The far corner of the factory district. Seventeen years ago it was the sight of a fierce battle between Team RWBY, in their third year at Beacon,and Cinder. The damage left many of the buildings in ruin from a large fire that broke out in one of the factories. From the looks of it, it didn't seem like anyone was in much of a rush to demolish them or fix them up, content to leave them in ruin. A memory of a not so distant past that would have greatly changed the flow of history.
Roman pulled up to the factory where the fire originated and took the handicap spot in front of the door. Stealth wasn't an option, and frankly Ruby didn't care. Cinder knew she was coming and they knew talking wouldn't, nor couldn't, be an option.
"Ruby, you sure you don't want to get some kind of backup?" Roman called from the car.
"No! This is between me and her, you stay out of this." She roared back before stepping up to the old heavy slide door.
It wasn't rusted over like she expect, and it moved fairly easily. Inside the building was almost completely black from old ash. multiple trails of tiny paw prints ran every which way along with both old and new human ones. Much of the ash on the supports and walls had fallen to the floor. The work machinery had been moved out from last time, leaving it barren, with only the grey dusty squares that contrasted with the black ash to tell they were ever there. The roof was still whole oddly enough. The fire department must have arrived in time, but she still didn't trust it to hold the weight of someone if they tried to climb up top. The upper catwalk was also in decent condition. A few places had lost strength in their supports, but for the most part it seemed safe to stand on.
"Ruby?" A male voice called from the still dark building.
"Jaune?" She replied recognizing the owner with ease.
"Mommy!" Summer's cry made her forget the situation and she moved as quickly as she could in the direction of her daughter's call.
She stopped a little short of where they were. The light coming through the few windows that weren't blacked out, and the door only provided minimal light. She could see their silhouettes still tied to the chairs, but that wasn't what stopped her. As she approached another shadow walked out from behind a support pillar just behind them. A gold eye glowed in the darkness as she strutted up to her hostages.
"Took you long enough. I thought you didn't care." Her voice hinting at a smirk on her hidden face. Ruby growled at the woman, angered by the thought of her being so being so close to Jaune or Summer.
"Alright Cinder, I'll give you a chance to release them unharmed. I'll be willing to let you get a day head start to hide or turn yourself in so the police can protect you when I set out to kill you." Despite making the offer, Ruby was so angry she would probably just kill Cinder right here and now anyways.
"As much as I want to reject your offer, I'm afraid that it's not even a choice." Walking up behind Summer.
A flame engulfed her hand, illuminating both her and her victims. Jaune was calm, slightly moving his hands, probably trying to find a way to free himself. Summer though recoiled away from the open flame immediately.
"You see, your daughter is a little too brave for her own good." The women wrapped her fingers around Summer's jaw, and pulled the girls face around so she was facing Ruby. The flame was brought up so her face was in clear view of the Rose.
Ruby hesitated to react. Anger and fear conflicted with each other inside her mind. Summer only had her right eye covered by the blindfold, The left was wrapped up in bandages. The outlines of burned flesh ran along the bottom of the white linen stopping just short of her mouth.
"Oh yeah it was really bad. Looking at it made me sick to my stomach so I just had fix it up." She grinned while in her position of power while Ruby stood conflicted in her reaction.
"Mommy." It was a soft cry, but Summer's plead was just loud enough for her mother to hear. Anger finally won out as Ruby let out a roar of anger that caused some debris to fall from the ceiling in random spots.
Without any warning Crescent Rose was in battle form and Ruby was already halfway across the distance between her and Cinder. With Summer and Jaune right in the way, she couldn't go for a killing blow just yet, instead she put a spin in her flight so she could come around with full force.
Cinder leapt back to avoid the first swipe as Ruby flew over her family's heads. Crescent Rose's shaft slid through her left hand while the blade reached out parallel with it. She landed hard, but her momentum was enough to keep her going a little more as she slid toward her target pivoting on her heel. Her scythe came around wide from the left forcing cinder to make a full disengage to avoid her superior reach.
She stopped her pivot and let her weapon lash out in her hand to her right till the momentum stopped. She gripped it in her right hand as it finished it's rotation, muzzle facing the filthy concrete floor. Her nerves finally realized what she just did and a shock went up her spine as her leg roared in protest at the stunt she just performed.
