Autumn was a truly mesmerising time of year in Vale. Fiery red leaves would fall to the floor, covering pavement and road alike, as if enveloping the land itself in a warm, damp embrace that the season was known for. The wind would bite into exposed flesh but, unlike the unforgiving winter, amounted to no more than a nibble that served as an almost friendly reminder to wear more layers in future. Days grew shorter and nights grew longer, the moon and stars visible as early as five o'clock and the sun seemingly only out for a scant few hours before deciding to head to its resting point beyond the opposite horizon.
The people of Vale were often considered to be some of the most well off in all of the world. Unlike Vacuo or Atlas, the terrain was hospitable all year round, consisting of mostly grassland and forests outside the city itself. It also was the second best internationally for its technology, with only Atlas pulling ahead. There was public healthcare and there was next to no limits to what one could achieve so long as they abide by the law.
However, what she liked about Vale the most was this particular establishment. Beacon Huntsmen and Huntress Academy, the pride and joy of Vale and the most prestigious academy in the whole world. Her uncle taught here and had often told her many wondrous stories about the happenings and deeds that happened within its walls. He would always seem tired from returning, complaining of being over worked, but he never once bad mouthed the establishment itself, more often than not blaming his boss for anything that was ailing him instead. She could hardly blame him. After all, he had basically been the academy's only history professor and on top of that had taught her in what little free time he actually had. She had made sure to not waste his tutoring, for no reason other than respect for his efforts and all the work he did.
She stood before the central building, waiting in line to participate in the entrance exam. Her sisters had all already had their tests, having all been accepted earlier that week. Waiting in line wasn't quite right she supposed, considering she was the only person currently in said line, or ever had been as far as she could tell. She understood why, she was attempting to apply to the academy two years early at the young age of almost sixteen. Anyone could enter at any age above eighteen, but students were rarely accepted who were any younger. So of course, her exam had been scheduled at a different time to everyone else, having to do extra to prove that she could enter ahead of her age. Her uncle had been responsible for allowing her to even attempt to enter, using his sway within the institution to earn her some extra attention from the headmaster.
She had just taken the written exam, feeling confident that she had aced it, her uncle, even being as erratic as he was, was the best teacher she could ask for and so most of what the paper covered she had considered to be simple, with little actually requiring her to think too hard. Said 'line' she had been told to wait in by the deputy headmistress was in front of a large pair of dark oak doors with a glass sign attached to the wall with the words 'Combat Hall' stating what lay behind. Said teacher had disappeared nearly half an hour ago into the room and since no sound had escaped. She had almost considered checking to see if she was still alive, but heeded her uncles warning about the woman and resulted to kicking a small stone around instead. Ten or so minutes later the blonde teacher stepped from the doors and gestured for her to enter. She obeyed but let her curiosity get the better of her as she walked.
"So, what am I supposed to do?" The question sounded innocent and yet the teacher frowned and pointedly ignored it, she could practically hear the humph that would make the woman seem like little more than a petty character from a movie. She decided not to prod further, instead taking in the room around her. It was tall, constructed mostly out of white stone with a large circular stage in the centre. Flood lights illuminated the stage and seating area which surrounded the stage from all directions. There were no windows, but natural light was peeking in through the roof that seemed it could be closed and opened as dictated by whoever was using it. A large projector screen was pressed against the far wall and displayed an icon of her along with displaying beside it her current vitals. She stared wide eyed at the technology that must have been used in order to monitor her from a distance, but was interrupted by the harsh, unforgiving voice of the teacher.
"Miss Rose if you would please stop gawking and get up on the stage, then perhaps we could get your combat exam under way." Ruby bit back a retort. She knew the woman didn't like her, after all she came to the academy to apply two years early on her uncle's request no doubt thinking her nothing more than some street rat in way over her head. Ruby wasn't used to being talked down to, she had dealt with her fair share of assholes whilst working for her family, but it wasn't often someone forgot of the consequences of messing around with her family. She decided to let the underhanded comment slide and rolled her neck and back in response. It was a habit her uncle Jax had dropped off on her, truth be told it didn't do anything, but the dull aching pain from doing so helped her keep focus before a fight. Fighting was something she was used to.
