Amplify (A RWBY Story)

Ryder and the others were training while Qrow was out collecting Huntsmen. Ryder had to spend most of his time training Ruby in hand-to-hand combat. The others practiced what they already knew. In his spare time, Ryder meditated to get a better hold on his magic and to hopefully get prepared to master Teleportation. Currently, Ryder was flying back to the house. He had left the city to find an open field to test out some Magical techniques. He had been practicing with his Magic technique that was like the Final Flash and just decided to call it the Final Flash because why not. Other than that, he's practiced his other magic techniques such as a barrier technique for defense. He left the Dragon Balls at the house in his room that he was given after Ozpin convinced him. 

Now he was returning to the house after some training. When he reached the house, he dropped from the sky and did a hero landing in front of the front door. 

"Nailed it." Ryder whispered. 

He pushed himself to stand up straight before he turned to the door to head inside. As he opened the door, he stepped inside. But the second he stepped inside, he was stunned. Standing before him was two people he didn't expect to see. Yang and Weiss. Ruby, Yang and Weiss were hugging each other. Qrow turned his head to Ryder. He was about to ask Ryder about his training but saw the look in his eyes and knew he wouldn't get an answer. Ryder shut the door, and it caught their attention. Yang, Weiss and Ruby broke the hug and looked to the door to see a shocked Ryder. Ruby wasn't shocked as she knew Ryder was around. Weiss and Yang were surprised to see him. 

Ryder's eyes were glued on Weiss. He found himself in a trance while looking at her. Before Yang could speak, Weiss beat her to it as she stepped forward. 

"Ryder. It's been a while." Weiss said, a nervous tone in her voice. 

"Yeah. It uh, it has." Ryder said back, an equal amount of nervousness in his voice. "You... look beautiful." 

Ryder mentally cursed himself for saying that out loud. If he wasn't nervous before, he was damn near shaking in his boots now. Figuratively of course. Ryder moved his hand to his mouth to prevent any more words from spilling out as he looked away. All Weiss does is blush lightly before looking away from Ryder as well. 

"Thank you." Weiss said. "You look good too." 

Yang watched on before she lightly gasped as she realized what was going on. Nora did too and she was about to call it out, but Ren covered her mouth and Jaune gave a shushing motion. Yang then walks towards Ryder who takes notice of her approach. He moved his hand away from his mouth. 

"Yang. I'm sorry that I just left." Ryder apologized. 

Yang stood in front of him and stared him in the eyes. Ryder got nervous from her gaze before yang's gaze softens and she gave him a hug. 

"Missed you." Yang said. 

Ryder smiles and hugged her back. 

"Missed you, too." Ryder said. 

The two separated from the embrace and Yang asked him a question. 

"So, how has your search for those Dragon Balls been going?" Yang asked. 

Everyone, besides Weiss who was confused, was surprised that she knew. Ryder remembered he told her back when he briefly stayed in Vale before returning to his search. 

"Only one left to find." Ryder said. 

"And I take it everyone here already knows?" Yang asked. 

"They do." Ryder answered. 

"Will you stick around?" Yang asked. 

"Yes. I will." Ryder answered once more. 

Hearing that, RNJR smiled. Afterwards, everyone gathered at the table to eat the food that RNJR had prepared. Ryder decided to eat with them and use this time to catch up with them. But while they ate, the laughter growing as they spoke about their tales from travels and what they'd been doing, Ryder zoned out as he ate. The laughter, the joy he sees on his friends' faces. Something he dearly missed. Though, he wishes he could've seen it with Pyrrha. Seen her filled with joy once more. Knowing that at any moment his friends could be robbed of joy, it invigorates his fighting spirit. It gives him one more thing to fight for. But then he remembered that he killed someone in Vacuo. How will they think if they learn he murdered someone? He was so deep in thought he failed to notice that someone paid attention to his change in mood. This person was Weiss whom he was sitting next to. 

Ryder felt someone put a hand on his shoulder which snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked towards the person whose hand was on his shoulder and saw Weiss. 

"Are you okay?" Weiss asked. 

Ryder then noticed everyone was looking at him with concern. 

"Why you ask?" Ryder asked. 

"Well, you stopped eating." Jaune said. 

"And you look.... nervous." Yang said, with a worried tone. 

"Is your anxiety spiking again?" Ruby asked. 

"No, it's not that." Ryder admitted. "It's about something else." 

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ruby asked. 

"No. But I can't just hide it from you guys." Ryder said. 

Here it goes. The group waited patiently for Ryder to speak and eventually he did after a moment of silence. 

"During my travels, I ended up in Vacuo." Ryder said. 

"Bet it was hot as heck." Nora commented. 

This prompted people to shush her. Nora then whispered sorry before Ryder continued. 

"I went from village to village helping out where I could. But after I met the headmaster of Shade Academy, I encountered a village being attacked by bandits." Ryder said. "Of course, I moved in to stop them." 

Here goes nothing. 

"But by the time I arrived, the villagers were all but wiped out." Ryder revealed. 

The group was surprised. 

"I fought off the Bandits and their leader who was a Rogue Huntsmen." Ryder explained. "But then the Rogue Huntsmen took a young villager hostage. I deactivated my Semblance as i didn't want anyone to die. But that Huntsmen just killed the villager anyways." 

He hears gasps from everyone present. They looked amongst each other, some of them horrified to hear this. Ruby then asked a question. 

"What did you do?" Ruby asked. 

Ryder hesitated. He looked down and clenched his fists. Everyone then sees a tear fall down Ryder's face which shocks them. 

"I... I killed them." Ryder said. 

Everyone's eyes widen. Ryder looked at them, tears in his eyes as his lips quivered. The memory was painful to think about. He'd never taken the life of someone before, and it haunts him. 

"I killed the Rogue Huntsmen in a fit of uncontrollable rage." Ryder admitted. 

They all looked at each other as Ryder began to have a slight panic attack. He should have never revealed this to them. He put his head into his hands as he looked straight down. Refusing to look at anyone. 

"I-I didn't mean to." Ryder said as tears began to fall. 

A moment of dead silence fell upon them. All anyone could hear was Ryder's sorrow. Weiss's hand never left his shoulder. Weiss's hand then moved from his hand as she gives him a comforting embrace. This caused Ryder to look at her confused. 

"Ryder..." Weiss said. "I'm so sorry you had to experience that." 

"What do you mean?" Ryder asked. "I killed someone." 

"You said it yourself. You felt uncontrollable rage. We understand that you weren't in control of yourself when you did it." Ren states. 

"It doesn't change the fact that your still our friend." Jaune said. "You are and always will be." 

Ryder was just stunned, and his face made that evident. Even after he revealed to have killed someone, they still call him a friend. Weiss broke the embrace but kept a comforting hand on his shoulder. He then let a tearful smile come to his face. 

"Thank you." Ryder said. "Thank you all for being my friends."