kootranova1 : her trauma was divided in two parts, her words almost killing her, which is still not resolved, and her almost dying causing her aura to react in the only way available to save her.
The trauma on that second part is about survival. Both her and her body tries to protect herself at all costs, even the expense of others. By caring for Roman, by putting his life above her own, she manages to overcome that, and her aura reacted as a result of not needing to protect her life at all costs anymore by going back to normal, which ironically saved her.
Yang heard Ruby had woken up, and decided to go see her. Even with an arm cut off and her dreams and confidence ruined, her little sister was still at the top of her priority list.
"I... I fought Torchwick and Neo at the top of the big airship." said Ruby's voice coming from inside the room, "I... Torchwick died... then when I came back down I saw Yang, and then Pyrrha... she's dead, so many people are dead."
Yang backtracked to her room just as a small thud was heard outside. She had heard the distress in Ruby's voice, but right now, all she could hear was how Ruby had fought both Neo and Torchwick, and won.
She'd been training for so long, put in so much effort... She'd even skipped holidays to make sure her defeat against Neo wouldn't repeat itself... But look at things now. Ruby, her baby sister, had fought and won while she had her been cut apart in a single hit.
This wasn't fair. What was the point of all that training if she's just going to be so easily defeated while Ruby gets magical powers that saves the day. Maybe that was why her mom left her, because she was just so pathetic and no amount of training would ever make her strong enough.
Yang felt the tears start to fill her eyes. Of course, that must have been why Blake left too. Who would she want to stay near someone as weak as she was anyway. She couldn't even protect herself, so why would anyone count on her to protect them ?
Laying in her bed, she let her tears slowly fall down her eyes as she stayed inert, letting the time and world pass by, endlessly.
Neo barely had the reflex to turn herself invisible as she hit the ground.
After searching for an extremely long time in the wreckage, she had only managed to find Roman's hat and cane. Nothing else. It wasn't normal. Roman would never go anywhere without them.
Maybe he couldn't get them because he was captured. That would make sense, given Ruby must have been fighting him after she had caused her to fly off.
Neo ran as fast as she could towards the remaining Atlesian airships. If Roman had been caught again, she would have to figure out which ship he was on so she could break him out again. Otherwise, he'd get executed as soon as they arrived in Atlas.
She watched the ships for days before they took off, even going as far as touring them in disguise once she had learn enough about the soldiers behavior to mimic them. But she had found no sign of Roman.
At least this meant Roman wasn't on his way to get executed, so it was good news, right ?
However, now Neo had no idea where he could be, so instead she decided to follow Rumpole investigation lessons and start with asking the one who had seen him last, Ruby.
Finding where Ruby lived wasn't hard. She had always been curious about the silver-eyed warrior so she had used Cinder's hack to get Ruby's student file, which included her address, among many other things. That being said, even without such a convenient piece of information, she could still have fished it out from her friends, some of which were still in Vale.
Once in front of her home, Neo spent her time spying on Ruby, both waiting for her to wake up and for the rest of the family to be occupied enough that she could drop in and pry the information out of Ruby before getting out safely.
When Ruby woke up however, Neo heard the last thing she wanted to hear.
Roman was dead...
No. That couldn't be. Ruby was a silver-eyed warrior, she was supposed to protect everyone, including Roman, not kill him.
But she had only found his hat and cane.
She couldn't find him anywhere.
And Ruby said he was dead.
She said he was dead !
Neo fled into the woods and cried her heart out, venting her pain and frustrations on the hordes of grimm that followed the scent of her plight.
Ruby had killed Roman, but this would have never happened if Cinder had never used Roman for her plans.
They were both going to pay.
Despite her incredible thirst for revenge, Neo was smart enough to know she was outmatched. With Qrow in the cottage, and wary because of the large influx of grimm surrounding it, she had no chance of murdering Ruby, even in her sleep.
However, she had heard that Ruby was planning to leave with her friends for Haven, in hopes of stopping Cinder once they were there. This was perfect, because not only would she be able to kill Ruby while they were on the way, but she also would be able to use Ruby's friends as meat shields when she went against Cinder.
Following them was the best option, and she did just that. The issue now though, was that she wasn't the only one following them.
Staying hidden from Qrow wasn't hard. She knew he could transform into a crow, so she had been wary of the birds the entire time. Knowing that he was there didn't solve the problem however, as she now needed to prepare something to keep him busy when she would want to attack Ruby and her friends.
Days turned into weeks, and she finally found an idea. Taking advantage of Ruby and co staying at a settlement to battle a geist, Neo took a trip around the area and let her emotions out. The pain, the sorrow that she had to keep hidden to avoid attracting the grimm, she was now baring it all out in an effort to do the exact opposite.
After just a moment, she started to run. She used gravity Dust to make herself lighter and wind Dust to push her through the land, and she gathered as much grimm as she could. For several hours, she ran, using up almost the entirety of her Dust supply to keep herself going without rest, all so her plan could work.
She caught back with Ruby and her friends as they were leaving the settlement, and she let the grimm catch up with her some distance away from them. Using her illusion Dust, she changed her appearance to that of a small random village girl from the area, and waited for Qrow to inevitably come save her from the horde of grimm.
