It was a dark and stormy night, and Ruby had just gotten herself thrown in jail. To be more accurate, she'd thrown herself in jail and refused to leave. When the police officers didn't listen to her request and asked her to leave, she had her evil spirit threaten them and spilled a cup of coffee on an officer. When that took too long, she punched an officer in the nads to get her point across. When that failed, she opened the cell door and slammed it in an officer's face, and finally, as a last resort, she systematically beat the crap out of him until he cried uncle, aunt, godson, grandfather, and pretty much whatever she told him to shout. The others carried the poor man on their shoulders and fled for the exit.
Sometime later, they made the phone call. Nobody would even go near her. No one dared to ask her what was going on, how she did the things she did. Every misfortune she'd dealt them, be they physical injuries or merely wounded pride, she'd done just by looking at them, not moving an inch, standing perfectly still inside her cell, not a finger or an eyebrow raised. She'd kept her hands in her pockets while she tormented them, every officer claimed. They wanted her gone, so they did a quick game where the shortest straw lost. The officer who'd lost made a big gulp, and they ultimately had to shove him back into the hallway with the jail cells.
"Um, m-miss? We, we'd like to contact your family members, or any g, guardians you might have. Could you please t, tell us your name?"
The girl, lying down on her cot with her head resting on her arm, her back facing him, didn't respond at first. The officer considered walking back out when she didn't answer, though he knew his colleagues would chew him out and probably force him back in there if he didn't get a name.
Then the girl shifted so she lied on her back, keeping one leg bent and the other one straight. A name flickered from her lips. "Ruby Rose."
He almost didn't even hear it, her voice was so low. But he thanked her and hurried out, not stopping to catch his breath, his hands lunging for the exit door.
It took some digging and some actual detective work. But they did manage to find a family name listed in the council's registry, except it wasn't a family that lived in the city of Vale. Ruby Rose, father Taiyang Rose-Xiao Long, sister Yang Xiao Long, mother deceased. They lived in a house on an island just off the shore of Vale, a dingy marshland called Patch.
As soon as they'd made the call and spoke with the father, Taiyang couldn't have sounded anymore displeased. He asked if she was alright and to hold on, he would make the trip into Vale immediately.
The officers on duty at the Vale Police Department sat on pins and needles that afternoon. Some played Solitaire to keep their minds off of the haunted teenage girl locked in one of the cells. Others made excuses to go home early, citing that their children had suffered some kind of injury and needed their parents. No one, not even the station's chief, called them out on what were patently obvious lies.
It dawned on said chief that they'd left a teenage girl in a dimly-lit prison cell, not that she'd exactly given them any choice. She'd just walked in, told them to arrest her for assaulting six to eight people in public, and walked to the jail cells without further comment. They weren't hurting for funds from the city; the building had a decent camera system and the proper amenities. But it wasn't equipped with male and female-only cells.
If memory served, they already had three or four prior arrests sitting in that cell, and a bunch of low-lives at that, at least two of them sex offenders. One was a member of that Red Axe Gang, brutal bastards who ran a bunch of different nightclubs. The Red Axes had drug trafficking, violence, robberies, arson, and certainly some assault charges on their ledger.
When the guilt finally struck, the police chief checked the cameras.
Moments later, the chief yelled and told six officers to get in there. They bolted through the door afraid of what they would find. They hadn't given any thought to sending the scary little girl in there, alone, with no one to watch her. Abandoning a minor in a prison cell with a bunch of perverts inside; somebody was going to lose their job over this.
"Help me, agggghh!"
Crash. Someone yelled as they were thrown against their will. Thud. Panicked breathes, their shoulders heaved as hands grabbed and pulled at their clothes.
"Oh goddraah-achhk!"
The jail sang with another thud, a forehead banging the steel bars. Hair was tugged, limbs bent at awkward angles against their will. Another rattle of clothes as someone was forced to the ground, bending at the knees while a dark shape loomed over them.
"What are you assholes doing over there? Let us out of here right now!" the lucky one screamed.
