Hey guys! Here I am with a brand new chapter for you guys to read. Also, next chapter, Ruby will face Captain Solomon in combat as Cinder's plan starts to take form. That's all, bye for now.

A Shattered Life

Chapter 14: A Sunny Day

Ruby and Geo arrived at the eastern end of the town, there in front of them was a beautiful house that had a Victorian edge to it. Under the sun, it gleams a deep blue with pale ivory running along the edges, outlining this masterpiece that was built by Sunny's husband a few years ago. It has four floors total, windows popped out of every direction and lastly, indentations of small figures were carved into a surrounding line outside the attic window. The house in general gave a feeling of calmness to all who passed by. "So this is Sunny's home?" Ruby was quite surprised with this discovery, she never expected her friend to live in a house like this one. "I hope she's already awake, she promised to train with me today." She said with her sweet tone.

"Somehow, I highly doubt that, knowing Sunny, I bet she's still sleeping. Nonetheless, we should knock, there's a small chance that her daughter might be up." The young couple made their way towards the wooden door. Geo knocked two times and waited for someone to open the door. "Before I forget, later this afternoon I will have an important meeting with General Avala and Captain Solomon. It seems a large amount of Dust was stolen last night from the armory and nobody knows who did it." He showed some concern. "I guess the number of guards at the armory will have to increase a little bit, I want to make sure nothing like this happens again."

"That's a good idea if you ask me." Ruby leaned against the wall at her side. "We need that Dust to keep the soldiers here supplied because without that precious resource, we will become easy targets for bandits and worse of all, the Grimm creatures." She replied. "The people who did that should be ashamed of themselves, they are putting a lot of lives in danger, don't they know that?"

"Perhaps that's exactly what they want." Answered Geo. "I mean the amount they stole is enough to blow the castle or a part of our wall. This could be very well another attack planned by the White Fang, and if they succeed the relations between Humans and Faunus will get much worse than it already is, and I'm afraid a war might break loose."

"Then our top priority should be to interrogate one of those terrorists that we captured a couple of days ago, maybe they know what's going on." Ruby said.

Suddenly, both of them heard footsteps coming from behind the door. When it opened, they saw a young girl holding a teddy bear in her left hand. "Hello!" She kindly greeted them with a smile, but it was clear she had just awoke from her sleep. Her light brown hair almost covers her round, friendly face. Glistening hazel eyes, were set delicately within their sockets, looking at the two newcomers that were standing in front of her. "Big brother! I'm glad you came, we haven't played together in a while." Said Katelyn enthusiastically, as she grabbed Geo's hand and pulled him inside the house.

Ruby giggled as she entered Sunny's home alongside them. The interior of the house is focused around a quite large hallway serving as the main avenue of traffic and entrance area to the adjacent rooms. The hallway flows into a big, wide staircase that provides the main means of egress from the entertainment area of the house to the private rooms on the second floor. "Wow! She and her husband must have a lot of money if they can afford this fancy place." She then looked at the multiple paintings that were nailed to the wall. "Did she made these? They are really cool."

"Yes, my mommy likes to paint sometimes when she isn't busy helping people at the infirmary." Katelyn replied, she then stared at Ruby's face for some reason, making the red hair girl feel a bit uncomfortable. "I like the color of your eyes, silver is my favorite color." She smiled.

"Aw, thank you."

Continuing down the hallway, there is a center arch of decorative painted columns and molding with ornamental keystone designs. The haunch of the arch is angular rather than curved. The arch is formed by two freestanding columns flanked on either side by a smaller arch with engaged pillars. After passing through the hallway, they reached the kitchen. "Mom, mom!" Katelyn called for her as she entered the kitchen with her friends, but Sunny didn't hear her daughter calling because she was listening music while cleaning the floor.

So Katelyn decided to approach her mother from behind and hug her leg, with that done she gained the attention of her mom. Of course, when she turned around, she noticed her daughter was accompanied by the future ruler of Gwain, Lord Geo and his girlfriend, Ruby Rose. "Hello you two!" She happily greeted them before removing her headphones.

"Good morning." Said both Geo and Ruby.

"Big brother has come to visit us mom, and he brought a pretty girl with him this time."

"Haha! I see that my darling." Sunny replied while placing the broom next to the table. "I assume you came here for our training session right?" She asked, and Ruby quickly nodded yes. "Well, we can go to the garden and begin our training, we will have much more space there." She walked to the couch and grabbed her weapon. "Oh Geo, can you please play with Katelyn for a while? You see, my husband went to the market and I don't want her to feel alone."

"No problem."

"Come on! I have new drawings for you to see." She pushed the young Lord towards her bedroom, causing Sunny and Ruby to giggle.

Then, they went outside to the garden which was quite gorgeous to look at, specially the tulips, those are Katelyn's favorite flowers. "Your daughter seems to enjoy Geo's company, she even calls him big brother and everything."

