This isn't going onto my main page mainly because I've started a few already there and I don't feel like I need to plug those stories nor do I feel the need to shamelessly plug myself, but I do feel like throwing my hat in to the ring with the other Faunus!Ruby stories. So without further ado I bring you my fancy hat...
Chapter 1: Failins
Running through the forest a night always brought a smile to Ruby's face. Hearing the sounds of small animals going about their every day life. The sounds of birds chirping distracted her from her fun... the almost innocent chirps sounded like a challenge.
Ruby quickly disappeared into a flurry of rose petals and landed ever so gently on a branch as to not disturb her target. Each and every placement of her hands in feet were cold and calculated, by the time the birds knew what happened to the giggling girl Ruby jumped and caught the bird in between her hands.
Ruby jumped down never letting go of her newly captured friend, as she skipped back to her house she just thought, one simple thing. 'Yang is going to love my present.' She was the definition of mirth. The walk home was short, for two reasons. One she never did go too far away from home, she always liked to be within ear shot in case she was needed. And reason number two the creature in her hands distracted her.
As she stepped into her families house she noticed something was slightly off... Yang was not where she was when Ruby left. Perfect. She could put Yang's present in her room. Ruby quickly ran up the stairs and found where Yang was... she wasn't in her room, but she was in Ruby's room. Ruby easily snuk up on Yang which was slightly easier then for new Bird. She jumped up and landed on deft feet, right behind her new pray. She quickly threw her arms around Yang never letting the bird out and yelled into her ear, "YANG WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?"
Yang jumped and quickly panicked. "Ah Rubes that does hurt you know?" Yang said rubbing her ear. Unlike Ruby, Yang was not a Faunus. Ruby was adopted into the loving arms of Yang's family and they welcomed her just as much as they did Yang. "Uh huh. Except I have even more sensitive hearing and you do it all the time to me." Ruby spoke her earlier mirth returned.
"Okay knowing you wouldn't return this early unless you found something cool, and I'm going to regret this... what is it? And I swear if it is another dead thing." Yang asked changing the subject as best she can. "Those were presents." Ruby pouted, "And we will revisit my previous question of why you are in my room don't worry but here." Ruby finished holding her cupped hands out.
Yang quickly opened her hands and saw a small bird poking it's head out and danced across Ruby's hand and into Yang's. "Wow Rubes after ten plus years you finally learned that dead animals are in fact not a present." Yang said jokingly loving the bird but walked over to the window with it. "Unfortunately Rubes, capturing small animals while it is very cool it isn't right to take them from their home." Yang continued letting the bird go. She knows she should scold Ruby for this, but Ruby really didn't know better. It was just instinct.
Those animals know they are on Ruby's territory so anything she deems as a challenge she will meet head on. "So back on topic. Why are you in my room? Your not hiding anything from dad again are you? I can't overload him with being adorable again." Ruby said jumping on her bed. She hated being confined but she did get distracted, and Zwei was at the vet so she couldn't play with him. To say Ruby was a ball of energy was the understatement of the century.
"Well I... uh... you see..." Yang said trying to find something to distract herself. She knew this would be the hardest part of leaving for Beacon, hence why she wanted to just leave a note. Ruby's jumping slowly stopped as she started to glare at her sister. "Yang spill it now or I swear the next thing I bring you will be the heads of cute animals." Ruby's threat was oddly enough true because she has done it a few times.
"It is because I'm Beacon tomorrow and I know how much you hate change I was leaving you a note." Yang said a bit too fast but Ruby's hearing deciphered it clearly. Ruby just stared sadly and disappeared into a flurry of rose petals. Yang just smacked her head against her hand and pulled out her scroll. She quickly dialled her dad's number. After a few short rings the sound of a man answered. "Hey dad. I kinda... sorta... may have told Ruby about me heading to Beacon." Yang said in to the scroll.
"I told you not to tell her and what do you do? You told her. You know how she is, she hates it when we leave for a while because she can't protect us." Tai Yang said on the other end. "I'm extremely busy right now this paperwork needs to be sent out in an hour so I'll call an old friend to search the city. You go check the forest and if you find her call me." Tai spoke into the phone with a small twinge of sadness that would go undetected if the person didn't know him. Unfortunately for him Yang knew him literally all her life.
