What Ruby had expected to see when she emerged from the attic of... well wherever she was, was maybe a simple house that doubled as a little medical clinic with the way the attic was set up, heck maybe even a full-blown clinic would have been enough for her expectations. However, when Ruby finished descending the rickety, wooden ladder that connected the two parts of the house, what greeted her was... well, a mess. The immediate room that Ruby found herself seemed to be the main room of the building, with a few chairs set up in a way that people could watch the small television that was turned on and playing the news at a low volume, with several tools and gadgets stacked on top of the TV. The room also had a small metal table with a lace tablecloth across its surface, although the tablecloth had a myriad of stains on it and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time; there was a half-smashed pizza box on the table as well as a glass of ice water, both indicating that the owner of the house had eaten in a hurry and forgotten about the rest of the food.

And yet, there was still more to the mess. Several small boxes that contained various pieces of metal parts and tools were scattered here and there, and on one wall, Ruby could barely make out part of a metal sign that was half covered by a mishmash of papers.

General Store

Clinic

Workshop (Yer' Standing In It!)

Overall, Ruby was utterly perplexed by the state that everything was in, but after a few moments of looking around, she noticed the small wood burning stove that had a small porcelain teapot sat on top of it, a single cup sat next to it with a bit of steam wafting out of it. As Ruby carefully navigated her way across the room, she glanced around, trying to find some sign of the man she'd seen a few minutes ago, but found no signs of him. So, no wanting to make him in any way more annoyed, she quickly grabbed the pre-poured cup of tea and began sipping at it as she peered over at the television.

"And in other news: today Beacon Academy officially declared the death of one of its students recently. Ruby Rose: Leader of Team RWBYA was officially declared deceased this Tuesday. A young woman of only nineteen, she was the youngest team leader to attend the academy in almost 25 years, and was considered by many at the academy to be a prodigy.

She was apparently injured in a training exercise with her team when a horde of Grimm attacked. Apparently, she was injured in an attempt to protect her teammates, and subsequently passed away early Tuesday morning in the hospital. She leaves behind an older sister and Father, both of which have refused to comment on the tragedy. Miss Rose will be surely missed."

Ruby stared at the screen of the television for several seconds as the news continued on, her eyes narrowed in anger at the obvious lie that had been fabricated to explain her disappearance. She knew without a doubt that Ozpin was most certainly behind it; after all, who else at Beacon had the kind of influence to tell the news something like that? Her teammates wouldn't have had anything to do with the cover up, and certainly not Qrow or her dad. Was she just another person that had died because of Ozpin? Another number, someone who meant so little that the truth wasn't worth the risk? Either way, Ruby made her way over towards the television and changed the channel, letting out a quiet frustrated grunt as she did so.

"Hey kid, I was watching that!"

Ruby blinked quickly a few times before she turned her head to the side, finding that acid was standing in front of the sign with a cup of tea held in his hand, a new cigarette sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Ruby raised an eyebrow, then glanced back to the television with an apologetic look on her face.

"S-Sorry, I didn't know. I'm just not a big fan of the news, kinda boring..." Ruby lied as she stood there.

Cid shrugged as he took a sip from his cup, grumbling quietly. "Ah, whatever. Don't bother me none, I understand how you feel. Never been one for any of that crap myself anyways..." he paused and reached around the corner to grab a slice of pizza and pulled it out of the box, taking a large bite out of the slice before he looked at Ruby again. "Glad to see yer' on yer' feet though. When you were brought in, you looked like hell."

"Brought in?" Ruby asked quietly.

"Yea, couple'a Hunters brought you in. Said you were out in the woods by yerself and got attacked by an Apathy. So, I took you off their hands and checked you over, made sure you weren't dead. Surprise for me when I found that huge burn on your side, and the infection in your system. Hell, if I hadn't given you the meds that I had, you probably would've been a goner by tomorrow morning, what with how high a fever you had and how dehydrated you were."

Ruby felt her blood go cold after hearing how bad she had been, a bit terrified from the idea of being a victim of an Apathy. She'd heard about them from Qrow once or twice; how they could drain a person's willpower and even cause hallucinations, but hearing about it and being the victim of it were two very different things. Ruby glanced to the side a moment, then lightly scratched at the back of her head.

"Uh, thanks for the help, I guess," She said quietly.

Cid shook his head after he swallowed another bite of food, waving his hand dismissively. "Don't mention it... Though, I hope you don't mind that I let you borrow an old tank-top of mine. Figured yer' clothes needed washing, and I couldn't find much else that would fit ya'."

Ruby shook her head, blinking a couple of times. "No, it's fine... I understand," She said quickly, despite feeling a bit uneasy about a stranger having taken her clothes off, even if it was just to help her. Ruby fell silent again as she took another sip of tea, then looked over at one of the many boxes that was overflowing with metal parts, then smirked a little.

"You sure do have a lot of spare parts laying around," Ruby mused quietly.

"Yeah? Tends to pile up a bit. Having three jobs at the same time, projects get outta hand more often than not. Why, you think it's a mess?!" Cid asked in a bit of an impatient tone.

"No, I just thought it was interesting. Reminds me of..." Ruby trailed off when her eyes wandered over a couple of pieces of conjoined metal that were bent out of shape, their red paint looking scuffed and worn.

Cid crossed his arms after setting his teacup down, looking at Ruby curiously. "Something wrong? Seem like you seen a ghost there kid," Cid paused then blinked a couple of times. "Hell, that's another thing: you got a name? I'd hate to keep calling you 'kid' if you actually have something you'd prefer to be called something else."

