So, it's been forever. COVID sucks ass - as do people - and I haven't had the opportunity to write like I had been. Personal shit happened that left me with some problems and a surgery but I'm going to try to continue writing. I love how much support 'RaS' has been getting even without me here over the last two years.
There have been a few questions that I felt should be addressed:
Austrian Dealer - You've made quite a few points that I find strong but require clarification. 1: Yang is not part of the group that left Ruby. She, along with Blake, Jaune, Ren, and Nora, were not part of the Interns that left for the expedition. I also didn't put names to the other Interns besides the first years because the other years didn't matter to the story. Yes, they were older and more experienced but they weren't prepared for the Grimm that were attracted by Ruby's emotions. It's why I described it as an Onslaught - a force so massive that there was no stopping it.
2. You're right. 'Blake is jealous' is extremely vague and for good reason. Blake has her own arc in RaS, one that shows why exactly Blake was off with Ruby. I think we both find it a bit OOC that Blake would be jealous over an internship.
3. I'd answer but [Spoilers].
4. You are right and it is something that Ruby will have to think about.
5. Yes, Ruby and Pyrrha is an odd combination, I agree completely that they wouldn't have much chemistry but keep in mind the time that has passed and the grief and stress that would have come with it. It can change anything.
6. Salem will be part of the Reborn of Grimm series and while she won't be a main fixture in Reap and Sow, she will be an overhanging threat throughout the series. Reap and Sow will mainly focus on the little guys such as the White Fang and Cinder.
7. Roman and Neo is an option I have looked at and one I find myself liking more and more. I have plans for them.
8. I agree that the hood is a major facet of her personality but also keep in mind that she has had her entire world turned upside down. Thank you for the critique and I hope you review again.
Alucard45 - You make wonderful points and I agree completely but nothing is ever as it seems. I have significant plans for team RWBY, both before and after Ruby's supposed death. I hope you keep reading but if you don't then all I can say is thanks for trying and I hope you find better stories.
JacktheSpades - Evil Ruby would be fun to see but a lot of betrayed!ruby stories either have her becoming the best, morally righteous Huntress in Remnant or evil/selfish in her desires to get revenge. I didn't want that. And you are correct that it's unlikely that some woman from a far away village would recognize her despite the media coverage. But you also have to recognize that Beacon was reporting the death of a young Huntress-in-training, on a trip sanctioned by the headmaster and overseen by two huntsmen themselves. Also, Ruby was related to numerous huntsmen, her mother was officially KIA, and her aunt - for lack of a better term - was an infamous bandit leader. Plus there are some other things I have in store that I haven't revealed yet.
RayD2Kill - Thanks for catching that for me.
That's the end of this extremely long A/N and if you read all the way through, then thanks for your time. I hope you like this story and I hope you can hold on for more. Review if you wish and continue on!
Chapter Three -
Sweat dripped down strained muscles as a head of black, red-tipped hair moved up and then down. Silver eyes glared at the floor as she heaved herself up inches from the floor to extend up to be level with the bed next to her. Sweat underneath her palms made the wood panelled floor slick and hard to grip but Ruby simply dug her nails into the floor. Her nails…
You've been declared dead for over a year.
Ruby Rose grit her teeth as her nails gouged small rivets into the floor as her fingers tried to close on their own despite the hardwood floor underneath them. Her muscles tensed as her mind went elsewhere and she lowered herself down to rest a few inches above the floor. She'd always kept her nails short before. It started out as a nervous habit at first but she grew to prefer her nails short as she got older. She didn't care about her nails like some girls, and, eventually, that translated into other things as she grew up.
Ruby had never felt like a 'girly girl' and as a result never really focused on the things the other girls did. She didn't care about boys or makeup or clothes. Her fighting style was modeled after Qrow's and based off of twirls, leaps, and kicks so she kept her hair short and wore a combat skirt. She didn't wear makeup because she never saw the point in it. And boys were just… other people. Even as she grew older and began puberty, things stayed the same for her. Nothing changed besides a growing body and aches that her Aura could handle without much effort on her part. It didn't take her long to realize she was different from Yang, who talked about boys and picked clothes aesthetically pleasing and was overprotective with her hair. Though she hadn't thought much of it at the time, it was just another example of how Ruby was different than everyone else.
Now, instead of just being an unimportant preference, her nails were a reminder of the time she'd lost. Of the jarring changes Ruby was subjected to; not being able to so much as watch as the world turned and turned and turned while she was left to her own devices.
Beacon held out hope for weeks. Sarah had said. But with the evidence around the… battlefield, they closed the investigation after a month and you were declared dead.
Ruby gasped as her arms extended once again to push her away from the floor. She closed her eyes and gave her head a shake, taking a deep breath to try to get away from the thoughts that plagued her. Unfortunately, her longer hair shook free of the hair tie she'd put it in and cascaded down her cheeks to touch the floor. With a near inhuman growl, Ruby pushed on the floor with her arms and dissolved into red and black petals only for the petals to coalesce half a second later mid-step three feet away as she walked towards the window on the far side of her room. Silver glared and harsh breaths erupted as the unaware towns-folk began their day, not really seeing the people of now but rather the time that passed her by.
