Ruby Rose is crazy.
That is to say that she isn't the most… mentally stable. While you'd never catch Yang saying this out-loud, she had no problem talking about this to herself inside her own head. Regardless if anyone else told her that her sister was crazy, Yang wouldn't hesitate to send them through the nearest wall. But that didn't take away from Ruby's mental state.
Having known Ruby for the entirety of her sister's life, Yang could pin point Ruby's change in mental state.
It had happened over 3 years ago, Ruby had just spent the night outside after Yang and her dad had gotten into an argument over TaiYang finding Yang with some beer she had borrowed from Qrow.
Ruby spending the night outside when there was an argument wasn't exactly rare, Ruby hated being around arguing people, so Yang didn't mind too much. But when Ruby arrived back the following morning she was delirious. She had talked about people that weren't there and had a small bit of a fever. So Rubes was sent to get some bed rest and it was figured that she'd be fine in the morning.
She wasn't.
Sure initially Rubes had returned to normal but then Yang noticed some oddities.
For starters she has a lot jumpier, like she was focused on something and Yang/dad had interrupted her. Which contrasted with her other ability to be near impossible to sneak up on, which has made pulling pranks so much harder.
Second was the laughing.
At random times every day without fail, Ruby would start laugh without Yang even telling one of her totally awesome puns or something funny happening. It was very creepy. Interestingly whenever Yang confronted her lil sis about this, Ruby would just claim she remembered something funny. Every time she asked.
The third change was the most noticeable, when around people she would mumble. Which didn't sound too bad, just a little social anxiety. Until you realised she mumbled whenever people were not talking to her.
What she mumbled about varied greatly, from the history of Dust, to pumas and warthogs of all things.
The final change was the most disturbing. When Ruby was alone or at least thought she was. Ruby would transition from mumbling to full conversations.
The first time this happened Yang had didn't panic because it sounded like Ruby was on her scroll. But when she realised that no one else was talking then she panicked. But bursting in to the room had only revealed that Ruby was on her bed alone. The next couple of times it happened she listened, but it was like listening to half a conversation. These issues came to a head last year.
It was the week after Rubes 14th birthday when Yang called her sister out. But… it was anything but a pleasant memory. Yang tried her best to repress it when possible, due to the sheer amount of unpleasantness for everyone involved.
Needless to say Yang was never going to put the words "Ruby" and "counselling" in the same sentence ever again.
But still it wasn't all bad. Ruby was the same as ever at Signal (excepting some detentions for laughing in class) and was never called out or bullied for her eccentric behaviour thanks to Yang's protection.
So things were great, Ruby may be crazy, but Yang loved her so it was fine.
Now Yang was about to go to Beacon which was great in her opinion as now, Ruby would hopefully come out of her shell and find an actual friend that could look past the raging insanity.
Then Ruby got accepted into Beacon.
Two years early.
For doling out vigilante justice.
When she was supposed to be under Yang's own care.
Great.
Now Ruby would be two years younger than everyone else, talking to herself in empty corridors, have absolutely no friends cause "I don't need any Yang" and be more of an outcast that ever. Great. Just great.
Tearing herself from her internal monologue, Yang took a deep breath and silently counted backwards from ten like her anger management counsellor she had at age ten, once suggested before Yang broken his nose. A long winded internal rant is not what she needed right now. No, what she needed was a plan to get Ruby some friends.
Fortunately planning out the consequences of her actions was one her greatest strengths, so once she had her idea Ruby would be drowning in non-judgemental friends.
Resolving to come up with a plan later, Yang scanned the airship she was on and looked for her baby sis who had drifted off shortly after Yang entered her internal monologue. She spotted Ruby mumbling to herself at a window, seemingly distracted. A great grin expanded onto her face as she casually strolled over to Ruby, waited a moment and engulfed Ruby in the biggest best hug she could give.
"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!" Yeah that sounded encouraging.
"Please stop," Came the adorable protests, but her wish was her command.
Letting Ruby go, Yang gave best grin, "But I'm so proud of you!" She exclaimed.
It was the truth after all, not every crazy fifteenth year old got moved up two years into the best combat school in Remnant after all.
"Really Sis, it was nothing..." But trust Ruby to try and down play it.
"What do you mean? It was incredible!" She slapped her own knee to emphasise her next point "Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bee's knees."
Ruby spoke far too defensively "I don't want to be the "bee's knees", okay?" Her eyes darted between the two spaces next to Yang. "I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl, with normal knees."
"What's with you? Aren't you excited?" Yang pressed.
"Of course I'm excited... I just..." Ruby gave a sigh "I got moved ahead two years. I don't want people to think I'm special or anything."
