Ruby now sixteen years old practically skipped down the hallways of beacon as her older half sister Yang slowly followed her with a hangover the size of a goliath grimm. The reason Ruby was so happy wasn't because she just had her birthday and sure her teammates said they had presents for her in their dorm room. Not like they could even compare to the present she got last night, a twin sister. An identical Twin sister at that. 'I can't wait to talk to her again!' Ruby thought to herself. 'I wonder what she's up to right now?" She mumbled to herself.
"Wonder what who's up to?" Yang asked walking up behind her little sister.
Panicking Ruby stammered out a response, "O-oh I-I'm just curious about w-what Weiss is up too. S-she said t-that she got p-presents f-for me s-so."
Yang lowered her sunglasses to get a better look at her sister. After a moment, she ruffled Ruby's hair and gave her a sisterly smile, "You can be such a kid sometimes you know that Rubes." She joked.
"Yang!"
"Come Ice queen didn't tell me what she got you so I'm curious."
When they entered the dorm the white member seemed very excited about what she had gotten her leader and pressed her to open the gifts. The first was a square object concealed by white paper turned out to be a new high-powered scope for Crescent Rose.
"I have been looking for one of these for months, their all sold out in Vale how did you get this?" Ruby asked.
"I have some friends in high places, lets leave it at that." The heiress explained smiling.
Weiss then handed the other gift to the young leader. Tearing the large heavy box open Ruby saw that it was two items contained in one box. On the left was a weapon maintenance kit with tools primarily used for sniper rifles and scythes. On the right was several rows of ammo mags with different types of bullets ranging from low caliber to armor piercing rounds so heavy they could go through a small tank.
"It's an organizer so you don't lose any of your magazines. I heard you complaining to Pyrrha a few weeks ago you lost a few mags on a mission." The heiress explained.
Ruby grabbed Wiess in a hug, "Thanks Weiss."
"Let go of me you dolt." She Joked.
Ruby eagerly placed the maintenance kit and organizer on her desk and grabbed her weapon from its place on the wall. Ruby then opened the box containing the new scope and started the process of taking off her old one and replacing it with the newer more powerful one.
Once she was done, she rushed down to the firing range to test out her new scope, along the way her thoughts once again wandered to her sister. 'I wonder if she got something. I should go into Vale and get her something.' Ideas were already running through her head as she rounded the corner into the arena, but one stood out amongst the rest, and Ruby decided that that would be her go to.
Meanwhile on the other side of Vale, Scarlet Rose had just turned the key to enter her apartment she had been living in for almost a year now. It was the closest thing she could get to home until she was able to rejoin Ruby and meet her real family. When she entered, she expected to be jumped on by her cat Fia, but the cat never came. A little confused she put her sniper-sword Slicer Thorn on its rack and put her bag down as she continued into her apartment.
After turning the corner into her living room, she saw her adopted older sister standing over her cat with a sadistic smile and a knife, "FIA!" She called out and the black and white cat hearing its owner ran over and into her open arms. "NEO WHAT WERE YOU THINKING TERRORISING MY CAT! HOW DID YOU EVEN GET IN HERE THE DOOR WAS LOCKED!?" She yelled wanting answers from her insane sister.
Neo just sighed and put the knife down on the nearby dining table. "You never let me have any fun." The normally silent girl pouted.
"Not when it's MY CAT you're trying to kill!" Scarlet yelled furiously. Said cat was trembling in her arms still scarred for its life. Scarlet tried petting the animal to calm it down with little success. "How did you even find me? I never told you where I live." She asked.
Neo turned to her adoptive sister and gave her a smug smile as to say 'I have my ways'. Scarlet had gotten good at interpreting her looks over the years.
Sighing Scarlet spoke again. "Why are you here Neo?" she asked a little calmer now that Fia wasn't shaking as bad anymore.
Neo gave her a happy smile and pulled out a bright box wit ha large bow on top from under the table. "A present?" Scarlet asked confused. Neo never gave her a present and the one time she did it turned out to be a firecracker in a box. She had to go the hospital to treat the burns. As Neo explained later, she thought it would be a good prank, a statement that still haunted Scarlet to this day. Luckily the psychopathic girl had learned and evolved over the years becoming a better person for the most part and even started to talk, only when around Scarlet but it was an improvement.
