I'm back. Had a load of uni work as I said. I just want to apologise for the slightly shit quality of my first chapter. I rushed it out before my end of semester assignments hit and it shows. I'm mostly free know so with a bit of luck things'll be better going forward.
Little disclaimer: I'm still experimenting with line breaks. changes some thigs like font on uploading and this can fuck with features like line breaks. I'll come up with something which works eventually, please just bear with me till then.
Now without further ado, this is changed rose.
…changed rose…
Chu-chunk.
Sounds of the pump from a shotgun was music to her ears. Before her what remained of her opponent fell away, a great hole was all that remained of its chest, its body dissolving into smoke. Around her the field was littered with the scattered remains of beasts in a similar state to what was before her.
"well done, honey."
"you're coming along nicely, little rose."
"I would say your skill is equal to the average first year at beacon, Ms Rose."
The praise from both her mom and her mentors felt nice, especially from Ozpin. Ruby had changed a lot in the last ten years. The nature of her aura made it, and by extension her semblance unstable. As a result both had a history of evolving at inconvenient moments.
The first came in the woods shortly after her mother's funeral. Yang had taken the young Ruby off to find Raven Branwen, only to stumble into a grimm nest. Ruby had made her ghosts real. They had fought off the monsters but had been seen by Yang. That incident ended with Yang being forced to go to counselling for her 'trauma' and Ruby scared to use her semblance around others for fear of being committed.
The other came in the woods a few years previously. She noticed her aura felt different whilst doing some meditation. She figured out she could merge with the ghosts. This did come with some alarming drawbacks though. She could use their semblances and magic, even get some of their muscle memory. But she had to suffer first. For example, when she had merged with Summer for the first time, she had to suffer a paralyzing degree of pain across all of her body. When she figured out she could do this it was decided that, if she was going to hide her semblance, it would be easiest to do it in plain sight. So, she made the choice to permanently merge with May. Her semblance allowed her to talk to animals, so it seemed to be an easy choice for her. The downside to merging with May was that she had to share faunus traits with her. Ruby had initially thought this was great, but she hadn't thought that Signal, the school she had been attending, could be quite as traditional as it was.
Her farther and uncle had walked out of their jobs over her expulsion. Qrow had even stolen some supplies from the school, one of which was an old, great war era, trench gun. This is what was held in her hands now. Ruby had upgraded the gun with a rifled barrel and a spring action bayonet. With this she had christened it raging rose. It was just a secondary weapon to her, her main weapon had been made in school before she left, but her objective tonight had been training with it, just in case.
Both Qrow and her ghosts had taken on her training after that. She trained with Qrow during the week and spent her 'down' time with the others. This came with its own slew of problems and incidents (let it be known that the White Fang where assholes, even to other faunus), but they had only served to make her stronger.
Which brought things up to now, as she pumped shells into the magazine under the barrel of the gun, her mentors congratulating her on wiping out a horde of beowulfs. the wind caught the edge of her black cape, the white vines and red roses embroidered into its exterior dancing like real bushes. Under this a luminous red, long sleaved blouse was tucked into a pair of tight, black trousers. A pair of black combat boots with red laces covered her feet and migrated halfway up her shins.
Suddenly, she heard rustling from the tree line ahead of her.
Everyone paused. Ruby stopped reloading and prepared for a fight.
Suddenly, a woman dropped to the ground in front of them. Everyone froze at the sight. Her pale green eyes where wide and her breathing heavy. She was wearing tan-coloured leggings and a white shirt under a lime green waistcoat. Her long, brown hear fell to the ground around her and strapped to her waist was a pair of curved, simitar looking swords in some highly artistic and gold decorated sheathes.
"Autumn!" It was Spring who reacted first. Her cry broke everyone else out of their stupor. This included the girl, now known as Autumn, who looked up to see the onrushing form of Spring, followed at a distance by the others.
"Sister! What's happening?!" Was Autumn's reply.
Spring impacted into her, wrapping her in an embrace. "What's the last thing you remember?" Spring spoke into Autumn's shoulder.
"It's- we were ambushed on the road to beacon. We had been recalled to beacon as Goodwitch was getting word of a threat to vale and Amber needed some extra training." Autumn paused and took a breath. "our attackers where after the me. They used one of Salem's latest inventions to suck me out of Amber and into one of our attackers. Thankfully, someone severed the connection, and I was pulled here. Though I don't know how that happened."
"It was my semblance which brought you here Autumn. As for the others, my semblance binds those who posses magic to me on their death. Which explains why Ozpin and the others are here." It was Ruby who spoke up first. "It sounds to me like Salem is finally making her move."
Ozpin spoke next. "Well, she likely thought she had all the time in the world to make her move after she killed me. She only needs four things to reach her goal. And, whilst she doesn't need it, she will likely go after the relic of choice first. It is the most powerful relic for a reason after all."
"So, we need to get to beacon, and soon." It was Summer who put this forward.
"the first semester of the year starts in a few weeks and the application window is closed. But if we can get noticed by someone we can trust, we might be grated early entry. Especially if we push Ruby as my next host."
"There has been a string of dust robberies in Vale recently, and I'm in need of a top up." Ruby stated.
"Then that is what we will do. We'll go to vale and try to get involved on a dust robbery this weekend."