"But you are special," Yang leaned over and gave her sister a one-armed hug. Confidence would be an issue with making friends, maybe there were people who liked the anti-social?
Before Yang could give more reassurances and slip in a pun or two, a hologram of some sorta hot teacher woman came up, replacing some news report at had been playing.
"Who's that?" She asked Ruby, hoping she knew something.
"I am Glynda Goodwitch."
"Oh."
"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." the teacher said, using one of those lecture tone dad would use when teaching.
Then the clouds parted, almost on Que, to show Vale in all its glory, causing her and Rubes to take in the view.
"Oh, wow! Look guys, you can see Signal from up here!" Her next sentence was more quiet "I guess home isn't too far after all."
Yang smiled at the declaration. "Beacon's our home, now." A better one once we're settled in and you have some new friends and not the voices in your head of course, Yang added silently.
But before Yang could go further with planning, some other blonde student emptied his lunch on her shoes.
Great.
Agent Washington had never been a lucky man.
He had been lied to, betrayed, stabbed, shot, had a grappling hood stuck to his balls and had been turned insane by his own AI committing suicide inside his own head. But still, he survived.
Mostly.
Now years later from these events he was living inside the head of a teenage girl that was every bit as naive and trusting as he had been during project freelancer. Joy.
Still, he had it better than Sarge who missed both his shotgun and the ability to enact violence with it (mostly on Grif).
They both had nothing on Caboose who was in love with everything that seemed to happen on Remnant.
A place that was both like an so unalike with his native universe. For example the Faunus, a species of human/animal hybrids that coexisted with humanity. They were a weird group to be sure, but Wash had no problems with them. As a species. The White Fang bought up painful memories of the insurrectionists and project freelancer, so he had a more negative view on them (plus they were terrorists which was bad).
Another thing that Wash didn't like about Remnant was the idea of combat schools. Sure in theory a place for teenagers to learn about the world and prepare for combat sounded great.
But Wash was a realist (pessimist) he knew that only bad things could come with what was basically a university where all the students had super powers and were taught to use them for combat. Still at least this was Beacon, which was reputed to be the best, so hopefully there would be no crazy incidents or explosive drama.
Speaking of explosive drama, it seems like Yang has dashed off without warning to catch up with 'friends' leaving Ruby (and by extension Wash, Sarge and Caboose) alone.
But before anyone could say anything Ruby fell backwards into a luggage cart, sending cases flying. Some woman in all white was standing over her, so much for no drama.
"What are you doing?!" the lady in white asked/yelled at the disoriented Ruby.
"Who's the miss crabby pants?" Asked Sarge who was promptly ignored as Ruby mumbled out a quiet apology, which only served to agitate rich lady further.
"Sorry?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?"
Intelligently Ruby repliedm "Uhhhh?" Which caused Wash to sigh.
"Come on Ruby, you taught us what Dust is, answer her," He encouraged her, not wanting her to make the same mistakes he did in Freelancer.
Encouraged by Wash, Ruby answered "A-a lot?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?" The probably rich girl asked, still clearly offended.
"A-telling you?"
At this, the rich girl pinched the bridge of her nose and seemingly decided that Ruby wasn't worth the effort, handing Ruby a leaflet. "Just read this and never talk to me again."
"S-sure," Stammered out Ruby and as the other lady walked away she called out. "Nice to meet you, whoever you are..." she finished quietly.
"You really don't know who that is?'
Four voices called out at once.
"Jesus!"
"Great SAM hell Arnold Taylor!"
"Hello."
"Eeep!"
Of course the raven haired girl could only hear Ruby's eeep.
"Sorry did I startle you?"
Wash got a good look at the new arrival, a fair-skinned young woman with wavy black hair and amber eyes. She had a bow on top of her head, possibly hiding cat Faunus ears. Wash kept a note of that.
"N-no! of course not!" Ruby denied "I was just..."
"You were thinking about killing blues!" Sarge suggested.
"I was deep I thought about k-the colour blue." Ruby said quickly, causing the possible Faunus to chuckle.
"Right," She smiled "I saw your 'conversation' with the Schnee, I wanted to know if you were fine." So the rich girl was a Schnee, presumably here from Atlas. Interesting.
"Yeah… I'm fine and Ruby," Ruby crossed her arms in an nervous fashion. "That's m-my name is Ruby Rose."
"Blake Belladonna," She said politely. "Would you like to go to the hall with me?"
"Sure!" Ruby's smile was a thousand vaults
"Yeah! New friend!" Caboose cheered.
