Flash

by BunniesofDoom

Summary:

Desperate to escape from Ironwood and the Ace Ops, Ruby manages to do something unexpected-but not without a cost.

Notes:

Just a little idea for a what-if that I had, with some gratuitous hurt/comfort thrown in because that's what I was in the mood for. Set towards the end of v7, right before the fight with the ace ops. Content warning for vomit. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Chapter One

They need to get out of here.

Even through the mess of emotions stirred up by Salem's visit—and the headache still pounding behind her eyes—Ruby is still aware that the longer they stay here, the more trouble they'll be in. Cinder is on the loose in Atlas. The people of Mantle still need help. Salem has the kingdom of Atlas surrounded. And Penny has been sent with Winter to help her claim the power of the Winter Maiden.

The sooner they get moving, the better. But Ironwood and the Ace Ops aren't prepared to let them leave without a fight. Especially after her distress call for the others (hopefully at least someone heard that, and backup is on the one, because this situation has spiraled way out of her control). They don't have time for this. A fight would waste too much precious time, and convincing Ironwood and the others to stand down would probably take even longer.

And the Ace Ops are—were—their friends. There's no reason to have this fight.

They don't have time for this. They need to get out of here, now. Quickly. But how? The Ace Ops are between them and the exit. And even if Ruby could get past them okay, she's not about to leave her teammates behind. Not now, and not ever.

So, how are they going to get out of this one?

Lost in her thoughts, and furiously trying to plan out a strategy, Ruby loses track of the argument with Ironwood and the Ace Ops—and barely notices the tugging at her aura that usually accompanies the use of her semblance. When she does notice it, she briefly panics, both at the idea of using her semblance accidentally, which she hasn't done in a while, and at the thought of leaving her teammates behind.

No, she thinks desperately to herself. We all need to get out of here, not just me. I'm not fleeing and leaving everyone else behind!

And then, in a flash, her vision is filled with swirling rose petals: red, white, yellow, and black. And suddenly, they're no longer in Ironwood's office anymore.

They're in a hallway on the first floor that Ruby vaguely recognizes, one that leads outside. And Weiss, Blake, and Yang are still with her, somehow, staring around in shock.

Ruby breathes a sigh of relief—before her legs give out, sending her crumbling to the floor, her knees colliding harshly with the ground. She manages to catch herself in a crouch, her hands out for support, suddenly feeling as drained as she used to when she was first learning to use her semblance. She hasn't felt like this in ages.

"Ruby!" Yang exclaims, immediately kneeling at her side and wrapping an arm around her shoulders to prop her up. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay," Ruby tries to insist, swallowing hard to try to keep her stomach in place. Her voice comes out weak and breathy, so it's probably not very convincing. Even though she's dizzy, she tries to resist leaning into her sister's steady warmth. She shakes her head to try to clear, which turns out to be a mistake. It makes her pounding head hurt even worse. "I've never done anything like that before."

"You've used your semblance on other people before, but never three at once," Weiss muses. "And never to go that far."

"Yeah, I don't know how I did that," Ruby agrees. "But we can worry about that later. We need to get out of here." She attempts to get to her feet, but her legs still refuse to hold her up. Yang manages to catch her before she cracks her knees on the floor again. Her stomach lurches again.

Groaning, she leans to the side to avoid Yang, and throws up on the floor. This time, she doesn't try to push away from her sister, just scoots away slightly to avoid the mess. She can just barely make out the exclamations of alarm from her teammates around the ringing in her ears.

"You kids need a ride?" Ruby doesn't think she's ever been more grateful to hear Maria's voice. "Pietro and I rushed over here as soon as we got your message. Sounds like Ironwood's finally lost his marbles."

"Yeah, we need to get out of here," Blake agrees.

"We'll fill you in on the rest on the way," Weiss chimes in.

Yang helps Ruby to her feet, steadying her as she sways slightly. "You good to walk?"

"Yeah," Ruby replies, wiping her mouth clumsily with the back of her hand. "Let's go."

Chapter 2: Chapter Two

Summary:

It's almost unbelievable how quickly things went wrong.

As they board the ship, Ruby's legs feel like rubber and all she wants to do is let herself collapse to the floor and sleep for at least a week. But there's no time for that right now. Not with everything that's happened in the past few hours.

It's almost unbelievable how quickly things went wrong. Just hours ago, they were fighting side by side with Ironwood and the Ace Ops, and she and Oscar had been basking in the relief of finally telling Ironwood the truth about Salem. Now, their former allies are prepared to take them down and abandon everyone in Mantle in favor of protecting Atlas at all costs.

No time to dwell on that right now, though. Not when they still need to find Penny and Winter and stop them from taking the power of the Winter Maiden. Ruby swallows hard around the sudden lump in her throat. Hopefully they'll listen to reason—the last thing Ruby wants to have to do is fight with people she cares about. After all, Penny is her friend and Winter is Weiss' sister. Surely the two of them will be willing to hear them out.

Because if she's being completely honest, Ruby's not sure if she's really up for fighting right now. Whatever she'd managed to do earlier with her semblance really took it out of her.

"What happened?" Maria asks once they're all on board, her wrinkled face pinched with worry. "We got your message, but it'd be nice to get some details about what's going on."

"Is Penny okay?" Pietro asks urgently, his face creased with concern. "Where is she?"

The questions jolt Ruby out of her jumbled thoughts. She swallows again, clearing her throat carefully before she speaks. "We'll explain later. Right now, we need to find the Winter Maiden and stop her from transferring her power before it's too late." She's still the leader, after all, so it's still her job to help come up with a plan, even if all she wants to do is close her eyes and rest for a while.

