Chapter Ten: Secrets and Second Chances
She felt like she had been falling for an eternity. As seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and so on, Yang could not stop the sinking feeling in her chest. Looking around the room, Yang knew she wasn't the only one feeling the way she did. The solemnity of the situation was stifling. She had expected tears and sobbing, however there would be none today. They all felt the pain, the heartbreak, the despair. Despite the tragic scene before them, none could bring themselves to cry. A funeral is meant to be a sad occasion, however this was far worse than one would have imagined. Yang understood the atmosphere in the room though. Despite everything they felt, nothing weighed on their hearts greater than the crippling pain of failure.
The crowd wasn't anything spectacular, but it was to be expected. They had only told family and friends about the funeral. Teams WBY, JNPR, as well as Taiyang, and Ozpin had come to pay their respects to the departed girl. Despite the sparse attendance of the funeral, there had been an outcrying of support for the family. Not just from those who knew them, but most of Vale. After her trial, and subsequent vindication after the attack on Vale, Ruby had become known all across the kingdom. Shortly after her death, a reporter had gotten his hands on all the information pertaining to Ruby's whereabouts the last three years. The news exploded overnight, quickly turning her sister into a hero, and a martyr.
It had been two months since she had met her sister again; two months since Ruby Rose died. Since that horrid night, it had felt like every day was a year. Even so, the memories of that night were still vivid in her mind. She had played through the memories a thousand times, trying to figure out what went wrong. Yang had done the same three years ago, at the time, blaming herself for Ruby's disappearance.
Team WBY sat motionless on the street where Ruby had left them. At first Yang had felt distraught, the longer she sat there the greater her anger boiled. Sparing a glance at her teammates, she found them to be sitting on the ground in a pathetic state of defeat. Their disgusting expressions were the last straw in Yang's mind. Jumping up, Yang began storming for the entrance to the building before them.
"Yang, where are you going?" she heard Weiss yell from behind her.
"I'm going to find out what that bastard did to my sister!" Yang screamed, her eyes burning red.
"Halt. Identify yoursel-" one of the Atlesian knights began to order Yang, moments before she delivered a crushing blow to the machine's sternum. The resulting force, launching it back into the wall of the building. The remainder of the machines immediately aimed their weapons at Yang in response. Two white glyphs appeared before Yang, an immense sword wielding arm sprouting out of each. Yang didn't need to turn around to know, that her teammates had joined her.
"If you're going to run off like an idiot, you could at least warn us first," her feline partner joked from behind her. Yang simply grinned in response.
"Let's make this asshole pay," Weiss spoke with venom in her voice, raising her sword.
"Order received. Standing down," just as the girls readied themselves for a fight, the robotic voice interrupted them. In perfect cohesion, the knights all lowered their weapons, returning to patrol.
WIthout another glance, team WBY stormed past the mechanical soldiers and into the building. In the dark of the night, the girls would have been hopelessly lost in the massive building if they had not visited it before. They sprent not a second making their way through the building, promptly finding themselves at the door to Ironwood's office. Yang didn't care to give the courtesy of a knock, barging straight into Ironwood's office. Inside the dimly lit office General Ironwood sat at his desk, a bottle of whiskey at his side and a look of defeat on his face.
"You son of a bitch. How dare you sit there looking so damn pathetic?" Yang stated more than asked.
Blake laid a hand on her partner's shoulder, "Yang, he can't talk if he's dead. At least wait until we get answers."
Ironwood let out a low chuckle at the statement, "You can spare me the...intimidation act," Ironwood grumbled as he poured himself more whiskey, "None of you have the capacity to take a life in cold blood. No…. not like her. If she wanted me dead..." Ironwood sipped from his liquor, staring down into the amber liquid, "Well, I wouldn't have let the three of you in here so easily, if I wasn't already planning on telling you everything."
Weiss sneered at Ironwood's drunken rambling, "You're disgusting Ironwood. How the hell do you live with yourself?"
Another chuckle escaped his lips, "If it makes you feel any better, I disgust myself too," Ironwood looked down, pulling open one of his desk drawers. Reaching his hand into the drawer, he timidly pulled out a small length of chain. At a closer look one could see two metallic tags hanging from the chain, "I was never supposed to be the one sitting here. I've never been very good at making these decisions. He was always so much better at this."
"What the hell are you rambling about?" Yang demanded.
