Edit Notes:

There's a few grammatical error when I re-read this, so I made an edit. Please notify me if you still found those. Thanks for reading!

When the sun gave its place to the shattered moon, the downtown of Vale also changed from a prosperous, peaceful area into criminal's playground. Dark alleys were filled with either thugs or muggers, which sadly included discriminated Faunus who dislikes humans entirely. The half-beast race there mostly did not have a choice to begin with, which somehow grew sympathy for some Faunus activists or become self-righteous themselves.

Tonight however, the dark alleys were unusually empty. Almost empty actually, for a gang of not-so-usual people in clean suits and fedora hats walked the town's cold streets. Most of them wore black suit jackets, but one in particular – who also seemed to be the leader – wore a flashy white ones. But it was not the jacket that made him a sore thumb; it was his orange hair paired with an out-of-place emo hairstyle. If he was trying to be inconspicuous, he would fail miserably.

Even though the orange-haired man was young in appearance, he walked with a metal cane which seemed to be only for accessories. In contrary, the people who followed him had either swords or handguns holstered on their belt, all of them with matching red colour. In result, most people who met with them were either back away or even turn around and ran. It was a normal night for the one and only Roman Torchwick.

At least normal until the clean suits on him was stained brown. He unfortunately bumped into someone holding a fresh paper cup of coffee which resulted in him spilling the hot content to him. Roman, obviously furious, grabbed the man by his cloak's collar; revealing a man with silver hair.

"Do you have any idea how expensive this suit is?" Roman spoke with a smug smirk on his face, but clearly wanting to instil fear to the man he held.

"No, but I guess it must be dry cleaned." He replied with a relaxed tone, clearly unafraid by Roman's intimidation.

"Oh, seems like you've got a sense of humour!" The orange-haired man laughed sarcastically. "So, you know who I am, old man?"

"Are you joking? Your hair gave your identity miles away, Roman Torchwick."

"Now you're just pissing me off." Roman slammed the man to the nearby wall; his face clearly lost his smug looks. "Give me a reason why I should not let my men skin you here."

"Simple," the white-haired man spoke while dusting his white cloak with his hand. "You can't."

"Another night passed, another boring day."

A teenage girl sighed with her cheeks puffed out to make it chubbier than usual. She strolled slowly through the row of closed shops, clearly oblivious that she was wandering around in the middle of the night. Her overall red attire did not help her to blend in either. She wore a black and red dress with corset and leggings, but it was her bright red cape that gave her away. But she did not care about people giving her weird look; the music on her matching red headphone was too good to distract her.

One might wonder why a child, heavily armed with an equipment fitted for a Huntress, was not in her bed sleeping peacefully. Only she knew the reason, but she was capable enough to fend for herself. She was a student of Signal Academy after all, one of the best junior combat schools in the Kingdom of Vale.

Eventually the music playlist were run out, and the headphone went silent. The girl sighed and removed it from her ears, then let it hung around her neck. She almost decided to go home and forget whatever she planned to do, if she did not see a ruckus currently happening in front of her. A man with an orange hair and dirty white suit along with half a dozen black-suited goons cornered a tall man with silver hair and a white cloak around him.

The white garment was somehow familiar to her…

"Hey!" The girl instinctively unleashed her weapon strapped on her back, which turned out to be a huge scythe. "Let the old man go! Don't you have any respect for the elderly?"

All of them turned their head towards the voice's source, especially those two in quarrel. The Silver and the Orange in particular – the child mentally noted their nicknames – were giving her a confused look.

"Am I really looking THAT old?" The man in white cloak frowned and brushed his hair with his free hand while the other guy chuckled amusedly.

"So, a Little Red Riding Hood tried to fight the wolf, eh?" He shifted his attention to the girl, clearly ignored the fact that she was holding a scythe twice her size. "Tell me, kid… Do you even know how to use that farming tool of yours?"

"Stand back!" The girl pulled the bolt on the shaft of her scythe. "It's a Huntress job to clean this city from gangsters like you!"

"Oh, playing a hero, aren't you?" Roman lifted his cane and pointed it towards her. "But you need to learn more before fighting a pro like me."