A gasp escaped her lips, loud enough for everyone present to hear. Her hand fell to her badly hurting leg and attempted to sooth some of the pain, but didn't have time to alleviate it in any way. Cinder smiled at her pain and threw her attack. Before it even left her hand Ruby jumped into the air, with the aid of her weapon. She twisted down to see the flame leaving her hand, toward where she had been a moment before. It was a clear miss, but it was still a threat, for right in it's path sat Summer and Jaune.
Swiftly she did her best to twist around and brought her scythe into its rifle form so she could aim better at the flying fireball. The first shot was a little short, only snagging the tail, but the second bullet broke right through the orb causing it to lose its form and disperse a few feet out from Summer.
The extra shots sent Ruby even further up into the air and she neared the ceiling. A low hanging support stood in a collision course with her. Deftly she fired a third round to spin her upright and brought her precious back into scythe form. With a single cut she split the steel beam in two letting her pass safely. She didn't just break the beam though. As she passed there was a loud groan and snap as part of the roof collapsed and fell to the floor with a loud crash. The rest of the building remained standing and only the single spot was made a skylight, but it was enough to remind Ruby she had to restrain herself so long as Jaune and Summer were inside.
She resolved she needed to take the fight outside as she landed on the catwalk. Her leg protested again at the force of the landing, but the part of the catwalk she was on cried more. A loud squeaking sound rang through the factory as a single side lost it's grip and broke from the wall. Ruby tumbled off down the newly created ramp onto the floor.
Ruby sat herself up rubbing the back of her head after the small tumble. Violently her head was thrown back as something hard and fast collided with her forehead. If not for her hand it would have had the extra benefit of slamming her head into the wall behind her. Her aura tingled this time she noticed and was fast enough to move to the side as a glass arrow shattered on the wall where she was just a moment ago. Alert once more she rolled from her sitting position into a cartwheel till she was on her feet again.
Cinder held her bow, another arrow already notched. Seeing Ruby at the ready though she hesitated and loosened her arrow before stepping back away from the light shining down from above, back into the darkness. Ruby did the same going the other way trying to avoid easy sight. Though every other step was given away by the echoing sound of metal on concrete as Ruby walked through the darkness, trying her best to hide her presence.
Pulling away from all the light, there was little that could be seen. The door and hole were on the same half of the building and all the light flooded into that area, the rest was pitch black. Ruby grunted softly for the third time after walking into a support beam for the third time. She heard a metal tap, but it didn't sound like it had been from her. She paused, but the sound didn't return. She could have sworn she heard something, and decided to wait it out.
It was only ten seconds before her patience ran dry. With a single silent step from her good leg she heard the tap again. Slowly she turned around to where it came from. Another tap and she confirmed Cinder's location. She was walking along the catwalk just above her, probably hoping to see something in the darkness. Ruby wasn't sure of how successful that endeavor would be since even from such a close position, Cinder was almost indistinguishable from the darkness.
Ruby readied her scythe to take off Cinder's head, but paused. Looking at her surrounding she let patience fill her. She waiting for the opportunity for an attack that would be more beneficial even if it failed, rather than an attempted death blow. Slowly she moved a few steps to her right to get into a better position and readied Crescent Rose. Her aura remained repressed until she knew it was the time to strike. She didn't know how acute Cinder's ability to sense foreign aura was and couldn't risk tipping her off.
Cinder took a few more steps at a quicker speed.
One… Two… THREE!
In an instant Ruby's aura was up in full force, Cinder didn't turn till the moment the gunshot fired and propelled toward her. She turned to the origin of the sound and raised a glyph like barrier to block the attack like ruby speculated. Her foot had been leading the charge and she stepped down on it with her good leg before kicking off. Once in the darkness again she folded up her weapon into its rifle mode and ejected the bullet in the chamber before manually placing a different one in its stead. Cinder lowered her defense and lit a flame in her palm to counter attack in the direction of her attacker.
That instant Ruby fired a devastating Reaper Round square at her target's illuminated form in the darkness. Cinder interrupted her attack to defend herself and did so successfully, but it didn't stop Ruby from getting what she wanted.
When the bullet collided with her palm, the room lit up from a large explosion. Though the bullet and the blast were stopped from harming her, the force still sent the raven haired woman flying back through the ash covered window Ruby had waited for her to stand in front of. Light flooded inside the building and Ruby had the benefit of seeing where she was falling.
She landed on her back, but quickly rolled onto her feet with ease. She made for the window and when she was close enough she propelled herself with a shot from Crescent Rose. As she neared the window mid flight, Cinder had recovered and had just appeared once more with the intent of returning to the fray herself.
