Cybil kitty-I wrote this because I have always wondered why Ruby doesn't want to kill people like the rest of her family, so I thought, maybe she came from somewhere else and then this little thing was born, this fanfic was orignally going to be a oneshot but then it became to long so it should be finished in two chapters, so please review, advice accepted, flames will be ignored.
"Here's yer food" Jeb, the gas haven attendant sighed while chewing on his cigar, lifting two plastic bags full of groceries onto the counter. Glancing around at the three people in the station. One of them was a small seven year old girl who carried with her a raggy stuffed bear, with the nose gone and a torn left ear.
"Yer better git outta 'ere before Lizard comes sniffing for trouble, ya know he doan take kindly to ya" Jeb said staring out the window towards the open desert. "Ya know I admire ya right? I mean, you three on yer own, when everyone else starting eating people"
"We don't need to kill to survive" A eighteen year old boy, almost an adult replied "Don't need Jupiter's help" he said, more to himself than to anyone else. The little girl walked up to her sixteen year old sister and tugged at her worn dress.
"Pick up" she whined holding her small arms out, her sister sighed and bent down wrapping her arms around the small girl and lifting her up, balancing her sister against her hip.
"You're gettin' heavy Ruby" she chuckled lightly smiling at her sister, Ruby smiled back and rested her head against the older girl's chest, listing to her heat beating. The boy came up along side them holding one bag in each hand.
"Lucy, you want me to carry her?" he asked worriedly, seeing her sister struggling with Ruby, she shook her head and gave him a small smile.
"I'm alright" she replied heading out the door of the gas station and walking out into the desert.
"Lulu is lovely, Jackie is happy, everybody's having fun all day in the sun!" Ruby cried as she sang tunelessly to herself, her older brother Jack gazed over at her and smiled.
"Nice song Ruby" he smiled at her. The trio continued walking towards the tall hills that seemed to reach the pale blue sky. Lucy began to slow down a great deal before finally stopping, panting heavily. Ruby gently slipped out of her arms onto the sandy ground, looking up at her sister with confusion.
"Lucy you ok?" Jack asked worriedly, dropping the plastic bags on the ground and walking up to his sister and placed his hand on her shoulder. She gasped, sucking in as much air in as possible as if she couldn't breath and caused herself to choke slightly.
"I-I'm fine…" she managed to wheeze out as her breathing calmed.
Years later, Ruby was told by Big Brain that her sister had been suffering from lung cancer and that it was eventually the cause of her death.
Jack gave her one more worried look before returning to the bags and picking them back up. Making their way up the hills near Jupiter's mine, even thought they weren't actually part of his clan they were allowed to live nearby since Big Mama liked them and had persuaded Jupiter to let them stay, she had even got him to offer to take them into the clan and live in the test village with his family but they had refused the offer, not wanting to live on human flesh.
Lucy stared up towards a cliff edge in fear, she pulled Ruby close to her and held her tightly, Jack looked to see what was scaring her, up on the cliff's edge a person was crouched staring down at them, the sun behind the figure made him, or her only a silhouette to the siblings.
"Its just Goggle, he ain't gonna hurt us" he reassured her.
"Goggle friend" Ruby said patting her small hand on Lucy's arm. She gave her a small glare; it wasn't a secret that Lucy didn't like any other hill dwellers.
The only people she fully trusted were Ruby and Jack, not even trusting Jeb who gave them food out of what she supposed was pity, she was sure that he would leave one day and tell everyone outside about the hill people.
Even though the clan the siblings had once belonged to never hunted and killed innocent people, they knew they couldn't leave the desert, worried the government would find them and use them for experiments, or even more weapon testing, if these people had survived in an atomic desert, they could be blown up with a different bomb to see if it would kill them.
"Hey hurry up" Lucy vaguely called to the other two hurrying her pace and quickly moving away from Goggle. Ruby gave a big smile and waved up at the man perched watching her before running to catch up with her departing siblings.
They finally made it to their 'house' that was nothing more than a large wooden shed, by which time it had began to grow dark and the sun setting created long dark shadows of the towering hills.
Opening the small door Ruby was first in and she ran over to the bed, which was only a pile of blankets and one or two worn pillows, the whole floor of the shed was covered by thin sheets and in one corner there were a dozen small bottles and old milk cartons filled with water along with some bowls, a old rusty pot and some silverware.
