Not even gonna bother putting a disclaimer here, since we all know that if I owned RWBY, I would definitely make Ruby badass beyond all comparison. She'd be part robot- like Gaige, from Borderlands 2- and have an attitude so cold Hell would freeze over…now that I think on it…what a perfect story idea! Haha! I've just come up with something great from a boring disclaimer! Suck it, disclaimer!
(^^^^^^)
Nora was a happy girl; never subdued by anything sad, always smiling through the worst and cheering through the best. She was eccentric, but was also, shockingly, intelligent. She'd practically breezed through the tests that surrounded Beacon's entrance examinations with a smile and a giggle.
She wasn't overbearingly smart though; no, she was what many called 'prodigious in learning but slow on the uptake'. Essentially meaning that Nora could learn things super-fast, but when it came down to her actually applying that knowledge…she was slower than a snail. In the case of that simile, though, she'd prefer to say sloth. Snails were small creatures, fragile and slow, while sloths were strong, tough and slow! I mean, what kind of creature were they when they had claws but were too slow or stupid to use them?
Stopping her thoughts for a second, Weiss came to the conclusion that her team leader was a complete idiot for hanging around such a girl. She was smart, yes, but when it came right down the combat part of it, Ruby Rose was as weak as a snail. She was slow on learning battle formations, fast when it came to education but slow when putting it to use, and weak when swinging that scythe of hers- which for some reason she could lift without an issue but swing like a new-born getting their hands on a foam sword.
Weiss, thoughts on Nora forgotten for the time being, stared at her team leader with a scowl so dark it actually made it look like lights were flickering; though that could just be the twitching in her left eye that made it seem that way to her. Yang, the tall rather busty blonde next to her stared at Weiss with a contemplative look on her face- she was probably trying to figure out why Weiss had stopped her thoughtful look to glare at her sister, but just gave up as all the thinking gave her a headache.
Ruby, meanwhile, was simply talking to her 'friends'' teammate Nora; she'd found out the girl was strong, more suited to large weapons unlike herself- who, for a reason even unknown to her, had a scythe she just really couldn't wield- and discovered the girl's insatiable appetite for sweet things. Ruby could relate to the orange haired, pink themed girl on nearly every level she could conceive. Nora was, though, while eccentric, smart; another reason Ruby wanted to get to know her- Ruby was weak, she'll admit that to anyone who asked, but that doesn't mean she was helpless. Oh, no, Ruby was quite the manipulator actually, which is the reason Ruby didn't feel any qualms about using her for her supposedly hidden intelligence.
Oftentimes she'd been compared to snakes, to a slithering serpent with a tongue of poisoned honey- of words so gold they shone for those that saw them, but as soon as the gold was touched they were ensnared in the blackest metals you could find. She was manipulative, evil, and slightly sadistic, and Ruby would also admit all of those things to anyone that she met.
Being manipulative though meant you had to act- a lot. She'd taught herself of course, gauging emotions and learning how to use them, react to them, for her own gain and needs. Along with her unparalleled acting skills came the need to play the part of the act- to put simply; if you act the part of a starving orphan or street urchin you'd have to cut all ties with family and friends, adopt a shy but cautious approach to strangers, get yourself caked in blood, dirt and in some extreme cases other bodily fluids. You'd need to wear scraggly clothing, starve yourself to look underweight, change features slightly to remove suspicion of who you really are to people that may have seen you before.
Ruby was the best at what she did, no other being comparable to the amount of dedication she had to her disguises and lies- every single lie she'd made she remembered, every single family she tricked a list of unforgettable names in her mind, every single person she'd lured into traps with promises of friendship and love had been burned into her brain. She simply couldn't be matched, but the fact that her semblance was speed made things a little…difficult. Don't get her wrong, it was probably the best tool for quick escapes and such, but because of her dedication to trickery and deceit, she'd never found a practical use for it outside of when a disguise was blown or her lie was seen through. Even then she had backup plan upon backup plan, lie upon lie, so many that a web was spun so viscous, so thick, that not even she could tell where it would end- her planning, scheming, lying web that she'd spun so much that it had enraptured everyone near her, even those she didn't want to be caught in it. Oh well, she supposed, a spider does not choose its prey, but rather the insect stupid enough to walk near the web it had spun.
