Ruby sat as Nora pushed her along, staring sullenly at the cast around her right leg.
A compound fracture in the leg, two in her rib cage, another four with simple fractures, another simple fracture on her skull, a broken collarbone, a dislocated left arm, and a broken nose.
Despite that, it was agreed that Ruby had been extremely lucky. If her skeleton hadn't survived, she would have died. If the Nuckelavee hadn't been distracted by the silver light that had appeared, she would have died. If Uncle Qrow had been half a minute late, or not come with a medical Bullhead sent to pick up someone in the next town over, she probably would have died. If he hadn't accidentally unlocked her Aura trying to heal her, she would probably be looking at two months in a wheelchair, instead of another two weeks, plus her broken nose was healed!
Ruby signed as Nora pushed her into the classroom, reaching out and squeezing the ginger haired girl's hand.
This was the longest time the three survivors of Kuroyuri were going to be apart since the attack.
Talk about adding to your first-day-a-new-school anxiety.
"Rath- Ruby, why are you giggling like that?"
Ruby shook her head, "I'll tell you after school," Ruby smiled up at the other girl, "Thanks for bringing me."
Nora smiled, squeezing Ruby's hand back, "It's fine. See you later?"
"Of course."
Nora stopped as she let go of Ruby's hand, before tapping her finger on Ruby's nose.
"Boop!"
Then she rushed out of the room, and Ruby was left alone with .
The first grade teacher looked up from her book, smiling, "It's good to have you back, you gave everyone quite the scare."
Ruby looked away, out the window where she could see a thin layer of snow dusting Patch. Last time she had been home, it had been summer.
She still wasn't sure what had happened for the first three months, Trag'Oul had been evasive about what had happened and where he had been, the next three (It might have been longer, Time didn't work quite the same in Trag'Oul's home) were spent teaching her more of the Balance, and advancing her skill with blood and bone.
Which was good, because it saved her life.
Frowning, Ruby picked at the fraying edge of her skirt. Had he know? He had never had problems returning her to his home before then, though that had been the first time she physically traveled there.
Ruby was aware that Trag'Oul knew more than he let on, she had seen Kuroyuri during her first meeting with him, and still got impulses when she thought of the stars that made up the constellar dragon's body-
-A young man, smoke rising around him as he dropped his empty magazines, reloading. Raising his gun, he fired a single bullet, bone broke beneath the ballistic blast. Tendrils of light trailed from his back, magenta with black lining-
-like that, Ruby finished the thought dryly.
"Ruby?"
The brown haired girl's head snapped to her teacher.
"Are you alright? You seemed distracted."
Ruby shook her head, "I'm fine, I was just thinking about Kuroyuri."
's eyes softened, "Of course. Ruby, I understand this must be very hard for you, but if you ever need to talk-"
"I'm fine."
"Ruby, you just went through an extremely traumatic experience, it's normal to be-"
" ," Ruby cut her off with a smile, "I'm fine."
"You could have died."
"We all die eventually," Ruby responded, "I'm not scared to do so."
"That isn't normal, Ruby. You're just a little girl."
"Then I don't want to be normal, I'm happy the way I am."
opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a blur rushed into the room, tackling Ruby into a hug and pushing her wheelchair back.
"Ruby!" Aileen's muffled voice came from Ruby's side, "Do you know how scared I was? Never do anything like that again!" Ruby's best friend continued to jabber on until Ruby stopped her with a groan.
"Leenie, 's nice to see you too, but, you're crushing my ribs."
The hazel eyed girl leapt back, releasing Ruby from her grip, "Sorry! What happened to you?"
coughed into her hand, "Aileen, that isn't-"
"Got into a fight with a Grimm."
"What!? Really? Did you win?"
"No, I lost, that's why I'm stuck in a wheelchair, silly. I made some new friends, I'll introduce you after school, K?"
Aileen shrank into herself, "Ok?"
"Aileen," cut in, "could you take a seat, it's time for class after all."
-X LINE BREAK X-
Tai growled, smashing the sledgehammer into the bone knife. Nothing. He had been at this since he came home from bringing the kids to school and had literally nothing to show for it. The knife wasn't even chipped.
Ruby had nearly died, Qrow said that she had barely been moving when they got there.
