Chapter 3: beginning
Ruby stands in the back of the dust store, flicking through a magazine of weapons, her headphones on and blasting her favourite song. She hums along to the music as she reads, eagerly learning about an upcoming announcement on a brand new type of mech-shift. The potential of the new shift could revolutionize current weaponsmithing! Oh she can't wait for it!
As she goes to flip the page, someone taps her shoulder. She turns, slipping her headphones down and turning off her music. A man stands behind her. He's tall and burly, dressed in a fitted red and black suit. In his hands he holds a red burn dust sword. Ruby looks him up and down and raises a brow,
"Can I help you?" The man thrusts his sword forward, a sneer on his face,
"Hands in the air, kid!" Ruby tilts her head, eyebrows shooting higher,
"Are you robbing me?" The man growls angrily,
"Yes!"
"Oh."
The man crashes through the glass windows of the store, landing on the ground with a groan and a crackle of blue aura. Ruby chases after him, Crescent Rose coming unsheathed as she goes. She lands beside the groaning man, fulling extending her scythe with a fancy twirl. The man looks up at her through bleary eyes and she smiles, before stomping on his head to knock him out cold. Glass crunches beneath several pairs of boots, and she looks up. One of the men exiting the store lifts his chin,
"Well?" An orange-haired man in a white jacket glares at her, lit cigar at his lips, surrounded by five suited thugs. He jerks his head towards her, "Get her!" Ruby is quick to incapacitate the thugs with fast, hard to dodge, twirls of her scythe, leaving them all moaning in pain on the ground. The orange-haired man tsks and ashes his cigar, stamping down on the bud. "Fat lot of good you all are." He raises his cane, aiming at her. The end pops up, revealing a small scope. "Well, red, it's been fun. But this is the end of the line!" He fires and the ground before Ruby explodes. She dodges back and spins Crescent Rose, clearing the smoke. The man is gone. Ruby looks around, and spots him climbing a fire escape. She aims Crescent Rose behind her and fires, launching herself up onto the rooftop.
"Hey!" She calls, and the man sighs.
"Persistent." He mutters, as a small bullhead rises from a nearby alley. "Maybe next time, red!" He jumps onto the awaiting bullhead. Ruby shifts Crescent Rose into its compact gun form, and begins firing, as a purple glyph appears above the bullhead. The man scowls up at it, large chunks of ice raining down and impaling the bullhead. "We've got a Huntress!" He calls, disappearing into the darkness of the ship. Ruby stops firing, as the unknown Huntress begins summoning more and more ice, rocking the ship dangerously. A wave of fire rushes from the bullhead, as a woman in heels steps just barely into the light. Fire and ice clash repeatedly, before the woman throws a large burn crystal at Ruby. Ruby doesn't have time to dodge, or really do anything. All she can do is watch the crystal get closer and closer.
"This is gonna hurt…" She mumbles, raising Crescent Rose in an attempt to mitigate the oncoming damage. Before the crystal can erupt, someone in red drops in front of her, slashing through the crystal, weakening its explosions. The two halves of the crystal explode simultaneously, blanketing the roof in smoke and fire. Another person drops down beside Ruby, forming a purple glyph between them and the explosions. In the chaos, Ruby can hear the bullhead fly off, but with the smoke hindering her sight, she doesn't know which way it goes. The smoke clears after a long minute, and Ruby is left, wide eyed and gaping, at the person in red before her.
"Y-You!" Ruby takes a step forward, as the person turns, shattered moonlight glinting off their skull mask. "You're the Grimm Harvester! Can I have your autograph?!" Ruby squeals excitedly, making to rush forward, to ask for an autograph or for tips or for – the person beside her grabs her shoulder, stopping her. "Huh?" She looks up at the blonde beside her. The woman, a Huntress, is a good foot taller than Ruby herself, and Ruby feels a brief envy upon taking in her entire form. The woman's green eyes are narrowed, glaring at the Grimm Harvester. Ruby grins, "Are you a Huntress too?!" She asks, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Can I have both your autographs?!" A muffled snort comes from the Grimm Harvester, before they blur and vanish into thin air, a small petal-like object being left behind. For a second, Ruby thinks that the semblance (it had to be the Harvester's semblance, right?) looks familiar. It's so similar to her own, just faster. The Huntress beside her huffs, and turns her glare on Ruby, who wilts beneath it. "I guess that's a no…?"
