Chapter One: Ruby Rose
A/N: I do not own anything, all rights to their respected owners.
Legends… Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, by-products, of a forgotten past. Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness — creatures of destruction — the creatures of Grimm - set their sights on man and all his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void.
However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named "Dust". Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life.
But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone... darkness will return.
So, you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed... there will be no victory in strength.
A figure, laying at the edge of the rooftops, snaps a book shut. Judging from what little is visible from their cloak, this man's mouth and ebony fringe are the only things not cast in the shadow of his hood. He says to the night sky,
"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that have been long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul." A second figure appears, this figure is smaller in stature, and is female from her attire and hair again is the only things visible from her cloak.
"Ken-chan, we have movement in the alley below." Her young voice called out, his head turns to her and says "Is it him?"
"White coat, bowler hat, badly styled orange hair along with that stupid smug look; yeah it's him, its Torchwick." She replies sassily and sits down; a slight frown appears on his face at this.
"I'm meant to be the sassy one and you're the small adorable one, not the other way round but if so I think I can pull it off. Wouldn't you agree, Yachiru?" he said smirking.
"Haha, sure, whatever you say Ken-chan, how much are the police paying us for this again?" she giggles softly, as he places a hand atop her cloaked head.
"I do believe it is 100,000 lien plus 10,000 lien extra for accomplices, reward will be doubled if he manages to get away or it halves never quite remember." He answers a confused frown spreads his lips.
"Do you think old ironwood will stop hounding us for his military academy thing if we do this?" she asks a somewhat annoyed tone in her voice.
Turning his head to her, a soft smile on his lips. "Honestly Yachiru, I haven't the foggiest, I mean hopeful it'll get him off our backs but it might not, besides do I look like the type to follow some stick-up-the-arse general who doesn't take no for an answer."
"No you don't, Kenny." She says with a wide smile.
The sound of shattering glass drew the attention from their current conversation; looking down into the street below they see a man in a black, with a red tie and a stereo-typical villain moustache alongside a girl of about 15 years of age in a red combat skirt, opaque black tights and knee-high combat boots. The most recognizable things about her was the fact that she had silver eyes as well as the red strip in her otherwise black hair. She looked like little red riding hood got pissed off especially with that scythe of hers.
"Things just got interesting, right Ken-Chan?" the small girl asked.
"...yeah, we should get down there, don't want to miss out on the fun now do we?" he said tilting his head to her, the smirk on his lips visible in the light before he kept on to the street below.
"Of course… Kenny." She answered with a small smile before she too jumped to the street below.
/~A few minutes before~/
Roman Torchwick and ten henchmen head down an alley from the shadows. They stop behind Roman, who reignites his cigar without touching it and grins before walking down the road, frightening nearby citizens as they make their way towards the shop From Dust till Dawn.
As he enters, the shopkeeper looked up expectantly. "Do you know how hard it is to find a dust store open this late?" he asked rhetorically as his hired muscle either unsheathed or unholestered their respective weapons.
"Please just take my lien and leave." The elderly man said raising his hands in surrender after opening the cash register.
"Don't worry… we aren't after you money..." he said, motioning to his men, "Take the Dust!" he ordered.
Three of the suited men moved around the shop, place collectors to the tubes of finely powdered Dust as the last one placed a large case on the glass counter.
"Dust, burnt, uncut...hand them over." Roman ordered and the older gentleman did just that.
/~RUBY POV~/
One of the grunts walked to the back of the store, he came across a young girl in a red hood and skirt, who was currently reading a WEAPONS magazine.
"Hands in the air!" he ordered her pointing his sword at her but he was promptly ignored.
"I said put your hands in the air, you got a death wish or something?" He repeated getting angrier, reaching out and grabbing her shoulder. Finally gaining her attention, he sees that she had headphones on which is why he failed earlier.
"Hm?"
He motions to his ear and she takes her headphones off, so he orders again,
"Hands in the air!"
