team RWBY will make you ‘rue’ the day you messed with them!”  

“Really, Nora?”

“This is fun!” Ruby said, bouncing up and down while the announcers bantered and the clock rapidly ticked down to the next round.  Not having any type of cover was a little weird but made things more interesting. And the spinning was actually pretty cool now that she knew when it would happen!  Plus, the simulated Grimm were just awesome in general. Could they get one of these things in their backyard? She wanted to fight Grimm at home! That’d be the best thing ever! Although it might freak the neighbors out...

“Ren, I’ve been wondering - could they ‘BY’ anymore ferocious?”

“Alright - time for round four.”

“How do you think we’re doing on time?” Yang asked while glancing at the clock, slightly breathless.

“We’re not going to have much left.”

“Damn.  What’s next?  I wasn’t paying attention.”

Yang was still speaking when their next enemies materialized on one end of the arena.  The yellow stingers held high in the air immediately gave the creatures away - Death Stalkers - a lot of them.  Big ones, too. As soon as they were fully formed, their claws clacked together in anticipation while they shuffled side-to-side on those strange rows of tiny legs.  A few whipped their stingers forward like they were warming up - the speed enough to send an audible snap through the air. Their thick armor plating was pristinely white and marked with veins of glowing red.  

Almost too perfectly marked, but that didn’t make them any less intimidating.  They were big. And something about that clacking sound made Ruby’s stomach turn.

“Weiss…” Yang said, her voice carrying that same warning tone Ruby recognized from whenever she was thinking about doing something stupid.

“You’ve got them,” Weiss replied, lowering Myrtenaster while Blake and Yang flew across the field when the chime rang out.  Ruby watched in dumbfounded awe as the Death Stalkers tried to swarm and collapse on the two girls, but between Yang’s fists beating them back and Blake’s shadow clones and ribbon twisting Yang about, the Grimm could never get a drop on the pair.

The crowd roared when Yang grabbed ahold of one of the stingers and Blake seamlessly separated it from the creature before Yang slammed it into another.

But while they were fighting, Weiss seemed perfectly content to stay on the far side of the arena.  Which was confusing. Why would Weiss want to stay here? Ruby wanted in on the action! Her adrenaline was still running full force, but she also didn’t feel like she could leave Weiss’ side.  They were partners! In every sense of the word!

Undecided, Ruby turned back and forth several times while weighing her options.  They were running out of time, but Weiss wasn’t moving! Leave her here and help Blake and Yang?  Or stay here until Weiss decided to move?

“You want to go?” Weiss finally asked, turning towards Ruby with a knowing expression.

“Uh...yeah, kinda,” she answered honestly.  There were Grimm to be killed, and she wanted to do the killing.

Nodding, Weiss placed her palms together and briefly closed her eyes.  A glyph spun around her feet before swirling into the air in between them; another one appeared further away towards the Death Stalkers.  When Weiss opened her eyes and looked at Ruby, it was with eyes clearer than she’d ever seen.

“Want to try something new?”  

There was a hint of a smile on Weiss’ lips as she tilted her head towards the glyph.  Grinning at the invitation, Ruby bent her knees, spooled her semblance, and rocketed towards it.  

Weiss’ glyphs were like beautiful works of art with so many hidden secrets.  What Ruby knew about them was that they could bounce grapes really well, kept her from flying into crowds of people, and allowed Weiss to move around like she was on skates.

Now it was time to find out what they could really do!

Leaping through the air as she approached the first glyph, she tucked her legs and spun around to land her feet squarely in the center.  Bouncing off, her speed increased - like finding a nice, smooth patch of ice to slide across...only ten times better.

Quickly understanding the potential, she pushed her semblance harder towards the next glyph Weiss had created - this one leading Ruby directly to the nearest Death Stalker.  This time as she spun and planted her boots firmly on the glyph, she pulled Crescent Rose in front of her while preparing to strike. 

The poor, poor Grimm never saw the attack coming.  It was only after Ruby flew past and struck out with Crescent Rose that the creature lashed out at her with its stinger, but she was already headed in the opposite direction thanks to the second glyph Weiss had prepared.  Another attack, and another. It took five total blows to the creature’s underbelly before it disappeared in silver confetti. 