For the look of her body as it was- quite underdeveloped if the lack of breasts upon her chest was anything to take into consideration- she decided for Beacon that the 'snivelling, young upstart with a heart of gold and foolish ideals' would be her web this time. She'd even enraptured her sister in it, her teammates, her teammates' friends, the teachers, students, and even somehow her own father- the headmaster Ozpin knew of what she was doing of course, he wasn't as stupid not to see through her acting, but he did commend her on it and as long as no one got hurt she could do with them as she pleased. She was physically weak, having honed her mind so much that her body became neglected- not the smartest choice on her half, considering her more than stellar intelligence, but she'd long gotten over the little insight and just stuck to training her mind. The body was weak, sure, but why not trick those into thinking a weak body meant a weak mind and constitution? She was strong of mind and spirit, and that's all that mattered to her.
Nora was simply a means to keep her act up- she came to her, asked for help, and here the girl was being surprisingly serious while giving out tips when Ruby made a mistake or asked a question that related to working. Any other time though the girl was…well, animated would be the word- she would talk and talk and talk with seemingly no end to it, all the while punctuating her words with arms being flung around and her mouth somehow moving so fast it blurred.
The real reason, though, aside from using her of course, was that Ruby was fascinated- this girl could talk everyone's ears off and still they would listen. Quite frankly it unnerved her how Nora could simply smile, babble inanely, and somehow get away with almost everything- she says almost, because the other times Ruby had to lie for her.
She wasn't the only person here with sinister motives- no, that Cinder girl that she'd 'accidentally' bumped into became an object that needed thorough attention, otherwise it would kill you and disappear into the night like a phantom. She knew who Cinder was, and after seeing her with the rest of her 'team' creeping around Beacon acting the lost little lambs Ruby put on the smile and 'bumped' into her. She could see the green haired girl's eyes widen as Ruby used this opportunity to pick Cinder's pockets for information, a mischievous smile being directed at the two behind her target. The silver haired boy seemed intrigued, the green haired girl slightly envious, and Cinder none the wiser. Well, at the time she wasn't. but now Ruby would bet one thousand Lien that the woman's team had ratted her out.
She has a plan for that.
Turning back to Nora and stepping out of her thoughts, Ruby noticed the girl had continued to talk even after five minutes of Ruby thinking- she needed to do something stupid, right now. She could feel Blake's eyes on her, and the girl was becoming far too smart for her liking. She'd either need elimination or further tricking- Ruby didn't have the skills to perform the former, so that latter was her best bet.
Then, a thought occurred- something reckless, stupid, and totally expected of the dunce that is Ruby Rose.
"Um, Nora…C-Could we talk?" Ruby had adopted the stuttering as an easy way of others telling that she was nervous or upset. Stuttering became a niche that many associated with girls that were either too shy to approach someone they liked, or those with nervous tendencies that didn't involve chewing their fingernails and biting their lips.
Of course Nora just grinned toothily and smiled slightly. "Yeah! Sure!"
After that, Ruby led Nora away from team JNPR and whatever was left of RWBY- as Weiss stormed off and Yang simply gave up with whatever she was doing- leaving Blake to attempt to subtly follow the two through the shadows.
Ruby, when she knew no one could see it, was smirking rather darkly.
According to plan 'A' already; she'd never had a plan go off without a hitch before- this time seemed perfect, even with her unwanted outlier. Honestly she'd thought Blake was going to be like the rest of the students here. Dumb, rotten to the core, selfish and oblivious. She wasn't, but neither was Ruby.
(^^^^^^)
Everything went better than she'd planned, surprisingly; she didn't account for Blake following, but perhaps the little slip up she made yesterday will teach the girl that snooping into business that wasn't yours was a bad, or in this case embarrassing, thing.
Confessions were never her thing- neither was forcing a blush to arise upon her cheeks really, but she managed both yesterday- but somehow she'd pulled it off and 'confessed' to Nora- she half expected her plan to backfire and Nora to be too oblivious to it all, or somehow the girl was as straight as a rubber band. Not straight at all, really; she'd suspected her and Pyrrha were 'doing the deeds', but it turned out it was just the grunting sounds of Jaune falling on his ass with a rather feminine squeal while Pyrrha gave throaty chuckles after beating him down- why were they on the roof at midnight though? Sometimes they both just never made any sense.
So, now she and Nora were- as Nora herself had announced a mere two minutes later- a 'thing'. Really, the girl was funny, she'd give Nora that, but Ruby never really was the kind to laugh without forcing it. She'd honest-to-god giggled once, but that was about it.
