Shattered Destiny (ch6)

EARLY RELEASE FOR ALL PATRONS! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

This chapter will be the only one not from Yang's POV. There are a few significant details that need to be addressed that can only be told from Ruby's. As such, it rewinds us just a little bit in the timeline.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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													Chapter 6. Atop The Tower

Ruby struggled with all her might to get away from Mercury.

She didn't know what he'd done, but she knew he was a liar.

Yang hadn't broken his leg. She hadn't even hurt him at all.

He was planning something – his entire team was. She just didn't know what it was.

But she was going to find out.

But without Crescent Rose, she was defenseless.

She took blow after blow from him, coughing and crying until he finally backed off.

But she almost wished he'd continue. She'd rather be kicked and punched and hurt rather than...

Rather than this.

The crowds all around her were screaming in horror and outrage. There was a foreign voice on the intercom, saying scary, unsettling things.

But what made Ruby fall to her knees was the sight before her in the arena.

Pyrrha dropped her weapon and her shield, raising her hands to her mouth in horror. Before her was Penny, crumpled and twisted on the ground - unmoving.

The tears rushed up more quickly than Ruby could register, and her friend's name tumbled from her lips.

"Penny..."

Her grief only added to the shock and fear of every other person in the stadium. People were yelling, crying, screaming...

The next thing Ruby knew, there was absolute chaos.

People were running for their lives, pushing and screaming as a Giant Nevermore burst its way into the arena, shattering the barrier. It screeched and dove down, seeking to kill as many people as possible.

But before it could hurt even a single person, Ruby's friends and classmates were there to fight it off.

She wanted to help, too. She had to. Or else more people would die.

So she staggered to her feet and called for her locker. As soon as Crescent Rose was in her hands, she took off to join the fight.

She was furious and scared, but even more so than that, she was determined to prevent anyone else's death.

She fought viciously alongside her classmates and other companions. There were no borders left between them now. They helped one another, protected one another. Eventually, they downed the Nevermore and finished it off.

Ruby caught her breath, wiped her face, and straightened her back. Her companions were there. But only half of them.

Her teammates hadn't been here at the time of the attack, and Pyrrha and Jaune were gone now, too. Ruby hadn't seen where they'd run off to, but she trusted they were all right if they were together.

Everyone else was baffled, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Who the heck was that lady talking?" Sun wondered. "What the heck is going on?"

"She must have brought the Grimm in, too," Velvet commented.

Everyone was flustered and confused, trying to make sense of things and get their bearings. Ruby didn't move for a while and she simply listened to everyone's panicked conversations.

"What are we gonna do?"

"We need to evacuate everyone somehow. We're trapped her floating on the stadium."

"What about General Ironwood? Doesn't he have ships?"

Mention of him snapped Ruby back into reality. Not because of Ironwood himself. But because of...

Weakly, she turned her head to the spot where her friend had fallen.

The fight against the Nevermore had done damage to the stadium, but Penny was still lying where Pyrrha had brought her down.

It hadn't been Pyrrha's fault. She couldn't have known Penny's secret. She couldn't have known what would happen...

But Ruby had known.

And if she'd just... if she'd just stayed here, she might've been able to prevent this somehow...

But now...

She reached her friend, still lying crumpled on the arena's floor, her legs twisted backward and sideways at the knees, her arms gnarled similarly at her elbows. Her head had been jerked to one side to a degree impossible by human standards. Her eyes were wide open, but there was no spark left in them.

"Penny..."

Tears started welling up again as Ruby dropped heavily to her knees, letting her scythe fall beside her. She hunched forward and cried, not even bothering to wipe her face anymore.

She'd only known Penny for a very brief amount of time, and during that time, she'd hardly gotten to be with her very much.

/It's not fair... It's not fair...! Why did this have to happen? If I'd been here, maybe I could've stopped it somehow.../

Now so many of her friends were gone. Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, Jaune, Penny...

"Why...?" She reached out her trembling hand and gently let it rest on her friend's shoulder. "Why... is this happening...?"

She bowed her head as her shoulders began to shake with her sobbing.

Her companions had quieted their panicked conversations by now and were looking sadly in her direction. For a long moment, the perilous reality was put aside, and everyone took the time to mourn for Penny.

Ruby's thoughts swarmed with memories of her, few as they were. Their first meeting, their accidental meet-ups, the time she'd found out her secret...

She remembered the sound of her voice, her cheerful greetings, her confident comments.

