In Her Mother's Footsteps
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, Forged Destiny, or any of the characters in this story.
Author's Note: This oneshot begins midway through chapter 89 of Forged Destiny. I write only with Coeur Al'Aran's permission, albeit with some artistic license of my own.
Yup, this was a disaster, Ruby decided as they made their way through the sands of Vacuo (The continent… or was it the kingdom?) in the wake of the most depressing victory ever.
Maybe not the worst disaster — Ruby was pretty sure that was the time Torchwick nearly got them kicked out of Beacon, or maybe when it looked like Magnis would fall to that massive army of Grimm — but it was definitely up there, and looking at the angry faces of, well, every other member of the guild other than Jaune, it was like she was alone in a sea of anger, betrayal and guilt (Hello there, Jaune), that everyone was bottling up.
And when it blew, whoo-ee, she didn't know if the Hunters Guild could take it. She was pretty sure that Vacuo wouldn't explode, but she'd heard of guilds blowing up over smaller things than their leader deceiving the entire guild over his class.
Not that she really blamed Jaune for it. She did a little bit at first, but then she started to think about it. If she were in his shoes, wouldn't she have done the same? Even in her own head, she couldn't answer, and really he had pulled his weight many a time, sometimes more, so did the fact that he wasn't really a Knight mean all that much? That was how she saw it anyway, although the rest of the guild didn't, she was sure..
But they had bigger problems right now and unlike her hope of him taking them aside and telling them at the end of the Quest, this was not going to be a Guild-only problem for much longer. At that point, Vacuo might really explode. Or Jaune — she hoped that his having saved a good chunk of Vale might earn leniency, but she had a bad feeling about that.
They might be mad at him, but this could get very, very bad. Jaune could actually get executed over this, and she was pretty sure that they'd end up regretting it for the rest of their lives, or eternity.
Ruby heard a rustle from in front of her, where Jaune walked in the center of the group. He looked forlornly over at Blake the guild's resident assassin, before letting out a quiet sigh when she didn't look back his way.
Ruby winced at the sight. Not only was the guild this close to breaking up, but Jaune… charitably speaking he looked like H-E-L-L. His constitution was monstrous, she knew, but although he didn't tire, there was neither life in his expression nor light in his eyes. He just trudged along like a man on on the way to the gallows — and darn, he might just be!
He'd been having trouble the whole way into Vacuo, she knew. Blake and him had been having problems since Magnis, and they certainly looked like they were, if not broken up, real close to it. Between that and everything else, Jaune looked like he was on his last legs.
It was all a mess. Jaune was a broken man, the guild was on the verge of shattering, and there might be a noose waiting for Jaune the moment they got back to Vale. She had to do something. She'd tried talking to Blake, but it didn't work all that well. She had to do something more.
She just didn't know what.
Soon enough, they'd arrived at Vacuo (The city, not the country this time), and Jaune went to have his talk with Blake. They were too far away to even see, let alone hear, but while she would have gone to support Jaune, she was pretty sure that what was to come would be downright gruesome.
"This sucks," she muttered.
Yang snorted about it. "Tell me about it. I really thought lover boy was better than this."
That wasn't quite what Ruby had meant, but rather than argue, she hummed. If anyone would be able to fix this, she knew, it would be Yang… but that was just it, Yang was a part of the same problem. All the guild was, so she couldn't ask anyone.
Well… that wasn't exactly the case. She did have one option. "Yang, would it be okay if it went for a walk?"
Yang frowned. "Not if you're going after Jaune. Whatever's going on with the guild, this is between the two of them."
"No, I just need to… think things over, clear my mind." Funny thing was, it wasn't even a lie.
"Hmm…" Yang looked at her suspiciously, but waved her off. "Just don't do anything dangerous, okay?"
One obligatory eyeroll later (seriously, she wasn't new at this anymore) and Ruby was off. The city of Vacuo was incredible, shining brightly under the desert sky even as darkness began to gather. But what Ruby was about to do wasn't something for the rest of their guildmates to see, or anyone really.
There was a slight commotion when Blake returned, stalking back along the sands. She'd been crying, Ruby could tell, but she didn't look any happier or like anything had been resolved.
Ruby kept walking, When the city had vanished behind a dune, Ruby judged she was far enough to avoid being heard, much like Jaune and Blake had been. Then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
All classes had different skills, and the individual paths had their own skills too. Most Heroes, she knew, had an idea of what abilities their class provided, or at least what they could provide. But the Reaper class was new, and that meant its abilities were completely unknown.
This skill...wasn't for combat. It didn't help in day-to-day living, nor battle, nor travel, nor anything of real note, and it could only be used once a year. It just had one purpose.