So, here she stood, the day after the 'deed', with a small grin on her face that served to trick those around her that Nora was somehow 'lighting up' her world- honestly, the stuff she heard in the girls' bathrooms were a bit disturbing. Things like 'oh, they're such a good pair!' or 'oh they light each other up!', honestly it was all more than a little worrying for her- is this kind of thing what girls their generation thought of these days? Not Grimm, not the impending doom of the human and Faunus race- but romance?
Washing her hands in the white, ceramic sinks that served as both a means to clean your hands and a means to wash away the smells of alcohol- as the girl next to her was doing, furiously filtering water down her throat in a vain attempt at getting rid of the smell- Ruby turned to dry them on a small grey hand towel that she'd brought into the room with her. Packing the towel into the small bag she'd hung over her left shoulder, Ruby exited the room with the barest grimace of disgust at the girl that was now shoving her hands inside her mouth; Miss Goodwitch was a bloodhound, it hardly mattered either way what you did, she could smell alcohol and see the signs of hangovers better than anyone ever thought possible of a human being capable of. If she was a Faunus then it would be a different matter entirely, but she wasn't so…it confounded quite a lot of people.
Ruby, however, knew why; Qrow- her uncle and the idiot that thought her using a scythe was a good idea- was an alcoholic through and through. She can't even remember a time he's ever been sober enough to walk without wobbling or shaking, let alone slurring his words. It's a miracle how he's even survived this far as a Huntsman.
Goodwitch and Qrow knew each other from quite a while ago, apparently- not in the same team while attending Beacon, but they did run into each other once or twice; her uncle used to tease the girl, and as soon as he hit eighteen he was chugging moonshine, vodka, whiskey- any alcoholic substance he could get his hands on, really. Glynda couldn't really do anything with a drunken Qrow teasing her, so she came up with 'the sense', as many called it. Essentially she's gotten so used to sniffing alcohol during her four years as a Huntress-in-training that she can remember exactly what it smells like years later. A scary kind of muscle memory really.
Walking outside the door she bumped face first into the person in front of her, a ginger she instantly recognised. Smiling, though it was obviously fake, Ruby looked up to see the slightly taller Nora blushing slightly but smiling all the while. The others around the two were fawning and 'awing', but it was blocked out by Nora sounding equally surprised, worried and happy. Ruby was an actor and sometimes you had to mix emotions together to create new ones, but she'd never heard of all three being mixed together before. As shocked as she was, some part of her was genuinely happy to see Nora- she hated getting too into her act, so she promptly squashed the feeling down and buried it.
"Oh! Sorry Ruby, didn't see you there." To somehow top it off, Nora gave a toothy grin, one that Ruby on the inside was wondering about- how can teeth be that white? They practically sparkled! Such a thing should be impossible, but she'd quickly learned that everyone in this school seemed to be impossible.
Ruby sighed, a mock frown on her face as she rubbed her stomach, as though wounded. She may only be acting, but she did enjoy teasing Nora- a lot. It became a hobby of hers when the ginger was around; see how much she can blush before all the blood rushing to her cheeks caused her to pass out, then fawn over her until she woke up again, then rinse and repeat. It also helped that some part of her found the reactions the ginger made to be cute. She killed that part of her as well.
"That hurt you know?" To top it off, she groaned in pain as she pretended to rub a particularly soft spot on her stomach- might as well make it seem exaggerated. The people around them were chuckling at Nora's expense, and some of the girls around were grinning mischievously at watching Ruby do something they'd done to their boy- or girl- friends in the past.
Hustling; oh how it worked wonders on a doting or caring lover. They could get whatever they wanted from the person that had 'involuntarily' harmed them, but Ruby was doing it with such ease that many around them had to wonder if that was all she could do with ease. It gave the males naughty thoughts and the females something to gush over later.
Nora did as to be expected; she panicked, flailing her arms around in the air and crying out in indignation. "Ah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll…I'll make it up to you!"
Ruby blinked; she'd been expecting the apologies, a blush when she realised she was being teased, and a pout when she realised Ruby was probably enjoying it all. She didn't expect an offer to 'make it all up to her', but she would work with this- yeah, yeah…she could definitely work with this.