"Do you have any idea the amount of trouble you're in?!" The Huntress, or Professor Goodwitch as she asked to be called, growls, green eyes venomous as they pin Ruby with a dangerous stare.
"B-But they started it!" Goodwitch sighs, expression not relaxing in the slightest,
"If it were up to me, I'd send you home with a pat on the back," Ruby smiles. Goodwitch notices and slams her riding crop onto the table, eliciting a shriek from her. "and a slap on the wrist!"
"B-But-"
"However," The professor glares at the door, "there is someone who wishes to meet you." At that, the door opens, revealing a tall man with silver hair. Ruby eyes are immediately drawn to the plate full of cookies he has in his hands. The man strides into the room and places the plate onto the table before her.
"Ruby Rose, was it?" Ruby glances between the two adults, before scarfing down most of the cookies and nodding. "You... have silver eyes." That catches Ruby's attention, making her pause eating,
"U-Uh..." The man smiles,
"Tell me, where did you learn to fight like this?" He holds out a scroll, showing her fight with the thugs.
"Oh, um, Signal Academy...? It's just, I've wanted to be a Huntress my whole life! In two years I'm going to apply to Beacon and then I... uh... yeah." Ruby blushes, realizing that she'd been shouting. The man raises a brow,
"I see. I've only ever seen one person use a scythe with such skill. A dusty old crow..." Ruby's eyes light up as she grins,
"That's my uncle!" The man chuckles,
"Do you know who I am?" Ruby looks between the two adults once more before nodding,
"You're... Professor Ozpin. From Beacon." The man, Ozpin, shares a glance with Goodwitch, who sighs and rolls her eyes.
"Indeed. Tell me, would you like to come to my school?" Ruby nods vigorously,
"More than anything!"
"Very well."
"Ozpin, are you sure it was wise to accept Miss Rose so early?" Glynda asks, as she and Ozpin ride the elevator up to his office.
"You heard her. 'More than anything'." Ozpin chuckles, sipping from his thermos. "Miss Rose has more potential than most of our third years, Glynda." The elevator doors open. "She seems to be a one of a kind prodigy."
A new voice chimes in as they exit the elevator, "You can say that again Oz." Both professors react differently. Ozpin's eyes narrow, and he shifts minutely into a defensive stance, while Glynda whips out her riding crop, pointing it at the intruder, purple aura primed to defend. "Whoa, whoa!" The intruder raises their hands. "I'm not here to fight!" Standing by the large window that encompasses the near entirety of the back wall, is a woman in a long red cloak and skull-shaped mask.
"Well, for what other reason would the Grimm Harvester herself break into my school?" Ozpin asks, walking around his desk to peer closer at the woman. She shuffles a bit awkwardly under his gaze.
"Ah, well, that's a long story, Oz." The Grimm Harvester says, as she leans against the window, arms crossing.
"Ozpin-" Glynda starts, but the man cuts her off,
"Then do enlighten me."
"OK. OK. Just… don't attack?" The Grimm Harvester says, before silver energy explodes into the room, pressing down with a gravity that shouldn't exist. The energy feels heavy and wrong and Glynda can't even move from the feeling of it dropping onto her. Ozpin's eyes widen and he drops his thermos, hot chocolate spilling over the tiled floor.
"You…!" Ozpin's green energy, what Glynda recognizes as his magic, flares in response. Then it clicks. The Grimm Harvester just used magic. "But you're not-"
"No, I'm not one of them." The Grimm Harvester reels back her magic, though it seems to fight her for a moment. "Well, not anymore, I should say." Silver energy dances on her skin. "Fucking c'mon..." She growls under her breath at her magic as the rest of the energy soaks back into her body.
"But that doesn't make any sense?!" Ozpin sputters. Glynda has never heard the man sound so surprised. Honestly, Glynda herself is surprised as well. Simply put, using magic is next to impossible. Only six people in the world could at any point in time, and based off the conversation so far, the Grimm Harvester was not one of them.
"Mm, well, maybe I should introduce myself first." The Grimm Harvester lowers her hood, revealing short and spiky dark hair that bleeds to red, and then she pulls off her mask. A long jagged and branching scar catches their attention first, as it cuts diagonally from her forehead down the right side of her face. But what draws their stares afterwards are her eyes. Silver eyes glow in the dark room, drawing gasps from both professors.
