Muscles rippled as beads of sweat ran down tan skin. The tight and skimpy work out clothing was revealing a lot of skin. Up and down, up and down she went, doing pull-ups. Ruby's eye's followed every movment, every ripple, as she sat there in a cushioned lawn chair. Her hands rested on her very round stomach as her face went flush from the attractive display. Ruby had to admit that Carmine was thick in all the right places with muscles for days, simply put she was hot. The older woman made her mouth water and her heart thump in her chest. Sure staring at her like this was a bit objectifying but it's not like Ruby cared, besides is it objectifying if the person likes it? But there was something else, this woman had a way of just getting to her. She was so kind and caring which she never expected.
She knew about her past, knew that she was no saint and had at points done some horrible things. She had started to change because of a run in with a team of hunters in training. They had showed her that she could do better. Ruby thought the idea was ridiculous, as power is the only thing that matters in this world. It's survival of the fittest and she was determined to be at the top of the food chain. But she had recently found herself questioning herself about what she wanted. The past few months being here has been rather pleasant and calm, relaxing even. She could have left 2 month ago but she didn't, she stayed and Carmine has made no effort to tell her or make her leave. Things have been rather domestic with how they have been acting, despite Ruby's typical attitude, especially with the pregnancy and even more so now that she was close getting close to her due date.
"You got a staring problem?" Carmine asked while smirking.
"I have no idea what your talking about." Ruby scoffed, turning her head away.
"Uh huh, sure you don't." Her smirk got bigger. "Just like you didn't have one yesterday, or the day before that, or the past few months."
"Exactly, why would I stare when your nothing special to look at." Ruby said more as a statement than a question.
"Nothing special huh?" Carmine got a rather mischievous grin. "Well then I guess I don't have to worry about undressing and rinsing off with the water hose."
Carmine moved over to where the hose was hanging and started undressing. First came her top being lifted up over her breasts in just the right way to make them bounce. Then came her shoes and socks being kicked off. Finally she slowly pulled down the tiny work out shorts pealing them off her sticky wet skin. She glanced over and grinned at Ruby who quickly turned her head trying to act like she wasn't staring. Grabbing the hose she turned the water on and started rinsing the sweat off her skin. She started to purposely move and pose in certain ways that revealed everything. The moans and groans she was making in pleasure from the cool water hitting her skin was loud enough for Ruby to hear.
Ruby tried not to look, she really did, but she couldn't help it. Carmine was gorgeous and the noises she was making just drew her eye's open and over. Her brain was already frying but with her hormones being all over the place because of her pregnancy well...it was a lot worse. Her face was beat red as she watched not realizing that the other woman knew she was watching. Then Carmine turned her head, her eye's locking onto Ruby's. Ruby couldn't look away no matter how much she wanted to. Turning off the water and with a sway of the hips the dark skinned woman walked over to Ruby.
"Oh so you do have a staring problem." Carmine smirked as she inched her face almost nose to nose with the other girl. Ruby had noticeably swallowed hard as her face seemed to get almost impossibly red. "Enjoying the view are you?"
"I-I-I don't..." She was quickly shushed by Carmine with a finger on her lips.
"No more games and beating around the bush." She said as she ran a finger down the side of Ruby's face. "Tell me what you want."
"Just fucking kiss me already!" Ruby shouted with out meaning to. But that was what Carmine wanted and as a reward Ruby got what she wanted.
The kiss started slow and light as Carmine sat on the edge of the lawn chair. Dark skinned hands moved to the other woman's face caressing her. Carmine took and kept control of the lead as the dominant one with Ruby surprisingly allowing it. Ruby moaned out as her neck was being kissed and nipped at by soft warm lips. She had wanted this for a good while but was simply to stubborn to admit it, or even make a move herself. Carmine knew this, wasn't that hard to figure out honesty. So the darker skinned woman had started teasing her on purpose about a month ago. They tried to kill each other at one point and yet here they were with all this sexual tension. Although this was more than just a sexual thing, it felt rather romantic as well.
"I'm going to pick you up, take you into my room, then fuck you all night. And before you say it, no I don't care that your pregnant, it doesn't bother me, and I know how to be careful." She said as she ran a hand down Ruby's cheek. "Is that okay with you?"