About five minutes later Ruby and Nora were walking through the school halls, hand-in-hand, while Nora grinned and Ruby had a straight face; she didn't even care about appearances now- she needed to think. She'd tried to milk money or some time alone with Nora, but she didn't expect the girl to sigh dramatically and grab her hand, squealing something about a dinner date. She hadn't planned for this- she planned for everything other than this, actually. She'd even planned sexual intercourse, a breakup, for some strange reason a marriage proposal, an arcade outing.
But a dinner date to the classiest restaurant in Vale, along with a meeting with Nora's parents afterwards? Something she never accounted for. In all hindsight she should have; being around Nora meant you picked things up- the girl was addicted to sweet things, was obsessed with sloths of all creatures, was an impossibility in and of herself, and, of course, was ridiculously unpredictable.
Ruby may have just found a challenge here.
She began grinning while clutching Nora's hand a little tighter- they were both headed towards Glynda Goodwitch's combat class, a place Ruby hated because fighting was something she really couldn't do. All she did at that Dust robbery was evading all of the criminals' weapons and punch them as hard as she could in the backs of their heads- they went down like bricks falling from the sky, of course, but they also nearly died due to blood clotting form their necks being punched in the wrong places.
Ruby spent nearly four hours afterwards learning all the places one could hit a person without them nearly dying but still knocking them out, and came up with something unique to herself. Lie Ren used his hands and occasionally his guns in fights, but instead of knockouts he went to immobilise. To him, that meant crippling in any way possible- eyes having dirt thrown in them, bones in legs being shattered to stop them from moving, arms being shattered to stop them form attacking. For a subtle, occasionally shy boy, he was quite vicious. He'd crippled many students in his fights- her own sister having to stay at the med-bay for a week due to her left arm being snapped with aura. She'd recovered, had a rematch, and won. Barely.
If her sister couldn't win with brute force, she'd have to win with sly and cunning moves, with tricks, with underhanded tactics, with feints and basically everything a Hunter shouldn't do. That's why she left her scythe back in their dorm room this morning- she had a feeling Glynda was going to pair the two together to fight.
She was proven right when, as soon as they entered, Glynda ushered Nora to the stands that surrounded the class and Ruby into the arena- lie Ren, in all his impassiveness, was startled; he'd have to fight the one girl that couldn't fight to save her life? He knew she couldn't fight- she'd even told him, and afterwards blackmailed him to keep it a secret.
Damn Nora and her camera- so many embarrassing pictures…
He was wary though- Ruby couldn't fight, but she wasn't a prodigy for nothing. He'd heard Glynda and Ozpin both call it her in passing, and he got confused quickly. If she was a prodigy, why couldn't she fight? She had a scythe she couldn't wield, absolutely no experience with hand-to-hand combat, no weapons training despite going to Signal.
Speaking of the scythe- as Glynda told them both the rules of the fight, that practically anything went, he scanned over her form for any other weapons but found none. The stance she took up was loose and unconventional, the fists she'd tightened in front of her weren't even tight enough to be called a fist.
Where is her scythe? Where is her prodigious training and her battle-wary eyes?
She shuffled to the side when she saw his hands go straight to his weapons, and not a second too late either- he fired of four bursts in quick succession where she used to stand. Used to, as in, she was already speeding towards him, that same loose stance and soft, disarming eyes, those same fists that could do very little damage.
Then it clicked- her mind is her weapon, is her training, is everything she has- her stamina too, and he knew this because in history every speed user has had stamina unmatched. He'd best be wary around her in fights in the future- undoubtedly she'd push him to his limits and force him to retaliate with breaking said limits.
Too bad for him that he'd already underestimated Ruby's swinging power- she had hit in right in the solar plexus before he could even blink. Her semblance was truly scary if it sped up her fists as well as her body. Her left knuckles slammed right through his aura to his stomach, and forced Ren to the ground coughing and heaving as he tried to regain his breath- he could hear feint murmurings and frantic whispers travelling around the crowd surrounding the two, but found that dodging the incoming fist towards his face was more important than trying to decipher what they were speaking about.
Rolling to the side to dodge the single fist he saw, he grunted in pain when Ruby slammed both fists like a hammer into his spine, forcing him to the ground and causing his aura to drop to the yellow zone. Honestly, he didn't even notice the other fist coming behind the first one- two hits had done that to his aura? Wow. Didn't Ruby say she couldn't fight? If this wasn't being able to fight, then if she was able he'd be worried. Following instinct, he pushed himself up and spun to the side, just in time to avoid a blur that slammed into where he was before- a manic grin was on the face of his attacker as she lifted herself form the small crater that had surrounded her failed axe kick.
