They left with little to no interference. The general had to deal with some business and was unable to see them set off. The walk to the bullhead was slightly uncomfortable with Ruby now with them. She wasn't speaking like she used to and kept more to herself with every answer being straight to the point and cryptic as hell. She always answered everything vaguely and rarely gave detail into her answers preferring to ignore any questions or keep to herself. They were all in a Bullhead waiting to take off, Ruby sat in the far left corner with the wood furnished rifle strapped to her back and the "New" Crescent Rose Leaning against her knee and shoulder. Yang unsurprisingly was sitting next to her, with Blake across from her and Weiss in the bottom right corner of the Bullhead.
Weiss and Blake were quietly chatting and Yang starred with concern at Ruby and she stared blankly out of the window. The silence was interrupted by Yang
"What are you doing?!" she cried. Weiss and Blake looked over to see Yang yanking the cigarettes out of Ruby's mouth and hand, with the latter frozen in the position of lighting a cigarette. "Since when did you smoke?" She said terrified at the habit her sister had developed.
Ruby sat there for a moment thinking of the words to say. "Nasty...nasty habit I picked up." She said solemnly while looking down avoiding eye contact. "That stuff will kill you, you know, especially with your damaged body" Weiss said being critical of Ruby. "I Doubt it'll kill me first" She said cryptically staring out the window.
"Ruby, why won't you talk to us? You've been gone for six months and you won't even tell us where you've been, do you not trust your team or your own sister" Yang pleaded. Ruby took a deep breath, turned her head towards yang and simply said "I don't like repeating myself" before turning her head back to looking outside. They stayed like that for the rest of the flight back. It wasn't long but it was uncomfortable, she just sat there blankly staring out the window not moving. It was a godsend for them to finally arrive back at the beacon. It was getting late, the sun beginning to set behind the castle-esk school. Ruby now began to show actual subtle emotion. The look of nostalgia and relief could be seen in her eyes as they began to water slightly. She could see students walking to dinner, the dorms, and the classroom.
"veshchi ne izmenilis'"(Things haven't changed) she muttered under her breath while staring out the window. "What was that" Weiss asked looking towards her. "I said things haven't changed...even after 2 ½ years it still looks gorgeous" She said. Her comment caused all her friends to look at her quizzically
"Ruby, you've been gone for only 6 months," Yang said. "Where are you getting 21/2 years from" Blake asked. Ruby stopped for a second before turning herald slightly to look at Blake from the corner of her eye "Net, ne bespokoysya ob etom"(Nah, don't worry about it). The look sent chills through Blakes spine. It was a look she had seen before, it was the look of a killer and a survivor. Before she could push more, Ruby opened the bull head door and jumped out before the engines even shut off.
Ruby gained a lot of looks from the passing students, and to be fair, she did look like a winter bum with rifles stuck to her back. She stood there for a few seconds scanning the crowd with practiced ease. Her team joined her, Blake being the ever so observant one could see Ruby's hand hovering to the side of the revolver. Again before she could ask more questions Ruby was walking to the approaching headmaster and deputy headmistress.
"Ms. Rose, it's good to see you back in one piece." Ozpin said " I assume you are starving but I have a few questions for you. Come walk with use" They began to walk Ruby still scanning her surroundings. "First and foremost, where have you been all this time?"
" Moskva, Rossiya...or what's left of it" Ruby said, not looking at the headmaster " What do you mean by what's left of it?" Miss Goodwitch asked looking skeptically "They destroyed themselves, over simple hatred," Ruby said stopping for a sec staring out into nothing "forcing each other to live underground, eating mutated rats and pigs, still fighting each other over hatred" She looked up to meet Ozpin's gaze staring coldly "I lived there for 2 ½ years, and have many memories I'd prefer to forget so pozhaluysta, don't make me remember"
Ozpin stared back, seeing a gaze he had seen one to many times. It's a gaze that only those who have seen the worst of humanity have, a look that a young 15 year old girl should not have, though he wanted to let her be there was one question that still lingering.
"Understandable Ms. Rose I just have one more question, how long were you gone from your perspective?" Ozpin asked inquisitively
"By my last count 2 ½ years" Ruby responded slightly annoyed
"That shouldn't be possible you were gone for only 6 months" Ozpin said prying
"I don't know what to tell you thats how long I've been gone" she said clearly done with the conversation, and still oblivious to her team's confusion
"Then I guess we'll have to ask professor Peach to run some tests tomorrow, go enjoy your dinner, and professor Goodwitch have a conversation about your missing work."