"Y-yes." Ruby gulped with a stutter. God she couldn't believe how much like putty she was being in this woman's hands. She was being shy and innocent like she had with Emerald back in beacon, like when she was her old self.
"Oh and don't worry, I'm Carmilicious." Carmine said with a chuckle.
"Don't ruin this with your dumb puns, please and thank you." Ruby rolled her eye's.
"Please and thank you? So you do know how to play nice." She gave Ruby that smirk of hers again.
"S-shut up and take me inside already you-you DOLT!" Ruby blushed again, partially from embarrassment and half from irritation. And oh my god she just sounded like Weiss and hated herself for it, that was the last person she wanted to be anything like.
"As you wish my precious gem." Carmine smiled as she lifted Ruby up with ease in a bridal carry. Gently she carried her inside the cabin laying her carefully on the bed. This was all about Ruby tonight, which she emphasized as she removed the other woman's clothes. Seeing Ruby being so shy and embarrassed was sexy and adorable for her. It was a side of the girl that Carmine knew wasn't shown often if at all, so she was going to cherish this moment. The smaller girl was surprisingly submissive to her, and God the whimpers she could get out of her. It was all so special, this girl, no this woman had become special to her. So much of this was odd, considering hey had tried to kill each other. Then again, in this world weird things happened all the time, like finding out magic was actually real.
That night had been amazing, for the first time in a long time Ruby felt as ease. It was magical not to mention it released a lot of pent up tension and stress. She could almost swear Carmine could read her mind, because she knew where all her spots were. With being so sensitive and the raging hormones, it was like euphoria. Carmine kept her word to and didn't stop at all, excluding water breaks of course. It wasn't until the sun started coming up that they finally slept. Ruby falling asleep in Carmine's strong muscled arms, her head firmly resting between her reasonably large breasts with a smile on her face.
Ruby had fallen in love with the woman, and a part of her hated herself for it. Love only caused pain, love was a weakness, that had been proven to her with Emerald, and even with Tulisa. Love was simply a way to exploit others and yet despite her belief's here she was falling victim to it. But maybe, maybe this time it would be different, maybe this time it would work.
They would only be woken up later when the door was kicked open by an angry and panicked Neo. Normally she was stealthy but she had been so worried about Ruby that being stealthy was far from her mind. When Neo had gotten up one morning and found that Ruby was gone, she had went into a frantic panic. At first she had calmed down thinking Ruby had went out for something and would be back soon. But hours turned into days, then weeks then a few months. Neo spent all her time trying to track Ruby down. God she hated that Ruby had just up and left with not so much as a note. She had known what Ruby had been planning and why, but she had thought she had talked her out of it.
She spent so much time worrying and searching for Ruby, just to find her in bed with the woman she had wanted to kill. Although she could hardly judge her for it, since she wanted to sleep with Ruby to, while having at one point wanting to kill her. She had kept getting in her and Roman's way, so why wouldn't she have wanted her dead. But then again you know what? She could judge other people if she wanted to, then again this was probably the jealousy talking.
'RUBY!' Neo signed while stomping her foot with a loud slam.
Ruby woke up with a start finding herself looking into the sunglasses covered eye's of Junior. She had fallen asleep at her desk while doing paperwork for her Mountain Glenn project. The club was something both Ruby and Carmine had wanted to do together. But Mountain Glenn was Ruby's pet project, her new dream, a dream she had envisioned while in prison. She was going to rebuild the city, make it better than it had been, better than any other of the major cities in the 4 kingdoms. It would be a place for one to be truly free, to pursue their dreams, to indulge in and feel the pleasure of one's desires. It would be a place for one to experience true hedonism. The city of Eden would be her greatest creation, and all with her in charge. A cliché name for a city she knew this but to her it was fitting.
Work had started on the project close to a year ago. The amount of people she had needed to hire was very large. She had to hire workers, Engineers, architects along with guards to protect them. The materials needed was highly expensive, especially since she was going to make sure the city was an example of technological wonder. It helped that the city would be capable of being mostly self sufficient as it sat on top of untapped resources. The fact no one had discovered the large amounts of dust under the city was rather surprising.