Scarlet cautiously grabbed the box with one hand and placed it on the table. "It's not a firecracker, right?" She said not wanting another birthday trip to the hospital. Neo shook her head and gave her an offended look. "Look Neo I can't believe I have to explain this, but a firecracker in a box is not funny its dangerous." Neo gave her annoyed look saying, 'Open the box'.
"I'm not putting Fia down until I know she's safe, so can you open it?" She said this for two reasons, one to make sure her precious cat was safe and to make sure what ever was in the box was not dangerous. Neo sighed and complied with her sister's request opening the box and taking out what was inside.
"Headphones?" Scarlet said surprised that Neo got her an actual gift. Neo stood back giving a proud smile. Scarlet took a step forward reaching out with one hand stopping before her hand touched the box. "This isn't one of your illusions, is it?". Neo's look went from proud to horrified in a second.
"HAVE SOME FAITH IN ME SCARLET!" She uncharacteristically yelled.
Putting her open hand up Scarlet apologized, "I'm sorry you just don't really have a good track record with these sorts of things okay." Neo turned around and pouted in anger. Scarlet feeling a little guilty stepped closer to the ice-cream themed girl, "Thanks sis it means a lot to me. I mean it." Neo turned around to see her adoptive sister hugging her cat tightly to her chest and wearing a bright smile.
"It's not that big a deal." She mumbled her face gaining a red tint.
Scarlet laughing started to tease her sisters sudden show of emotion, "Aww look at you. Being all embarrassed!" She teased.
"Shut up Scarlet." Neo mumbled turning around. The two of them didn't always get along, but they had their sisterly moments and Scarlet treasured them, not that she would admit it to anyone other than Ruby and of course her cat, Fia.
"You weren't here last night where were you?" Neo asked.
"You were here last night?" Scarlet asked startled.
"Briefly." The duel color eyed girl responded.
"I went out for a drink at Junior's, and spent the night in a hotel." Scarlet explained remembering her encounter with her twin.
Neo gave her a stern look, "I know I shouldn't be drinking okay. It's not like I do it often." She tried to explain. Neo's look did not falter. "okay I'm sorry can we leave it at that." She said sitting down.
The adoptive sisters talked for another hour until they both got a call from…Roman Torchwick. After sharing a look Scarlet reluctantly picked up. Who knows it might have been him calling to say, 'Happy Birthday Scarlet!'
"Hey Roman, Neo is right next to me right now so whatever you have to say just say it." Scarlet greeted awkwardly.
"Good we have a large shipment of dust coming in from Atlas I need you two there to help out." He explained.
Why did she have to get her hopes up? "Can we decline?" She asked hopefully.
"No. Now get down here, both of you!" He barked hanging up the phone.
"He didn't say where the shipment was." Scarlet pointed out annoyed. Moments after this she got a message from her adoptive father with an address. The docks on the other side of town. Sighing She got up and turned to her sister. "I guess I will see you there."
Neo gave her sister a curtsy and left the apartment.
She went into her bedroom and pulled out her combat clothes from the closet. She didn't know it, but her clothes were nearly identical to Ruby's combat attire, but with one notable difference. The colors were swapped. Ruby wore a Bright red cloak when Scarlet dawned a pitch-black variant. Ruby wore a black blouse and corset with red laces, and black skirt tipped with red. Scarlet wore a blood red blouse and similar corset with black laces, and her skirt was a similar shade of red that was black along the rim. Ruby's boots were black with red along the souls the blended in with her black stockings. Much like her twin Scarlet wore red boots with black souls and red leggings. The only major difference between their choice of clothing was that Scarlet adorned a white mask made from the armor plates of the first grimm she killed. She made the mask so no one could see her face on these missions given to her by her 'father'. She had modified the mask with several technical enhancements the first being a small voice changer that lowered her voice by an octave and added small reverb, a simple change but it worked well enough so no one could recognize her voice. Unlike Neo and Roman, Scarlet like to be able to show her face in public with out being swarmed by SWAT teams.
On her way out she grabbed her weapon Slicer Thorn and attached it to her belt, next to her family crest proudly cast out of gold. Saying goodbye to her cat she jumped out the window and used her semblance to make her way over to the location that Roman sent her.
