A/N: So here's the last prologue chapter.
I've got several notes at the end some of you might want to read.
But first thing's first.
I want to thank all of you who have been reading this story and talking to me. I seriously appreciate it. Thank you, all of you.
On to the story!
I don't own RWBY or RoosterTeeth.
Guilty Rose prologue 3
Adorable. Broken. Scarred. Terrified. Deadly.
These words were the used to describe Rose for the past year of her life. Strangely enough, most used those words in that exact order to describe the Face of Death, the Guilty Rose.
Those that recognized her and survived, at least.
Rose was currently sitting in a tavern on her way to Vale, poking at a chicken rice bowl. She was wearing a cheap tan cloak to hide her identity, not that it really did her much good. Her appearance hadn't changed much, she had only let her hair grow out. She kept it in a braid now rather than a standard ponytail.
"Has it nearly been a year since I left the Oni Tribe?"
Rose thought back to the day she finally escaped the Oni Tribe.
That day Raven Branwen's second-in-command, Vernal, decided to spin some story about how the Branwen Tribe 'utterly annihilated the Oni Tribe's feeble attempt at attacking them' to help cover Rose's escape. Though it took Vernal a few days to get Rose out of her catatonic state that Rose had cried herself into and get her to leave the camp. Though Rose didn't leave without pathetically begging Vernal to not come after her.
Rose has spent the last year roaming Anima and Mistral, avoiding the Oni Tribe and looking for something that she herself didn't know what it was.
Rose continued to muse while she ate her food, trying to ignore the stares from everyone around her.
Most didn't recognize Rose for the infamous killer she was and instead thought she was some lost child. She was lost, but not in the way they thought.
She always turned down their charity though. Hannya's last lesson had stolen what little hope and light Rose had left.
Those that did recognize her either ran away from her or wanted to be the one credited for killing the Guilty Rose. The latter never lived long after making their decision. Unfortunately, many made that same decision.
Suddenly a shadow loomed over her, breaking her from her thoughts. She instinctively prepared to end the life of whoever was standing behind her.
"Why can't I be left alone, I don't want to kill anymore. That's all I want."
"Little lady, you lost?"
Rose relaxed and began thanking whatever gods there were as she turned around to see the tavern's owner. The man was big and burly, but his voice was rather amicable despite his choice of words. Rose looked up at the man.
"I'm not lost, just wandering."
"Alright, well be careful out there, apparently the Guilty Rose is heading this way, and I'd hate for a pretty young lady like yourself get mistaken for her by someone."
"You shouldn't worry about me, sir."
The owner looked at Rose with a somber expression. They both knew who Rose really was. But rather than be scared of Rose, the owner pitied her. The owner sighed.
"She's the same age as my daughter, and she looks dead inside already."
"I can't help it, just please be careful."
"I'll be fine."
"If I can make it to Vale, I can hide in the city. Maybe I can turn myself in to the police or hunters. I won't have to kill anymore."
Rose turned back to her meal and finished it, not knowing that another woman in the tavern heard Rose's conversation and understood what was actually being said.
….
Amber Had decided to follow the scarred teenager from the tavern.
"Maybe following her on my horse was a bad idea."
Strangely, she never lost track of the sound of the girls motorcycle in the past hour she's been following the Guilty Rose.
"What am I even following her for, if even half of what Qrow says about her is true, I don't stand a chance."
Amber sighed and continued to follow the sound and tire tracks of her quarry.
….
Rose kept her speed down since she left the tavern, she was allowing herself to be followed. It was hard not to notice the woman staring at her after she finished he meal. But her stare was different than most of those she received. Rose was sure she had been recognized, but oddly the woman seemed to have no malicious intent.
"Well, at this speed, it should only take me two or three days at best."
Rose grimaced at the amount of time, but she didn't want to outrun the woman who decided to follow her on horseback.
Rose saw a glint in the distance ahead, and what was left of her heart sank. She swerved just before the gunshot rang out and a bullet flew threw the space she had been occupying. A second gunshot rang out. But when she swerved again, she hit a rock and lost balance. Rose curled up and rolled across the road. Five men appeared out from behind the trees and Rose cursed herself silently for being too concerned with the woman following her to notice the ambush she had been warned about. A man carrying a semi automatic rifle approached her with a sickengly cruel grin plastered to his face. Rose recognized him as Kane.
"Well, well, little rose, did you really think you could escape the Oni?"
Rose had backed herself against a tree while the men surrounded her. She was still too shook up after getting thrown from her bike, and seeing the Oni Tribesmen wasn't helping. She was hyperventilating and barely managed to get to her feet.
