Ruby walked into the town, unseeing and unfeeling. She didn't know where to go, she didn't know what to do.
Her hood shadowed her face as she shuffled around, passing people and shops and nightclubs.
How did Max and Lily ask her to contact them again? A tablet? An address?
Ruby sure they were living their lives happily now, maybe as Hunters, or maybe just having a normal life, settling down in a city and adopting children and taking normal jobs.
They didn't need the chaos she brought with her, they didn't need her emotions. They didn't need her urge to kill every single person she passed by on the street.
She walked into an alley and sat down, setting her bag down next to her. She needed to think.
She vaguely remembered someone trying to mug her, but now he was lying on the ground next to her, bubbling sounds coming out of his torn throat as his entrails steamed in the night air. She ripped out his liver.
The man stopped breathing.
Ruby stood up a while later, the moon high in the sky. She would take up Everest's offer. She had nothing else, after all.
Eating the last scrap of liver, she wiped her hands on the towel she took from her bag and stood up. Stripping off her sweatpants, she swapped on a pair of jeans. She ripped off a strip of her ruined sweatpants, tying the fabric around her face, then pushed her hair back into her hood, covering her head.
She first stopped at a shop where tablets were on display. Looking around and making sure that the store's employees weren't paying attention, she plugged the plastic strip into a tablet, opening up the single file that was on it. A digital map opened up, displaying a large region of Vytal. A dot was over a continent, so she tapped on it, a bubble popping up and coordinates displaying. The location of the dot indicated that the outpost was in the Dragon Wings. Ruby realized that this was the place they had been planning to send her after her stay at Rogue camp was over. Then they had rescinded that decision.
Well, too bad, she thought, I'm going to go anyways. She unplugged the strip of plastic, putting it back into her pocket, then selected a GPS-enabled, solar-powered tablet and brought it to the checkout. The bored teenager at the register didn't even glance at her as he swiped her lien and gave it back to her, placed the tablet in a white shopping bag, then went back to staring at his own tablet.
She left the shop and walked back to the general store she passed earlier, intent on picking up some supplies. She pushed open the door, the bells jingling, and entered the shop. The cashier stared at her, and Ruby realized that her mask probably looked a little suspicious, especially at this hour. She tried to give him a smile, her lips moving underneath the cloth and her face crinkling upwards, and the cashier relaxed a bit, still keeping an eye on her.
Ruby placed the straps of her bag around her shoulder and walked down the aisles, spending an hour looking for traveling supplies, thinking back on her camping trips with Yang. She grabbed a few rolls of steelsilk, a firestarting kit, extra fabric, vitamin supplements, which she doubted she would need but just in case, a sewing kit, a sleeping bag, canteens, extra dust for her tablet in case there wasn't any sunlight, and a physical map of the region with a compass as backup. Her arms overburdened, things dropping every other step, she also picked up a large backpack and stuffed everything inside.
The cashier raised an eyebrow as Ruby placed her things on the counter, the large backpack nearly obscuring her view of the register. Ruby took out her lien, handing it to him. The steelsilk was a little expensive but Ruby had inheritance money to burn, and she didn't really need to buy anything else anyways. The cashier frowned a little at the odd list of things she was buying, but since Ruby wasn't purchasing alcohol or weapons, he just shrugged and swiped her card.
Ruby mumbled a thank you and walked outside, taking a few minutes to organize her things and wear her backpack and travel bag comfortably. Pulling out her tablet, she slid the plastic strip back in and checked the map. She was on the edge of the Residential District, still close to Beacon, and also pretty close to the docks. Zooming in as much as possible, she got a general sense of her location and began walking towards the docks, hoping to make it there before the early-morning ships left.
Streetlamps lit the sidewalk as Ruby walked, the traffic on the roads nearly non-existent at this time of the night. Thoughts of Alys and Beacon and family came to her head, unbidden, but Ruby shoved them down and walled them up, slowly beginning to seal away her emotions of pain and bloodlust. Walking mindlessly, too numb to be exhausted, Ruby moved forward, silently, a large burden upon her back.
The sky had just started to fade to a light shade of blue as Ruby arrived. The docks were huge, hundreds of boats of all shapes and sizes and colors along the piers. Some of the boats were transport ships, going to and from other continents. Others were tourist ships, docked early in the morning and waiting for the passengers. Ruby walked down the docks, glancing at each signpost on the piers that stated where and when the ship was going. After an hour of trudging up and down the docks, the only ship she could find was a transport ship going to the tip of the lowest peninsula of the Dragon Wing.