"Dad it isn't going to happen again don't worry will you." Yang said running down the stairs and out the front door. "She is my daughter I will always worry Yang. Just hurry up. Please for me?" He pleaded with his eldest daughter. "I will dad. Bye." Yang said and only hung up once her dad said by back.
Tai looked at his desk and quickly dialled a number he never thought he would need to dial again. "Hey Glynda I know we aren't on the best of terms but I need a favour." He said and quickly pulled the scroll away once he heard a slew of curse words that would put a sailor to shame.
Ruby walked down the busy streets of down town Vale. She despised the turn of events, don't get her wrong she was over joyed that Yang got into Beacon because it was always part of her dream and it gave Ruby the right to truthfully say her big sister was a Huntress in a few years. But Grimm where vicious creatures who would kill without a seconds thought just because their instincts said to. Ruby had instincts too but she had the knowledge to decipher what was right and what was wrong. At any point during her days training at Beacon she could get injured or worse.
Ruby quickly shook her head to dislodge those dark thoughts as she walked into a shop she knew the owner well and vice versa. "Hey Ruby... Something bad happened didn't it?" The old man asked as Ruby walked in. "Yeah and I don't want to talk about it just yet." Ruby said walking up to the counter.
"I know what may cheer you up. The new issue came in today and like I promised you, you are the first person besides me to know." He said grinning slightly at Ruby's demeanour picking up. If her tail was visible it would have been frantically waving back and forth. "Yeah it is just in the corner." He was only barely able to finish his sentence and Ruby was in the corner, flicking through the magazines to find the one she was looking for.
Ruby wasn't sure how long she was reading the weapon magazine but she was pulled out of her world of entrapment in the interesting article about famous Hunters she quickly passed over the article about her Uncle. If she wanted any form of information about him she could get it herself from him. A man tapped her on her shoulder and gestured for her to take her headphones out, Ruby didn't even know when she put them in.
"Get out here. We are robbing you." He said. "What do you want? My scroll, my wallet, what?" Ruby asked seeing if the guy is serious.
"No your Cloak looks nice and red give me that first." He said as a joke but the eye twitch Ruby had was far more real. "How about my scythe? That's red too." Ruby said not giving the man a chance to think about what she said before he went through the aisles and through the glass window pane followed with Ruby on him.
She spun her scythe around and embedded it near the persons head. A man in a white coat, wearing a bowlers hat walk out the store followed by four more men. "Ah, you see men that is how you intimidate correctly. Now if you all don't mind and do what I'm paying you for." He said as he turned around to address his 'men'. The stench off of him was churning Ruby's stomach. She quickly scanned to see the store owner panicking... she knew straight away this man was bad. She has two options.
Option one deal with him and his men quickly. This was the logical thing to do, but she was still seething with anger at Yang that the quick way wouldn't do. So that left option two, taunt them into a rage so they will keep charging even when they should stay down. That way she can work her anger out and not bottle it up.
"I hope you know the point of cologne is to not bathe in it but just to use a small bit. But if my tastes were like our I would have just killed myself it is a lot easier." Ruby's taunt obviously striking a cord. She could see him attempting to brush it off. Ruby turned her attention to his 'men', now. "And I would call you all ladies but as a little girl I don't feel like that would be right. Honestly I just kicked this guy and he has already shit himself." The man in the white coat turned back to face Ruby.
"You know... I was trying to be a nice guy and let you go. But Red I seems my patients have run dry. So either run home because I think it is past bed time, or These nice people will tuck you into a more permanent sleep." He spoke rage filling his voice. Ruby knows all it is going to take is a small push. "Or... and I'm just spit balling here. I beat the ever loving shit out of them and check your corpse if it ever had a set of balls. I personally like that option." Ruby spoke with a smile and tilting her head to the side. The man dropped the cigar that he had been smoking on the ground and crushed it under his cane.
"That's it. The person that brings her to me so I can teach her some manners gets a pay raise." He spoke his anger either went full circle so he reached a level of calmness. Or Ruby broke him. In all likely hood it was the latter over the former.
