Chapter 17: Well,... That's unfortunate.
It had been almost 10 years since Ruby last saw her birth father. She was currently a fifteen years old huntress in training. Taiyang and Yang, despite not being related to her by blood, were her family. Oh, and her uncle Qrow too. She may be closest to her uncle, for he always told them the stories of his adventures and huntsmen.
The little Rose always dreamed of becoming a huntress like her mother and uncle. And luckily, her dad (Taiyang) was a teacher at Signal so she went there to learn how to become one. Ruby knew that with her training and skills, she will soon. Just need to study for six more years and she would become one.
If it had not been for what she pulled up that night, she would. During summer break, Ruby stopped a dust robbery and impressed Ozpin - the headmaster of Beacon - so she was allowed to attend 2 years early. That's why Ruby was going to make use of the rest of her summer vacation.
The little red riding reaper was going around town to pick up some parts to enhance her scythe when she noticed that she was being followed by several people. The little Rose decided to walk faster to see if the people are actually following her or if she was being paranoid. They all began walking faster.
Her hunch was correct, she was being followed. After the robbery, Ruby figured that it would be for the best if she confronted the stalkers somewhere with less people around in case a small fight broke out. So, the little red riding hood went to the closest park.
When the little girl was crossing the street, a minivan came at her like a crazy runaway vehicle. Instinctively, Ruby turned into a flurry of rose petals and dodged to the left and flew into the park.
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After a good minute of running, Ruby stopped in her track and pulled out her giant scythe - Crescent Rose and stood her ground and waited for the attackers to come. In the dark, walked out a yellow Black Dragons cyborg who seemed to be without any weapons. But, looks can be deceiving. They might have hidden weapons.
The little red reaper knew about the Black Dragons as almost everyone talked about them and their Aura piercing ability. When they had to fight, she didn't want to receive the end of it.
"Why are you following me!?" The red Rose yelled.
"The Black Dragons demand your presence. I am Cyrax, and I have come to pick you up." The yellow cyborg said in it's mechanical tone.
"Why? What do you want from me?" Ruby asked.
"Classified. You either come in peace or violent means shall be executed." Cyrax told her.
The little red riding hood looked at them thoughtfully before giving them a childish answer.
"Nope!"
Ruby pointed Crescent Rose behind her and shot it to push herself forward, throwing herself at her enemy. Ruby spun clockwise to hit the cyborg in the torso. He ducked underneath the slash. The red reaper flew over him with her momentum and used her scythe to trip the cyborg on it's left leg.
Cyrax jumped over the scythe and spun clockwise to deliver a spinning air kick at Ruby's face. The red reaper burst into a flurry of rose petals and flew backward to avoid the kick. The little rose transformed Crescent Rose back to it's rifle form and pointed it at her enemy and shot three bullets at him.
The cybernetic assassin ducked and ran to the right to avoid the bullets. Ruby pointed her scythe behind her and shot it to push herself forward and swiped left. Cyrax ducked underneath the blade and gave her a right knee to the stomach.
The red reaper was pushed a few steps back. That really hurts.
'By the brothers! That hurts! That took like,... A chunk of my Aura. And he didn't even use a weapon!' Ruby thought.
The yellow cyborg continued his assault by giving her a right jab in the face and another in the stomach that sent the little Rose flying backward.
Ruby pointed the head of Crescent Rose behind her and shot it to use the momentum to deliver an upward slash, only for him to dodge to her left and used his left leg to deliver leg sweep to the little Rose's legs, causing her to fall forward. Now, the little red riding reaper's scythe was out of her hands. It lay a few meters in front of her.
Ruby stood up to make a run for it, but she was caught in a green net that wrapped itself around her. She turned around and saw the cyborg standing right in front of her.
The cyborg then sent a right kick and a left kick at her side before using his right leg to kick her in the chin and brought the same leg upon her, causing Ruby to flip forward and hit her back on the ground, creating a crater. The reaper was knocked out cold.
Cyrax then walked towards her to pick her up when a *click*was heard before a loud *Bang*. The yellow cyborgs right shoulder jerked forward as he felt wind dust shells hit him. Dust rounds do not have any tip so basically, Cyrax was hit by wind. It didn't do much, if not any damage to him.The cyber assassin quickly turned around as another blast of flame came at him. He moved his head to the right to dodge the blast of wind and took a good look at the attacker.
The man had black hair and red eyes and some facial hair sticking out of his face. He wore a red shirt and a white jacket along with black pants and a pair of brown boots.