Opening her eyes, Ruby saw...an empty desert. Blinking, she peered around. She'd thought she hadn't messed it —
"I'm right here, silly, behind you." Came the warm voice, one she hadn't heard in far too long. "I always am, and I will always be."
Ruby turned to see the face that was so like her own looking back at her. It was almost impossible to speak over the lump in her throat. "Mom… I've missed you so much. I'm so worried and scared and I don't know what to do and —"
"Shh, shh, shh. It's going to be alright. I'm so glad to see you in the flesh… well, more or less." Summer Rose smiled down at her. "My, how you've grown since the last time we spoke. You're really becoming a young woman, aren't you?"
"Um… uh, yes?" Ruby shut her mouth to keep from babbling like a loon and nodded. In spite of her mother's words, she couldn't help but notice that while she had grown, even though she was dead, and only temporarily visible as a shade, Summer was still a few inches taller than Ruby. "I'm sorry it's been so long." She tried again.
"Don't worry. I know you'd call be me more often if you could, but your class doesn't let you… well, not yet anyway. Maybe it will get better once you level up a few more times?"
Given that the Reaper class was apparently a brand new one, all Ruby could do was shrug. "Err, maybe?"
"Well, that's not important. I can tell from the look on your face and well...watching, that you didn't call me just because you missed your mom. So come on, Ruby, tell me what's wrong and I'll help you any way that I can."
"I...I don't even know where to begin. They know about Jaune being a Blacksmith. Everyone's mad, the guild's falling apart, and we're going to have to go to the headmaster and Jaune might get expelled, arrested, even die...and on top of all that, he's utterly miserable. He's falling apart, and I think Blake is about to break up with him…" Ruby took a deep breath. "I don't know what to do. I want to help him, and fix everything. I just...I don't know what to do anymore."
"It's okay, Ruby, don't worry. Everyone needs a bit of help sometimes. All you need is the chance to calm down so we can work everything out. And that's what you need to do now actually, mostly anyway. Your guild needs time to absorb this and understand everything. It was a big shock for them - like when Tai found out I was about to have - Well, it was a big shock. Given time, well... you guys are all friends, I can see it, and I don't think that this is enough to break that...I mean, I could be wrong, sometimes I am, but I think everything's going to be okay in the end."
"That...that makes sense actually. When I figured out about Jaune. It took me a while to wrap my head around it. They're probably the same way."
"Exactly, and the real danger right now isn't that his friends don't like him, it's what else might happen to him - Ozpin's a good man, but there's only so much he can do."
"Right… Right! So I just need to ..."
"Keep an eye on Jaune, give the rest of the guild time, and let things handle themselves between Blake and Jaune." Summer said with a wink.
"That makes sense...wait." A thought struck Ruby. Tapping her fingers together, she tried to put it in as delicate a manner as possible, but wasn't very successful. "Uh, I've never been...that is to say...I wouldn't know for sure, but are you sure that Blake just needs time." Huh, she managed to make it through without blushing. That was good.
"Yes, of course. Give it a few weeks, maybe a month at most, and everything will have calmed down. Jaune will be feeling better, everything will have calmed down, and he and Blake will be officially broken up."
"That makes sense. Just give it time and…" Her eyes went wide as her mind caught up to her. "Wait, broken up?""
"Yes, leaving the way clear for—"
"W-w-wait!" Ruby waved her hands frantically. "I don't want to break them up, I want to help them stay together."
"You do? Oh." Summer smacked herself in the head. "I assumed that you wanted... Wait, you do like Jaune, right?"
Oh, that's where the blush was. Right then, she was very grateful that death by embarrassment was only a theory. She could melt Weiss' ice with her cheeks right now. "I mean, yeah, but..."
"Oh good, I mean I thought You did, but maybe it was Ren or one of the girls — That Nora girl is kinda cute — But um, if you like him, then why wouldn't you want them to…" Summer paused, seeming to realize her mistake."Wait, is this one of those you like both of them sort of things?" Realized...and went charging off in the wrong direction. "I saw one guild try to do that, but it didn't turn out well —there was a third girl who got jealous."
"No, it's nothing like that… I think." And that was a conversation she never expected nor wanted to have with either of her parents. "I mean I like him but... but he likes Blake, not me... a-a-and I want him to be happy, even if it isn't with me. So I want them to stay together so both of them can be happy."
"Oh...I see. Ruby, I understand completely, and want you to know I'm very proud of you. That is a truly noble reason, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea." When Ruby crossed her arms, Summer sighed. "Look, let me put it this way. You like Jaune, right?"
"Yes…" Ruby allowed.
"But Jaune likes Blake."
"Yes. And I'm not going to do anything to break them up. I'll be happy as long..as long as he's happy."
"But is he happy?"
