Prologue

Spring 2012

Moon Rock Falls, Ontario, Canada.

Ruby sat on her bed, clutching at the red red cloak she wore all around her. All she did was sit alone in her new room, and think. She thought about many things, such as all the emotions that tormented her and were the cause of the slow and steady stream of tears that rolled down her face. She tried hard not to think about the cause of those emotions themselves. Instead she wanted to figure out how to deal. She didn't want to feel this way. She wanted to clear her head. Escape. Everything was just way too much to handle. Not only was this the most stressful point in her life so far, but now she also had to deal with this. Yang and uncle Qrow were there, but they couldn't help her. Ruby could actually hear the two of them talking in the living room, though what they were talking about was incomprehensible to her for some reason.

The room she was sitting in was all decked out in her favourite colours of red and black. Childhood toys from the times she stayed with Qrow, as well as all her belongings from her old room, were sprawled around the room in a futile attempt to make her feel more at-home.

Suddenly a flash of red invaded Ruby's consciousness. She shut her eyes forcefully and defensively crawled into the foetal position. She tried to think of something to keep her mind away from the memories.

Escape.

The first time that word came to mind, the weight in her chest seemed to have lightened slightly. This time it did the same. Escape. Escape. Escape. Every time she thought of it she felt better. This was the answer. She knew it now. She had to escape, and she knew the perfect way to do so. She got up off her bed; she knew what to do. She grabbed her backpack, and packed it with an extra set of clothes, her laptop, mp3 player and headphones as well as their respective chargers, and anything else she thought she might need.

Done packing, Ruby shouldered her bag. For some reason the load felt heavier on her shoulders than it was supposed to. She walked over to her dresser and pocketed her cellphone, keys and wallet. Then she moved over to her closet, where she put on her two piece protective armour suit, pulling the pants up underneath her skirt, the chest and arm protectors overtop her shirt, and lacing her boots on to finish it all off. Finally ready, she turned to the door. Midway to it though, she stopped in her tracks. She looked back at her desk, situated in the corner of the room behind her. On it was her little red rose notebook and her pen. She walked up to the desk and opened the notebook to a blank page. She wrote something down on the paper and then tore it off. Keeping that page in her hand, she tossed the rest of the notebook and her pen in her bag, before finally leaving the room.

"It's been over a month now. She's still not getting any better." Yang told uncle Qrow. She was worried about Ruby. Rightfully so too. "Her grades've been dropping. Lower than mine even!" Qrow sat down in his armchair, a glass of Southern Comfort in his hand. The fifty-year-old had a head of thick, jet-black hair, which surprisingly for his age had only just started to grey. An equally thick beard of the same colour grew on his pleasant-looking face. He took a sip from his glass before answering.

"We have done all we can. The demons that haunt her are her own and there's little we can do but be there for her if she needs us." Qrow stated, his deep voice filling the room. The answer did not satisfy Yang however. She hated the idea of inaction. To her, anything would be better. She felt helpless. She didn't like seeing Ruby in this state. She would much prefer to see her get back to her regular old self. All energetic and awkward. That was her goal: to return Ruby to normal, and doing nothing was an idea that just didn't cut it for her.

"And what if she can't deal with it herself? What then?" she asked loudly. Her emotions were getting the better of her and she knew it, but she wasn't too preoccupied with that at the moment.

"She will have to. Keep in mind that your sister is not a little girl anymore. An eighteen-year-old like her is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. You don't need to protect her from life." Yang was about to reply when the both of them heard the door to Ruby's room open and close. Ruby walked into the open living room and dining room area, and placed a paper from her notebook down on the table. Yang and Qrow both watched her wordlessly, like nature watchers observing a skittish deer. Ruby walked to the front door and grabbed her red and black motorcycle helmet before walking out and closing the door behind her.

"Where's she going?" Yang asked Qrow, strong hints of worry tainting her voice. A stupid question to ask. How is Qrow supposed to know? Perhaps for this reason, Yang didn't wait for an answer, and headed towards the small piece of paper Ruby had left on the dining room table. She picked it up in her hand to read.

'I have to do this.'

Yang turned around to see Qrow standing directly behind her, reading over her shoulder. She pushed roughly past him to get to the door. Qrow stood still for a moment, staring at his glass. He proceeded to down his drink in one gulp before slowly following Yang to the front door.

