31

Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_Jolyne

Chapter 31

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Well. The good news was that Jaune's plan sort of worked.

The bad news was that Cardin was now trying to get Jaune murdered in the Forever Fall after being put on academic probation for defamation and academic dishonesty. 

It turned out that Professor Goodwitch was a lot more likely to believe Jaune saying his transcripts weren't faked when the only person who'd actually heard the admittance and would actually say it was Cardin, and the opposition saying that Cardin was the one blackmailing Jaune with defamatory statements and bullying him into doing his homework and assignments was the entire combined roster of Teams JNPR and RWBY. Sure, his transcripts were fake, but Cardin was also an asshole whom multiple people had lodged complaints about and was somehow academically doing worse than Jaune , who had trouble staying awake in class and seemed far behind on his general education. 

This all culminated in Cardin flying into a fit of rage and trying to plan out his revenge by throwing a bottle of red sap at Team JNPR before unleashing a box full of rapier wasps on them… which…

Well. 

It didn't work when he missed his target of Jaune and got Nora instead, who immediately jabbed herself with a shard of Lightning Dust to power up and thus electrocuted all of the wasps to death instantly.

And then Cardin just straight up attacked Jaune out of some kind of misplaced aggression. 

Ergo, the current scene, where Jaune was bobbing and weaving with notably more skill than he'd shown the previous week or so, parrying the flanges of Executioner and returning attacks by doing a one-handed mordhau maneuver so he could clock Cardin upside his unprotected head with the pommel of Crocea Mors.

Both of them were screaming, Cardin in rage and Jaune in panic, and as they separated even further from the expedition group that Professor Goodwitch was leading (as a favor to Professor Peach, of course, who needed the sap for some… reason), both Team JNPR and Team RWBY followed- or, rather, Pyrrha and RWBY followed, because Ren was helping Nora wipe the worst of the sap off of her clothes and skin and chiding her so she wouldn't just try to lick it off like some kind of feral goblin. 

She really would do that. He'd seen it happen.

Ruby also wanted to stay, but only because the sap made her feel really hungry.

Back at the scene of the "duel" as it were, Yang had started recording the entire fight, making sure to zoom in to show that Jaune was mostly committing defensive maneuvers and using his attacks to simply drive Cardin away, still screaming in a panic as he dodged the explosive retort of Executioner as it slammed into the ground repeatedly and dug massive furrows from the bursts of flame coming from the Fire Dust crystal at the center of the head. Cardin, meanwhile, was yelling invectives and curses, threatening Jaune's death for the "crime" of putting him on academic probation and making his father upset with him, his swings growing wilder and wilder until he finally-

WHAM!

Overextended himself just a hair too far, right in time for Jaune to spring up and shield bash Cardin in the face with enough force that he went flailing several feet to the side and came to a rolling halt with a tired groan, metal clashing and clanking as his armor absorbed the brunt of his fall.

"Well whaddaya know," Yang hummed, making a lopsided grin as she put her scroll away and stopped recording, politely golf clapping for Jaune as he sheathed his sword and planted it in the ground so he could lean on it and catch his breath. "You actually beat him in a fight! And all it took was like four days of intensive combat training and calisthenics! Good job Jauney boy! You're learning quick!"

"Were you recording that entire thing?" Weiss asked, raising her eyebrow at her partner with her arms crossed, wondering not so she could accuse Yang, but just out of idle curiosity.

"Mhmm! Gotta make sure Prof Goodwitch knows Jaune here was the defender and didn't start fighting back til Cardin forced him to," Yang answered idly, watching as Ruby went over and prodded Cardin with a stick out of boredom, the groaning bully on the ground trying to swat the girl away to no avail- his Aura had already been depleted from his exertion, and taking those hits from Jaune over the course of their fight only lowered it further to the point that the last shield bash had almost broken it entirely. Not bad for four days of work- though, Jaune's Aura wasn't much better given how many hits he'd blocked and parried while stumbling around like a drunken idiot.

"Right… well. We'd better get back to class- hopefully the rest of Cardin's team wasn't in on this stupid idea," Weiss muttered, still keeping her arms crossed and glaring vaguely back in the direction of where everyone else was likely to be- they'd been left on their own as a class to collect sap, so while nobody was likely to come get them, they at least had the benefit of being able to handle the incident on their own.

"You have too much faith in humanity," Blake deadpanned with the lightest twitch of her bow, only Yang really noticing the tiny movement while Weiss just snorted and kept an eye on the group as Pyrrha fanned Jaune a little with her shield (simp) and Cardin just picked himself slowly off of the ground with a defeated growl.