She'd thought that rigorous exercise would be enough to blank her mind for more than a few minutes. That was just another thing that seemed to have changed during her… What did she call it? Vacation? Absence? Death? Was there really a name for it? Was there really a title for someone who had a year and three months missing? Ruby wasn't sure and she wasn't sure that she wanted to know what it was. So much had changed in, what she perceived to be, such little time. But the world had moved on without her, leaving her nothing but nightmares and scars.
Oum, the scars. They were spread all over her body; vicious white lines and raised skin evidence of a memory Ruby never wanted to visit again. These scars were nothing but reminders of the pain and hurt she had gone through and the questions that plagued her mind day and night. It didn't help that they projected that to everyone who saw them. Even healed, the scars had a harsh look to them that made anyone who saw them give her pitying looks. There weren't many but that was more conducive to the small number of people Ruby had seen since she'd woken rather than the towns people's character.
In the reflection of the window pane, Ruby caught sight of the two scars that adorned her face. One horizontally bisected her left eyebrow and stopped at her temple; the other started in the middle of her cheek, moved towards the corner of her lip, and then jerked downwards over the edge of her chin only to continue on until it met her throat. Ruby wished she could say that the ones people normally saw, the two on her face, were the worst looking but she couldn't sell that lie, even to herself.
No, the award for harshest looking was tied for the two major sets of scars caused by the Onslaught of Grimm. The one on her left shoulder caused by the Nevermore was worse in the cold light of day. It started from the back of her left shoulder and stretched down, moving in between her shoulder blade and spine at an angle only to stop at her tailbone. The other was an ugly set of claw marks that were carved into both of her thighs. While her right thigh held a set of five claw marks that stretched from the outside of her hip to the top of her kneecap; the set on her left thigh only held three claw marks that moved horizontally from the top of her thigh and moved out, almost like a band on the outside of her thigh.
Ruby startled at her left hand's ghosting touch on the lower portion of her left thigh's scar. Looking at the badly woven net of white scars on her left hand, Ruby could only take a deep breath, close her eyes, and pulled her now closed hand to her chest. She'd found herself doing that - tracing her scars without meaning to. A subconscious gesture in response to the most troubling question Ruby had on her mind: How was she alive?
Opening her eyes, she glanced at the mirror on the dresser, silver orbs taking in a critical look at her body which had changed so drastically. Shoulder length black, red tipped hair mangled with sweat met pale skin and hard muscle covered in a borrowed gray sports bra and shorts. Peeks of her major scars could be seen from the edges of her clothing though it left the other, paler scars out in the open, including the major scar that stretched from her wrist to elbow. Taking a step closer, Ruby noticed more differences. Her height was something she almost couldn't get over. Back when she first started Beacon she had barely been five foot two. Now, just about two years from stopping Roman Torchwick, she was five foot eight. Her frame, which had been on the petite side when she was younger, had filled out considerably. This included her musculature which previously matched that of a runner and not the hard core fighter build it was now.
Her eyes were different, too. It wasn't a drastic change; her eyes were still panes of moonlit silver like they had always been. But the silver hadn't been as soft as they had been. It wasn't a physical aspect that made her eyes different but Ruby wasn't sure how to describe it. There was an edge to eyes, a harshness Ruby hadn't remembered having before the Onslaught. Her pupils were slightly -
Ruby's mouth began to water as a breath through her nose told her something delectable was here. The smell was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. It didn't have anything specific to it, not like blood or chocolate chip cookies, but it still caused Ruby's mouth to water and her stomach to growl. The unidentifiable smell was followed by a knock on her door as it opened.
"Ruby?" The door widened as Sarah, hesitant, opened the door wider. Her eyes first went to the bed but began searching the room once it was clear Ruby wasn't inside it. Ruby met Sarah's eyes and couldn't help the shame that filled her at the look the doctor gave her. Though it had been a week since that first night Sarah and Ruby talked, Ruby still felt ashamed whenever the doctor looked at her like that. Like Ruby was still unconscious in her guest bedroom, dying from wounds that turned to scars.
Ruby had cried herself to sleep that night (or early morning) and spent the entire next day alternating between sleeping, crying, and screaming into her pillow. She had felt defeated, raw. It had felt like her very soul had been taken from her body and ripped apart. It felt worse when she realized that her sweetheart, Crescent Rose, was gone. And as for her hood… It was destroyed; the scraps left on her body when she was found were nothing more than a hood and strips of her cape. Her hood was frayed and had several holes in it though it didn't seem to pull itself apart like her cape had done.
"Morning," Sarah offered quietly. Even a week later, Sarah was still quiet around her. As if Ruby would break if the doctor did so much as talk normally. Ruby wanted to lash out; wanted to scream that she wasn't glass. But Sarah had been good to her. The doctor had given her a room, food, had even kept Ruby's return quiet when Ruby had asked. Sarah had gone above and beyond her duty as a doctor. As soon Sarah had realized who Ruby was, she would've been required to contact the Vale authorities, which wouldn't have been any trouble.
Sierra was a small port town a few dozen miles from the Vacuo/Vale border that settled on a peninsula. While the settlement wasn't wealthy by any means, it's closeness to both Vale and the ocean allowed them enough opportunity for export that they had less need than other settlements. Their closeness to the ocean gave them access to fish, salt, and other tradable goods while being the closest settlement to Vale gave them fertilized soil for crops and better trading relations than Vale would have with other kingdoms. Life in Sierra was good, keeping the morale of town high enough to avoid attracting large amounts of Grimm. For the Grimm that were attracted to Sierra, there were never enough of them to give the town-guards trouble. Even the pack of Beowolves that had been around Ruby when she was found weren't too much trouble to get rid of. While the guards weren't Huntsmen, they were given training courses by the Kingdom or put in a request for official Huntsmen to teach them the basics.