Ruby pulled out her tablet and looked at her map again. The outpost was also located along the shore, but was further down the continent. The tip was an active tourist spot, but the cruise trips were slow and Ruby didn't have the patience to wait for one of them to come back from a trip. The cruise ships might also ask her for an ID, which Ruby couldn't give due to her fugitive status. She hoped that the transport ship wouldn't have heard any news about her yet.
The docks were still mostly deserted as she walked down the pier, the only people active being the sailors as they moored or undocked the ships. She hesitated upon reaching the docking platform, unsure whether to board or to wait at the pier and hope that someone came. The ship was a huge cargo ship, piled high with large shipping containers. The ship itself was close to the water and had a black and red hull.
The decision was made for her when a young man appeared at the side of the freighter, his soft black ringlets of hair framing his lightly freckled and tanned skin.
"Hey," he said, "What're you standing around here for?"
"I was wondering if I could get a ride," Ruby said slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I'm not really comfortable around people on tourist boats, so I was wondering if I could get a ride on your ship," she said half-truthfully. "I have money, so I can probably pay your asking price."
The young man stood there, the appearance of the mysterious girl with gray eyes intriguing him. She had a hood on her head, half her face obscured with a piece of fabric. Her small frame was dwarfed back the backpack on her bag, the weak morning light making her seem frail and in need. His heart stirred.
"It's not actually my ship," he said, "but I can bring you on board to talk with my father. Would that be alright?"
Ruby nodded, not looking directly at him.
"Come on up," he said. "Do you need any help?"
Ruby shook her head and began walking up the boarding platform, following him as he walked alongside her.
"My name's Derek," he said. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
He paused for a bit, his feet still walking but unsure of what to say next. He didn't want to pry too much, but this girl wasn't really talkative.
"So..." he began, searching for words, "I'm here with my dad, to get experience. He owns this ship and a shipping company."
Ruby finally spoke up. "How long have you been out at sea?"
A bit surprised, Derek answered. "It's been nearly two years; we've been traveling around the continents and we just stopped at Vale to drop off some cargo. After we go to the dragon wings, we'll go to..."
Ruby tuned out the rest of his words as he continued to talk, feeling a bit hopeful that they hadn't heard about her yet.
The ship's interior was decently large, Ruby passing through hallways that led to the library, reading rooms, dining halls, crew cabins, and the gym. The ship was modern, with white lights lighting up the interior and metal surfaces gleaming.
Turning down one last hallway, they arrived a metal door that simply said "Captain". Derek knocked twice and opened the door.
The office was big, a large wooden desk set in the middle of the room, bookshelves surrounding it on three sides. A weathered man set at the desk, his salt-and-pepper hair and beard showing his age. He looked up, glancing at his son and then staring at Ruby.
"Hello there, young lady," he said, standing up. "What do you need?"
"I brought her here because she said she wanted a ride," Derek said. "She said she could pay for it." He glanced at his father, pleading with his eyes.
The captain looked at Ruby, her face mask, hood, and backpack making an odd appearance.
"Do you mind taking off your hood?" he asked. "I can't tell what you look like."
Ruby took a breath, realizing that this would make or break the success of this idea. She slowly pulled down her hood, her black and red hair slipping out, cursing herself for not dying her hair. She slipped her face mask off too, to avoid them getting suspicious.
Derek's eyes were glued to her face as he realized that her hood and mask weren't hiding any physical abnormalities.
The captain nodded, seeing Ruby as just another girl to his eyes. "Well, I see no problem with accepting another passenger, as long as you can pay for the trip. A lot of people travel by freight, and we've got two other passengers on board, so you'll have some company."
Ruby smiled, relieved, and Derek's heart thumped a little harder.
"Do you have a name?" he asked. "I'll need to write you down in the register."
"Red," Ruby said without hesitation. "Red... Scarlett."
The captain chuckled. "What a name you have there, Red." He nodded to his son. "I'll have Derek here get you settled in your room. You can get food at the dining hall in the morning, at lunch, and at dinner. We leave the port in two days. See you around, Red."
Derek left the room and Ruby followed, shutting the door behind them. He led her down another hallway and into the guest suite section, a hallway with twelve doors, two of them having "occupied" signs on them. Derek stopped at the third one down the hallway and fished out a key ring, selecting the right one and opening the door.
The room was the size of a hotel room, with a bathroom section and a general section that included two beds, a cabinet between them and a set of curtains above them. Derek opened up the curtains, tying them to the sides and letting the morning light in.
