*rubys thoughts*

flashbacks

Chapter Text

Initiation Day…..

All the new students were lined up on different silver platforms at the top of a cliff listening to Professor Ozpin's description of the initiation. "You will be launched separately into the forest below and employ your own landing strategy. There the first person you make eye contact with is the person who will be your partner for the four years you are here. Then you must make it to the end of the forest get the relics at a temple there and make your way back. Do not hesitate to kill everything in your way. Or you will die." Ruby prepared herself to be launched. she was wearing her normal red and black combat skirt and corset, and red cloak. she heard another classmate inquiring as to what a landing strategy meant but she wasn't paying attention to him. She was trying to figure out which of here classmates she would seek out once the test was started. She saw the invincible girl Pyrrha Nikos, but her uptight super goody-twoshoes persona wasn't all that appealing to ruby. Next she checked the bratty Schnee from the first day and instantly skipped over her, the boy who was asking about the landing strategy was clearly inexperienced definitely no, the super hyper-active girl who she thinks is named Nora seemed to be completely infatuated by the green robed calm boy who's name is Ren, that's a no go for those two, she thought that the most likely options are Yang or the dark haired girl who saved them earlier, but the black haired girl looked suspicious of everything and ruby coulda sworn she saw her bow twitch, no she didn't wanna be involved with an overly suspicious person for her own reasons, Yang it was then.

After being launched into the forest Ruby dashed off in the direction she saw Yang go. "Gotta find yang, gotta find yang, gotta find yang." she said aloud as the ran through the forest almost running directly into a white haired girl. *Shit*. as soon as they made eye contact the white haired girl set off dragging Ruby by the hood of here cloak. "By no means does this make us friends." she said angrily as she dragged her away. "Yay…." Ruby said sarcastically.

As they made there way deeper into the forest it became increasingly more obvious that the Schnee- she now knew was named Weiss -had no idea where she was going but refused to admit it. "It's this way." *Nope.* "ummm, maybe this way." *Not that way either.* "Weiss just admit it you're lost." "I don't see you finding the way." she replied in a huff. "Yah but at least I'm not pretending like I know everything." *Which I do.* before the haughty girl could respond they heard a screech and a shadow fell over them, barely managing to avoid the barrage of sharp feathers that came down where they had just been standing. *Nevermore.* "nevermore!" Ruby rolled her eyes, than grinned in a not so nice way. "I have an idea." Ruby jumped back grabbed Weiss and launched herself using her scythe and boosting using her high impact sniper kickback to shoot herself and Weiss higher until she grabbed onto the nevermores claws. "ARE YOU CRAZY!" Weiss who had been screaming the whole way up yelled from the other claw at her partner. *Mayyybee.* she just laughed in response.

Later at a temple…..

Yang and Blake had just made it to the temple and had taken a relic when they heard a scream from the forest. When they turned towards the forest they saw Pyrrha running out of the forest with a deathstalker behind her, while Jaune held onto the stalkers tail for dear life. Across from them an ursa stalked out of the trees and collapsed dropping an excited Nora and an exhausted Ren. Ren was in the process of berating Nora for riding an ursa when Ruby came falling from the sky lading next to Yang. "Rubes!" "Yannggg!" Ruby and Yang Hugged and Weiss came flying after her landing near Ruby. "WHY DID YOU THINK RIDING A NEVERMORE WAS A GOOD IDEA!?" she screamed at Ruby. Ruby just shrugged and was about to respond when Jaune came flying into a pillar of the nearby temple. Ruby grabbed a relic and yelled to everyone. "Lets get outa here!"

As they made a mad dash towards the cliff they ran through another section of the abandoned temple with the deathstalker on their tale and a nevermore flying over them and circling back towards them. As they were crossing a bridge the nevermore shot another volley of feathers shattering the bridge and separating them, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang on one side, with Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and Jaune on the other. As Jaune started directing his team to chop off the tail of the stalker and eventually kill it, Ruby could not help but think. *maybe he could be useful in a fight after all* but she had other things to worry about. As the rest of her group were putting a beating on the nevermore she thought up a plan. "Yang Knock that pidgeon into the cliff face, Weiss freeze it there then prepare to launch something with you're glyphs, Blake use your ribbon and prepare a slingshot!" as they got set up and the nevermore was stuck to the cliff face she jumped onto the middle of the slingshot with her scythe underneath her. "Weiss, think you can make the shot?" Ruby shot a mocking glance at Weiss. "Humph." "you can't?" "of course I can you dolt." she shot ruby at the nevermore and ruby placed the sharp end of her scythe to its neck. Weiss placed speed Glyphs vertically up the cliff as ruby used her semblance combined with the kickback of her rifle to speed up to the top dragging the nevermore with her. Once at the top she stopped.

Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and Jaune had just finished of the deathstalker and were looking up toward the nevermore which was writhing and screeching under the scythe-wielders blade for a full minute before ruby shot another bullet and removed it head from its body. Then she caught the head and watched as it disappeared. No one saw her from where she was but she was grinning very, very widely.

That night after the teams had been named, with Jaune the leader of team JNPR, Comprised of himself, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. And Ruby as the leader of team RWBY, comprised of herself, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch stood talking in his office. "But why make her the leader of a team, not only is she two years younger than the rest of her team, that itself would cause problems, but not only that today when they went up agaisnt that nevermore, she seemed to enjoy torturing it before she killed it." Ozpin frowned at her. "While yes it was weird you were there when she said her blade got stuck and it wouldn't finish the job without a shot, but I understand your concerns, we will keep an eye on her, as for her leadership role, I think it obvious by her quick thinking in the field that she should be the leader, is that all?" "yes yes."

Flashback….

7-year old Yang Xiao-long was dragging 5-Year old Ruby Rose into the forest with a wagon. This was a year after the death of Summer Rose Rubys mom and Ruby had spoken only when necessary since her untimely demise. As they went deeper in they had been surrounded by beowulfs and Yang had been knocked against a tree and rendered unconscious, as ruby watched a grim stand over her about to dig its fangs into her throat ruby yelled and squeezed her eyes shut. Seconds went by and ruby opened her eyes, it seemed as though time had stopped, the snow that had been falling had frozen in the middle of its decent, the grim stood still poised to kill the unknowing Yang. "w-what h-happend?" Ruby stuttered confused at the spectacle before her. "You happend silly girl." a mysterious voice of a women shook the little girls mind as it spoke. "Wh-ho are you?" "just a friend my little flower, now you don't want another loved one dying on you, do you." Ruby frantically shook her head. "C-course not." "Then do you want me to give you power- or really -show you power you already have to save your loved ones?" the voice sounded sinister but calming at the same time and ruby simply nodded. "Very well little flower, dont tell other of me or you won't be able to protect them." "ok."

When time had resumed ruby had appeared in front of the grimm in between it and yang with her had embedded into its throat when she pulled it out the grimm gurgled and its red eyes eyes went dark, as it dissipated into smoke the black tar like blood that ruby had been staring at on her hands disappeared as well. When the other beowulfs stalked forward she looked up at them with inhuman glowing silver eyes, they stopped and began to back away. Then a flash of grey and red and they start to disappear like the one before. Standing in their midst was a grey haired man who began to rush over to Ruby and Yang as Ruby started to collapse. "U-uncle Qrow?" Ruby Stammered as she blacked out.

Neither Qrow nor Yang really knew what happened that day, Ruby merely said that qrow had got there in time, Yang believed her but Qrow remained suspicious but didn't press any further.

8 years passed and Ruby did not hear from the women again until that fateful day where she was walking through a bigger city in vale with her Uncle and Sister when she heard it. "My little flower, watch that man two paces in front of you he wants to hurt you and your family." "WHAT!?" she said out loud. "What's wrong Rubes?" Yang and Qrow looked at her worriedly, "nothing, sorry it's fine. I need to go to the bookstore real quick i'll meet you at the restaurant." she dashed off following the man the voice had been talking about before they could question her further.

Once she had followed him for a couple blocks he ducked into an alley. "Kill him while he's distracted" Ruby almost choked on herself. "Kill him? Why?" "do you want your loved ones to die?" Ruby shook her head. "Then trust me and do it." once sh found the man she snuck up behind him and grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the wall, as he slid down she sat on top of him and strangled him with both arms, when she looked into his eyes and saw fear she loosened her grasp. "What are you doing kill him." the voice growled in her head. "But he-" before she could continue he grabbed a bottle and smashed it over her head causing blood to dribble over her eye blinding her. He threw her off and started to run. "See he wants to hurt you quickly before he escapes." Ruby picked up one of the bigger shards of glass and ran after him, before he had cleared the alley she used her semblance leapt onto his back and slashed his throat with the makeshift knife, blood spurted onto the ground and wall of the alley. Huffing and and trying to catch her breath, 13-year old Ruby leaned against the wall and closed her eyes when she opened them she looked at herself in the metal pieces that littered the ground and put her hand to her mouth. She was smiling, a wide excited smile… why was she doing that? "Well done my little flower, though you still have much to learn. Go wash up somewhere so you don't get unwanted attention. And considering your success, I think a little pet name is out of place don't you? How about…. My little reaper." Ruby only responded with a bigger smile. Why, why did she do that, there was blood everywhere horrible, gross smelling, nasty, amazingly beautiful, blood.

Once she had washed up she headed into the restaurant and walked straight up to Qrow. "teach me how to use a scythe."