The mistress had a look of surprise as Ruby gave a soft squeak before the two collided. The two twisted through the air uncontrollably before landing hard on the pavement outside. They bounced off the surface before landing hard for a second time. Ruby sat up her hand finding something soft to prop herself on while the other rubbed her forehead. A groan of pain not from her made her open her eyes to realize she was mounting Cinder with her hand on the older women's breast.
Snapping back to action, her free hand wrapped around Cinder's neck, soon being assisted by the other. Cinder grabbed her wrist in an attempt to relieve her neck of the crushing pressure. Gasp started to escape her throat in her desperate attempt to breath. Ruby pressed harder trying to crush the woman's neck.
In the desperate struggle, Cinder resorted to a last ditch effort and released one of Ruby's wrists so she could form a glass dagger in her hand. Ruby had no chance of dodging the wicked blade as each piece broke on contact with her aura letting the next curve stab into her all the way to the hand guard. The blow to her shoulder though didn't deter her. She felt a massive blow to her aura, but focused on finishing her opponent.
Though effective it didn't have the effect she wanted. Pulling back her hand, she formed a second blade and brought it down again. Whether intentional or not, it didn't matter, all that did was Cinder's second blade came down on Ruby's bad leg, and the final inch of the blade managed to pierce through her aura.
Ruby screamed in pain, exchanging her grip on Cinder's throat for her injured leg. The raven haired women gasped for breath, holding it with her hand to convince herself she was free. Ruby flopped beside her still roaring in pain over the glass shard impaling her leg. Finally working enough sense, she pulled the blade out so her aura could get to work, stopping the bleeding.
A violent force struck her temple. The blow forced her to roll over onto her stomach. The pain in her leg finally faded enough for her to try standing up. As she stood up, another blow to the back of the head slammed her face down into the pavement. When she collected herself she wasn't face down on the ground, but that immediately changed as she was slammed face down once more.
She could feel blood flowing through her nose and her face felt it was more than a little roughed up. The grip on the back of her skull let go and Ruby spent the moment trying to stand. She crawled onto her knees before a heel came down on the back of her bad knee. Cinder continued to grind her foot on Ruby's scarred leg as she fell back to the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs in pain.
"Don't worry I'm not going to kill you just yet. I'm going to wait till you become jaded from the pain, then inflict the same on your husband and daughter and let you listen to their screams. Then I guess I can be merciful and kill them in front of you. Maybe if I have the time I'll even get around to doing the same thing to all your friends."
The simple movements on Ruby's leg were more then enough to keep her paralyzed in pain, and showed no signs of wearing off.
"Tell me do you want me to do your husband or daughter first? They'll both die, but who would you like to suffer having to watch the other suffer and die?"
Ruby didn't answer the question, she didn't even realize Cinder was talking over her pain and screaming. Her voice though couldn't handle all the screaming and started becoming ragged from its overuse. Her voice finally gave out into coughs, but Ruby still couldn't move.
Cinder realized there was another noise, like a motorcycle coming near; it's motor having been drowned out by Ruby's screaming. Cinder let up a little to make the scene look inconspicuous while the potential witness went by. Ruby tried to get up, but was stomped back flat onto the ground.
A yellow blur rounded the corner and turned hard, cutting the traffic lines in a beeline for Cinder. She stepped back realizing there were two chainguns mounted to the front of the speeding sportsbike. She guessed the new arrival's intent and jumped high into the air just as a mass of gunfire consumed the spot she was just standing proved her right.
The motorcyclist swerved to the side so they wouldn't hit Ruby still on the ground. the front wheel hit the sidewalk and the whole craft went air born. Cinder was only at the peak of her jump and realized she had no way to dodge her new attacker as they dismounted from the bike mid flight and kicked off to intercept her fall. The bracelets around their hands extended into familiar gauntlets as Yang cocked back her fist as she neared her target.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!" She roared having her fist slam into Cinder's gut. A shotgun blast accompanied the already potent blow, sending Cinder flying away like a bullet toward the heavy brick wall to the factory.
The dark haired women braced herself for contact but hit much sooner than she anticipated. Actually it was harder than a brick wall should have, and it was cold. She landed on her feet, but stumbled to keep her balance. Standing upright she inspected what she just hit to see a tall spire of ice reaching for the sky. Standing on the peak was another women clad in all white. A metal breast plate on her chest and a white overcoat resting on her shoulders, hanging on by a golden rope connecting both shoulders in the front.
