Revolving Hearts

A RWBY Fan-fiction by Vocataku01

Chapter 1- Introductions

A warm summer's day dawned over Vale as airships, ferrying the newest additions to Beacon Academy's arrived at their destination. Within them, up and coming hunters and huntresses of all shapes and styles from all walks of life. A young early-starter, clad in a black and red corset-like jacket and matching skirt ,with silver eyes shining of enthusiasm, entered Beacon's main courtyard along side a taller, violet-eyed, blonde woman. Just as soon as they arrived, however, the blonde ran off with other older students leaving the younger girl behind to explore this new school on her own. Walking on, nervous and afraid, lost in her own worry, the girl of red accidentally ran in to the luggage of another female student. She was slender, had long white hair, sharp blue eyes, and dressed in an exquisite white dress and matching jacket. The silver-eyed girl jumped to her feet and was quick to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I should have been-" Her voice was cut short by the white haired girl.

"You should watch where you're going! Do you know how much damage you could have caused?"

She began repacking a suitcase that had opened in the altercation and spilled it's contents; dust. After a lecture about the substance followed by some harsh words from the older girl...and an explosion, a tall, dark figure had gained interest and began approaching the two girls. The sound of heavy boost against the stone walkway and chime of light metal clanging together, brought this figure to the two young students' attention as it halted behind the girl in white. An ominous feeling overcame the two girls as this figure stood motionless in front of them. It was a taller man, about six feet in height, with straight, shoulder length darker blonde hair streaming out from the rim of a black wild west-styled hat, face hidden behind it's lowered rim. He wore a white dress shirt under a black vest with matching dress pants and a large, black, leather long-coat. On his feet were black western boots with sharp metal spurs at each heel. On his waist he donned a black leather belt, clasped together with a large, decorative buckle that sported a skull with a rose clenched in it's jaws. All of his clothes seemed well-worn and beaten up, his jacket had stitches in multiple different places, a sign that it had seen many fights. Finally, the strap of a simple brown rucksack could be seen over his left shoulder from within the gap of his jacket.

The girls were intimidated by his presence, and feared what his intentions were. The youngest of the two girls was the first to break the tension. Nervously, she took in a sharp breath and squeaked out an introduction.

"H-Hi...I'm R-Ruby...Ruby Rose...A-Are you a s-student here t-too?" She raised her hand towards him, quivering in fear. After a brief pause, the man raised his head revealing his sturdy face from behind his hat's edge. He had dark blue eyes and his gaze seemed to pierce right through Ruby. The man's hand slid from behind his long-coat as he raised it to meet Ruby's. He gently grasped the girl's hand and lightly shook it as he nodded, answering her question.

"Oh...good. I guess we'll...be seeing each other around...here...often..." Ruby awkwardly responded. She was still nervous, but after feeling the man's gentleness, she felt more confident.

"Umm...what's your, uh...w-who are you?" She hesitantly asked. The man's gaze began to lose it's intimidating prowess. He spoke with a moderately deeper voice that was slightly raspy.

"The name's Bradly, Bradly Smith. Folks know me as Gunslinger. I'm from Vale, the city that is."

"Well Mr. Smith." Ruby replied, as she snapped in to a more confident mood as the tension faded. "I'm Ruby Rose, from Patch."

"You already told him your name you Dolt." The girl of white mocked. Bradly's attention shot to her as she spoke. Their eyes met and immediately, she froze in place like a cornered rabbit in the presence of a hungry wolf pack.

"And who are you?" Bradly barked. "You've interrupted our conversation without introduction." Bradly's gaze shot straight through the girl as it did to Ruby, only with more intensity.

"W-Weiss...Schnee...h-heiress to...the Sh-Schnee...dust...c-company..." She was caught in the man's overwhelming presence again, unable to look away from his glare. The light around him seemed to dim as the image of his eyes burned in to her mind.

"What kid of weapon do you fight with?" Ruby asked, breaking the spell that locked the other girl in place that she was blissfully unaware of. Bradly smirked and returned his attention to Ruby as he dropped his rucksack. He was very fond of his weapons and was powerless to discuss them.