Everything they had had been scavenged from the cars and trailers dumped by Jupiter's clan in the craters, whenever there was a hunt they would stay far out of the way, waiting and then go to the cars to try and find anything left that was not wanted or had been over looked by the other clan.
The siblings' clan had been made up of the people who had refused to hunt humans when the clans had formed after the bomb tests and had ultimately been made outcasts by the other mutants. They had been very few in number and lived in a small cave near Hades' mines, mostly the members had been killed off by disease or in territorial disputes with other clans, and one woman had been kidnapped by Hades and then later killed.
Furious at this, the siblings' parents who were the last adults alive went to Hades' mines to release some of his females they used for breeding for revenge. Unfortunately they were discovered by Chameleon and killed.
Another difference was that unlike many other mutant clans, theirs did not wish to breed to keep they're family's bloodline to continue. The few children they did have were actually accidental, and Ruby was the last-born to the family.
And now the three were the last ones left, and mostly all on their own.
Ruby sat down on the bed, lifting up one of the blankets and placing her teddy bear gently as she tucked it in, she looked up at her older brother and sister.
"Sarah go sleep" Ruby told them pointing at the toy to confirm what she had said. Lucy shuffled in and heavily sat down grabbing one of the pillows and resting her head on it as she curled on in a ball on the bed. Jack had gone through the groceries picking out a tin of soup and gathered up the pot and headed outside to start a fire.
Ruby being scared of the dark crawled over to a large torch that sat next to the bed and switched it on, filling the small room with a little light, she looked over at her older sister and shuffled back closer to her. Ruby poked Lucy in the arm slightly waiting for a reaction, when she didn't get one she repeatedly poked the older girl.
Lucy's hand came up out of the blankets and shoved Ruby away annoyed, Ruby only moved closer and tugged on her sister's arm.
"Play" she whined, shaking her a little harder, she heard Lucy mumble something intelligible in reply before rolling over to look at Ruby.
"Ruby I'm sleepy" Lucy yawned slightly sitting up and rubbing at her large eyes tiredly. Lucy looked almost like an older version of Ruby, although she had a few different deformities. The most noticeable thing was that her skin was a dark shade of red, as if she had been out lying still in the sun for hours and it often peeled off, very much like a reptile shedding it's old skin. Like Ruby her eyes were larger than they should have been and the middle and ring finger on her left hand were fused together, though unlike Ruby, her right hand had no thumb, but the other fingers were normal.
"Go see what Jacks doin'" she told her little sister, Ruby nodded, stood up and ran out of the door. Lucy sighed and unconsciously scratched the back of her head pulling her hand away her large light green eyes widened at the sight of a small clump of her black hair wrapped around her fingers, shit, her hair really was falling out, she hadn't believed it at first but now she was sure. She was going to become hairless like Big Mama, which would be devastating since she loved her long hair, grumbling miserly she threw the clump of hair to the floor.
The door opened, letting in a blast of cold air as Jack and Ruby walked back in, the older of the two carrying a hot pot of soup, the strong smell of the food made Lucy feel nauseous and pulled the blanket up over head laying back down. Ruby watched excitedly as her older brother pored some the soup out in the small bowls.
"Here Lu" Jack said offering his sister the bowl, Lucy didn't move from her position under the blanket and mumbled something probably along to lines of 'go away'
"Eat it" he snarled at her, it really upset him to see his little sister not even attempting to eat, they hadn't had proper food in a week and if she had a hope of getting better she had to eat to build up her energy. He was all too aware that she had a dangerous illness and it scared him. There were days when she felt better and it was like how it was before she became ill, and could even run around chasing after Ruby and play games with them, on others she hardly could get out of bed, on those days he was sure she would die.
Jack like his sisters, wasn't as deformed as some of the other mutants that lurked in the desert, all things considered, he had always thought his family looked more human than any of the other clans. His deformities were minor, and mainly located in his face. His right eye was slightly bigger than the left and his ears were much smaller than they should be, he had inhumanly sharp teeth that he often used to bite people he didn't like. Jack also had dark brown eyes and dark brown chin length hair.
"Eat it" he repeated growling bearing his teeth, Lucy growled back annoyed and sat up taking the bowl from him and snatching a spoon from the floor, she shuffled back to the bed resting against the wooden wall and took small mouthfuls.
"Open up" Jack said turning to Ruby who sat next to him, holding a spoon full of soup to her mouth. She gratefully took it and let him feed her until her meal was finished. He ate himself and then lay down next to Lucy with Ruby cuddled against his chest.