The memory rose to greet Ruby's mind, it was unexpected but not exactly unwanted. Ruby Rose, only a few months younger stands in her pajamas the day before her finals of midyear at Signal Academy. Ruby's head is jolted, and she is momentarily distracted. But then the steady hum of electricity coming from the airborne transport bus lulls Ruby, and the memory slips back to the forefront of her mind.
A bright camera flash and Ruby's eyes settle on the bedroom that used to be hers. It is a place that still feels like home when Ruby thinks about it, but regardless of what Ruby thought about it she needed to move on. Uncle Qrow, a wise old and kind man in Ruby's eyes, moved from behind a mounted camera on a tripod, smiling sadly with a single tear streaking down his cheek.
Ruby could almost hear herself say, "Uncle, why are you crying? Did I do something wrong…oh goodness I must have."
Someone else's voice interrupted Ruby's stroll down memory lane, "Excuse me, Ruby."
Ruby's eyes had closed momentarily as she remembered Uncle Qrow, but she was at full attention at the sound of the voice. It was the steward of the transport bus. Ruby had been told by Qrow that the steward of any public transport bus, when addressing you, had something terribly important to say and it would be wise to listen to them.
"Um yeah? I'm a little tired sorry, uh…what do you need?" Ruby asked politely, despite the fact that this was the second interruption. 'Well darn it.' Ruby thought, the memory slipped away from Ruby's mind, but not entirely. She could still feel it, clinging to the back of her consciousness. Ruby didn't want to go digging at it because it would prevent her from answering the steward's question.
"Uh yes you will be landing at you destination, the grand city of Vale…in 5 minutes. I, on the behalf of Vytal transportation industries do sincerely hope you've enjoyed your ride us."
With the interruptions, and the fact that Ruby couldn't remember Qrow anymore did hinder the trip. However Ruby answered honestly when she said politely, "Thank you, it was a wonderful experience…uh, I don't think I'll be coming back on though."
"Oh…ah, yes Ruby Rose. Your uncle sent you to live in Vale, didn't he?" The steward said a look of sudden remembrance on their hologram face.
Ruby yawned and quickly said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to yawn. Um, how do you know my uncle…uh never mind here's my stop. Thanks for the ride!"
"And thank you Miss. Rose for choosing us for your transportation needs." The steward's mouth smiled, but her eyes stayed the same as she said, "Thank you. And have a nice day!"
Ruby realized as she got up from her seat, yawning sleepiness that had apparently crept up on her while she had closed her eyes, the last part of the steward's message was automated. Ruby heard the steward addressing several more passengers while they prepared to depart as well. It was still a few minutes until Ruby had to get off, but she still prepared her stuff nonetheless.
Once the stopping station could be seen outside the window of the flying transport bus, several riders shouldered bags and got up. Despite being in the air, the transport bus was quite stable enough to walk upright in. However most people, including Ruby, preferred to sit in the comfortable chairs. Ruby's journey thus far had been exhausting.
Despite her tiredness Ruby cheerfully hummed to herself softly, as to not disturbed the other sleeping riders who still chose to say on the bus, and as Ruby joined a line of riders exiting the transport bus a bit of memory rose back up from the depths of her mind. It was Ruby's turn to get off, so she held the memory where it was only glossing over the details not fully remembering it.
Ruby had only been on a flying transport bus once before, and when she had gotten off Ruby had learned that you need to concentrate. Just so you didn't land on someone; the bus hovered almost on top of a railing, its left side barely peaking over the fence and hovering above a moving almost writhing crowd of people. The people in the crowd generally was gracious enough to clear a space for people to land, so it was quite easy and simple for Ruby to jump down and brace her knees as her feet struck the ground sending vibrations running up her legs.
Ruby didn't feel any pain, thanks to the physical training required in order to be a scythe wielder. Ruby and a few other riders found an escort, an elderly yet still wiry man around the age of 70. Ruby once she caught sight of his face was amazed at his age, and that he still did what he did; directed newcomers through the hectic intersection of Vale city. It was a place where many people had to cross paths to get where they needed to go, and therefore it was almost always crowded.
Now Vale itself was not a confusing city, in fact Ruby had been there before. But usually Ruby had gotten to the city through school transportation, which was much different from public transport. One difference Ruby remembered between public and school transportation was the room on board, whenever Ruby rode school transport she always felt as if she were riding something that she wasn't meant to ride in.