Like most of the more advanced settlements with good relations to the larger Kingdoms, Sierra was fitted with a CCT. And though it wasn't as large as the one at Beacon, that was more due to the population of Sierra rather than the lack of technology. Getting in touch with an academy such as Beacon, or even going onto the Huntsmen Request Board (HRB), wouldn't take much more than a five minute walk.
"Good morning," Ruby greeted, just as quietly, turning fully away from the mirror to completely face the woman who'd taken care of her for the last two months. Sarah wore her own pajamas - a pink t-shirt and fluffy blue pants - held a steaming mug in her hand. The doctor faunus gave Ruby a hesitant smile that Ruby felt herself return without thought, prompting the woman to relax.
The cat faunus gestured to Ruby's sweat soaked clothing before asking, "How long have you been up?"
"A couple hours," Ruby replied, glancing away from the amber eyes. Ruby hadn't been sleeping well for the last couple of days, almost as if her body had thought she'd gotten enough sleep over the two months she'd been in Sierra. Staring at the ceiling had gotten old an hour after she'd tried to sleep past three in the morning, so she began doing exercises in the hopes to distract her mind and tire her body out enough to sleep. It hasn't worked so far.
"It's seven," Sarah pointed out. Ruby couldn't help but bite her lip and nod, still not looking at the older woman. Luckily, Sarah didn't say anything about it and continued with, "I've made some breakfast downstairs if you're up to eating."
"Um, yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks." Ruby offered a more genuine smile to Sarah, her stomach making a soft gurgling sound at the prospect of breakfast. Sarah's smile turned more motherly as she looked Ruby up and down.
"Then why don't you get ashower and then come downstairs," Sarah offered, "and we'll get something into that stomach of yours." Ruby nodded and Sarah gave her a last easy smile before closing the door and leaving Ruby alone in the room.
Before long, Ruby felt her muscles relax under the water pressure and her mind calm as the sweat that had mangled her hair washed out. The sound of water hitting the ground of the shower reverberated in her ears, the cool tile pressed against her forehead as she leaned on it let the pounding of her head that often accompanied her many unanswered questions quiet down. It didn't completely silence the thoughts and memories that plagued her but it was almost as if they were rinsed away with the sweat and stress Ruby had built up that morning. A flash of claw, the feeling of blood, the strain of swinging Crescent Rose with a broken arm; the memories never left her head no matter what she did. At least in the waking world, the memories weren't as vivid as they were when she was dreaming.
While the past seemed to stay where it should be, the future was just as haunting. Pouring some strawberry conditioner that Sarah had lent her, Ruby thought of her next move. It was a maelstrom of interconnected thoughts, all swirling around inside her head. Academics may have been a sore spot for her, if only because she wasn't ever interested in things like history and science, but she was more than capable of advanced mathematics and critical thought (though to be fair, she was only good at math because she learned she needed it as a sniper). Wasn't Team RWBY's leader for nothing.
Though considering Ozpin had considered her a weapon to be used for some kind of war he was secretly waging, it was possible he had only let her into Beacon because she was such a great weapon to have. Though Ruby couldn't be sure what made her such an important piece to Ozpin's chess board. It could have been anything; from her scores in Signal Combat School to literally being her Uncle Qrow's niece. Yang was going to Beacon the same year so it might have been better to have them both in the same place where he could keep an eye on them. But the Headmaster had never mentioned Yang in the short conversation Ruby had heard between Qrow and Ozpin - only her.
Ruby couldn't turn to the Headmaster or Beacon Academy. Not only because of Ozpin wanting to use her as a weapon against some random person named Salem but also because of the rest of the Academy. The students there had made it clear what they had thought of her. Even if Ruby could come up with some proof of what had been done to her - of which she had none - the rest of Beacon would be just as it once was. Besides, there were basic questions she couldn't answer and people she never wanted to see again - namely Ozpin and Weiss.
The other Huntsman Academies weren't a choice either. Though it's only been rumor and most of the conspiracy theorists online couldn't support it, a lot of them said that Ozpin had a lot of pull with the other Academies which is why relations between Kingdoms had been at an all time high. It sounded a little too paranoid but Ruby wasn't willing to risk it and be put underneath Ozpin's thumb again. It would be too probable that one of the Academies would contact Ozpin the moment Ruby turned her back. And because Ruby was an underage minor, she'd be forced to go with Ozpin and Qrow and be their 'unsharpened sword' again.
Ruby's hands fisted her hair as she thought about her uncle. The man that had trained her in the way of the scythe. The man that had given her, her cherished red hood. The man that had taken her out on small expeditions on Patch to get some field experience in Grimm. Tears mixed with the conditioner and water that cascaded down her face to the shower floor. He'd defended her at the time of his conversation with Ozpin, but it didn't matter to her. The man she had looked up to all her life knew exactly what the headmaster had planned for her and let it happen. Ruby wondered what she'd be doing at that moment if she hadn't been faced with the Onslaught. Would Ozpin have trained her harder to sharpen his weapon? Would Qrow have ever bothered to tell her what her headmaster had planned. Would either of them tell her about this secret war they're waging? About Salem (not that she knew who the fuck that was at any rate).