And she also remembered one particular thing Penny had told her.

How she was one of the first models Ironwood had created that had its own aura.

It was just on a whim, really, when Ruby activated her own aura and shared a little bit with her friend. It was a hopeless wish, something she never expected to work.

But...

But it did.

The second her aura flowed out onto Penny's shoulder, Ruby felt some kind of reaction. It was easy to recognize someone else's aura, especially when they were so close. Now, there was a thin veil of it surrounding Penny.

Ruby felt motion beneath her fingertips. When she looked up, she saw something incredible.

Penny's body began to move, her tangled limbs slowly returning to their proper positions.

Everyone else fell silent as they watched as well. Ruby's eyes went wide in disbelief, but she didn't stop sharing her aura with Penny. She just prayed this wasn't all in her head.

She watched as Penny's body finally rested in a normal position, her arms and legs now straight where she lie. Ruby just kept looking at her eyes.

"Please... oh, please..."

She waited. They all did.

And waited.

And then...

Ruby saw a familiar little spark in those pools of green.

It was as though a switch had been flicked on. Light came back into Penny's eyes. She blinked several times, her gaze shifting in and out of focus for a moment before she could finally manage to turn her head. Her name fell from Ruby's lips with a gasp.

"P-Penny...!"

Her friend gave a small smile.

"Salutations, Ruby."

"Oh-!"

Ruby dove forward and threw her arms around her, wailing loudly into her shoulder.

"Penny! Oh, thank goodness! A-Are you okay?"

She helped Penny sit up a little bit and was relieved beyond explanation when she felt her friend return the hug, albeit weakly.

"I am... going to need significant repairs..." she sighed. "But it's nothing my father won't be able to handle. Where... is he, by the way...?"

As Ruby pulled away, she tried to compose herself and explained everything that had happened since Penny had lost consciousness. Her friend listened in wide-eyed terror, but could clearly see evidence of everything Ruby was telling her.

By the time Ruby had finished talking, Sun made his way over and spoke to her softly.

"Hey, I'm glad Penny's okay. We all are. But it's time to get out of here. We should go help fight."

Ruby nodded to him and wiped her eyes one last time.

"Yeah... We should go."

She picked up Crescent Rose, then leaned on it to stand as she helped Penny up.

From there, Ruby traveled with the others out into the decimated fairgrounds.

It was horrible. The once-bright, cheerful, colorful environment was now everything but.

It was dark aside from the flames of multiple small fires. Grimm were overriding the place, and stolen air ships just kept dropping down more beasts that couldn't already fly. Whatever citizens hadn't managed to flee already were running for their lives, screaming in terror as the limited numbers of fellow huntsman and huntresses did their best to protect them.

Ruby and her group came to a halt as they took in the devastating scene. But she was the first to snap out of it.

"Guys!" She whirled around to face them. "There's probably going to be ships to evacuate us, so let's head to the stadium docks! Try to stay together and help anyone you can along the way!"

She knew she probably wasn't one to be giving orders to her seniors and students from other schools. But nonetheless, everyone readily agreed to her plan.

As they ran through the tattered remnants of tents and the debris of broken shops, they slaughtered as many monsters as they could. Ruby made sure to stick close to Penny, knowing she wasn't in the best state right now.

It felt like it took them forever to reach the docks, where another air ship had just landed. Alongside it was an army plane that used special technology to locate creatures of Grimm only and fire at them.

The reinforcements arrived just in time, as Ruby and her group boarded the transport air ship. Frantically, she looked around at the people inside, but she didn't see any of her teammates or other missing friends. Ruby checked her scroll, but its battery was already dead. She knew they were probably worrying about her, too.

/Gosh, I hope they're okay.../

There was an announcement made that the ship would be landing at Beacon briefly to take in any other passengers. But Ruby couldn't just ride to safety when she knew people needed her help.

Therefore, once the ship landed at Beacon to take on more passengers, she made her way through the crowds to the door. She'd almost managed to slip off unnoticed when she felt a tug on her arm.

"Ruby! Please wait!" Penny breathlessly scurried after her. "Where are you going? We have to stay on-board the ship!"

But Ruby shook her head.

"I can't, Penny. Yang and Blake and Weiss could be here somewhere. I don't know where they are and I've gotta find them... And besides, there are still people here I can help."

Her eyes and tone were set with determination. She tried to pull free, but Penny held fast to her.

"Then I am coming with you!"

"No." Ruby softened her voice, but spoke firmly. "Penny, you need to recover. You know that as well as I do. You've gotta stay here."