"Are you robbing me?" she asked with an inquisitive look.
"Yeah!" He replies immediately.
"Oh..."
Roman sees one of his henchmen hit the wall near him, motioning for a mother one to check it out, only for him to crash through the window a red blur following suit.
The girl spins around unveiling her scythe and paused her music; Roman looks at the men gathered at the window and says,
"Well...get her!"
The henchmen rush out and surrounded the petite girl, wielding their swords in an attempt to intimidate her, as civilians panic and run.
She spun her scythe hitting a grunt with the butt of it. A grunt behind her caught her of guard with an upward slash to her back. Each time she swung one of the grunts would catch her of guard and be able to land a hit on her.
She stumbled and they capitalized on it causing her to fall. Her scythe had flown out of her hand as she fell and clattered noisily on the road, one of her attackers decided to finish it, walked towards her downed form raising his sword above his head. She didn't want to witness the end so closed her eyes and await the inevitable, quietly wondering about how Yang would cope with this, but got confused when the pain never came. Eyes fluttering open, she couldn't comprehend the sight before her, where the numbers game was too much for her stood a singular man with a goofy smile on his face.
This man was dressed in a standard black shihakusho with the sleeves ending half way between his shoulders and his elbows, along with black form fitting hakama, a crimson obi around his waist, black boots and a white sleeveless haori along with a sword tied horizontally across his lower back. The guy himself was around 6'5" in height and ebony hair in a scruffy Mane. He has an eye patch over his right eye leaving the left visible, a nice sapphire blue.
Once she had come back to reality she saw that torchwick guy pointing his cane at her. "Well Red, goliath... it's been an eventful evening but we're going to have to part." With that the butt of his cane flipped to become a sight and fired some sort of explosive Dust bullet straight at her. "AwakenBenihime:blood mist shield!" intoned a deep, yet smooth baritone. The guy from before had somehow got in front of her sword out and raised before him blade pointing downwards, a red shield of hexagonal pieces had formed before him.
"Okay, little red follow him we will be there shortly." He ordered turning to her.
"We?" she asked.
As she asked this a pink haired kid probably no older than 5 or 6 appeared hanging from his left shoulder and from what Ruby could see was wearing the same outfit as him minus the haori and longer sleeves, a sword hung so the handle was over her left shoulder.
"HI, hi Little Red I'm Yachiru." The newly announced Yachiru exclaimed excitedly.
"Hi my names Ruby not Little Red." She responded politely.
"Ah yes… my apologies. We both have a habit of nicknaming people before getting their actual name. The names Zaraki or Kenpachi Zaraki if you'd rather." Zaraki said.
"Anyway you should probably hurry as Torchwick has climbed the ladder to the roof over there." He went on pointing to Roman as he did so.
"Er…oh yeah I try to stop him just hurry!" Ruby called over her shoulder as she ran off after picking up her scythe and firing a shot to boost herself on to the roof.
"Stop!" ruby shouted at Torchwick as he was reaching the edge of the roof.
*sigh*"You just don't know when to quit huh kiddo?" he said as a bullhead ship rose behind him and opened its cargo doors.
Stepping on Torchwick rummaged through his coat and pulled out a red Dust crystal and threw it towards her then raised his cane to fire.
"End of the line Red!" he shouts at her and then fires at the dust crystal generating a huge explosion.
"Whoa-ho-ho-ho…HUH?" he started laughing only to stop as he notices something on the roof.
A woman in a purple cape is in front of Ruby, casting a circle of protection over them with her wand. As ruby looks on, the new arrival waves her weapon and summons several streaks of purple at the craft. Torchwick is thrown around the back and manages to stumble into the cockpit, in which is a woman in red, who is struggling with the controls.
"We got a Huntress! It's that Goodwitch!" he tells her.
The pilot gets up handing the controls to Torchwick and heads to the open door.