Somehow, Ruby doubted it.
Thinking about the man she'd thought of as a second father forced Ruby to face the thought of her first father. The man who had fed her. The man who had taught her until she could go to Signal. The man who had sat down and told her about a mother she couldn't remember. Taiyang Xiao-Long.
Losing Summer had nearly broken him. While Ruby didn't remember much from that part of her life, she was told by Yang and Tai's own admission that he wasn't the parent that he should've been during the first few months; that it took him longer than that to put himself completely back together again. First Raven left after she had given birth to Yang and then Summer was lost during a solo mission. It tore Ruby up inside to think that her death might have pushed him over the edge but there were too many unknowns that lied with her dad.
He was on a team with Raven, Qrow, and her mom, forming Team STRQ (Stark), and for a while they had been one of the best Beacon had to offer. Her dad may not be as close to Ozpin as Qrow seemed to be but that didn't mean much. Tai taught at Signal but the only reason he wasn't an active Huntsmen like Qrow was so he could take care of his girls - or that was the reason he gave. Ruby loathed feeling like she couldn't trust her own family but given Qrow's lenience to allow her to be used as a weapon, Ruby wasn't sure she had a choice. She couldn't go to her father or Yang.
And wasn't that another problem in and of itself. Yang, her blonde power-house of a sister. The one who had taken care of her for months after her mother died. The one who had read her bedtime stories for years and shared her bed when Ruby had nightmares. It hurt Ruby more than she could say when she overheard Yang's confession to their father that she doubted Ruby. Yang should have known better than anyone how 'special' Ruby really was. The classes weren't anything that Ruby couldn't handle but it was the people in Beacon - hell, everywhere - that Ruby couldn't cope with. It was why Ruby had never more than a small group of friends and Yang.
Besides, Yang was still residing at Beacon as far as Ruby knew and Beacon was definitely off the table. But her dad… There might not be a way for her to go on without at least seeing if he was okay. To make sure that he hadn't dropped into the bottle like Qrow had done.
Turning off the shower and grabbing a towel, Ruby considered another option: disappearing. But even as the thought came to her, she was shaking her head. Despite what had been done to her and what she had (somehow) survived, Ruby still felt like helping the people of Remnant. She was beyond angry but she didn't want to spend the rest of her life that way or let it get in the way of her dream. The same dream she had since she was six years old. If she stopped now, the amount of time and effort that had been put into years of her life would have been wasted for nothing.
Besides, Ruby wasn't sure that she could live the rest of her life knowing that she'd given up on being a Huntress and helping the people of Remnant because of other people. That she was driven underground by bullies that had no say in how she lived her life would only eat her up inside. It wasn't like she had any evidence, either, so even if she told everyone what had happened, there wouldn't have done anything about it.
Which led to a problem. She could only be a Huntress if she graduated from a Huntsmen Academy, something she can't do, and she didn't want to disappear, never to be heard from again.
Sighing, Ruby thought back to the fond times when homework on the Faunus Rights Revolution was the biggest problem she had and quickly dressed in a white tank top and a pair of black jean pants. Borrowed from Sarah, of course, though the older woman was an inch shorter than Ruby. She would have accepted Sarah's offers to go out and get some clothes of her own if Ruby had bothered to get out of bed for anything besides meals and exercise. That would have to change once Ruby could figure out what she should do with the rest of her life. Quickly using her fingers to comb her tangled hair and settle it over her right shoulder, Ruby opened her bedroom door.
Taking the stairs to the left, Ruby found herself in a small sitting room adjacent to the kitchen where Sarah was humming to a song on Vacuo Radio and Braydon, her son, happily munching on pancakes and eggs. A third place had been set on the circular table across from Braydon, the plate filled to the brim with eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Sarah stopped humming and smiled once she saw Ruby.
"Welcome down," Sarah greeted. "Come, sit; I'm making my plate now and I'll join you two in a second."
Ruby could only nod and move to take her seat across from Braydon. The child met her eyes for a second before turning away to continue to eat his food. Besides that first night when Ruby had woken up, she hadn't had much interaction with the doctor's son. He always seemed wary of her, though she doubted her first impression had done anything to endear her to him.
Looking at him, one would be doubtful that he was Sarah's son. Ruby studied the ten year old boy in front of her with a few glances as she started to cut up her pancakes and drench them in syrup. While Sarah was very much dark haired and dark skinned, Braydon had blonde hair and lighter skin. Not her own pale white but it was a few shades above his mother's. While Sarah had cat ears and claws, her son had a wolf tail. Besides the hazel eyes and the way their hair curled at the ends, Ruby found it hard to believe they were related at all.
A few minutes later, Sarah set her plate on the table.
Breakfast was a quiet affair, as it usually was with Ruby for the past week. Braydon and Sarah talked throughout the meal, discussing their daily lives while a Vacuo Radio station played softly in the background. Twenty minutes after Ruby had sat down, Braydon had gotten up to head up to his room and start getting dressed for school, leaving Ruby and Sarah alone in the kitchen.
"How are you feeling?" Sarah asked quietly, sipping on her glass of orange juice. "Are you still not sleeping through the night?"
"I'm… I'm okay," Ruby hesitantly offered. "And no, I'm still waking up early."