From his cane, a flash of light blasted from the bottom of his cane like a firework. She instinctively jumped sideways to the empty road, leaving the light ball to explode and created a crater on the pavement. The red-cloaked girl, still hanging on the air, prepared her weapon and then fired away; strangely to an empty air behind her. The massive recoil sent her straight towards him as if the shot was actually a burst of boost; then she swung it right to his neck. Roman was faster however; he managed to leap behind and missed the blade by a few centimetres. He rolled on the ground and stood up; his weaponized cane was lined for another shot.

"Nice move, Red." Roman teased her and smirked. "Now let's see you fight against a pack."

Roman waved his hand to his henchmen, and they upholstered their own swords and guns. She did not take chances, she quickly charged towards the group with unusual speed. Roman fled behind his men, while they began to surround her. She noticed their intention, and then she boosted herself to the closest gangster and kicked him in the face and audibly cracked his jaw. One down, she noted happily while moving toward another target. He was holding a gun, but before he was able to pull the trigger, the girl knocked the weapon away from his hand, and then struck his head with the shaft of her weapon. Two and counting, she did not take a breather and continued. Two men charged with swords poised to her. She blocked the blows from one and evaded the swing from the other, and then she struck one of them away and shot the other guy almost at the same time. She of course thrown away by the recoil, but she used it as leverage and landed a kick on another one's face.

"Noisy little punk…"

Roman aimed at the girl without her knowing, but he glanced sideways to notice a flash of blue before he ducked, and then he blocked another two strikes. The silver-haired man held a blue spear that was hidden under his cloak, unbeknownst to the gangster.

"Too bad for you," Lèi Cyrus smirked and spoke. "It's two Huntsmen in one day, as if your day can't get any worse than a dirty laundry."

Roman Torchwick gritted his teeth, and then pushed the spear away from him. His cane now used as a baton, he thrust the shaft towards his torso. Lèi managed to deflect it with his left arm, while his spear on his right hand hit the gangster on his knee. Roman knelt from the blow, but he managed to block a series of blows to him before he rolled out and shot the spear-wielder. Lèi did not evade the ball of flash; instead he struck the projectile with Rhongomyniad and let it exploded in front of him.

The explosion created a fog of dust however, and when it dissipated Roman Torchwick was already gone. Lèi sighed and looked towards the girl he almost forgotten. He raised an eyebrow, because she was standing straight and unharmed, while fully grown thugs were all knocked out full of bruises and cuts. She even managed to not kill any of them.

It took a while before she finally looked at him directly, her face and eyes seems sparkling.

"Are you… a Hunter?"

"Err, yeah?" Lèi smiled awkwardly.

"CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?" She gleefully asked with an expression as innocent as possible and a smile as wide as her face can handle.

"Umm…" Lèi rubbed his neck and chuckled uncomfortably. The fact that this child was able to fight so well while still childish in nature disturbed him a little.

"Wait, isn't that the orange-haired bad guy?" She pointed to the sky behind him and Lèi automatically turned around. Roman Torchwick was standing on the roof of a 5-story apartment building. "You will not get away, criminal!"

The girl in red ran towards him and Lèi followed her; not because he wanted to catch the gangster, but rather because he was worried about the girl. The culprit was trained in combat, armed, and did not hesitate to kill. He must be apprehended carefully; he was a wanted criminal after all. She boosted herself and flew to the roof in a second, while he climbed the emergency stairs attached on the side of the building.

"Stop right there!" She said right when the Hunter reached the rooftop, her rifled scythe aimed to his head. Lèi also grabbed Rhongomyniad, just in case.

"Persistent…" he muttered audibly. He turned around and pocketed his phone which he used for a while. "You've just made powerful enemies, Red."

As if on cue, a VTOL aircraft descended from the dark skies. The rocket propeller blew away gusts of dusts to distract the girl and the Hunter enough for him to jump on the safety of the ship. The ship was a military standard but plain, Lèi noted briefly. No kingdom emblems, no White Fang symbol, not even a serial number which is a basic requirement for any aircraft. One can only wonder how he can get a hand on that.

"A bit of parting gift," Roman sat behind the machine gun turret that Lèi failed to notice earlier.

