Ruby sat on a rooftop. Her legs dangling over the edge as she stared over the rooftops of mantle. It had been nearly a week since they came here from Argus and were apprehended by the Ace Ops. Ruby was happy the mess with them was sorted out so fast and they could get on with their mission. When she first confronted Ironwood she was…. Uncertain of telling him the truth, however eventually she did. She wasn't fully sure that it was the right decision, seeing as the general's semblance could mask his emotions but she didn't see anything wrong with telling him the truth. She wasn't gonna follow in Ozpin's footsteps
However that did bring her to now. Sitting around mantle. Trying to just wind down from all the craziness of the last six months. Just try to clear her mind so she could make decision easier and what better way to do that then do some community service. It was slightly taxing to her and her aura but she just couldn't stop. If it meant helping people Ruby Rose would happily be there to help
Ruby took one last glance around her and got up, stretching a bit and pulling out her scroll. She was just gonna quickly call Penny and see what she was up to and maybe ask to hang out. However as she did she spotted something suspicious out of the corner of her eyes. Ruby quickly put her scroll away and turned to look at what caught her attention
She was surprised to see some cloaked individual running from rooftop to rooftop with a big bag slung over their shoulder. Sometimes the figure lifted a gun from their cloak and shot into the streets. It was all Ruby needed to see before using her semblance and start to dash from rooftop to rooftop, trying to catch up to the criminal and arrest them and Ruby quickly was catching up even if the criminal somehow was just a tiny bit faster. Ruby snuck some glances down into the streets to see if any civilian was hurt. Strangely tho she didn't notice any damage to the streets or even a single civilian. Maybe they ran when they heard the gun
Suddenly it seemed like Ruby got a break. The figure she was chasing seemed to trip and fall of a roof and into a alleyway. Ruby had no idea someone could be as clumsy as her but she didn't mind a easier arrest. Ruby followed the figure and jumped into the alley. She looked around for a bit, trying to see where the person was before she felt something hard hit the back of her head. Hard enough to knock the huntress in training out even with her aura up
Ruby slowly woke up. At first she wanted to go back to sleep but the moment that though registered in her head a extreme pain moved through her entire body, starting from her right leg. Ruby screamed and screamed till finally the pain slowly began to subside. Only to come back with a vengeance in her left leg. Ruby screamed and tried to bring her aura out to protect and heal her but instead she found her aura already broken. Ruby slowly focused and looked around through the pain. Trying to just get a idea of where she was
Ruby slowly looked in front of her and she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Standing in front of her was a woman she thought died during the fall of beacon. Seeing the person in front of her just brought tears to her eyes
Neo
Neo seemed happy. Too happy. She seemed so happy to have Ruby in front of her with her aura broken and her legs hurt. It scared Ruby. Scared that she couldn't use her semblance and didn't have any way to defend herself. Ruby tried to thinking but was cut of by another rush of pain. She could faintly see Neo silently giggling and digging what looked to be the broken remains of Torchwick's cane into a big wound on Ruby's leg
Neo began digging. Slowly but surely Neo moved the weapon in the wound, expanding it and forcing Ruby to feel every strange and painful sensation that came with it. Neo's reward being seeing Ruby in pain and hearing all her cries. Neo was happy. Finally getting revenge on the brat who murdered Torchwick and got so much in their way
Neo dug more into Ruby's wound, getting another scream out of the poor girl. Ruby wanted to thrash around and get free from the Ice cream girls torture but the weapon in her leg and being bound to the chair just stopped her from trying
"P-Please. Please just stop. I swear I won't talk about this! Please!" The young huntress in training was brought to tears and begging as Neo kept pressing the broken cane into her leg, bringing more pain into her
Neo really, really loved the screams and crying of Ruby. She and Roman were so close to just running from it all and go live happily somewhere else, then, she came. Knocking her off and killing Roman! Her best friend and father figure gone just like that! Well, she was gonna have a lot of love to give Ruby when she was done
The door behind Neo opened up, making Neo stop torturing Ruby for a moment and giving both the girls a moment to look at the new person who entered the room and rudely interrupted Neo's fun
Ruby could just make out that in the doorway stood a man wearing a blue coat. A moustache rivalling professor port's on his face. Ruby couldn't take in more of his features as Neo got in front of her
"Ah Miss Neopolitan. I finished your items. The ink and coloured metal was hard to find but but I managed. I'll be in the other room when your done for the finishing touches" The man said and put something in Neo's outstretched hand before turning tail and walking out of the room