Six officers watched the spectacle. There were five grown men in the cell, and three had been knocked unconscious, stripped to their boxers, and appeared to bleeding from different orifices. The fourth cried as his head repeatedly smacked the surface of the jail cell. His arms twisted behind him, it was as if he were being held in place while something punched him in the head.
"She's crazy, she's actually got an evil spirit!" the lucky one pleaded, hands fastened around the bars. "Please, let me out of here, I'll do anything! Throw me in solitary for the love of god!"
While the officers stared, they didn't see their chief waddle through their ranks. But it was the same reaction, the haste to rescue the little girl, and then frozen silence when they saw her. Standing right where she'd been before, perhaps a little closer to the bed, hands in her pockets. The same pissed-off look on her face, heavy eyebrows over silver daggers pointed at the enemy. The same dark hair swept coolly to one side of her face, the same callousness.
"Wh, what... happened here?" asked the police chief.
She gazed over at the chief and the officers. Closing her eyes and turning around, she said, "Those two over there, the one with the broken face and the one with the arm I yanked out of the socket." She pointed at them. "Told me to take off my clothes or else I was going to get hurt. So I took their clothes off instead and hurt them. If you need something else to keep me in here, add sex offender to the list."
Finished, she tugged the front of her hat down, dragging the emblem, a silver rose, over her eyes. Four of her cellmates bled out on the floor. The scary girl calmly went to lie down, sighing as she rested her head on her arm and promptly went back to sleep.
The police chief and the six officers mulled over their options. They unanimously agreed to walk out of the room and barricade the door behind them.
"She did what?"
It took hours on the fastest flight from Atlas for Qrow to get there and longer for him to make contact with the young woman that joined them. Taiyang tried to listen to what the police chief was saying, but none of it made any sense.
The police chief's fingers were knotted over the desk. Uneasiness settled into the experienced, weary police chief's face. "I wish I were exaggerating. She told us to add 'sex offender' to the list of charges and-"
"Why?" Taiyang burst, livid.
The chief gulped, eyes closed. "Sir, one of the inmates her, her evil spirit attacked is going to need diapers and in-house medical care for the rest of his life, however long that is. We lied to the EMT's about how he got that way just so they'd be willing to go in there and drag him out-"
"Hmph." Taiyang frowned, glancing behind him. Qrow nodded back at him, and the woman in white, apparently an associate of Qrow's, gave him the same nod. Taiyang turned his head back to the police chief.
"All right, I think we should take it from here."
The police station had requested assistance from nearby huntsmen and huntresses hours ago, and it took everything for Taiyang to keep other huntsmen from getting involved. The sooner they got Taiyang's nightmare of a daughter off the police's hands, the better.
Taiyang sighed as they entered the cell area. At least he had one daughter who wanted to be more, a Huntress instead of hoodlum. They'd received Yang's acceptance letter to Beacon last week and he'd never seen her more excited. That was what Summer would've wanted. In some respect, he supposed even Raven might have seen Yang's development into a powerful huntress as a good thing.
But then, even compared to her friendly, well-mannered, picture of success her biological daughter strove to be, Raven probably would've thought the world of her testy, morally crooked step-daughter.
They stopped in front of the cell. No one missed the dried blood still on the floor, or that one of the steel bars was missing, a giant chunk ripped out of the middle. A trail of blood and possibly urine led to a clump of mostly naked bodies, all scooted into a corner of the cell.
"Ruby," he said her name once, and she moved, pushing her hat up from her eyes.
Getting up, their eyes met cold and raw, seriousness and concern. She'd promised she would go to school today, but here she was in, in jail, not even wearing her uniform, just that dirty jacket with the chain front collar and the upturned back collar, her favorite street clothes.
"Listen pa, you can leave. I'm going to stay in here for awhile."