"Nothing to say? No matter, your fate was sealed when you failed to destroy the Branwen Tribe."
"Stop!"
All heads turned to a woman on horseback who was galloping towards them. Unfortunately for the woman, Oni Tribe members are all trained killers. Kane leveled his rifle and fired the last three shots left in his magazine.
Rose watched the first bullet kill the horse and the other two hit the woman in her torso and shoulder.
Something snapped in Rose. She took a step forward and lashed out with Guilty Rose. The two kamas tore through the necks and chests of the five men before her before returning to their wielder. As the bodies fell, Rose turned toward the woman who had been shot down.
"Please be alive!"
It took Rose only a fraction of a second to cover the distance between her and the woman. The woman had been thrown from the horse and was still bleeding profusely from the gunshot wounds.
"Anti-aura bullets. Damn them."
Rose knew the two wounds weren't fatal by themselves, but she'd bleed to death if nothing was done. Rose frantically removed her cloak and cut it into strips. It was all Rose could do not to start sobbing.
"I won't let her die because of me!"
She then cut away the injured woman's corset and blouse off so she could tend to her wounds properly. While desperately trying to keep calm enough to do a proper job, Rose noticed her hands were bloodied again.
"Funny, my hands are being bloodied saving a life."
Amber watched as Rose bandaged her wounds. She had flared her aura, but the bullets passed right through.
"Anti-aura bullets?"
Rose glanced up at the woman, wiping a bloodied hand across her forehead.
"Special dust bullets, they pass through aura and prevent aura from healing the wounds."
Rose went back to work, making sure the bandages were going to be enough to slow the bleeding.
"I can't stop the bleeding, but I've slowed it enough that we can get to Vale and get you proper treatment."
"Thank you...my name is Amber."
"Rose, but you've known that since the tavern."
The two went silent for a moment, then Rose finally broke down. Tears mixed with the blood on her face. Amber once again watched the girl with curiosity.
"This is the mass murdering Guilty Rose? I can't see anything but a broken girl."
"Rose, I need to get to Beacon Academy in Vale."
Rose took several moments to compose herself.
"But your wounds."
"Beacon has medical facilities."
Rose nodded reluctantly before getting her bike. A quick inspection told Rose that the bike was practically undamaged thanks to her modifications to it. She walked the bike over to Amber and parked it properly. It took a painful minute to get Amber up onto the back of the bike and mount it herself.
"Hold on tight."
Rose started the bike and opened the throttle wide. It would only be a matter of hours before they would reach Vale now.
….
Ozpin sat in his off ice, taking time to be alone with his thoughts. Unfortunately, his thoughts were interrupted by the static of the intercom coming alive.
"Ozpin, you need to get to the infirmary right now!"
"What's wrong Glynda?"
"It's Amber, She's back from Haven Academy. But she's badly injured."
"What happened?"
"I don't know, all I know is she was brought I by a teenage girl."
"I'm on my way."
Ozpin immediately walked to the elevator and pressed the button. He silently cursed himself for having his office at the top of the tower. He stepped into the elevator as soon as the doors opened and pressed the ground floor button.
"My healing semblance is having no affect on these wounds!"
Upon entering the infirmary, Ozpin found a red and black teenage girl holding on to a nurse by her scrubs. He also noticed the head doctor trying and failing to use her semblance suture to heal Amber's wounds.
"Listen to me, or she's going to die!"
"Professor Ozpin! please remove this girl so we can tend to the patient."
The girl spun around to face Ozpin, her silver eyes full of tears. Ozpin was taken back by the girl that was the spitting image of Summer Rose.
"Sir, they are trying to treat her wounds as normal gunshot wounds, and they're not."
Ozpin almost tried to reassure the girl, but the look of shear terror and guilt stopped him.
"What do you mean?"
"The dust bullets that were used impede all aura based healing, if they don't listen to me on how to properly treat her wounds, she will die!"
"How do you know this?"
"Because I made them!"
Ozpin could see that the girl wasn't lying and looked at the doctor.
"Listen to her."
The doctor looked conflicted for a few seconds before nodding.
"Okay, Miss Rose, how do we treat her?"
Ozpin zoned out while the girl explained how to treat Amber's wounds. All he could focus on was the name she had been called. His surprise was too great to do anything else. This state continued until Glynda Goodwitch barged in. She stamped over to Rose and made a motion to pull her away from the medical staff.
"Miss, you can't be in here."
Rose fell to her knees as Glynda's hand met her shoulder. The poor girl was reduced to uncontrollable sobbing.
"She'll be okay, my bullets won't claim another life."
Ozpin saw the girl clutch Amber's hand and watched as the barely conscious maiden grip the girls hand as well. With a sigh, Ozpin walked over to Glynda and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay Glynda."