Getting Yang to teach her martial arts and how to strengthen blows with aura made her so happy that she'd spent nearly two weeks learning it- it was so worth it. Maybe she'd melt down Crescent Rose, or trade it for a pair of combat gloves? Something she could expand the damage she did with hits a little more- something like her sister's Ember Celica, yet less bulky and without shotguns attached. Maybe single-shot pistol rounds could be fired from it instead? She'd think on it some more later.
Before she could enact more beatings on Ren, the timer they were playing to ran out and a loud buzzer went off through the arena- students screamed Ruby's name in both awe and excitement, while Ren stood slowly from his place on the ground and sent her a weak smile. She was actually genuinely worried she'd injured him beyond repair when she hammer-fisted his back, but she was lucky that she'd missed his spine. Otherwise he may not be able to just stand and let his aura fix him up like he was doing now. No, he'd probably be nothing more than a paraplegic vegetable, or at least crippled for life.
She turned to the side to see Glynda Goodwitch looking surprised at this- she'd honestly expected Ruby to either forfeit or use cheap tactics. Hell, Ruby herself thought she was going to do that! What happened that made her fight instead of cheat? She didn't even feel in control at that point- she just wanted to win and used everything she'd learned from Yang. She was barely even aware of what she was doing, and halfway through she was grinning like a lunatic about it!
Maybe she inherited the 'curse of the Xiao-Long blood'? more of a gift to some, but for those that didn't want to fight or were peaceful, it was the bane of their existences. The 'curse' basically made it so that during the heat of a battle, no matter how small or large, you'd feel invincible and do whatever you could to win the fight. It sounded about right that it would hit her now of all times- she was mid-way through puberty, her body still developing, so it made sense that the 'curse' would come now.
As she walked off to be congratulated by her team after wishing Ren a safe recovery in the Medical Bay of Beacon's hospital wing, Ruby wished for some sort of normalcy in her life.
(^^^^^^)
Normalcy was something of a hope for Ruby- if anything she was the one making her own life anything but normal, as opposed to everything around her that she blamed for it. She was smart, it's been established, and she had plans upon plans upon plans, but the one thing she didn't have? The one thing she strove to get?
A dream.
A dream is something everyone around her has; something that she desperately wished she had. Ozpin knew of her goals- knew she was aiming for a dream to find, something to keep her going and something to make it through the next day. Ozpin knew it all- it was the only reason he allowed her scheming ways and her plots and plans. Glynda knew of it…somewhat. As in, she knew little bits and pieces, just not the whole picture.
There was something blocking her path to freedom though- someone, more importantly. To be honest there were about seven or eight people there, stopping her from leaving with frowns on their faces and their weapons drawn. Pyrrha had her spear shifted into its rifle form and the crosshairs were just above her left knee, Yang and Blake aimed their weapons at both her arms, left and right respectively, with Jaune, Ren, Weiss and, surprisingly, Velvet, all blocking the way out behind her.
But to her it was just the single person there- Nora Valkyrie.
All of her lying, all of her scheming, all of her plots and plans and ways to further her own needs…all broken apart because Ozpin decided to give Nora the truth, give all of them the truth- what she was doing to those around her, what she was doing to Nora specifically, how manipulative Ruby truly was. Everything, everything that made Ruby into Ruby was disclosed to people she hadn't even bothered to get to know. People she didn't want to get to know either. Ozpin did this- he made it harder for her to leave, for her to vanish across the ocean and never be seen again.
It could have been so easy. All she had to do was leave during classes when everyone was occupied, a note on her bedside addressed to them all as a collective was written up. She had to leave. If she didn't…she'd go mad. Her dreams were unrealised and she figured that staying with Beacon would provide the answers for her. It didn't- it gave her more questions than anything; what is a dream? How does one create such a thing? How does one achieve such a thing? Then, with the question of dreaming came the question of living- people had dreams which ensured they lived long and healthy enough to fulfil them. But what of Ruby? She had no dream, so did that mean she wasn't living? She was breathing, eating, sleeping, talking, walking; all like a normal humans and Faunus did. But what about living? Right now, she was living, but not living.
