This chapter is dedicated to my friend and colleague Tucker. May he forever be there to edit my stories and when I need someone to talk to. Here is to you, buddy.
I was unsatisfied with this so I decided to rewrite this. The plot will stay the same I will just get rid of some… inane things in this and clean it up. So expect it to be easier to read than it was. Also: since this is the new first chapter and all who are new to this are without a doubt very confused let me tell you some things. This is going to be a rather lengthy story (hopefully) updates will be infrequent and when ever I have motivation, and this is an AU that has some different characters. Sexual theme, potential lemons, character death(maybe. Not sure. Depends on the reception I get on this idea) you get the drift. Not for the kiddies. Gore will play a part in some chapters, and the characters will be much different. So with that out of the way, enjoy the story!
Quick warning: there is light smut in this chapter, might be more than light if I change my mind but I digress.
"New house, new home, new start. Unless mom fucks it up… again," A teenage boy stretched his arms as he gazed at the house he was now going to move into.
"Yeah. Your mom should be arriving soon. She said she was taking the car, so knowing her she probably has been pulled over. Also I have hotel rooms booked, knowing her we may need it," The boy's mother said.
"I'm going in, I got things to not do and… fuck!"
"What?" His mother asked.
"Where is my—this is why we shouldn't let faunus' transport shit. They are so bad at organizing."
"Try to keep the racism down. Remember Auntie Velvet?"
"Hey, some are bad some are good. Humans'll fuck you over too," he rummaged through the moving van until he found what he was looking for.
His mother bit her lip when he showed her what he was looking for.
"Murder Those Hoes!" He yelled.
"God, you are just like your mother with your damn weapon,"
The kid was holding a normal looking acoustic guitar. Thing is when factored in who his mother was it shouldn't surprise you that he thing doubled as a gun. How was beyond anyone. Except his mom. She patiently explained to everyone that it used some like aura disguise transmogri-whatever. It made no sense to anyone.
"Now I have to go be busy with nothing!" The boy dashed inside.
His mother sighed, choosing to just wait for her wife. It didn't take long, thankfully.
"Hey honey," She said, as her wife got out of her sporty white convertible.
The woman was tall. She wore a white cloak with a hood, currently obscuring her face. Underneath that was a black and red corset and she wore a black and red combat skirt with a silver cross at her hip. She had long black boots with knives strapped to them. On her back was a white and red scythe.
"Sup?" The woman asked, pushing down her white hood, revealing black hair with red tips and silver eyes.
She smirked, checking out her wife, "Looking good, Pyrrha," she smirked.
Pyrrha wasn't wearing anything special. Just a red tank top with a black jacket unzipped over it. She had on black jeans with a red pair of converse hightops. On her hands were a pair of black fingerless gloves. Her hair was up in a ponytail and her vivid-green eyes were darkened with tiredness and boredom.
"Really? I think tired is a better description," She deadpanned.
"Yeah. Don't blame you, come on. Weiss furnished the house already. Follow me, Otrera,"
"If you call me that I'm calling you Summer, Ruby, you know those names are not needed anymore. We have long since retired them. The war ended, there is no need for us to carry those relics. Let us just live a nice, quiet life. Of course knowing you—well let us just say I think action will find us,"
"Yeah, yeah. I hear you loud and clear. Now I need to sleep, man,"
"Hey, Ruby. Remind me again why you decided to drive?" Pyrrha asked.
"Hm? Oh I just wanted to. Like I could have run but driving is just… different. I get to think, the highway, no one around, pressing the pedal all the way down, music blasting, plains all around me. Just relaxing. Not something I get if I run," she said.
"Yet you will run if you want to show off," Pyrrha said.
"Of course. I have an ego and I need to feed it. I can't let it shrivel up and die and let the new kids have bigger egos than me,"
"Your ego is already too big. Try to not inflate anymore. At this point I think I may be absorbing it,"
"Hey, you just need to go out and win some tournaments, and get an ego for yourself,"
"You know I don't do tournaments,"
"Why not?"
"After it happened, I don't know. I can't do it in good faith,"
"We have to change that. Though first, I am going to sleep and you should follow,"
"Yeah, good idea," Pyrrha muttered.
She followed her wife as she walked into the house. Walking into the room they assumed was the bedroom, really they just opened doors until they found it, and then passed out on the bed.
A knock came, loud rapping on the large wooden door. Pyrrhus looked up from his position on the couch irritably. With a sigh he went and opened the door, only to find an old woman at the door.