And that was Ruby’s first real-fake Death Stalker kill!  Courtesy of Weiss Schnee, the incredible glyph-maker.

There was no time to rest though - because Ruby was already blazing towards the next closest Grimm.  Bouncing between Weiss’ glyphs like a super fast pinball, Ruby sliced and diced the Death Stalkers wherever she saw the chance.

With Weiss guiding the way, Ruby never had to think about where to go next - the only thing she had to do was find the next glyph, which Weiss had already placed in the perfect location.

And Ruby was flying.  So fast.  Her semblance was spraying rose petals like a fire hose sprayed water.  Really, how was Weiss even able to track anything at this speed? She must have some crazy fast mental reflexes.

Crazy fast and crazy perfect.  The Death Stalkers never even came close to touching Ruby, but she got close to them!  Their unarmored underbelly was ordinarily tricky to get to, but at the pace she was going there were inevitably opportunities that opened up - like when they raised up in the air and tried to snatch her with their giant claws.  Precisely at moments like those, Weiss zipped Ruby down to the ground and flew her underneath for several deadly blows before whisking her away.

This must be how Yang felt using Blake’s ribbons - the ability to change directions on a dime was awesome and so helpful!  Plus, there was this...trust might be the best word. Trusting that Weiss was making the best strategic decision from afar, all Ruby had to worry about was what was directly in front of her.  

Attack, get to the next glyph, attack.  It was so easy. Maybe that was one of the reasons having a partner was so awesome.

For every destroyed Grimm, the crowd cheered - loud enough to briefly break through Ruby’s concentration as a tiny blip on her radar.  Knowing that people were watching only made her want to be even better and go even faster.

Now she understood what Yang had been walking about - they were here to impress!  They were here to show how skilled they were so that everyone could sleep at night.  Have no fear - huntsmen were here!

Spurring her semblance into an even higher gear, Ruby pinged through the glyphs like she was on fire - destroying Death Stalkers in the process.  The angles Weiss chose were perfect.  Some were clever; others were straight genius.  A lot of them Ruby wouldn’t have seen from so close to the battle, but Weiss saw each tiny window and sent Ruby to exploit it.  The gaps were sometimes microscopic, but they were quick, efficient, and deadly. 

Halfway between two Death Stalkers, something caught Ruby’s attention out of the corner of her eye.  When the crowd collectively drew its breath, she knew it was something worth watching. 

Risking a peek towards the shape, her jaw dropped as a giant soldier formed out of thin air - towering above the arena with his massive sword clutched in one hand.  His white armor shimmered majestically, while his posture was poised and ready for whatever would be thrown his way. 

Ronnie - the name Blake suggested.  It made Ruby grin just to see him - with his goofy, not-at-all scary name.  He was still the coolest thing she’d ever seen. 

Suddenly, the glyphs rotated and led Ruby directly toward the soldier, whizzing past Grimm and drawing more and more attention as she went.  The creatures turned and snapped out at her, but never caught more than air and maybe a few petals left in her dust. There was a strong urge in her chest to keep engaging the Grimm, but she trusted Weiss and followed the glyphs anyway.  With a tumbling horde of skittering feet on her heels, she was bringing a small army of the Death Stalkers directly to Weiss’ soldier. He was going to do something cool, right? Had to be. 

As she approached, running straight towards him at full speed, he bent down on one knee and held one giant palm open for her.  Not even blinking, she hit the brakes and slid right into his hand. Now, running into the clutches of a giant wasn’t usually recommended, but this was Weiss!  Er, Ronnie! Ruby trusted both of them completely.

The next second, her feet were jerked from the ground, and she was given a light toss back the way she’d just come.  ‘Light toss’...it sent her soaring at least fifty feet above the ground while Ronnie smoothly stood and took a wide swing at the Death Stalkers underneath her feet.  Twisting her body around in midair, Ruby saw that she was going to land behind the Grimm - whose attention was now solely drawn to Weiss’ soldier. 

They’d lost track of Ruby flipping behind them.  Brilliant.

Landing in a crouch and sliding several feet backward before coming to a stop, Ruby hardly had time to straighten before two blurs shot past her.  With the Death Stalkers preoccupied, Blake and Yang were taking advantage of the weakness. 

