A/N: Heyo guys! So this is the rewrite of my "The Gray Rose" fanfic! I hope I got a few aspects of Ruby correct, and that I fixed a few mistakes from my other fanfic. But hey, that's for you guys to decide!
Anyways, read on!
()()()()()
Beacon Academy:
Ruby was not having the best of Fridays. To start it off, Yang had forgotten to put away the dust crystal that Miss Goodwitch had given to their team as a research project. Each team in the class had gotten one dust crystal, with Team RWBY receiving a Fire Elemental Dust Crystal. Their assignment was to figure out the ways that dust can be utilized in combat, besides the traditional bullet. Yang had left their fire crystal on top of the desk last night, where Ruby spent almost all last night trying to catch up on a homework assignment from Dr. Oobleck. She had fallen asleep on the desk that night.
She was not happy when she woke up. She had barely managed to open her eyes before she sneezed, causing the small amounts of dust powder around her to create mini explosions, thus plastering soot all across her face. To add insult to injury, Jaune had woken up to the sound of mini explosions, came into their room, and laughed hysterically while pointing at her and saying 'Crater Face'.
Ruby hoped that Jaune got out of the infirmary before the weekend finished.
Ruby was currently in her last class, waiting anxiously for it to end. She looked at the clock while tapping her foot and drumming her fingers impatiently against the desk. Finally, the minute hand stopped over the 5, and the teacher dismissed the class. Ruby was the first one out of the room, due to the use of her semblance. She ran all the way back to the RWBY dorm and flopped on the bed with a sigh of bliss and pure, utter relief.
"Nap time!" She cried out before burying herself into her covers.
Unfortunately, 'Nap Time' was not meant to happen...
For now.
Yang kicked the door of their room down, startling Ruby and causing her to fall of the bed. Yang stared at Ruby with a deadpan expression. "You were... napping?" She asked.
Ruby crossed her arms. "Well, I was having a bad day! I had all of my least favorite classes today, and before that, I woke up to explosions, curtesy of our Fire Dust Crystal that was left on the desk by a certain someone here!" She replied, a pout making its way to her face after her little rant.
Yang threw her hands up in a surrendering manner. "Alright, alright. Geez Rubes, I was just askin'."
Ruby sighed. "Sorry Yang."
Yang nodded. "Yeah, aaannnywaaaay, Weiss-Cream wants you to go into the city and get some supplies."
Ruby tilted her head cutely in confusion. "What for? Doesn't Beacon supply us with the necessities already?" She asked.
Yang shrugged. "Yeah, but our Ice Queen gave a list of things that she wants you to get, soooo, here ya' go! Okay Rubes, I'll catch ya' later, gotta get started on that assignment that's due tomorrow!" She said as she thrust a small sheet of paper into her sister's hands and began walking out of the room.
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Which one? There is no assignment due tomorrow, at least, that I haven't finished."
"The one that was assigned last week!" Yang called out to her sister as she ran out of the room and out of the dorms.
Ruby sighed, "But that was due the next day after it was assigned." She muttered.
She glanced at the list in her hands before giggling at one of the items listed. "Ice cream, that's obviously for Weiss!" She snickered.
She sighed before heading out to get the materials.
()()()()()
Beacon Academy Dock:
Ruby climbed into the Bullhead that would take her to Vale. Suddenly, an odd sense of dread rolled over her, sending a chill down her spine. "What was that?" She asked her self.
She brushed it off as her being paranoid and waited for the Bullhead to start up. A few minutes later, the Bullhead was in the air, and began its descent to Vale. Ruby stared out the window down onto the city. She was shaken out of her thoughts when suddenly, a violent shutter shook the aircraft, causing her to fall to the ground.
"What's going on?!" She yelled to the Bullhead pilot.
"I-I don't know! The engine's failing!" The pilot yelled as he snatched the radio from the console. "Mayday! Mayday! This is BH-103, we are going down, I repeat, we are going down! Sudden engine failure, cause unknown!"
The ground seemed to be getting closer and closer. "Brace for impac-"
Ruby crashed into the console, and everything went black.
()()()()()
Journal Entry #54:
I've had enough. I can't do this anymore. The nightmares, the memories, they still haunt me. I... I hope my siblings can forgive me for doing this. Why am I crying? I'm not allowed to cry. I've learned that, no matter how hard you think you have it, someone out there always has it worse than you do. I can't cry. I won't cry.
I bid this world farewell.
()()()()()
Earth, New York:
A lone boy sat in his room, with the lights off and in silence. The rays of the moon shined dimly through the rooms blinds, bathing the room in an eerie blue. The boy reached beside, grasping an object on the bed.
A gun.
He brought it to his lap and observed it. It was a chrome M1911, with a single bullet loaded in the chamber. He sighed and raised the gun to his temple, his finger twitching ever so closely to the trigger.
"Coward." He muttered to himself.
"Do it already."
()()()()()
Earth, New York:
Ruby woke up in a dark alleyway. Her hand reached for Crescent Rose, ready for anything. She observed her surroundings. Judging from the lack of sun and light in the sky, it was night time. There was door in front of her, which she went to, only to find that it was locked.
"Darn." She huffed. She looked around again. There was only a wall opposite of the door, so the door was the only exit. Unless...
Ruby looked up and saw a window directly above her. Silently, she grasped the ledge and hauled herself up. She took out Crescent Rose but shifted it only into it's sniper mode. She slowly climbed into the building. The window led into a small kitchen of sorts, barely big enough to accommodate two people. Fighting the urge to take one of the cookies in the jar to her left, she crept through the house, trying to find an exit. She saw a door to her right after creeping around for a few seconds, and went to it. She touched the door knob, and turned it, opening the door and flinching when it creaked.