Neo let out a silent chuckle as she turned around, holding a strange device in her hand. It seemed like machine to place a stamp on paper. She remembered doctor Oobleck bringing a old one to class once. The difference with this one was that it was connected to a sort of tube and that it was in the hands of the person who tortured her. Automatically making it a thousand times more scary in Ruby's eyes
Neo brought the strange device to Ruby's cheek. Ignoring the whimpering of the sad girl. Neo brought the thing against Ruby's cheek and pressed a button. A sudden searching pain went through Ruby's cheek. Feeling like it was being burned of for a moment before the thing finally left her cheek. Ruby thought it was over only to feel it press against her other cheek. Ruby screamed out as she felt the pain again. Finally Ruby got relief as her vision got blurry and she fainted again
At the last scream Arthur came back into the room. He looked slightly disturbed by the body in front of him but he quickly pushed the thought out of his head. He placed the bag he had with him on a table and watched as Neo sat down and swung her legs, staring at her handy work. She had already worked out what she was gonna do to her and she was gonna have Watts here help her
Arthur leaned down and examined Ruby's cheeks before taking a paper towel and cleaning the wounds up. He needed it to be clean before he was gonna do his handy work. Slowly he brought up his needle and began to fill the wound on her right cheek with the pink ink. Slowly the red on her cheek became a little more pinkish as he worked his magic. He was surprised how easily it went but he wasn't gonna question his own skills. After finishing on her right cheek he switched to her left, getting to fill that cheek with his ink too
The job was strange to say the least. Filling someone's cheek with pink ink wasn't something Arthur did on the regular but it was a something he was doing now. It honestly was pretty easy, oh well
"It should finish setting when she wakes up. Now. It's time for the main show" Arthur looked at Neo who looked at him with a expression filled with glee before the girl nodded. Arthur put his needle down and began to rub his hands clean before getting the items for his final
Arthur sighed and took out a small black box and a jar filled with a weird fluid out of his bag. Neo's excitement grew as she saw them and couldn't wait for Arthur to just get on, luckily he knew how impatient she was and quickly put on some gloves and opened the box for her to see
2 mechanical eyes. One pink while the other brown. Arthur was not gonna like this
Ruby blinked rapidly as she woke up. A soft nearly unnoticeable hum was ringing inside her head. She felt a dull pain in her cheeks and in her face. When she fully took the world in she noticed that she was still in the same room where Neo tortured her in
"O-oh no no no no. Why am I still here!" Ruby began to slightly hyperventilate as she noticed her legs were still wounded. The only thing different to the room was the bag on the table and the mirror. Slowly Neo got closer to her bound rose and took the mirror. Lifting it up so Ruby could see her new face
Ruby started to crack finally. Tears streaming more from her face. Her sobs louder as she could do nothing but just stare at her reflection. A reflection she didn't recognize
On both her cheeks there were some mirror words. She managed to make out "Property of Neopolitan" in a distinct pink colour but the most striking thing were her eyes. Instead of her silver ones were 1 pink eye and 1 brown eye. The colour switched with each time she blinked
"N-no. Please no this must be a dream" Ruby cried more as she noticed her new resemblance to the ice cream thief in front of her. This couldn't be happening! This was all a bad dream! She would wake up and Yang would be there when she woke up! Everyone would be there. Her friends, Uncle Qrow, Dad and a plate of cookies
However as much as Ruby wanted this to be a dream Neo was having too much fun for this to be a dream. Neo began using her semblance. Making Ruby see a approaching Neo while the real one grabbed her scroll and opened up some of the pictures she made when stalking Ruby and her friends. There were a lot considering Neo had only stalked them since they were set free by the Ace Ops. Neo scrolled through the pictures before she found the perfect ones to hurt the little huntress with and let her semblance drop, scaring Ruby even more by the sudden loud noise of glass shattering and suddenly the Neo in front of her holding a scroll with a collage of pictures
Ruby cracked more. She saw pictures of her friends being happy and at ease without her. She didn't know the pictures were days old. She didn't know so they just hurt her more. Her friends and family were content without her. Her own team seemed happy without her in the picture. Ruby's endless stream of theirs just renewed and kept going down her faces. Neo knew she was close to how she wanted little Red and she knew what she had to do to push her over the edge