There's no time for taking a time-out, from her duties, not when everything is such a mess.

Maria's frown deepens as Ruby talks. "That's no small task, you know. I have no doubt that Ironwood will have her as well-secured as possible. We might not even be able to tell if the place that she's being kept even exists even if we were standing right on top of it."

Yeah, Ruby was afraid of that. Still, surely if they work together they can at least come up with a place to start—

"Actually, I know where she is," Weiss announces tentatively, taking a step back when everyone's eyes turn to her.

"Since when do you know that?" Blake asks, her tone sharp with surprise.

Weiss sighs. "Winter showed me a few weeks ago, shortly after we arrived in Atlas. She asked me not to tell anyone that she told me, so I kept it to myself." She shrugs, looking uncomfortable. "I mean, they might have moved her somewhere else by now, but at least it's somewhere to start, right?"

"That's perfect, Weiss!" Ruby exclaims, pushing aside her exhaustion as she beams at her partner. Clearly, Weiss feels a bit uneasy about telling them what her sister said, and could use some encouragement. "Let's head that way right away!"

As they make their way to the location that Weiss had rattled off, Ruby makes her way over to Pietro. Penny is with Winter, after all, and she feels like it's only fair that Pietro, as Penny's father, deserves to know what they're headed into. "Mr. Polendina," she begins hesitantly.

"Please, Ruby, it's Pietro."

"Right, Pietro." She bites her lip. "I just wanted to tell you that Ironwood sent Penny with Winter to retrieve the Winter Maiden. So hopefully, she's safe, and she can come with us once we've cleared things up."

Pietro is silent for a long moment, before letting out a brief sigh. "Thank you, Ruby. I trust that my daughter will make the right decision once she realizes what's going on."

Before she can find the words to reply, she's interrupted by Maria's announcement. "We're here!"

Ruby immediately snaps to attention. "Well, that doesn't look good," she hears her sister say as she rushes to join Weiss and Maria at the front of the ship.

It's not hard to guess what she's talking about. In front of them lies an enormous snowstorm, like a tall white pillar of ice and snow and wind towering towards the sky. She exchanges a worried glance with Weiss. Clearly, something has gone wrong here.

Despite how shaky and exhausted she still feels, Ruby is still the first one off the ship once they land, with Weiss close on her heels. They quickly find that there's no way to break through the walls of the storm—at least not without ending up with frostbite—but Weiss isn't willing to give up that easily. With a low growl, she summons a series of fire glyphs, blasting a nice-sized hole in the storm.

As the smoke clears, Ruby's heart drops at the sight in front of her. Penny is crouched next to an elderly woman, her green eyes wide and worried. Ruby follows her gaze to see Cinder, who has turned face them, alerted by their rather dramatic entrance. She's standing over Weiss' sister, who is clearly in bad shape.

Ruby isn't going to let Cinder hurt anyone else. And she definitely isn't about to let Cinder kill Penny again. Before she can even make a decision about what to do, her vision is suddenly filled with a blinding silver light.

Chapter 3: Chapter Three

Summary:

So much has happened in just the past few hours that Ruby hasn’t even begun to process it.

There are so many things that Ruby should do once they return to the airship with Penny in tow. So much has happened in just the past few hours that she hasn’t even begun to process it. They’re more isolated than ever, with fewer allies and more enemies. And Salem is finally out in the open.

They need to figure out their next move. There are so many things that they need to tackle, Ruby doesn’t even know where to begin. Even if it seems like some of their problems are impossible to solve, they’ve got to at least try.

Starting small, they’re still missing a few members of their group: Qrow and Oscar. They need to find them, and fast. Maybe they can track them down using their scrolls or something?

There’s also the issue of Winter calling for backup from Atlas. For all she knows, they could be right on their tail. They need to put some distance between them and Atlas to make sure that whoever Ironwood sends isn’t able to catch up to them.

But what if Qrow and Oscar are still in Atlas? They might be leaving them behind if they get too far away. Would it even be possible to get back in to Atlas to rescue them now that Ironwood has shut down any chance of getting into the city?

And speaking of Winter, Ruby can’t imagine how Weiss must be feeling right now. She doesn’t know how she would handle it if she was forced to fight against her sister, if they ended up on opposite sides. Ruby should really try to talk to her partner about what happened.

She should talk to Penny, too. Ruby doesn’t know the full story of how things went down, but becoming the new Winter Maiden can’t have been easy. It’s a lot of pressure on a girl who was already calling herself the Protector of Mantle, and had already been told that she doesn’t have time for friends with all her duties.

Plus, leaving Atlas behind is probably gnawing at her friend. It had been hard for Ruby to leave Vale behind when she’d left for Mistral. Sometimes, Ruby wonders if she’ll ever see her home again. Or if she’ll ever see her father again.

But now isn’t the time to think about that. Not with Salem at Atlas’ doorstep, and no way to warn the rest of Remnant about the threat facing them or about Ironwood’s betrayal. They need to be able to communicate with the other kingdoms, but the communications tower was never finished.

Thoughts of how they might warn people about what might be coming are swirling in her mind, but Ruby finds herself fighting to keep her eyes open. It’s been a long day, and between using her semblance like that earlier and using her silver eyes in their confrontation with Cinder, she’s completely drained.

Just a few minutes, she tells herself. She’ll just allow herself to shut her eyes for a couple of minutes and then she’ll get to work, start talking to the others about what they need to do next.

Notes:

Thank you for reading! Please comment and leave kudos if you liked it.