Code: RWBY

Turn 3

"Beliefs"

A life that lives without doing anything is the same as a slow death

Mercury

"So….are you telling me that you're an alien?" Mercury asked the older man as they continued walking down the path, making their way to an offsite facility so they might appropriate an air vehicle to reach her Palace. He didn't like the place all that much. Something just felt…off about it, you know, besides the Grimm spawning there. He had asked about the old manʻs story to keep distracted, but he really could not believe it. It was like something out of X-ray and Vav volume 3. 'At least its keeping my mind of that creepy castle…'

"In a sense" the old knight replied. "Though I would prefer not to be called as such."

"But you look so human" Mercury added "You're not something I would think that I would picture as an alien."

"I am human, just not from your world. One that is quite similar in many ways, but much different in others."

"So…like a parallel world, where everything is the same but slightly a bit off?"

Mercury's comic geek side of him was gushing just a tiny bit, but the eye-patched man was looking down at him with a scowl, clearly becoming annoyed at his pestering. "No, our worlds are much too different for it to be what you call parallel."

To his chagrin, the newly awoken member of the party finally spoke up. "So how did you get here?" Emerald inquired, intrigued by the giant man now joining their party.

He sighed and started to give an abridged version of his history. "In my world, I served the great Emperor Charles Zi Britannia. He was a dedicated and effective ruler, and I served him faithfully for over 30 years. His reward was to grant me the position 'Holy Knight of One'."

Emerald was left confused. "Okay, so he gave you a fancy title? What does any of that have to do with how you got here?"

Non-plused, he continued. "That 'title' showed the world that I was the empire's greatest tool, and while I can see war is but a distant memory in this world, for me it was every day. The world was chaotic and filled with those that would deny progress. My Lord yearned to save it, and to that end, I acted as his right hand. Together we were going to save the world from its decay."

"You sound like a storybook cliché," Emerald responded, the story triggering a childhood memory to flash in her mind. Images of picture books and reading with her mother. "…He sounds like a good man."

"He was. Even when his family would fall or stand in his way, it would not deter his path, and he had almost seen his dream realized, until..." Bismark stopped, as his face twisted into a barely suppressed rage. "Until on the eve of his victory, he was murdered by his young son Lelouch. He took his father's place on the throne as Emperor and destroyed everything his father has built out of spite." He finished with a deep exhale.

Mercury nodded. 'An evil prince trope? cool' This Lelouch was alright in Mercury's book. He can respect a kid who is willing to kill his father.

"So let me guess, you, the loyal knight of the Emperor, challenged the royal prince to a fight to the death and you lost."

The old man clenched his fists, rage returning in an instant "Yes. The prince had an agent infiltrate our ranks, one who was loyal only to him. The traitor destroyed most of the other knights. In the end, I alone was left to challenge him. I was ready to regain my country, my world, MY HONOR!" Bismarck yelled through his still gritted teeth. "But the boy struck me down. Never in over a century had a Knight of One fall in battle, and yet an upstart manages to pull it off."

They had almost stopped walking due to Bismarck's rising temper, yet Hazel kept them moving forward, fully understanding his anger.

After he cooled off a bit, Emerald was brave enough to ask another question. "Is that how you got your scar?" she was pointing at a large line that divided Bismarck's face completely in two.

He nodded, "I indeed fell by his sword. I gripped onto life as hard as I could, but then, everything just went white. I woke up on the coast of this land and decided to head this way. Then I met you three."

"Its destiny." Hazel finally spoke up. 'He was sent for a reason. A way to finally win this endless struggle. To make Ozpin pay for his crimes'

"If such a force exists. Then it will bring me back to my home."

"You want to avenge your king? Even if he had your ass handed to you the last time?"

The look that Mercury received made it clear that he should not make such a comment again. "He is on the path to destroy everything that my Lord has tried to build" Bismarck clenched his fist. "He must be killed for his transgressions."

Mercury noticed the pain in his eyes, the anger. It was similar to how Cinder's eyes light up any time Ruby was mentioned around her, but for him, it was more….prevalent.