"As long as she isn't a dirty blue,' Sarge grumbled.
The gang set off but Wash noticed something that caught his attention.
"Wash, you comm'in?"
"You guys go ahead I need to check something out."
Not waiting for the reply. Wash went to what had caught his attention.
"Now where am I supposed to go?" The blonde said miserably, in a tone Wash was far too familiar with and a hauntingly familiar voice.
He didn't know why the blonde student had caught his eye, but his current attitude was far too reminiscent of Wash when he was in the early days aboard the mother of invention, lost and friendless.
But what kept his attention was that the blonde had the same voice as Felix.
"Forward I guess… why did have to vomit?" Bemoaned the blonde as he put his hand through his hair. "Starting great Jaune… start'n great."
"It's better than my first day rookie, at least you don't have Carolina hounding you about training," Wash gave some unheard words of comfort.
Of course Wash should have learned to keep his stupid mouth shut by now.
"Excuse me are you alright?" Am even more familiar voice called out to Jaune.
"Carolina..." Wash trailed off as he looked at the newcomer.
It was Carolina in the flesh. But younger, far younger. It was an image he had only seen in his memories.
"Fine, fine," Jaune said. "Just, j-just lost." Carolina laughed, the same musical laugh he rarely heard on the MOI.
"Allow me to help, I'm Pyrrha." She seemed to wait for a reaction. "Pyrrha Nikos."
The name rang a bell, wasn't she that person on the cereal Ruby liked?
"Well, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue - ladies love it!" Jaune said with confidence and Wash couldn't help it, he laughed. That was exactly the type of pickup line that York would use on Carolina all the time.
"Do they?" Pyrrha asked with a smile, which already made Jaune more successful than York.
"They will! Well, I-I hope they will," Jaune stumbled over his words. "My mom always says that... Never mind."
Pyrrha laughed much like Wash did. "Nice to meet you Jaune, b-but do you really not know who I am?"
"Should I?"
"No!" She yelled before quieting down. "No, definitely not."
So she was famous like Wash assumed from the cereal box, but was hiding it, suggesting that she disliked the fame and wanted a normal life.
He again made a note of that.
Fortunately Jaune seemed to be denser than Wash was at his age. "Alright Pyrrha, would you like to go to the hall together?"
"I'd like that Jaune."
And so the pair set off, unaware of the man walking behind them, lost in memory.
When one considered everything, Sarge was an incredibly patient person.
He had dealt with space pirates, genocidal A.I, government conspiracies, blue team problems and Grif. So when it came to the last three years of his life, trapped in a little girls head with blues and no shotgun. Sarge was able to exercise his enormous capacity for patience once more.
It helped that Ruby, was a red through and through.
Intelligent. A master combatant. Fantastic with machines. Wearing exclusively the colour red (with a smidgen of black). It was no wonder that Ruby reminded him of a younger, more female version of himself.
Now Sarge had the once in life opportunity to spread the influence of red team to a world mostly free of the blues. Sure the inability to enact violence on his enemies was a bummer, but the opportunity to create a new generation of reds, free from the inevitable evil of the blues? That was worth it.
And now they were entering Beacon. What he has been told to be the best combat school around, perfect for the next phase in his training of the youngest red.
"Sargent."
"Yes, Caboose?"
"This is a very big place."
"That's the point bluetard."
Sarge just wished he had better choice of friendenempanions.
Still, Caboose wasn't wrong, the ceiling of the Beacon hall was easily the size of 10 to 15 warthogs and was nearly a football field in length. It meant for a lot of potential reds, speaking of...
Sarge turned his head in the direction of Ruby and this 'Blake' character, the newcomer seemed mostly silent so far. Giving out monosyllabic responses, which was matched by Ruby who seemed to be running her mouth faster than Carolina with her speed booster.
"-And then Yang got angry. Like really, really angry and totally punched him through the wall, but she got a detention for it, but on the bright side no one tried to steal my books again."
Sarge remembered that day, it was a fun one.
But Blake seemed more confused than anything, "But why did they try and take your books?"
"Cause they couldn't beat me in combat class. "Ruby shrugged, "Which isn't much of a surprise, really, cause of my Aura."
Blake opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out a loud voice called out
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot."
It was Yang, waving her arm to signal Ruby, Caboose was already by her side.
"Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!" Then Ruby went off faster than Blake could reply, leaving the possible ninja to shrug and wander off.
Sarge went over to the familiar faces.
Sarge always like Yang, as violent and as fond of shotguns as Sarge himself was, he reckoned they'd get along famously if they could actually chat.
"Well, I-a made a friend."