Ruby shook off the weird memory and smiled at people, and waved at people, but also ignored some people who were yelling and cursing. That last part Ruby disliked, she didn't dislike the words themselves. Ruby just didn't like the way people always said them. The guide directed them to a gate, and Ruby thanked him. The other people just handed him some money and walked back into the crowd.
Ruby confused, looked at the guide questioningly. The guide looked at her almost with tears in his eyes, "I'm sorry miss, but no one has ever thanked me with words in quite a long while for escorting them."
"Well then that's wrong, you're a wonderful escort! Everyone should thank you, but why did those people give you money? Do I have to give you money?" Ruby was suddenly nervous; if the man wanted money for escorting then Ruby was in trouble. She didn't have any money to give this kind man!
"Oh don't worry my dear, it's not necessary for you to give me money." And with a smile the old man departed back into the crowd. Ruby sighing and flipping her red hood up so it hid her face walked onward into the mostly deserted streets of downtown city Vale. 'My first stop will be a dust store.' Ruby decided this since she knew little about the substance called dust.
Ruby walked through the streets only occasionally passing someone heading in the opposite direction. Once Ruby almost got lost by turning down a street that lead to an entirely different part of the city than where she intended to go. Now only slightly afraid of getting lost in an unfamiliar place Ruby retraced her steps and found the correct street, and traveling this street Ruby found a dust shop that was open late hours.
Reaching into her blouse pocket Ruby checked the time with her timepiece, 11:45 P.M. it said amidst the soft whirling and clicking of tiny gears. Ruby put away the marvel because she felt guilty whenever she looked at it. A memory of Qrow this time a decidedly more unpleasant and definitely unwelcome one tried to rise in Ruby's mind to robe her concentration, fighting the memories from her not long gone past Ruby took out ear buds and stuck them in both her ears.
They almost triggered another crushing memory but Ruby succeeded against the tide of guilt and pressed play on a random play list. The song that came first almost made Ruby keel over with grief, it was the song she used to always sing with her mother when she was young, and when her mother was still alive. Tears ran down Ruby's cheeks and she leaned her head against the shop door trying to collect her self.
Eventually the tears stopped flowing and the song stopped, it switched to one of Ruby's favorite songs and she almost sighed with happiness, but she didn't because she was now browsing the isles of the store. Ruby looked at in wonder of all shorts of dust, red dust that could create fiery explosions, blue dust that could create if treated right a blast of frigid air cold enough to freeze any object it touched. Moving farther back and positioning herself deeper into the stores depths Ruby saw some of the more rare types of dust.
This dust was yellow, but with a slightly greenish golden tint to it when light passed through it. The shopkeeper was kind enough to give Ruby some samples to look at and she thanked him. Nodding his head he went back into the back room of the shop, whenever customers came in her rarely disturbed them, he only came out if he needed to restock some dust or if customers rang a service bell attached to the wall next to the door that lead to the back room.
This odd looking dust Ruby pondered for some time, it was getting much later almost midnight when men dressed entirely in black approached the shop. Ruby might have notice them if she had been paying attention, not having her ear buds in with the music blasting, or her attention being almost entirely focused on the electric dust that powered most of the modern machines and appliances of the modern world. Ruby's time piece was somewhat of a marvel to her, Ruby could not for the life of her figure out how it kept running after all these years without a dust recharge.
Ruby shook her head and her ear buds dislodged, when this happened the music stopped and she heard something. Turning her head only slightly she saw a man dressed entirely in black except for a white beanie saunter into the shop. Ruby saw the shadows shift outside the door and realized that there were more people outside, when she realized what was happening Ruby gasped. She recognized an almost textbook late night robbery, when Ruby looked closer she saw the White Fang insignia on all five of the men's outfits. It was a very dark red so their outfits looked to be almost entirely black, the four men outside all reached up and pulled off their black ski masks they had on to reveal matching white beanies.
The fifth man inside the shop punched the shopkeeper and started grabbing some dust; Ruby using her scythe grabbed him by his lapel and flung him out the shop window. The man crashed through the glass shattering it, and skidded onto the street. Ruby jumped after him, her boots crunching on the broken glass. The men all drew weapons; one a grenade launcher and they all rushed Ruby trying to overwhelm her. Stabbing her scythe end into the ground Ruby shot forward and clothes lined one man with her fist to his throat.