Weiss looked at the general with a forlorn expression, "I'll explain later Yang," Weiss marched up to Ironwood's desk, snatching away the bottle of whiskey, "We came here for answers! If you want to wallow in self pity, do it on your own time."
Ironwood mumbled under his breath, before letting out a sigh and gently replacing the metal tags, "I suppose you're right Miss Schnee. I do apologize, things have become far more complicated than I had ever intended. I have no one but myself to blame, for things getting so far out of hand."
"I think you should probably start at the beginning Ironwood," Blake ordered.
"The beginning… sounds like a great place to start. It may take a while, it may be best if you all took a seat," the general suggested.
"We'll be fine on our feet," Yang answered.
"Of course," there was a moment of trepid silence as Ironwood contemplated where to begin, " I first met Ruby Rose in the furthest reaches of the northern region of Mantle. However, when I met her, she wasn't Ruby Rose," Ironwood picked up a folder off of his desk, handing it to Yang.
Looking down at it, Yang read the label, "Scarlette Summers?" she opened the folder, her eyes going wide at what she saw inside. Her teammates expressions mirrored hers, all three reading through the extensive documentation inside, "This is-"
"Ruby...fuck," Blake finished her partner's sentence.
Weiss' entire body seemed to convulse in anger, "You bastard! What did you do?"
"I had nothing to do with that. Almost three years ago, an eighteen year old Scarlette Summers barged into Atlas Military recruiting office, and demanded to be sent to the Redemption Corps. When the Recruiter refused to let her, she pointed her weapon at him and asked if she'd be sent there for blowing his head off. Well, after that he certainly didn't hesitate," Ironwood explained while staring longingly at the bottle in Weiss' hand.
"What the hell is the Redemption Corps?" Yang narrowed her eyes at Ironwood.
"It's-"
"It's Atlas' alternative to the death sentence!" the vile evident in Blake's voice, as she cut the man off, "It's where they send criminals to die. They're given the promise of a fresh start if they survive for two years. When in reality, no one is expected to live for more than a few months."
"Well.. quite the subject matter expert, aren't we Miss Belladonna?" Ironwood turned his attention over to Weiss, "Would you give that back already?"
"When you finish, keep talking," Weiss stated.
The general let out a deep sigh, "Well you're mostly right. That's how things used to be, until Scarlette Summer arrived."
"Ruby, her name is Ruby Rose," Yang corrected him.
Ironwood scoffed at her, "Perhaps she was when you knew her. I'll let you decide whether Ruby and Scarlette are the same person, when I finish. I'll try to keep things brief, if you want any further details about this portion of things, you can find it in those reports. Every single mission she took part in during the Corps, is detailed in the reports there. Most of those she wrote herself."
Yang thumbed through the pages, confirming what Ironwood had said.
"She was exceptional from the day she arrived there. All the horrible things we believed about the Corps to be permanence was turned on it's head. Due to the state of things in the Redemption Corps, we always left an Atlas officer in charge of each section of the Corps. However, the officers in charge of her company seemed to always perish much more expediently than others. That, coupled with Summer's exceptional leadership abilities, led the commander of the corps to make her the Corps' first ever field commission."
"She was commissioned as a lieutenant, a month later promoted to Captain. When she left she was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel," Weiss stated, reading over one of the papers from the folder.
"She was unbelievable. I signed off on her field commision at Colonel Faught's recommendation, then a month later her company's commander died. Colonel Faught suggested simply promoting her. I of course, thought that idea was just absurd. Faught was insistent though, so I agreed to fly up and meet her before making a final decision," Ironwood's mouth twisted into a sorrowful smile, "I knew the second I met her, that she was someone great. When I landed, she was standing outside wearing only a sports bra and shorts training with nearly two dozen men, with more standing around waiting their turn. I can still remember, it was below zero, and there she was hardly dressed, dripping in sweat. I knew she had to have been out there for hours, training without pause. When I finally sat down and talked with her, the first thing I asked her, 'Why would you go so far for such people? For the worst humanity has to offer.'"
"What did she tell you?" Blake asked.
Ironwood's mouth turned up into a full smile, "As if it was the most matter of fact thing in the world, she told me, 'Because I'm a huntress, it's my job to save people.' She never saw them as anything other than people that needed her help."
Yang's expression was pained, doing her best to hold back tears.