Thud.
He had nearly lost his daughter. His daughter had almost died because of this stupid knife.
Thud.
He had already lost Summer, he had already lost Raven, he couldn't lose either of his baby girls.
Thud.
And Ruby still wasn't shaken! She still wanted to learn from Kalan, and still wanted to be a Huntress.
Thud.
She wouldn't even tell them where she met with him so Qrow and him could at least meet the guy. Or even how she was meeting him, seeing as she was confined to the house.
Thud.
It couldn't have been Li Ren, otherwise Ruby wouldn't talk about meeting him. Even with her strange outlook on death.
THUD!
She was a little girl! She should be worrying about playing with her friends. Not running away from Grimm!
THUD!
The only good part of this was being there to take in the other two kids.
THUD!
Tai had lost his parents in a Grimm attack, because of course he fuckin' did, an early sign of how the world would go on to fuck with him for the subsequent thirty years.
THUD!
It was hard, everyone seemed to constantly pity you. Even if you didn't want their damn pity. Even if taking in the kids put a strain on their money, he was fine with doing that. Giving them something resembling a normal life, was worth that.
THUD-CRACK!
Tai glared at the broken handle of the hammer. He had driven it into the ground so hard it had cratered the ground and broke the hammer.
But not the damn knife. It was still looking brand new.
Picking it up, Tai shoved it into its sheath, and walked back towards the house.
Storing it in the sewn pocket of Ruby's cloak, lest she go looking for it, Tai walked into the living room.
Qrow was sitting there, staring at one of the skeletons Ruby had used to deal with her current disabled state.
Admittedly, they did take some of the difficulty out of life.
This one was cleaning the house. The vacuum cleaner was running, blocking out whatever Qrow was trying to watch.
"Tai! Sit down, man, I need to talk to you," Qrow yelled over the machine, before the skeleton walked out of the room.
"What's up?"
Qrow's face pulled into a sharp frown, "Ruby."
"What about her? We still can't find Kalan, and she still isn't talking."
"It's not that," Qrow leaned his elbows on his knees, resting his head on his hands, "When she gets better, I want to start training her."
"Qrow, I don't want her-"
"I know, Tai, but there's nothing either of us can do to stop her. She's made her choice, and I don't think there's anything we can do to change that."
"We can keep her from this, she isn't even six, man. She shouldn't be dealing with this shit!"
"I know, trust me, but if she's going to insist to do stuff like this, I want to make sure she doesn't die. Whatever those are," Qrow jerked his head at one of the skeletons, "they aren't her Semblance. I woke up her Aura saving her."
Tai stopped, mouth opening mutely for a few seconds, "She hadn't had her Aura unlocked?"
"No, so whatever Kalan has been teaching her wouldn't involve using it. I don't want that to get her killed later on."
"What would you teach her?"
"Just basic stuff, how to defend herself, different Grimm types, using her Aura. Things that will keep her from dying."
"That's- I'm fine with that."
"Good. I was going to do it either way."
"You're an ass."
Qrow laughed, gesturing to one of the skeletons, who poured him a drink.
"You know, I could get used to these things."
"I think Ruby already has, I saw her teaching one to bake cookies."
"Yang too, she had one clean the dishes when it was her turn."
Tai laughed, "looks like the conspiracy theorists were wrong, we'll be replaced with skeletons instead of robots if other people learn how to do this."
The two men leaned back chuckling, watching the wall mounted Scroll as the macabre servants walked around them.
-X LINE BREAK X-
Nora looked at the girl practically curled up behind Ruby's chair.
"Uh?"
"What?"
"Who's that?"
"What?" Ruby turned in her chair, "Oh, for Dust sake, Lennie, it isn't that bad- RIBS!"
"They did tell you to keep from doing stuff like that," Lie responded lightly to Ruby's cry of pain, but helped her sit up nonetheless.
"I don't want to sit around for a couple of weeks, it's borrring," Ruby dragged out the R, lolling her head to the side.
Lie adjusted her head, "Don't do that, you're just going to extend how long you're stuck in there."
Nora watched the two of them as Lie gently fussed over Ruby.
"Ruby? Lie?"
The two of them turned, and Nora tapped them both on the nose.
