Yang watched Qrow and Tai walk down the hall, Ruby hanging from their father's back as they went towards the kitchen. Before she could follow, Blake's hand latched onto her bicep, stopping her, "What?"
"Ruby's back," Blake said, "What happened to it?"
"Something's wrong with Ruby's back?" Pyrrha asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
"She's got scars on her back," Blake said, "It looked like-"
"Someone slashed the shit outta it?" Yang said, a forced grin on her face, "Yeah, Xehanort or one of his cronies."
"They fought?" Blake asked.
"She did say Xehanort threw Ven off a cliff," Pyrrha said.
Yang's eyes flashed red as she growled, low and guttural. She hadn't really put together the pieces before now.
"So whoever this guy is," Blake said, voice low, "He certainly as hell doesn't care about hurting kids…"
"Yeah," Yang said, "I dunno much about it, but the scars are probably the thing Ruby cares about the least."
"How?" Blake snapped, head jerking towards Yang, "it's-"
"Dunno," Yang shrugged, "Really don't. She might not realize how bad it is, I had to go through her bags before we came to Beacon and swap out anything that woulda shown it off."
"But-" Pyrrha started
"Maybe she's more focused on what he did to the others," Yang continued, gathering steam, "Maybe she's just really good at hiding it and I'm falling for it. The point is, Pyr, I don't friggin' know what's going through Ruby's head, and it's pissing me right the hell off!"
Yang finished the rant, panting slightly, eyes wide. Where the hell had that come from? Was that… true?
Searching her heart for a moment, Yang nodded to herself. Yeah, it was really, really irritating that Ruby seemed to be taking the injuries she had taken calmly. She didn't know what to do, how to keep Ruby safe.
What if Xehanort or Braig showed up at Beacon? What of Ruby went after them again? Yang wouldn't be able to… to…
Yang blinked as she felt Pyrrha wrap an arm around her, realizing she had sunk to her bed, staring through a haze. Yang stared down at the floor, voice choked.
"I don't know what I can do," Yang said.
"We'll help," Blake said, "We weren't lying when we said that."
"Thanks," Yang said, feeling hollow.
"Yang!" Yang jerked her head up as Ruby poked her head into the room, blissfully unaware of how out of sorts her big sister was, "Dad wants to know if ya want those macawhatever nuts in some of the cookies?"
"Sure," Yang said, smiling at Ruby as she quickly rubbed the tears out of her eyes
"Cool!" Ruby said, "Pyrrha? Blake? Ya want some?"
"Sure," Pyrrha said with a small smile.
"No thanks," Blake said, nose wrinkling, "I don't like cookies all that- what?"
Ruby's mouth had dropped open, leaving her gaping at Blake, "Don't like… cookies…?"
"Yeah," Blake shrugged, "except the ones my mom ma-"
"Why?" Ruby asked, sounding slightly heartbroken, "Even Terra likes cookies, and he doesn't like sweet stuff! I know, we'll make a batch you'll like, you'll see!"
"I-" before Blake could finish, Ruby rushed from the room, "-don't like…"
"I don't think Ruby can understand those words together," Yang said, laughing slightly.
"But it's the truth," Blake said, whining slightly.
"It was the truth for Terra too," Yang said, "she eventually found a recipe he liked."
-X Ruby X-
"Dad! Daaaaaad!" Ruby thundered down the hall, before crashing into someone, sending them both tipping over. Ruby landed hard, rolling so she could scramble up onto her feet.
Thank the Light that she didn't have Crescent Rose on her, because there was no way the Master would let her live down not paying attention enough to crash into someone. Because he'd never do that.
Yeah, well, she didn't get to see the future, did she? It wasn't fair when he could just dodge stuff.
"Watch where you're going!" the other student, uh… Wish? Whits? No, no, Weiss! snapped, shaking her head.
"Sorry," Ruby squeaked, offering her hand to Weiss, hoisting her up, "Sorry! I wasn't paying attention and- sorry!"
"Thanks," Weiss said, patting her skirt to get the dust off it, before she frowned at Ruby, "Why are you running down the halls?"
"I was heading towards the kitchen," Ruby said.
"You were yelling about… your father?" Weiss asked.