"Get. Away. From. Her." The man growled.
"Qrow Branwen." The cyborg identified.
Cyrax was about to engage in battle but he was stopped by a certain scorpion faunus. Tyrian looked at the cyber assassin and told him.
"Don't take all the fun to yourself. This one is mine."
"I do not take orders from you." The cyborg stated.
"Well, one of us has to bring her back!" The scorpion told him.
After he said that, another bullet flew at them. Instinctively, Cyrax's wrist-mounted blade came out of the back of his right wrist as he blocked the compressed air.
"You ain't taking 'er anywhere." Qrow said as he ran towards the two.
The scorpion faunus shot his wrist guns at the huntsman, only for him to transform into a crow and dodge the bullets and turn back into a human and launched himself at the cyborg. Qrow swung his sword down diagonally from his left, but the cyber assassin was able to use his left wrist blades to push it to his right and used the same arm to elbow the huntsman in the nose.
The crow was staggered and took a few steps back before turning around and ducking under a left hook from the scorpion. Tyrian then used his stinger to stab Qrow, but he swiped right with his sword to deflect the tail. After that, the huntsman put his blade sideways to block the faunus's right jab.
Cyrax ran at them and delivered a jump push kick at the crow huntsman sword, it chipped the blade. Qrow was thrown back a few meters and slid for a few seconds but he could still stand his ground and transformed his sword into it's scythe form. The huntsman's sword (Harbinger) bent it's blade forward and extended the handle and turned into a scythe.
Tyrian ran straight at him but Cyrax was nowhere to be seen. The crow huntsman swiped right at his enemy, but the scorpion ducked underneath the swing and closed in the distance. Qrow was faster than him, so he jumped over the faunus's stinger and swung Harbinger upwards, bringing Tyrian up in the air before flicking his scythe and knocking the scorpion back to the ground.
Two large shurikens suddenly flew at the huntsman from behind. The crow huntsman was able to turn around opposite clockwise and swiped left to deflect the shurikens. Suddenly, the scythe was caught in a net. The net was, surprisingly, heavy. It held Harbinger dead on the ground. Cyrax was about to attack Qrow, but a sniper round hit the cyborg in the head. The cyborg leaned to his left and right before spinning around clockwise to face the little Rose.
'He didn't even flinch!' Ruby thought frantically.
"RUBY! STAY BACK!" The huntsman ordered.
"NO! This is my fight too!" The red reaper yelled back.
Almost as if it was on cue, the faunus lunged at the crow huntsman from behind before throwing a left hook at him followed by a stinger stab. Qrow ducked underneath the wrist blade and caught Tyrian's tail before spinning clockwise two times and hit the faunus's face into a nearby fence. The scorpion Aura was shattered.
The huntsman then threw the scorpion over his shoulder at a nearby boulder, creating a spider web crater on the boulder. After that, the crow huntsman ran there and started punching the hell out of the faunus.
The fight between Cyrax and Ruby was a one sided battle. Despite not using his full power, the cyber assassin was actually beating her up. In fact, he was doing his best to hold himself back from killing the girl.
Ruby swiped right with her scythe, only for the cyborg to side-flipped over it and kicked her in the cheek with the back of his right leg. The red reaper turned her scythe blade to the left and shot it in an attempt to cleave Cyrax in half. The cyborg back-flipped over the blade again and grabbed Crescent Rose's shaft with both of his hands.
Cyrax then pulled the scythe to his right with the red rose closer to him. The cyber assassin took advantage of Ruby's low close combat skills to deliver her a right knee to the stomach followed by a right jab to the jaw and left push kick at her right knee.
"ARGHHHHH!" The little red riding reaper let out a cry of pain as she dropped her weapon and fell to the ground and hugged her knee.
The little Rose was pretty sure that the bone in her knee was broken. She was crawling on her belly with her left arm as her right arm was holding onto the right knee. Ruby looked at the cyborg as he slowly approached her. She wanted to use her Semblance to get herself away from him but her Aura was a few hits ago broken. Meaning, no Semblance.
Ruby looked at Cyrax as fear flooded her mind. This is where she would die, due to her stupid overconfidence. That was the day the little reaper learned the harsh reality of huntsman. While they fight the evil that lurks the lands, they also run the risk of getting themselves in the worst situation, such as attracting attention from the most dangerous criminals.
Maybe, she should've asked for help in the first place... No. If she had gone into one of the houses, she would've put the people there in danger. As grim as the situation is, the little Rose would accept whatever comes to her head on. Even if it means her death.