She spent most of the night waiting for the airship to arrive and when it finally did, she was shocked to see the white fang exiting the ship. The leader barked out some orders and the men went to work. After a few moments Roman came out of the ship and started to chastise everyone present. 'He is never going to change, is he?' She thought to herself.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a girl clad in black and white coming out of nowhere and holding the blade of a sword up to Roman's throat. "What the hell!" She mumbled to herself. She was hiding in the many shipping containers that lined the dock.
"Didn't you get the memo," Roman said to the cat faunas, "Me and the white fang are going in on a joint business venture."
"Tell me what is, or I will put an end to your little operation." The girl threatened.
Roman Chuckled, "I wouldn't call it a 'little operation'." He Joked. At that exact moment more airships came flying down ready to land.
"What the hell!" Scarlet said again.
He then pulled the trigger on his cane-gun sending an explosive round into the floor forcing the girl to go flying backwards. He kept firing the rounds at the girl. Keeping her on her toes. She did manage to get away and as Roman was about to follow her a banana peel hit him the face as a monkey faunas dropped down.
"Leave her alone" he said sternly.
"Where are these people coming from!" Scarlet quietly shouted.
More members of the white fang dropped out of the airships and the monkey boy had no problem taking them down with a Bo-staff and some impressive martial arts. The boy had just blocked another shot from Roman when the cat girl appeared out of thin air.
She went on the offensive against Roman who was barely able to block her hits. He got a few good hits in when the blonde money jumped back in. His staff and turned into shotgun- nunchucks. He was clearly skilled in them and put Roman on the defensive when the cat girl swapped back in sending the orange haired criminal flying back several meters.
"Now." Scarlet activated her semblance and charged at the cat girl knocking her to the ground. She then turned to the monkey boy and effortlessly dodging an attempt to hit her his nunchucks, kicked him in the gut sending him flying as well.
"About time you showed up, Red." Roman said as he got up. Scarlet facepalming turned towards her boss.
"You could have told me you had the white fang by your side." She scolded.
"I was going to once you showed up, okay." He explained. Scarlet groaned and turned back to the two faunas she just knocked down. Roman walked over to the blonde one and Scarlet to the cat taking out Slicer Thorn.
Roman pointed his gun at the boy ready to kill him in cold blood. The cat girl was trying to get back up and Scarlet kicked back down to the hard pavement placing the tip of the blade inches from her face.
"HEY!" A familiar voice shouted out. Scarlet turned to see Ruby standing on top of a building holding her weapon Crescent Rose in its scythe form.
"Damn it" She mumbled under her breath.
"Oh, hello Silver isn't it past your bedtime?" Roman joked.
There was a strange girl standing behind Ruby, she didn't know what they were saying but it looked like Ruby was worried. Roman fired a round at her sister landing a direct hit sending her back out of sight.
Scarlet not thinking ran over to Roman with her semblance, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" She yelled
"Don't worry Red, she's gonna be just, fine." Roman said through giggles.
Just then the girl behind Ruby jumped down sending floating swords through the air. She was able to take down group after group of white fang grunts. Eventually two of the airships went up in the air and tried to gun her down, the orange haired girl brought her swords together and Fired a powerful laser from the center.
"How is she doing that?" Scarlet said to herself.
"RED, LETS GO!" Roman shouted for his adopted daughter to join him in the airship. Complying Scarlet sped into the airship as it took off, "These kids keep getting weirder." Roman mumbled to himself.
Scarlet wasn't paying attention to what her father was saying as he yelled at everyone in the airship including her for not joining the battle sooner. All she could think about was why Ruby was there at the docks, and who she was with.
Still at the docks Team RWBY was reunited and after a short conversation about Weiss not caring if Blake was a member of the white fang or not in the past, the attention was turned on Ruby.
" Hey, Ruby did you get a look at the girl that was helping Roman?" Blake asked.
"No, why?" The leader asked.
"She was wearing your family's emblem." Blake said pointing down at Ruby's belt where she proudly wore a silver representation of her family's crest.
'Scarlet.' Ruby thought to herself.
"Yeah, and she was wearing clothes that looked a lot like yours." Sun spoke up.