"You aren't straining yourself exercising, are you?" Sarah asked. Ruby shook her head in response. "You've been stuck in that bed for too long to just go back to a rigorous training routine. Your Aura keeps your muscles from atrophying but they still need time to get used to movement."
Another unanswerable question. Despite being comatose for two months and who-knows-where for the year she'd been considered dead, Ruby's muscles were in better shape than they had ever been in. This included Ruby's strength and stamina, as she found that she could do push-ups for hours on end without stopping. That morning, for example, she'd been doing pushups since she had woken up at four in the morning. For three hours she had done nothing but non-stop pushups, trying to find an end to her strength and chase the memories away.
"I know, Sarah," Ruby told her. Ruby fitted her with an appreciative smile, pulling her own glass of milk closer to her as her shy nature reared its head once again. "Thank you, for what you've done for me. I don't know how I'm going to repay you for this."
Sarah's hand reached over to cover hers. "You don't have to thank me or pay me back, Ruby," the older woman told her. "It's my job to help those in need and it has been a pleasure to help you get back on your feet." The smile Sarah gave Ruby was motherly in its own right. "I've only known you a week and I can already tell that you are a kind girl with a decent head on her shoulders that will grow up into a hell of a woman one day. So if I can do anything to help you to allow you to become that woman, I'll do it."
Ruby's shyness disappeared as she smiled back and Sarah removed her hand after giving her a squeeze just in time for them to hear Braydon trump downstairs, ready for school. Braydon didn't go to a Combat School like Ruby had when she was the same age but rather a normal everyday school for people who didn't want to become Huntsmen - whatever that was like. The young boy appeared in the middle of the doorway wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans. Looking at him, Ruby guessed that some schools didn't require uniforms like Beacon and Signal did.
"I'm ready, Mom," he announced. Sarah gave him a beaming smile as she stood up.
"Well then," Sarah said happily, "I guess we better get goi-" Sarah was suddenly cut off by her Scroll ringing. With a concerned look, Sarah answered whoever was on the other line. Able to hear the conversation, Ruby listened to the caller desperately pleading for Sarah to head over to the port immediately as fast as she can; an accident had occurred and they needed her there right away. Ruby watched as Sarah's face fell and a sigh pushed through barely parted lips. "Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can."
For a second, Ruby saw a tired mother standing in the place of the infallible, all patient doctor she had come to know before Sarah straightened up and became the doctor again. Barely a moment passed before Sarah had her own pleading expression as she looked to Ruby and asked, "I know this is a lot to ask but it would be a huge help if you could walk Braydon to school."
Ruby immediately hated the idea. Not that she had anything against Braydon or anything close to that. The boy hadn't done anything to her and besides being a little too quiet, seemed like a nice kid. But Ruby hated the idea of going outside and having her scars bared to the world. The trepidation must have shown on her face because Sarah stepped up to her and grabbed her cheeks.
"Ruby," Sarah said soothingly, forcing Ruby to look at her. "Look, I don't know a ton about Huntsmen but I don't have to, to know that you shouldn't be ashamed of those scars. You survived something that no one should have ever experienced, let alone someone as young as you. You have your life when something as evil and unrelentless as Grimm tried to take it from you. I've seen plenty of Huntsmen and Huntresses that come through here and not a single one of them have ever been untouched. They bear the scars so that others like me can rest easy knowing that we have the strongest watching our backs." Sarah paused here, Ruby enthralled and moved by the little speech she was giving, before continuing, "And I know you're the strongest out there, Ruby Rose. If it were anyone else in your position, I am damn sure they wouldn't have handled it as well as you are and come back so full of life as you have. Don't hide your scars with shame, Ruby, wear them with honor. Because as far as I - or anyone else who sees them - am concerned, you're a Huntress and a damn good one at that."
Ruby couldn't help the giggle that escaped her lips as the few tears she had left to shed escaped her and fell down her cheeks only to be wiped away by Sarah's thumbs. Something in Ruby's soul had needed to hear that, Ruby realized. It didn't magically make the shame of being so thoroughly beaten that she lost a year and three months of her life just vanish but for the first time in the week she woke up, Ruby found that she could take some pride in surviving the Onslaught. That she took as many down as she could and they still couldn't kill her. It was a start though, and one that Ruby would gladly take.
So Ruby took a deep breath and let it out before giving Sarah a firm nod. "Yeah," Ruby breathed, not prepared so much as willing to face the outside world again. "You go deal with that guy at the pier and I'll make sure Braydon gets to school."
"Thank you," Sarah said genuinely. Taking her hands from Ruby's cheeks, Ruby watched as Sarah turned and hugged her son, telling him to have a great day and to stay close to Ruby. Ruby felt her eyes narrow.
'Sierra's a small community,' Ruby thought. 'Trade here is huge but Sarah said that there are only a couple hundred people living here. Back in Patch, everybody knew everybody so kids basically ran free because everyone acted as parents. So why does she want him to stick with the one stranger in this town instead of the people he's grown up with?'
It was odd to be sure. The people of the town of Patch on the island of Patch were all interconnected. One thing didn't happen in Patch without everyone knowing what had happened within half an hour. It was one of the reasons Qrow had gotten to Yang and Ruby so quickly after the two had left the city when they were kids; he was approached by a few concerned neighbors who had seen them walk away. Sierra should be like that, except Ruby got the feeling it was something personal. Not necessarily with the town but with Sarah.
