A/N: You could probably classify this little story as being an AU, heh. I decided to write a small story based on a "slight" plot alteration, in which Ruby Rose loses her fight with Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan on the fateful night of the Battle of Beacon, and instead finds herself at the mercy of the notorious crime lord and his diminutive, parasol-wielding partner.
A/N II: RWBY and its characters belong solely to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Oum. I also take no credit for the cover art, which was drawn by Sorairo-Wolf on DeviantArt.
Warning: This story contains violence, blood, and sexual content. There are also depictions of a threesome relationship with some initial themes of dubious consent. Please note, however, that I've raised Ruby's age to 18 for obvious reasons. Neo is 20 and Roman is 24.
Ruby's bones throbbed and her muscles burned as she tore through the air with Crescent Rose. A split second was all it would take. A split second to permanently remove Roman Torchwick's right hand, his partner, and the current threat that was whirling and flipping about her so fast that she could hardly see straight.
"I will stop you!" Ruby shouted, a fierce growl in her throat as she swung her scythe toward the petite, multicolored woman again. She turned an elegant backflip to evade the deadly blow, winking one of her mismatched pink and brown eyes at Ruby as she unfurled her parasol. A playful smile danced on her lips, as if this was some sort of game instead of a fight to the death.
"I don't understand!" Ruby yelled.
She was gasping heavily for breath as she and the mysterious woman stood only a few feet apart, both scythe and blade-equipped parasol readied to strike. Her hands clenched around Crescent Rose until her knuckles threatened to snap under the pressure. She swallowed hard as she glanced to her right, over the edge of the stolen Atlesian airship into the plummeting blackness of the sky below. A thousand Grimm wings foundered in the air, an endless chain of power and despair.
"I don't understand why Torchwick is doing this!" Ruby cried, half in rage and half in genuine despair. "If the Grimm destroy everything, what does he gain from it? What do you gain?"
A tiny smile appeared on the petite woman's delicate face again. It was almost.. horrifying, how someone so small and innocent looking could harbor such a thirst for blood.
Ruby growled and launched herself forward without waiting for any provocation. Below her, her beloved school was being ravaged by the claws and teeth of Grimm; for all she knew, her friends and family were lying dead at that very second. She knew at least one of them was. Penny.
At last, the blunt side of Crescent Rose's blade landed a stunning blow to the nameless woman's left shoulder. A sickening crack split the air and, while she was able to sidestep a lethal blow of the scythe to her head, her left arm hung broken and useless in the few seconds it took for her aura to regenerate. The eerily playful smile on her lips dissipated and her pink and brown eyes slowly shifted to a deep red, almost the same color of Ruby's own cloak.
"This game is over!" Ruby shouted, ignoring the single pang of fear in her heart at the sight of those glowering scarlet eyes.
The young woman suddenly launched herself in the air, seconds before Crescent Rose would've cut her legs out from under her. Ruby gasped and blindly swung her scythe above her— How can she… fly?!— when suddenly, something blunt and metallic struck her full force in the back of the skull.
Ruby's legs crumpled beneath her and she clung to the handle of Crescent Rose, but it was too late. Her vision was spinning from the merciless blow to the head and she felt the warm, soothing cocoon of her aura begin to fade.
No, no, no. This can't be happening. No! I have to get up!
Ruby started to do so, wobbling as if drunk, only to be met with another ruthless slap of metal, this time across her chest. A small cry of pain and frustration left her lips as she tumbled backward, rolling across the deck of the airship as it careened through the Grimm-infested skies.
The petite woman was standing over Ruby, her parasol resting gracefully over her left shoulder, which had clearly healed due to her aura. Unsurprisingly, the tall and lanky form of Roman Torchwick stood beside her, both hands resting on his cane. The fabric of his long white coat fluttered erratically in the wind, but the chaotic fray didn't seem to disturb him in the least. He walked slowly forward until he was standing directly over Ruby, his emerald-green eyes glowering in a stark contrast to the smirk that played on his lips.
"Torchwick," Ruby spat, her voice trembling with anger that bordered on hatred. For a few seconds, she forgot her splitting headache and extremely vulnerable position, now that Crescent Rose lay many feet out of her reach. She started to sit up again, but was promptly thrown back to the ground with the end of Roman's cane.
"Well, well, well. We meet again, Little Red!" The ginger-haired criminal gave a short and hearty laugh, as if he was reuniting with a dear friend instead of his mortal enemy. "Only this time," and his voice deepened slightly as he pressed the tip of his cane harder into Ruby's breastbone, "it looks like you're not quite so anxious to see me."
Ruby's mind was swimming with pain, bewilderment, and overwhelming rage. More than anything, she wanted to see this man dead. He was responsible for the destruction running rampant in the streets of Beacon. Perhaps he was even responsible for Penny's gruesome death.
Ruby lashed out blindly with her fists, managing to land one blow solidly on Roman's cheek. Although he jerked his cane away from her abruptly, it did her no good— the blows to her skull and other parts of her body had rendered her unable to stand, let alone defend herself. And Ruby knew that without Crescent Rose, her options— and her skills— were dangerously limited. She considered channeling the last of her strength into her semblance, but what good was sprinting away in a flurry of rose petals if she was trapped on an Atlesian airship, thousands of feet above the ground?
Roman laughed in surprise at Ruby's punch, but the petite woman at his side was visibly glowering, her eyes shifting between their natural colors and that vivid crimson. "You've got spirit, Red," the criminal said, his smile wide and his eyes hard as he brought his cane down viciously on Ruby's chest again. "But spirit can't keep you alive."
A few sounds tore from Ruby's throat, strangled growls of rage and soft moans of pain. She brought her arms up to cover her head from the merciless bludgeoning of Roman's cane, her body jolting each time the metal collided with her skin. H-How did this go so horribly wrong?
"Spirit can't help you when you're staring death in the face, Red!" Roman snapped, his own voice sounding strangely desperate. "This is the real world!" His cane found a small patch of skin on Ruby's cheek that wasn't being covered by her arms, and struck it hard, making the girl shriek once. Her silver eyes connected with his dark green ones and a wave of nausea struck her as she saw the frantic rage on the criminal's face.
"The real world is cold!" he roared. Another blow. "The real world is cruel!" And another. "The real world doesn't care about spirit!"
"Just stop!" Ruby screamed, doing her best to roll away from him, but every part of her body throbbed and she could feel thick, warm trails of blood on the skin beneath her tattered black dress. "What do you get out of this, Torchwick?! What do you gain if the Grimm destroy everything we see? What do you get if you kill me?"
Roman growled softly in his throat and gritted his teeth, his eyes blazing. "You're asking the wrong questions, Red," he hissed. "It's not what I have to gain; it's what I can't afford to lose." For the briefest second, Ruby could swear that she saw the criminal's eyes dart toward the petite woman at his side.
"But right now, Little Red, it's time to learn that the real world hurts."
Ruby's forehead exploded with the searing agony of metal meeting bone at full force, and her vision flickered and went dark.