Then again Ruby had not expected to find an old abandoned lab full of mutated Grimm and dead bodies of people, faunus and human alike who had been experimented on either. She destroyed the lab but not before salvaging some pieces of tech and the data that was still stored on a old computer. She figured it could be useful for later, after all she was a nerd for technology and engineering. She figured that there could be things in the data capable of making her even more wealthy and powerful. A hand written Manifesto titled 'Lusus Nuturae' had been sitting on a research desk. However she had yet to read it and decided to place it on her book shelf for a future read. Even the research journals and computer data she hadn't read yet. She had no idea what kind of sick experiments had been done there but honestly she didn't care. To her she figured there could still be some beneficial things in the research, not that she had plans to go through any of it anytime soon.
Junior had woke her up because she had an appointment with Velvet and her team on the outskirts of Mountain Glenn. Ruby wanted to reveal her plans to Vel as she wanted the bunny girl to run the city with her. She hopes Velvet will say yes but then again the other woman has been acting strangely as of late. The faunus has been distant with her, and not spending as much time with her. When she tried to be intimate with her she would always recoil form her. Her excuse was always that she simply didn't feel good. Though sure Vel has been sick recently but even before then she was avoiding her touch. She felt hurt that her fiancée was being so distant with her.
Ever since Neo left things haven't been great. Her work and paper load have doubled, it's been harder to keep track of her appointments and she lost some of Roman's business, including those she had gained from his contacts. On top of those things she felt alone, no more waking up to Neo helping her, no more of Neo's bouncy happyness. Her anxiety and paranoia hadn't been great either, Neo was a big factor in keeping her calm. The duel colored woman was constantly trying to reign in Ruby's more darker half as much as she could. She was trying to guide the younger woman towards a better path. Neo knew there was somethings Ruby could never truly come back from, she knew from experience. But even then Ruby could have still been guided, taught to control her negative aspects. With Neo gone, the only person capable of helping her was Velvet. Sure there was the others but her relationship with them was still tense and Rocky.
When Ruby touched down and her pilot closed the door behind her, she found velvet and her team already waiting for her. Vel looked conflicted and sad, while Coco stood there with her arms crossed glaring at her. Of course Coco was still jealous and hateful towards her. Fox and Yatsu though were still indifferent towards Ruby and the situation between the three girls. The boys had been trying to stay out of it as much as possible as they didn't feel like it was their business.
"Velvet." Ruby smiled as she hugged the faunus who was reluctant to hug her back, which didn't go unnoticed to Ruby.
"S-so why are we here?" Velvet asked.
"Because I want you to be apart of this." Ruby turned towards the ruined city off in the distance. Large equipment and scaffolding could vaguely be made out. "My magnum opas, my greatest creation, The city of Eden!"
"Tsk..." Coco scoffed. "What a cliché" Ruby glared at her but ignored her.
"A place were people will be free to be themselves!" In an elegant manner Ruby raised a hand to point at the city as she continued to talk but in an excited tone. "A city where people can freely express themselves, to indulge in pleasure and desire." Her mouth twisted into a smile that was also partially a smirk. "With only the most basic of rules and laws to govern them, both human and faunus alike will be equal and free to mostly do as they please. Drugs, alcohol, sex and anything of the like open to all, a none stop 24/7 party! A true hedonistic paradise! They will answer to only one person, me!" Ruby heard Coco murmur 'she's fucking crazy' but again she ignored her. "At least that was the original idea." Her voice softened. "Velvet I want you to run this place with me."
"No." Velvet said sternly but sadly. Ruby around quickly to look at Vel with wide eye's and a face in shock. "I...I can't."
"V-Vel?" Ruby slightly stuttered in confusion. "I don't understa..." Before she could even finish her sentence Velvet started speaking again cutting her off.
"I need to say this before I lose my nerve like I have been the past few weeks." Taking a deep breath and looking up at Ruby with sadness in her eye's. "I can't do this anymore Ruby, I just can't." For a moment she almost wanted to start crying but held herself together. "You made promises to me and have broken almost all of them. I knew what I was getting into with you but I...but knowing about it and actually seeing it is different. And the worst part of it is knowing what you did with That-THAT HORRIBLE woman."
