Chapter 53: Traumatized Crusaders

The Airship was on auto pilot, as Ruby, Deity, Sera and Diamond were the only survivors of the slaughter that had happened at Atlas. Now with the broadcast that Scarlet had sent out, it made Ruby more paranoid and traumatized.

Sera clinched her fist tight almost making them bleed. "That fool, she still wants to ruin everything for us!"

"Sera calm down, we're all frightened after what happened...well, expect for Diamond. He's in mediation."

Diamond chimed in, keeping his eyes closed, "No I am, I am just getting as much information as I can so I could play a little catch up. I did get hit pretty hard in the head before I met these two ya know?"

"Still." Sera said as she crossed her arms. "She thinks Shade will just kindly hand over the relic."

Ruby just sat there, trembling as the light in her eyes had faded. Deity glanced over as she looked worried, she walked over to where Ruby was sitting at and sat next to her. "Hey...Ruby, can you hear me?"

Ruby didn't say anything as she shook, both from fear and being traumatized. Sera glanced over to the two before she looked out the window. "Have her snap out of it, we should be getting to Vacuo eventually."

Deity glared at Sera. "Sera, swallow your pride for once. The White Fang's dead, Scarlet killed them all."

Sera gritted her teeth and snapped. "SHUT THE HELL UP!"

Diamond stood up and calmly approached both of them. He sighed as he spoke, "We can't tear each other apart. That's what she wants. Please, take it easy on Ruby. Atlas may have fallen and we lost people we cared about, and had to make decisions we would have rather not have, however Ruby has taken this harder as she tried to put everything on herself." Diamond looked at Sera with a soft expression, "Please... Take it easy. You'll get yourself killed if you continue down this path, fueled by a blind rage."

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Ozpin said. "I don't think Scarlet knows what would happen if she gets all the relics. Luckily....Beacon's relic hasn't been found yet."

"Beacon's relic is the crown." Oscar said. "I assume, during the fall, Cinder didn't take notice of it's location."

"Indeed." Ozpin said. "The crown is tucked away in what I assume, is still the ruins of Beacon and Vale. Not unless Glynda and the others rebuilt it."

"Let's just hope that we cant keep it there, or keep it within our grasp." Diamond spoke to the other two.

Deity let out a sigh. "How are we going to break this new to the others?"

"By others, you mean Ilia and the other students? I don't know." Sera said. "Probably pissed."

"We need to explain that we did all that we could and we all knew the risks... It's a sad reality." Diamond let out another sigh.

Deity looked at Ruby again. "Ruby. We'll stop her...Or I'm not a goddess for nothing."

Ruby just looked at Deity with her soulless eyes, not nodding her head. Or speaking, Sera rolled her eyes as she looked at them all. "The sand storm of Vacuo is coming into view. Getting this ship through that is going to be rough."

"Ah yes...I forgot about that." Ozpin said. "And we don't have no maiden to clear a path for us."

"Not true." Oscar said. "If my calculations are correct...Penny, Nora and Raven likely passed their maiden powers onto some other people. But we don't know who yet."

"Yes, but it is not like we know who those maidens potentially are." Diamond responded to Oscar. He started to walk towards the front of the airship, "I was told that the Gemstone family worked on weapons, tech, and vehicles. Maybe muscle memory from test driving airships would help me carry us through the sandstorm?" Diamond suggested to the group as he walked. "If not we'll have a safer landing. Autopilot will only carry us so far."