There lay Ruby Rose, a huntress in training was about to meet her doom as the cyborg approached her.
'Yep, this is the day that I die- Wait a minute,... Why didn't he just use his weapon to kill me? Not like he wanted to,...' A thought crossed her mind.
'So, he couldn't kill me even if he wanted to. He had orders. No, this is even worse. I don't know what they want!' Ruby thought.
After a moment of intense staring, the cyborg just took out some sort of sprayer from his chest and kneeled on his left knee. He was about to do something when footsteps were heard behind him. Cyrax stood up and put the sprayer back into his chest.
"RUBY!" Qrow shouted while coming at the cyber assassin with his scythe.
The huntsman did an overhead swing to his left, only for the cyborg to raise his left arm to block the hit. The crow huntsman then hit Cyrax in the face with Harbinger's shaft and spun clockwise to deliver a right roundhouse to the cyborg.
Cyrax tanked the hit and before Qrow could swipe right with his scythe, the cyber assassin's right saw buzzed as he chopped the crow huntsman's right arm off from the elbow down.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHH!" Qrow let out a blood curdling scream as he dropped to his knees.
"Uncle Qrow,... NOOOO! RUN! THEY JUST WANT TO TAKE ME ALIVE! I'LL BE FINE!" Ruby yelled at her uncle, hoping that he'd listen.
"And let them take you, kid? Hell no." The huntsman breathed heavily.
"Uncle Qrow,... *sob* Please,... I don't wanna lose you…" The little rose said as tears streamed out of her eyes.
The crow huntsman just raised his right arm up to scruffle Ruby's hair and said.
"Love ya too, kid. *Huff* I don't wanna *Huff* lose you too-"
Qrow was cut off by a stinger sticking into his back. He looked down at his niece and told her.
"Well,... That's unfortunate." The huntsman collapsed onto the ground right after he said that.
"NOOOOOO!" The red reaper screamed as everything was engulfed in a white light.
The light from her eyes were so bright that it made a flash bang look like a kid's toy. However, it couldn't really harm anyone or blinded a cyborg. Cyrax casually walked toward Ruby and sprayed sleeping gas at her face. The little Rose was knocked out by the gas and was picked up onto the cyber assassin's shoulder.
"Son of a bitch! That's bright!" Tyrian cursed.
"We are leaving." The cyborg announced.
They both went to the minivan and the two jumped onto the back before the driver drove away.
5 minutes ago
After seeing what Yang did in Junior's club, Raven was relieved to know that her daughter was strong enough to handle herself if she ever got into trouble. With that in mind, Raven in her raven form started taking off. She flew for a while before hearing the sound of gunfire in the distance and decided to check it out.
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Raven finally flew to the source of the sound and saw two people leaving with one on their back. She decided to take a closer look after they left. The raven huntress saw, to her horror, her brother's body lying on the ground with blood all over him. The huntress quickly ran to his side and lifted his head up before gently shaking him.
"Qrow, Qrow! No,no,no,... Stay with me."
Qrow lifted his head up tiredly as life was being drained away from him. He tried his best to keep himself conscious.
"Hrrrrk,... They,... Had Ruby."
Raven's eyes widened at that statement. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"QROW! What do you mean they had Ruby!?" Raven almost yelled at him.
It was too late. Qrow had lost too much blood. Her brother's body went limped in her arms.
"Qrow? Nonononono,... QROW! Get up!" The huntress yelled at her brother as tears fell out of her eyes.
At this point, the huntsman was beyond saving. Even with her powers, the raven haired woman was still helpless with what's in front of her. So, she hugged him closely as she hummed a tone to help put her brother to rest peacufully. It was the same ton e that she used to hum to Yang to make her go to sleep.
The only thing she received was silence. He was gone. Raven continued to hug her brother's lifeless corpse as she cried. They might not have been close, but he is damn well her family.
In the distance, headmaster Ozpin were in the police car along with reinforcements. He had received Qrow's distress signal and decided to come to an aid. The moment Ozpin arrived at the scene, he saw what both shocked and surprised him. There lay his huntsman, dead in the arms of Raven - A rouge huntress.
Sorry if this is a late chapter. Also, this is an AU where Raven held no grudge against anyone, for Sumner didn't married Raven's husband Taiyang like in the original universe. So, it would be true if Raven stayed neutral with most things. Also, thanks to anyone who has been following me from the beginning. You're all awsome.