Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. As to future writing... I shoot for once a quarter. Any more than that may be a bit more optimism than I can offer
Disclaimer: In this day and age, as the world burns, I'm here. Don't worry. I don't own RWBY
Yang was going to kill her.
Really, she shouldn't have 'borrowed' Bumblebee, but she needed any connection to her sister she could find. Yang wasn't getting any better. Every attempt she made to talk to her sister inevitably ended with the blonde staring out the window, interest in the conversation lost. Nothing Ruby could say would bring her sister back, and finally, in an act of defiance, Ruby had 'appropriated' Bumblebee from the shed and taken it on a trip to clear her own head.
Everything had been going fine until a particularly large bump in the road. Ruby had nearly been thrown from the seat, and the bike had immediately started to make a terrible grinding noise. Ruby had shut it off immediately, but, judging by the steady drip of...some sort of liquid, she had damaged it. So yes, Yang was going to kill her.
And for some reason, Ruby was okay with that.
At this point anything was better than the strained silence between herself and her sister. Tai was no help, he just insisted they should count their blessings they hadn't been killed at Beacon and call it good. But there was more to it for Ruby. Pyrrha had died for what was right. Had given up everything, even a chance with the boy that she liked, to stop Cinder; and while it was true that Ruby had gotten incredibly lucky (she had no idea how her eyes had done what they did) she wasn't sure she should just give up. Quit. Weiss might have gone home, and Blake might be… wherever Blake was (Ruby wasn't sure) but that didn't mean that she had to stop what she was doing. Stop trying to keep Cinder from doing… whatever it was that she wanted to do, like destroy another city. But she didn't want to do that without Yang's input.
And there was the rub.
Yang wouldn't talk to her; wouldn't even look at her most days. She just stayed in bed, staring out her window and brooding. Qrow had briefly joked about her sister dying her hair black and taking on a new name like 'Mistress Shadowgale" only for Yang to just roll over. No snarky comeback, nothing. And that scared Ruby, because that wasn't Yang. Wasn't the girl who she'd grown up with, fought beside, and looked up to.
The shadow that had taken Yang's place was not her sister.
Now, sitting on the side of the crossroads, staring at a bike she had no hope of fixing, she was desperate to get home, and not just because it was slowly getting dark and the Grimm would start coming out soon. No, she wanted to go home to get something, anything, from her big sis. An angry remark, a disappointed stare-heck, she'd take getting yelled at if it meant that her sister finally let herself feel something other than the same dissociation she always seemed to have instead of her emotions now.
And maybe she had, just a little, connected with her sister when she started riding Bumblebee. Or maybe that was wishful thinking; Ruby wasn't sure.
As she leaned against the tire and debated on whether pushing the bike home would damage it more (as well as how much Tai would freak when she spent the night outside, because she knew she wouldn't be home until tomorrow) the bright lights of a massive cargo truck caught her attention. A moment later the vehicle had pulled up in front of her and stopped, and she saw the window roll down.
"Ya need a ride?" The man's voice was deep but kindly, and Ruby briefly debated telling him no, but a glance into the woods made her rethink.
"I don't really have a place for my bike." She motioned to the yellow vehicle as she scrambled to her feet. "And, um… well, it's not really mine, and I don't want anything to happen to it."
The driver nodded. "I might recommend you push it off a bit, but you can use my scroll to call someone to pick it up, and I imagine they'll be here well before anyone else would be."
Weighing her options, Ruby finally nodded. Tai would probably freak, but to be honest, the dark haired girl didn't feel like fighting an entire forest's worth of Grimm to get home. Besides, she felt confident in her abilities at fighting someone off, and there was always Crescent Rose to consider.
Unwieldy, yes. A half inch of bullet, also yes.
Funny how that could give her a bit of confidence.
Crawling into the cab, she was surprised to see that the man didn't conform to what she had expected. Instead of a middle-aged fifty-something, the man behind the wheel looked considerably younger, though he had the well-worn look of someone who'd seen the world and had the tales to tell about it. Buckling in, she set her weapon on her lap. "So what should I call you?"
Pushing the cab into gear, the man replied in his easygoing way. "Call me Big Joe. This here's my rig Phantom 309." The engine seemed to hum a little louder, and Ruby smiled.
"Why do you call her that?"
"She's the best there is," Joe replied simply. "So tell me. What brought you out so late?"
Ruby wasn't sure why, but Big Joe was easy to talk to. What started with her excuses about stealing her sister's bike soon turned into an explanation about her former teammates, her friends, the losses they'd suffered at Beacon, and her indecision about what to do next. The miles seemed to melt away, and the driver himself just listened, not judging and not interrupting, even to ask a question. As the ride wore on and Ruby talked herself out, soon the only sound was the steady thrumming of the engine and what sounded like a slow drumroll on the top of the cab. Apparently it had started to rain some time during her story.
"I don't know what to do, Joe," she finally finished. "I mean, my dad wants me to stay home, but he's always been about protecting me, but I just- I feel like I need to do something, you know? Like I just lost one of my friends, and I can't just let her sacrifice be in vain."