The four men that were behind him encircled Ruby. The sound of their weapons being drawn was like music to her ears. The knew that if they advanced one by one they would end up in the same place as the one under her boots. She closed her eyes to let the symphony of battle take over her. One of them, just up wind decided to advance first. As he brought his sword up, over his head to get maximum damage. He was bringing it down, at the last second Ruby disappeared into a bunch of rose petals. The man realised to late that Ruby was gone and his sword connected what Ruby thought was a suit turns out it was body armour, but the sound of his bones breaking was unmissable to Ruby.
She quickly caught her attackers neck with Crescent Rose and started an up swing using her momentum to throw the man into the nearest building. The sound of his head meeting the corner of the building and then going through said building, was like the up stroke to her song she was composing in her head. The sounds of his scream was beautiful. One of the henchmen grabbed Ruby's leg before she knew it. He quickly tried to pull Ruby back but she embedded her scythe into the ground mixed with her near death grip she can over power her attacker. This gave her a few seconds of not so precious time.
As he started to pull more Ruby thought, why not give him what he wants. She switched Crescent Rose into it's gun form and fired three shots once he started to pull again. Her boot connected with his ribcage with the full force, she could hear the sound of his breast bone breaking. It was one of the most pleasant sounds in the entire night. Before Ruby realised the one she kicked connected with another's head. The sound of his neck compressing with the added force was magnificent.
The last guy tried to run back into the store but he was met with a devastating blow to the head by his boss. Ruby quickly opened her eyes to glare at the intrusion to her composing. "You bastard! You ruined my composition. I was just going to cut you a little, now I think I may need to do more." Ruby said fixing her stance, so she could go straight for his pulse point.
"Well this was a fruitless endeavour. Sorry Red but I have to go... I think I may have left my oven on." He said raising his cane and pulling the trigger that Ruby was amazed she hadn't noticed. Ruby was able to jump around the explosion but she got turned around and lost her target. She quickly examined the dark streets and found him climbing a ladder to the top of a building. The old shopkeeper came out to look at Ruby.
"Sorry I'll help pay for some of the damages but I have to get them. The threatened to steal my cloak." Ruby pleaded with the elderly man. "It's okay you saved a lot of stock. Just get him one for threatening Your mom's mantle." He spoke with such eagerness and joy that Ruby was alive and alright. By the time he was done speaking the lead assailant was at the top of the ladder. Ruby disappeared into rose petals and was able to get to the top of the building shortly after him.
He turned around and began to scowl. "You know Red you are like a bad rash. Once I think I'm in the clear you come back... unfortunately for you I have the ointment right here." He said stepping onto a bullhead holding something red, Ruby couldn't make out. He tossed I down, it landing in front of Ruby. He pulled out his cane and shot at what Ruby now recognise as an explosion crystal. Ruby pulled back but she knew she couldn't out run the bullet but her aura would take the bulk of the damage.
Once the crystal was broken the explosion went off. Ruby noticed something strange, a new smell amongst the cologne and ash. Then she noticed there was no burning pain, even with her aura she would still have at least firs degree burns. She opened her eyes to see a tall woman with blonde hair and glasses. Ruby as trying to rack her brains. She knew the scent, she just couldn't place from where. She almost missed another woman taking the place of the man who Ruby was almost certain was bitch that couldn't handle his first meeting with Crescent Rose.
The battle between the two new comes was remarkable. Their skill with dust magic was just as magnificent as her battle on the streets below. The battle lasted a few minutes but to Ruby who was enraptured by it, it felt like years. Each flick of their wrists to the spells they favoured. She committed it perfectly to memory. The bullhead managed to pull away from the skirmish. That was when she recognised the scent. It was from a woman her dad hated to contact but only did it hen he worried. Ruby tried to stealthy back away but was quickly bound by dust spell. Boy did Ruby know she was in immense trouble. The new person quickly used another spell to cut Ruby from her senses.
When the spell was broken or at least released Ruby found herself on a chair in a small room. Grey walls, a mirror she could hazard a guess was a one way one, a door, a table with an empty chair and the pacing angry woman. "I hope you know how much I despise your father, but when he said who it was I had to help him. Imagine my surprise when I found she stopped a robbery orchestrated by a wanted man. Normally that would give you a pat on the back." She said leaning next to Ruby. Her ears picked up and her tail which somehow came loose and was smacking against the chair.