"Spasibo starshiy master" (Thank you headmaster)Ruby said clearly down trodden by the reference to homework. She said her goodbyes to the headmaster before walking to the cafeteria. Yang stopped right in front of Ruby with her angry mother face on.
"Ruby, Explain now" She said, staring her down. Ruby looked unaffected "I'll explain over a meal" she said before stepping her sister.
"Something ain't right" Yang said"
"What gave it away, her clothing, accent, or her complete change in personality?" Weiss said sarcastically.
"We'll find out more when we eat" Blake said beginning to chase after Ruby,
Ruby had made a substantial distance between her and her team, made easier by the parting of the student body for the weird "new" student. They managed to catch up right as she got to the cafeteria door. She pushed open the door and b-liend to the food line. Many eyes were placed on as she made her way to get to food, She could hear them murmuring and asking "Who is that" or something along those lines.
"You going to talk now?" yang asked
"I just got my food, be patient, moya dorogaya sestra(dear sister)" Ruby said semi jokingly. She reached the end of line with a large amount of food to meet the lunch lady who was unfazed by the amount of food she had."2257 lien please" the lady said, Ruby begin to shuffle through a pouch oddly pulling out shiny brass cartridges
"I got it Rubes don't worry" she said handing the currency to the lady.
"Spasibo Yang, here payment" Ruby said handing her a few shiny bullets
"No Ruby you can keep the ammo" Yang said clearly showing no interest in the ammo causing Ruby to stop for a second before returning the ammo to its pouch.
They began to walk a familiar path, one she could probably do in her sleep, to their old table. JNPR were oblivious to them chatting away, some more expressive than others. Ahem...ahem Nora. A smile crept upon Ruby's scared face, still happy to see that her friends were fine and happy. She decided to pull a little joke, one that Duke would be proud of.
Pulling her hood so it covered a majority of her face. "Do you mind if I sit here?" she asks emphasizing her Russian accent
"Uhhh...sure, go ahead" Jaune said gesturing to the seat. As Ruby sat a little more of her face was shown causing Jauen to sit there a second to think "Do I know you"
"Daaw Vomit Boy I'm disappointed you don't remember me" she said with her emphasized accent
"OH come one it hasn't spre…." Before he finished Ruby lifted her hood causing Jaune to stop mid sentence. I took him a little while to process it all, she swore she could hear the dialup sound going through his head. "Holly… Ruby" he said before bringing her into a hug while the rest of JNPR remained speechless. "I'm back lohki (fuckers), did you miss me?"
"You kidding me!" Nora yelled out before she charged at Ruby for a hug "Of course we did"
"OOh, I forgot you hug people with the strength of a medveditsa, mind giving me some air, pozhaluysta?" Ruby said slowly going blue in the face from Nora's hug "Sorry I'm just super excited to see you again" Nora responded
"What is a medveditsa?" Ren inquired
"A giant mutant bear that would put the fear of the gods into any ursa, I explain latter we have food right now"
Meanwhile In Ozpin's Office
"Do you actually believe her" Goodwitch asked while they entered his office
"You heard her accent, it is not one I have ever heard, and you know" Ozpin said casually
"You're too trusting, you know that" Goodwitch said.
"I'm just more lenient towards absurd stories" Ozpin replies while he sipped his mug "Though everything will be confirmed tomorrow. Would you be a dear and set up an appointment for ?"
"Alright, but what should we do about her radiation sickness, her condition will worsen." Glynda asked before calling professor Peach
"Let Peach handle her treatment, though keep an eye on her if you would. She has clearly seen combat and has been affected by it, please make sure she doesn't do anything irrational"
"Ill do my…" she was cut off by her scroll ringing. "Hello" she said in an icy tone "Ah Ms. Goodwitch, I hope you don't mind me skipping the formalities though there's a current situation in the cafeteria that could use your specialties" Glynda looked at Ozpin with the 'are you kidding me' look only to receive a lift of Ozpin's mug and a slight smirk
5 minutes ago in the cafeteria
"Could you eat more like a slob?!" Weiss said in slight anger at Ruby's eating habits. Ruby was currently shovelling food in her mouth like there's no tomorrow. All types of food were currently making their way from her plate to her mouth.