Wo-woman what are you..." Again Ruby was cut off.
"DON'T!" Velvet said almost yelling getting a surprise out of both Ruby and Coco. "Just don't Ruby, please. I know about Cinder, about...about what you did with her, Neo told me, she felt I had a right to know because you wouldn't have ever told me otherwise." Ruby's face contorted in anxiety and surprise. "The first time you cheated on me I was upset about it but I understood, but a second time, after you promised it wouldn't happen again and with that woman of all people...I love you so much but I can't do this anymore...I..." Velvet didn't even get a chance to finish before Coco started speaking.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You cheated on her!" Coco said as she turned to face Ruby in anger. "Not once but fucking twice!" She seethed. "One of which is one of the worst fucking people in Remnant!"
"This conversation doesn't concern you!" Ruby snapped.
"The fuck it doesn't!" The dark skinned woman said as she now stood face to face with Ruby. "From day one I knew this was a bad idea!"
"Your only jealous that she chose me over you." Ruby told her with snarky and angry tone.
"You know what? Your right, I have been jealous but even if I wasn't, I'd have still thought her being with you was a mistake!" She raised her voice. "You have been nothing but a bad influence on her! Your a damn crook, and a fucking psyco."
"A crook? I have never denied that I'm involved in some...illicit things but only because I didn't have a choice, no thanks to you and everyone else at that pathetic school!"
"I get it, everyone fucked up and made things worse after what happened. But after a certain point everything you do or have done was by your OWN choice! No one has forced you to do a god damn thing. So why don't you stop blaming everyone else for own fucked life and your own mistakes!"
"You don't know anything, so don't act like you do." Ruby said as she got into the other woman's face. "You have been nothing but an annoying nuisance!"
"At least I don't act like Cinder jr!" Coco yelled as she shoved Ruby.
That was all it took for Ruby to snap. In anger her single silver eye lit up and she quickly lashed out with her powers. Coco was thrown across the opening and smashed into a tree snapping it in half. As fast as she went down she got up just as fast and pulled her weapon. She started firing rounds at Ruby just to miss all of them as the younger woman easily dogged them. She knew Ruby was fast because of her semblance but this...she was faster than she used to be, so much faster, and there was no petals falling in her wake. Coco couldn't hit her, couldn't even keep track of her. She had dealt with speed type semblances before, even spared with Ruby a few times in combat class in the past, but this was nuts. All she could see was the occasional flicker of Ruby's eye. And what was with that freaky flaming glowing eye, and what the hell did she hit her with?
"Should have killed you when I had the chance!" Ruby hissed out loudly with spite in her voice.
Ruby had closed in on her to fast and she once again couldn't react and was hit with a fist to the gut. From the gut to the face and then she was thrown again. This time however she went barreling through several tree's. And again she was tossed and thrown, by seemingly nothing. It was almost like a powerful gust of wind had just appeared out of no where. It had even managed to tear through her clothes and leave a few bleeding cuts and gashes.
"Stop!" Velvet yelled out as she moved to step between them.
It was to late, by the time Ruby realized Velvet was in the way she couldn't stop herself in time. This time it was velvet that was thrown, but something was off. After being slammed into a tree she didn't get up, nothing took the blow for her. Her aura hadn't been up at least not fully as she had been focusing it into a signaler spot. so she took almost all the brunt force of the hit.
"V-Velvet!" Ruby moved to go to Velvets side but stopped.
"Stay the fuck away from her!" Coco yelled at as she appeared beside an unconscious Velvet with Fox and Yatsu standing between them and Ruby.
"I-I didn't mean to, I..." The look on her face was of nothing but remorse and mortification. It was just a another promise she had broken. 'I'll never hurt you', that's what she told her, and now she did the opposite.
"Shit Vel come on, wake up." As mad as Coco was it all vanished, turned into worry. "I don't want to move her but I don't think we can wait. Yatsu carry her to our Bullhead. Be as careful as you can to keep her back and neck straight and steady. I'll go ahead of you and get the ship ready." Walking past Ruby she pushed past her with a shoulder nudge. "Stay away from told her!" She said as she walked past.
After they left Ruby just stood there in silence in the open field alone.