"Come on. The kid was like what? 17? 18? How much damage can one kid have on the entire world?"

"You of all people, are gonna ask that, Em?" Mercury chuckled. "After everything we did at Beacon, it just seems kinda funny."

"That's was different!" Emerald stammered. "We just exposed the broken system that was always in place. The paranoia and the frustration that the world is feeling has always been there. We just put that information out into the open; gave them all a push."

Hazel gave them a sign to halt. Through the tree line was a fenced in area, with a small outpost base. A Mistrali styled airship sat on a small helipad. 'So that's our way out? Fly low to stay off the radar, and head back to the creepy castle. Just need a way in…'

The main issue would be to get past the guards. Bismarck had silently agreed to go first, but looked at Emerald before he moved in. "To answer your question, I had thought so too at first. He was a boy, not even a combatant. What could he possibly do to stop his Father? That arrogant way of thinking was what lead to my demise by his knight. He is cruel, cunning, and manipulative. All in the worst possible way." He stood up and clenched his hands while beginning to walk off.

"Make no mistake, Lelouch Vi Britannia is a danger to all he encounters."

Yang

Yang was barely able to contain her anger.

She had built that motorcycle from scratch, it took her 2 years to build. It was a one of a kind bike. Also not entirely street legal but that wasn't the issue at the moment.

'That kid stole her! When I get my hands on him...'

Everyone was searching the streets for her bike, but to no avail. 'Just how far could he have gotten?'

Yang's scroll pinged. Quickly pulling it out and looking at it, she saw a message from 'Ice Queen' and opened it.

[Just saw your motorcycle speed past us. It was heading to the entrance of the city. Meet you there.]

'Finally' Yang quickly filled Ruby in before heading to the main gate. As she approached, she found her sister already there talking to one of the guards at the entrance.

"He just came in speeding by half-naked. We tried to stop the kid, but he just swerved around us" the Guard didn't look too happy filling Ruby in.

"Yeah it was actually kind of awesome…." Her buddy sent the second guard a nasty look.

"Yea. Say that after you almost get run over by some crazy naked guy!"

Ruby scrunched her face, slightly perturbed being reminded of the boy's current state of dress "Ok. Thanks for your help."

Ruby walked away from the now arguing guards as Yang ran up to her.

"Where is he?"

"He drove straight out of the Kingdom, somehow avoiding all the guards! Maybe he's a professional driver, or something…"

"I don't care what kind of professional he is or was or whatever, he is taking my bike on a dangerous cross country joyride!"

"Didn't you do the same thing on your way here?" Ruby raised an eyebrow at her sister.

"I had smarts, weapons, and Lien. I was more than fine." she responded matter-of-factly.

Yang started walking off, but noticed Ruby wasn't following.

"What are you waiting for? We gotta go catch this guy, right?"

"Well I wanted to wait for the others, Yang! Jaune and Weiss are almost here, but Blake and Sun ran into some Adam loyalists and now are a little busy holding them off." Ruby started rambling while looking at her scroll. "Nora accidentally punched a cop, so Ren is busy working that out. And I don't have Oscar's number so, bad planning on my part."

"How do you accidentally punch a cop in the face?" Yang asked curiously.

"You, of all people, are going to ask that question? Anyway, they will be here soon. Five minutes, I promise!"

"No, we need to go now, before he gets away!" she wasn't going to let her bike fall in the hands of a questionable stranger. Bumblebee was her life's work. She put her heart and soul in creating that bike.

"But the sun is setting, and he is out there in Grimm territory. It would be kinda hard to track and catch him with just us. Besides, it's not like you have a tracker embedded in your bike."

Yang stayed quiet for a few moments; her face blank. Ruby blinked and immediately facepalmed. "You have a tracker on the bike, don't you."

She did, she had completely forgotten about it. In her defense, that guy pissed her off.

She took her scroll out of her pocket and opened the tracker app. Unlike regular communication connecting to the CCT, the device resonates with Yang's scroll directly. The range was a short but maybe…. 'And he is still in range. Perfect'

"He's not that far. Just a couple of clicks out of the city, and he has..." Yang looked closer at the readout. "Stopped moving?"