"When the day finally arrived for her to leave, the end of her two year stay, a scout reported an endless army of Grimm had appeared making it's way south. That woman instantly started preparing herself and her men to go fight. There wasn't a moment of hesitation, nor a hint of regret at not leaving. We didn't expect her and her men to be anything more than a speed bump while we rallied our forces. We had planned on giving up most of Northern Mantle. Once again, against all odds, she pulled it off. When our forces arrived all that was left was a fraction of the original Grimm. She didn't save all the men, but she saved a lot. What's even more incredible, is we never took single civilian casualty."
"Ruby really was there then?" Weiss questioned, stunned.
"She was at the front of every single charge. Summers had given her men the option of fleeing, told them they didn't have to fight. Not a single man was willing to turn their back on her. That's the kind of leader she was," Ironwood's response was like a shot through the heart for the girls. They all remembered that when the time came for them, they had forsaken their leader.
"So after it was all over, why didn't she come back? She could have become a licensed huntress after two years in the corps, couldn't she?" Weiss pondered solemnly.
"I'm not sure how to answer your question. After the battle, I offered to allow her to continue her service in the Atlas Military, and she readily accepted. Like I said before, after her two years there, she was a different person. That battle in particular seemed to weigh greatly on her. I don't think she was ever able to get over the loss of so many of her men," Ironwood paused for a moment, putting his words in order.
"How long did you know? You still haven't told us," Blake broke the silence.
"I knew the first time I met her," his response came as if it didn't matter.
"Then why wouldn't you do anything? Why would you leave her there to die? Why didn't you tell us that you had found her?" Yang looked as if she was nearly at her breaking point.
"It's complicated, but I think it'll be best if I tell the rest of the story before I get to that. Once Summers came to work for me, I sent her on the task of tracking down Cinder Fall. Once she heard what I had in mind for her, she was all too eager to get started," Ironwood reminisced.
"So when we came here last time, when you told us you knew nothing about her-"
"It was an outright lie. More than that actually, she was right here in this room. Well, quite close to it anyway. She didn't want to face you, so I had her hide in my panic room," every new piece of information Ironwood revealed brought further pain.
"At this point it's not even worth my breath to keep insulting you," Weiss sneered.
"So what about Mistral? What the hell was that about? I can't seem to figure out how Ruby attacking all of her family worked towards the goal of finding Cinder." Yang furthered the interrogation. The painful memories of what had taken place in Mistral spinning in her head. She had nearly forgotten that Qrow had yet to wake from his coma.
"I suppose you wouldn't," Ironwood let out a deep sigh, "Many years ago, we sent a deep cover operative to infiltrate Cinder's operation. However we eventually lost all contact, though we still believed the operative to still be alive. So, her goal was to force the operative out of the dark."
"Then that operative-"
"My mother," the words came solemnly out of Yang's mouth, cutting off her partner.
"That's correct. The last report I received was, that she was about to make contact. After that Summers went dark until tonight. It would appear Summers, Ruby was captured by Cinder Fall and Raven Branwen," Ironwood's voice carried a note of frustration.
"Why? Why would my mom help capture Ruby? Why would she cut off contact if she was undercover? And why would Ruby… why would she-"
"Murder her?" Ironwood cruelly finished Yang's thought.
"You're an ass," Weiss responded.
"So it is worth your breath to continue insulting me," Ironwood mocked, "I suppose those are the million dollar questions."
"And…" Blake demanded.
"And I don't know," Ironwood answered the frustration obvious in his voice.
"Bullshit!" Yang slammed her fists on his desk, fracturing it, and leaving scorch marks.
"I, don't, know," Ironwood stared into Yang's burning red eyes, unperturbed by her fury, "She came in here tonight, asked me some cryptic nonsense, then threatened to kill me. Once she was satisfied, she told me she quit and stormed out. I would like some answers just as badly as you."
"What did she ask?" Weiss furthered their interrogation.
"She asked me, 'If I knew about Raven and her own mother,' after she seemed satisfied that I didn't know what she meant, she said she was done with me," Ironwood answered.
"Raven and her mother? What the hell was she talking about?" Weiss thought out loud.
"We'll just have to ask Ruby herself. Ironwood, I saw Ruby leave with the faunus chick earlier; I want to know where they're going," Yang still hadn't moved from her position against Ironwood's desk.
"I'm willing to tell you, but I don't have an answer for you at the moment. I told my pilot to take the woman wherever the hell she wanted, and leave her there. I figured after everything I owed her at least that much," the man informed them.
"You better hurry up and get us an answer," Weiss warned.