And Ronnie served as an excellent distraction - absorbing the Death Stalker’s attacks similar to what Yang had done with the Ursa.  The Grimm tried to crowd around him, snapping their stingers forward like whips while clambering over each other to try to catch him in their grasp.

Bursting forward with her semblance, Ruby caught up to Yang and Blake - then the three of them plowed into the Death Stalkers from behind.  By the time the creatures noticed them, it was already too late.

Or it would have been too late if Ruby hadn’t suddenly felt a great weight press down on her shoulders, nearly forcing her to the floor.

Without warning, the arena shot straight up into the air - the upward momentum nearly plastering her and her teammates to the ground with a slew of Death Stalkers slowly turning towards them.  

As abruptly as the feeling had appeared, it disappeared.  The weight vanished, and suddenly Ruby was floating - her feet leaving the ground as she was left suspended in midair.  Briefly looking around, she found that they were outside of the arena now - high enough that she could see all of Beacon’s grounds in the distance.

Weightlessness only lasted for a second before she was falling - chasing the arena floor back to its starting point.  That’d be all well and good if she was falling by herself, but the Death Stalkers were still close - close enough that they could lash out with their stingers.

Lifting Crescent Rose to deflect a stinger that shot towards her, she was surprised to see a glyph appear in front of her at the last second.  The Death Stalker slammed its stinger into the glyph at full speed and shot it backward at itself. 

So...she was hurtling towards the ground at terminal velocity, but the Grimm was now disoriented from hitting the glyph.  There was no way she could pass an opportunity like this up.

Clutching Thorn around Crescent Rose, she drew back and threw the weapon as hard as she could towards the creature - making sure to account for the upward wind speed and her lack of leverage.  The blade sliced through the air and hit the Death Stalker exactly where she’d placed it, succeeding in separating the stinger from the end of the tail.

When a glyph appeared near her feet, she immediately shoved off of it and went flying after her weapon while tapping out the code to recall it.  Seamlessly catching Crescent Rose before latching onto a piece of the Death Stalker’s armor with Thorn, she attacked in rapid succession to dispatch the creature.

Meanwhile, to her side, she watched Blake rope one of the Death Stalkers and pull herself to it - fluidly looping around the stinger as it tried to attack before tugging Yang after her.  When the two dismantled the Death Stalker and moved to the next one in the same fashion, Ruby grinned. 

They didn't even need to be on the ground to be awesome.

Her own feet found another of Weiss’ glyphs and sent her shooting to another Death Stalker, where she was surprised but also excited to meet up with Weiss.  Weiss deflected the stinger with Myrtenaster before Ruby followed up as fast as she possibly could - throwing herself off of the creature while hooking Crescent Rose around its tail and yanking her weapon free.  

Another glyph bounced her away from danger as the other Death Stalkers attempted to spear her, but...the ground was rushing up to greet them pretty quickly now…

“Look down, Ruby - get ready!” Weiss shouted as they re-entered the stadium.  Doing as she was told, Ruby looked down at the arena and watched as four glyphs swirled into existence.

Out of reach of the Grimm, Ruby watched as they plummeted towards the glyphs.  Timing her drop as best she could, she crouched her knees and felt her legs sink in, as if stepping into pudding or molasses.  Almost immediately after, she shot back up into the air - whereas the Death Stalkers continued their descent and crashed into the arena in a heap of Grimm that quickly became a hurricane of silver sparkles.

Except for one.

Dropping to the ground from a much more manageable height after using the glyph, Ruby found the sole remaining Death Stalker dazed and disoriented by the fall - which it had only survived by landing on the backs of its former companions.

“I got it,” Blake said before sprinting towards their last foe.  When Yang obediently stayed behind, Ruby did too. 

They watched the creature swipe at Blake, hitting nothing but clone.  Its tail struck out at another before it swung its entire body to the side trying to pinpoint Blake’s position.  Nothing but clone, clone, and more clone. 

Suddenly, there were a lot of them.  More and more clones appeared and disappeared in rapid succession around the Death Stalker.  Soon there were so many that the Grimm was blocked from view - the only thing they could see was a massive growing cyclone of spinning clones and darting blades.