She had sparred with her sisters, uncles, aunts and even Junior himself on several occasions. At first, she had been hesitant to fight, but had soon become enraptured by the displays of skill just as her sisters had before her. It helped that she was a bit of a weapons nut, finding each unique mechanism and weapon extremely fascinating. Her sisters often teased her about adopting uncle Bart's eccentricity when she spoke of weapons, but she couldn't deny his addiction to coffee had rubbed off on her, though perhaps not as drastic as his own affliction, she could consume litres without even being remotely fazed. Her reminiscing was interrupted as a figure walked in from the door on the opposite side of the symmetrical room, walking onto the stage with an air of confidence Ruby couldn't help but be irked by.
The figure belonged to a tall blonde boy with a long, thin tail swaying nonchalantly behind him as he approached. He wore a white button-up shirt that was completely undone showing off his toned abs, which he was clearly proud of, and blue jean shorts that ended just below his knees. He was smirking as he approached seemingly happy with himself about something and not at all taking this seriously. Due to the fact that she was being monitored, Ruby kept her opinion of him to herself but let her displeasure show on her face. He seemed like the type to flaunt himself around like a God-given gift, honestly, she couldn't see what was so great. Even his six pack was far from the best she had seen, growing up around Nora and Jax had made sure she was practically immune to people peacocking their fitness around. Melanie had said that she needed to not compare people to the crazy standards of their family. She had simply waved her off and said to let her have her own say in who she showed interest in. Glynda cut in again.
"Miss Rose, this is Sun Wukong, a second year here at this academy and one of the best in his year in combat. You will have five minutes to do as well as you can against him and will be graded accordingly on your performance. Understood?" The tone used made it clear that, whether or not Ruby had understood, she would move on anyway and so Ruby simply nodded turning to face her opponent. "Good, the timer on the screen will count down from twenty, the match will begin then. Good luck." Ruby had to stifle her response at Glynda's clearly forced encouragement, now she understood entirely what uncle Bart had been on about. Instead she straightened and stretched as the timer ticked down on the far wall.
Sun looked mostly bored but lowered his stance and pulled a large staff off his back, giving it an exaggerated twirl as the last few second went by. Ruby inwardly groaned and lowered her stance, setting her footing, but not drawing her own weapon. It was just a simple dagger, nothing fancy about it. In her family they all received a personalised weapon from Junior and Jax on their sixteenth birthday, hers being in just a week, so for now she was using just a stock standard dagger that Jax had taught her to use. However, she did not expect to draw it here. Uncle Bart had emphasised the importance of making a spectacle and showing off, after all, Glynda was going to be as harsh as possible with marking her performance. The buzzer went off indicating the start of the match, Sun immediately lunged forward.
Ruby admitted his form wasn't bad, his back was straight, his knees bent, and shoulders properly set as he swung wide in an attempt to offset her balance. However, he paled in comparison to Jax and Nora. Ruby bent backwards beneath the swing rolling back and kicking out at his exposed midriff as she vaulted. He stumbled back, clearly surprised at the manoeuvre. He recovered quickly, changing his grip on his staff to that similar to how one would hold a spear, throwing numerous quick jabs. None found purchase as she danced and weaved through each strike. Truth be told, she intentionally missed opportunities to counterattack flaunting her dodging ability to aggravate him as much as possible. She knew she wasn't the heaviest girl in the world and lacked the ability to land any real damage with kicks and punches to someone with a size advantage like Sun had. However, she could pretend, make him become reckless and maybe over-commit.
For about a minute their game of cat and mouse continued before he finally slipped up. He let put a low growl as he made a wild arcing swing aimed at her midsection. She used her semblance to disappear and reappear behind him, causing him to overextend and stumble from the missed swing. Ruby took the opportunity, raising her leg to execute an axe kick to his lower back, using the momentum from her fall from a few feet off the ground to apply extra force. The boy grunted in pain and was sent sprawling a few feet before righting himself and facing her once again. It was her turn to wear the smug expression, anger clear on his face. He decided to let his feelings be known.
"Cheap trick broad. Well two can play at that game." He clapped his hands together over his chest causing a small white glow to spread across his form before, suddenly, beside him appeared another figure that looked exactly like him. Both Suns readied themselves to rush Ruby as she realised this must be his semblance. A dangerous one it was too, if she had been anyone else, it may have proven insurmountable. However, two on ones were something she was used to, having to spar with the twins a lot in recent years. No matter how much control he had over his clone he would never be able to match the coordination that they possessed. The left Sun rushed her aiming high and jumping for extra force whilst the other ran just behind him preparing to answer her attempt to dodge.