"Uh, yeah… they called him after… you know, me interrupting your match…" Ruby trailed off, looking down and blushing, "Sorry?"
"And he came?" Weiss said, sounding confused and… a bit sad?
"Yeah…" Ruby said, head still bowed. Was she gonna be made fun of for this? The girl who had her dad come the first day?
That's what would've happened before she moved to the Land of Departure.
"That's… interesting," Weiss said, "Why's he in the kitchen?"
"He's making cookies," Ruby said, before perking up. She knew how she could make breaking that spar up to Weiss! "C'mon!"
"Wha-?" Before Weiss could finish, Ruby grabbed her arm, dragging her along, "Woah! Where are you taking me, you- you-"
"To the kitchen!" Ruby said, smiling triumphantly, "Dad'll make you cookies too!"
"I don't-" Weiss started, before cutting herself off, "...Thank you. I've been having a rather rough day."
"Same," Ruby said with a small, sad smile.
"I could tell," Weiss said.
-X Luxu X-
Luxu stepped out of the portal onto the waterfront, scratching at the relatively fresh scars. Walking forward, Luxu watched the other man toss a stone across the water, letting it skip before it impacted something just below the surface.
"Holy hell," the hooded man said, not making any sign he had so much as looked at Luxu, "He really did a number on you, eh, Luxu?"
"He's just lucky I didn't have Gazing Eye," Luxu said, reaching down to grab a stone of his own and joining his mentor in skipping the rock along the water, "I would've trashed the brat."
"It's not called that," the Master singsonged.
"I'm not calling it No Name, dammit!" Luxu barked with a laugh.
"In that stage again, Luxu?" the Master asked.
"It's friggin' contradictory," Luxu said, "'What's your weapon's name?' No Name."
"It was never a problem with me," the Master said, laughing.
"You didn't talk to people who would complain about it," Luxu said, "Well, Aced would."
"And he did," the Master said, tossing another rock, "Now, ask the damn question, already."
"So, who's the new girl?" Luxu said, "Ruby?"
"She's like you."
"I could tell that," Luxu said, "She's carting around Gazing Eye Two, with twice the overcompensation!"
"She's a girl," the Master laughed.
"So, what's her title? And does she have a guild?"
"Luxu. And I was thinking of calling it Scorpiones, since you never got around to having one named after the little bugs."
"As if," Luxu scoffed.
"I'm not joking. Seemed fitting, to name you both after the same sin, when you're both my eyes."
"Never got why you named us that way," Luxu said, "How was Aced not Ira and… ok, so the others kinda met the names at least halfway."
"It makes sense to me," the Master said, "and that's all that matters, at the end of the day."
Luxu snorted, "You know, there's a story I came across that this reminds me of."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah. It was the story of a one eyed god call the Hooded One, he had a pair of ravens that flew around the world and told him things. That was a long time ago, though."
"You're treating Time the wrong way, Luxu," the Master said, "it isn't a line. Let's assume a shaman got a glance into the future, and based the myth around what he saw there."
"So when are you turning us into rav-"
"He was probably higher than a kite," the Master waved his hand, "that gets the imagination going and trust me, imagination can mold things heavily. In one London, you take the second star to the right and go straight on 'til morning, no matter if that's five minutes or five hours, and you wind up in a place where pirates fight little boys who never grow up, in another, if things are bad enough, a flying nanny will come down from the sky to help you! Neither of those existed in the original one, but kids that survived the War held those stories in their Heart, so when they formed their worlds, they became part of the 'em."
The Master cut himself off, laughing maniacally.
"What?" Luxu asked.
"Luxu II's uncle keeps trying to touch her Keyblade. I'm keeping it from happening so he doesn't inherit it."
"That's not how Keyblade Inheritance works."
"Luxu," the Master chuckled, "I'm the guy who knows the most about Keyblades. I know that, it just doesn't stop it from being funny!"
Luxu rolled his eye at his Master falling back onto a bench, laughing maniacally. The Master's sense of humor was often funny only to him.
Made Luxu almost feel sorry for the new girl.