"Here's your room," he said. "If you need anything, you can just walk around and find someone to ask."
"Thanks," Ruby said. "Do you know where I can wash my clothes?"
"We have laundry days, once every week. If you need to wash your clothes immediately, just walk around a bit, the laundry room should be pretty easy to find. The hallways on this ship are circular, so if you keep walking you'll eventually get somewhere."
"Alright," Ruby said.
She slid open the closet, taking off her backpack and stuffing it inside. Opening up her travel bag, she began taking out her clothes and stacking them on the shelves. Derek was still in the room, waiting for something.
"So, are you going to do anything today?" he asked. "We only dock once in awhile, so I usually take this time to go into town and have some fun. You wanna come?
Ruby declined, knowing that she would surely be recognized if she went out into the residential district of Vale. Derek looked a little disappointed, but nodded and left, shutting the door. She finished placing her clothes into the closet, leaving her weapon in the backpack.
Ruby sighed a bit, already bored, as she sat on the bed and flopped down, staring at the ceiling. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the tablet and began playing with it.
After wasting an hour reading the news and fiddling around on some games, she got up, trying to find something productive to do. Opening the door and walking down the hallway, she knocked on the first occupied door she saw, wondering if anyone was inside.
A few seconds later, a girl with glasses and a ponytail opened the door. Taller than her and well-proportioned, she had dark brown hair and nearly black eyes, a bored expression on her face as she continued speaking into the tablet.
"Yes, yes, alright mom. Yes, I'm keeping up with my studies. No, I'm not wasting time. Yes, I'm video conferencing my tutor every day."
She motioned for Ruby to sit onto the bed as she argued with her mother. "Yes, taking a freighter was a good decision, it's so much less crowded than an airship and it's a lot cheaper. We'll arrive in another few weeks. Alright, alright, yes, okay, okay, uh huh, alright bye." She flicked her fingers across the tablet, silencing the other end.
"Hey," she said, addressing Ruby. "Do you need help with something?"
Ruby looked around the room, the walls bare and nondescript, the only sign of residence being a pile of textbooks and sheets of paper stacked neatly on the desk, a lamp next to them.
"Sorry, I got a little bored," Ruby admitted. "I'm just walking around and talking to the other passengers."
"Yeah, I'm bored too," she said, setting her tablet down on the table and closing her textbooks. "Let's go grab some breakfast, it's almost eight."
They set out down the hallway, chatting as they circled the ship. Ruby learned that her name was Jessica, and that she was traveling abroad to study. She hated air traveling, having moved around way too much, so she managed to save up enough money to travel on a freighter. The dining hall was already filled with a few crew members when they arrived, the food being served buffet-style.
The two got plates and took a few pancakes, Ruby drizzling hers with syrup and canned strawberries. She grabbed a cup of milk, with Jessica getting coffee, and sat down at an empty table.
"So, enough about me. What do you do?" Jessica asked, spearing a pancake.
Ruby froze, her milk halfway to her mouth.
Jessica looked at her and shook her head. "That's fine, you don't need to say anything. I just like to talk a lot, that's all."
Ruby still felt a little bad, so she ventured a scrap of information. "Well, I used to go to Beacon," she said. "I'm taking an indefinite leave right now."
"Woah," Jessica said, eyes suddenly gleaming. "So you can fight and stuff?" She made hacking motions with her arms. "Beating back Grimm and saving humanity and all?"
Ruby smiled, Jessica's enthusiasm a little contagious. "I guess so," Ruby said, "But I'm nowhere near being a Hunter yet. I still have a lot of years of schooling left, and I don't have that much battle experience."
Jessica was unfazed. "But you can still fight, right? Do you think you could teach me something? I find Hunters so cool," she said, drawing out the last word.
"Why don't you just go train to become a Hunter?" Ruby asked. "You never know what might happen; maybe you'd be great at it."
Jessica frowned a bit. "My family focuses a lot of academics," she explained. "They want me to get a good education and become something respectable, like a doctor or a lawyer. And besides, I'm a little too old now."
They continued eating, Jessica explaining what she was learning as they finished their pancakes off. Mid-way through, the other passenger joined them.
"Hey," Jessica said. "Just woke up?"
The new arrival ran a hand through his tawny-gold hair, yawning. He opened his emerald-green eyes, blinking sleepily. Trying to speak, he caught another yawn, his hand coming up and trying to stifle it.