She looked Ruby who seemed just as confused as she was. 'After all the effort he made to get out of the city, why the hell would he just stop not even that far away? He run out of gas? I could have swore I topped it off….' Yang outwardly kept calm, but her mind started thinking up worse scenarios. 'Maybe she broke down? No no no! I can't think like that! He stopped. Let's just get there and find him. And punch the bastard right across his pointy chin.'

"Okay, Im gonna send the coordinates to the others so we can….wahhh!" Yang grabbed Ruby by the hood, dragging her out of the main gate. Ruby eventually relented and Yang let her go. The two of them broke into a full-on sprint as they ran to the spot their naked friend seemed to be sitting at. They had to hurry, the sun had just begun to dip into the horizon, and the surrounding forest began to reach over the sky, blocking out the light from the moon.

Fortunately, the roads out of the city were properly lit, but that would only go so far. They couldn't let that get their guard down. With what has been happening these past few days, more Grimm are roaming around the city's outskirts, looking for a meal.

They had no idea how long she was running, but eventually, they got to the place where the signal stopped, at a fork in the road. Yang got to the fork first, looked around, and saw something that shocked her to her very core. 'No no nonononono!'

There on the fork was her precious bumblebee in a complete wreck.

"NOOOOO!" Yang rushed over to her bike, scanning the wreckage to see the scope of the damage. The paint job was scratched on one side, and riddled with dents. Hopefully that was the scope of the problem. She was so focused on the bike that she didn't hear Ruby approach.

"I heard you scream, what happened!? Are you okay?! Did you find him?!" She looked down at the bike "Oh...I uhhhh….it doesn't look that bad?"

Yang's eyes flashed red. "Doesn't look bad!? Do you know how long it took me to make this bike?!"

"Umm…yeah. I was there you know, watching you build it, helping with some stuff" Ruby said, looking at and around the bike. Yang's eyes glowed hotter. She took in several deep breaths to try to center herself.

"….Maybe he crashed at some point and then made his way here and left it?" Yang said, standing up. She tried to start it, and to her relief, it turned over, but the idle had a slight rattle to it. 'That's not good! I KNEW he was bad news!'

She looked to the road. "He's long gone by now. I knew we shouldn't have trusted him! I mean he just shows up out of nowhere in a place with no civilians? I'm betting he was a spy the whole time!"

"Yang, that's not possible! If he were a spy, why would he have run off on the first sign of trouble? We didn't have any idea who he even was!"

"Even if he wasn't a spy, everything about him is off. He is hiding something Rubes, why else would he have run off like that?" Yang took another deep breath, "The innocent never run, Ruby."

"We don't know who he is, but it is our job to find him, and that what I'm gonna do! It's our job as Hunters to help people, and his life is in danger, or did you forget that?"

"Whatever…" Yang went back to looking at her bike, turning it off and sighing. "He should be somewhere around here; N*** Boy doesn't strike me as an athlete. It looks like all the weight goes to his height!"

"Actually Yang, I think he..."

Yang started going further down the path, not listening to her sister. 'She's always been too nice to complete strangers. Once we find this kid, I'm gonna beat his ass, complicated heart problem or not!' Yang slowed to a stop. The guy was dying, and she was thinking about decking the bastard? What has happened to her? Didn't she want to be a Hunter to travel the world? Save others? Find her mother sure, but not to be this mean to a guy that just escaped from a hospital bed 'Maybe Ruby was right. Even if can't trust him as far as I can throw him, which would probably be about 15 yards…..with a good wind behind me…' She shook her head 'he isn't worth that much rage. Maybe he really isn't working for her…'

At the very least, they needed to save him to question him again. Then she can get him back for stealing her bike, with something a little less violent.

'Wait. Where is Ruby?' She looked around, but her sister had not been following behind her. Now that she was thinking about it both her and Ruby left the city at the same time, but Yang got to Bumblebee first. Her sister had a speed semblance, yet she came in behind her?