-X Weiss X-
Weiss followed Ruby towards the kitchen, glad to find something to distract her from the looming dread of dealing with Jaune. But, on some level, she couldn't help marvel at the idea of a parent rushing to Beacon to see their daughter. Even if she had gone to Atlas, her parents wouldn't have done that. They would have, at best, sent Klein.
At the same time, Weiss felt her eyes drift to other girl in a fit of paranoia. What if she was only being this nice to Weiss because she was the daughter and heiress of the richest family on Remnant? Weiss's freehand clenched tight…
Until a startled curse came from the kitchen, and Ruby let go of her hand to rush forward, "Uncle Qrow? What's wrong?"
"Your damn sword keeps shocking me!" 'Qrow' snapped.
"Uh, what?"
"Come see!" Qrow said.
Weiss stepped into the room as Ruby grabbed the massive sword from the table without it doing anything. The minute she handed it the the black haired man and let go, however, Qrow lept back with a yelp, dropping the keyblade onto the table and shaking his hand to disperse the black lightning that was dancing around it.
"What the heck?" Ruby said, catching the sword and looking down at it with a scrunched up brow. Weiss felt her hair stand on end as the blue eye embedded in the guard seemed to stared at her, slowly letting her hand drift towards Myrtenaster.
"You get used to it," the blond man standing in front of the counter said, before looking back, "Did Yang want me to make some macadamia cookies?"
"Yeah!" Ruby called, flicking the eye, "What's… did anyone else try holding it?"
"No," the man said.
"Get used to it?" Weiss asked.
"The eye creeps you out, right?" the man said, "it creeps everyone other than Ruby out. I'm her father, by the way, Tai."
Weiss glanced between the two, looking for similarities between the two, and finding a distinct lack of obvious ones, "I'm Weiss Schnee."
"I could tell," Tai said.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"White hair," Tai pointed a wooden spoon at her, "blue eyes, Dust heavy weap-"
"Shit, is that Ice Queen's sister?" Qrow asked, hand brushing Ruby's sword as she put it on the the table, and sending him tipping back with a yelp as it shocked him again, "Son of a-!"
"I don't know why it's doing that!" Ruby insisted, before the sword exploded into fire on the table, vanishing completely as the flames faded, "I'm just gonna put it away, maybe it will be better tomorrow!"
What the heck. How had she just summoned fire? Weiss didn't see any Dust...
"Ice Queen?" Weiss asked.
"Winter Schnee?" Qrow said, clamoring to his feet, "About this tall, one of Jimmy's girls?"
"You know my sister?" Weiss asked. Jimmy?
"Why'd you bring her here?" Qrow asked Ruby.
"Hey!" Weiss snapped.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby asked, "She looked sad, so I brought her to get cookies!"
"Uh…" Weiss blinked, "Thanks?"
"But-" Qrow started, only to cut himself off with a sigh, throwing his hands up, "Fine. Whatever. She's here now, I guess. Can I see Crescent Rose again?"
"Why?" Ruby asked.
"I want to see if the electricity is gone."
"Are you… sure?"
"Yeah," Qrow sighed.
"Ok…" Ruby's hand exploded into fire and smoke that vanished in short order, as she held out the sword to Qrow, who took it gingerly, only to grin as nothing happened.
"There we-" Qrow dropped it with a yelp of pain, punting the sword across the room, where it crashed into the wall next to Weiss, "Son of a bitch!"
Weiss stepped away from the sword, watching it paranoidly as Ruby rushed over to it with tears in her eyes.
-X Glynda X-
Glynda stepped into the kitchen, watching Ruby talk to Miss Schnee in an animated flurry of movement, apparently not noticing the look of uncomfortable bewilderment on Miss Schnee's face. Glynda couldn't help but bite the inside of her cheek.
Ruby Rose had magic.
Ruby Rose had magic. Who was irresponsible enough to give someone so… childish magic? How long had Ruby even had that Keyblade, if it was the source of her magic?
Had Eraqus given it to her, therefore dragging Ruby into whatever conflict had got him killed? Would this Xehanort arrive at Beacon looking for her, endangering the students, or was it a rivalry between Eraqus and Xehanort alone, where he only fought Eraqus's apprentices because they came after him?
