Rage & Hope: A RWBY Story

Chapter Thirty Four - The Next Step

In the aftermath of the Fall of Beacon, Ruby and the remnants of Team JNPR set out for Haven to track down Cinder and her allies. When they began their journey, they were joined by Aya. Soon enough on their journey, Ruby and Aya had gone ahead when they were attacked by Grimm. Ruby fires Crescent Rose, but the Grimm pushes her back against a tree.

Ruby: Bad...landing...strategy!

As a Grimm was about to pounce on Ruby, Aya blasts the Grimm away with an energy blast.

Aya: Are you okay, Ruby? 

Ruby: I'll be fine!

As the Grimm moved to attack her, Aya fires several energy blasts at the Grimm, allowing her them to retreat. As Ruby and Aya fall back, Jaune along with Ren and Nora join the fight.

Ren: We need to draw its attention away from Ruby!

Ren and Nora then attack the Grimm, drawing it's attention away from Ruby. Aya then flies towards one Grimm and begins severing it's limbs with her lasers, but grabs more limbs. 

Aya: It seems that strategy won't work. 

Aya then forms a forcefield around herself as the Grimm began to attack. 

Nora: Oh no you don't, ugly!

Nora begins attacking the Grimm with her Magnhild hammer while Ren attacks with his StormFlower. It soon became clear that the attacks were doing little damage.

Jaune: Okay, how do we do this?

Ren: His body is too thick to break through.

Jaune: It doesn't care about its body.

Nora: Plus it can keep grabbing new limbs!

Jaune: But it keeps protecting its face.

Ruby: We can't break it!

Jaune: Ugh, if we knocked all of its limbs off at once and went for the...

Jaune then took a good look at the Grimm attacking them. In that moment, he saw an opportunity.

Jaune: Guys, I got it! We hit it harder!

Ren: Is that it?

Jaune: No, seriously. It's trying to keep us from its face. If we kill the limbs, we'll have a shot to kill the whole thing!

Ruby: Alright! Come on, team, let's do this.

Nora: Yeah!

Ren: Right!

Jaune: Ren, left. Ruby, right. Aya, behind me!

Ruby and Ren departed as told while Aya fires on the Grimm with her lasers. Jaune then turned to Nora.

Jaune: Nora, ready to try out the new upgrade?

Nora nods with a smile on her face. Jaune is then attacked by the Grimm, but Aya fires an energy blast at the Grimm's mask. As the Grimm staggers back, Ren attacked from the left while Ruby attacked from the right. Nora activates a mechanism that generates a current of electricity across the hammerhead of Magnhild. Jaune then keeps his eye on his teammates.

Jaune: Aya, now!

Aya then fires a powerful energy blast at the Grimm. As the energy blast stuns it, Ruby uses her Semblance to fly herself and Nora close to the Grimm. As Nora lands a devastating strike on the Grimm's mask, Aya fires an energy blast at the Grimm's mask, shattering it. After killing the Grimm, they met with the mayor.

Mayor: We truly can't thank you enough.

Ruby: Just doing our job, sir.

Mayor: That Geist had been plaguing our village for weeks. We were beginning to wonder if we'd have to relocate.

Ruby: Well, we are on our way to Mistral. You could always come along with us if you don't feel safe.

Mayor: Ha. I take it you're not from these parts. Anima is a large continent. I'm afraid our people would never survive the long trek to Mistral. It may be safer in the Kingdoms, but we prefer our way of life. I just wish we could pay you more.

Ren: Our previous arrangement is more than sufficient.

Aya and Team RJNR made their way to a blacksmith. Aya watched as Jaune was getting his armor reworked. Ruby then talked to Garrus.

Ruby: You're not going to get something from the Blacksmith?

Aya: My equipment is more than sufficient for our mission.

Ruby: I can understand that. There's not much modifications needed for Crescent Rose that I can't do myself.

After that brief conversation, Jaune showed off his new armor to his teammates.

Blacksmith: He cleans up alright, don't you think?

Ren: He certainly does.

Nora: I still think a grenade launcher would've really brought the look together.

Ruby: Nothing's gonna stop Team RNJR now!

Nora: Team JNRR!

Ren: Still not a color.

Ruby: What about Aya? Shouldn't it be Team RANJR? 

Aya tilts her head in confusion in response to Ruby's response. 

Ren: Once again, not colors.

Jaune: It doesn't matter what we're called. As long as we're together.

Aya: I agree. The name doesn't matter. All that matters is that we are united as one. 

Blacksmith: You kids sure you won't stick around? You've been real good to this town.

Aya: Your town's hospitality is deeply appreciated, but we have our duties to attend to. We have business with Haven Academy.

Ren: We've heard the next village over has a working Airship.

Blacksmith: Mmm, no way to know for sure. Scroll signals were weak enough out here back when Beacon Tower was still up. Haven't heard from Shion Village in a while.

Ruby: Well, there's only one way to find out.

With that, Aya and Ruby along with Jaune, Ren and Nora gathered some supplies and began making the journey to Shion Village. As they left the village, Aya looked up to see a black bird perched on a nearby rooftop. Curious, Aya runs a scan on the bird. She detected nothing out of the ordinary about the crow.  While initially suspicious, Aya brushed it off a just an ordinary bird. For now, Aya along with Team RNJR continued on with their mission.