"That's Mark," Jessica laughed. "He's a sleepyhead."
"Woah," Mark protested. "I'm just not a morning person, don't discriminate. I don't understand how you're not even tired."
Jessica took a sip of her coffee as an answer. "This is Red," Jessica said, introducing her. "She just got on."
"Hi, Mark," Ruby said. "What do you do around here?"
"I just sit in the library all day," Mark answered. "It gets pretty boring sometimes, glad to have you around."
Jessica slapped his shoulder. "Mark, stop being so humble." Turning to Ruby, she explained. "He actually spends all of his day drawing in the library. You should see some of his drawings, they're incredible. He keeps saying that he isn't an artist, but I completely disagree."
Mark looked a little abashed, grinning a bit. "I can draw you, if you'd like."
"That would be cool," Ruby said. "I'd love to watch you draw."
Mark nodded and yawned again. "I think I'm going to go take a nap," he said, getting up. "I might be in the library during the afternoon. See you later, Red, Jessica." Turning around, he stumbled off towards the exit, nearly colliding with one of the crew members.
"And I thought he was getting up early for once," Jessica muttered. She held her wrist up, glancing at the watch. "Dang, time passes fast. I have to go start my lessons now. Sorry, Red, we can totally meet up for lunch. How does twelve sound?"
"Sounds good to me," Ruby responded, picking up her empty plate. "See you then."
Jessica smiled and also picked up her plate, setting it down on the counter and striding quickly back towards her room. Ruby left her plate at the designated area and began walking around the hallways, searching for something to do.
Note:
EDIT: PSA: Jessica calls Ruby as "Ruby" twice, this is an ERROR because I am a moron. Same deal with Mark. Please ignore that, it will be fixed shortly. Ruby wouldn't reveal her real name when she hid it from the captain
And that was this chapter. Yay, I can show more characters!
Sorry if this was a little dry, but Ruby is finally getting around and meeting new people! She's totally becoming a social butterfly, she's just a late bloomer, right? Haha.
Anyways, if you guys google for "vale rwby wiki", you'll be brought to a wiki page that shows a map of Vale. You could also search for a map of Vytal, the world of RWBY, and see the location of the Dragon wings I'm talking about. On the upper left area of the map, there is a pretty obvious dragon, with horns and wings. So, Ruby is heading towards the winged area, the lowest tip :)
Man, I'm so glad that the RWBY episode came out before this chapter. I mean, streetlamps were already confirmed in the trailers and in the concept art, but now they're actually in the show, along with docks and a boat. The episode also showed buildings, a police force, glass, and more dust shops, which is GREAT for the world-building. Wohoo! Can't wait for this Thursday's episode.
Response to guest saying that Ruby wins too easily, and thus the battles she wins isn't very satisfying:
Once again, thanks for your review.
I still feel that a large part of the problem is that Ruby has never yet met anyone who has more "natural" talent than her. She has the huge amount of power, and she doesn't know how to control, so all she can do is use the strength portion and just brute-force people down. She doesn't have anything against glyphs, Yang realizes she can just stun Ruby by punching her in the head, regardless of her strength, Ruby does get pushed of an Abyss after all and spends hours and hours recovering, Ruby wasn't even able to kill the nevermore she rode, and so forth.
The "random" people killings are the killings of murderers, threats against her lives, or people who stood in the way of her goals. When she encountered her former friends, she did indeed feel remorse for them due to their past friendships, and you can see after she spills her heart out to Lily and Max she truly does regret doing what she did. However, she did also entertain the idea of killing Jaune and his team members briefly due to the fact that she still isn't really right in the head, and this attitude is seen in her throughout the chapters.
You are right, she hasn't had a hard battle yet, not really, most of them have been one-sided. But Ruby hasn't experienced the world yet, and I have other things planned for her, so I hope the next part will correct some of those errors. In addition, a large theme of this story is that a lot of problems can't be solved through purely strength, that Ruby is going to have to learn some tact and skill.
Also, I'd like to say that I'm heavily influenced by the idea of an uber-strong, confident main lead, who solves problems with his/her powers while increasing his/her powers to ridiculous levels. I've seen this mostly in man-hwa(korean manga) along with superhero comic books(sort of?). I haven't overpowered Ruby to those levels, but I've definitely been influenced by them so I guess I don't really like giving Ruby that much trouble.
Of course you can change what I do with it. By giving me your comments, you can tell me where I've made errors and then I can correct them :)
Once again, thanks for your review, and I'll definitely be working to fix those points.