Goodwitch glows purple for a minute and aims another blast above the craft, resulting in a dark storm cloud over the jet.
From the cockpit Torchwick is looking up at the cloud. "What the…?" He questioned.
With a flick of her wand, large jagged hail starts falling that pummels the jet and even breaks through the window, narrowly missing Roman's head.
The woman reaches the back and her arms and chest light up like fire, aiming a burst of energy at Glynda. The Huntress blocks it, but the flame splatters behind her and glows hot with the enemy's raised hand. Glynda back-flips out of the explosion, which destroys part of the roof, and magically gathers the shards to create a large arrow, which she throws at the craft. The fiery woman shatters the arrow with several blasts, but it reforms just in time to hit the side of the jet due to Roman's quick aerial lean. The wreckage separates and reshapes into more arrows that encircle the jet, but the woman summons several glowing rings around herself that expand and destroy the shards.
Ruby, finally acting, reverts her scythe into its rifle form to fire at the woman, who blocks each shot and creates several blazing circles around her two opponents. Glynda telekinetically pushes Ruby and rolls herself out of the explosion's radius; looking up to see the woman preparing another attack; placing one hand back forming a flame in it then throwing it forward and as it flew towards them it grew larger with the amount of air rushing pass it. "Scream Benihime!" An arc of crimson energy collides with the orb of fire causing an explosion. As the dust settled they saw the bullhead flying away, both woman turn around to see Zaraki, with a goofy grin on his face, stood there with Yachiru laughing and waving with one hand from his shoulder.
Ruby smiled and waves back to Yachiru then turns to Glynda with an awe stricken face. "You're a Huntress!" her face changed to a pleading, awe-stricken face, "Can I have your autograph?!"
/~Half an hour later~/
Ruby face was now one of shame; Zaraki and Yachiru were both confused, as Glynda holding a tablet computer, paces around the table that the others are seated at, right underneath a bright light in the otherwise dark room.
"I hope that you that your actions tonight won't be taken lightly. You put yourselves and others in great danger."
"Eh… our actions will more than likely be taken lightly as it was part of a job we were payed to do." Zaraki said, motioning to himself and Yachiru.
"Those Goons started it!" ruby exclaimed in defence.
"If it were up to me, you'd be sent home... With a pat on the back... (she notices Ruby's smile) ...And a slap on the wrist." she demonstrates with her wand, which Ruby barely avoids as she gives out an "Eeek!"
" But... there is someone here who would like to meet you."
She moves out of the way so a surprised Ruby can see a man in green come through the doorway, holding a mug and a plate of cookies. Yachiru appears on his arm suddenly and steals four cookies and appears back on Zaraki's lap.
"Ruby Rose…" Ozpin leans in to look at her face"…you…have silver eyes."
"Uh, um…"
"Well that's one way to introduce yourself." Zaraki commented.
"So where did you learn to do this?" Ozpin said never taking his eyes off her or even acknowledging Zaraki's comment but motioning towards a screen showing Ruby fighting.
"S-signal Academy." She replied.
"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" he questioned.
"Well, one teacher in particular."
"I see…"
He puts the cookies on the table in front of Ruby. Zaraki leans over and takes a couple. Ruby tentatively picks one up, eats it in a single bite, and then, not seeing any rebuttal, shovels the rest into her mouth.
"It's just that I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before. A dusty, old crow..." ozpin says.
Ruby mumbles through her full mouth "Oh! That's my uncle!" she then swallows and wipes her mouth, embarrassed "Sorry. That's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing. And now, I'm all like— Hooowaaah! Witchaaaa!" She proceeds to make some karate-style poses and noises.
"Wahahaha!" Boisterous laughter fills the small room and all attention lands on Zaraki who in turn stares back.
"So, I've noticed." Ozpin said placing his cup on the table as he leans in, completely ignoring Zaraki's outburst, then sits down opposite Ruby "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"
"Well... I want to be a Huntress." Ruby says honestly.
