"Alright class, today we'll be covering an infamous event in the history: a moment that not even this school could look proudly upon: The Cliffside crisis" the teacher said looking at the students gathered in the history classroom, "An event that left no survivors, twenty huntsmen and huntresses dead. However they did manage to cut the force of 180 Grimm, down to just 80 and majority of those were done by the Huntress Summer" The teacher continued on with his lesson.
"Hey sis you okay?" a blonde girl asked the younger girl next to her who was slightly shaken
"Yeah, I'm fine why?" the young girl said lying to hide her true feelings from her older sister
"Are you sure?" the older girl asked before noticing the teacher had stopped
"Yang, Ruby is everything okay?" The teacher asked the two girls.
"Sure, just need some air, sir" Ruby; the younger one said
"I'm sure you do Ruby after hearing the introduction, but you have missed three classes and you will not miss this important lesson on this event" the teacher said
"No sir" Miss Rose groaned.
After class Ruby, her sister Yang her friends Blake and Weiss were talking about the class, and each thing said deeply affected Ruby
"Imagine how awful it would have been too been there fighting those beast" Yang said
"Hard to imagine, I mean they wiped out the village's hunters and huntresses before decimating the village itself" Blake said as her amber eyes gave off some sorrow
"Plus how do we know what happened if they were no survivors?" Weiss asked coldly, and it was this last statement that affected Ruby the hardest, she suddenly flashed back to a field of blood, snow and ash. A little girl stood there standing by her mother before collapsing into the dark snow
"Mummy?" she asked as tears trickled down her cheeks, before simply lying down and curling up to her mother's body as the warmth faded
"RUBY!" Weiss shouted forcing the young girl out of her stupor only to see her trip onto her face
"Oh man little sis, you were out of it" Yang said as she and Blake helped Ruby up
"Sorry, I was just thinking about something" Ruby said smiling
"What was it?" Weiss asked sternly
"Just a new cookie recipe" Ruby said
'Then why are you hiding something?' Blake thought knowing Ruby was hiding something due to the way her eyes didn't have the usual mirth and wonder.
That night Ruby tossed and turned in her bed as he mind tormented her with a vicious nightmare concerning what was taught in class today, she could feel the flames, smell the ash and blood; hear the screams of terror and pain as the dream wore on, she quickly turned and spotted a figure in the white cloak that she would remember vaguely somewhere in her mind, fighting off several of the Grimm before one looked her way
"Stay away from her!" the white cloak would shouted before slamming a sword through the beast's chest
"RUBY RUN!" White Cloak then said making Ruby flee. Suddenly Ruby wakes up and jolts awake, her breathing were ragged like she had finished a marathon
"Shit!" she cursed out hitting her mattress "Not again" she whimpered, looking at the date on her calendar "It's already that time again?" Ruby asked herself.
Outside her door Blake stood like a silent sentinel 'What is it you have dreamt Ruby?' Blake asked slinking off silently.
The next day Ruby headed for the Airstrip area of Beacon, walking up to her team's pilot; Hawker Granite, the lanky pilot was polishing the airship her team used.
"Hey Hawk" Ruby said
"Yo Rubes, got a mission?" Hawker asked looking up to see Ruby in her mission gear
"Yeah, a solo one" Ruby said jumping in
"Location?" Hawker asked
"Cliffside" Ruby said sitting down suddenly discard her cheerfulness
"Hold on" Hawker said sitting down in the cockpit before starting the engines. "It will take a couple of hours, why not get some sleep?" he said looking back
"Sure" Ruby said snuggling into her cloak to sleep.
Only Ruby's sleep was not restful was she hope it would be as she had another flashback to that time; a time that always came back to her in her darkest moments of life, the day her mother's life was given for hers.
"Summer get out of here with her" a huntsman said as he dissected a beowolf, with his sword.
"Not until we've dealt with these things!" Summer said using her weapon the Eclipse Rose
"We're the last ones if we fall here those things will attack the village and then its game over for them" the huntsman said taking down several more grim before he froze, "Oh shit! SUMMER RUN NO-!" the huntsman said before being killed by a massive white paw.
"A white Beowulf" Summer gasped before seeing the red colouring of her daughter's clothes. "No Ruby RUN!" Summer cried out before attacking it with her sword which may as well have been a rolled up piece of paper on this fiend's thick hide
"Momma" Ruby cried as Summer dashed over to her daughter before the White Beowolf swiped at the huntress, mortally wounding her, The White Beowolf howled in triumph before ordering his brood onto the village
"No" Ruby whimpered as Summer slumped to the ground, racing over to her
"Mummy?" the young girl asked as tears trickled down her cheeks, before simply lying down and curling up to her mother's body as the warmth faded
"Please don't leave me" she cried as screams and howls were heard from her home.
"HEY RUBY!" Hawker yelled waking up the young huntress "We're here" he said
"Thanks" Ruby said getting up and picked up Crescent Rose, clipping it to her belt
"Do you think you can handle this?" Hawker asked
"I can" Ruby said flipping her hood up
"Good luck" Hawker said watching as Ruby walked into a snowy forest.
"You'll need it" he whispered closing the door.
Ruby walked until she reached the remains of a village, her home or former home. Buildings were covered in snow and rubble was scattered around; the plants were out of control giving the feeling of abandonment. For this bunch of ruins had once been the bright and cheery village of Cliffside; before the event called the Cliffside crisis which she remembered with unwanted clarity.
"I'm home" she said as a tear trickled down her usually rosy cheeks. She took a step forward only to feel something off underfoot. She lifted her foot to see an old doll.
"You used to belong to a friend of mine" Ruby said before flashing back into that horrid nightmare of her past.
The houses were in ruins, smoke and ash filled the air as a young Ruby raced through the town scared looking for anybody
"HELP!" she screamed "MY MUM NEEDS HELP!" she shouted into the air as silence answered
"Anybody, please help!" Ruby said as she stopped outside her house, the home to her and her mother who now laid dead on the field of red snow outside of town, the little girl now realising that she was the only one alive. She decided to enter the now cold house, trudge up the stair to her room, and sat down on the floor, her fringe shadowing her silvery tear filled eyes. Sudden she unleashed her tears and cries filling the still air, as fires burnt, the dead lay with faces twisted in horror. This was the day of the Cliffside crisis, the day The Grimm purged an entire town of humanity, all except a little girl who tried to bravely face the reality
"MUMMMYYY!" she shouted "COME BACK!" was her only request as the ash and new snow fell.
Ruby looked around her old barren room as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She smiled softly picking up a picture, a picture taken a weak before the crisis, a picture of her mother holding her, and in Ruby's hand was a giant Sunflower, smiles as bright as the flower Ruby was holding appeared on the pair's faces,
"I miss you mum" she said sadly, before a howl was heard
"So you've returned; now I can avenge my mother" Ruby said pulling up her hood and deploying Crescent Rose.