Yang ran back to her bike, but Ruby was gone.

Lelouch

'This thing cannot be street legal…' Lelouch thought as was navigating through the forest. 'Driving a suped-up motorcycle is much harder than it seems. Rivalz made it look so easy…' Lelouch could hardly stay on the seat, let alone drive in a straight line. It was only a miracle that he swerved away from those armed guards at the last second.

He made it to a fork in the road and turned left, with some difficulty. As he straightened out, he accelerated too fast and finally fell off, the bike sliding down the road without him. Now he had no choice but to continue his path on foot.

'Damn it! And I'm sure they are already hot on my trail.' Thinking quick, he pushed the bike towards the other road, broke a few branches and knocked down some leaves, then took off in the opposite direction.

Granted, Lelouch had no idea where he was even going. He had no idea where he was. From what he could tell he was in some part of Area 11, but which settlement was unknown. He started going off a list in his head as he went forward. 'it can't be the Tokyo Settlement. It has a long way to go before it will be fully repaired after FLEIJA. The city was too well kempt for it to be one of the ghettos. Could it be one of the smaller cities, or am I really in some remote unheard of country?'

Without warning, his mouth tasted like copper. He kneeled over and coughed up a small amount of blood, gripping his chest in intense pain. It felt as if he was being stabbed again, one of the most physical pains he had ever felt, and feeling for a second time was not pleasant.

Lelouch realized how fatigued he really was, as he was barely able to even get on his feet. 'How far have I run?' Athletics were never his strong suit, but he must have covered some serious ground tonight. Perhaps the fear he felt was a motivator that kept him on his feet for so long? But it had worn off now, and he was left with only his hollow gasps for breath.

With what strength he had left, he started heading up the hill in front of him. Darkness was in full bloom now, with only the light of fluorescent insects guiding his path. He needed to seek refuge at some point. Running all night would leave him exhausted beyond all means, even Suzaku would not be able to function correctly. It didn't help he was going uphill, but he needed a vantage point to try and find someplace to stay for the night.

An old oak tree was standing by its lonesome at the peak of the hill. Beyond it was a sight of the entire land shrouded in shadow only barely illuminated by the moonlight. 'No surrounding cities at all?'

Lelouch put his weight up against the tree, giving himself a moment to rest while he thought of a plan. 'Spending the night out here is not ideal, but there is hardly any choice without any houses nearby. I need to procure a phone, to contact someone….' His mind ran off a few people that may be able to help. 'Suzaku and Nunnally are out of the question. C.C. would be the most likely choice. However, I'm not unsure if she even has a phone anymore…..Jeremiah would be the next option, but if he were off the grid as planned, I'd have no way to actually call him, or I would have to make my way to the farm on foot which would be difficult even knowing where it is.'

The moonlight was barely able to show anything up ahead of him, except for a few lights in the distance. It was a start, though he would still have to be careful. He was still the greatest villain in history if one person were to recognize him than the entire Zero Requiem would be at stake. Either way, he had to get going.

The second he took a step, he felt his chest start to burn, and his heart began to convulse. Lelouch fell to his knees, his scar pulsing as if it had a heart of its own. 'What… is this?' He nearly screamed as memories began to fill his mind. Euphy's body as she fell, the pain on her face as the light left her eyes. Flash Shirley's lifeless corpse, tears still streaked on her face. Flash The Toyko settlement disappearing into FLEIJA's light, Nunnally's face evaporating in a bright pink hue. Each one increasing the pain tenfold. More images ran through his mind, sending chills down his spine as the pain in his chest turned cold and sharp. His entire life flashing before his eyes once again, but not memories of warmth and light, like his first time at death's door, but the searing, painful memories he would rather forget. Flash 'Please, you can't! We may have different mothers, but you and I are still blood!'

Lelouch gave out a cry of pain, and just like that, the pain disappeared, like a summer breeze. He gasped for air his chest no longer throbbing, but his body covered in sweat. He fell on his back in complete exhaustion. He had no idea what that was. Perhaps it was a side effect on whatever they did to him when he arrived at the facility?