She had messy white hair, dark brown eyes, her face was wrinkled and she had on a smile. She was short, well shorter than Pyrrhus, so pretty short. Pyrrhus was always sensitive about his height. He was told he took after his mother (the red haired side) and look a lot like her. Problem was that he was really short. Five foot three and he hadn't gotten much taller for a few years. His hair was long and red, just like his mother's, and his eyes were an electric blue.
"What do you want?" He asked her.
"Oh I just wanted to stop by and meet the new arrivals, can I come in?" she asked kindly, "you should get your parents and we can just chat,"
Pyrrhus' frown deepened, "I'm afraid not. We are kind of asocial, like really asocial," he went to shut the door when the woman put her hand in and stopped him from closing it.
"Surely just meeting me won't hurt,"
Pyrrhus rolled his blue eyes, "Here is the thing that may shock the hell outta you. When I say that my parents are really asocial I ain't just saying that to say that. I am saying that because they don't like people, but also can't stand the country," the woman still didn't seem to understand so Pyrrhus tried a different approach, "they are hunters, they fought in the war. Bloody and awful, as I am sure you can remember, kind of left them a little—off,"
"Oh my. I lost a son in the war, he was a nice boy too. Please do come over someday, I would love to talk about that, see what the kids thought of it," she said.
"Yes I am sure they would love to, as well, now please go," Pyrrhus shut the door.
Woman just didn't give up, jesus. No matter, he had important nothing to do. Pyrrhus walked back over to the couch and just went back into his state of vegetative zen.
"Pyrrha? Why isn't there any food?" Ruby whined from the counter.
"Because we didn't buy any," Pyrrha explained patiently.
Ruby looked at her son.
Meeting her stare, his eyes widened and he waved his hands in front of him, "Don't ask me! I'm not a legal adult and I can't buy liquor!"
"See? This is why he is your son," Ruby pointed at Pyrrha, "always a logical buzzkill,"
"So who is going to go out?" Pyrrhus asked.
"I think Ruby needs to be acquainted with the neighborhood," Pyrrha said.
"This is why I hate you," Ruby stood and threw on something more casual, just a simple white hoodie over a black t-shirt with the words "Jesus isn't lord and these goddamn tires are new!" She wore a simple pair of black jeans and on her head was a white baseball cap.
"So, if anything goes—well—goes south. Where do I go?" Ruby asked.
"Just come back here, I'll handle it. Just try not to kill anyone, please.
"Yes, sir!" Ruby saluted like the smartass she was.
Ruby stuck her hands in her hoodie's pockets and began her casual stroll to the store she saw not to far away. She slipped on a pair of red headphones after she had left her house and began to blast rock. So when a man started shouting at her, she didn't hear him, nor did she care to. He began waving his arms to get her attention, she glanced at him and then shortly after studying the man she looked away.
Not very impressive, then again she went to a hunter's school so the fact that this man was only rather muscular was probably just something that normal people would have found impressive. SH\he was taller than him, which was rather impressive since he was a minimum six feet. He had to be about Cardin's height, she mused. He had short, military cut blue hair and eyes that matched his hair color.
He also seemed to not take getting ignored kindly, especially by someone like Ruby, so he ran in front of her. Without even reacting, she stepped around him. Okay, now this was getting irritating. The man stepped in front of her again but this time grabbed her by the shoulders to stop her.
Ruby scowled and pulled off her headphones, "What do you need?"
"I just wanted the chance to talk to such a beautiful woman like you," he replied.
Great, he was that guy.
"I am already spoken for,"
"Oh, I am sure I can change that," he winked suggestively.
Gross.
"I'm sure you could for many other women, thing is those women are," Ruby slipped out of his arms and past him, "straight," she finished.
The man clearly didn't get the memo as he kept following her. These are the kind of people that need to be sent to death camps.
"Why are you still following me, I told you, not into guys and I am taken," Ruby pointed to her ring to emphasize her point.
Still not taking the hint the man continued following her.
Ruby extended her scythe and whipped around, having it place so that she could easily decapitate the man.
"This scythe has had more blood on it, Grimm and human, than almost any other weapon on this earth. I wouldn't suggest fucking with the reaper of souls, man, woman, child, beowulf, ursa, deathstalker, this doesn't discriminate,"
"Okay, just let me go," the man cowered.
"Good choice," Ruby retracted Crescent Rose and went back along her way.
Idiots, I am surrounded by idiots.
