RWBY A Day in the Life of Crime
Chapter Nine: Family Reunions are Hard
"Yang, it's so nice to see you!" Ruby admitted as Yang set her sister down after twirling her around forty six times in a row.
"Same!" Yang exclaimed happily, stemming her hands on her hips. They smiled at each other goofy, flowers and sparkles floating around them before Yang lifted up her fist and punched Ruby on the top of the head.
"Ow! Yang, what was that for?" Ruby whined, as both hands came up to her head to clutch at the hurt spot.
"Ruby, where the hell were you all this time! Me and dad have been worried out of our minds over you! You just disappeared on us!"
"I didn't mean to!" Ruby said, removing her hands from her head, the pain having subsided now. This comment went largely ignored by the blonde who knocked her sister on the top of her head again. This time harder. "Ouch! Yang!" Ruby's hands flew back up to her head and tears came into her eyes. Yang just continued her diatribe.
"And you didn't even call us or anything to reassure us you were okay. We wouldn't mind you running away so much if you just checked in with us and let us know everything was okay! That would have been the cool thing to do it, but nooooo, you didn't even do it!"
"Yang, it was kind of a complicated situation. I meant to call. Really, I did!" Ruby grabbed her sister by her shoulder's and tried to shake her to get her attention but the blonde was looking off to the side, her left hand in the air, fingers rising as she ticked off some things one by one. It was like she was talking more to herself and Ruby's shaking did nothing to the girl.
"Firstly, I don't even understand why you would run away? Did you not love me and dad anymore? Or Zwei? Secondly, you took all the cookies in the house when you left. And you know how much I love my sweets, even though I don't actively advertise it like you do. Thirdly, you left a mess in your room before you ran away. Didn't you even think to be considerate enough to at least clean it up? That way me and dad wouldn't have to cry when we cleaned it up while we waited for you to come back. Fourthly, you didn't take Zwei on a walk out like we agreed to so he pissed all over my boots. My good boots. It took me forever to clean them. And lastly," at this Yang took a deep breath of air so that her rant could continue. "Do you really not love us? Is that why you left without a word for a whole friggen year!?" Yang finished, and raised her last finger, before all of them curled into a fist and she punched Ruby on the top of her head for a third time.
"Yang, would you quit that!" Ruby cried out, getting a touch annoyed with her older sister now. She could feel a bump growing on her skull. "Can you just let me speak?"
Yang let out a petulant huff. "Fine," she blew up a long strand of her blonde hair.
Ruby let out a sigh herself, gave her head bump another rub and then slowly started her explanation. "It was never supposed to be like this. When I left the house that day it was for a short trip. It was to send in my application for Beacon Academy."
"You applied there?" Yang interrupted and Ruby let out a "Yang! Let me tell the story!" so the blonde complied and shut up.
"It was my dream to be a student there. But I got rejected because I was too young. So I got upset. I took to kicking some trash cans around to get rid of my anger when I overheard some evil schemes. I decided to stop them in order to impress the headmaster Ozpin. But...he wasn't impressed." Ruby looked off sadly to the side before she continued. "So I fought some more bad guys. That too didn't work out too well. And I got angrier and angrier at the rejections. I then took it upon myself to hunt down the entirety of this gang and their head honchos."
Yang let out a low whistle. "That's pretty impressive sis. But it doesn't explain why you were gone. Or why you couldn't give me and dad a quick call or even an 'ok' text. Literally two letters."
Ruby cringed guilty. "Well, I got kind of wrapped up with my mission to the point that I slept on city sidewalks, ate out of trash cans and didn't even bathe all so I could find them. It was rough. I almost got offed like two times while I was out looking for them. I had to live a life on the run and I didn't want them to be led to my house, to you and dad and Zwei, so I didn't go back home."
"That is gross," Yang commented honestly, the fact that Ruby had nearly died twice going over her blonde head. "I know you're a teenager but you need to take care of your body hygiene."
Ruby shot her sister a look. She was telling her about how she fought a gang of murderers, having come close to death twice, and slept out in the cold weather, possibly at risk of getting sick from the bad shelter and the rotten food she ate, and her sister was more worried about Ruby not showering? Ruby wondered once again how her sister had gotten into Beacon with her low IQ and propensity for stupidity. Proof of school unfairness. Yang had probably slept her way in. She'd done it several times before, in order to get things she wanted. Once to get into a good middle school. Another time to get into a club. And yet another time just to merely get free food from the guy at the street cart. The food wasn't even that good, so Ruby had no idea why her sister had wanted it badly enough to sleep with the guy.
Ruby merely sighed and continued on. "And when I finally got to the boss battle, things didn't quite end as I expected them too." Oh boy, here came the hard to explain part."Ikindafellinloveatfirstsightwiththeevilbossandjoinedhergangandthenbecameleaderofit!" Ruby said in one big breath, letting out a big relieved gasp when she finished.