…changed rose…
The Dust Till Dawn, one of the few dust stores that allowed faunus to purchase dust un-chaperoned let alone allow them to enter without being arrested. It was also open rather late into the night to make faunus customers more inclined to shop there without fear of prosecution after they left. However, that just made it an easy target.
A raven circled overhead and let out a low call. A second sat perched on the sign outside of the shop, its amber eyes watched the men approach, as they neared it let out a sharp alarm before taking flight. Inside Ruby heard the calls and prepared herself. She sat at a table in the back, using rented equipment to carve a purchased dust crystal into the necessary shape for her weapon.
The bell rung. Ruby tensed. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open, this late?" She kept on carving, her head down. "Please, just take my lien and leave." Ruby's heart rate quickened in anticipation. "shhh, shhh, shhh. We're not here for your money. Take the Dust." Ruby's eyes hardened. This was it; this was why she was here.
Suddenly she heard a sword curve through the air a distance behind her.
"hey kid, get your hands in the air." Ruby just dropped her drill with a load clang, but otherwise didn't move.
"you got a death wish or somethin'. I said get your hands in the air. NOW!" Ruby casually leaned back in her seat and inched her hands up. She gave the illusion of subservience. She made him think that she was surrendering. What he didn't know was that she had a few tricks up her sleeve, and multiple semblances at her disposal.
A single black petal dropped from her left hand. That was the only warning he got. Ruby transformed herself into a swirling mass of rose petals of various colours and threw herself at the man. She impacted him squarely in the chest, forcing him back where he impacted the wall behind with a bang, before losing consciousness and hitting the floor.
She reformed herself in a crouching position. A second man rounded the corner, and she simply repeated the attack she used on the last thug. This time however, instead of hitting a wall they flew through the window at the front of the store and into the street. Here the thug dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and lay there unmoving.
Ruby herself pushed herself into a forward role to get rid of her momentum then spun on her heal. As she spun, she pulled her main weapon from her back. A black cane hit the floor with a loud clang. It was a simple black shaft toped with a snarling tiger pendant which had red eyes. The tiger had a slot at the back of its head indicating some sort of alternate form.
three men in black suits and red shades looked out of the broken window at her. At the counter, a man in a white trench coat and black bowler hat looked up at her. "okay… Get her!" the man at the counter ordered.
The men rushed her with swords drawn. The first had the sword held out to his right. Ruby stepped left and swung her cane up to the right. It impacted his chin, breaking his jaw with a crack, causing him to call to the ground. The second man swung down at her head. Ruby lunged right, he overextended, she brought her weapon up behind her, it's length extending to double its original 3.5ft length, it then impacted the back of his head causing him to drop away unconscious. Ruby the spun and brought her 7ft long staff down onto the head of the 3rd man. He tried to parry the blow, bringing his red saber up in a block, however the force of Ruby's swing combined with bad quality of his blade, and caused the weapon to break. This allowed Ruby's staff to carry on its decent into the top of the man's skull. The man in question simply fell to the ground in a heap like all the others who had tried to fight her before him.
"You where worth every cent, truly you were." The last man muttered. The man in question wielded a red and white cane and smoked a cigar like a cliché villain. "As much as I appreciate another fan of the cane, I also think its past your bedtime. So, I think this is where we part ways."
The man lifted his cane, the bottom opening to reveal the barrel of a gun. It fired a flair which scorched through the air at her in the street. For her part Ruby tapped into Ozpin's magic and conjured a glyph to block it. The flair burst against the barrier and released a cloud of smoke which obscured the thief from Ruby's view. Looking around once the smoke cleared, Ruby spotted him some distance away, climbing a ladder onto a nearby roof.
Ruby gave chase, but by the time she reached the roof top he was already boarding a bullhead. Ruby froze. the bullhead rounded on her, it cannon spinning in preparation to fire. Ruby prepared herself to draw on Ozpins power again to shield herself. However, this proved to be unnecessary as a large purple glyph formed into existence between Ruby and the bullhead and, with a ring, released a blast, forcing the aircraft away.
Ruby turned and saw the headmistress of beacon, Glynda Goodwitch, marching towards her. Ruby was filled with relief at this sight. Glynda was someone Ozpin had told her could be trusted after all.
…changed rose…
That relief was short lived.
"-lashing out like that. Your lucky that I'm handling this investigation, or you would have been branded a white fang member. A terrorist. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what that would have meant here in vale." Goodwitch had been scolding her since the moment she sat in this dark and shady interrogation room. It had been a good half an hour since they had arrived. "Do you have anything to say for yourself before I call yourself before I call your family to pick you up?"
"I-." Ruby took a breath and collected her thoughts. "I was told to tell you: I would like my cane back."
…changed rose…
Cliff hangers. Gotta love 'em.
I'll try to do weekly uploads, at least for the next few months.
Since I first adopted this fic I've had time to think and map out a direction for the story. Just a little warning but my beacon arc and tournament arc will be pretty cannon linear. Having said that there will be differences. I want to explore faunus culture and the white fang quite a bit. On that note look out for hints to real world mythology and gods, especially of the Norse and Greek variety.
As for why there was no rooftop fight. Well if Ruby, and by extension Autumn had seen Cinder early it might make things a bit too easy for our protagonists to put two and two together later on.
Those of you which read my first chapter but powered through despite my awful grammar, thank you.
I've been Phyco and thank you for reading.