Sirens blared as Ruby was making her way back from the story. She had two paper bags, one balanced on each arm, each one contained a variety of food, alcohol, and candy. Along with these Ruby had bought a pack of cigarettes. She pulled a lighter from a pocket inside her corset and lit the cigarette, bringing it to her mouth. Taking a long drag, she waited for a second and let the smoke billow out of her mouth and nose.
Ruby started to calm down, her nerves slowing down sufficiently enough for her to think straight, she had been a little shaken up by the guy. Not that he scared her, really, just that he reminded her of… people she used to know. She closed her eyes and put her headphones back on her head, rock music turned back up.
"When angels fall with broken wings I can't give up, I can't give in. When all is lost and daylight ends. I'll carry you and we will live forever, forever," Ruby hummed.
"Ma'am," a voice came from behind her.
Turning she saw a police officer step from a police cruiser to face her.
"What do you need, officer?" She took the cigarette from her mouth.
"We've received reports of a woman matching your description assaulting a man around her about ten minutes ago,"
"Oh, really? So why do you need me?" She asked.
"Ma'am, we just want to take you to the station, ask you a few questions, and we can let you go, no charges or anything if you cooperate," he said.
Ruby grimaced, she liked the police just fine, she just hated working with them, "So I'm not under arrest or anything? Why is that?"
"We have reason to believe there was more to this than just you assaulting the man, the man fits a description of a serial murderer and rapist in the area,"
"Oh," she should have killed him when she had the chance, "can I call my lawyer first?" she knew her rights.
"Yes, you can ma'am,"
"Thank you," Ruby pulled out a cell phone and dialed Pyrrha, "hey, babe. I may or may not need the lawyer. Okay I do need her, send her down to the police station. Yes. No. No. Don't worry about it, babe, I got it. Bye, love you," she hung up the phone.
"Yeah, we can go now," she smiled sweetly at the man.
"Just get in the back seat," he opened the door for him.
"You're so sweet," she said, sardonically.
She climbed into the car, dropping her cigarette before she entered and crushing it beneath her foot.
Pyrrha showed up half an hour later at the police station.
"Took you long enough," Ruby muttered to Pyrrha as she made her way into the room.
"Took me long enough? Do you know how hard it was to find this place?"
"Yeah, tell me about it. Felt like a kidnapping,"
"I assume you are her lawyer?" She man who was attempting to question Ruby asked.
"Yeah," Pyrrha replied.
"Great, now we can get this questioning under way," he clapped his hands together, "so I'm not gonna beat around the bush with small talk or anything, you can trust me of that. What is your name?"
"Summer Rose," she said.
"Age?"
"Why do you need to know?"
"Establishing demographic, mental stability, etcetera, new test they came up with to test for crazies,"
"Ah,"
"Yeah, so age?"
Ruby pursed her lips, hesitant to tell him just how she really was, "Thirty five," she said at last.
"Height?"
"Tall enough,"
"Please?"
"This is fucking stupid,"
The man smiled, seeming to pretend to understand, "It can be, just bear with me,"
"What if I don't want to?"
"Do you want to be sent to prison?"
"God you play tough, like I really am so afraid of prison," Ruby deadpanned.
The man cocked an eyebrow but said nothing, "anyways, we can skip the superfluous questions,"
"Superfluous?" Ruby shouted.
The man ignored her, "What were you doing today?"
"Getting groceries—which are over there, honey—if you could get them," Ruby pointed to the two paper bags.
Pyrrha looked to where she was pointing and nodded.
"Okay, do you have any children?"
"Yeah, a son,"
"How old is your son?"
"Old enough," Ruby snorted.
The man grimaced, "You have to work with me,"
"I don't wanna work with you, though,"
The man sighed, "What is your marital status?"
"Married, seventeen years,"
"To whom?"
"Otrera Rose,"
"How old is she?"
Ruby leaned back in her chair and looked at Pyrrha, upside down, "How old is she?"
Pyrrha looked at Ruby, "I believe she is thirty-seven,"
"Thank you, Otrera," Ruby smirked.
"Anytime,"
The police officer just watched in mild interest as how the friendly the two were with each other, not his business, "Why did you feel the need to attack that man?"
"Well I just threatened him, but no issue, he got in my way and was harassing me,"
"Why didn't you call the police?" He asked.
"Two reasons, one: I do not get along with most coppers here in Vale, in fact many of them have a personal vendetta, two: the response time versus my patience is much too long. So I fixed an issue I was having," Ruby shrugged.
"You have a very warped and impatient view on justice,"
"Justice!" Ruby did her best Batman impression before doubling over laughing.