"Alright, then. Let's buckle up and hope for the best." Deity said.

~~~

Diamond sat down in the pilot's seat and began to attempt to fly the airship, "You know this isn't so bad."

"Focus on flying, we would rather not have a crash landing in the middle of the sandstorm." Ozpin said. "Who knows why Grimm are lurking in that storm."

"Agreed." Oscar said.

"Oh relax you two, I'm sure everything is fine-" As Diamond spoke, a Ravager swiped at the airship's blind spot and damaged the autopilot functionality. The airship shook briefly, but Diamond's muscle memory from Julien's mind kicked in and allowed him to correct them. "Ok maybe we're not fine!"

"You jinxed us." Sera said. "I outta pound you on the head."

"Sera...chill out." Deity said as she closed her eyes. "I'm going to try to get Ruby back to her senses."

"Yeah, good luck with that." Sera said.

"Oh my you'll pound me, huh?" Diamond sasses as he scans around trying to see where the Ravager is.

Deity was silent the entire time as she was doing something odd, Ruby still looked like she had seen a horror movie for the tenth time. Sera glanced out the window looking for the Grimm too, but couldn't see much. "Tch, If only I could see out in the sand, but I'm not that type of Faunus."

"Well it's not like we can do too much. They need to be in front of us first in order for us to have a chance of taking them out." Diamond said in slight frustration.

The Ravager came back in for an attack, but something sparked to where the hatch door opened. Deity smirked a little, she looked over to the two before pounding her chest proudly. "Ruby's back from her isolation."

Ruby planted Crescent Rose down as she aimed at the Ravager closely. "You better keep your promise on those cookies..." She focused on the Grimm. "I'm going to make every last one of these monsters pay, then I'll make her pay."

"Hell yeah." Sera said.

"That was rather fast...but what am I saying?" Oscar asked. "Deity's a goddess...so her abilities are far out of this world from ours."

"We still don't even know what the hell mine are." Diamond chuckled, smiling as he moved to allow Ruby to get a better shot.

"Bingo." Ruby said as she pulled the trigger, firing a dust bullet out of Crescent Rose. It went straight towards the Ravager, hitting it spot on. Ruby keep an eye on the back, in case more were to show up. "I'm sorry I spaced out....I wanted too.."

"No, no need to talk." Deity said. "We all are on the same boat as you." She looked towards Ruby. "Scarlet's after Shade academy's relic. We should be able to team up with the students there and the Headmaster, to stop her."

Ruby glanced back. "Shade...that's where Sun and the others from Beacon are." She glanced down at the floor for a moment before she shakes her head. "They won't be too happy about the news.."

"We can only hope for the best, and that's ok." Diamond attempted to reassure as he continued to fly the group through the desert.

Ruby was quiet for a while as she scanned the back of the ship for any on coming Grimm, that were going to attack them out of surprise. "So far so good..we're in the clear, for the moment. Better close the hatch, before sand piles in here."

"Good thinking." Deity said.

"We wouldn't want to be.... Yeah I can't think of a joke." Diamond sighed as he looked out the window, "It's still pretty strong..."

"If only we had a flare." Sera said as she turned to look at Ruby, a grin grew on her face. "Ooh, I think we might have one source of light."

Ruby looked around as she pointed at herself. "M-Me?"

"She seriously isn't thinking, what I think she's thinking is she?" Oscar asked.

"You shoot off her silver eyes we'll probably get blinded!" Diamond shouted worried.

"Well what other option do we have, smart ass?" Sera asked.

Ruby gulps. "I'll do it...if we get a signal back, then we're likely closer to the academy."

Deity looks at Ruby and then at the other two. "She has a point."

Diamond nodded hesitantly, "Alright, alright."

"Keep the ship steady." Ruby said as she gripped Crescent Rose tightly.

"Going onto the roof, nice thinking." Sera said as she smirks.

Ruby nodded a little as she opened the hatch again, she used her semblance to speed out and then turn. Getting onto the roof of the airship, she closed her eyes and focused on what would easily trigger her silver eyes. As flashes of her friends dying before her came into her mind, Ruby let out a yell of anguish as her eyes glowed brightly, covering the surrounding area they were all in.

The Grimm within the sand storm eventually turned to stone and fell from the sky, crashing on the ground and shattered into pieces. The light from Ruby's eyes could be seen from a pair of binoculars from Shade academy as Fox spotted it.

"Anything?" Ruby asked as she came back into the ship.

"Well there's dead Grimm for starters!" Diamond happily laughed. "I also see a clearing! I'm heading for it, you should get back in!"

~~~

Fox looked at Sun. "There's a signal...I can't tell what kind...if it's Ruby and the others. I need to shoot a flare."

Sun nods as he hurried off to Theodore's office and casually took the flare gun out of the Headmaster's desk. He got back outside where Fox was and handed him the flare gun. "Here."

Fox took the flare gun, and aimed it up. He pulled the trigger as the red flare shot up into the sky.

"Over there." Sera said. "They saw the light."

"On it!" Diamond started to make the airship fly faster.