She wore a pure white, featureless mask with the only markings being four dark blue diamonds placed to form a larger one at the far corner of her right eye placed like a single teardrop. Despite not seeing her face, Cinder recognized her white pony tail, even if it was only a fourth of its length from last time she saw it, and the rapier in her hand.
"Well I guess that means I don't have to look for you. When's the last one showing up?"
"Sorry Blake is out of town for the month," Yang called from behind her, "But don't worry we'll make up for her absence." cracking her knuckles in agreement with herself.
"Yang, see to Ruby and Summer, I'll handle Cinder."
"Back off princess, she hurt Ruby so she's mine!"
"Yang I don't have time for you to fool around with her. I have a mission I'm suppose to be leaving for in a few minutes, so let me finish this quickly."
"You can go gaga over my uncle later, for now let's just focus on stopping her."
She didn't respond, deciding to just drop the argument. The two turned their attention to Cinder, who had plenty of time to collect herself. Yang charged in head on as one would expect throwing a heavy blow at Cinder's head. She sidestepped the blow and swiped her leg under the brawler's causing her to stumble and roll forward to stop from face planting into the ground.
"Smooth one, dolt." Weiss commented landing next to her, while the ice pillar behind them melted at a rapid pace.
"Shut it princess." she retorted.
"What are you guys doing here?" Ruby asked finally managing to bring herself to a wobbly standing position.
Weiss flicked her head toward Cinder to let brawler let at her. Yang didn't need more motivation and charged forward like before, but this time more prepared for Cinder's speedy counters.
Weiss walked over to Ruby presenting her with a folded up Crescent Rose. she took it and immediately brought it to bare so she could balance on it.
"Roman called us saying you would need help."
"I told him not to! This is my fight!"
"No we started this together, and as your friend, it's my job to look out what's best for you. Whether you like it or not."
She growled at the use of that line, but couldn't argue.
"Fine. If you want to help then go get Jaune and Summer, make sure they're safe."
"Ren is already inside taking care of them."
"Then why did you want Yang to go in and get them?"
"I wanted her out of the way so I could take care of Cinder quickly, but she's just as stubborn and thick head as always."
Ruby took a breath to calm her nerves. After a breath, she nodded to Weiss letting her know she was ok. Weiss returned to the fight and readied her rapier when Ruby suddenly shouted out "Ice flower!" She was caught off guard by the sudden outburst but seeing Ruby perform the memorized actions before the tip came down into the pavement. She winced from putting her weight on her knee, but was able to focus enough to take aim. Weiss's glyphs formed up along the path of the projectile. She fired the round with a brilliant light show of white around it as it traveled.
Cinder had two glass blades in her hands as she battled with the aggressive brawler. She had already gone through several blades as they shattered when Yang blocked them with a counter blow. Cinder was trying to figure out how to beat the brawler as she was able to break both blades with a single headbutt.
Her full face motorcycle helmet could take quite a blow and her shoulder, elbow, and knee pads were just as hard. The metal horns and blades mounted to the steel plates on the toes of her boots greatly supplemented her kicking prowess and covered the weakness enough so Cinder couldn't abuse it.
Finally she managed to weave through the brawler's attacks and brought her blade up to pierce her exposed midriff. Her attack was thrown off course as a white light collided with her hand. Seeing her opening, Yang side stepped away to get a better blow in as she brought her right fist up into a powerful uppercut. The blow carried Cinder overhead before her body finally outpaced the fist and she went flying through the air away from the three girls.
Yang jumped back after seeing Cinder crash into the wall of a different factory. She slid the last few meters on her heels till she came to a stop between her teammates.
"You ok Rubes?"
"I'm fine thanks to you." Only receiving a smile from her sister in response
"Both of you go help Ren take care of Jaune and Summer. I'll handle it from here."
"You think you can take her?" Weiss asked her more concerned than outraged.
"I know I can, just stay out of my way." Her voice firm with authority.
She took a few steps forward taking a deep breath as she reached as far into her aura reserve as she could. Weiss and Yang both looked around feeling the air pressure change, like it was about to rain, yet the grey clouds in the sky didn't look like they would rain for another hour or so.
Wind started to pick up, flowing around them. Yang and Weiss nodded to each other and ran for the open window Ruby and Cinder had made their exit from minutes before. The raven haired women herself was examining her hand. It was encased in a shard of ice, and was burning her skin, but through the clear surface she could see a huge hole in her palm. Her fingers looked like they were being held on by a thin stretch of flesh and her thumb didn't look like it was connected at all.