Ruby walked from the door to her red Suzuki SV650S 2005, affectionately named 'Red Rider', parked in the driveway beside Yang's Bumblebee. Uncle Qrow had bought the bike used for her as an early eighteenth birthday gift when she had gotten her licence the previous summer. It was a good bike, inexpensive, being used, but only lightly so and it was the perfect colour too. It didn't have ABS, but Ruby was a good enough rider that it wasn't quite necessary.

Ruby sat herself on her motorbike as she put her helmet on. She put her keys in the ignition and kicked the stand up, the bike now standing by the strength of Ruby's legs. Just as she did so, she heard the front door to Qrow's house swing open behind her.

"Ruby! Wait! Stop!" Yang now stood in the doorway with uncle Qrow standing silently behind her. Ruby turned her head to look back at them. Through Ruby's open visor, Yang and Qrow could see the tiny yet present stream of tears running from her glassy eyes. Despite the residual tears, the look in her eyes was that of ultimate determination. Ruby pressed the starter, the bike responding with a satisfying roar.

"Ruby Xiao Long! You turn that engine off right now!" Yang yelled. Ruby didn't answer. Instead she lowered her visor, looked forward, and rode away. Yang was left speechless for a moment, not fully registering what was going on, but that subsided after a moment.

"We have to go get her." Yang declared, turning to look at her uncle. Qrow gave no answer and so she started toward the inside of the house to fetch her own keys. She was stopped however by a firm and unwavering hand on her shoulder.

"I would ask that you don't." he said calmly. How uncle Qrow could remain calm at a time like this, Yang didn't know. It was really getting on her nerves, and so she snapped at him.

"Why the-fucking-hell not?!" she asked, steaming with anger. Qrow was lucky he was Yang's uncle; else he might not have been standing on his own two feet at that particular moment.

"We were just talking about it. A person's demons are like stones weighing on their shoulders. The boulders your sister bears, she must carry them alone. Let her deal with them in her own way." Yang started crying.

"But… she needs me!" she choked out between sobs. Qrow smiled and hugged his niece. He knew that Yang was the one that needed Ruby, not the other way around. He ran his hand through her hair as he let her cry into his shoulder, the relatively tall man measuring a good six inches more than her.

"Don't worry. She'll come back. She'll come back when she's ready. You'll see. She'll come back."

Ruby rode along the pavement, which road she was on she didn't know. That wasn't important though. This wasn't about where she was going. It was all about the ride. The wind flowing through her helmet, cooling and relaxing her mind. The power of the engine underneath her seat, reverberating throughout the bike. The ultimate control over herself she felt through her hands. The beautiful countryside all around her, and her vivid red cloak trailing behind her.

She felt at peace. Everything seemed to make sense. She had to do this. She had to take a break. She had to escape. Yang and Qrow had each other; they could manage without her for a little while, surely. It's not like she'd be gone for too long. A few weeks at most. A few weeks at most…

Author's Note: Screw writing one fic at a time. I won't ever get to any of these other ideas if I wait on Résistance to end; god knows that'll just take forever. So this fic will be shorter than my previous will eventually be. This one might be a total of ten chapters? I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. This prologue is only about 1.5k words, the length I usually aim for is about 5k and I'll do that for the future chapters too, maybe 1k less.

Fic is inspired by the song "Ghost Rider" by Rush, or more specifically the story from which the song is inspired by. Won't talk about the story, cause that's a big spoiler, but the song is vague enough that I don't think it's too much of a spoiler at all. If you want to listen to it, I recommend the 2013 remix, because the original was terribly mixed. The band felt the same way so they had the album re-mixed.

Be aware of the fact that I am terrible for updating my fics, if you read Résistance you know this all too well and I'm sorry. I've got nothing else down yet, so it'll take me time to get the first chapter up, keeping in mind that I've also got another story to write for. Hopefully the coming construction season (summer) break will grant me more time to work on them. Foolish optimism on my part, probably.

If you have any questions, comments, criticism or anything else at all, feel the ultimate freedom of leaving me a review or sending me a PM! Don't be shy, I love feedback. I hope you all liked this short prologue and first look at the new project! Have yourselves a nice day.

"The snakes and arrows a child is heir to are enough to leave a thousand cuts." – Armor & Sword, Snakes & Arrows (2007), Rush.