He grabbed the bars. "But Ruby, why? What would your mother think seeing you sitting in a cell like this? Look, I know you've been going through one of those teenage phases, you want to be independent, you want to take out your anger on the world, but, but doing what you're doing isn't-"
"Look, dad, it's nothing like that," she said. "I'm not in here because I want to be. I've been possessed by an evil spirit. I told the cops the same thing." She pouted. "I got into a fight earlier today and it took everything I had to keep that spirit from killing everyone, even the bystanders. Look, I'm not afraid to hurt people that have it coming, but I need to know I'm the one that does it. I don't know what it'll try to make me do next. So just go away, leave me in here."
"Ruby, come on, don't be like this!"
"Leave me alone old man. Go find some young, silk-haired brunette and have another illegitimate daughter with her if you want one so badly."
"Ruby, how da-"
Qrow put his arm in front of him. "That's enough. I think my niece and I need to have a talk."
"Your niece?" She snorted, lying down again.
"Listen up kiddo, I get it. You missed out on mommy's breast milk. We tried to make my sister be a wet nurse but she wouldn't do it, so Tai force-fed you that formula crap. You – missed – out. But your mom was one of the sweetest people I ever knew. She'd hate for you to be in here, making... friends with the local scumbags of Vale. Come home with us, now."
Her face tightened. "I ain't going."
"Ain't, ain't a word, sport," he said with a smirk.
Ruby slouched back onto the cot, stuffing her hands back into her pants. "My evil spirit makes a habit of sodomizing people who piss me off, old man."
Qrow groaned and scratched the side of his head. "Alright, guess there's no choice." He nodded and turned, bowing mockingly. "Miss Schnee, you're up."
Ruby's gaze lifted.
The woman in white, Miss Schnee, shot her uncle an awful glance.
"What?" Qrow chided, "I called you Miss Schnee just like you asked me to."
"Hmph."
Qrow closed his eyes. "Ruby, meet my old f... eh, a "buddy" of mine from Atlas." He even made little air quotes with his fingers, making the woman's expression angrier. "Her name's Winter Schnee, part of the Schnee conglomerate, not that you kids even watch the news anymore. Winter, do whatever you have to in order to make my cantankerous niece out of that cell."
"I don't know what you think I'm going to do Qrow," said Winter, her arms crossed. "But I'm not about to pummel some teenage girl, even if she does take after you."
"Cute. Just do what I asked, please ice queen?"
"You really think," said Ruby, sitting up and walking toward them, "some rich chick in a lab coat is going to make me leave? Where's her butler anyway? You know maybe if he was around, she wouldn't drop her stuff as often."
"Hmph, just what on earth are you getting at... ah!" Winter gasped, feeling around her waist for her saber, the latest, dual-wielded model from Atlas.
The weapon floated into Ruby's hand. "One of those prissy, upper-class dueling sabers all the nobles from Atlas use to floss their teeth." Her eyes scanned the weapon up and down, seemingly lifting it from her hand for a closer look. "Tch, you keep it all clean and neat, and I think I smell some kind of perfume." She sniffed. "Winter unisex fragrance, with some forest pine and Atlas lavender?" She sniffed it once more, and then chuckled, tossing the saber through the bars and onto the floor.
"You insufferable brat," shouted Winter, reaching for her saber but stopping. Behind her, Qrow covered his mouth and faked a cough.
"Take your prissy sword and go away. I don't beat up little girls playing dress up."
"That does it." Winter faced her, leveling their eyes. "Mister Xiao Long, I'm afraid this might get a little rough. I'm going to put this girl through so much pain she'll beg me to let her out of that cell."
Taiyang couldn't believe it when Qrow shrugged. "Like I said, do what you have to. Just make sure she's out, even if it's piece by piece."
"Qrow, what are you saying?" Taiyang cried out, but the Schnee woman ignored him.
"Alright then." She gathered herself, forgetting her weapon on the ground. Her hands circled in unison, preparing some kind of Schnee dust magic.
He'd intervene if he had to. Even with her rotten attitude, all the brashness that had come either from him or Summer, he couldn't tell whom, he wasn't about to sit by and watch one of his daughters get maimed.
But rather than use Dust, or activate her Semblance, Winter just stood there, her hands flexed in front of her. He didn't quite understand what she planned to do.