She looked around, only for her gaze to rest on the silhouette of a boy on the bed, a gun pointed at his head. The boy turned his head to look at her through the corner of his eye, a single blue iris peeking through the shadows. "Who are you?" He asked, his voice cold and void of emotion.
In response to his voice, Ruby accidentally shifted Crescent Rose into it's scythe form. The boy's eye seems to widen a little, before he nodded. "I see, you're the Grim Reaper." He said, his tone laced with understanding.
Not knowing which type of 'Grim' the boy meant, Ruby stuttered, "I-I... Uh... S-Sure?"
"Well then, get it over with." He said, turning to her. He tilted his head upwards slightly, leaving his neck wide open for her to... slice.
Now knowing what he meant, Ruby backpedaled. "N-No! Not like that! I-I thought you were talking about s-something else! I-I could never do that!"
The boy shrugged. "Whatever." He said simply, before moving to raise the gun to his temple again.
"Wait!" Ruby cried out.
The boy faltered before stopping. "What?"
"Why?" Ruby asked, "why are you doing this?"
The boy was silent, seemingly in thought, before sighing. He flicked the safety on before dropping the gun, and rested his head in hands. "A selfish reason."
Ruby adopted a confused expression. She shook her head and grabbed the gun, before sliding it as far away as possible from both of them. The boy immediately tensed up, his fists clenched. Ruby could see his eyes darting around the room through his fingers, although she couldn't understand why, until she realized that she was armed and he was not. Ruby quickly set down Crescent Rose and lightly slid away from her.
She put her hands up to show that she had no weapons, and slowly walked towards the boy. The boy lifted his head and stared at her, before getting up and walking right past her. She turned around and saw him flick a switch on the wall. Light filled the room, temporarily blinding Ruby due to the sudden change in brightness. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw that the boy was back on the bed.
She had a clear view of his features now. He had black hair, a single streak of gray present. His hair was combed to his left. He was heterochromic, with a chilling blue left eye and a blood red right eye. Ruby peered into his eyes, and found that they were alert, aware, and yet, they were so saddening. He was around her age, likely older than her. He was tall, with her head reaching his chest just barely. His expression was blank, yet the question on his eyes were as clear as day.
"Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?" He asked cautiously, his eyes narrowing as he clenched his fist.
"M-My name is R-Ruby Rose. I-I'm a Huntress." She stuttered out, a bit scared by the way he was looking at her. He was analyzing her, his eyes flicking up and down.
"A Huntress? Then why heck are you in the city? Shouldn't you be out in the wild, hunting for deer or something?" He asked.
"What's a deer?" She asked, with the tilt of her head.
The boy seemed to be taken aback by her question, analyzing her again before sighing. "You really don't know what a deer is, huh?"
Ruby shook her head 'no'.
"Great."
"I hunt the Grimm. Don't you know that? That's what Huntsmen and Huntresses do." She informed.
The boy was confused, and shook his head.
"What?! Where are we?!" Ruby asked incredulously.
"New York, Downtown _, Earth. Why?" The boy answered, unsure of her behavior.
"Earth? I've never heard of a place like that. And what's New York?" Ruby asked, genuinely confused. The boy's eyes widened after he analyzed her and found that she was not lying.
"You don't know what Earth is?" He asked, flabbergasted. Shock was the first emotion that Ruby had seen on the boy's face.
"Um... No, I don't. Should I?" Ruby asked innocently.
The boy sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.
"Okay, so tell me, where exactly are you from?" He asked.
Ruby perked up at the question. "I'm from Vale, in the Kingdom of Haven on Remnant."
The boy sighed. "Are you some cosplayer or something?" He asked her.
"What?"
He sighed again. "Never mind. Look, I just tried to kill myself, and I met a girl that convinced me not do it immediately after, so quite frankly, I'm a little tired in the brain. So please, can you just go home to your mom and dad?" The boy asked her, a tinge of exhaustion laced in his voice.
Ruby looked down with a sad frown. "My mother died while fighting the Grimm." She replied, sadness hitting the boy like a truck from the way she had said it. But he shook his head.
"I'm sorry. You have my condolences." He said to her earnestly.
"I don't know where I am, and I have nowhere else to go." She said out loud, her thoughts running frantically.
The boy raised an eyebrow before he scrubbed his face. "Do you... want to stay here?"
Ruby looked up at this.
"I-I understand if you don't want to! You know, I just tried to-" but whatever the boy was going to say was cut off when Ruby tackled him to the floor in a hug.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" Ruby exclaimed cheerfully, expressing her gratitude in full.
"Hey hey! Take it easy, it's not that big of a deal." The boy said, flushed, as he tried to calm her down.
"Still, I'm really grateful." Ruby responded, still hugging the boy's torso like a stuffed teddy bear.
"C-Could you, let me go n-now?" The boy asked, uncomfortable from the sudden embrace.
Ruby eyes snapped open in realization and she flew away from him. "Ah! I'm really, really, really, sorry!"
The boy sighed and massaged his temple. "It's alright, really."
Ruby suddenly thought of something. "Hey, I never caught your name."
The boy looked at her, and tried for a smile, which instead looked like a small grin. "My name is Kazuo, Kazuo Grey. It is a pleasure to meet you."
A/N: Aaaaaannd done! How was this chapter? I hoped I corrected a few things, and made Kazuo a little less depressing. Anyways, I hope I did a good job, and the next chapter will be up in... Two weeks? Maybe. I don't know. We shall see. Anyways, have a splendid day!
IU13, Out!