Five seconds later, just as everything was winding down, the rest of Team CRDL suddenly burst into the clearing chased by an Ursa and screaming like a bunch of pansies despite it just being one Alpha Ursa and there being three of them. Honestly, it was kind of pathetic the way they all bumbled about, tripping over themselves as the ursine grimm roared and swiped at the air as it tromped towards them all, hatred glowing in its eyes as it readied itself to kill the human specks before it.

"HEEEEEELP!" Russel cried, rolling to a halt before Yang and Blake and barely popping up to his knees with his daggers- Shortwings- in hand, almost missing entirely as he fumbled one into an awkward grip. 

"CARDIN, DO SOMETHING!" came the cry from Sky as he slid to a halt, him and Dove both trying to pick up their leader as Dove used his shortsword/revolver- Hallshott- to pepper the Ursa with bullets that were far too small to actually do anything to it.

The Ursa, meanwhile, just kept roaring and advancing- stumbling a little as Hallshott and Shortwings' dust projectiles slammed into its body but otherwise didn't injure it severely- its rage spiking higher and higher as it attracted a few more grimm behind it- a few Beowolves and a small Deathstalker that mostly just hid in the bushes waiting for the right moment to pounce.

That was, until Ruby just sighed, kicked Russel out of her way, stepped past the CDL of CRDL, and annihilated the Alpha Ursa with a single shot from Crescent Rose- not even bothering to use one of her really big bullets, just shoving in one of Yang's spare 4 gauge Dust slugs and turning the Ursa's head into a cloud of black mist, followed by a magazine of .50 bmg rounds sent into the forest to kill the remainder of the grimm and make sure nothing else was left. She didn't even need two hands for that honestly- she'd re-engineered Crescent Rose to have a semi-automatic firing mode, and with her strength, keeping her beloved weapon aimed straight and true even if she wasn't aiming down the sights was no problem.

"You guys are pathetic," Ruby deadpanned, not even bothering to look at Team CRDL as they stared at her, utterly gobsmacked- honestly, the fact that they looked so surprised seeing her take out a few grimm in as many shots was really weird. They had seen Teams JNPR and RWBY in action during those videos Professor Ozpin played right after Initiation. Shouldn't they have known by now what Crescent Rose could fire? Ugh, whatever. "Honestly- three of you couldn't handle one Alpha Ursa? Yang's been killing those by herself since she was thirteen! I killed my first Alpha Ursa when I was eleven. Ugh."

She growled low in her throat, well aware that it was entirely unlike her usual behavior to berate anyone for anything- usually she stayed silent unless she was playing games or trying to actually do training exercises or callouts or… well. Whatever. The point was- she had no patience for Team CRDL anymore, especially when their leader had shown such a spectacular lack of common sense and the rest of them had shown such a spectacular lack of actual combat skill.

"Never pick on anyone again, or next time I'll shoot you instead of the Ursa," Ruby huffed as she glanced over the shellshocked Team CRDL, flicking Crescent Rose back into its inactive form as she returned it to its place on her back, cloak fluttering in annoyance as her tail lashed and ears flicked to match her general agitation at being near so many utter idiots . "Either shape up or get out of Beacon. People like you disgust me- all of the grimm in the world, preying on the innocent and weak, and you choose to be a bully? A racist? Grow up and learn how to be something other than a pack of colossal assholes riding on Cardin's dick and his daddy's money. Otherwise you're no better than the grimm."

She paused, snarling as she stalked back to the rest of her team, all of them staring at her as well for- oh, right. Not even Yang had heard her swear before. Oops. Whatever, keep the momentum going- she took a breath and flicked Crescent Rose out again, shifting it into its scythe mode with the quietest whisper of its mechanical parts, digging the tip into the ground and aiming the barrel right at Cardin's head. "And you know exactly what Crescent Rose does to grimm now, don't you?"

And without waiting for Team CRDL to make any kind of response beyond a bunch of fearful, pants-wetting whimpers, Ruby swirled her cloak around herself, walking back in the direction of the rest of the class in a trail of fluttering rose petals, coloring the ground behind her in a carpet of red and black and bone white. Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, and Jaune followed a moment later, leaving the four of them standing in that clearing- scratched, bruised, battered, and with their pride irrevocably stomped on by a girl no less than a whole foot shorter than them.

"Ow… my ego…"

Notes:

Would it have been cathartic to see Cardin get mauled? Yes. Is he important enough to the narrative to justify mauling him? No. He got his few chapters, and now he's gone- banished to the realm of irrelevance just like every other side character in V1-3.