That was until the temperature dropped significantly, and the giant, armored hand leapt out of Winter's chest, covered in layers of crackling ice.
Tiny frozen beads of sweat on Taiyang's forehead snapped and broke apart against the floor. The police chief, who'd nervously guided them to Ruby's cell, dropped to his knees and shuddered from the cold.
A glistening shower of white spilled across the floor as the arm thrust into the cell. Ice formed rapidly around the door in the arm's wake. It reached further and further until it came within inches of snatching Ruby's collar, before another hand materialized and snatched it.
Taiyang said, "Ruby, that's-"
"Do you see, Miss Rose?" said Winter, visibly struggling.
"What the hell?" Ruby's arms left her pockets. The hand that sprang from her body, almost ethereal, was covered in a thick layer of ice from where it had grabbed the armored hand.
"So that's your so-called evil spirit." Qrow stepped closer, keeping his distance from Winter. "It must be real fast if it can catch an attack coming right at you like that."
Ruby backed up a single step, the spirit's hand breaking out of the ice. Shards sprinkled on the floor.
"Qrow, what is that thing?" Taiyang shouted.
"I was about to ask the same question!" added Ruby. "So this bitch has an evil spirit too? My hand feels like it was just frozen solid!"
Qrow explained, "This might seem like an evil spirit, Ruby, but it's far from it."
Taiyang didn't know if he could trust his vision. The armored hand became a complete figure, a knight wearing armor that stood inside the cell with his daughter. The hand that had intercepted the knight's advance grew larger, bolder, into a muscular, human shape, or as close to one as a demigod could manage. What few traces of a human it borrowed, a silver rose sat at the crest of its forehead, the same emblem that was on Ruby's hat. The two dangerous spirits faced each other, standing before their masters.
"Your arm froze because that's the power of Winter's evil spirit. These things are powerful avatars created by your own psychic energy." Qrow tapped one of his temples. "That's energy from your brain, kiddo. I'm impressed yours looks as fierce as it does, considering. These beings will always stand by your side and protect you like guardians. And it's for that reason..."
Ruby glared at her uncle, her eyes flitting between him, Taiyang, and Winter, who had the dirtiest look on her face as her knight, encasing itself in some kind of ice armor, stalked closer to his daughter.
"...we call these evil spirits Stands."
Winter smirked. "It's not often I see a Stand develop naturally in a person at your age. You're quite lucky. As for me, my Stand is named Winter Song."
Her "Stand," the ice-covered knight, lunged. Ruby backed away, her composure vanishing when she slid on the frosted floor.
She flew forward, not even touching the ground. She slammed into the cell bars, hard, right into where a huge mass of ice had staked its claim over the already cold metal.
Taiyang hadn't seen his daughter react to any sort of pain in a very long time.
"Damn it Winter, stop!" he demanded.
Qrow got in his way. "Tai-"
"She's my baby girl damn it, I'm not going to-"
"Going to what? Stand by and watch Winter knock some sense into that knuckleheaded niece of mine. That's exactly what you're going to do. You know violence is the only thing she understands."
For the time being, Ruby appeared to be restrained against the bars. The ice formulations snaked around her: neck, forearms, cap, and ankles, all were trapped.
"Mr. Xiao Long, I assure you no harm is going to come to your daughter so long as she heeds my every word." Winter smiled and looked the trapped girl dead in the eye. "Miss Rose, if you resist or try to remove yourself by force, even if you pull it off, you'll tear the skin straight from your cheek. My Winter's Song can lower this area to temperatures several degrees below zero. In a minute, you'll suffer hypothermia and inevitably lose several limbs."
Winter leaned closer while everyone else watched. Taiyang, furious and wanting to intervene. Qrow, satisfied, for the moment, that his will was being done. The police chief, bowled over and wishing they'd kept a supply closet of pelts and winter jackets somewhere nearby.
"What was that you said?" Winter asked, pursing her lips. She put her ear directly to where Ruby's mouth was.
"I... said..."