The punch knocked him backward unconscious, but Ruby realized that the only way she was able to pull that off was because the man didn't how she fought. The others seeing this tried to prepare themselves but couldn't, using some pretty advanced fighting styles, Ruby began dispatching the much taller and stronger men with ease. Once the last man fell to the ground unconscious Ruby leaned on her scythe in the middle of the street, sleeping bodies surrounding her.
Ruby's eyes drooped as she brought back a memory, this one was of Ruby eavesdropping on a conversation Qrow was having with someone on the phone while in his office. Qrow's office adjoined his bedroom so Ruby was able to nick a few things from Qrow's bedroom without him noticing, sharp pangs of guild shot through Ruby. The memory played out and Ruby could almost feel the rough wood against her ear and cheek as she leaned in to listen. Ruby heard words then and now spoken by her uncle, "I want both my granddaughter and her friend Yang to go to school! Yes I realize that Ruby wont be able to go to Beacon, but that's only because the board of education simply refuses to part with her test results…what about her? Ah yes, Yang did qualify to go to Beacon. If I was sending both of them now, I would sorely regret it." Qrow's voice grew noticeably quieter so Ruby went to the floor, and stuck her ear to the crack in the door to hear things better.
Ruby could barely pick up Qrow's voice as he said, "I fear for Yang's life, I've heard reports coming from school and city police forces that a dangerous fugitive is roaming the forest of Forever Fall…I only hope that they don't send the students out into the forest for some kind of test, with him there it's much more dangerous than before…"
The rest of Qrow's words faded since in the memory Ruby had moved away from the door, and that's where the memory ended. The passing of this crucial memory left Ruby in tears for the second time that night.
The memory reminded Ruby that she would be separated from her sister for a long time, or at least two or four more years. It would all depend on how her test results turned out, and how many more years she had to finish at Signal Academy. A man with red hair wearing a black fedora poked his head over the lip of the building roof and cursed, he saw a girl looking like a huntress standing in the middle of a bunch of his goons. With a curse Roman Torchwick pulled his head back but not before Ruby saw him and began rushing up the fire escape to catch up with him.
Ruby was quite fast, but not as fast as Roman. The two of them began a chase that lead them a few rooftops away, they ended the chase once Roman stopped at the edge of a roof on top of a department store. Cursing twice Roman spun around and pulled out his cane pointing it at Ruby. Ruby held up Crescent Rose and saw a target reticule slip up at the end of Roman's cane, the bottom of the cane popped open to reveal the inside of a barrel.
Roman grinning sighted Ruby's head in the reticule and fired several red dust shots at Ruby. Ruby dodged them until one of them hit her scythe and sent her flying backwards skidding almost to the opposite edge of the rooftop. Roman aimed again but had his cane barrel knocked aside as a woman jumped down with her weapon outstretched towards Roman, who backed up to the roofs edge.
Just then a hover vehicle lifted from the sidewalk, which was cloaked in shadow to bring its open door level with the roof the three people were standing on. Roman grinning triumphantly stepped into craft. He began shooting at the huntress more confidently since he had the higher ground, but Ruby could see that this mysterious huntress was evading Roman's shots expertly and simultaneously firing rune bolts that shook the craft.
The bolts scared Roman to scramble into the pilots seat of the hover vehicle, a different woman dressed almost entirely in red with runes glowing blue and red running down her arms stepped into the open doorway of the craft.
She began firing fire bolts at the huntress below and the two had a duel. Ruby got up and switched her scythe to sniper mode and fired of a shot, reloading the gun through a mechanical pin reloading system Ruby repeated the process sending round after round at the red woman. The huntress near her continued to send rune bolts up and she summoned a rune storm that almost brought down the hover vehicle itself.
The red woman's aura flared and the vehicle righted itself. The runes on her arms glowed and pulsed with an evil red and blue light, the woman raised both her arms and sent several deadly, exploding, fire bolts at Ruby. The huntress was forced to intervene with some pretty powerful protective runes that saved both their lives, but when the smoke cleared from the fiery blasts Ruby saw that the hover vehicle was gone.
Ruby was grabbed by the shoulders and looked at closely by the blue and white dressed huntress, "Good you're not injured." "Are you a real huntress?" Ruby asked excitedly.
"Um yes." The woman answered a little perplexed.
With an even more exited voice Ruby almost squealed, "Can I have you autograph?"