"I...I'm alone again." Ruby said to herself. "What's wrong with me?" Her eye started to water as her lips twisted. "I didn't mean to, I would never...I would never hurt her...I..." She clutched her head with both hands as she cried and shook. "My fault, my fault, my fault..." She kept repeating. "No, no, no, no, no, NO!" Ruby shouted frantically as her anxiety kept raising. "Why am I like this!? Why can't I ever stop myself?!"
It was during this that shadows started moving at the tree line, red eye's watching, drawing closer. Ruby still just kept standing their muttering to herself as she was breaking down. She was hurt, heartbroken and conflicted. Part of her, the good part of her, knew it was her fault, that she was the one who fucked up. But the other part of her, the darker part, felt that it wasn't her fault, that it was everyone else's. It was like a war in her head, two sides of the same coin fighting each other. The good person she used to be, the person she could be again was fighting the person she is now. The bottle holding all the pain she hides was cracking. With each crack the voice of reason was fading, getting harder to hear.
"So many promises people made to me have been broken, so many lie's and betrayal's. If they had just supported me, believed in me then maybe..." She told herself. "If they hadn't hurt me, betrayed me, I wouldn't be here." She shut her eye trying to think. "No...no they apologized, they were sincere this time. Right? Maybe...maybe this was just how i really am, maybe I would have always turned out like this." Ruby started pacing. "No of course they weren't! They just wanted to use you AGAIN! You have a better life and their all just jealous! I'm like this ONLY because of everyone else! I do what I have to in order to survive!"
Ruby was just becoming more and more frantic drawing even more guests, more visitors to surround her. She just continued to argue with herself seemingly either not noticing the Grimm getting closer and closer to her or she was simply ignoring them.
"But I could have done things differently! I could have...could have...what does it matter that I've have broken promises? What does it matter that I've hurt others? It's no different than what everyone else has done me! I opened myself back up! I let people in! And what did it get me?! More pain! More betrayal! It made me weak!" Her hands dropped from her head as she made fists. "My friends, my family, Neo, Velvet...Carmine," ruby's voice softened when speaking Carmine's name. "they all left me." For a brief moment she softened even more before becoming hardened and filled with anger. "I'm done being hurt! Fuck everyone! I don't need them and never have!"
Looking up Ruby stared at all the Grimm that surrounded her. She didn't flinch, didn't panic and wasn't afraid. She was angry and all her sorrow and pain just fueled her anger even more, like throwing gasoline on a fire. To her this was perfect, she needed a stress reliever, something to take her frustrations out on.
"What are you waiting for!" She yelled at them. "Attack me! I'm right here!"
Just as quickly as she yelled at them several Beowolfs lunged at her simultaneously. And just as easily she dodged them as she threw several of her knives. Each one hit its mark right between their eye's dropping them instantly. It had been a long time since she had fought and killed Grimm, honestly a part of her still kind of missed it. She had crescent rose with her but she didn't like using her often, not anymore. Besides it has only been people she has had to deal with. Using crescent rose on people could be messy, she knows from experience. She still remembered when Cinder sent Mercury to kill her. She would have had better luck doing it herself.
Instead she sent someone with no semblance who relied to much on his aura and prosthetic combat legs. Oh how she loved the surprised look on his face when he realized she knew about his legs. There was also the look of fear as she dismembered his mechanical legs and then used her foot to press down and force his neck down to the blade of her scythe. Oh he tried to use all his upper body strength to resist but it did no good. He was so arrogant and overconfident in his skills that it was obvious he rarely if ever trained. At least Emerald actually tried to continuously improve herself. She remembered his grunts of resistance turning into grunts of panic, then pain, then the sound of flesh being cut and the gurgling of blood. She had sent his head back to Cinder in a box along with a bomb. Bit of a cliché sure, but if it works it works, of course Cinder survived obviously. Though despite that it was so fun seeing the look on Cinders face after she crawled out of the rubble. She was so happy she had someone set up a camera across the street.