"Can't think of that now, just gotta get shelter" he told himself as he tried to sit up. His body was still weak. He could barely get to his knees after his episode.

'Things would have gone better if Suzaku had just...' his thoughts trailed off as he looked towards the sky. His entire body went numb. As part of his training to be a royal, he was versed in all matter of subjects, one of them being Astronomy. As a child, it was one of his favorite topics to learn, the idea that somewhere millions of miles away was another world out there excited him, and he worked hard to memorize the night sky. However, as time went on, he pressured to focus on other areas of study.

So now looking at the night sky and seeing a shattered moon and completely unrecognizable star systems, it finally dawned on him. The technology, the topography, the cat-people, the unknown city that stood behind him, he finally understood. He was no longer on earth. He was somewhere else entirely.

With the realization now washing over him, he sat there, trying to process. Lelouch began to find humor in his error; he then began to chuckle at his paranoia and began to laugh as he came to terms with the absurdity of it all. The numbness he had felt earlier had slowly become a tickle that he was not able to control. He was not dead in the streets; he was not in Japan, nor was he in a tomb somewhere in Britannia, nor was not in the hands of his enemies.

He was nowhere.

Slowly his laughter came to a stop. He looked out in the night sky, below the broken moon and for the first time in a long time, he felt…..calm. He doesn't even know how to deal with that as a small smile cracks his face.

"I am lost" he joked to himself.

"More than you know" he heard from behind him.

Lelouch turned around and saw the girl, Ruby, behind him. The moonlight beamed on her as she arose from the tree line.

"Oh, did my misdirect not work on you?" Lelouch asked.

"It almost did, I just happened to look down the other road and saw the path the motorcycle actually went. Seeing how the damage of the motorcycle didn't match where you left it. Pretty sneaky moving it like that. Unfortunately, Yang isn't as impressed."

"I suppose I did overreact" Lelouch admitted. "Caught in my panic I suppose. If given time I could have gotten away."

"You don't even know where you are! Leaving the Kingdom was the worst thing you could have done!" She then took out that device she had earlier, a Scroll, and looked at a clock. "Speaking of which, we gotta take you back to the hospital. We need to get you help. Hey, are you even listening?"

He actually wasn't. He was only half paying attention to her. Instead, he looked up at the stars in the sky and a more curious looking moon. Judging on what had happened just today, he shouldn't even be here. He was supposed to be dead. He was to atone for his crimes, for what he had done for the sake of a better world. Yet here he is, in a world unknown. Once again, he had deceived Suzaku and Nunnally, though not actually intentional. What would they think of this? I'd suppose they could be a little jealous, me in a new place with new people, or just happy I'm still alive after all of this...'

He thought back to childhood, how Nunnally and his other siblings would often gather under the night sky like this while Lady Liber, the palace's historian, would read them a story. The memory caught Lelouch by surprise. He hadn't thought of the old lady since they had left for Japan. He wondered how she faired since then.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Ruby sprang in front of him, breaking his line of thought; he had almost forgotten she was there.

"Come on we have to get you back to the hospital, to get you fixed up." Ruby nearly dragged him up to his feet as he chuckled.

"I don't think the fall had wounded me that much."

"No, not that! Your heart is really damaged with scars."

"Oh?" Lelouch raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, and if we don't do something soon you will die, so come on we have to get going!"

"Why?" He asked, still not engaged in the conversation she was trying to establish. Ruby, on the other hand, was getting annoyed by the fact that the guy was not listing to her.

"Why? Because you're going to die!" she yelled, exasperated and angry.

Lelouch looked straight into her silver eyes, his cold stare mildly unsettling. "So?"

There was nothing. A chilled silence stood between the two. The cold indifference in his voice sobering as Ruby's eyes began to widen, processing what he just said. The back of her legs suddenly felt weak, not fully understanding. 'Does he want to die? That can't be right.' "You...no" she stammered out, trying to distance her mind from his response.