Seems they didn't even wait for him to start the conversation. Rude.
Yang went still for a moment, "A friend?"
"Yep."
"As in another, living person?"
"Yep."
Sarge saw the signs before it happened and tried to warn her, "Look out Ruby, she's gonna-"
But it was too late.
Ruby's face went red as her namesake as Yang crushed the younger girl in a hug that rivalled Caboose's (Sarge often wondered who was stronger), who promptly tried to join in only to phase through the two girls.
"Hey! No fair! Where's my hug?"
"A-a-a-air." Came the gasps, poor soul, at least this was valuable endurance training.
"Oh!" Yang released her sister, "Tell me everything."
But before anything happened Wash's (voice) double walked up on stage.
"I'll... keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
Eh, Sarge had heard (and gave) better speeches. Like the one he gave before they face the meta. Now that was a speech.
He turned to tell Washington himself exactly that, only to find him missing.
"Where's Wash?"
Blake Belladonna watched her target carefully. She did so through the corner of her eye, using a book as cover.
This was a common tactic she used in the White Fang for recon in missions in public areas.
Fortunately this particular target seemed to be not as observant as all of her previous target (back when she was still with the White Fang), only being a fellow student and not an Atlas specialist.
This target was a girl called Ruby Rose.
Blake's interest in the younger girl was sparked on the bulkhead to Beacon.
She had been reading the same book she was reading now and had overheard something that had made her very interested in where Ruby had come from.
"Well, Beacon should be better than project freelancer."
A week before Blake had left the White Fang, a team arrived from a data retrieval mission with files regarding projects for the Atlas military and Schnee dust company. The file was heavily corrupted due to hasty retrieval but the names of the projects stood out. Project stardust, project iron-fist, project black sabre and project freelancer.
Now months later, Blake has found a fellow student explicitly mention "project freelancer" when talking to herself.
This could not be a coincidence or mistake, even covered by her bow, her Faunus ears could not have misheard her.
So Blake followed, kept her distance watched as Ruby talked to someone (presumably on an earpiece) when she saw her interact with a 'sister' that looked nothing like Ruby.
She watched the confrontation with the infamous Weiss Schnee, who Ruby apparently did not recognise. Then Blake saw an opportunity to interact with Ruby and hope she might mistakenly give her a clue as to what was project freelancer.
But when the younger girl started talking, she. Did. Not. Stop.
Blake only had to give the most minimalist responses for Ruby to start rambling. Still by time they parted ways Blake had managed to get a fair bit of information out of Ruby.
Firstly, Ruby was socially awkward/had little friends. This was obvious in the way Ruby had been rambling, giving far too much information about herself and not trusting the conversation to continue when she stopped talking.
Secondly, Ruby had grown up on Patch and went to Signal. Unless Ruby was a compulsive liar, she could not fake that many details about her time at signal.
Thirdly, the name of her sister was 'Yang.'
And finally, Ruby herself was only fifteen. Not the age one would expect for a Beacon student. While Ruby didn't say why she had gotten in so early, Blake could only assume it was for a good reason. Possibly something to do with her aura as the younger girl had mentioned.
Still… looking at Ruby now, it seemed that she was currently writing a letter of some sort and would most likely be doing it for a while.
Satisfied that her target was not going anywhere, Blake turned back to her book and started to properly read it.
'The Man with Two Souls' it was one of her favourites and with the sequel "The Man With Two Souls II: The Man With Four Souls" being released next month, there was no better time for a reread.
"To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it in with Hyde, was to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless. The bargain might appear unequal; but the-"
Blake stopped reading for a moment as she contemplated the richness of the characters. What would it be like to have to have two souls? To be in a constant struggle for control, to watch as another controls your body, unable to do anything. How much angst and darkness would that person have as they went about life? What grim things would they say?
"Hi Blake!"
It was years of practice that kept Blake from jumping out of her skin.
From the corner of her eye she saw it was Ruby and her sister.
"Hello Ruby," Her eyes did not leave the page. The book was getting to one of the best bits, she was not stopping now. Fishing for information could come later.
"This is my sister, Yang."
She continued reading.
"Nice to meet you… Blake, right?"
She turned the page. "Yes, good to meet you."
"Well she's chatty," Yang muttered sarcastically to her sister.
"Q-quiet she could hear you."
"No she can't."
Blake could.
Ruby tried a new avenue of conversation.
"What's it about?"
Blake stopped reading the sentence she was on and turned her eye's to meet Ruby's "Well... I-it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."
Blake put her eye's back to the page when Ruby's next sentence shocked her.
"I need that book."
