Chapter 1: Rose Petals on the Wind

One of Signal's premier third years and trained daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long shivered under the cold, fall Valean wind. Ruby had, much to her misgivings, been abandoned by the sister she had come into the city with and was now stuck waiting under a lamp post.

Yang had said she would be half an hour, 2 hours ago. Which was pretty much the reason why Ruby wore such a grim frown upon her face, born out of concern for her sister but mostly out of annoyance that she had been made to wait under a holographic lamp post for almost half the time she'd been in the city.

The weather was not helping. Vale is famous, or infamous depending on who you asked, for fall winds which were currently chilling her to her bones, despite her rudimentary attempts at protection against them. Namely wrapping herself in her cloak.

Ruby blew into her hands and rubbed them together, busying herself in keeping warm. Unaware of the other pedestrians around, who mostly ignored her, mostly.

One group, composed of several men in black suits and red sunglasses, led by a man wearing a white suit, was not as kind to the 15-year-old girl.

"Move it girly!" One of the black-suited men shoved her confrontingly.

She staggered backward and with her back to a wall, regarded her assaulter, the only colour in his clothing asides from his glasses was an equally red tie. In his left hand he bore a machete, again red, Ruby noticed.

"Watch it!" She asserted, to the surprise of the suited man.

'Whatcha gonna do, Red?' His smirk spoke for him. He then spied the weapon strapped to her back.

He pointed his blade at her, "Hands in the air now." His words were veiled by a thick northern Valean accent.

"Are ... are you mugging me?" Ruby asked, as her teeth chattered in the cold. Despite her innocent appearance, her hands remained planted at her side. Shaking, but planted.

"Yes!" He was agitated now. Ruby nodded and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.

"What the?" The man in white, who had previously been content to play along, spoke, well swore, "Larry, you inbred son of a whore."

Ruby, meanwhile, was hiding behind a dumpster some 30 meters down the road loading Crescent Rose; a variable high-impact sniper scythe she'd built, a fact she remains very proud of.

"Alright," she heard the man taunt, "Where'd little red go?"

Ruby dove into plain view, "Hey!". She swung Crescent Rose down before her.

The White suit-wearing man gestured to her with his cane, "Get her." The others charged at her. Ruby pulled the trigger. The first fell on his ass with a cry of pain.

"Yes! Score!" She cheered. The newly approaching thug brought his blade down on Ruby. She blocked it with her scythe and used her semblance to dodge around her opponent. She brought the blunt part of her scythe down hard on his back. He collapsed.

Any premature victory celebrations were quickly interrupted by the third man, who delivered Ruby a mighty blow to her back with his sword. "Finish her off, already!" The leader ordered.

Ruby spun around. Crescent Rose collided with the man, he flew backwards at quite a speed.

The final thug slowed and started to circle Ruby. She shrugged. Her Semblance activated once more and she spun in circles. The man rose higher into the air as Ruby created a tornado around him. She stopped. He fell 30 feet.

"You must be pretty bad criminals if you got beat by a little girl," Ruby nervously jests.

The man in white chuckled, "Now, now red. You should know better than to aggravate your superiors." He raised his cane towards her. An aiming reticle popped up. Ruby's eyes dilated as she looked down the barrel of a gun.

He pulled the trigger. For Ruby, time slowed right down. She saw a dust crystal leave the barrel towards the target, her. She looked around: a wall behind her, no good. To the left and right was clear but Dust has a high explosion radius, no way she could clear the blast in time.

She had one choice: Forward. She ran towards the crystal, locking her eyes onto it the entire time. She watched the distance close, a meter, half a meter, a quarter of a meter. Right before it was about to hit, she stopped and activated her semblance.

Without movement, her semblance transformed her into a cloud of rose petals, none of which were big enough to set off the Dust round. It went right through her. Her petals coalesced, and she was intact.

