Alright, here's chapter two.
Lush green grass covered the floor of the forest clearing. The warm shine of the afternoon sun beared down on the surrounding plant life, giving it all a healthy sheen.
It was in this sun touched clearing that a glowing white dot popped into existence, seemingly without any form of warning. The white dot proceeded to cut downwards through the air till it was just shy of ground level, leaving a luminescent white trail in its wake.
The resulting line didn't stay a line for long, it widened as if an invisible force was pulling it across the middle in both the left and right directions. The stretching stopped after a few seconds, the end product of this entire process being a large circle the same color and level of brightness as the dot at the beginning.
The circle hung in the air ominously for a moment, then it acted, spitting out two figures unto the grass in front of it. The figures had barely touched down before the circle winked out of existence.
The first figure, a young girl wearing a black sleeveless top and a red skirt landed on her feet and stumbled, though she still managed to catch herself so as to avoid face planting into the earth.
Her companion, however?
There was a loud thud as the armoured individual kissed the grass. Said individual let out a low groan but made no effort to move, not like he would have made it far, pushing his magic always led to temporary paralysis.
"Welcome to Anima." John grumbled, turning his head to get a better look at the girl next to him.
Ruby's eyes went wide, "We're in Anima?! How'd you do that?" she asked, shock clear on her face.
"With great strain." he moaned.
Ruby gasped and pointed to the sky, "Look! It's bright out, we travelled through time!"
John shook his head, or at least he tried to. He settled for speaking a second later, "No we didn't, it's still night time back on Patch. That's how timezones work."
Ruby nodded in understanding after a brief period of thought, "So… are you going to get up?"
"In time, little Ruby, in time."
That time turned out to be around a minute or two. John tested his arms and legs, flexing them momentarily before feeling assured that he wouldn't pull a muscle. He then stood up and tried his best to wipe the dirt off his front.
'Okay', he thought, 'in a few hours, Tai will start loosing his shit.' he winced, imagining the kind of grief his fellow blonde will have to go through, 'of course, we can lessen the blow somewhat.', his plan wasn't perfect. In the end, not everyone gets exactly what they want.
Then it's a bad plan, there it was, that voice again, the one that followed him through the war, growing louder and louder with every fallen ally. The voice sounded sickeningly close to his own, it taunted him, mocked him.
When Weiss found out about it, she recommended therapy, he refused.
She wasn't around to gloat when he realized she was right.
Something pushed his knee, pulling Johna away from his thoughts. He looked down to see pools of silver staring up at him in concern.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.
John drew a breath in and sighed, "Not really, no."
"Oh, sorry." she reached up and patted the man's lower back.
John smiled at her attempts at comfort him. The action itself didn't help much but the intention behind it made him feel better instantly.
"I'll live, there's a village less than a mile that way," John jerked a thumb over his shoulder, he and Rose had already chosen the village before their trip to the past. "That's where we'll be settling down, at least for now."
Ruby nodded and marched in the offered direction, forcing John to play catch-up.
As a final action, he mentally wished his wife some luck. Hoping that everything was going well on her end.
Now Rose has never kidnapped someone before but she was fairly sure this wasn't supposed to be part of the procedure.
Oh sure, it wasn't technically a kidnapping seeing as the kid that was supposedly in the process of being napped was totally okay with it.
Sadly, not everyone seemed quite as enthused.
The red cloaked huntress ducked, a silver crossbow bolt whizzed through the area her head occupied less than a second before. Her combat boots continued to pound against the path, the weight on her right shoulder bouncing up and down constantly, much to its displeasure.
"GIVE ME BACK MY SON YOU WITCH!" a shrill voice shrieked behind her, the pure rage in the words telling Rose exactly what would happen if she stopped. So she didn't.
Admittedly, this was mostly her fault. She forgot that Jaune's town was one of those places where everyone knew everyone. While they escaped the Arc residence with ease, that did not guarantee success by a long shot. Case in point, this situation.
Rose didn't know who, but someone tipped the Arcs off that a woman in red was trying to pull a fast one on them and make off with their boy. They took the information as well as one would expect.
Only her refined reflexes saved her from a surprise axe blade that seemed to come from nowhere. Rose dove to the side, very enamored with the idea of not being cleaved in two, she pulled Jaune to her chest and rolled. Twisting and springing back up so as to not stay on the ground for very long. Due to her manoeuvre, she ended up facing the people chasing her.