A flash of silver and the shadows instantly disappeared, leaving only Blake standing on the arena floor where the Death Stalker had once been.  While the crowd cheered, she gave Yang a smug look that clearly said, ‘There. Was that good enough for you?’

“Wow,” was all Ruby could think to say.  She’d never seen so many shadow clones before! 

Yang let out a laugh that was part surprise, part pure glee.

“I’m so in love with that girl,” she said before bounding off to join her partner.

“A clonado, Ren!!  That was awesome!!”

“That was very well done.”

“Oh lighten up poo-poo head!  That was one of the coolest things we’ve seen!”

The announcers were right about that!  A tornado of clones! 

Watching Yang lift Blake off the ground, it was out of the corner of her eye that Ruby noticed Weiss walk up beside her.

“That was pretty cool, huh?” she asked, her breathing slightly labored from the energy expended that last round.  Weiss nodded but didn’t say anything while watching Yang and Blake celebrate. 

“Your glyphs too - those are awesome,” Ruby added, but Weiss only gave a small smile at the compliment.  

“I’m glad you like them,” she replied with a slight dip of her head.

Urg...were things going to be this awkward forever?  It felt like everything was ok there for a second, but now it was all weird again!  Hopefully this wasn’t going to last for long. They were almost out of time, and then they could talk.  They probably needed to talk.

“As usual, speed isn’t an issue for Team RWBY.  They have ten seconds left for the final round…”

“They’ve already blazed past the other teams here today!  Get it? Blazed?  Ren, you get it, right?”

“There will be one announcer’s position open after this, if anyone would like it.”

“Awww don’t be like that!”

While Blake and Yang jogged over, something began to form at one end of the arena - and it didn’t take long for Ruby to figure out that it wasn’t any type of Grimm she’d seen before.  For one thing, there was no black! It was almost entirely silver and kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger…

“Wow.”  

That was all Blake had to say, which was a pretty appropriate reaction to what they were looking at.

“That’s big,” Weiss agreed with a nod.

It looked like a beefed up Paladin, with far more armor than necessary.  Like way too much armor.  And the guns - sweet Dust, the guns.  The rockets alone were enough to destroy multiple skyscrapers, but machine gun turrets too?  That was way overkill. And were those grenade launchers??

It looked like someone had crawled into Ruby’s imagination and dragged out the most insane contraption of firepower imaginable.  It probably couldn’t move very well because of all the armor, but that wouldn’t matter with the damage it could spray in what looked like every direction.

“That thing looks awesome!  I wanna fight it!”

“Maybe later, Nora…”

A loud whirring noise filled the air as the turrets began to spin, combined with several clunking sounds of rockets being loaded into launching bays.

“What do we do, boss?” Yang asked, turning to Ruby for an answer.

Trying to come up with a plan, Ruby looked up at the video screen.  When the round started, they’d have ten seconds. That wasn’t much time at all.  Their only option was something drastic. And fast. 

Sizing up the machine, she said the first thing that came to mind.  Usually those were the worst, and therefore best ideas.

“Split him in half!”  

Clenching one fist, she gestured up in the air before drawing a line to Yang’s arm.  All three of her teammates looked at her like she was absolutely crazy until Yang started laughing.

“You know, that just might work,” she replied with a couple nods of appreciation.

“He’s all yours,” Blake said, smiling and standing back.  After pounding one fist into her palm, Yang set herself into a fighting stance.

“I’m ready for him.  Weiss, you ready?”

A line of glyphs appeared - marking a straight shot to their last enemy - and Weiss nodded.  Crouching down like a sprinter, Ruby ignored the sounds of the machine preparing to fire and instead listened to the crowd counting down to zero.  Every fiber in her body was ready to send her shooting forward as fast as possible.

If this didn’t work, oh well.  At least they’d tried!

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

The instant the chime rang out, Ruby took the line of glyphs like she had rockets strapped to her boots.  Traveling in a straight line, she opened up her semblance and pushed herself as fast as she could go. She needed to be faster than...well, bullets, basically.  Which she was. 