Whatever it was, right then wasn't the time to ask about it. They traveled through the front door together but split ways immediately after that, Sarah going left and Ruby and Braydon turning right. Ruby and Braydon gave his mother one last wave turning around and began walking.
While the silence between Ruby and Braydon stretched on into minutes, Ruby took the time to feel the sun on her skin without a pane of glass to interfere. Sierra was beautiful, Ruby found, in a different way from Vale. While Vale had been a bustling city and Patch had been a wide, open community, Sierra itself was a mix. Wide roads met tall buildings and low houses, the culture being completely different from what she was used to.
People, both human and Faunus, walked the roads, going about their day. Others walked their kids, probably doing the same as Ruby. Guards patrolled the streets, smiling and talking to people on their way. But despite the happy atmosphere, Ruby felt that Sierra was… off. There was a smell in the air that gave Ruby the shivers, saliva flooding her mouth and a craving appeared at the bottom of her stomach. For what, Ruby couldn't say but she knew that something in Sierra was wrong.
"Are you okay?" The question had been softly spoken but it was still enough for Ruby to shake away the thoughts. Ruby swallowed hard and turned to Braydon, who was looking up at her through curious hazel eyes. Ruby forced herself to swallow and took a breath through her mouth.
"Yeah, sorry," Ruby apologized. "It's just… Sierra is so new; I'm not used to it." Ruby took another look around, ignoring the empty cavity that had become her stomach and the underlying smell of something filling her lungs. "It's beautiful," Ruby complimented. "Back where I grew up - Patch - everything was wide open spaces and low buildings. It's so different from here."
"Do you miss it? Patch?" Braydon asked.
"Yeah, I do," Ruby told him, "I think I always will. It's where I grew up. It's where my family is."
"Do you have a lot of family?" Ruby's answer was stalled as she narrowly avoided someone knocking into her. She turned as she dodged, keeping her glaring silver eyes on him. There had been more than enough space for him to walk without bumping into her, meaning that he had tried to shoulder check her. He reeked of anger and loathing - a sweet smell that oddly reminded Ruby of hot chocolate topped with cinnamon and whipped cream that she just couldn't wait to-
Wait, what?
"I have a dad and my big sister, Yang," Ruby said. Walking backwards for a few seconds before finally turning, Ruby shook herself once again from the stray thought that had entered her head and instead thought fondly of her family - remembering their eccentricities and the good times she had with them. "I have my Uncle Qrow too."
"Where are they?" Braydon asked curiously. "Why aren't you with them?"
"That's…," Ruby stopped talking, trying to ease her breathing and keep her eyes from tearing up. The betrayal she felt from Yang's lack of faith in her and Qrow's yielding to Ozpin still stung but she had cried too many tears to start again. Now, her tears were caused by the deep ache she felt at not being able to see them again. Tears caused by her family being so far away from her and the time she had lost with them.
"That's complicated," Ruby said. "I was attacked by Grimm during a school trip. I survived but…" Ruby made a vague gesture to her face and scars. "I was asleep for a long time and your mom took care of me. As far as I know, they're all back in Vale - though my Uncle Qrow might be on a mission."
"Mission? Is your uncle part of the military?" Ruby smiled at the question. They turned onto a street and ahead was the school. Ruby could see parents telling their children goodbye and others playing in the yard. The school was only a story but was wide with large steps leading up to a set of wooden double doors. There were several adults, teachers, Ruby assumed, corralling the kids through the double doors and into their classrooms. Looked like fun.
"No, my Uncle's a Huntsman," Ruby answered. Braydon's eyes went wide as Ruby continued, "My entire family were Huntsmen. My dad doesn't go out on missions anymore and my sister goes to Beacon. I was, well, I went to Beacon, too, before I was attacked. My mom… my mom was a Huntress, too."
Her mother, Summer Rose. Ruby didn't have many memories of the woman that had given birth to her. One she could remember, was a simple still of her mother looking at her in front of a sunrise. Maybe seeing her mother staring at her from above. But besides pictures, Ruby didn't have much of her mother besides the cloak Qrow had given her in her mother's stead. But her cloak was gone. Besides her looks, which she had been told by both her dad and Qrow that they were an almost exact copy of her mother's, Ruby no longer had anything of her mom.
The cloak hadn't just been something to remember her mother by. No, like Crescent Rose, her cloak had been a part of her and who she was as a person; a significant portion of her identity had been latched onto that cloak. She'd carried that cloak through her years as Signal and into her dream at Beacon. She had held onto that cloak while tuning her technique with Crescent Rose so her cloak didn't get in the way while she was fighting. And though the hood hadn't been irreparably damaged, the rest of the cloak had been turned into scraps of cloth just like her clothes had been. Ruby had always taken good care of both her cloak and her clothes but now they were more suited to be rags than anything else.
After the first night, early morning when Ruby woke up, Ruby had grabbed her hood and kept it in the bedside dresser's drawer. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with it but she wasn't going to just throw it away. Ruby couldn't. It was too personal, too sentimental, too important, to discard. It was her, it was her facet of her identity, and it was the gift of a woman Ruby had barely been able to know.
"Wow," Braydon breathed. "That's so cool! Mom thought you were something like that."