"In the meantime, let's go back to the question from earlier. What the hell were you doing keeping all this a secret from us?" Blake added.
Ironwood scratched his head out of frustration, "That woman is… she's special."
"Just what is it that makes her so special that you have to hide her from us, and use her for your twisted ends?" Yang pressed.
All three girls jumped as the door behind them clicked, and swung open, "I believe I can help shed some light on that," their answer came from a soft mature voice.
"Professor Ozpin! Why are you here?' Weiss' eyes went wide at the sight of the man.
"I was informed that you three and team JNPR had left too Atlas on a definitive lead on Ruby Rose. It appears I've arrived too late, my apologies," Ozpin's voice was soft and remorseful, "However, Ironwood my friend, it appears you have a great deal to answer for. Before we get to that though, there is a great deal I must discuss with you three."
The call had came late that night, just before they had left Ironwood's office. Yang couldn't recall much after being told of her sister's death; it all just seemed like a blur. She had spent the last two months reading over the reports from the Redemption Corps, which made it that much harder to believe it all. To think that someone as strong as Ruby, could be killed by something as ridiculous as mechanical failure was absurd.
"Yang," a gentle voice spoke from behind her, a hand on her shoulder. Yang shook herself from her thoughts, turning to face her dad.
"Are you alright?" he asked caringly.
"No better than you, right now," Yang answered monotone.
"Yang, I'm sorry, If I had been there-"
"Then we would still be standing here, having this conversation, mourning someone that neither of us could save. If anyone's to blame for this, then it's me. I was the one who who turned my back on Ruby," Yang's voice got continually louder as she spoke.
"Honey, that's not true. It's not your fault," Taiyang attempted to comfort Yang.
"It may not be entirely my fault, but I'll never be able to stop second guessing myself. If I had simply supported Ruby, if I had believed her, then would we really be standing here today?" Yang's hands clenched into fists, "The worst part of this, I can hardly feel sad about her loss. I just feel… bitter, angry, spiteful. Every second of every day, since that trial three years ago keeps running through my head. There is so much i could have done-"
Yang was cut off as her father pulled her into a hug, "I know. I understand how you feel, but I'll never blame you. There are so many things that we all could have done. It's too late to change anything now."
Yang couldn't find words to answer her father, instead hugging him back, relishing in the warmth. It felt like they had stood there for an hour, but no one had bothered them, "Dad, I'm going to step outside for a bit. This is all getting to be a little bit too much for me."
"Alright, don't stay out there too long; you'll catch a cold," Taiyang advised her.
Yang simply rolled her eyes at his doting, walking towards the exit. It was well into winter now. The cold helped straighten her thoughts out, helped her keep up the facade she was working so desperately to maintain.
"I would have never thought you could act so well," Weiss' quiet voice spoke from behind her.
Yang let a small smile creep onto her face, "I wasn't acting. Everything I said was true. This fucked up situation is hardly any better, than if Ruby were actually dead. If things had turned out differently, maybe we'd still be team RWBY right now."
"I think that would have been nice. Apparently, she was a pretty incredible leader," Weiss' expression became concerned, "You really think we should continue keeping this a secret from everyone?"
"It's the best way to keep her safe. After everything she's been through… if she can start a new life, get away from everything she was wrapped up in; it's for the best." Yang had a slight hesitation to her voice.
"If we go this route though, you may never see her again. Yang, are you sure this is really what you want?" Weiss pleaded.
"Maybe, but I have a feeling that as much as I want her too, she won't be able to just quietly start a peaceful new life somewhere," Yang answered regretfully.
Weiss placed her hand on Yang's shoulder, "She left us quite the mess to clean up, didn't she?"
"A troublemaker through and through," Yang said happily, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a letter labeled, Stevens.
"We still can't be sure that she's the one who wrote that letter," Weiss commented upon seeing the item.
"No, I'm certain that it had to be her. After reading everything in those reports, no one else could have," Yang corrected her friend.
Weiss smiled at Yang's confidence, "It was some rather absurd happenstance, for that to even fall into our hands."
"He had helped Ruby so much, to think that even after his death, he would end up helping us too," Yang remarked.
"So what's next?" another voice broke into the conversation. Blake casually strolled up, joining her teammates.
"We can't trust Ironwood, that's a given," Weiss answered.
"You still think we should keep it a secret from Ozpin?" Blake questioned.
Yang's face contorted at the mention of Ozpin, "I don't have anything concrete, but things just don't sit right with me. I don't think we should put that much trust in him. After what he told us that night, I've realized that he keeps a lot of secrets."
