AN: Well, I'm back from the dead. I've been spending the past year or so working on outlining everything I want to happen with this fic, so I'm no longer ad-libbing this whole thing as I'm writing it. In addition, I was always a little dissatisfied with the first chapter of The Forge. I don't just want to re-hash canon events; I want to build on them and expand them. Hopefully, you all enjoy this first chapter a lot more than the original version. And without further ado, let us begin.
It was almost 10 in the evening. By now, Ruby would usually be in her bed, or, as she was known to do at times, sneaking into the kitchen for a late night snack. That's how life went for Ruby on a normal Wednesday night. Tonight wasn't normal though. Instead of her hometown of Patch, she was in downtown Vale. Instead of the warm comfort of her home, she was in the dingy, cold, somewhat damp confines of a police station. Instead of a relaxing night of fine-tuning her sweetheart and horsing around with Yang, she had spent her night smacking down bad guys that were trying to rob a nice little shop that she had been browsing through.
And to top it all off, she'd nearly been killed towards the end of that fight. While her experiences of chasing criminals had been limited to a couple of video games and few rounds of cops and robbers when she was still a little kid, Ruby believed she'd held her own for most of that encounter. Everything was going great until a Bullhead pulled up out of nowhere to pick up that crook; a huntress even appeared at the last moment to save her from an explosion.
But all of that good work was flushed away when that woman appeared. When she walked out onto the transport's cargo bay, the world just seemed to vanish around Ruby as she was dropped into her own memories. Half-remembered dreams and nightmarish images flashed before her eyes in that moment and all Ruby could do at that point was stand and stare blankly as she, as the Huntress had so bluntly pointed out, nearly killed Ruby.
Even now, sitting within the uncomfortable cinderblock walls of the station, all Ruby could think about were the images that had distracted her from her battle. If she closed her eyes and concentrated, she could draw forth near-flawless images from her memories; images of a great black shadow, writhing as though alive. The shadow would collapse, and spread like a liquid across a flawless white floor, before pooling into small figures. The figures would take the forms of two different armies, standing across from each other. On one side, the army was made of beasts, creatures that could only be the Grimm, the monsters that seek to drive mankind to extinction. At the back of the Grimm army stood a lone figure. Gender couldn't be made out; all Ruby could see was the figure gesture and its army began to charge.
On the other side of the floor, a much smaller army of man stood, with three figures at the front. From what she could see, the warrior at the very front held a weapon in front of him and charged forth, his two companions following, with the entire army flowing into motion behind them.
As the leader of man met the Grimm, beasts were thrown into the air and monsters cleaved in twain as the warrior plowed through a tide of black. He carved a line through the monsters, as his two companions followed closely behind. Their target was obvious – the figure that seemed to command the Grimm. A pitched battle ensued, as the three warriors fought tooth and nail against the mysterious being. One image that stood out prominently to Ruby was towards the end of the battle, when one of the warriors plunged his hand into the figure's body and tore something out of it, forcing it to flee the battle. Holding his hand aloft, the Grimm turned and fled from the battlefield and the remnants of man's army seemed to cheer in victory. But the warriors did not cheer; the one that forced the entity to flee walked away, following the Grimm, while his two comrades stayed with their men, their backs turned away from each other.
It was there that the images fade away and words take their place. They were jumbled, patchy, some completely illegible. Only a few stand out from the rest of the mess: Danger, Maiden, Return, Lost, and Sovereign. Only a single sentence was coherent; "Put faith in fellow man, and let the old ways die."
She was broken from her recollection as the door to the room opened, and the Huntress from before stepped inside.
Out in the visitor's area of the station, two teens could be found. On first glance, one could be forgiven for mistaking them as siblings; both had similar hair in both color and texture, as well as a shared facial structure.