"You joined a gang!" Yang cried out, her purple eyes wide in shock. "And now you're the leader of it! And in love with the evil ex-boss!" Yang's hands went up to her hair and she tugged on it to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "Ruby, do you know how wrong this is! You've turned to a life of evil! Of crime! Why would you do that!"
"I told you it was complicated. You wouldn't understand it, as you've never been in love before!" Ruby crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.
"I so have been in love! But never with a villain! You stop it right now. You drop everything you're doing and come home!" Yang pointed at the ground, angry at her little sister's antics.
"No!"
"You do it, or so help me-!" Yang let the threat hang in the air.
"You don't scare me anymore!" Ruby said, sticking out her tongue at Yang. This only made the blonde more upset.
"Ruby Robin Rose!" Yang used Ruby's full name and the brunette now knew the girl was really mad at her. "You will come with me right this instant. It's time for you to stop playing these childish games of running a gang and go back to your school!"
"They are not games! I've managed to expand the gang's influences even further than they've ever been before. I'm at the top of my world right now, Yang, and I'm not coming home because I have my own home, with my own people who love and care for me!"
Yang let out an angry gasp. "Ruby, stop being stubborn! And come home. To your real home. If you won't then I'll force you myself."
"You can't make me."
"Can too!" Yang argued back childishly. She may be two years older than Ruby but other than her body, she really wasn't any more mature.
"I'm not going back, Yang." Ruby said this more soberly, her voice suddenly soft. She dropped her hands to her side. "This city is my home now. This gang is my life. I have people who look up to me. Who rely on me. Which was more than what you or dad or my old friend's ever expected of me. So, I'm sorry Yang. But I can't go back with you."
The words struck Yang hard and she tried hard not to let her mouth curl into a sour frown. What had happened to her sister to make her like this? Was she brainwashed? It didn't matter, Yang would find a way to bring her baby sister back eventually. "I see." She said, unable to stop the sadness from leaking into her voice.
"I'm sorry that that's how it is, but...things have changed," Ruby placed a warm hand on her sister's arm. She let a wry smile fill her face and Yang tried to smile back but failed. "And now, since you've attacked my gang, and ruined the goods we were trying to steal, I'm afraid you leave me with no choice."
"What?" Yang's head jerked up at this, uncertain that what she had just heard had really come from her sister's mouth. Ruby's hand had left her arm and the girl was backing up to make space for Crescent Rose, pulling out her scythe from her bag, the weapon coming to full size in front of her. She brandished it to her left, letting the gleam of the blade catch in the sun. Ruby had built this weapon herself and had added more features to it. Yang never remembered it being this big before.
Yang crooked a finger at it, her arm too limp with stupefaction to successfully lift it up fully. "Uh, Ruby, what is that?"
"You know what it is, silly," Ruby said, but there was no smile to her words. "It's Crescent Rose. You saw me build it myself. I've merely added additions to it to make it better. More durable. And I clean it constantly, of course. You'd be surprised how much it can wear down. Human flesh and bone is really bad for keeping the blade sharp."
"Human flesh and bone?" Yang echoed, her words sticking in her dry throat. Was her sister...a killer?
Ruby let out a sigh at this. "Look, quit trying to stall me Yang. It's bad enough I have to do this to my own sister without you dragging this out."
Yang felt a cold sweat break out on her skin and she took two steps back, her knees feeling too weak to support her weight so she had to sit down onto the ground with a harsh thud, the concrete jarring her spine bone.
"Ruby, don't be ri-ridicolous," Yang stammered out, completely unnerved by her sister's neutral expression. The girl was edging towards her, her scythe by her side, reflecting the pallid and sweaty face of Yang. "I'm your sister..-why, why are you doing this?"
Ruby clicked her tongue, losing patience for her sister's stupidity and slowness. "You attacked my operation. And I need to send a message. No huntress or hunter who foils my plans will get away with it. Including, sisters," Ruby hissed the last word out and placed the tip of her blade under Yang's chin, lifting her face up so she could see the fear in her sister's face. She really didn't want to hurt her sister, but she was the boss of the Grimm. She had a role to fulfill. And she was going to do. Do it for Cinder.
"Ruby!" the panicked cry ripped from Yang's mouth but she made no move. She was too paralyzed by shock and fear. What had happened to her sister? She knew the girl had anger issues but this was something else. She was deranged! Deranged!
Ruby smiled now, something cute and innocent, keeping in mind what Cinder had said about how smiles could scare her opponents more than her trying to act tough could. "Yang!"
"Ruby!" Yang cried out with more force this time.
"Yang!" Ruby sang back and then lifted the blade from Yang's neck, and over her head before she swung it down.
"RUBY!"
A flock of birds nearby spiraled up and into the air, losing feathers from how quickly they had risen into the air, startled by the pain filled screams that followed the utterance of that name.