"My turn!" Ruby planted the blade of her precious weapon into the ground and pulled the trigger. The leader was blessed with no such ability to turn into a cloud of anything, so he was knocked on his ass just as his henchman was a minute ago.

Ruby closed her eyes, about to start gloating, but she felt heat: Such unimaginable heat. Everything was burning. Her eyes flung open again, she was surrounded by flames. They were getting closer with every second.

"GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH" She heard a familiar voice. Yang's voice, followed by the signature crack of Ember Cecilia.

"Miss Xiao Long, stay back!" Another voice one she didn't recognise. Ruby was floating now, upwards, over the fire. A woman with curly, but very put together, blond hair was standing next to Ruby's very own sister, Yang Xiao Long, who was also a woman with curly blond hair. Though Yang's more closely resembled the explosion she just narrowly avoided.

Yang looked like she was ready to murder someone, the other woman looked ready to murder Ruby. Yang started firing. Ruby spun around, for a brief second through the flame she saw someone, a woman in a red dress, and a twisted smile without a soul behind it.

And as soon as she had appeared she slipped back into the flames. Ruby wasn't sure whether there had been anyone there at all.

"Young lady, I need you to come with me." The older lady ordered. Ruby gulped.

Ruby looked around the room she was in for what seemed the 50th time. The walls were concrete, as was the floor and the ceiling. A small window behind her with bars on it. And a single, uncovered light hung sadly above her. It was very much a stereotypical prison cell. With one exception.

Ruby was sitting at a wooden desk, without restraint, though she supposed the angry, blond, not Yang, lady could easily restrain her if she tried to bolt. "Ruby Rose," speaking of the lady, she was now speaking to Ruby, "What were you thinking?"

"I didn't want to fight, they started it," that was the truth, though she wondered if they would have left her alone if she hadn't had Crescent Rose.

"Well, if it weren't for someone very special with an interest in you, you'd likely be facing destruction of property and armed battery charges right now. Did you think that there could have been people in the building behind you when you dodged that dust crystal?"

If Ruby was to tell the truth, she did not. She was ever so slightly focused on living to see tomorrow. "Um, no?"

"Glynda," a new voice entered, it sounded old and weary, "Leave Ruby alone. She performed admirably given the situation."

The owner of the voice stepped into view, he looked old, yet came off as strangely young. His hair was grey and he carried the weight of age in act and speech, but he lacked the other telltale signs of age.

"Now, Miss Rose, can you tell me why you did that?" He asked.

Ruby was confused, the answer was obvious surely. Was she being tricked? "It was self-defense, they attacked me."

"Yes, that was what you did," he added emphasis on the what, "but I am interested in why you did it, your average teenage girl wouldn't usually fight would-be muggers with a scythe."

"Eheh, yeah," Ruby nervously laughed and pulled at the neck of her tunic, "Well, I want to be a huntress and I've been training with Crescent rose, that's my weapon by the way, and I was waiting for my sister and she was taking forever and then these men started harassing me and I…"

She cut herself off, "Sorry, those men started harassing me while I was waiting for my sister, and then they saw my weapon and immediately started threatening me. I didn't want to give into their threats, so I fought back."

The old man smiled, "If more people stood up for themselves our world would be a lot fairer. Ruby, may I ask, do you know who I am?"

"You're," it dawned on her who she was talking to, "You're Professor Ozpin, you run Beacon. Which would make you Professor Goodwitch, Dad says you're the one who actually does everything."

"Tai would," Glynda mutters.

"Indeed miss Rose," Ruby's attention snaps back to Ozpin, "Though I can't confirm that last part, I can say you are one hundred percent correct with your identifications. If you want to be a huntress, would you, perchance, want to go to my school?"

"Yes," Ruby said, trying to hide her excitement.

"Hm," Ozpin looked her up and down, he puzzled slightly, then turned his attention to the weapon in the corner of the room, "Well I suppose we could fit you in." He smiled.