Glynda hated this. She hated knowing that she didn't know what was going on. Somehow, a fifteen year old had just sent everything flipping on its head. They now had questions they had never needed to ask!
Before, Magic was purely the domain of the Maidens. But what happened if someone stole Ruby's Keyblades? Would the new owner suddenly gain the ability to use magic? Would they be able to access the relics?
If so, Qrow had been beyond negligent in not informing them, because they needed to hide the Keyblades as fast and as well as possible. They were too dangerous to be in anyone's hands, let alone Ruby's.
If each of Eraqus's apprentices had a Keyblade, alongside him and Xehanort, that meant there were… at least six of them floating around. Potentially more.
What the hell were they supposed to do about that? Ozpin seemed content to let Ruby keep the weapon for now, but what about the others? Ven was comatose, wasn't he?
Glynda wanted to scream and claw at her hair. This entire thing opened too many cans of worms!
"You alright, Gly?" Glynda snapped to attention at Qrow's rasp, realizing that everyone was staring at her, "You've just been standing there for a few minutes…"
"Fine," Glynda said,"Just thinking. Miss Schnee, I didn't expect to see you here, I would have thought you would be with your team…"
"I was… planning to come looking for you," Miss Schnee said, voice carefully level, "but Ruby bumped into me and brought me along."
"We're baking cookies!" Ruby said, apparently unaware of the stress she was causing Glynda.
"Alright then," Glynda muttered to herself, "I came to give Qrow and Tai a key to one of the spare rooms. It's getting rather late, so I doubt you two are heading back to Patch."
"Probably not," Tai agreed, taking the card from her and slotting it into the bottom of his Scroll, transferring the data over before he handed it to Qrow.
"And Oz is fine with me staying?" Qrow asked, the true form of the question remaining unspoken.
"Yes," Glynda said, "Miss Schnee. Why don't we step out of the room for a few so you could tell me whatever it is, then come back for some of Tai's cookies? They are to die for."
-X Weiss X-
Weiss stepped into the empty room with Professor Goodwitch, biting her lip and wringing her hands. This was for the best, really. If Jaune didn't have his Aura unlocked, if he had gotten into this school through illegal means, he needed to be removed. It wasn't safe for anyone!
If it was like Atlas, people died at Beacon, occasionally, and there were inquiries when it happened. If they discovered that Jaune wasn't supposed to be here at all, the Professors could be put under review for it. Jaune's family could sue for his death!
"What is it you wanted to discuss?" Professor Goodwitch asked.
Weiss sucked in a breath of air, closing her eyes. She could do this, she had to do this, "I don't think Jaune should be at Beacon, Ma'am."
"And why is that?"
"He doesn't have his Aura unlocked," Weiss started, "He didn't fight at all during initiation, and even when we met up, he had been pinned to a tree by Pyrrha. If she hadn't done that, Jaune would likely be a pile of gore! I'm not even sure how he got into Beacon without an unlocked Aura, Professor."
"I see…" Professor Goodwitch said, voice carefully measured, "are you sure you aren't just seeing things, because he isn't the partner you wante-"
Weiss pulled out her Scroll, pulling up the app that showed Team WRNJ's Auras, checking to make sure that, yes, Jaune's Aura was still stubbornly missing, before she showed it to the Professor, "He doesn't have his Aura unlocked. Please, Professor, this isn't safe. I shouldn't have to be accounting for the safety of my partner during fights."
"As a Huntress, it is you're duty to account for the safety of civilians-"
"But there's a difference between keeping a civilian safe and keeping my partner safe!" Weiss insisted, "As a Huntress, it is my responsibility to defend and evacuate a civilian. If Jaune is willing to risk his safety to sneak into a school, he won't just allow himself to be extracted because he will not view himself as a civilian. This means I will need to defend him in spite of the fact that I should be able to trust him to take care of himself."