"Boop."
Nora watched them both blink in confusion.
"Uh, why do you keep doing that? Does it mean something?"
Thank you for finding me, for saving me at Kuroyuri, for being nice to me, for taking us home with you. I'm sorry you both got hurt there. I love you both so much.
"It's- It's something my parents used to do to me."
"Oh," Ruby chirped, kicking her feet, "That's cool! Lennie? Have you calmed down yet?"
"Yeah," the girl's shaky voice answered, "I'm good, come on, let's find our parents."
"You sure? You haven't really met Nora and Lie yet!"
"Call me Ren."
"Huh?"
"I want you to call me Ren."
Ruby shrugged, smiling, "Ok, Ren! Lennie? Are you-"
"I want to go home. I'm not feeling well," Lennie's voice came out clipped.
Ruby's smile faltered briefly, "Ok. Come on guys, let's go find dad."
Nora took over pushing Ruby's chair, looking around the school yard for Taiyang's truck.
"Why is everyone looking at us?" Li- Ren asked, looking around. When Nora checked, she saw he was right.
"Patch is pretty small, you know? Most people at least know each other in passing, so when new people show up, people notice."
"Especially when someone shows up in a wheelchair," Lennie mumbled, shrinking in on herself again, "You running into a Grimm is going to circle faster than a Nevermore."
"So? If they want to know they can ask me about it, I don't care."
"How do you keep saying that? You nearly died Ruby. We watched them cart you to the emergency room."
"Ren. I'm not scared of dying. People can think that is strange, but it's true. So long as I die for something I believe in, I'm happy."
"And you would have died for something you believe in at Kuroyuri?"
"Well," Ruby's eyes seemed to burrow into Ren's skull, "Uncle Qrow was right there, so at least you two would have gotten out of there safely. That is good enough for me."
"Don't."
"Huh?"
"Don't die like that, Rath- Ruby. I don't want to lose you."
Nora had seen what had happened to Ruby. She had stopped moving in the Grimm's hand, sagged down limp with blood pouring from her mouth. Dead.
Then she wasn't.
Ruby's eyes had started to glow, and silver lights in the shape of bone wings had burst through the Grimm's hands, burning them to ash and distracting it for Qrow.
Then she had collapsed, chest moving again, wings gone.
"Nora, Lie, Aileen, Ruby! Over here!"
Taiyang was waving at them, a brown haired woman sitting next to him on the truck bed and Yang playing with some cube, leaning against the wheel.
Faster than Nora had comprehend, the woman and Aileen left, they were bundled into the back of the truck, with Ruby's wheelchair in the bed, and heading to the house.
Their house.
Nora looked down, before grabbing Ruby's free hand.
-X LINE BREAK X-
Yang watched Ruby talk to Nora, animatedly moving her freshly released limbs.
"Ruby? Can I talk to you? Alone?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure, what's up Yang?"
Yang gently guided her sister to her room, shutting and locking the door.
"What's up-"
"Why did you run away?" It had taken weeks for Yang to work up the courage to ask this and she hated how broken her voice sounded at the moment. She was supposed to be the big sister.
"What do you mean?"
"You were missing for six months. I thought I had lost you, like mom," which mom went unsaid.
"Which-?"
"It doesn't matter. Why'd you run away?"
Sometimes, things happened that made you rethink your priorities. Like worrying about your little sister running off.
"I was scared."
"Then why didn't you come home?"
"I needed to train more."
"You scared me!"
"I needed to learn how to defend people."
"What about me?"
Ruby looked confused, "What about you? I needed to learn."
"You abandoned me," Yang hissed out, fists clenching. Did Ruby really not-?
"I came back."
"You left."
"Dad wanted me to stop training, I wasn't going to."
"You left me."
"Was I supposed to take you with me?"
"You were supposed to stay!"
"Why?"
"Because you're my little sister! You're not supposed to be running off without me and getting hurt."
"You haven't told me what I was supposed to do, if I stayed Dad would have made me stop training."
"Then you should have stopped training."
"I won't."
"Why!?"
"Because it's who I am, and I'm happy that way. I am Ruby Rose, and I am Rathma, and I refuse to give up either of those."
"Stop talking like that!"