Then it came to her- she did have a dream after all. She had a dream to live…and Remnant was not a place you could live. It was just too dark, despite the amount of people trying to keep the light there. It was just too dim, even with the flickers of hope over the horizon. It was all too dismal, despite the smiling faces of those unaware of the dangers beyond the borders of their precious kingdoms.
People here didn't live, they just existed. They just…were. That's not living by any stretch of the word.
"Ruby please…think about what you're doing!" Yang; her sister, her confidant, the only person here who wasn't all that surprised to find out that Ruby was a lying, manipulative bitch that had her own goals and needs in mind above others'. They were related partially by blood, partially by a need to escape the loneliness that came with being an only child- hell, that's what they would have been had Taiyang and Summer not created Ruby. Or, Summer would have just moved on to some other man and created her anyway, but they'd both be alone and no idea who the other was.
"You don't need to do this, Ruby; you're going to leave everyone behind for no reason!" Pyrrha Nikos; to be honest they never really had any time to socialise, but from what she's observed Pyrrha is heavily into Jaune. She's also a combat champion of Mistral's Tournament four times in a row and is someone Ruby should not underestimate if this turned into a fight. Out of all of the people here, the only ones that could give her trouble are Pyrrha, Yang, and Velvet- she included the Faunus though because she's a second year that's a complete unknown. If she knew her abilities and fighting style then she'd be able to stand a chance, but the girl was an unknown and to her, unknown variables like Velvet Scarlatina could not be abided by or underestimated.
Velvet spoke up this time, and what she said actually almost broke her and stopped her from crouching low into her combat stance. "T-Think about this! At least tell us why you're leaving us behind!" velvet took a step forward, but Ruby only had eyes for Nora, who was staring her down with sadness, betrayal, and some small parts of hope. "I understand you now- we all do. You lied and cheated, and you aren't who you say you are, but that doesn't matter!"
Ruby took her eyes off of Nora for the whole of a second, and Velvet gulped at the sheer magnitude of the gaze that was boring into her face. "Doesn't matter? Are you saying you'd like a liar, a cheater, a thief, an unknown, to stay here amongst you?"
Velvet didn't even hesitate, which made the low respect Ruby felt for her rise a little. "Yes! We'd all rather you here!"
"Please Rubes, we don't know why you're doing this- we don't even know why you used us all…but there's a reason right?" it was Jaune this time, his voice sounding from behind her and his footsteps coming closer every second. "As long as there's a reason, then we can forgive you for it."
Ruby's eyes that were once impassive hardened ever-so-slightly. Since her mother's death she's been using people from all over Remnant. It was highly doubtful they'd even listen to her reasons, so why should Jaune and the rest of Beacon? Why should anyone? They shouldn't care! This was a mistake. She should just leave now to escape them all and leave for her destination.
"You shouldn't care! My reasons are my own, my goals, my efforts, my planning and scheming…all of it! All of it for my own sake!" she spun on her heel and glared so hard Jaune actually almost pissed himself a little. "You shouldn't be caring about this! Forgiveness…? It's not something I can have with the amount of people I've used and lied to!" she approached him, everyone around them tensing up, even Nora had her hand on Magnihild. "Get off your high horse Jaune. Come down to reality- Remnant. Is. Unfair. Everyone lies eventually, everyone cheats and steals. It doesn't matter what the goals of a thief are when she steals a loaf of bread, because that baker she stole from won't listen, will he?"
"W-Well...no…b-but-"
Ruby threw her arms up in the air with a loud, exaggerative sigh- she's lost composure now. "there are no 'buts' un this situation! That baker would take advantage of the young thief; he'd never listen, never forgive her. It was just a loaf of bread, right? No, to him it was a way to make money, a living!" she grabbed him by his hood, dragging him in but still keeping her loud, borderline shouting voice as she continued. "What would you do, Jaune? If you were the baker, and you'd caught the thief, what would you do to that thief?" Without him answering, she continued. "Would you question her, listen to her reasons? Would you beat her, bruise her for stealing something as small as a piece of bread?"