"There may well be times you can't extract civilians-"
"-but that's different from going into a dangerous location with someone without training!" Weiss snapped, sitting down on the desk and resisting the urge to pull at her hair in frustration. Why was Goodwitch defending him? "I'm supposed to be able to trust him to defend himself and civilians, not to be an glorified civilian himself! We have the Vytal festival later in the year! How are we supposed to participate if he has no training, or even if we unlocked his Aura! Six months of training isn't as good as what the other students will have, and we have to go up against Team RNBY, who has… has…"
Weiss cut herself off as Goodwitch planted a hand on her shoulder, blinking back tears. What if they weren't allowed to participate in the Vytal Tournament? Or were, but eliminated in the first round because they needed to plan their strategy around protecting Jaune so they didn't lose him and slow get ganged up on. What if they went on a mission, and she forgot to account for him and he died?
Would her father force her to come home? To marry someone and become a trophy wife while she lost any control of the SDC, like her mother?
"We know something is wrong with Mister Arc," Goodwitch said, "but we need to look into it. His transcripts say he went to Umbra, we'll send over a request for them to check for their copy come morning. If the CCT isn't acting up, which it does with unfortunate regularity at Vacuo due to sandstorms, we should have gotten to the bottom of this by the end of the week. If it is acting up, it will be by the end of the month. I'm sorry if you were hoping for something a bit faster, but there's only so much of this we can do. Urge him to tell the truth, Weiss. Make it clear to him that if he had transcripts forged, he has broken the law, and may get off with a lighter punishment if he confesses. And thank you for coming to me about this, it makes it clear that you, at least, know little of what happened."
"Thank you," Weiss said, voice wavering. She believed her, Goodwitch believed her!
Weiss tried to hide the sob that tore its way out of her throat.
-X Ruby X-
OI! Ruby's eyes snapped open, jerking herself up and looking around in bewilderment, before her eyes landed on Crescent Rose hovering over her bed, Destiny Island, now.
"It's," Ruby started, peering at the clock, "Two in the mor-"
Now, Ruby, the Master ordered, a Corridor opening at the foot of her bed.
Ruby rolled out of bed, grabbing her coat and Crescent Rose, not even bothering to zip it up or pull on the hood as she dove into the portal, snapping it shut behind her as she rushed through the Roads Betwixt. Ahead of her, the portal sprang open, casting a strange blue light through the infinite blackness.
What was going on? Had Xehanort shown up, or Braig? Ruby burst out of the portal in a flurry of rose petals…
…and froze slightly as she immediately went plummeting, the Master laughing as she fell towards the water.
That.. that... jerk!
Ruby threw her Keyblade straight down, watching it transform into a ship in a flash and landing on it, throwing herself onto the throne in the center of it and clinging to it as the red and black ship finished its decent with a loud splash, sending water splashing across the surface of the ship. Ruby leaned back on the chair, closing her eyes with a relieved sigh.
"Nice reaction time, Luxu," Ruby snapped her head up as the Master of Masters' voice spoke up, the ship dipping towards the back, "Though I am kinda wondering why you didn't take off. This ship does fly…"
"Shut up," Ruby muttered as the Master walked by her, heading towards the front of the Manta sized ship, "What's going on? Why'd you call me here? It better not be just to test my reactions or… or..."
"Come see, Luxu," the Master said, casually leaning over the side of the ship without any worry about the lack of railing.
Ruby sighed, reaching down to roll up the pants of her pajamas so she could walk across the warm water. Thinking about it, she didn't remember packing this pair… whatever.
Ruby trekked across the ship, standing next to the Master and peering down at a disturbingly familiar sight. A flock of white birds were rising from the depths, vanishing as they hit the surface, "Oh, no…"
"Oh, yes!" the Master said with a laugh, sitting down on the edge of the boat and patting the spot next to him, "Take a load off, guiding him through the Dive is gonna be unpleasant either way."
"He's not actually under there, is he?" Ruby asked, feeling her stomach roll.
"Nah," the Master said, waving his hand, "he's lying in bed, dreaming. We're just out here because it's easiest to reach a dream through water in the world. Technically, we could do the same thing from a bathtub in town, if we were really desperate. But we've got an open sea as far as the eye can see, so no need for that. Now, take a load off, Lux."
Ruby sighed, carefully sitting on the edge of the ship as the last of the birds finally vanished.
She didn't remember that taking so long when she went through her Dive…
"How am I supposed to reach him?" Ruby asked.
"Just speak up," the Master said, "He'll hear ya."
-X AN X-
Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?