"Like what?"
"Using all these big words! You're my little sister, you shouldn't be talking like a grown up!"
"Kalan taught me to speak well, it's part of who I am now, Yang."
"Then how are you my little sister? You ran away, you don't care about me-"
"I care about you-"
"You keep using big words and talking about this Balance, and all these things Kalan taught you, and you're not acting like my little sister anymore."
"People change, Yang."
"Well, I don't want you too!"
"It's happened."
Yang tackled Ruby with a shriek, pulling at her sister's hair.
"Stop saying things like that!"
"Ow! Yang, stop! That hurts!"
"Stop being so stupid then, dummy! I don't want to lose you too!"
"Ok! Ok! Fine, I won't run away again! Just stop it!"
Yang let go of Ruby's hair, pulling her into a hug.
"Don't scare me like that ever again, sis."
"I'll do my best."
"No. You won't."
"I can't promise anything better than my best-"
"You. Won't."
-X LINE BREAK X-
"Alright, pipsqueak, let's see that armor you can make."
Qrow watched Ruby fidget, pulling at the end of her skirt.
"What?"
"My bone armor is kind of… spikey. I don't want to ruin my clothes."
"Come on, kid," Qrow rolled his eyes, "It isn't that bad. Your mom fought in a skirt."
Ruby's eyes lit up, a smile tugging at her lips, "Ok!"
Mentioning Summer was always a good way to excite Ruby.
Ruby made a gesture, raising her hand from hip to neck level.
White gauntlets formed first, with spikes coming off the elbow, and then came the greaves, similarly spiked. Ruby's shirt bulged slightly, like something had appeared beneath it, before spikes burst from the sleeves. Similarly, her skirt was impaled on spikes of bone.
…
"..Is there any way not to include the spikes?"
Ruby shook her head, "I don't know of one, best I can do is make them grow on the skirt."
"Why didn't you do that?"
"...'s hard."
"Yeah, we're going to have to buy you pants for training. At least until you get better at it."
Ruby glared forlornly at the torn remains of her skirt, "I liked this one."
"I'll buy you a new one," Qrow responded quickly, "now, how about your head?"
"What about it?"
"Aren't you going to cover it?"
"I dunno?"
Qrow sighed, "Kalan didn't teach you how to do that?"
"I'm gonna armor the hood when I get better."
"But you don't know anything right now."
"No?"
Qrow rubbed his eyes in irritation "He didn't teach you to do that?"
"No."
"Right, get your weapon ready."
"K!"
Ruby held out left hand, and a series of dust collected in her hand, forming bones that snapped into a scythe, before drawing the knife in her right hand.
"Ruby. What is that?"
"A scythe?"
"Why'd you make a scythe, pip?"
"Well, you use a scythe, and the Priests traditionally use scythes and knives."
And there was the confirmation it was a cult.
"What's the Priests like?" Qrow asked, fishing for answers, anything that would let him track down Kalan.
"Dunno."
"What do you mean? Haven't you met them?"
"They're not here," Ruby shook her head, "it's just me and Kalan."
"Then where are they?"
"I dunno. Kalan just says they're not here."
"Do you think they got wiped out?"
"I don't think so, Kalan would have said if they were."
Qrow narrowed his eyes, "Is priests short for something?"
"The Priests of Rathma."
"Don't you use the title Rathma?"
"It means Student, they're named after Kalan's first student."
"Does Kalan mean something?" They were definitely looking for someone older then, if they had already had a student who had an organization named after them.
"Teacher."
Qrow paused, "So, it's not his name?"
That would explain why they hadn't found the bastard.
"No."
"Then what's his name?"
"Trag'Oul."
Well, it certainly wouldn't be hard to find someone with that name.
"I'm not teaching you to use a scythe, especially not that one."
"Why?"
"Because you're too small to use a scythe, and if you end up using one later, it's going to be made out of metal, not bone."
"There's nothing wrong with-"
Qrow moved forward and used to practice knife he had to severe the scythe in three along the points where the bones connected.
Like everything else Ruby made, it crumbled to dust, disappearing as quickly as it came.
"-bone. Wuh?"
"You're not using a bone scythe. Now, come at me, I want to get an idea of what you know about knife fighting."