"Believe what you want," he told her honestly. "I don't care what happens to me."

"But...But you could have family or friends, something to hold on to! Just because your memory is gone doesn't mean you don't have people that love you!"

"No, I know my heart, and I have nothing. I have no attachments. No real reason for living. Huh, how Ironic" he laughed to himself, thinking back to that moment before Saitama, almost feeling the gun barrel he put to his own head.

"Well what about Nunnally? Couldn't she be your reason for living?"

Lelouch's body went rigid at the name of his sister. A slow panic started to erupt in his mind that quickly transitioned to anger. 'Who was this girl, to invoke Nunnally 's name? Did she learn about his identity? No, I'm not on earth anymore so she would not know me.'

"How did you..." He began to ask.

"You mumbled it after we found you. Sorry again for slamming you into a cave" She

confessed slightly embarrassed. "Who is she?"

He went silent; the anger that was boiling up inside of him no longer there. She waits for him to say something, but he doesn't.

Ruby gave an exhausted sigh. "Look, I don't know if this whole 'amnesia' thing is an act or not, or even you if you remember more than what you were telling us, but I don't think you are a bad person. That much I can tell, but your life? Whatever might have happened in your past? It doesn't matter now. I wanna save as many people as I can, that includes you."

"You can't possibly know what kind of person I am." Lelouch told her, the images from his last episode flashing in his mind again. "You can't possibly know that."

"Oh I can. I am a great judge of character." Ruby smiled with her hands on her hips.

"I find that hard to believe."

"Oh, what do you know?" She retorted.

They both shared a light-hearted chuckle.

"It's part of my job, being a Hunteress and all."

"You say that like it means something"

Ruby puts her finger on her lips, trying to think the proper words. How does one describe a Huntsmen, especially someone who doesn't know what they are? Lelouch lazily shifts his gaze a little beyond the hill. 'Wait. That orange glow wasn't there before…'

Ruby noticed the glow coming from behind her and quickly turned around.

"Forest fire?" Lelouch asked

"No, trouble."

Ruby grabbed something strapped to her back, a red box-like object. In an instant, a barrel, scope, and trigger popped out. Then with a flick of her fingers, the object transformed again. The rear end of the weapon extended itself into a poll while the body of the firearm morphed and bent, revealing a curved blade. Before Lelouch could properly blink the weapon had transformed itself into a mechanical scythe.

'So the gun is also a blade?' Lelouch could barely believe what he just saw. '….This place is strange'

"Stay here, I am going to go help" she declared, walking toward the edge of the cliff.

"Wait? What are you going to do? Do you have a plan?" Lelouch asked as Ruby reached the edge.

"Help" she announced with a radiant sense of dedication. It was almost as she had just finished a dramatic speech. Unfortunately, Lelouch's heart wasn't quite swayed. They were standing of a cliff that was at best a 30 feet drop. "Well that's nice and all but do you have a..."

Before he finished the thought, she jumped off the cliff, leaving behind a trail of rose petals all the way down.

Lelouch looked off the edge to see the petals swarm towards the small village. "That's certainly interesting."

Ruby

[NO SIGNAL]

Guess calling the team will be out of luck. She was too far away from the CCT for her to get a signal out to her friends. She should have never have left Yang alone, but who could have seen this coming? So Ruby was going into this fight by herself and without back-up.

'Some leader I am….' she thought to herself. She felt that now Team RWBY has come back together, that they would be just like they used to be. That they would have solid teamwork, were all thinking on the same wavelength. saving the day with a few laughs, but not anymore.

If this morning was anything to go by, those qualities that team RWBY had were gone. Yang doesn't listen to her, Blake is distracted, and Weiss is out of practice. 'Maybe I was wrong; maybe the team will never truly be back together again….'

She shook those thoughts out of her head. 'No, we are as close as we ever were. We just need to keep practicing. Team RWBY isn't dead yet!' They had long since past the point of no return. For now, she will keep going down her road, and face those bandits attacking the village. As much as she wanted to go grab Yang, she didn't have time to wait, not when she has a job to do. Sure she doesn't know if she was going up against, but on the bright side, neither do they.