Under normal circumstances, a woman in her nightgown and a man wearing blue and white striped pyjamas wouldn't have come off as a threatening sight. Of course, this is assuming the woman isn't holding a strange, clearly mechashift crossbow and the man isn't lugging around a battle axe taller than his own montrous stature. Otherwise, it's pretty damn terrifying.
Mr and Mrs Arc fanned out, blocking Rose from escaping through the front or their sides. Why would they do that? Obviously, Rose can just go b-
Cold stone pressed against her as she stepped back, Rose glanced behind her to see a wall, around 20 feet in height. Why did she have to run away from two people in the dead of night in their own town? Of course they'd corner her! That's like, the first step to any kind of chase.
The second step was capture, or worse.
"Give us our son now!" the man, Nelson Arc, demanded.
Now, Rose has seen a lot of scary things in her day, too much to count. Despite that, the anger in the man's voice as he bellowed at her seriously made her reconsider this kidnapping-not-kidnapping for a moment.
It was only for a moment though, she steeled herself and bent her knees slightly. Even with the shattered moon as her only light source, Jaune's mother, Lilian Arc, noticed the movement and fired another crossbow bolt.
Rose figured the hitting their son wasn't much of a concern to Mrs Arc. She was a very good shot. Not for the first time that night, Rose found her eye in serious danger of exiting through the back of her skull. The red huntress flicked her head sideways to avoid such an outcome. She channelled the power within her outwards.
The wind around her picked up.
Nelson charged forward with his axe held low, ready to relieve Rose of her legs.
The huntress heard the tell tale twanging noise of another crossbow bolt being let loose. Recent experience told her it was aimed at her head.
Neither spells of death met her.
The red clad woman rocketed upwards, her cloak fluttering in the winds she controlled. Easily clearing the wall's height, another gust of air sent her and her convoy over and out of the town.
She tucked and landed in a roll, Jaune rolled out of her grasp and ended up on his back. He was hyperventilating even though Rose did most of the running.
Rose figured now would be a good time for a joke to lighten the mood, laying in the grass and all. However, her words were lost as her instincts screamed at her to move.
She rolled to the side, her new position giving her a nice view of the large hunk of polished metal embedded in the grass of her old location.
Twisting and springing to her feet, Rose, unclipped Crescent Rose from her back and unfolded it just in time to block a diagonal axe swing from the man in pyjamas. The same man who just jumped over a 20 foot wall like it was nothing.
The melee continued from there, Rose tried to press the attack with her superior speed but Nelson must have been adept in fighting opponents faster than him because he blocked the strikes with unnerving ease.
Similarly, Rose was adept in combating enemies stronger than herself. She angled Crescent Rose diagonally to parry an overhead axe swing that she wouldn't have been able to take head on. She then used the momentum to stick the pointed butt end of the scythe into the ground.
Using the weapon as a pole, Rose vaulted forwards to deliver a kick to Nelson's chest. The mountain of a man flinched ever so slightly but gave no other indication of the attack harming him. He cocked a fist back in retaliation.
"Dad! Stop, she's good!"
Nelson paused to see Jaune standing nearby. It was too dark to see either of their expressions but Rose imagined indignation was on the forefront of the large man's face.
"Jaune, please don't side with your kidnapper." Nelson's tone went from unbridled rage to calm scolding in a second as he addressed his son.
"She's not a kidnapper, she's good. See, she's not even fighting you as we're talking."
Nelson spared Rose a glance before rounding back on Jaune, "Ok, so you were running away from home. Jaune, why would you do that?"
Jaune's voice suddenly dropped in volume, "To save the world 'n' stuff." he didn't sound particularly sure of himself.
Silence filled the air as Nelson processed the information. Once satisfied, he whirled on Rose pointing an accusing finger in her direction.
"You're one of Ozpin's lackeys, aren't you?" he didn't even give her a chance to answer before continuing, "Well, you can tell that silver haired minx to stay the hell away from my children! There's a reason we packed up our stuff and moved to this no name town, to avoid the likes of you. No child of mine is ending up as a 'necessary sacrifice', so you can leave now." he made a vague gesture to the forest behind her.
Rose wasn't quite so ready to give up, "Sir, I'm not Ozpin, I don't work for him either, but this is important, your son is important, he can be a hero."
"I don't want a hero, I want a son! You're a huntress, you know what happens to heroes, what they end up as,"
Rose winced as names and faces flashed through her head.