"I carry a pair of Smith and Wesson 357 magnum, long barrel revolvers." He pridefully explained. "They belonged to my grandfather, and likely his father before him. Would you care to see them?" His tone had become more menacing as he brought his hands to his waist, pushing his long-coat aside, revealing the holstered guns on either side of his hips. His head had dropped again, covering his eyes, leaving his sinister smile in view. Weiss had begun to regain her composure but was left still fearful of this strange man.

"I don't think that's a good idea Ru-." Weiss declared, motioning toward Ruby in attempt to remove them from Bradly's proximity but she was interrupted by the young girl who was completely ignorant of Bradly's threatening appearance.

"Sure! I'm also curious about your semblance. Oh, and after that I can show you Crescent Rose!" Ruby responded, bringing her weapon from her back and transforming it in to it's rifle state. Before her gun had entirely formed, Bradly drew both of his pistols aiming one at Weiss, and the other point-blank at the center of Ruby's head no more than an inch away. Weiss had frozen in place again, caught completely off guard while Ruby, after a brief moment of confusion had done the same. Both girls stood petrified. Ruby's eyes had first focused at the barrel of Bradly's gun then moved to meet his face after noticing a red glow coming from it. Bradly's pupils had widened exponentially so that the blue rings surrounding them had all but disappeared. They were replaced by a ring of what Ruby had thought resembled electricity, glowing a bright red. Within these rings, an intense red dot burned in the center like a laser making his eyes appear similar to a target. As she peered in to his demonic-like eyes, she saw the reflection of herself within the black of his pupils, the red dot fixed on the center of her head where the barrel of Bradly's gun was pointed. His expression shifted from sinister to calm but serious.

"If you want to see a glimpse of what I'm capable of, I have to know something of you Ruby." He said followed by a brief pause. "Can you trust me?" Bradly asked sincerely as he slowly pressed the end of his gun's barrel against Ruby's forehead. After a moment of silence that felt like hours to Ruby while she questioned the situation she was in, she nodded against Bradly's gun, shaking in fear. Weiss had been completely unable to move as her joints locked, terrified, wondering if this man whom she had just met would kill her or this innocent young girl. She wanted to scream or at least say something to make this man stop, but she wouldn't dare speak out of turn considering what happened last time. Bradly smiled joyfully.

"Good."

In a flash of movement, Ruby and Weiss's eyes widened as the explosion of Bradly's revolver released a bullet above the young girl's head sending it behind her, ricocheting off of a stone pillar. In an instant, Bradly began to thrash his arms about unleashing a barrage of bullets in all directions around the girl, emptying his guns of ammunition with the final shot aimed straight up in the air. The girls could hear the bullets bouncing off of objects all around the courtyard. From the stone walkway, trees, pillars, suitcases, and even the airships dropping off other students, bullets ricocheted back and fourth. Ruby and Weiss attempted to watch some of these bullets as they flew past but there were too many and they were all too fast. Bradly began calmly and slowly reloading his revolvers.

"My semblance allows me to see the trajectory of objects before they're given motion, so I can both determine the best direction and angle to fire my guns at as well as predict the movement of incoming projectiles and attacks. I call it Bulls-Eye" Bradly spoke nonchalantly. "It's one hundred percent accurate, however, I do tend to get quite the bit of eye strain if I over do it." He chuckled. "Now, I've just sent twelve bullets in twelve different directions all with the intentions of hitting you. I even predicted their path to hit you if you were to dodge in any direction." As he spoke he began to calmly walk over to Weiss's back until Ruby was behind her, and she avidly watched his every move turning to stay squared with him. "In other words, I've just killed her." Bradly explained to Weiss. Ruby winced in disbelief and slowly began backing away from Bradly however she halted in panic as she heard 2 bullets whiz passed her head, one after the other in different directions. Weiss felt sick, sure that she was about to witness the murder of a fellow student.

"But," Bradly continued as he bent down, lowering his face in front of Weiss's, mere inches away, locking their eyes once again. "She trusts me."