She quickly approached the village border, the protective walls in shambles, buildings letting out torrents of smoke as the flaming embers burned the night sky.

"Help!"

Immediately Ruby saw a woman harassed by a bandit. He had cornered her with their knives drawn, and she did not like the look in his eyes.

"Hey!" Ruby burst forward with her speed semblance sending the guy into a lamp post bending it. Luckily he was wearing a helmet that was a little too small for him.

"You okay?" she asked the villager, who nodded. Just then a bullet came flying by, passing Ruby by just a hair. She turned to see 3 more guys heading towards her 'Oh no. more people!'

As Ruby got ready to fight, the woman grabbed her leg. "My son! They took my son!" tears came out of her eyes, with a face of both horror and fear.

"Go and try to get somewhere safe, I'll find him" she directed the villager. "I got these guys!" The villager silently nodded and ran into a nearby building.

As the three bandits closed in, Ruby prepped her scythe with some electric rounds and rushed forward, knocking the first one down into the ground so hard, he immediately fell unconscious. Ruby quickly capitalized on the confusion and slammed the second guy into a shop window with her backswing. The third bandit managed to get a good strike to her neck right before she shot an electric round into his chest, throwing him into a nearby wall as he slumped over.

She took a breath. 'I gotta hurry. I'm sure they are gonna be looking for these guys' Using all the stealth ability that she could muster, she started searching for the perpetrators. After a minute, she found herself facing the back of what appeared to be a crowd of people with various styles of clothing, all colored variations of red, black, and grey. 'Didn't Yang say Aunt Raven's tribe use those colors?'

They seemed to be just looking at a bonfire in the street. 'The Grimm are going to show up any minute now. Just what are they doing?'

Ruby did not have time to linger on that question when she heard the sound of chains. She turned, and in her shock and horror, she saw men women and some children all lined up as the fire started to break out of containment.

"Listen, here!" a man's voice cried out over the roaring flames. "We don't have a lot of time, so I will get to the chase. The Grimm will be at our feet soon and feast upon all of y'all. So I am going to give you a choice. We are big on choices here in the Branwen tribe."

Ruby quietly made her way closer, careful not to make a sound. She quickly counted the number of bandits. There was just short of 12 in her line of sight. The skills of these people were not much, but she didn't want to take on that many at once. She was not Yang.

"So here is the deal; we here are looking to expand our ranks. But at this time we have so many mouths to feed, so we can only save some of you." He smiled, revealing a gap in his teeth. "The strongest of you."

He gestured to his comrades, having them walk up and throw several knives at the feet at the villagers.

"Have fun."

A chill ran down Ruby's spine. She needed to stop this somehow. She needed to separate them so she can save the villagers.

The closest thing next to Ruby was a stone. She picked it up and hurled it across the street, with the hopes of distracting some of them. However, in the heat of the moment, a bandit walked in front of her semblance charged shot. Instead of flying clear across the road, it slammed full force into his head. The plus side, it knocked him out. Downside? Now everyone in the town knew where she was. '…..Oops'

"Uhhhh…Hi?" Ruby waved in a welcoming manner. This action did not stop the bandits from attacking her.

"Get her!" the shady man yelled.

The nearest bandit reached to grab her, but in that instant, she activated Crescent Rose and jousted into some of his friends. 'I guess I am fighting 11 people now'

They were as strong as she thought they were. She was able to block most of the punches kicks and stabs with her weapon, even with how bad she was at hand-to-hand. One of them landed a solid punch to her face though, that one kind of hurt. It caught the guy off guard. She guessed that he wasn't expecting it to connect. Ruby then blasted him into the crowd of villagers.

"Get out! run!" The crowd began to run in all directions, however, the Shady man was not having it.

"No one is going anywhere!" He pulled a gun out in the air and aimed it at one of the children. Ruby used her semblance and knocked him back before he could fire a shot.

"You okay?" she asked the little girl. The girl looked up and gave a small nod.