Neo walked back to the table and put her scroll down before grabbing hush, her bladed parasol. She could hear Ruby gulp, good. She was watching. Slowly Neo turned to Ruby and with a slight skip in her step approached the scared Ruby. Neo got towards Ruby and softly dug her fingers into the wounds on Ruby's legs. Ruby screamed in pain while Neo revelled in it. Neo slowly pulled her fingers out and began to coat the tip of Hush in Ruby's blood. Neo stood there for a moment before dipping into her aura again. Coating her arms in it before raising Hush above her head and swinging at Ruby's legs, using her aura enhanced arms to put more power into the swing
Too quickly for Ruby to register it happened. One moment her legs were connected to her body and then they weren't
Time seemed to slow for both of them. Neo didn't move from her final position. The only thing that moved on her body was her chest from her quickened breathing and her eyes from wanting to see the exact moment Ruby Rose broke. Broke she did, Neo could swear she heard something shatter as Ruby's mind broke and her body finally began to react
"IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO MUCH! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. ANYONE. MOMMY? DADDY? PLEASE!" Ruby screamed louder than before. Her voice nearly giving out as she did. Her mind in pieces, trying to protect itself from the trauma or just protect herself. Neo finally had her perfect end result. As to not have her victim bleed to death Neo quickly ran to the bag and grabbing some bandage out of it to wrap Ruby's new stumps in and managing to ignore Ruby's flailing as she did
Ruby didn't drop her flailing and wailing after she was bandaged up. Her voice getting raspy from all the screaming she had done. Now was the time for Neo to strike. Neo wiped her forehead on her sleeve and walked up to Ruby, wrapping her in a tight hug and softly patting her head. It made Ruby quiet down and look at Neo. Her mind unable to put 2 and 2 together and be freaked out by the sudden affection, hell, her mind was struggling to connect what Neo did to her. It just focused on the sudden spike of pain and the sudden affection she got
Neo was there to help calm Ruby down and slowly guide the broken teen into a semi peaceful sleep. Neo thought she heard the words "thanks mommy" come out of Ruby's mouth but dismissed them as her mind playing tricks. Neo happily stared at her new masterpiece with a smile on her face. Having Ruby Rose in front of her, broken and afraid sent a strange feeling of happiness through Neo. Ruby was like a canvas to Neo now. Might be a bit used but she could always paint over it. Maybe she would make Ruby into what she was when she was still a crime duo with Torchwick or maybe Neo would finally take it easy for a while and keep Ruby with her as a pet or daughter…. Neo quickly shook her head and undid Ruby's restraints. She could think about that later. For now she would just finish her revenge and sit back to think after
Yang was close to having a mental breakdown. It had nearly 12 hours since Ruby's scroll went offline and Penny became unable to find her during her patrols of mantle. At first it wasn't such high priority since Ruby was probably just inside somewhere Penny missed but after an hour the General immediately sent out a missing person report to the Ace ops, Team WBY, Team JNR, Penny, Oscar and Qrow to go search for Ruby. Everyone knew how powerful of a huntress Ruby was with her skill and eyes so everyone knew she was a potential target for Salem and team JNR knew that even if you are powerful there'll always be people like Tyrian who are just better than them
The search had taken far too long for any of their liking. Ruby should've been found by now or there should've been at least 1 sighting or item that could help them find Ruby. Just nothing came up however. They were at a dead end since they started the search for Ruby and it was already showing on everyone's faces how demoralized they were. Even General Ironwood came out of Atlas Academy to personally help the search. All hope just seemed lost till it happened
Ruby's scroll seemingly went back online. Giving Penny a signal to trace and follow back to. It was their only lead so everyone was willing to go with it for now. The signal was strange however. It was shown to be coming from atlas academy itself, more specifically ironwood's office. Normally they would care but after 12 hours of searching all rushed to get to the academy as quick as possible. They ran through the halls of the academy, nearly trampling some students as they all rushed to get to the signal. All hope they had would be dashed when they saw why the signal came from the office
On Ironwood's desk sat a person none of them expected to see again, Neopolitan. The woman sat on the desk, a smile reaching from ear to ear on her face as she took in all the faces of the people who thought they would find Ruby but found her instead. However Ruby was with her. Cradled in Neo's arm was a legless girl. Her clothes bloody and 2 stumps where her legs would be. On her cheek were some words tattooed nobody cared for. Slowly but surely Neo turned the girl in her arms so that the others could see her face. It was horrifying to everyone but Neo
Ruby Rose. Changed but still her. Yang loaded her gauntlets and got ready for act till Neo got up from the table. Her smile even bigger than before as she calmly walked around table towards big window behind the table and chair before just disappearing. Leaving a hopeless and wrecked group off people there
Neo was happy with her revenge. Now to see what to do with Ruby.