"Well if that's the case, we'll just have to dig them up," Blake spoke, grabbing her partner's hand.
It was cold. That was the first thing she remembered thinking as she fell through the sky. It was late fall, and they had been flying over the ocean. Ruby knew she was completely fucked, but even so she couldn't stop thinking about how god damned cold it was. She felt like it was unusual for her thoughts to drift so much in this situation. Normally, her mind would be racing trying to come up with a way to save herself.
Maybe it was because there was obviously nothing that could save her in this situation. She wasn't particularly concerned about the knife in her gut; that she could fix. The real issue, was that she was falling from over two thousand feet, straight for the ocean. Hitting water wouldn't do anything to soften the impact from that high up. Even if her aura could protect her body from being turned into mush by the impact, in her current state it would simply be a question as to whether she would die of hypothermia or drowning.
This is probably what she deserved, was what she thought to herself. Ruby had come to terms with the fact that she was a horrible person. Maybe that wasn't right. She knew that very few people could really be labeled so simply. Maybe she was just a person that wasn't bothered by doing horrible things. Ever since her stay in the Redemption Corps, Ruby had begun to believe that most people were redeemable to a certain degree.
"That didn't stop you from murdering Raven.'
Even holding that belief, Ruby had trouble believing that she herself was redeemable. She wasn't sure she had had any real justifications for her actions lately. It seemed that she was more letting herself be controlled by her emotions. Now that was a hilarious thought; that after she had spent so much time learning to mask and control her emotions, she would actually let herself be controlled by them.
Ruby could hear the sound of waves, a sudden reminder that she was falling to her death. She wanted to surrender herself to death. She was never someone who deserved a fresh start. If anything, she regretted that if she was going to die it had to be at Annette's hand. Ruby wasn't angry towards the woman, "Everyone has their reasons," is what she had told Ruby. She felt like it was arrogant, but Ruby was worried about how heavily her death might weight on Annette.
She took a deep breath, closing her eyes in anticipation of what was to come. Ruby was ready for death, she had done what she could. She had attempted to be the huntress she had always wanted to be, even if that attempt ended in failure. She had tried to save the people who fought for her. Even if she saved a few, there were still so many that she had failed. They had given their lives for… her. Ruby had tried to stop someone who was trying to do horrible things, someone who had hurt countless people. She had failed at that too.
It seemed like she kept failing. She tried so hard, only to end up on her ass every time. Ruby wondered when everything had become so complicated. When had doing the right thing become so fucking difficult? As she continued to fall, she thought back on all those who tried to help her become a good person. She knew that despite their best efforts she had still managed to fuck everything up. Ruby thought about her mother, her father, Yang, Ozpin, Stevens, Annette. Her gut twisted when she realized just how much she had let them all down. She wanted to try again; she wanted to fix things. Ruby knew that if she had another chance, that she could do it right. She knew that because she had screwed up so many times, that if she did it again, she wouldn't make the same mistakes. Ruby felt tears falling from her eyes. She wanted a second chance, she didn't want to die.
She didn't want to die! The realization came like a shot of lightning, igniting panic and survival instincts within Ruby. She immediately oriented herself to the water, dumbfounded by just how close it was. Ruby pulled on every vestige of aura she could, pulling away from her body's efforts to heal her wound. She could tell that the bleeding immediately got worse; that wasn't a concern at the moment. Painfully twisting her body in the air, Ruby pointed her feet at the water. She was mere seconds from crashing into the ocean, breathing as much air into her lungs as possible.
It wasn't going to be enough; Ruby knew she was still going to die. If there was anything that Ruby had become overly familiar with, it was death. Her efforts weren't going to save her. She still couldn't give in, wouldn't give in.
"I want to live damnit!" Ruby cried out helplessly, a brilliant silver light encompassing her body just before she slammed into the water.
A:N/ Well I said I wasn't going to abandon this story, and I'm not breaking that promise. Although I sincerely regret making you guys wait forever even though I said I wouldn't do it again. Life and work and my own damn procrastination get in the way a lot. I don't know how people write for a living. This is a pretty short chapter, but that's really the entirety of what I want to put in it. The next few chapters should be a lot more fun to write than this one though. Also I feel like I should finally get some cover art, instead of the stock grey picture. So if there are any artists that read this that would be willing to help me out go ahead and PM me. I am willing to pay.