"She see's him as a brother, but I believe you already know that." Sunny walked to the middle of the garden and closed her eyes has she felt the wind blowing through the air. "Five years ago, when Katelyn was still in school, she used to be bullied by some older kids that were just being mean for no reason. There were days she would come back home with a few bruises on her face. I tried my best to help her but she refused to say the names of those boys because she didn't want to be a snitch." She reopened her eyes. "Thinking about those days makes me angry beyond belief." Sunny clenched her fist.

"That's awful." Said Ruby, feeling bad for the little girl. "But what happened next?" She was intrigued.

"One day, Katelyn ran away from them and made her way towards the castle to find shelter, but she wasn't fast enough and so they grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to a back-alley to beat her up. Fortunately, before they could lay a finger on her, Lord Cerviel showed up with his younger brother Geo and both of them saved my daughter." She grabbed her sword by the hilt and pulled it out from it's holster. "After that, Katelyn began to visit both Lords at the castle when she could to play games with them. Those three were inseparable, until...that horrible day." Sunny sighed. "But enough talk, lets see what you have learned so far kid!"

"Alright!" Ruby released Crescent Rose, her heart was racing pretty fast since it's been quite a while she had a serious fight with anyone. Here she comes.

Sunny was upon her opponent in a split second, her sword coming at Ruby with a speed that surprised the red haired girl. She barely had enough time to block it, sparks flying when the two weapons made contact and the power behind the attack caused her to slide back a little as the medical officer pushed against her. "Focus Ruby, don't get distracted with your own thoughts during a battle, every second is critical and you must learn how to think quickly of a strategy to deal with your adversary."

"Right." She whispered to herself. Ruby narrowed her eyes lightly as she pushed back with her own strength. With a loud shout, Ruby managed to push the weapon off, causing Sunny to fly backward through the air and she followed after her. The scythe was coming straight at Sunny's chest but she spun her blade towards the incoming strike and blocked it, the weapons clashed against each other as both fighters clashed against one another with ferocity.

Ruby then spun Crescent Rose as she dodged an attack, shifting her weapon into Sniper mode. She placed her index finger on the trigger and pressed it multiple times, releasing several projectiles. Sunny widened her eyes at the sudden shift of the attack. I completely forgot she could do that. Though Sunny as her armor suffered a good amount of damage from those perfect aimed shots, making her crash on the dirt. "Huh, she's improving quite fast, this girl has potential to become a great warrior." She was impressed.

The young warrior then landed on the floor and waited for her adversary to get back up. "You aren't hurt are you?" Asked Ruby a bit worried as she lowered her scythe. "Maybe we should stop for now."

"Never leave your guard down." Said Sunny.

With a quick slice, Ruby felt pain coursing through her body as she had instantly leaned away feeling the wind of the blade passing by her torso. She slid away from her opponent as the blood glided down from her small wound to the ground. "T-That's not fair, I was worried about you."

"I know, but as a warrior you can never show weakness because your enemies will take advantage of that." Replied Sunny. "As a warrior, you will have to fight endless battles...as a fighter, you will see death everywhere, and as a killer, you'll have to be merciless, otherwise, you will die." She swung her sword to clean the blood off the blade. "You will understand what I'm talking about one day my child."

Ruby grit her teeth and charged toward Sunny, her speed causing red petals to spin around her form as she attacked from all sides. Ruby's adversary blocked her attacks with her sword, sparks flew everywhere across the battlefield. The young girl launched another strike at her, but it was pared yet again by Sunny. "I can't lose, I won't lose!" Shouted Ruby as she jumped to the air. "I will beat you!"

"Show me what you are made off!" Sunny smirked.

The red hair girl aimed her scythe at Sunny and closed her eyes. "Remember what Avala said." She whispered.

The Aura inside you is strong Ruby, even more stronger than mine, I can feel it. Unfortunately, you don't know how to properly use it in a fight. Normally, I would teach you how to control it, but I believe you can learn this on your own, like I did. Just remember that your power comes from your heart, focus that power into a specific area of your body or weapon. I know you can do it.

A small red orb began to be created in front of Crescent Rose's barrel. Ruby then reopened her silver eyes. "Crescent Shot!" The blast tore the air as it went straight to Sunny who tightened her hand around her blade's hilt.

"That girl is incredible." Smiled Sunny as she took the hit. The blast overcame her completely. After the dust finally settled, Ruby saw that her friend was covered with wounds, but she was still standing. "That actually hurt a little, but try to put more power into it next time. Nonetheless, I'm proud you were able to use your Aura, good job." She gave her a thumb up.

"Thanks." Smiled Ruby. "But who won?"

Sunny looked at her blade and noticed it was slowly falling apart. "I guess you did."

"Yes!" Ruby jumped several times as she was happy with her victory.