"You… have silver eyes…" Ozpin states, pulling back his own magic, the green energy settling over his skin but not returning inside. "But that's impossible. There's only one person in Vale with silver eyes." The woman grins,
"Technically, in a way, that's true." She hooks the mask to her weapons' sheath, and flashes the two with some finger guns, "Ruby Rose, at your service." Glynda rears back and says,
"Impossible!"
The woman, Ruby, spares her a brief glance, "No, just improbable." Ozpin's magic flares once more, and Ruby responds in kind. Green and silver intermingle, bobbing and weaving between each other, as if in greeting. After a moment, both magic users recall their energies, letting the power settle within them.
Ozpin raises a brow, "Well, this is quite astounding, Miss Rose." Glynda's eyes snap to the man, and he nods, silently confirming the truth. Glynda doesn't think she could feel more surprised. "Time travel isn't something that just anyone can accomplish."
Ruby shrugs, "Wasn't really expecting it either." She frowns, "Not sure where to start, either."
"Perhaps you can start from the beginning."
Ruby sighs, and begins, "Well, everything really starts just under a year from now, during the finals of the Vytal Tournament. Though, in a more convoluted way, it all started tonight."
She paints her tale with broad strokes, from the horrific end of the Vytal Tournament; to the destruction of Haven; to the invasion of Atlas; to the deaths of Vacuo, all leading up to her final battle. "Salem… was too strong, at that point." Ruby says, eyes closing in remembrance. "And she knew just where to hit, to damage me emotionally. I got angry and irrational, and I lost." Silver eyes open, displaying a sadness Glynda's only seen on Ozpin, when he was remembering his own past. "I let my rage consume me. I fell right into her trap and I paid the price." She lifts a hand and lets her magic dance along her fingers. "My aura was broken, the Maiden magic was gone, and I was so tired, Oz. I just wanted it to be over at that point. I wanted to see my friends and family again." She lets out a low breath. "I think I tried to activate my semblance during my last moments, but I'm not entirely sure. All I really know is that Salem had just killed me, and then I was waking up in front of my mother's grave. At first, I thought the Maiden magics had followed me back." Silver magic flares brighter. "But they hadn't. I don't know how or why, but the four core magics inside me transformed into this new, unaffiliated magic." She soaks the silver magic back into her skin. "I was 12 years in the past, with no weapons, no identification, and to make matters worse, I couldn't use my magic without it hurting me. I needed... well, I needed pretty much everything. So I went into Vale, forged a new identity, made some new weapons, and then I left."
"Why leave?" Ozpin asks.
"Because," Ruby says, "if I stayed around Vale, I would have done something stupid, and that would mean that mini-me wouldn't get into Beacon when she needed to. Mini-me needs to be at Beacon this year, or else everything changes, and most likely not in a good way."
"I see." Oz nods. "Perfectly reasonable, when you put it like that." He glances at her skull-shaped mask with a raised brow, "But why gather such a fearsome reputation? The Grimm Harvester is legendary by now. Nearly every person on Remnant has heard of you."
Ruby groans, "I never wanted that stupid moniker! I was just doing my job!" She runs a hand through her short hair. "I'm a Huntress. It's my job to save the innocent from the Grimm. But then some people decided that I was self-styling myself as another Grimm Reaper, and then they coined the name Grimm Harvester. I never wanted recognition for my good deeds. I was happy just knowing I was protecting people. I wasn't trying to be another Grimm Reaper, not truly."
"Truly?"
"I - well - okay maybe a little bit! But still!" Ruby sputters. "I just modelled my new weapons off of hers! Nothing more!" Her face reddens, "Well, maybe also a bit of her fighting style too…" Ozpin chuckles.
"Another question, if I may." He starts, "You mentioned forging a new identity. We can't keep calling you by Miss Rose's name, or some unsavoury characters might catch on."
"Ah, that." Ruby digs through her pockets and pulls out a scroll, turning the screen around to display her ID. "Carmine Rosemage."
"Rosemage?" Ozpin's eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
Ruby smirks, "A subtle nod towards both who I really am, and what I can do."
"It's an interesting choice, for sure." She pockets the scroll. Ozpin turns to his desk, and loads up his computer, holo screens rising as he does so. "Well Miss Rosemage, it appears we have some planning to do." She sighs,
"Yeah, we do."