The wind developed from a strong breeze to a violent torrent. The windows of the old buildings rattled, and the air moaned as it passed through the small spaces. the clouds directly overhead started to twist into a spinning motion.
Ruby was concentrating on pulling everything out for one attack. For what Ozpin called; a Primal. She had never met anyone other than her old instructor able to perform it, and the one time she did see him use it he spent a week in the hospital. Finally she was ready and she opened her eyes to release her concentration.
Instantly the heavy winds, turned lethal. Windows exploded as they were ripped from their frames, splintering into tiny shards. Cinder looked up to see the deadly display flying toward her. Ruby stood in the middle of it, petals leaping off her body and joining the deadly shards. Her body was glowing red with aura. The sheer amount of power in the air caused Cinder's mind to pause. She wasn't sure how she should be acting how she should defend. All she saw was the girl in red before her suddenly explode into a cloud of petals, red like roses.
The cyclone of red slammed into her, pressing her up on the wall as the glass sliced into her aura. Or was it just the glass? The consistent barrage made Cinder think that the petals were just as deadly as the clear debris within the typhoon of death. The direction of the attack shifted and she was pushed down the hard brick wall onto the ground, crushed beneath all the force. Her aura started to waver and she founder herself being pushed along the ground, the hard cement doing a number on her before she found herself thrown into the air.
She didn't fall like she would have hoped. The deadly hurricane kept her suspended, surrounding her and attacking from every direction. Finally the first cut broke through, it was small, no larger than a paper cut on the tip of her nose, but that wasn't the worst of it. The first cut almost instantly turned into two, then ten, then thirty. Within only a second almost all of Cinder's body had been ravaged by the endless assault. more cuts went deeper, slicing into her muscles. Skin was violently ripped from her skin. She tried to screamed in pain as a glass shard went into her eye, but only choked on blood when a different piece went into her mouth piercing the back of her throat.
Her mind was consumed with agony as the infinite barrage ripped her form apart. Her eye lid for her remaining good eye was sliced away giving her sight of her fate. So much red everywhere. For a moment her mind contemplated how to ask for mercy, but she never managed to, for one brief moment she thought she saw someone take from among the rose petals. Red flashes rolled up the cyclone, and passed through her, then it all went black as one passed through her neck.
The cloud of petals and shrapnel paused, floating in the air, before exploding in every direction. Ruby fell straight down from the cloud, landing perfectly on her good foot. There was a wet thud behind her, followed by many more as the different parts fell to the ground independently of the rest. Her breathing was short and hard, as she stood. A moment later glass and petals rained from the sky, but Ruby's aura was still just strong enough to protect her. The clear surface littered the ground while the red rose petals disintegrated upon touching the ground. But even after they vanished red was left behind coating everything around her in blood.
"HOLY GRIMMBANE!" Yang shouted from the window, both her and Weiss having seen the bloody display.
Ruby didn't acknowledge her sister, instead making for the sidewalk still clear of her rampage. She fell on her butt on the edge and took a moment to collect herself. She reached into her pouch and produced a carton of her "stress relief." She snagged one of it's contents between her teeth before producing a zippo to light it.
She filled her lungs with a single drag and held it for a second before letting the smoke flow out. The concentrated painkiller drug immediately got to work, just as quickly as the medical injector did, but had a much stronger effect.
"Well I think we can agree my 'criminal sense' was right in thinking I would have just gotten in the way if I joined in." Roman taking a seat next to her.
"You don't rat me out, I don't rat you out." She commented before taking another puff of the illegal concentration of her painkiller.
"I think I can do that." He said, taking what was left of her fag and flicking it out of his fingers into a nearby drainage hole in the street.
Ruby stared at her hand, slowly flexing her fingers before curling them up into a fist.
"Why Jaune. You didn't tell my you dyed your hair orange." Her rough voice clearly not amused by the stunt he just pulled.
"Jaune does the exact same thing, so I don't know why you're angry at me for doing it for him." Inching away from her slightly.
"Because. Unlike you, he can make up for it in the bedroom." she growled, annoyed.
She stopped herself from strangling him, when her vision suddenly went blurry.
"Can you call an ambulance for two?"
"Two?" Ruby nodded her body started to wave back and forth slightly.
"Summer's eye got hurt and I want someone to look at it. Plus once my leftover aura wears off I'm going to start throwing up blood."
"Uh, sure?" Not really a response toward her as he pulled his scroll and dialed the hospital's emergency number.