"But Ruby-!"

"I'll find you later! I promise!" Then, just as the ship's doors began to close, Ruby broke free of Penny's grasp and darted away. She could still hear Penny calling out her name, but she didn't look back.

Her main priorities were to find her friends if they were here, and to help other people get to safety. But she also needed to keep her promise to Penny and make sure she herself made it back in one piece.

Since most people had been at the festival on the stadium, she discovered Beacon wasn't very populated anymore. Not by people who were on her side, anyway.

There were members of the White Fang here amongst the Grimm, and for the most part, the beasts were leaving them alone and simply focusing on destroying Ruby's beloved school.

She wasn't about to allow that.

She killed as many as she could on her own, without allowing herself to get trapped amongst the rampaging herds. She glimpsed several other huntsman and huntresses on the premises, by they were mostly preoccupied with taking out the rogue Atlesian soldiers that had been hacked and turned against them.

Ruby just kept looking for anyone she recognized, but she didn't anyone.

/Well, at least Jaune and Pyrrha are probably together. And I think Weiss and Blake are, too. And Yang is... she should be away from all of this since they put her in that room. So everyone should be fine./

If she could manage, she wanted to try to get to Beacon's detention center just to ensure her sister was either still safe inside, or had been evacuated by the authorities.

/I'm sure she's okay. She's Yang. She's gotta be okay./

Suddenly, she halted in her run across the campus. Her speed had previously allowed her to avoid any Grimm she didn't need to immediately engage, but now she was forced to come to a stop.

A strange, harrowing sound was carrying across the skies. It sent a chill up her spine, even though she had no idea what it was. All she could do was lift her gaze to the darkened sky and wait.

The sound echoed again, and this time it was closer.

It was a bit muffled, but that didn't stop it from being loud. She could tell it wasn't an air ship or an army plane. It almost sounded like... like a roar.

A few more terrifying seconds passed by, and soon she was able to discern another sound.

It was rhythmic, almost like a pulse. But she soon better identified it as the beating of wings.

The next roar that split the air was right above her.

The darkened sky was blacked out by and even darker shadow as the colossal dragon passed overhead.

Ruby had never seen anything like it before. They'd never taught her about this kind of Grimm in school.

Its massive ribcage was on the outside, and bone coated most of its body in plates of armor, as was the case for most Grimm. But this one was different in the fact that it was so impossibly huge.

And there was something else.

As it flew, it dropped down globs of shadows that eventually birthed other Grimm on the spot. It was creating an endless army of its own kind.

The mighty beast passed by overhead, and all the while, Ruby feared it would scorch the Academy with some fiery or acidic breath. The only mercy was that it didn't.

It continued passing, as though it had a set destination in mind. Ruby watched it for as long as she could.

/Where's it going...? And why...?/

She didn't expect to get her answer so soon.

It didn't leave Beacon. Rather, the dragon slowed its pace and took its perch on the side of Beacon Tower. The building started to crumble a bit beneath its weight and sharp claws.

"No! Ruby gasped. If they lost the tower, they'd lose all communication signals.

She didn't know how, but she knew she needed to stop it. Even if that meant she had to take it on by herself.

She gathered herself and readied Crescent Rose in her hands.

Gosh, this would've been so much easier if Weiss were here!

But she couldn't use glyphs now to get her up high right away.

So instead, Ruby focused on her own semblance. It took her a little longer that it would've taken to use Weiss' glyphs, but it was her only feasible option now. She needed to wait, wait, wait, as though she were charging up, gathering her energy all in one spot...

At last, she took off with a high leap, and torpedoed herself up the side of the tower as high as she could go. By the time she felt herself losing speed, she was more than halfway up. She reached out to sink Crescent Rose into the building and came to a sharp halt, dangling there on the side of the tower thousands of feet up.

Just on the other side was the dragon's throat, where its teeth ran down the length of its neck. If only she could fight here on the side of the building, she would've been able to get in a critical surprise hit.

But she had no choice but to continue climbing, using small bursts of her semblance in addition to hooking her scythe into the building to propel herself upwards.

For whatever reason, the dragon seemed to be stilled for the moment, though it did make the building shake with its occasional growl.

Ruby was almost at the top when she heard the unmistakable sounds of fighting. Metal was clashing, footsteps were running, then skidding. Judging by the sounds of it, they weren't on the same side fighting the dragon together.