Winter dove away in the nick of time as the fist launched between the bars, shattering the columns of thick ice that restrained Ruby. After some careful negotiation, Ruby agreed to come home and Qrow kissed Winter on the cheek for helping them out. That was the fairy tale version of these events.
"Don't screw with me YOU BITCH!"
Taiyang watched as the woman, a bonafide combat specialist from Atlas, didn't react in time to avoid the fist that crashed through the ice she'd created. He caught a glimpse of the fist that came out of Ruby's stomach and struck Winter right in the face.
Thunder struck the ground. Winter bent completely backwards as the force hurled and flipped her.
The noise hurt their ears. An awful, crunching thud shrank the room to where Winter landed. She'd hit the wall with her knees, before crumpling against the dented surface, laying on her stomach, arms favoring her ribs. Her legs wobbled as she tried to right herself, making it just to one knee with tremendous effort.
Ordinarily, the first step to becoming a Huntress or Huntsman was mastering an individual's Aura. Aura was the spiritual, mostly physical bond between people and their inner souls. The physical representation of this was a dutiful barrier of energy, constantly shielding trained hunters from harm, a unique energy that gifted them with incredible powers and abilities.
A talented huntress with a strong understanding of Aura could have someone punch them in the face and break that person's hand, or have a bridge dropped on them and walk away from it, or have someone shoot them in the head from a meter away and blunt the bullet on impact.
So long as they managed to bring up their Aura fast enough to shield themselves.
Winter struggled to stand, clutching one arm while Taiyang moved to help her. Her perfect, pale face bore a significant trail of scarlet down it, staining her uniform.
Qrow, for his part, rushed in front of them as Ruby stalked closer, her Stand glimmering behind her. Her punch had shattered the frozen bars, opening a giant, crooked path through the cell. She stepped outside with gods of death in her eyes, all of it focused on the wounded Schnee.
By this point, the police chief cowered against the wall, relieved that the room was beginning to thaw, and horrified watching a grown woman flail into a wall, launched by what for all intents and purposes was an angry ghost.
"That's enough," ordered Qrow. The whirring noise from his hand caught Taiyang's attention. At some point, Qrow had withdrawn his scythe and engaged it.
"Ugh," groaned Winter, raising her hand to her face. "I, I think my... my nophe is broken."
Taiyang studied her wounds, and wished he hadn't. She definitely had a broken nose. Her lips were bruised with red, knuckle-like marks swelling on the upper lip. Purple blots crawled along the ridges of her nose and the inner edges of her eyes. The front of her blouse had gone from the color of snow to that of fine wine in seconds. Aura hadn't stopped that, that whatever it was, that "Stand" Qrow had called it.
Winter's Stand hadn't done anything either, that or Ruby's evil spirit managed to punch it into thousands of shards when it tried to shield her.
"It's gonna be alright Miss Schnee," said Taiyang, struggling not to stare. "You're gonna be fine-"
"Oh, trupht me," she said, somehow increasing her voice between spits of blood, "when I get up, that phtupid girl won't be!"
A piece of ice crunched under Ruby's foot when she stepped forward, accepting Winter's challenge.
"No, I said enough damn it!" He threatened. "Ruby, if you want to learn more about that evil spirit of yours, then call it off now! This is over!"
"Correct Qrow," said a male voice that didn't belong to the hyperventilating police chief.
It was a voice that was level and even, in spite of what it must have witnessed moments before.
"I think we've all seen enough of Miss Rose's peculiar, and admittedly impressive, talent for violence this evening."
RWBY's Bizarre Adventure, next time:
The graying man tossed a smile at her and planted his cane on the floor. "Do you know who I am?"
"You look familiar, but who the hell are you?"
"I'm a headmaster at Beacon Academy. My name is Ozpin, and I'd like for you to come to my school."
Yang looked down the hallway, her eyes flickering to red in an instant.
"Hey sis," Ruby greeted her, keeping one hand jammed inside her pockets like always.
Yang zipped across the courtyard, her knuckles whitened with rage.
To be continued...