"Hey sis! That was so cool, you got to tell me where to learned that!" Yang shouted. The metal soles of her boots crunching the glass underfoot as she ran up to Ruby.
"N-not this second Yang I-I'm a-"
"Of course not right now. You should rest." She started slamming her hand into Ruby's back in a sign of pride in her sister. The force though caused Ruby to fall forward onto her hands. The sudden movement upset her stomach and Ruby emptied it's contents onto the pavement; with more than just a couple red spots in it. She wretched again this time with it being almost completely red.
"Bloody titans! RUBY!" Yang yelled, as she watched Ruby puke up more blood for a third time before falling face first into her mess.
"RUBY!" she shouted, but her sister was already out cold. Roman waved his scroll to catch Yang's eye before explaining the ambulance is already on it's way. It didn't reduce her panic as she performed basic field medicine on her to try and keep her well. She cursed herself for not paying attention more in class, but did what she could remember.
The ambulance arrived and gave a quick examination of her condition. blood was leaking out of her body through her stomach and nose. They quickly applied a temporary fix of green dust to stop it's flow while they loaded her up alongside Yang, Weiss, Jaune, Summer, and Ren.
:::::
Ruby took a sharp breath, it felt like the first one she had taken in hours. Her lungs felt great as the sudden rush of oxygen entered them. She opened her eyes to see Jaune and Summer looking down at her.
"Mommy! Mommy! You're awake!" Summer cheered, bouncing up and down in her spot.
"Summer." She she muttered in reply reaching out for her daughter. The girl jumped onto the bed and crawled up next to her mother. Jaune's face descended toward her and she reached up to meet her lips with his. The door to her hospital room was kicked open off its hinges as Yang ran in with arm fulls of soda in each.
"Out of the way Vomit Boy!" She yelled running over to place the cans on the closest table surface before leaping over the table at the end of Ruby's bed as she dived into the bed on the opposite side of Summer.
Ruby gasped under the crushing pressure of Summer and Yang squeezing her.
"Yang! You're going to kill her, let go!" Weiss shouted as she entered the room. Following behind was Blake both still in her combat gear, then Ren, and Pyrrha and everyone else; even SSSN.
"What was that Rubes! Where did you learn that? Can you show me! That was so cool!" she exclaimed, getting comfortable in Ruby's bed at her side while Summer nuzzled closer to her.
"You'll have to ask Ozpin. That was the first time I actually used it."
Everyone started to bombard her with question from, "What happened?" to "How's life been treating you?" Ruby ignored them all though, she was looking at Summer. She had a bandanna like cloth around her left eye. An absent minded hand reached up and stroked where her eye would be.
"Isn't it cool?" Summer exclaimed seeing Ruby's interest, "I had this dumb looking white patch at first, but Mr. Conch gave me these. He said his grandfather had them during the war almost a hundred years ago."
"Doctor Conch, Summer." Jaune interjected.
Ruby didn't hear any of it. She just felt tears building in her eyes. The cloth being a reminder of her inability to protect her daughter.
"Why are you crying?" Her daughter asked in her innocent naivety.
"I was just so scared," Pulling her daughter into a hug, that matched the one Yang just inflicted on her, "Scared I would lose you, or worst."
"What do you mean?"
"I promised I would never leave you." Tears now falling freely from from her eyes.
Summer just returned the hug, followed by Yang soon after.
"Get in here Vomit Boy, your doll needs you." she stated pulling Jaune in as well. Soon everyone in the room was in what could only be call a dogpile rather than a group hug, but all the same it brought peace to Ruby's worried mind. Or maybe it was the lack of oxygen from all the people crushing her chest; she passed out before she could figure it out.
It's finally done! Well, almost I'm planning to do a short epilogue; but for the most part you can consider the storyline done! A very SPECIAL thank you to everyone who fav'ed, followed, and reviewed. It's always nice to see that people consider this dribble I write as worthy of their time.
A special thanks also to /u/Spartacus400 for editing and helping me put this out sooner. Thanks a ton bud.
Now as I said last time some details about the next upcoming story for the "Last Spark AU." It's still in plot skeleton form and I can't tell you when the first chapter is coming out, but I can tell you this: It'll be called "The Low Road" and will be centered around Ruby just after her leg was crippled 17 years before this story's start.
In the mean time though, I'm going to be starting a poll for another one-shot in the AU like "The Heart of a Huntress is What's Inside Me." So stop by my profile page and vote for who you want it to be centered around.
Fav+Review, and make sure you Follow me for more to come; till next time, CHEERS!