Joe nodded a bit, before finally replying. "Well, the way I see it, you got two options. One, you can borrow your sister's bike again, once you get it towed back from its current spot an' fixed up, or you can head out on foot. Either way, it needs to be your choice; it's not something you can have someone decide for you."
Ruby sat back and groaned. "I know. But I want her opinion-"
"Seems to me you want her to go with you." Joe gently interrupted. "And that's okay, an' understandable, but from what you've said, she ain't in the headspace for that right now." He slowly pulled to a stop. "I'm afraid this is as far as I can take you, Ruby Rose. I gotta make a turn up the road."
Ruby sighed, glancing out her rain-streaked window before brightening a bit. "That's all right, sir, my house is right there anyway." She pointed to the lights illuminating through the trees.
He smiled. "Well ain't that somethin' else. You take care of yourself, and Ruby?" She glanced at him, already halfway out the door. "Remember, you got more friends than just your sister, right? Maybe your old friend's team will want a shot at helping you." He flipped her a coin and winked. "Just a thought."
Ruby smiled. "Thanks, Joe."
"Don't mention it."
The dark-haired girl climbed down from the cab and watched as it disappeared around the bend. Soon enough the forest was silent again, except for the usual nightly noises and the steady drip of the rain. She hurried home, explained that she'd forgotten her scroll, made a call to the tow truck, and sat through both Tai and Qrow's mothering as they both told her how concerned they were.
Yang was notable by her absence.
It wasn't until she was dressed for bed and tossing her clothes in the hamper that a small clink caught her attention. Checking the pockets, she found the coin Big Joe had given her. It was tiny, probably about a little less than three-quarters of an inch wide. She had no idea who's face adorned it, but she had to admit that the torch and the tree branches on the back made a very ornate image.
She had no idea what the word 'di-may' meant. A lot of the words made little sense, but she set it on her dresser. Maybe someday, when it was all over, she would look more into it.
As she drifted off, another strange thought crossed her mind: when had she told Joe her name?
Sometimes things happen for a reason.
Ruby had had what could only be described as a pretty bad day, all things considered. She had started home early at about six that morning, planning to get to Patch maybe three hours later, and yet here she was, nine at night and racing moonrise.
And it actually wasn't her fault this time!
Her train had been canceled, the bus she had tried to take full. There wasn't a car in the city that wasn't already booked, and even the caravans had already left by the time she started looking for them! Deciding she'd rather walk, she'd started the long journey on foot, helping people as she could and ending up miles from home. As she glanced over, she realized she was at a very familiar crossroads. She was smiling to herself when she saw lights on the road, and a moment later the sound of familiar air brakes assaulted her ears.
"You need a ride, Ruby?"
She smiled. "Always, Joe."
"Hop in."
The huntress did as she was bid, settling herself in the cab she had rode in what seemed like lifetimes ago, and smiled. "I never did figure out where you got that coin, Joe."
The driver laughed as he put Phantom 309 in gear. "It's just what I grew up with. I suppose it didn't mean much to you, but I always try to get the average man a drink, and time was when that was all it took."
"You know, I owe you thanks." Ruby replied. "I always wanted to meet a ghost, and you really helped me out of a tight spot."
"I just gave you a lift. Ain't nothin' special about that."
"It's more than that, though," Ruby explained, and she told him all about what had happened. How she had left, even though it tore her apart to leave Yang in such a state. How she had teamed up with a few of her school friends and walked across two continents."We sure could have used you then," she said with a laugh, one he joined in with, and even the cab seemed to resonate as though it too found the statement funny. She told him about fighting and running and living and dying. She told him of liberation, vindication, and treachery. She told him about loss and setback. And finally she told him about victory, and what the costs had been to all those involved.
"And you told me," she finished quietly, "you told me that it was my choice. You told me that there were people who would help, but that it would be up to me. And you were right."
"Like I said," Joe replied, "I just gave you a lift. Sometimes we can't be afraid to lift others up when they're feelin' down, and sometimes we just gotta listen." He smiled. "I think, Ruby Rose, that this is as far as I can take you. I gotta make a turn just up the road."
Ruby returned the smile. "I suppose you do." She fished out the coin from her bag. "I can't spend this, and I don't want to take your money-"
He waved his hand, laughing. "Keep it. It can be a reminder that anythin' you do is your choice. You can sit by and wait, or you can get up and act."
She nodded, climbing out of the door.
"It's your choice." Joe called through the window, before Phantom 309 shifted into gear and disappeared around the bend. Ruby watched until the lights disappeared, and the forest was back to normal, and then she sighed. Turning around, the huntress was unsurprised she saw the lights of her childhood home filtering through the trees.
"Thanks again, Joe."
Title Credit: Phantom 309
Working Title: PH309
Blame Genkaifan and her piece In For The Long Haul. I may not be able to write half as good as GF and Frau, but be darned if they didn't get my muse high from their piece and had me write this between the hours of ten and twelve at night- even though I had work the next day! My Muse needs to actually show up during working hours, and maybe occasionally work on the rest of the pieces she's given me *sigh.*
Mars went well, until the rocket blew up. Fortunately I was able to find out that my Muse had departed months ago for a little place in Europe. I'll be somewhere between Spain and Russia for the foreseeable future.