One thing Jax had taught her about fighting two on one was to as much as possible prevent them from being either side of you. This was obviously his plan, even if she could dodge this attack then the first Sun would end up on her other side and suddenly, she would have to fight on two sides. The staff made things harder as well as she would struggle to isolate one of the Suns as he could always keep her at the reach of the staff. She smirked as the bo-staff descended towards her. It seems he had already forgotten her semblance, jumping was a mistake.
Once more she vanished, much to the chagrin of the Suns, only to reappear with feet planted on the back of the airborne Sun. There was a loud, hollow thump as his body hit the floor, his face connecting with the marble floor hard. The body quickly disappeared as its threshold of damage had evidently been hit. Ruby looked expectantly over to the remaining Sun to see a growl forming on his lips. So much for his big reveal.
He lunged, giving in to his anger at her dismissal of his semblance. She closed the gap, deciding the fight had drawn out long enough, reappearing inside his guard and delivering a swift knee to his gut. He lurched forward from the blow allowing her to flip him over her shoulder and pry his staff from his grip. There was another thud as his back hit the floor, blasting the wind from his lungs. He looked up through blurred vision to see Ruby standing over him with his own staff pointed at his face and her foot on his chest. He begrudgingly tapped the floor three times, signalling his surrender and looked up at the timer to realise she still had a minute and a half left.
Ruby dropped the staff beside the boy and looked over to Glynda who was watching wide eyed and mouth agape at the spectacle that had just taken place. The blonde couldn't believe it, she had defeated a second year with four hits, and hadn't even drawn a weapon. She noticed the gaze of Ruby and quickly shook herself from her stupor in an attempt to regain her control over the situation. She had intended for Ruby to lose to Sun or maybe stall out the timer at best, but to beat him so handily was astounding. She may have a grudge against Bart, but she could not even remotely begin to criticise the performance, Ruby clearly having had everything within control from the very beginning, even when she was on the back foot. She cleared her throat, partially for attention and partially to give her another moment to think.
"Congratulations Miss Rose, that was an admirable performance. Your score shall be recorded and tallied with your other test scores. I believe you have no further tests, so you may leave the premises at your leisure, your scores and potential acceptance letter will be distributed within the next week." With that she quickly exited the room with Sun in tow, groaning from his aching head, leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts.
When the door creaked closed, Ruby pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found a picture of Nora doing push-ups with a young Ruby and Ilia on her back. She smiled at the memory that rose to the front of her mind before dialling the contact. The phone rang for about a minute before it was picked up, ragged breaths punctuating the start of the call.
"Hello?" To her surprise the voice was male, and familiar.
"Uncle Jax?" She tried to hide her wicked glee from the revelation.
"Oh, hey squirt, what's up?" The question was asked genuinely, as if he didn't realise the conundrum. Ruby grinned mischievously.
"Oh nothing, just calling to see what time Nora was gonna come pick me up. Do you think you could find out for me?" She rested her hand over her mouth to halt any sniggers that may escape.
"Ah, well you see, you should probably call her to ask that, not sure I can be of much help there squirt." The sentence was said without hesitation, but Ruby could tell it was forced.
"Yes, well you see, that was my original plan, but imagine my surprise when her boyfriend picked up instead. I just hope I didn't interrupt anything." Jax seemed to choke on something on the other side of the call before replying.
"Yes, I can imagine that must have been rather awkward, but I guess you are going to have to call again slightly later." He managed to keep his tone flat, but his words were becoming faster as he struggled to keep his story together.
"Okay. Just, do you think you could hand Nora her phone back now, that way she may actually manage to answer me." She heard raucous laughter from somewhere in the background on Jax's side the call along with several 'I told you' statements. Ruby failed to hold back her own giggles as she heard Jax reply.
"Shit. Well ya got us squirt, just don't tell the others okay?" Ruby struggled to breathe as she laughed before replying.
"Oh, I don't know, how much will ya give me?" It was Jax who let out a low few laughs now.
"The cheek of the youth these days, honestly. How about I don't tell Ilia you've been dating her best friend for the last three months? Seem fair?" Ruby stopped laughing suddenly challenge entering her tone.
"You wouldn't dare." Jax only chuckled some more, she imagined Nora did to at her expense in the background.
"Oh, I would, and you know it." Ruby sighed at his statement; he was right. Damn him.
"Fine, but can Nora come get me, I'd rather not be stuck at Beacon for hours on end." Ruby drawled as she walked out of the room and into the courtyard, which was currently empty aside from herself.