Glynda looked confused, but after looking back a the girl, sighed in resignation.
….
Rose sat on a chair with her knees to her chest. She was very uncomfortable under the combined gazes of the white haired man and the blonde woman. The man just sat across from her resting his chin on his hands while carefully observing her. The woman was standing off in a corner holding a tablet, she was also scrutinizing Rose. The silence in the room was oppressive.
"So Miss Rose, would you mind telling me your full name?"
"Rose."
"Are you sure?"
Rose wasn't sure what the man meant for a moment, but then she thought about it. She remembered that Rose wasn't always the name she was called. She tried so hard to recall her other name, only to end up clutching her head in pain.
"I know I had another name, but it was taken from me, like everything else."
The man narrowed his eyes, seemingly with disappointment.
"I see, well then Rose, now that Amber's condition is stabilized, I would like to ask you for the specifics on what happened."
Rose looked to the ground, taking her time to figure out what she wanted to say.
"It's all my fault."
The woman's eyes widened before both adult's intensely stared at her.
"You mentioned something about the bullets that were used being yours. Were you the one that shot her."
Rose squeezed her eyes shut to hold back her tears and shook her head.
"Amber was following me when I got ambushed by bandits. She tried to intervene, but Kane fired at her using my anti aura bullets. I killed them. After that, I bound her wounds and brought her here to Beacon Academy."
The silence returned to the room.
"You're the Guilty Rose aren't you."
"Yes."
The woman gasped. She immediately began typing into her tablet. The man turned to her with a glare that brought her to a halt.
"Glynda, I know what you are thinking. But I will not allow you to report her to the authorities."
"Professor Ozpin, she is a criminal."
"Glynda, I'm not sure what you see, but all I see is a teenage girl."
A small sigh brought Ozpin's and Glynda's attention to Rose who was wearing a small sad smile.
"It's okay, you can turn me in. I was going to do that anyway."
"Why, if I may ask, would you do that?"
"I don't want to kill people anymore."
Tears began falling from Rose's eyes once more. Strangely, she kept the same sad smile plastered on her face.
Glynda tried to find the righteous fury she had for this girl just a moment ago. It burned so brightly in her when the girl confirmed she was the infamous killer Guilty Rose. A killer who was confirmed to have killed over three hundred people. But now, all she saw was what Ozpin saw, a broken little girl. She could only watch as the girl devolved into crying again.
….
Ozpin had time to think while he and Glynda waited for Rose to compose herself once again. He was now certain the girl in front of him was the long lost Ruby Rose. He fished out his scroll and scrolled through his contact list to find the name Summer Rose. He was about to tap on the call icon but stopped. Something didn't sit right about immediately calling the woman.
"Miss Rose, if I told you I knew not only who you were, but also who your real family is, and that I could contact them, what would you do?"
Rose was mortified at what Ozpin just said. She immediately brought her hands to her neck where Cin's charm used to reside.
"You can't tell them about me. They can't know about me."
"Why?"
"Because I don't deserve them, not anymore."
Rose's words were chilling. They left no room for argument. Ozpin simply sighed and put his scroll away. This girl was far more broken than he had originally thought.
"I understand, I will respect your wishes. However, what do you plan to do from here?"
"I'm not entirely sure, I came to Vale so I'd no longer have to kill people. I really didn't consider more than that."
"How do you feel about becoming a huntsman?"
Rose's eyes widened. She couldn't believe what she just heard.
"He wants a monster like me to protect people!"
Rose stopped. Her whole world came to a halt
"To protect people."
She looked at her hands and remembered the feeling of Amber's blood on her hands. The feeling of having the blood of someone she was trying to save on her hands.
"The next academic year begins in six months so you have time to consider my proposal."
"I don't need it, I accept your offer."
Glynda let out a loud sigh and tapped away on her tablet for a few moments.
"I've added you to the list of initiates for next year, but I will need additional information to complete your enrollment."
A/N: So notes...this chapter was almost two. This is the longest chapter I have ever written. I had to hold back on some scenes and move some content to the next chapter. It was a hard decision, but I promised only one more prologue chapter. Oh, I sound like some other writers here on FF.
Little bit more on the story. I added a few things to the story while I wrote this, but after the other two prologues. Things I can't just add in without breaking the flow of the story. They will show up later. Two of them were great ideas from you, so thank you again.
So one of the additions is the anti aura rounds. I'll tell you what, I had to argue with my editor to keep them. Had to add healing to this AU.
The other two I'm keeping secret until I work out how to implement them.
One last time, I want to thank you readers.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
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