That caused Ruby to stumble. "Yes… Well...I think so… at least until recently."
"You know, before your father and I got together, he was married once before."
"Um, I do know about Raven, mom."
"Well, there are some things about the story that weren't exactly meant for little ears... Your father and I got together after he broke up with Raven, yes. But that doesn't mean I just started liking him then. I'd liked Taiyang for a long time before that. But well, he and Raven got together, and I stayed quiet. Raven was like a sister to me, and I stayed quiet, stepping aside."
"Because you wanted to make them happy, right?" Ruby frowned, interested in spite of herself. "Are you trying to say you regret it now?"
"Well...yes, and no. I didn't regret stepping aside. I regret what came after. You see, whatever some romance stories might say, it doesn't end when the lovers run off into the sunset. No, the story never truly ends. They just stop telling it." She sighed. "Tai and Raven...even before she left, there were problems. They fought, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. She could be headstrong and he was rather thick. It led to arguments."
Ruby winced. That sounded awfully familiar. "So what, did you break them up?"
"No, I helped them. I'd talk to her on his behalf, and I talked to him on her behalf. I helped them work things out. And while it was tough sometimes, each time I managed to help them stay the course. I did it because I wanted them to be happy, of course, just like you do with Blake and Jaune. For a while, it seemed it might even work. Then Yang came along and it all fell apart."
"What happened?"
"I'm still not sure. Tai says he and Raven fought, but even he wasn't sure what turned it from one of their normal fights into something that made her up and leave them all. Still, I got ready to go out, find Raven and play peacemaker once more." Her voice quieted. "But as I was getting my cloak and about to head out the door, I stopped, looked back at Tai and Yang, and realized something. Raven had left them. They weren't going to get back together. I could go out and try to put them back together, or I could keep pouring sand down a rat hole… So I put my cloak down, closed the door, and went back to comfort Tai. Rather than try to force them back together, I helped him recover, And it turned out I was wrong." Summer started to grin. We fell in love, we had you, and we got married… in that order."
"Oh…" Ruby couldn't think of anything better to say.
"Tai once told me I'd made him the happiest man in the world. Now, granted, he said that when he'd almost burned the house to the ground in his first attempt at cookie-baking, but it doesn't mean it wasn't true."
The image painted by Summer's words was tempting, downright seductive even. Part of Ruby, a big and selfish part wanted to just listen to them, not just because this was her mother, but because deep down, she wanted to be with Jaune.
It would be so easy to just do nothing and let Blake and Jaune's relationship crumble, then win Jaune for herself afterward, but then she thought of the way she'd seen Blake crying and her resolve hardened. As happy as this might make her, it wouldn't make them happy. "Mom, Blake's not Raven. I can't even imagine her abandoning her child like Raven did."
"I never said she was, Ruby. My mistake wasn't that Raven was a bad person. I don't think she was, not really, but my mistake was that I thought that doing the right thing meant trying to keep them together, that because I cared about both of them, and wanted them to be happy, the right thing was to keep them together."
"Well, if it's not the right thing, then what is it? What should I do?"
"Ruby, Everyone needs help sometimes, like a baby bird learning to fly… but the mother bird doesn't spend the rest of their life making sure the baby bird keeps flying. Eventually, that baby bird has to be able to fly on its own. Raven and Tai...they couldn't fly alone. And I'm not so sure that your two friends can either." She paused, visibly wincing as a ripple passed through her body. "You've been trying to help them a lot, but if you stepped back and did nothing, do you think they would be able to make it?"
"I-I-I don't know."
"Blake and Jaune have been given a lot of chances to be happy on their own. Now it's time to see if they can stand or fall. Let them work things out on their own." Another ripple went through her. "Besides, times are going to be tough ahead. Jaune could lose his friends, his freedom, even his life. Even if you don't agree with me, there are more important things at stake than whether or not they stay together." She closed her eyes, and her face started to fade. I'm out of time, so I want you to remember that I love you, Yang, Tai, everyone."
"I love you too." Whatever disagreement they might have, she always would.
"Now go get him homewrecker. It's how you were born!" Her mother smiled down at her one last time, her form slowly fading into the darkening sky.
A moment later, Ruby was alone once more in the Vacuan desert…
… and she didn't know what to do.
Author's Note the Second: What is this story? This is, I suppose, how I envision the Lancaster route to Forged Destiny could or would start. It could fit within Coeur's canon, but I'm quite sure isn't canon. Honestly, I just got a bug to write it when a certain someone on the forums said in regards to Ruby 'Now go get him homewrecker. It's how you were born!'. It made me laugh so hard I couldn't not write something.
Originally I envisioned something a bit more silly and cracky, but when I put words to page, it ended up something like this. I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe it will even prove predictive :)