"Yeah she's coming squirt." Ruby giggled.
"Eww, too much info." After a short pause Jax coughed at the comment and Nora broke out laughing again.
"Ruby! You know I didn't me…" he was cut off by Ruby's own laughter, trying her hardest to contain a slight snort as her breath became ragged. "One of these days…" He was again cut off.
"Yeah, yeah, you'll have enough, and it won't be so funny anymore. We've heard it all before old man." She heard a defeated sigh from the other side the line and decided to poke one last bit of fun at the brawler. "So uhm… who lasted longer?" The question was abrupt and quick, but she could make out Nora struggling for air as she laughed. Jax remained silent, not responding for a full minute. "I'll take that as my answer. If you see her could you guys tell Mavis she owes me fifty Lien."
"You kids are something else ya know that?" He sounded slightly depressed, but a hint of mirth filled his tone.
"Love ya too." Ruby said in a teasing tone.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you do. Nora says she'll be there in thirty. See ya." Ruby could make out a similar goodbye from Nora in the background.
"Bye." And with that the call ended and Ruby sat on a nearby stone bench waiting to return to the club for her shift. At least today hadn't been too dull.
Ruby didn't have the longest patience in the world. Having four older sisters and working for a club since she was thirteen had left her with little time where she was doing nothing, and as such she had never had need for a patience. This meant that after the twentieth minute of waiting in near silence, she had understandably become rather bored. Luckily for her, her fight with Sun hadn't really worn her out and so she had plenty of energy to burn. She decided to take herself through the basic warm-up routine that Jax had basically ingrained into her muscles, starting with stretching before moving on to push-ups, sit-ups and squats. She had been halfway through her second set push-ups when she heard a whistle from behind her. She turned round to see a pair of mix-matched eyes staring intently at her as she worked. She wasn't too surprised, she had worked up a sweat, having worked out for twenty minutes or so, Nora seemingly running late. She also had taken off her jacket as a result of said workout and currently only wore a white, now nearly transparent, top underneath, displaying her well-toned form beneath. What did surprise here were who the oddly coloured eyes belonged to.
There stood before her was a girl who anyone would admit was an oddity. She wore a white waistcoat and form fitting black leggings with similarly coloured heels adding to her measly height, standing at little more than five foot two. What was most striking however was her eyes and hair, her hair was split directly down the middle with one half being a bright glossy pink and the other a deep chocolate brown. Her eyes were the same colour but with the colours inverted, with the pink iris on the side of the brown hair and vice versa. She regarded Ruby almost hungrily as the girl stood up and met her gaze, waiting to see what the girl wanted. The smaller girl was, Ruby admitted, well formed, somehow filling out rather nicely despite her small size.
"Can I help you?" Ruby asked politely. She was used to being hit on by random men and women, she didn't really care about how pretty she was, but had been constantly reminded, by strangers and sisters alike, that she was beautiful. She was in a relationship already, though she could feel it starting to slip. The fact was, she was busy. Her life required her to remain fit all the time and it required her to study in what other free time she had. She only had one day off a week between her work and club shifts, and on that day she often wanted nothing more than to lay in bed for half the day and maybe hang out with her sisters for the rest. This meant that her current relationship and prior ones had been strained at the best of times, the other often thinking she was ignoring them. In a sense she was, she would feel bad about it, but knew that the relationships would rarely last more than a few months at most. Her current one, with Ilia's best friend Adam, hadn't been too bad, Adam being relatively busy himself with running his own local gang 'The White Fang', but she knew there was little to no actual connection outside physical attraction and so was not too worried if he was to call up and call off what they had.
The girl simply gawked for a bit more before pulling running her finger in the air. Pink writing formed as she wrote. 'Sorry. I was just going to ask if you knew where the combat hall was. I was told to wait outside it by Professor Goodwitch. I just got a bit excited and couldn't help myself, I'm sorry for my actions.' Ruby raised a questioning eyebrow at the text and then the girl. She was about to ask, but the girl seemingly read her mind and opened her mouth, revealing the issue. She had no tongue, an angry red scar the only thing remaining of the muscle. Ruby fought against her gasp, instead settling on a sympathetic look instead. The writing must be her semblance, or something related to it.