Here lies Blake Belladonna, she die-
In remembrance of Weiss Schnee, wh-
Ms Yang Xiao Long-
Nora Val-
Lie Re-
Taiyang-
Qrow Brawn-
On and on, the names and faces cycled in her head, the various memorials that had been erected in their names all remembered them as protectors, noble guardians.
Heroes.
Oh she knew, she knew exactly what became of them, Roman's words from all those years ago rang through her head.
"You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other huntsman in history!"
At the time, she didn't believe him. Huntsmen aren't supposed to die, their too strong, they always win. Sure it happens sometimes but it's hardly a part they play, right?
She was young then, she hadn't seen the truth. Roman had.
Still, even with her eyes opened, she had to do this. This had to happen, the alternative was so much worse. It wasn't an option.
"I-I'm sorry, sir."
Nelson didn't even get to finish his "Huh?" before Rose streaked forward in a flurry of crimson petals, she grabbed Jaune and blurred into the forest, well aware that she just made herself the Arc enemy number one.
Yup, that's not gonna come back to bite her in the ass. Hopefully they don't check for her in Mistral.
Taiyang was absolutely loosing it.
He woke up on a beautiful summer day ready to greet his beautiful daughters. Yang didn't really appreciate the sentiment very much and Ruby?
Well… she's the reason he's loosing it.
"Have you found anything?" he asked, trying his best to avoid crushing the scroll in his hand in ever mounting anxiety.
"I told you I'd call if did, all you're doing is slowing me down." the voice on the other end, Qrow, replied. He sounded frustrated, only natural seeing as he'd been out there for a bit over 2 hours.
Qrow cut the call before anymore conversation could be had. Tai ran a hand through his blonde locks as he drew a deep breath.
"Do you think Ruby will be fine?" the little blonde girl sitting next to him on the couch asked. Her voice alone told him that she was just about ready to cry.
Tai forced a smile unto his face, "Of course she'll be, your uncle is gonna find her and bring her back in no time."
Yang considered this before nodding, her lips lifting up slightly, "I'm gonna punch her for making us worry."
Tai's scroll rang, he thought it was Qrow at first but caller ID showed an unknown number. On top of that, it was a video call, Qrow didn't usually do video calls.
Tai accepted the call, not really knowing what to expect. Who he say made his heart stop.
"Ruby?!"
The girl in the scroll smiled, "Hi, dad!"
The man's eyes roved over his daughter's face, she seemed fine, unharmed at least, she also looked happy.
'What is going on?!'
"Ruby, where are you?" Tai asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.
The girl paused before replying without the same vigour of before, "He told me not to tell you." she answered apologetically.
"What? He? Ruby, have you been kidnapped?" the nightmare scenarios that he had forced down were beginning to rear their heads up once more.
The girl's eyes widened, "No! It's not like that at all."
Yang was trying to climb up Tai's chest at this point but the man was too focused on other things, "Then who is this 'he', why won't he let you tell us where you are?"
"He's afraid that you'll come after me."
Tai could feel a migraine coming on, "...Ruby, who is this man?"
"His name is John, he's a huntsman like you, we're friends."
"Can I talk to this 'John' for a moment."
Ruby shook her head, "He's sleeping in the other room right now."
"Are you locked up with chains and stuff?" it was Yang who asked this, squeezing herself between her dad's arms to get a good view of the screen.
Ruby waved, "Hi, Yang! No, I'm not locked up, I can leave anytime. John said so."
The migraine was getting worse, "Then come back!" Tai all but shouted, "If you can come leave then why not just come back?"
Ruby didn't answer instantly, "Dad, this is important. It's really really important, don't worry though, I'm fine, John's super nice, he said I can visit home whenever I want so I'll see you eventually. Just wait, okay?"
What? Of course it's not okay, why would this be okay? His 8 year old daughter being abducted by some floozy named John. There's no way in hell this should be okay. To say it's okay is borderline retardation!
"No, it's not, young lady, I demand that you stop this nonsense right this instance." he levelled a glare at the screen. Even Yang nodded, a fact he was very proud of.
For a few seconds, Ruby wavered, her eyes flickering around until she eventually jutted out her chin and gave her answer.
"No."
Yang gasped while Tai stared at Ruby's defiant expression. 'What has gotten into her? Better yet what the hell is going on here!?'
"Dad, I get that you're mad, but I'll be okay. Anyway, bye Dad, bye Yang. I'll talk to you later."
The call blinked off. Tai screamed to the heavens.
Done. Whaddya guys think?
I'm really surprised with the positive response to this fic. Surprised but incredibly glad. All I can say is thanks.
Till the next time.
Astron.