Then a riding crop came smacking down as she spoke her next words. "After a smack on the wrist." Her voice became more shrill and hurt Ruby's ears. Then the door opened, and in stepped a man she had a very big bone to pick with. "Ah Glynda that will be all. You should let Tai know we found his daughter." He said earning a few mumbles of protest from the blonde. The only one Ruby knew what meant was 'Why should I help that ass-hole?' Ruby with held a giggle. This man made her angry, he does not deserve to hear her giggle. The only thing that made her doubt her decision was he brought in one of her weaknesses... cookies.
"Where does a young girl learn to move like that? I'm sure some is due to your Faunus instinct. But that is one of the deadliest weapons." He said sipping what Ruby could only deduce was coffee from it's alluring smell. "My uncle taught me." Ruby said crossing her arms. His tactic to get her to open up with tasty baked goods won't work.
"Please Ruby, I'm not trying to be your enemy. Those cookies are double chocolate chip, and peanut butter. I know they are your favourite next to strawberries that is but those are out of season. Your father speaks very fondly of you. So tell me do you know who I am." He asked. "Your Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy." Ruby said gingerly taking one of the cookies and eating it in one bite. The rest was quick to follow, Ruby tried to hold out as best she could but this man knew her weakness perfectly.
"Well that does cut the need for introductions and brings me to my point. I looked at your fight, it was a masterpiece of movements. I want you enrolled in Beacon this year. Of course you need to get Tai's approval as well but I don't think that will be the hard thing." He said leaning back in his chair taking a long sip from his mug. "Yeah... speaking of which, am I in any further trouble because that lady has a very high pitched yell. She hurt my ears a bit." Ruby said rubbing her ears gently.
"Glynda, she has a strained relationship with your father. First loves often do have a weird sorta of thing like that but Tai, he is different. She caught him cheating with your sister's mom." Ozpin said finishing his coffee just as Tai Yang came bursting in and closing the door fast. Ruby covered her ears when she heard the woman she now came to recognise as Glynda. "Hey Oz thanks for looking after her. Quick thing though, uh before we leave can you go ahead and take Glynda with you. She is still kinda angry." Tai said rubbing the back of his neck.
"I will but first thing is, your daughter stopped a robbery and after reviewing the footage. She is prime for Beacon. Even at her early age, with your consent I can have her enrolled and she will be on the last airship tomorrow." Ozpin said with a smirk at the sound of Ruby's tail wagging. "I... uh... So you want to take both of my daughters? I have a kidney you want that too?" Tai said getting slightly angry at his old friend's decision.
"Tai, you know I wouldn't offer this to her if she wasn't far beyond her years. During the fight she was able to deal with some high target people with ease the way she moves in a fight is far superior to that of Qrow and give her not even half a year and she will over shadow you, Qrow and even myself in combat. Her mind is what I aim to sculpt that you can't do at Signal. Of course I need both yours and Ruby's consent. If you say no then so be it. I'm sure she will apply when she comes of age at 17 but she will resent you all that time." Ozpin said staring Tai dead in the eye. Ruby noticed her dad's heart rate increasing. She knew it wasn't out of anger. His breathing hasn't altered. No this was out of fear. Fear of what she couldn't make out, but she knew it was something big to scare him so easily.
"The last ship for Beacon is Wednesday. You'll have your answer Monday night. We need to talk about this in private. Now can you leave please, I've known you long enough so that two days won't kill you. Your patients are that of a god." Tai said as he stepped out of the way for Ozpin to leave. Ozpin nodded and left leaving the two family members to be alone. "Hey dad what were you scared of?" Ruby asked tilting her head to the side.
"That man is the single most terrifying person to fight. When we were younger me and Qrow along with our team fought him. Four vs One, in one move he beat all of us. But don't change the topic, I'm angry at you for leaving Yang like that and we now have a lot to talk about."
Author's Note:
Okay so let me know what you think, this isn't my best work but in my defence 3 in the morning here plus I've been drinking and it is un betaed so please excuse any mistaks.