"I'm sorry. And the hall is that way." She gestured to the building she had come from. The small multi-coloured girl nodded and made to move out, but Ruby put a hand out to gesture for her to hold on. "Are you applying early too?" The small girl nodded and offered her a gloved white hand Which Ruby took and shook. "Wow no one in seventy years has done so and all of a sudden two at once. Must be fate. Nice to meet you, name's Ruby Rose." The small girl's eyes widened slightly, an action Ruby didn't miss but decided not to ask about.
Writing appeared in between them 'I'm Neapolitan nice to meet you too'. Ruby laughed slightly at the name, puzzled as to how a parent could name their child after an ice cream flavour, regardless of how she looked, unless… Neapolitan seemed to read her thoughts again and wrote. 'I was an orphan and the gang that took me in weren't known for their originality, my friends just call me Neo'. Ruby nodded, sympathising with the girl's circumstances, at least she had known her name. Her thoughts were interrupted by the honking of a horn. Both girls looked round to see Nora waving to get Ruby attention from her silver sports car. Ruby sighed and laughed simultaneously before turning to face Neapolitan on last time.
"Well Neo, good luck and maybe we can see each other again in Beacon." The smaller girl nodded and scrawled furiously. 'Yeah, I think I would like that.' Ruby nodded, retrieved her jacket and ran over to Nora's car, waving goodbye to her new friend as she did so. The waving was briefly returned before the girl turned on her heels, a spring clear in her step, and entering the exam hall. Nora was grinning like a Cheshire cat as she approached.
"Not even three months and you're already giving up on Adam?" Ruby swatted at her sister's shoulder and donned an un-amused glare as she entered the passenger's seat.
"It wasn't like that. Besides why do you care? I swear you don't like him and I had to practically bribe you to not tell Ilia or Jun about it." Nora chuckled some more at the remark, clearly enjoying her morning.
"I don't, In fact I couldn't be happier, but she sure seemed to. And hey at least we know which one of us is gay, I mean it's supposedly one in five and all that." Ruby failed to hide a blush and Nora burst out laughing again, pulling out into the street. Ruby mentally commanded the collar to tighten slightly, causing Nora to cough uncontrollably for a few seconds. It was Ruby's turn to laugh. "Hey that's not fair. Just cus I'm right, doesn't mean you can abuse me." Ruby sighed at the scolding. Unfortunately, despite Ruby being learning to control her powers better, she had yet to find a way to get rid of the things she created short of destroying it. In Nora's case however, she couldn't destroy it without risking Nora's safety due to its symbiotic relationship with her. Luckily it didn't do anything without ruby telling it to, but she still felt guilty for essentially constantly having Nora's life in her hands. Though she would admit it was fun to tease Nora with it sometimes.
"Remind me again why we are currently sat, eating lunch in a cemetery." Nora complained through half a mouth of food. Ruby groaned, Nora knew, after all they had discussed why many times over the last eight years. She swallowed before answering.
"Because, my tattoo allows me to turn negative emotions into Grimm, and this is possibly the most humane way of collecting them. I get quite a lot passively, just from broken hearts and noses at the club, but as I'm hopefully going to Beacon soon, I will need to stockpile extra as getting out will be hard." Ruby drawled, having repeated the information way too often for her liking. Unsurprisingly, it had been Bart that had discovered this particular part of her powers, he did so by using his semblance on all of the Grimm she made. Each one's earliest memory was part of the emotion they were collected from. It was quite depressing as a child, to have to occasionally spend a few hours outside hospitals, graveyards and police stations just so they could further experiment with the extent of her powers. Nora sighed.
"Yeah I know, but did I really have to be here too? I mean, you have to admit this is pretty dull." Nora took another hearty bite out of her sandwich causing some mayonnaise to drop from the other side, onto her jeans. She swore and tried to clean it up with a napkin. Ruby chuckled at the display.
"Hey, if I have to sit with you every time you accidentally fry the block's power grid, then you have to sit here with me now." Nora groaned again.
"Hey, that was one time." Ruby levelled a disbelieving look at her. "Okay maybe twice." The look never vanished. "Okay, so it happens about once a year, but at least you have things to do in that time." Ruby donned a sickly sweet smile that her sisters had grown to dread.
"My dearest sister Nora, are you insinuating you don't like spending time with me? And here I was wanting nothing more than to spend time with my sister who will hardly see me for the next four years." She feigned crying for a moment, a hint of challenge hidden beneath the crocodile tears. Nora's Grimm, Raijin they had called him, laughed as Nora gulped.