With Weiss’ glyphs giving her an extra bit of propulsion, she made it to the machine before the glowing rocket tubes were even able to fire.  There was a loud pop when she slammed Crescent Rose deep into metal and jumped with everything she had, using the glyph under her feet to launch herself into the air.  The crowd noise seemed to die away as she used her semblance to carry her up as far as she could, feeling the enormous weight of the machine dragging behind her.  

As her momentum faded, she reached the tipping point.  Again, she found that feeling of weightlessness as she briefly hung suspended above the stadium, but gravity quickly kicked in.  Rotating her grip and locking Thorn around Crescent Rose, she flipped around to face the ground and used every last bit of energy she had left to propel herself downward.  The added force dug her weapon deeper into the machine’s plating and cemented its impending demise. With her semblance maxing out, she steadily gained speed while the ground rushed up to greet her.

“Ember One, this is Ember Two - coming in hot -” she murmured while exhausting the remnants of her semblance.

With a giant monster in tow, she leveled off the angle and tapped her last bit of reserves to burst forward across the arena floor.  She didn’t need to see where Yang was - she knew that her sister would be there as she dragged the machine at supersonic speed straight into a burning fist.  

It was like a freight train crashing into the wall of a mountain.

There was another loud pop as Crescent Rose suddenly broke free, and Ruby immediately hit the brakes - finally sliding to a stop on the far side of the arena.  The crowd was back; the people in front of her had their jaws dropped before they were on their feet clapping - the sound adding to the cheers going up throughout the packed stadium.

Turning around, she found one half of the machine lying where it had stopped dead at Yang’s feet, while the other half lay smoldering between them. 

But that actually worked!  How ‘bout that??

“Wow.”

“That was INCREDIBLE!  Did you see that, Ren? Did you see that??”

“I don’t think anyone actually saw it, Nora -”

“Imagine it then!  That was so cool!  One second, it’s there.  The next second it’s split in half!  Welcome back, Ruby! We’ve missed your crazy self!!”

They’d done it!

When her ears picked up the crowd cheering for them, Ruby grinned.  “RWBY, RWBY, RWBY!” they chanted over and over again while her heart pounded in the same rhythm.  Spinning in a slow circle to look at the wall of spectators, she raised her gloved hand in a wave before her eyes fell back to her teammates.  Her team.

Beaming proudly, Yang raised one fist to Ruby in a ‘success’ gesture.  Walking up beside Yang, Blake placed one hand on her partner’s shoulder before giving Ruby a small smile, ears twitching happily.  And Weiss...Weiss watched Ruby carefully. When they made eye contact, she smiled hesitantly, closed her eyes, and gave Ruby a half curtsy.

There was no good way to describe how she felt right now, as the chants of the crowd reverberated in her chest and her teammates stood in front of her.  Ecstatic. Happy. Elated. All those good things, but it also felt like something was stirring inside of her. It felt familiar...like maybe she’d been here before.  Like maybe this feeling of success wasn’t as foreign as it should be. 

What Blake had said was true - Ruby could feel it.  She’d made it back. Maybe these were only simulated enemies, but they were programmed to be lifelike in their difficulty.  Maybe this had been a controlled environment where she’d never been in any real danger, but she’d still managed not to make a fool of herself, and they’d finished all five rounds in the process.

She could do this.  She could be a huntress.  It had been her goal for such a long time, and she’d finally reached it.  The early mornings, the late nights, the endless training and physical therapy.  All the times she’d been so tired and sore she could hardly move. All the times she’d been so frustrated she wanted to give up for good.  Somehow she’d found a way through all of that, back to this moment.

She’d once been a huntress, and she could be one again.  She could get back a part of what she’d lost.

But when her eyes were drawn back to Weiss, she felt a strange pull at her heart - one that was stronger than the cheers lifting her up.

Weiss - the mysterious stranger who’d shown up out of the blue.  The girl who’d quickly found a way into Ruby’s heart. Weiss was her partner.

All this time, Ruby never even tried to find her partner - not until the perfect opportunity had presented itself.  Still, how had she been so blind? 

In her defense, she didn’t have much information about her partner other than she was supposedly super smart, which Weiss was.  Nothing had been said about how sweet and kind she was. Or how funny or how pretty she was. Or how when she smiled, it felt like the sun started shining no matter what the weather was.  And if she laughed - 

Oh crap.  

Ruby had a crush on her partner.