The female, one Yang Xiao Long, was pacing about furiously. She didn't enjoy being in police stations, much less multiple times in a single trip. She and her sister had been in Vale for the past week and a half visiting their cousin, while Yang prepared for her quickly approaching entry into Beacon Academy. Muttering curses under her breath, all she could think about was what might be happening to her baby sister in that interrogation room. It took every once of her self-control to not storm into the room and drag her sister home. That and the carefully worded reasonings of the other occupant of the waiting area.
Sitting in what had to be the most uncomfortable chair he'd ever been in was a young man. A mop of dirty blond hair covered his head, stretching down to his shoulders, while his dark indigo eyes were closed in concentration. His slim build was slumped forward, his hands steepled to hold his head up. This was Shen Xiao Long, soon-to-be second year student of Beacon Academy and cousin to the Xiao-Long/Rose family. At the moment, the young hunter was deep in thought; though Yang had been too angry to notice, Beacon's headmaster, Professor Ozpin, had entered the police station. Shen knew Ozpin had a reason behind everything he did; he was at the station for a reason and that reason most likely involved Ruby. Anything further though, Shen was at a loss, and any possible method of finding out more was out of reach at the moment.
With nothing further to gain on that front, his thoughts turned towards the reason as to why Ruby was in this situation: one Roman Torchwick. A thief, conman, smuggler, and all-around scoundrel known throughout the kingdom of Vale for his quick wit, unscrupulous practices, unusual weapon, and a penchant for high-stakes robberies. What happened tonight with him was off the beaten path for Torchwick, Shen was certain of that. Whenever Roman stole something, it was usually a) valuable, b) rare (or at least hard to acquire), and c) usually had some history behind it. Stealing Dust fit one of those categories for certain, but even more so, this job he pulled tonight was a smash-and-grab; far outside of his usual M.O. It didn't make sense to Shen, and that feeling of unease wouldn't leave him alone. Shen prided himself on being in the know for most of the happenings in Vale, both in public life and in the underworld.
His meditation was interrupted when he noticed Yang's frustration reaching its peak. Yang had begun to move towards the back area, where the interrogation rooms were located. Before she could do something she might have regretted in the future, Shen rose to his feet and sped to his cousin's side. His hand reached out and gently grabbed her by the shoulder, turning her around. It was obvious that she was upset; her eyes were burning red, a fierce scowl marring her face. Shen could only shake his head.
"Give them some space," he said. "I know you're worried, but if Professor Ozpin's here, then Ruby's probably not in trouble. If you barge in there, then you're only going to cause more trouble."
As he spoke, he gently led her back to a chair right where he had been sitting earlier. Yang's eyes still burned that piercing red color, but at the very least, her scowl had reduced to a less worrisome frown. From here, Shen knew he could keep her in place for a while longer. And he silently prayed that Ruby's interrogation would finish shortly.
Ruby couldn't believe her ears. She'd told Headmaster Ozpin about her dream to attend Beacon, and right there, he'd gone ahead and given her permission to attend this semester. The shock of it all would have rendered her catatonic for the next week, if Ozpin hadn't started asking more questions of her. Mostly simple things: parental contact information, a couple questions about Uncle Qrow, and then…
"One thing about tonight still confuses me, Ms. Rose. Concerning the conclusion of tonight's… events."
Dread filled Ruby's mind; pausing like that in front of something clearly hostile could end your life out in the field, if not the lives of anyone you are trying to protect. Her answer could very well cause Ozpin to not only retract his offer, but have her kicked out of Signal, she feared. But she also remembered the words from her dream. An honest answer would be preferable to lying to his face and getting caught doing so.
"What made you hesitate like that, on the rooftop? Were you afraid?"
She closed her eyes and steadied her breath. This would be a difficult answer to give, but it was the only answer she had.
"No," she spoke. "I wasn't scared. I just… when that person stepped out, everything just kind of stopped for me. I can't explain it."
Ozpin leaned forward in his seat, clearly intrigued. "Go on," he prodded.