"Yeah?" Ruby asked, an eyebrow raised. "And what did you think I was?"
A shy smile spread across the child's face and his eyes lit up at the question. He started skipping as they got closer to the school and his voice took on a more lively tone as he answered. "I thought you were a new type of Grimm."
Ruby blinked. "Wha-... Where did you get that idea? Where did that come from?"
Braydon just laughed at her face. "My mom said that when the guards found you, you were found outside the walls with a pack of Beowolves. According to Firn - he's one of the guards; I hang out with him sometimes - said that the Grimm were acting weird and they had to use twice as many guards to get you away from them. Firn even said that the only reason they got you so quickly was because a really big Grimm got all the other ones to leave. Firn said it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen."
"Yeah, that…" Red and yellow eyes, white bone, and black fur carrying her sweetheart, her own legs dragged backwards, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. "That sounds really weird."
"BRAYDON!" The shout startled the both of them into stopping though the school wasn't far from them. Ruby looked over towards the shout only to find an angry Faunus storming to them, eyes hard and glaring steadily at her. Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies filled Ruby's senses as Braydon stepped closer to her, suddenly pale and shivering. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING WITH THAT FILTHY HUMAN!?"
Ruby hadn't been sure what to do and the Faunus used that time to get closer to them. He was taller than Ruby, at least by two or three inches, with blonde hair that matched Braydon's and a five o'clock shadow that matched Qrow's. His tail, which stuck out between his blue genes and gray t-shirt, slashed behind him side-to-side in irritable motions as his amber eyes glared.
"Does your mother know you're here with her?!" The man questioned harshly. He hadn't given Braydon a moment to answer (not that Braydon looked at all interested in answering in the first place) before shouting, "Does she?!"
"Hey!" Ruby shouted, stepping up. "Quite yelling at him. Who are you?"
"That is none of your Oumdamn business, bitch," the man said harshly. "This is between me and my son, so you can fuck off!" The man, Braydon's father, dismissed her entirely and turned to Braydon. "Consorting with humans? The fuck is wrong with you? C'mon, let's go."
Isul was an Oum fearing Faunus but there were certain things that never failed to get his blood heated. Humans being one of them. They, who had subjugated his people, his Faunus brothers and sisters, and left them with nothing but a too small island after the Revolution. The bigoted, selfish, so-called 'leaders' of Remnant, who had done nothing but beat the Faunus down into the ground, content to ignore the wrongs they committed against his people. It was why he joined the White Fang.
The peaceful approach had failed and in its stead, action had gotten results. Isul was one of the only ones who felt what Adam Taurus was doing the right thing. So when the White Fang had shown up in Sierra a year ago, Isul had no problem with joining such a righteous cause for the good of Faunus in all of Remnant. But Sarah hadn't seen it that way. No, she thought Humans were their friends, not the oppressors of Faunus-kind. It had led to too many fights between them, and, in the end, Sarah had demanded that Isul leave the house if he wanted to commemorate the murder of others.
He'd been doing odd jobs for the White Fang since then, leaving Sierra and going to other settlements in both Vale and Vacuo in order to recruit other Faunus. With the Kingdom of Vale being as it is now, the White Fang had no need for Isul to go - but, oh, how he wanted to. To go and fight the fight that would finally show all of Remnant that it was the Faunus' rightful place to be at the top.
Isul had just come from one such mission and had decided to wait in front of the school for his wife and son, separated though they were. The school was the perfect place to wait as Isul knew they'd be there close to eight and Sarah had hated both altercations and affection in public. Isul had felt that he had everything planned and accounted for, much like his recruitment missions for the Fang. Which is why seeing Braydon with some human instead of Sarah made him angry beyond anything he'd felt since joining the White Fang. To top it off, the human - acting like humans do - had the nerve to demand him. Like an animal.
So he made a grab for his son, to get him away from that disgusting human and answer his questions. He wasn't expecting the red and black petals that filled his vision and a sudden pain in his wrist as the girl grabbed him faster than he could blink, stopping him inches from his son's shoulder. Her silver eyes were bright, which seemed to lighten the girl's expression, until Isul took in her narrowed brows, harsh scarring, and her teeth gritted in an animal-like snarl.
He tried to move his wrist but Ruby didn't let it budge from her grip. Instead, she tightened it, watching as his anger strengthened but a hint of trepidation came with his stench. It made something in Ruby burn all the more.
"I don't know who you think you are," Ruby said quietly, "but you're not touching him. I don't care if you're his dad or not. Touch him, and I'll put you in the ground."
The last time Ruby had been called a bitch was Cardin. Ruby couldn't say for sure, now, what had brought the slur out of his lips or what he had been bullying her about for that name to come out, but hearing it now - from Braydon's father, no less - made Ruby angry. The hand that wasn't holding onto the man's wrist curled, and for a second, for a split, beautiful second, Ruby could believe she was once again holding onto the shaft of her sweetheart, Crescent Rose, once again. But the moment passed.
"Braydon," Ruby said quietly, "why don't you go ahead? You're going to be late."
It was absolute bullshit; Ruby had no idea when Braydon's school started, much less what constituted as late. Signal started close to nine but had a fifteen minute period for students to get to their first class. That was a combat school, however, and in Patch. Sierra was different. But that didn't matter. Ruby just needed an excuse for Braydon to leave. School wasn't always safe, as Ruby had come to find out, but it was away from his father.