"I apologize sir, my wif-client is rather excitable. Is there any chance we can forget this? I have wealthy friends in high places, as well as the fact that last time the police tried to pin a petty crime on her, well remember the story of the Atleasian dam being destroyed? She goes to extremes,"
The man looked at her, "Wealthy people in high places?"
"Schnee,"
"Really?"
"We'll be in touch,"
Pyrrha took a still laughing out of the room while the man pondered what he could get from this.
"That was amazing, I have zero regrets," Ruby giggled.
"Yes, you really are the next Robin Williams, because you are hilarious,"
"Oh screw you, you know I am funny some of the time,"
"Only when you are being snarky or some of your one liners can be pretty good,"
"Ha! Take that mother! I am good for something!" Ruby yelled, then quietly she followed it up with, "I really have no idea why I said that, considering that my mom was really nice,"
"Just walk, we have places to go and people to see,"
"Aye aye!"
Pyrrha sighed, she was going to have to call Weiss and ask for another favor. Thank god they had good relations with her.
Lisa Lavender sat down, to deliver to the people of Remnant the grave news, "Maria Muerte continues to elude capture. It is said that she killed another man recently, he is of yet identified but it is speculated to be the infamous Riley Taurus. He was found—if children are watching please have them cover their ears—crucified to the walls of a local hotel with the words, 'Dia de los muertos is coming for you, be prepared,' carved into his chest with a knife. He was found with a crown of barbed wire and on his arms the words 'Martyr? Or perhaps he is just a criminal, make your decision, animals,'. He was said to have his eyes ripped from his skull and pinned to a sandwich with toothpicks—sick sense of humour that girl—police have said that the words on his chest mean nothing and is just a scare tactic. However it is believed by some to be the day when Maria Muerte plans to mount her final assault. What it is, is unknown. Is it a coup d'etat? Perhaps it will be a mass murder. No one knows for sure, and perhaps the police are right. We shall see, now won't we? This is Lisa Lavender, signing off,"
"Cut!"
Lisa stood up and scowled, "Where is my coffee? Why has no one gotten me it yet? Fucking apes,"
A scared attendant ran up to her and handed her her coffee. She didn't even acknowledge him save for taking the coffee from him. Quickly gathering her stuff, she made her way out of the recording studio, the back entrance in case one of her crazy fanatics was out front.
"That was a good broadcast, honey," a voice said from the shadows.
Lisa didn't jump, she just calmly turned around and faced the shadow stalking her, smirking, "Think I riled them up enough?" She asked.
"Oh you did simply fantastic, now come here, you look so much better in person," the person pulled Lisa into a kiss.
It was a vicious wrestle a fight of two large egos trying to gain the upper hand. Despite her best efforts her 'opponent' managed to subdue her and push her against the wall.
"Marilyn Monroe said it best I think, 'the body is meant to be seen, not all covered up," the person slipped her hand underneath Lisa's shirt.
Lisa moaned, "Here?"
"As good of a place as any, right?" The figure bit Lisa's neck, "I mean, why not?"
Half an hour they went at it. After they finished Lisa was left alone, sitting against the wall. After a little and she had finally regained her wits, she stood and made her way home, she had plans for tomorrow's broadcast.
Hello, ya'll. I've been getting better at longer chapters, which makes me happy. This one is around 3000 words author's note excluded, and to think about this time last year I was struggling to make 2000. Makes me pretty proud of my achievement, all included. I intend to delete what is there of Summer's Shadow and post this instead, because I like this first chapter so much more. It sounds pretty good to me, a lot better than my other first chapter. So on to clarify things. One may not know who Lisa Lavender she is my favorite side character in all of RWBY. I dunno why, but I just like her. Her role is different here than most fics with Lisa Lavender as I am sure you can see by the end of this. Also on that, I try to avoid smut at some places, there I had the beginnings of a scene but cut it off, if this is here you will know I decided to keep it that way, if not, well then this shouldn't concern you now should it? Well I am sure you are wondering just what the hell is happening with this Lisa Lavender report and the Dia de los muertos thing. Well you will see, I have the feeling Ruby may somehow end up in the middle of this, knowing her she is gonna fuck up and this will be her fault, in its entirety. So next chapter will be the opposite of this one, I hope, being that it focuses on Lisa and this other 'person' and we get less of Ruby/Summer. Hey, I hope to see you all next time, whenever I do another chapter. I urge you to favorite or follow this if you enjoyed it and review so I get to work on the next chapter. I ain't gonna hold out on you guys but reviews really do get me working pretty dedicated. So well I really must go, other commitments and all that.