"Izvinite Weiss, I haven't had food like this in ages" Ruby said with her mouth full of food "Chew with your mouth closed" Weiss reprimanded.
"What did you eat rats and anything you could get your hands on" Nora said nonchalantly while eating a comically large chicken leg.
"Essentially, anything you find in the Metro, as long as it's not making you're Geiger Counter go ape shit" Ruby said without a blink of an eye and oblivious to her friend's shock. Only brought back by Ren saying "Language". Ruby looked up from her meal and scoffed a bit and said "You know you're the first person to say that to me beyond Katya" before returning to her meal
"Whos Katya, the nurse mentioned you called her Katya?" Yang asked, desperately trying to connect to her. This question caused Ruby to stop eating and drop her food on her plate. She reached into one of her plate carriers and pulled out her journal. She opened it to a page full of photos. She was too quick for them to see all the photos but they did catch a glimpse of some mutated beasts before putting a picture on the table. It was the same photo of the train and people from when she got her gear back in Atlas.
Placing down the photo she pointed to a fair skinned woman wearing a long sleeve white dress with neatly pulled back brown hair. There was a little girl standing infront of her with similarly fair skin, and a long sleeve shirt with a jean dress. "This is Katya and her milyy(darling) Nastya. She was the nurse who Nursed Anna when she got sick" She smiled slightly while pointing to her before going to a slight frown front he mentioned of Anna. "that's her husband Stephan they were married on the train" she said pointing to a slightly more rotund man in military combat gear "Those two are Duke and Idiot, da that's the name her prefers to go by" She said pointing at twp young men in combat gear with short brown hair and Duke had a beard "These two are Are Krest and Tokarev, we almost singed our eyebrows off when trying to make a railgun" She said pointing to an old man and a bald man in a tank top,"Those three are Alyosh, he fell in love with a tribal girl in the mountains in Kazakhstan, Sam, who is also a foreigner, and Damir, he stayed back by the Kaspiyskoye More(Caspian Sea) to free his people"She said pointing to first a bald man, a dark brown bearded man, and a heavy set man all in combat gear. "Yermak was the engineer of the Aurora and Colonel Miller was the captain, he was essentially the mentor to everyone" She said pointing toward two old men, one weaning winter clothes, and another wearing a military uniform with scrap metal legs. "Finally we have Artyom and Anna, they were like a brother and sister to me. She reminded me a bit of you Yang '' She said while pointing toward a brown haired and bearded man as well as a short brown haired girl.
The comment caught her off guard but before she could Blake jumped in asking "You said Damir was freeing his people, what did you mean by that?" She asked clearly, seeing he looks a bit different to the others.
But as if on cue "OW,Stop it" Velvet yelled as Cardin pulled on her ears across the dining hall. Before anyone could say anything about the atrocious display, Ruby was already waking up with one of the dining room knives in hand.
She wasn't as good with knives as Artyom but she was decent. Throwing the knife she just missed Cardin's face causing him to release Velvet in reflex. By the time he saw her, Ruby's fist collided with his nose before her foot collided with his shin. Forced to his knees, Cardin looked up just in time to see Ruby's hand grab his head and slam it on the bench. Russel ran up behind her and got a punch in on her side but was on the ground in extreme in a short amount of time as Ruby had elbowed him in the crotch. Seeing their two teammates incapacitated relatively easily, Ruby looked at them with murder in the eyes. They were saved by the devil herself Professor Goodwitch.
"Ruby Rose reports to Ozpin's office immediately, Dove and Sky take your partners to the nurse then report to my office. Both of your behaviors are not accepted in beacon academy.
"Question may I bring my teams" Ruby said nonchalantly
"Spasibo, come we have a meeting to attend" With that she left to Ozpin's office ready for a whole bunch of questions.
Privet Yall, Hope you enjoyed this. Some fun facts: the part where the lunch lady asks Ruby for 2257 lien is about 30 dollars in Russian Rubles. Also "medveditsa" translated means she-bear which according to the Metro Wiki is the name of the mutant bear. Thanks for the support and constructive criticisms on the first chapter, I've done my best to translate the Russian and to make my pacing less spastic. But nevertheless I hope you enjoy this as a long one to write and can't wait to continue this story. Till next time.