Ruby's face twitched a couple of times, her good eye glancing over towards the television as she thought about the news broadcast she had seen. After a moment of thinking about it, she finally cleared her throat and answered. "Rose. Just call me Rose."

"Rose, huh?" Cid repeated, not voicing the hint of disbelief that he felt. "Alright, well. Suppose now that we got that out of the way... I don't know what you were doing out in the woods by yerself, and I don't much give a damn. Hell, you seem like the sort who wants to keep to themselves, so I won't go poking at yer' private life. You wanna git' outta here, go ahead. Just don't go screwing up the work I did to keep you alive, alright? I don't want to find out you ended up dead cause you did something stupid."

Ruby looked back at Cid, raising an eyebrow curiously as the man waved his hand above his shoulder and walked off, heading towards the direction of the workshop. She watched him go, remaining quiet as Cid slammed a rickety, wooden door closed behind him. Ruby glanced back at the cup of tea she had set down next to the television, then sighed as she made a point to follow the man, carefully closing the door behind her.

Cid was leaned over a large machine with a series of pulleys and other various parts protruding off of it, a seat sitting on the top with a few levers and switches set into a makeshift console that was set into the center of the hulking machine. It all looked like a mess of machines and wires to Ruby, but yet it somehow made a bit of sense, like it was supposed to be a combination of an airship and a car... or something.

The large machine belched out a black cloud of exhaust, making Ruby stare at it with concern, but as a loud motor started rumbling, she stepped closer and hummed before she leaned over herself, grabbing a wrench off the top of the machine and taking off a metal panel. Cid was about to start shouting at her, but then the loud, rumbling growl went quiet as Ruby stood back up, spinning the wrench in her hand as the motor seemed to calm down.

"What'd you do? How the hell'd you know it'd stop making that noise?" Cid asked, yanking the wrench out of Ruby's hand.

Ruby merely shrugged, the pointed at where the exhaust had come from. "The exhaust pipe was shaking too hard. So I tightened it down, ended up also fixing the problem with the noise," Ruby paused then looked to Cid. "What is this thing anyway?"

Cid looked at the machine with a huff. "One of those projects I mentioned. Been working on it fer' a couple of years, trying to make a machine that don't rely on Dust as a power supply, but... Well, it ain't going real well." Cid peered over at Ruby curiously. "You some sort of mechanic or somethin'? Would've thought you were based on how you knew how to do that. Most kids 'round here don't even know how to hold a wrench, let alone what an exhaust pipe is."

"No, not a mechanic. Just someone who knows a bit about how machines and other stuff works; don't worry about it too much. Kind of a neat idea though. It'd be cool to see a machine that could work like that..." Ruby said as she turned around, heading back for the door quietly.

Cid narrowed his eyes, then followed her, grabbing Ruby by the shoulder gently. "Hey, uh... you know, i didn't mean what I said. You ain't gotta leave now, I'm just used to people running off. Not a lot of people round here like sticking around the guy who spends his time working on machines all the time."

Ruby held still a few moments, then sighed as she looked back over her shoulder, her damaged eye staring silently. "It's alright. I've got something I have to take care of anyways. I appreciate your help though, really. If it weren't for your help, I'd be dead, so thank you; but I have to go." Ruby faced forward again, then slipped through the door, leaving the man alone with the rumbling machine.

"...Damn it. Great job, Cid." He muttered, turning to kick his foot against the machine, causing it to let out a loud roar before it shut off. "Poor kid."

Later that night, Ruby was back on the road, having found her missing clothing rather quickly as Cid had had them brought to his house as soon as they were cleaned. Admittedly, Ruby hadn't meant to leave so unexpectedly, but she knew that staying would probably just end with more questions being asked; questions that Ruby didn't want asked, seeing as they would more than likely end up being ones about her past. And she frankly didn't want anyone to know about what she'd done; not if 'Ruby Rose' was already dead.

Ruby had no real supplies, not after climbing her way out of a ravine after falling off a cliff. Her scroll was broken from having been utterly soaked from water, her scythe was gone, and she had nothing in terms of food either, but she knew that she wasn't far from Haven. She'd be able to get some supplies there, most likely; and if not, well she could always hop onto an airship and get closer to returning to Sa-

As Ruby walked down the road, her thoughts suddenly froze instantly. She couldn't go back; not yet. If she even dared trying to return to Salem without Haven's Relic, she might as well be asking for death. She wasn't sure exactly what would happen if she returned empty-handed, but Ruby had a feeling that it wouldn't be good. Humming to herself thoughtfully, Ruby looked to the side and stared at a sign that had a few directional arrows pointing in the directions of a few nearby settlements, then pinched the bridge of her nose as she started walking in the direction of one of them.

"What am I doing? She's not even there, I bet. This is a dumb idea..." Ruby muttered as she passed the sign, trudging down the side of the road towards Haven.

AN:

I know a lot didn't happen in this chapter, and so I just wanted to quickly apologize for that. I've been having some problems on the home-front, so I thought a nice calm chapter would be easier to write than something with more action or drama.

And in regards to last chapter, in terms of the 'plan' that was mentioned briefly that Ruby had; just know that it's something that actually has been more or less mentioned before. It wasn't exactly spelled out in black and white, but it has been referred to in the past.

Anyways, hope this chapter was okay.

As Always

SR