Blake physically turned her head up in time to see Yang give Ruby a light smack on the head.
"Ruby be nice." Yang scolded.
"I a-mean I w-would like to borrow you book when, you're done, please?"
"why?" Blake tilted her head quizzically.
Ruby seemed to try and scramble for an answer, "W-well, I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!"
That made Blake laugh a little, "And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" She asked, some of her realism (pessimism) colour the question.
"Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books" Ruby gave a pause. "Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!"
Blake considered this and thought "That's... very ambitious for a child." and told Ruby the same. "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."
"Well, that's why we're here! To make it better." Ruby replied nobly.
The big sister, Yang gave a wide smile and hugged Ruby into the air. "Oh, I am so proud of my baby sister!"
"Cut it out!" Came Ruby's cry as she kicked out of the hug and the forced sisterly bonding devolved into a mess of fighting limbs.
Blake laughed internally at the sight and decided despite the differing looks they were definitely siblings.
But the fun was ruined when Weiss Schnee stormed onto the scene in her own pyjamas as Ruby caught and trapped Yang's leg. "What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"
If Blake had known that a Schnee was going to Beacon instead of Atlas academy, Blake isn't sure she would have chosen Beacon.
"Who are you supposed to be, princess?" Yang asked.
Ruby ignored this and said "Shh! Guys, she's right! People are trying to sleep!"
"Who am I supposed to be?!" Schnee cried out indignantly.
Blake, who rolled her eyes at the fight, it looked like she wasn't going to get anymore reading done tonight. Noting the page she closed the book, blew out the nearby candle and lied back waiting for sleep to take her.
Ruby was shaking out of anticipation at the cliff overlooking the forest.
She was here! At Beacon a whole two years early!
And despite the warnings Yang gave that they might not for some reason be on the same team, Ruby was sure she could handle it, she had three friends in Sarge, Caboose and Wash. Plus Blake, who was like her first new friend in years! So Ruby would be fine.
She would take out all of the Grimm using Crescent Rose and pass initiation, be a part of the greatest team since her mom's and be the best huntress ever. Of all time.
She then saw something that made her even more excited.
"Wash!" She whisper-yelled.
"Ruby," The Freelancer nodded. "Sorry I was late."
"Never mind late, where were you yesterday? No one knew where you were!"
"I was doing some recon, exploring the school." Ruby opened her mouth but Wash cut her off. "I'll tell you more later, what's the game plan here?"
Seeing Ozpin and Glynda making their way to the cliffs, Ruby tilted her head in the direction of Sarge, who caught on and began explaining.
"Well, the plan as is, is for one of us to stay with Ruby here, while the others will follow the, other students, an' get an idea of possible teammates."
Wash considered this for a moment, the gears turning in Wash's head were practically visible as he considered the plan.
"It could work, who's sticking with Ruby?" Wash asked and Ruby grinned. Success! She had made a plan that Wash didn't dismiss a "terrible" or "impractical".
"I'll watch over the future of the reds." Said Sarge as he went to her side on her silver tile.
"I shall go with Snow White! She is the best princess!" said Caboose as he took a place next to the crabby rich girl, Weiss if she remembered what was yelled at Yang correctly.
"I'll go with Jaune." Wash said, causing Sarge to tilt his helmet confusedly.
"Who's that?"
"Someone interesting." Was all he said cryptically, before going to the boy she remembered vomited on Yang's shoes.
Ozpin was now in front of the group with miss Goodwitch, causing Ruby to snap to attention.
"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin started at length.
Goodwitch continued. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."
Very forward and a bit concerning but she could handle that.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin told the gathered.
Ruby gave out an involuntary groan, what if her team didn't work well? What if they thought she was weird!?
Ozpin gave no comfort "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
Ruby was fairly certain that she heard something shatter, probably her brain.
"What."
Ozpin ignored this "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."
"Finally some action," Sarge chipped in his two cents.
"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"
The blonde next to Wash had one but was ignored.
"Good! Now, take your positions."
Ruby got into a suitably awesome looking pose.
"Ready, Big Red?" asked Sarge, to which Ruby grinned and nodded. She was born ready.
She ignored the blond asking the headmaster something and saw Weiss being spring-boarded into the air. Taking Caboose with her.
Then went Yang.
Then she was flying.
As she flew she had a massive grin on her face. This was it. The start on her journey to being the best huntress of all time.
This was the first step.
Notes:
Bonjour all! This is a remastered version of my first fic ever; mostly spelling, grammar and minor plot fixes.
From now I'll be sending out the remaining chapters on a weekly basis.
Not much else to say now except thanks for reading!