Yang was quick to defend her sister, "My sister is not a criminal."
Blake sighed and clarified, "I'm not saying that Yang. Is it possible you two have a cousin that might want to side with a criminal?" Blake suggested what she believed to be a much more logical explanation.
"No, we only have our uncle, and he isn't the kinda of guy to have kids." Yang stated.
Ruby was freaking out trying to put on her best poker face that was becoming weaker and weaker by the second.
"Or may there is another more logical explanation." Weiss broke in.
'NONONONONONONONONONONO!' Ruby screamed internally, her face crumbling.
The others looked at the heiress waiting for her to speak. "This is all just a coincidence." The others looked at each other confused waiting for her to continue. "Black and Red is a popular combination of colors, and the Rose pendant might have no significance whatsoever. Whoever this person was probably just liked the look. After all Ruby is able to pull it off." Weiss explained her theory in detail putting weight on every word, putting on a lighter tone at the end.
"That makes a lot more sense. WAY TO GO ICE QUEEN! Mystery solved!" Yang yelled slapping Weiss on the back.
An argument between the yellow and white members of the team broke out, not that Ruby was paying any attention she was relived that Scarlet's secret could be kept for a little longer.
Blake was still not convinced and was eyeing her leader seeing a wave of relief wash over her, her instincts were telling her their was more to this story. 'I will get to the bottom of this.' She thought to herself.
Scarlet and Roman were walking into a warehouse far away from the docks, he was mumbling about how much dust they lost because of the 'laser freak' as he had dubbed her. Scarlet wasn't paying him much mind still trying to figure out why her sister was at the docks with a girl that could fire lasers from swords that floated. Roman just put a box of the most expensive dust down on a table when a new voice spoke up from behind them.
"We are very disappointed wit you Roman." They spoke. In the doorway stood three figures two female one male.
"Well maybe if you hadn't stuck me with those white fang idiots and MY DAUGHTERS ACCUALY DID THEIR DAMN JOBS!" Roman turned around and yelled at Scarlet now without her mask.
The green haired figure laughed at his sudden outburst, "You, Have kids?" She joked
"Yeah, well adopted kids. But one of them didn't even bother to show up and this one didn't even help out for most of the fight!" Roman scolded angerly fixing his suit jacket.
"HEY! You can't blame Neo for not showing up she was at my apartment celebrating my birthday, you know the one that YOU forgot AGAIN, and she lives nearly an hour from my place and an hour from the docks. Maybe if you gave us more of a heads up you wouldn't have lost most of the shipment!" Scarlet was quick to defend her sister's honor and point out Raman's mistakes.
The middle figure spoke up, "You should listen to you daughter here Roman, she has a good point." Her voice was calm and unwavering.
A smug smile pulled at Scarlet's lips, "Thank you, Miss…?"
"Fall. Cinder Fall." They answered.
"Scarlet Rose, nice to meet someone who has some common sense around here." She said smugly.
"Why you little..." Roman started but was shushed by Cinder as she walked past him towards Scarlet.
She leaned in to get a better look at her face. After a moment of staring she finally spoke. "You have silver eyes."
"Uh, yeah I got them from my mom, she had silver eyes too." Scarlet said thoroughly weirded out.
Cinder backed off from the teen, "Interesting." She walked back over to the other two figures and turned back to her father, "We have big plans for you Roman, and make sure to get Scarlet here a present. It is her birthday after all."
"Technically it was yesterday." Scarlet mumbled.
The figures then left the father and daughter in the warehouse, and as soon as they were out of earshot Roman turned towards Scarlet rage burring in his eyes. He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her in the air pinning her to the wall. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT SCARLET?!" He shouted at her, crushing her windpipe.
Scarlet could barely breath as she wriggled and writhed trying desperately to escape Roman's iron grip. "Hey, it's not my fault you're a terrible human being." She choked out through strangled gasps.
His grip tightened on her windpipe with her statement, when he was suddenly kicked in the side sending him to the floor hitting his head on the way down. Scarlet dropping to the floor started gasping for breath while holding her hands to her neck. Her head was lifted by a hand and her eyes met with that of Neo.
"Are you okay Scarlet?" She said quietly.
With another gasp she spoke, "I will be in a minute."