Save her he did, and the moment he appeared was the moment she disappeared and made a run for it. Even with her emotions back in check, there was enough grimm that a sizeable amount would follow her even as Qrow was mowing through the others.
As she got closer to Ruby's group, she turned back into her illusion of a village girl and sped through the group with a look of pure, genuine fear on her face. The Huntsmen and Huntresses in training jumped in to protect her, but as she kept running one of the grimm managed to get through and chase after her.
She grinned when she saw that. She had expected having to fight all four of them, but if she kept running far enough she could isolate Ruby from the rest of her current team. There was no doubt in her mind that the red-hooded Huntress would be the one to go after her.
Once far enough, Neo stopped running and quickly killed the grimm chasing her. By the time it was over, as expected, Ruby had caught up, being the fastest one in their group.
"Are you all right ?" asked Ruby, "I thought a grimm was chasing after you."
Neo, still in her disguise, ignored Ruby's words as the scythe-wielder approached her. Instead, she observed her just in case, to check on her opponent's growth.
Name : Ruby Rose
Age : 16
Level : 7 (84%)
Class : Reaper [You use the deadliest weapon on Remnant, a scythe, to tear apart the grimm]
Path : None
Title : A simple soul
HP : 10/10
AP : 36/36
STR : 8
CON : 10
DEX : 22
INT : 12
WIS : 15
CHA : 10
Semblance : Petal Burst [You can turn into petals, giving you extra speed as well as allowing you to weave through the air]
Status effects :
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]
Silver-eyed Warrior [You have silver eyes, which holds the power of the God of Light. It can be used to harm every single one of the God of Darkness' creations]
Defenses :
AC : 19
For : 14
Ref : 22
Will : 16
Neo grinned. Ruby had grown a lot in the last few months, but still was nowhere near good enough to hold a fighting chance.
She didn't want to get caught off guard this time though. There would be no going easy on her because of overconfidence this time. She was going all out.
The moment Ruby got within reach, Neo dropped her disguise and struck her in the stomach with Hush, causing Ruby to take a few step backs.
- 18 AP
"Why are you doing this ?" asked Ruby as she readied her weapon to fight back, "What do you get out of this ?"
Facing her wasn't Neo anymore, but Roman, pointing Neo's weapon at her as a fireball suddenly shot out of it.
- 18 AP
- 6 HP
Ruby was thrown to the ground, her aura torn to pieces and her outfit charred. She had let go of her weapon and was now defenseless, but still conscious and alive, so Neo walked over to her, taking out her blade in order to finish her off.
"I... I'm sorry I couldn't save him." said Ruby.
Not expecting that, Neo paused, which Ruby took as a sign to tell her story.
"We were fighting on the ship when... a grimm came in and ate him." she explained, "He was a bad guy, he helped take Beacon down and kill so many people, but whenever I think back to that moment, I realize he's the only one I could have maybe saved, but I didn't. I'm sorry."
Neo stopped. Ruby was indeed a silver-eyed warrior, one that would protect everyone, including the bad guys, just like in the fairy tales. She just wasn't really good at it.
Putting her blade back into her sheath, Neo took out her scroll and wrote down something for Ruby. A question for her to answer.
When you find Cinder, will you kill her ?
"I..." Ruby started, saying she was going to stop her, but stopped when she realized she wasn't sure if she could go that far, "I don't know."
Shouts and steps could be heard as Ruby's friends were coming by to check on her. Neo typed a couple messages in her scroll and sent it to Ruby's, since she had her number from her file, before disappearing.
The moment after, Ruby's friends were there for her.
"What happened Ruby ?" asked Jaune, "You're alright ?"
"I'm fine." said Ruby as she lifted her head away from her scroll, "Just a tough grimm."
"Are you sure ?" asked Nora, "you look like you've been through a barbecue, as the meat."
"It was a special grimm." said Ruby, hoping that would be enough.
"If you say so." said Ren.
The four teenagers went back on their trip, deciding to rest a bit further along the track, while Ruby took one last look at the messages on her scroll.
If you tell anyone I was here or what I have planned, I will kill them.
I will prepare a trap for Cinder to fall in. When she does, you will have to make a choice. Make the right one.
To be continued on August 21th
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 17
Level : 17 (59%)
Class : Illusionist [You add both your Intelligence and Dexterity modifiers to your AC and to Dexterity or Intelligence based attacks as long as you can still cast illusions]
Path : Me, myself and I [You live for yourself first and foremost, no matter what pain you might cause others]
Title : The Gamer
HP : 10/10
AP : 85/85
STR : 11
CON : 10
DEX : 19
INT : 22
WIS : 12
CHA : 16
Semblance : The Gamer
Status effects :
Gamer's body [Your body follows game-like mechanics. You can restore 1/4th of your total HP (rounded down) by resting 15 minutes. You can only die if your HP reach 0 and you fail your last breath]
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]
Words that shouldn't be said [Your last words almost caused you to lose your life. You cannot talk until you overcome your trauma]
Defenses :
AC : 26(30)
For : 19
Ref : 25
Will : 23