"When I saw her… I don't know. It's like a voice started screaming in my head and drowned everything else out. All I could think about was 'this person is dangerous,' over and over, repeating in my head. And, well… it made me remember something. This dream I had a while back."
"A dream?" Ozpin's eyebrow quirked up at that, curiosity truly piqued. "What was this dream about?"
Ruby started to relax a bit. Ozpin clearly took what she was saying seriously. Maybe it would be okay to tell him about the dream. So she did; she relayed everything she could recall about it, to the absolute best detail she could describe. She lost track of time in her recollection, so absorbed in her story. And Ozpin just sat there in silence, taking it all in. He didn't show a hint of emotion during the tale, not a twitch.
When finished, Ruby looked at Ozpin expectantly, wondering if he truly believed her or not. The few seconds of silence between them felt like an eternity to her before he sipped his coffee and asked her another question.
"Have you told anyone else about this dream?"
She shook her head. The entire thing seemed so surreal, people would only laugh if she told them about it, she had thought.
"Please, keep this dream to yourself. Tell no one else about it. And if another one does happen, please, do not hesitate to speak with me about it."
With that, Ozpin rose from his seat and began to turn around to leave. Ruby quickly stood in response, calling out to him.
"Wait!"
He stopped, and turned to face Ruby once more.
"Does this change things? About… umm…"
Ozpin simply smiled. And as he turned to leave with Glynda, he said, "Welcome to Beacon Academy, Ms. Rose."
As the doors to the room shut, all Ruby could do was smile with relief.
In a Bullhead shuttle heading towards Beacon Academy's shining towers, Ozpin and Glynda sat on opposite sides of the shuttle, mulling over the information they had gleaned from Ruby.
"At least we know that Amber's assailant hasn't left the kingdom yet," Glynda spoke, though the thought of that… monster having almost ended another promising young woman didn't bring her comfort. "But we have no idea what she has planned."
"True," Ozpin conceded. "However, we can infer that she does intend to take the rest of the Fall Maiden's powers from Amber. All we can do for now is prepare our defenses, and wait for her to make the next move."
Glynda grew concerned. "Is waiting all we can do? We should be trying to find her accomplices, see if they know where to find her."
"If we knew where to find them, I would concur. However, we do not. Before anything else, we need information. We'll just have to wait for Qrow to come through for us." Ozpin leaned back in his seat, secure in the knowledge that his method would work. "What worries me more is that final word Ms. Rose mentioned."
Worry crossed Glynda's face. "Sovereign? I thought that power was lost. Only one person holds a piece of it and he's…"
"I am aware of that, Glynda. But if Ruby's vision was correct, then the other two will return to the field soon." Anger rose into Ozpin's eyes with that statement. "And I will be damned before I allow another to abuse that power. Better it stay lost, then give rise to something worse than the witch."
In an apartment in downtown Vale, late into the night, someone was thrashing about in their bed. A nightmare plagued this person, a vision this one had been experiencing on and off again for years.
Images of monsters numbering in the thousands, bubbling pools of black tar, stark-white bone plates and claws. Visions from a thousand, ten-thousand, a hundred thousand sets of eyes, landscapes, caves, forests, deserts, ocean depths, villages, humans, Faunus, meat, blood, sinew, fires. Images flashing by one after another, without end. And all images led to one place. A land of broken rocks, desolate plateaus, black crystals jutting from the ground, monsters rising from the ground, and a violet, sunless sky. All images zoom forward, leading to a figure. A woman, garbed in black, pale skin contrasting with her robes. Purple cracks break through what would otherwise be flawless skin. The woman turns around, eyes piercing right through the viewer's soul. And when she speaks, his mind recoils in pain.
"So small…"
Shen's eyes open as he sits up, catapulted from his dream once more. A sheen of sweat covers his bare torso, his breath heavy with fear. And as the fugue passes, he pulls a journal from his nightstand and writes down new details he gleans from the nightmare he's been experiencing the past 5 years.