When no answer came and he began shifting his eyes away from the girl in front of him, everyone went silent and the courtyard in front of Beacon was surrounded by silence. Everyone was interested- usually the thief would be a male, not female, and with the passion in Ruby's voice it sounded like she'd questioned many people on this before. They all asked themselves, then. What would they do? Would they beat her; would they ignore her? Would they help her? They had no idea, but they did know that Ruby…was right in some regards to wanting to leave. Already Pyrrha's intelligent mind could see the underlying message here- Ruby was basically screaming at them that she'd used them as a means to lie to herself, as ironic as it seemed. She was lying because it was how she survived…but them this brought up the question of 'where was Yang in all of this?', because if yang had no idea of the implications them either she's over thinking it, or Yang never ha d apart of Ruby's earlier years.
"What would you do, Jaune!?"
Jaune, in order to stop the shaking that Ruby was doing to him, answered out of both necessity and a real answer. "I DON'T KNOW!" when all was silent again, he looked her right in the eye, breathed out, and whispered. "I don't know."
Ruby seemed to expect the answer, as she frowned at him and loosened her grip just enough for him to wiggle away from her and fall on the ground. How a girl shorter than him lifted him with one arm four inches from the ground was a mystery to everyone. Ruby looked down at the boy, her eyes shadowed by her red and black hair. "Well I do." She kneeled down to him, face to face. "I know what you'd do, what anyone would do if their livelihood was threatened." She stood back up, turning to Nora with her words as cold as ice when she spoke.
"You'd beat her." Ignoring Jaune's strangled cries of indignation, she continued, all the while staring at the space between Nora and Pyrrha, who was beginning to horrifyingly understand what Ruby was saying. "You'd grab her, throw her down, tear her clothing to shreds and beat every inch of her body to a pulp. Then, when she was dying, bleeding on the ground, only conscious because you ignored her face, you'd spit on her and throw the bread back at her." She continued staring at nothing, then, with her silver eyes a platinum colour as they misted. "You'd ignore her pleading and cries for help as she died in that alleyway you found her eating the bread in. if you'd have listened to her story you'd have killed her- because her only reason was because she ran away from home at four and began living off the streets."
She snapped out of it as everyone slowly gathered their thoughts- it was clear as day now, Ruby was talking about herself, and Yang slowly understood when, exactly, this happened.
"When you were four…you ran away…m-me and dad, w-we looked everywhere for you! You…you were missing for three whole years…"
Ruby turned her head to her sister, not all bothered by the tears in her eyes. "You had dad to dote on you, to love you, to need you; you had, have, dreams, you lived. I didn't. I was ignored by our father; I was relying solely on you back them…then one day I decided that relying on you was too big a responsibility to throw on you." She chuckled dryly when Yang widened her eyes. "Oh yes, that little 'outing' to the forest. It wasn't to find your mother- it was to get rid of me."
Blake gasped- Yang told her it was to find her mother and she foolishly brought Ruby along- an honest mistake anyone could have made at that age…but what Ruby was saying…
"I-I-I was jealous of you!" Yang threw her arms out to her sides, standing spread eagle with her head down. "I was jealous of you…you were growing up to fast…w-were becoming someone else. I knew all along you were a liar, a manipulator." She chuckled dryly and lifted her head, lowering her arms to cause the weapons mounted on her wrists to cock a shotgun shell into the firing mechanism. "or, at least, some other part of me did. I must have ignored, it, and ignored my…t-trying to scare you…get rid of you as you say it."
…it was the truth. She'd been lied to by Yang- everything she thought she knew about her dorm mates, her friends, were all lies or all based on lies. In fact, the only one that had not used her or lied right to her face was, ironically enough, the person that she'd been trying to stop from leaving. Ruby had used everyone else, but never her- she'd lied to everyone else, but never her, and when it came down to it, Blake thought Ruby was actually better than most people on Remnant. How many fake smiles had she received when she went to the little café she frequented in Vale? How many words were whispered behind her back when she walked through the halls of Beacon, and she'd just pretended to ignore them? How many had lied to her, approached her with the sign of friendship, when they were just using her as a means to some sort of end? Adam did it and she cut ties with him, Ozpin did it when he told her they were working for a way to allow coexistence- every time a Faunus was bullied in his school, Ruby was the one to step in, not him. Ruby, someone not even properly affiliated with Beacon.
So, she decided to cut her ties once more, and establish new ones- by doing something to get her hated enough for them to have reason to want her gone instead of her disappearing into the night.
She didn't like it, but she was doing it for herself- and, she supposed, the only person here to treat her as a normal person and not use her. Even if she did use her it wasn't to her knowledge, and that was probably better than using her to her knowledge. At least this way she knew she was useful to someone without having to be put at risk as others had done, or as others would likely do.