Neo wiped away tears that Scarlet didn't know had left her eyes as Neo helped her to her feet. "I'll take you to the train station." Neo explained softly in a sisterly tone.
"Thanks." They left the warehouse leaving their abusive father unconscious on the ground. They separated when they reached the train station and Scarlet said her goodbyes to her adopted sister as her train pulled into the station.
Scarlet had plenty of time to process what had just happened on the train and her walk back to her apartment. All she wanted to do was find some dumb movie to watch on TV and curl up with her cat and forget about her day. She was pulled out of her thoughts by someone standing at her font door about to knock. "Ruby? What are you doing here?"
Her twin startled at her sudden arrival stammered out a response. "O-Oh Scarlet I thought you were already home. I-I um…"
"Spit it out Ruby. My day isn't going that well so far." She said sternly.
"Well maybe this will make it better." Ruby pulled a small box out of her pocket handing it to her twin. Opening the box Scarlet saw a necklace in the shape of a rose with red and black petals attached to a gold chain. Noticing a small button on the back and pressing it the necklace opened revealing the picture of her and Ruby as newborns being held by their mother.
"That picture meant a lot to you, and you can't keep carrying it around in your pocket, so I had a custom jewelry maker make two of them. One you and one for me." She then pulled out a similar necklace attached to a sliver chain with the red and black petals reversed, and hung it around her neck. Scarlet noticing what Ruby was wearing and how similar it was to her own let out a small chuckle as she put her necklace around her neck.
"We are defiantly twins." She joked, "Thank you for the necklace its beautiful." She said with tears in her eyes.
"Its no problem. I should get going, Yang is going to get worried if I'm not back by ten."
Scarlet stepped forward and grab Ruby in a hug, "I love you sis"
Ruby happily returning the hug responded, "I love you too Scarlet." They broke the hug and Ruby started to leave.
"Wait hang on a sec!" Scarlet called out remembering something.
Ruby turned around, "What is it?" She asked.
"Why were you at the docks?" Scarlet asked getting straight to the point.
"I was looking for my teammate, her names Blake. I heard a gunshot and I followed it, got lucky I guess." She said with a smile and a shrug.
"And the girl you were with?" Scarlet questioned.
"My friend Penny, she's nice, just a little weird." Ruby explained.
Scarlet smiled and locked eyes with her twin, "You got some powerful friends Ruby. You should be proud you have them around."
"Hey, I'm strong too you know!" The younger of the two objected.
"You got shot within seconds of showing up!" The older twin countered.
Ruby turned and crossed her arms not looking Scarlet in the eyes, "He caught me off guard." She pouted.
Scarlet walked over to Ruby and ruffled her hair, "See you around, kay' Rubes."
Ruby looking up gave her signature cheery smile, "See you around Scar'."
The twins went their separate ways after that with Scarlet going into her apartment and Ruby heading back to her dorm at Beacon. When she got back her teammates were waiting for her to arrive.
"Where have you been?" Weiss asked sounding annoyed and worried at the same time.
"Yeah, you vanished after we left the docks." Yang added.
"I was looking for Penny." Ruby lied.
"Well next time you vanish let us know." Blake spoke up.
"Do you really have any ground to stand on with that statement Blake?" Ruby Said with a joking smile as she grabbed her night clothes from a dresser placing her scroll down on the nightstand. "I'm going to take a shower." She added before walking into the bathroom and the sound of running water could be heard.
While Ruby was in the shower her scroll went off letting her know she had a text message. Ruby not being in the room did not know this. Blake trying to be a good friend went over to check the message for her.
'Just wanted to say goodnight, can't wait to see you again'
The contact image that came along with the message was just a red circle labeled as 'Scarlet'. Hearing the shower turn off Blake put Ruby's scroll down and mentally noted the name and lack of photo and went back over to her bed to read, but ended up wondering who this mysterious 'Scarlet' was. She knew how Ruby kept her contacts; First and last name with a picture of that person. Having someone under just their first name and their photo being a solid block of red wasn't right.
Blake's thoughts were interrupted by the lights being turned off startling her, 'A thought for another day' she thought putting her book down and laying down to fall asleep, her mind pulling up the image of the red figure in the mask holding the long red sword to her face ready to kill.
Next Chapter; Snipers Duel