'Okay, this is good! I got this!' Without warning, the main guy she knocked away literally bounced back and hit her like a freight train, sending her straight back into a burning building.

Ruby couldn't breathe, the smoke burning her lungs with each breath. Her eyes were not much help, and she couldn't see that much through the smoke. She was barely able to get back on her feet. 'Was that a semblance?' She shook her head as she readied her scythe. 'It doesn't matter. I got to help the villagers!' She activated her own semblance with all the aura she had left and broke through the room, straight at the bandit's leader, Crescent Rose in her 'war scythe' mode.

She let out a scream as a flurry of rose petals charged at him, but right as she got close, her aura broke. A flurry of rose petals quickly turned into a girl landing face first in the dirt at the bandit leader's feet.

"Well Well Well," The leader said to himself, each word like a pat on the back as he spoke. "Someone clearly underestimated us."

Ruby slowly got to her feet. The lack of aura left her exhausted, but she was still able to move, so that was a plus. She looked for Crescent Rose, only to see had landed a couple of feet away. 'If I could just get to her…'

Before she could even move towards it, she felt something grab her cloak. She glanced back and saw another bandit had hold of her.

"Ahh, Gray" the leader said standing just a couple of feet away from them, slowly making his way back to the fire. "Thanks for nabbing that one for us. She has caused us a lot of issues" The leader looked back behind him and shouted. "Go and find any stragglers." He then gestured to Ruby "And take care of her for letting our prisoners loose"

She heard the bandit pull out a gun and cock it. She knew that she was about to be killed. Ruby focused on raising her aura. 'I have nothing left at all…'. Even with all this on her mind, she smiled. 'At least the villagers got away. That's what matters' The bandit's leader pulled out what seemed to be a walky-talky and started to talk in it. "Hey, did you guys do a full sweep yet?"

"Yea, there is no one left here its best if we... oh wait we might found something."

"Well secure it" he then gestured at his comrade to hurry up and shoot her.

Ruby's life started flashing before her eyes. She saw all the moments with her friends, all her favorite childhood memories. She remembered all the stories Yang used to tell her, all the games she played with her father, sparring with Uncle Qrow. All these memories came to her like a flood. Yet she couldn't help but wish that she could have done more, to be a better leader to her friends, a better daughter to her dad, and a better huntress to the world. Just like her mother was. In the end, Ruby was content with it. She did her best; she lived her life. Now she was going to lose it to some sharp chinned low-life.

'Wait a minute...'

"Shady we have a problem," the voice said on the talky

"What is it?" The leader growled.

Ruby looked closer at her captor, immediately recognizing the outfit of the bandit she fought earlier. But now the guy seemed skinnier, and his helmet seemed to fit him better than it did 5 minutes ago. And the uniform seemed to be baggier. The longer she looked at him, the more she began to doubt that it was the same guy.

"We found a few of our guys knocked out in the street, but that's not the weird part"

Everything suddenly clicked for Ruby. She let out a small grin. 'I knew I was right about him!'

The leader raised an eyebrow at the walkie talkie "It's Gray! Someone stole his clothes!"

Before the leader could react, the gun that held Ruby was now pointed elsewhere. Two gunshots were heard before the whole world lit up.

Just like that Chapter 3 is done. Sorry that it took so long to update this fic, the last one took a lot out of me, then I had new fic ideas that wouldn't let me concentrate. I promise next time it won't take another (looks at the watch) year to write the next chapter. Sorry, this one is a bit shorter than the other chapters but I like to think it has more character this time around, and perhaps a hint of what's to come. Once again I would like to thank my Beta Reader RandomName3064 for doing such an amazing job looking through this story. He has done an amazing job all around, props to you my dude.

speaking of which

RandomName3064: thanks for waiting on my slow ass again. thank r/RWBY Reddit and Discord for a bit of writing tips. go sub to em

As for what I am doing next, well hopefully I will finish the second chapter of Who is Zero, First Words, Darklist and then back too here. Maybe some other projects in between.

I can't promise that it will be in that order. But I will promise to do my best.

See you guys next time.