He smiled warmly, and after a split-second pause, Bradly snapped the revolving chambers of his guns back in place with the new ammunition locked and loaded. Without averting his eyes for even a moment, he began methodically firing his pistols in Ruby's direction. Each round he shot collided with the ricocheting bullets he had fired earlier as they flew towards the girl in their final flight path before impact, sending them off course and away from her. He sent three passed her head, two to her right, five to her left and one at the ground between her feet which bounced upwards and whisked through the material at the back of her skirt without touching it, lifting it briefly with the wind from the bullet then colliding with it's match. Pausing for a moment, the girls could no longer hear the sounds of ricocheting rounds and they both relaxed their tense bodies in relief. Ruby had been mesmerized by Bradly's incredible talent and became overjoyed after witnessing it as though she'd forgotten that she had been put in life-threatening peril. Bradly then smirked, proud of his trick, and left Weiss's space to return to Ruby so she could have a closer look at his vintage revolvers.

Weiss took a few moments to process what had just happened and compose herself as she felt like some choice words were due. However, after replaying the events in her head she had halted her lecturing about gun safety.

"Wait, you said you fired twelve bullets..." She explained as she became nervous again. "You only fired eleven bullets to counteract them." She began looking around to hopefully find the missing bullet in a hole somewhere, thinking that maybe it had been misfired. Bradly halted his conversation with Ruby once again and turned his attention to the heiress.

"Good eye Miss Schnee, but you don't need to look around for it." His menacing demeanor returned. "As I said, my accuracy is one hundred percent, so the last bullet is still intended to hit it's target. But, there's one things you never took in to account."

"And what's that?" Weiss snapped back, returning to her typical attitude.

"When I explained that the twelve bullets were aimed at 'you'," Bradly's gaze towards Weiss intensified. "I wasn't just talking to Ruby." Weiss immediately felt a strong sense of panic as she determined that the last bullet was meant for her. She began frantically looking around again, attempting to determine the bullet's flight path so that she might be able to dodge it. But fear again paralyzed her. Bradly walked back to Weiss and, once again, he bent down, placed his face in front of hers and smiled.

"Ruby trusts me, do you? He asked calmly. Weiss blushed slightly as the question caught her off guard.

"Uhh, well...I...don't-"

"Five" Bradly interrupted Weiss's stuttering and turned to walk away from her.

"Wait, what?"

"Four"

"Why are you-"

"Three" Weiss began panicking more and more.

"Well I...I..."

"Two"

"Wait, stop!" Weiss screamed, fearing for her life. Bradly halted, drew one of his pistols, and aimed it at Weiss's head. He looked back at her terrified face which now had tears streaming over her cheeks. Bradly's voice deepened with seriousness.

"One."

"YES I TRUST YOU!" Weiss shouted and, without hesitation, Bradly fired his pistol at the heiress. Weiss's eyes widened as her life flashed before her eyes. To her, time seemed to slow as she watched the flash of gunpowder from Bradly's pistol and the bullet he fired fly toward her. Weiss was sure that this round was aimed square at her forehead but as it came closer, she could tell that the bullet was aimed higher. The bullet passed over her hair with barely any room to spare, cutting a small strand that had come loose from her pony tail. The final bullet Bradly had fired straight up had been falling back down to the ground and it was aimed at the top of Weiss's head, but at a slower rate than when it was originally shot. This meant that the bullet couldn't be heard as it was now sub-sonic. The two bullets collided with a small explosion sending a shroud of sparks flying over Weiss before falling to the ground.

Bradly stood motionless with his smoking gun still aimed at Weiss, while echos of his gunfire cracked on in the distance. Weiss was in total shock over what had happened and collapsed to her knees in total disbelief. Ruby was ecstatic, both by the display of skill Bradly gave and how he silenced the girl who had been mocking and rudely lecturing her mere moments ago. Once the heiress fell, he twirled his revolvers on his trigger fingers and holstered them while turning his head aside to speak to Ruby.

"Was a pleasure meeting you girls." He said to Ruby as he tipped his hat and smiled. "I'll see ya 'round." Bradly bent over and picked up his rucksack, threw it over his shoulder and began walking towards the school. Ruby was awestruck, and for a short time, speechless until she began childishly bouncing around the barely conscious Weiss, excitedly recounting the prior events. Weiss was in total disarray, unable to mutter a single word. She stared blankly in to the distance, with the only thought on her mind being the image of Bradly's deadly stare.

"...he's so cool!" Ruby cried, ending her overzealous rant. "Hey-a Weiss...you ok?"