"You want to slay monsters?"
"Yeah! I only have two more years of training left at Signal! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon!" she says talking faster and faster with her enthusiasm growing "You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it! (giggles) I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and really, gosh, you know!" she flips out at the last part, staring at the two with a wide, crazy smile.
Glynda and Ozpin study her.
"Do you know who I am?"
"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster at Beacon."
"Hello." Ozpin says smiling
"Nice to meet you." Ruby says back
"You want to come to my school?"
"More than anything."
Ozpin exchanging glances with Glynda, who shows her disapproval with a "Hmph" before he turns back to Ruby. "Well, okay."
Ruby smiles, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Zaraki pats her on the shoulder and Yachiru offers her a cookie. "Good job, Little Red."
"So… Zaraki…Yachiru."
Both of those called turned their attention towards the Headmaster.
"So how did you learn to fight like this?" He asks motioning towards the same screen this time showing Zaraki's hand-to-hand combat style.
"What…? Oh that… well originally it was my old man but afterwards I taught myself." Zaraki answered honestly.
"You taught yourself Hakuda?" Ozpin says raising an eyebrow.
"Eh? It's simple when you know the basics." He replies.
"So the same offer goes to the two of you, do you accept?" Ozpin asks.
"Well…" Glancing down at Yachiru, who looks excited by the idea. "It would get old ironwood of our case for one thing. A second is that Yachiru seems excited by the idea… so yeah we accept!" he replies determinedly.
/~Next day~/
Yang Xiao Long tackled her sister in a hug aboard the large airship to Beacon, crushing the air out of her.
"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!" She exclaimed.
"Please stop." Ruby gasping
"But I'm so proud of you!" Yang releasing her sister
"Really Sis, it was nothing." Ruby replies modestly.
"What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bee's knees." Yang said excitedly
"I don't want to be the "bee's knees", okay? I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees." Ruby said slightly flustered.
"What's with you? Aren't you excited?" Yang asks with a goofy grin
"Of course, I'm excited... I just..." (Sighing) "I got moved ahead two years. I don't want people to think I'm special or anything." Ruby replies nervously.
"Eh... you're worry about it too much. All you've got to do is be yourself." Zealot chimed in. He and Yachiru had been sat there watching with amused smiles on their faces.
"Do you think that could work?" she asked turn to face him.
"It's highly likely that it will work. Though if not it's not a problem all you would have to do is impress them with that scythe of yours." He answered with a shrug then placed a hand on Yachiru's head and started stroking it eliciting a happy chirp from the youngster.
"Really?" Ruby inquired wow eyed, gaining a little shrug from the guy, released a sigh of relief. Yang stood watching their interaction, smiled to herself, happy that her sister had someone beside her to talk to. Sounds of awe are heard around them and turning to the window they could see why. The view was breath-taking.
"Oh, I can see Signal from here." Ruby called out. Just then a news report popped to life using the windows as screens. The report talked about Roman Torchwick and his recent crime spread. After the news, a hologram of Glynda Goodwitch appeared.
"Who's that?" Yang asked the other three.
"Hello students my name is Glynda Goodwitch and I'm one of the teachers here at Beacon."
"Oh" yang replied owlishly.
"You are among a privileged few who have received the honour of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." Glynda informed them before disappearing.
The four hear a passenger groaning and hunched over nearby, running to the back of the ship.
"Well... I guess the view isn't for everyone." Yang comments rolling her eyes
"It was a nice moment while it lasted."
The ship approaches Beacon across a large body of water.
"I wonder who we're gonna meet! I just hope they're better than Vomit Boy. Oh, Yang, gross! You have puke on your shoe!" Ruby shrieks in digust
"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!" Yang wails running around.
"Get-Get away! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me!" Ruby whines.
Zaraki chuckles slightly at the proceeding, an arm wrapped around the sleeping form of Yachiru on his lap.
'I think I am gonna enjoy my time here'