The door exploded. For the second time in as many hours, the world went into slow motion for Ruby. She watched as Professor Goodwitch reached for her riding crop, she was moving too slow, why didn't she just use her semblance without it.

Ruby didn't know or care, she wasn't going to allow the man who just let her into his school get killed or injured in a door-related accident.

She spun up her own semblance and rushed past Glynda, to Ozpin. She grabbed the man's hand and dove left, dragging him with her.

The door flew overhead and a very startled Ozpin found himself on the floor next to the wreck of what had been the chair he was sitting on. "OZPIN!" The voice came from outside, it belonged to her father.

Ruby was quietly smiling to herself. It was not everyday someone got to watch their father receive a stern talking to, especially when her father was the only parent present. That caused the smile to fade, she missed her mom.

"Remnant to Ruby!" Yang's arm swept Ruby out of her thoughts.

"Huh! Wha?" Ruby stuttered.

"I was saying that it was so brilliant how you were coming to Beacon with me," Yang said, practically glowing.

Her dad grunted to himself. "What?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby," Taiyang said, "it's not that I don't think you won't get to Beacon one day, but I don't think you're ready now. You're two years too young for gods' sakes."

"Ozpin thinks I'm ready," Ruby argued back, and she crossed her arms while pouting.

"I know Ozpin thinks you're ready, but, I," he faltered, took a breath and started again, "I just worry that your mother said the exact same thing when she left. I just can't lose you as well."

"I'll be fine, Yang'll watch over me!" Ruby said.

"Yeah, ok. Ruby, can you go and start making dinner, your sister and I will be along in a sec to help."

"K!" The ruby-cloaked girl disappeared in a blur of red rose petals.

"And don't use your semblance in the house!" Taiyang called after her.

"Dad?" Taiyang turned back to his daughter's raised eyebrow.

"Yang, I need," he stumbled over his words a little, "would you look after Ruby."

"Sure, Dad, of course, but you didn't need to ask me that?" Yang replied, somewhat offended.

"I know, I know but, I don't want her to be alone. Roses don't do well on solo missions. Both her mother and her grandfather died on one, I don't want Ruby to keep with the family tradition."

"Dad, I love her, but I can't follow her for the rest of her life."

"I know Yang, I know. Just try and make sure she doesn't go out alone for now?"

"Sure, Dad, sure."

"Dad! Yang! The Food Is Going Black! What Do I Do!" Ruby's voice brought them back into the room.

"Hang on Ruby! Me 'n Dad will help." They rush to salvage their kitchen.

The smoke alarm went off. Ruby's shrill shriek was heard all over Patch.

Roman Torchwick strutted slowly through the abandoned warehouse that his employer worked from, he emphasized that he was going slowly to himself, anything to avoid her wrath. She had not sounded pleased when he had called her for help.

He rounded the corner to find her waiting for him. He knew he was a dead man now, no point stalling any longer. "Cinder."

"Roman." Her face was unreadable, which really irked Roman.

"I wanna say, that was not my fault, the Hired Help did not live up to their title. Hired Saboteur, perhaps, but certainly not Hired Help."

"Oh, Roman. I don't blame you for what happened tonight, which is a shame for you." Her calm and almost charming tone took Roman off guard.

"Eh?" His eyebrow shot up in confusion. Why was Cinder not blaming them for the failure of a robbery this evening bad for him?

"Despite your dramatic failure of your robbery, I've found the last piece on the board. Now we can begin to play."

Roman was still confused. "What do you mean? We've always known where Ozpin and his crew were."

"Perhaps, perhaps. But now, the last daughter of summer is known to us. And the king is forced to protect her."

AN: Updated with actual grammar and spelling, magic! I have an editor now, and she's spent the last hour yelling at me about Comma's and were, where, and We're. Can't complain though, she's been a great help. Anyhow, if you like it, and especially if you didn't, I would really appreciate a review saying what you liked and what you didn't. Thanks for you time!