"Wherever you're going Ruby…I'm coming with you."
She expected an outraged cry of 'you can't' or a tearful 'thank you' for supporting her. Ruby simply nodded, taking her eyes off of the place she was staring at when Yang crumpled to the ground in tears, and turned to her. "I know; I expected you would."
At that, with most of the group too shocked to do anything, Ruby and Blake blurred away, never to be seen again.
But as she left and Nora snapped out of her stupor, she turned behind her with her cheek feeling wet.
A kiss.
Ruby had kissed her, however indirect, to show that whatever they had- it was real, if only for a little while.
Nora sent her prayers out to Blake and Ruby both, before turning back to her friends. She'd need to do something to fix all of this.
(^^^^^^)
They stopped blurring when they reached the edge of Vale, just outside the wall that surrounded the great kingdom…where no one would see.
Blake was huffing and panting, wondering how Ruby could run that fast without the use f her semblance yet still without winding herself. "How…how are you not…tired?"
Ruby simply gazed up into the sky, her eyes focused on the clouds above, and she whispered so low that Blake had to focus both sets of hearing to understand what she was saying.
"We're here."
Then, the heavens themselves opened up to show a swirling mass of blue and green, a massive portal above their heads.
An Anima.
Ruby turned to her wayward Faunus acquaintance. "This is your last chance Blake; your last chance to leave because where we're going…there's no going back. There's no return here." She paused to wipe a bead of sweat from her forehead. "This is most likely the last time you will ever see Remnant."
Blake didn't even hesitate, nodding resolutely- she had no reason to ever want to come back here. Ruby didn't either, it seems. They were both sick with the world. But she did have a question. "Ruby…what is that thing?" she nodded her head up to the sky where the glowing portal was.
"A miracle, that's what…a chance-giver; you're witnessing something that I found on a whim when I was five and walking around outside the walls- by then I'd lied to the guard at the wall to come with me to help me 'find my mother'." She shook her head. "They followed, we saw it, and I knew I had to keep whatever it was a secret. So, I led them into a group of Grimm and ran as fast as I could back to the gates."
"You…let them die?"
Ruby didn't even hesitate. "Yes…but where this will take us…where we're going…we can start anew." She turned back to the sky and called forth as much of her aura as she could, before forcing it into her hands, and pressing those hands to the sky. Then, with a mighty shout, she launched the compressed aura to the Anima, watching as it shot its beam down and engulfed the two.
"This is it- I have no idea where this will take us…but we have a new life now, Blake."
When the guards surrounding the area rushed in a minute later, along with Ozpin and some students from the second year at Beacon, all that was left was a smoking crater, and a small letter inside with two words.
'I'm sorry'
(^^^^^^)
Whelp, that's done! I know I should be finishing my other stories- but I've always wanted to do a Fairy Tail/RWBY crossover, and this was already a developing one shot anyway- so, here we have my very first, multi-chaptered crossover! HUZZAH!
Aside from that weirdness, I will let ya'll in on somethings.
The pairings: as you saw it was mentioned that Ruby and Nora were 'a thing', but they aren't a pairing here. No, this pairing shall be up to you guys! I'll leave apoll on my profile that will ask you all this: who should be Ruby's pairing? It can be anyone from the Fairy Tail universe or the RWBY universe, but please go for the former, as the latter would be a bit…confusing on how they got there, exactly.
Ruby: Ruby will be OP; not gonna layer on any sugar for that. She will be OP as fuck, actually, but not godly- she can die, she can bleed, she gets knocked out, she has weaknesses. She's just OP with her abilities.
Blake: Blake will be acting as a sort of protector for Ruby, and their bond grows to something likened to sisterhood later on in the story.
Fairy Tail (The Guild): we won't be seeing any of them until around about the seventh chapter; so stay frosty guys! By the way, to clear things up, Lucy will already meet Ruby and Blake first, and this is before the canon of Fairy Tail; in fact, this is about ten years before the canon, so I don't even think Natsu's part of it yet, and Erza's still a part of the tower of Heaven.
The story: This story will not be updated regularly, so don't spam the reviews about updating it- it might be once per two weeks, it might be once per month, I don't even know.
And that's it for now! Review- or don't but pleasepleaseplease do- and ask questions about whatever you want to know in the comments or review area…or whatever we call it.