There was a sudden, shrill cry of pain from one person, and Ruby's heart came screeching to a halt as she recognized the voice.

"P...Pyrrha...?"

She hurled herself up and over the edge until she landed on the roof at long last. The scene before her was scarier than anything she'd ever seen. Much more so than the dragon.

A woman, dressed in red, with ashen hair pulled to one side of her face, was standing above Pyrrha. Pyrrha was on her knees, clearly exhausted beyond her limits, helpless and unable to defend herself any longer. They were speaking to one another, and hearing her voice was what made Ruby recognize the woman as Cinder Fall, Mercury's teammates.

/So they really were behind all of this-!/

Pyrrha was saying something to her, though Ruby was too far away to make out what it was.

She was about to call out and intervene when she was stopped dead in her tracks.

She hadn't noticed the golden bow until Cinder lifted it into view now. Ruby had been on the other end of that bow herself before, back at the dance...

Cinder raised the weapon, but not at the dragon leering over the edge of the building behind them. She pulled back on the string and let the arrow aim directly at Pyrrha's chest.

Ruby didn't bother to think before she acted anymore. She just screamed.

"NO!"

She raised Crescent Rose and fired. The bullet sliced through the air just as Cinder was preparing to release the string of the bow. It knocked against the bow itself and caused the archer to stumble. The arrow fired and missed Pyrrha by about a foot, shooting off into the darkness.

Cinder whipped around, fury burning in her eyes. Pyrrha gasped and cried out to her friend.

"Ruby, run!"

But she wasn't going to do that. Not unless Pyrrha was coming with her.

She faced Cinder with equal amounts of anger in her eyes.

But what Cinder's eyes didn't hold was fear. And there was no mercy, either.

"You..." she said calmly, straightening up once more. "You've gotten in my way too many times." She kept her bow in her grip and began stalking toward her. Pyrrha still couldn't move, but she used her voice as much as she could.

"Ruby! You've got to run! Please! You can't fight her like this! She's-!"

But before Pyrrha could finish, Cinder charged.

Ruby stumbled back, raising Crescent Rose in defense. But Cinder maneuvered around the blade and landed a hard kick to Ruby's arm.

There was an impossible amount of strength behind that single blow. It bowled Ruby over, made her lose grip of her only weapon, and sent shockwaves of pain shooting up through her. She felt something snap, but she didn't even know what it was.

"A-Ahhh-!"

She rolled over in the debris, trying to get up, but she couldn't. There was too much pain coursing through her body.

She was aware of Pyrrha screaming out her name, telling her to flee. But Ruby couldn't move.

Cinder was much stronger than anyone Ruby had ever encountered before. It was almost as though she'd been granted some special power somehow...

Ruby tried again to get up, but was met with a crushing heel to the chest.

Cinder pressed her down and leaned over her, making her sputter and sob. Ruby wheezed for breath that didn't come, her eyes barely able to open as tears rushed down her face.

Cinder looked down at her with eyes void of compassion or pity.

"You've hindered my plans for the last time."

She lifted her bow and took aim. The tip of the arrow stared Ruby right in the face.

And she was suddenly aware that this was real.

She was... she was going to die.

Without ever seeing her teammates or her friends again.

Without ever getting to see her father or her uncle or her dog again.

Without ever getting to know for sure what happened to her mother...

/Mom... Dad... Weiss... Blake...!/

She closed her eyes.

There was a quick, sharp rush of air.

But the arrow never came.

Instead, she heard the clicking of a barrel as a bullet was released.

Ruby recognized that sound above all others.

It didn't come from just any weapon.

It came from a gauntlet.

Suddenly, the weight crushing her chest vanished, and she heard Cinder howl. Pyrrha cried out in disbelief, just as Ruby managed to crack open her eyes once again.

Cinder wasn't within her sight.

But someone else was.

And she was furious.

Red flames lit through her long blonde hair, and a wafting heat coated her skin in pulsing waves of rage and the desire to protect. She stood with her back to Ruby, defending her.

And though she was surrounded by fire, her voice was cold.

"Get the hell away... from my little sister."

Ruby sniffled, as a single trembling word made its way out.

"Y-Yang..."

And then the already-darkened world went completely black.

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A/N: Sorry it was a bit of a fast-paced chapter. I wanted to rearrange some things like how Penny survived, but I didn't want to waste time on stuff we already knew about. I just needed to describe how Ruby got to Beacon and then up the tower on her own, unlike in the show.

But now is where the shit will really start to hit the fan.