A few more standard Grimm fell, Beowolfs, boartusks, a few Ursa's. They were easy to kill but they also just kept coming, and coming. It didn't help that some more formidable Grimm had started showing up now, a few deaths stalkers, some nevermores and a king taijitu. To Ruby this was just getting ridiculous and annoying now. As much fun as it was to slaughter grimm she wasn't stupid, she knew if they kept showing like this that even she would get overwhelmed. She might be very powerful but even she couldn't stand up to an unending horde of Grimm. So she had decided it would be best to retreat, but there was a problem, her bullhead was currently flying off as the pilot ran and left her there like the coward he is. She cursed her luck now that she found herself completely abandoned and surrounded by monsters.
"Tsk...persistent." She spat. "And that coward leaving me here. He's a dead man when I get ahold of him." As she kept fighting she started to see how bad her position was. "This is...not good. And my emotions aren't helping! Their here because of me, they keep coming because of me." She lamented.
She knew she needed to calm down, that she needed to control herself but she couldn't. She was just so pissed, so upset in general that they were attracted to her. It wasn't uncommon that a single person could draw large hordes of Grimm, but it didn't happen often. But the more upset she got, the worse it made all this. The only thing Ruby could figure to do was to keep fighting until she found an opening for a tactical retreat.
This wasn't easy, no matter how many she killed they kept coming, honestly she was getting concerned. She was even forced to use crescent rose as she ran out of knifes. Crescent rose was out of ammunition, her dust reserves were spent and she had even used all the dust that was weaved into her clothes. She had crescent rose and her powers left, that was it. Worst of all she was exhausted and had been for awhile. With there being so many Grimm a few had gotten to her, catching her on the back and parts of her arms and legs, leaving her bleeding.
She couldn't help but curse herself as she came to a realization. She had gotten used to fighting only people, use to ending fights rather fast, use to not using her aura and semblance much. And now despite all her time and effort at getting stronger she had also inadvertently made herself weaker as well.
She didn't think things could get any worse at least not until she felt the earth shake. She could feel the earth moving, and could hear the rumble of stone and rock breaking. Suddenly a part of the mountain Burst apart with a loud thundering bang and an eerie monstrous screech. Ruby had to dodge a few large boulders that had been thrown. When she looked up she saw it, a large flying Grimm, a wyvern. They weren't supposed to be real, or at the very least extremely rare. Yet here one was landing in front of her with a loud thud. It towered over her, she felt like it's red eye's were staring into her soul. For the first time in a long time Ruby found herself terrified, shaking in fear even. Even the other Grimm were hesitant to get close to it. What should she do? She couldn't run, she was to tired and there was to many Grimm. But she couldn't fight either, not really anyways. Against this monstrosity she knew she stood no stance, maybe if she was at her full strength...maybe.
It moved towards her as the others stood and watched. Before she had a chance to move it struck out with a claw. Ruby barely had time to lift her scythe up to defend her herself. With a loud snap her weapon was shattered into pieces while she was tossed several feet and felt her aura break as she hit the ground. Pain, she felt so much pain and she couldn't feel her arm. It took everything she had to stand up, using the last of her strength. Standing was all she could do, simply stand there and stare down the Grimm. After everything she had been through, after everything she had done, surviving what she has, and this is how it ends. Part of her felt like she deserved this, that it was a fitting end, the weak perish while the strong survive. In this instance she was the weak one.
Ruby felt a a sharp stinging pain in her abdomen. When she looked down she saw a black and white spiked tail sticking out. The pain got worse as the wyvern Grimm lifted her off the ground bring her face to face with it.
"Go..." She wheezed in pain. "Fuck yourself!" She spat in its face.
Raising her other arm her eye lit up as she snapped her fingers using the remainder of her power to engulf one of the beats eye's on fire. With a roar it whipped it's tail ripping it out of her and tossing her into a nearby boulder with a sickening crunch. She hurt, her whole body hurt as she was slumped there against the stone. Her breathing was rugged and she could only take small fast breaths. She couldn't be sure but she was confident that her back was broke and that she might have a collapsed lung. All she could do was sit there as the beast and now the other Grimm as well started moving towards her.
"I'm still..." She coughed. " such a weakling." Ruby cried with tear's in her eye.
Her head started to hurt, her eye started to burn leaving her to yell out in pain as her vision was engulfed in a blinding silver light. It was so bright but so painful.
"RUBY!" A voice cried out as everything went black, the darkness engulfing her.