When Braydon didn't move immediately, Ruby only had to look at him from the corner of her eye to get him moving. He ran past and the man followed Braydon with his eyes, slightly turning though that stopped when Ruby jerked his wrist to get him to face her. He seemed surprised that she was strong, not that it mattered to her what he thought.
"You get your damn hands off of me!" The man growled at her. Ruby narrowed her eyes and threw the man's hand away from her, nearly sending him sprawling, red and black rose petals bursting from her arm as she did so. He righted himself quickly though, showing he'd been in a few fights before. But she'd been trained by combat schools and an official Huntsmen.
Granted she didn't know a lot of hand to hand. Yang had tried to teach her, as did Tai, but it felt… weird. The nearest Tai and Qrow could figure, it was that the brawler style the Xiao Long's based their style on just wasn't for her. She could still pack a mean punch though and her kicks were worse.
"Who the hell are you?!" The man screamed. "And why the hell are you with my son?!"
"Ruby," she said. "And I'm taking him to school because Sarah had an emergency at the docks. Which you would have known sooner if you were acting like a normal person and asked. Not yelling like some crazy guy!"
"That is MY son," the man roared. Ruby caught sight of the other townspeople looking at them and more people came to watch. Some looked concerned but there were a few who glared at her. They were Faunus of different kinds but they all seemed… angry. Like butterscotch on the back of her tongue.
"If I don't want my son consorting with you filthy humans, then he won't!" The man shouted.
"Your problem with me is me being… human?" Ruby asked. Of course, her question went ignored. Instead, he lunged. Ruby felt herself moving before she even thought of it. The punch sailed past her head as she dodged to the side, gliding past him to end up behind him. He turned, eyes wide before they narrowed, and chocolate coated the back of her tongue. The taste made her mouth water and her stomach to start gnawing on itself; it made something inside Ruby excited and hungry. He attacked again only to be rebuffed by Ruby tripping him on her way past his defences.
"Keep still and fight me, you smug, human bitch!" He screamed at her as he regained his balance. He kept going, tossing punch after punch though Ruby did nothing but dodge left and right, leading him around in circles. The crowd around them tightened, becoming a faux ring. "Fight me!"
"I'm not going to fight you for no reason!" Ruby retorted.
"Think you're so special!? Another superior human looking down her nose at the Faunus!" He turned to the crowd who watched them. "Do you understand? This is what we were talking about. This is what the White Fang have tried to show you!" He pointed to her. "That humans have done nothing but belittle and deprecate Faunus like us! You see her? Ignorant in the ways of the world and blind to how Faunus have been treated for generations."
'I haven't been ignorant since I was chosen for the Internship,' Ruby thought savagely. Her patience had finally given way to anger. In a flash of red and black, Ruby had burst into thousands of rose petals only to reform right in front of the Faunus. Without pausing, Ruby kicked his shin and grabbed him by the throat to bring him down to her level. His hands immediately went to her wrist and the taste of his sudden fear was a starburst of flavors coating the back of her throat.
"You don't know me," Ruby snarled. Again, her unoccupied clenched, nearly convinced that Crescent Rose was in her hand once more. "You don't know anything about me. You don't know my favorite color or where I grew up or my fucking name. You don't get to judge me. I judge me."
"Hey! HEY! Let him go! Now!" A guy wearing silver armor appeared in the corner of her vision, a hand gripping his sheathed weapon for a quick draw. Though a deep part of Ruby wanted nothing more than tear the man limb from limb, rip out his throat with her teeth, and bathe in a pool of his blood-
Ruby dropped him, quickly stepping back so they were a couple feet apart but refused to back off of her glare. Braydon's father dropped to his knees, coughing and hacking as he tried to get his breath back to him. The guard stepped forward to be slightly between them, a hand on his sheathed sword and another out flat.
"Are we going to have a problem here?" The guard asked. He looked towards Ruby first. Sighing, Ruby could only hunch her shoulders and shake her head while putting her hands up. She took another step back for good measure. Braydon's father, however…
"A problem?" He rasped. "We already have a problem and it's you humans!" The father stood to his feet, neck red from where Ruby had gripped it. "You humans and your descrimination towards Faunus! The world will be better after the White Fang have done their noble work and then, finally, you humans will know what it's like to be the dirt on the bottom of our boots! And you," he snarled, pointing at Ruby, "you will regret today by the time the White Fang is done with you." Turning towards the crowd, he screamed, "Sierra will be the first of many in the new world! You can either join or be branded traitors to the righteous cause of the Faunus! Just you wait! You'll all see!
"And I hope I'll be there to watch as you are put into your place," he growled before turning and pushing his way through the crowd.
Ruby stood there, next to the guard, feeling the hesitancy and lingering fear left in the crowd. And, for some reason, Ruby could only feel a deep, thrumming excitement echoing through her bones.
That's a wrap! Though I wouldn't call this chapter super long, inspiration did hit me enough that it was longer than the previous ones. I don't know if I'm going to make future chapters longer or shorter, but I felt that this was a good place to stop for this chapter.
Next time, in 'RoG: Reap and Sow': Ozpin reflects his past failings, more than a few secrets are revealed, and Ruby is pushed to the edge.
Review, follow, favorite - whatever - I just hope you enjoy the chapter and I hope I can continue to do more soon. Thanks for reading!
-Scribble.