'You're too soft' the deep rumbling voice came from inside her head. She quietly hissed at him only for Ruby to laugh at their exchange. The two seemed to forget that Ruby could hear their chats with each other, a side effect of the collar. It was the Tiger's turn to gulp, sounding to most like thunder rolling in the background. Nora laughed at him.
"You're no better you overgrown lap-cat." She looked at Ruby who was still smiling accusingly. "Look, I just think we could be spending some quality time together in somewhere, that isn't here. I mean just five minutes ago you harvested a widow's sorrow over her dead husband, don't you think that is a little dark?" Ruby nodded, finishing her sandwich and tossing the packet into a bin that sat beside their bench.
"No, you're right, let's go, truth be told I'm a little pent up and need to spend some energy after that written test and a let-down of a combat exam." Nora rose an eyebrow but decided against asking for details, Ruby wasn't one to brag and so for her to say so often meant that she was just being honest.
"Alright, now were going more my speed, so what ya wanna do? Arcade? Paintball? Sister battle-royal? Let's do that, the twins teamed up last time, you gotta want some revenge for that." Ruby nodded as they headed for the car park. It was true, the sisters often held a free-for-all spar once every few months. The result varied a lot. Sometimes Ilia would stay hidden until the end and test her luck in the one vs one, other times she interposed at key points in the fight. The twins had two approaches as well, often working together, making their chances of winning a lot higher, but occasionally they would attempt to betray the other, Miltia intentionally swapping places at a bad time or Melanie mentally calling out the wrong attack so her sister missed the chance to block. Ruby and Nora were banned from using their marks for obvious reasons and so were not as likely to win as one might think. Nora, whilst being the strongest individual due to her age, was often focused out by the others and would either win or go out first, often depending on how Ilia decided to play the fight. Ruby had yet to win, being the youngest meant she was the weakest in strength and her fighting style was less effective against the people who helped cultivate it in the first place. Her semblance had allowed her land in second place multiple times, but the moment it was a one on one she had a severe disadvantage. Teleportation was less useful when your opponent was ready for it, and just waiting for you reappear in the path of another attack.
"I'm game, I'll call the others see if they want to." She sent a text to her sisters, receiving various forms of affirmative and they all said to meet in the gym in an hour. Ruby turned to Nora as they drove. "One of these days we should use our marks, just to see how well they hold out." Nora gave her a judgemental look causing her to raise her hands in mock surrender. "I'm just saying, I'd like to know just how far I could go with my powers, but unlike you I can't do it without drawing massive attention to us." Nora's look turned sympathetic. She knew what it was like to live with her power constantly suppressed, an upside to reconciling with Raijin was that she didn't have to wear her limiters anymore, Ruby had no such luck. She didn't wear limiters, but she had to constantly tell her instincts to hold back. Being part of her Grimm meant that no demon plagued her dreams, but it also meant that reality was harder to live through.
"Hey, I'm sure one day you'll be able to let loose, but till then we need you to be strong okay?" She leaned over and put her free hand over Ruby's, her other on the steering wheel. "Can you do that for me?" The request was innocent and Ruby smiled in response. She may often tease her family about their various quirks, but she loved each and every one of them, and could only imagine what would happen if she hadn't been taken in by Junior that night. If she had stayed with him.
Neapolitan gently closed the door behind her, letting out a disappointed sigh as she bent down to take her shoes off. The combat exam had bored her. The boy she had been paired up against, Neptune she remembered, had been a complete push over, more interested in showing off rather than being efficient. Her semblance had made the fight trivial and the boy had failed to adapt. She went towards her room, wanting nothing more than to burn off the energy she had expected to need for the exam. She paused when she saw an orange glow splash onto the far wall of the apartment. She stiffened and lowered her head at the sound of metal tapping on the tiled floor, getting closer with each click.
"Did you succeed?" The voice was judgemental, almost accusing, a sense of fear running up her spine as she listened. She nodded, not once looking up at him as he continued speaking. "Good. And the girl?" She nodded again, using her semblance to make an illusory copy of Ruby appear beside her. "Good. You have done well. Tomorrow, you are to go to our client and tell him, it's time to move forward with our plan." She paused before slowly nodding. "Good, now go" a gloved hand gestured to the room she had been assigned and she quickly followed the instruction, closing the door behind her.
Once in the safety of her room she let out a breath she had been holding the whole time. She felt her back shift uncomfortably and resisted the urge to give in to it. She stepped over to her chest of drawers, pulling open the top drawer as she did so. A single silent tear, falling into the vial she pulled out.