Ruby let out a sign of relief at their attempt to get a signal through, but she gulped as she knew she'd had to tell Sun and the others about the deaths. She clinched onto Crescent Rose tightly, holding her scythe close to her.

"It'll be alright." Deity said as she placed her hand onto Ruby's shoulder. "We'll all help you tell them about what went down. You're not in this alone, you don't have to tell them by yourself."

Ruby looked at Deity. "T...Thank you."

"Yeah! You have all of us! Nothing can go too wrong!" Diamond's words backfire as the airship's damage from the blind spot causes more internal mechanics to finally give out.

"We're gonna crash..aren't we?" Ruby asked.

"Only possibly." Diamond said in a relaxed tone as the airship began to descend fast.

"Uh...they aren't stopping." Sun said as he gulped nervously. "Crap, crap.. what are we gonna do?"

"Chill, we got this." Coco said. "Hey Velvet, time to whip out your semblance."

Velvet looked at her and then at the airship. "R-Right." She used her semblance as a exact copy of a Goliath Grimm appeared. But it seemed much bigger, it's trunk wrapped around the airship. Lowering it down safely.

"See? Told ya." Diamond said with pure confidence.

"Idiot!" Sera yelled as she hits Diamond on the head.

"Easy.." Deity said. "We're here in one piece...the sooner we get off. The sooner we can tell everyone."

Ruby would peer out as she noticed Coco and her team. She spotted Ilia from the corner of her eyes as she saw Sun and Neptune. She jumped off as she landed on her feet, she put Crescent Rose back onto her waste as she heard foot steps coming towards her.

"Ruby!" Sun said as the monkey faunus jumped up and was going to give her a hug, but missed hitting the side of the airship. "Ow...that hurt."

"Me too..." Diamond rubbed his head where Sera hit and gave her a huffy look.

"Guys, come on...we should tell everyone." Ruby said looking back in the ship.

"Tell us what?" Sun asked rubbing his head. "And why do I hear Julien's voice? Where's Blake and the other two?"

"Wait is there another person who knew me here?" Diamond asks confused.

"Everyone knows who you were." Ozpin said.

"About that..." Ruby said as she rubs her arm. "C-Can you...gather everyone up?"

"Oh uh..sure." Sun said running off.

"Huh.... weird." Diamond said to Ozpin as he waited for Sun to get back.

~~~

Sun had came back with a good handful of students who knew Ruby and the others. Velvet hid her face behind her ears as she was a bit nervous to see Ruby again. The Faunus looked towards the airship as she saw Sera standing there with Ruby.

"Okay, we have everyone..so what's up?" Sun asked.

Neptune nods. "Yeah, I'm curious."

Deity let out a small sigh, she glanced to Diamond and then at Ruby. "The thing is.."

"Everyone else was killed by Scarlet." Diamond said before Ruby, Sera, or Deity had to.

Sun cocks an eyebrow up. "That's gotta be a joke...right? They can't be."

Ruby would lightly nod her head. "They're all dead...us four are the remaining survivors of Scarlet's murdering rampage..She killed them."

Velvet gasped as she covered her mouth, Coco stood there as she took her beret as she held it close to her chest. Neptune clinched his fist as he looked away, while Sun and the others were speechless. Ilia seemed to have had the same soulless eyes Ruby did, after hearing the news.

"She will pay." Coco said as she took her sunglasses off.

"Our priority right now is to keep the relic of destruction away from her-" Diamond paused as he thought to himself.

"The headmaster has it locked away, we need the Summer Maiden to open the vault." Fox said.

Ruby looked at the Coco, Velvet and Ilia. "Our....maidens..."

"Excuse me?" Sera asked. "What do you mean?"

"Those three..I don't know how...but it feels like I can tell that those three are the new maidens." Ruby said as she looked over to Diamond. "Am I right?"

Ozpin heard what Ruby said as he was in a long thought as well. "Hmm, yes...she's right. Rave, Nora and Penny all died by Scarlet's hand...and the only three that could've came to mind, are those three girls right there."

"Well time to play guess which maiden you are, if we luckily had everyone think of the right people! That way we could attempt my brilliant plan!" Diamond said with a focused smile.

A/N: [I can't take credit for Sera, Deity or Diamond's character, credit for Diamond's character goes to DeltaJGemstone. And credit for Sera and Deity go to my friends on Discord.]