"Bloody hell," He cursed and then searched around for any possible cover, but the rooftop was mostly empty save a few metal chimneys and air ducts. They will not hold for more than a second against high calibre bullets.

"Ah…" The girl was stunned by the display, unable to move. She was only a girl after all.

"GET AWAY!" Lèi told her, but her legs failed to obey the command. The turret was beginning to spin up, and he only got a little time. Lèi, clearly out of his mind, covered her with his body; his back facing the aim of the turret. At that very moment he did not think anything else but the girl's safety. The girl's silvery eyes were glowing bright despite of her fear.

Wait… silver eyes?

"…Barrier!"

Lèi barely heard a feminine voice along with a barrage of gunshots. He could almost feel hot leads pierced his skin, but nothing happened besides exploding ammunitions. Not even a hit to the floor, as if the shots were blank. Lèi slowly turned around and saw a woman with a riding crop controlling a purple glyph that covered them all. She was blonde; her hair was tied into a single bun. She wore a long-sleeved white shirt and black skirts along with black stockings, but it was her cape that Lèi recognized; black and purple with a golden crown symbol.

"Glynda, is it…?"

"It's nice to see you again, Lèi." Glynda turned her head sideways and smiled a bit, but her face returned to full concentration. Her purple glyph that she kept up was holding and stopping every bullet that touched it, and then it fell to the concrete floor harmlessly. Roman eventually ran out of bullets and so he stopped. Glynda saw the opening, and telepathically lifted thousands of the still hot leads. After a few moments, the bullets flew back to the shooter like a swarm of hornets would sting their target. The aircraft was steel-plated however, and neither Roman nor the pilot got hit although the bullet managed to make holes and cracks to the cockpit's windows.

"We got TWO Huntsmen!" Roman ran to the co-pilot's seat and said to the woman controlling the aircraft. The woman in short red dress – which barely covered her thighs – came into view of the group, save from her face which was covered in shadows. Only a pair of bright fiery eyes can be seen from the darkness. Lèi could somehow sense the woman's overflowing power; even when he, Glynda, and the girl in red clearly outnumbered her, he still was not sure if they can apprehend her.

But Glynda did not hesitate to attack first. She shot what seems to look like a burst of violet magic bullets from her crop. The projectile hit the aircraft and shook it quite hard, yet the woman inside it did not seem to be shaken. In return, she shot a barrage of fire balls to the group. Lèi and the girl rolled backwards to evade them, while Glynda used her barrier once more to disperse the shot. The fire ball broke into fragments around her, and then the woman's arms glowed with the same fiery colour with her eyes, forming a bright tribal pattern. The fragment began to ignite and seemed ready to explode. Glynda back-flipped before the explosion surrounded her; instead it boosted her jump and then she landed unharmed.

The girl with the scythe initiatively shot after she returned to her fighting stance. Glynda did not skip a beat; she summoned a dark cloud which rained ice spikes, keeping the aircraft from getting away. Lèi did not miss the opportunity. Rhongomyniad in his hand shifted its form; he pulled the string and a huge arrow in pure flames formed. He aimed at one of the rocket propeller. Since it was made from strong steel, it will take quite a big charge for his arrow to pierce the material. The flame arrow grew bigger and brighter, the usual red colour turned into blue as the flame grew hotter.

"Glynda, keep the VTOL steady!" Lèi shouted. Beside of Dust manipulation, he knew that she was capable of telekinesis.

"I'm on it!" Glynda replied, the cloud was now gone. The mage Huntress took a deep breath once, and then she pointed her crop to the aircraft. The huge flying machine were covered in violet aura and stopped moving around other than flying steadily. "Hurry, I can't keep this up for long!"

"Hey, kid!" Lèi called to the girl. "If you still have some rounds, keep the woman in there busy for a while!"

"…S-Sir!" She stuttered while she was reloading a fresh magazine. While the woman in the VTOL was ready to shoot another barrage of fire balls, she delayed them by shooting her. The woman somehow managed to block the bullets with her bare hands, much to his surprise.

But the girl managed to give him a few seconds. When the flame arrow in his hand was starting to shine bright white, Lèi released it. The arrow went straight to the propeller, pierced it and also the body of the aircraft. It took a second for the jet engine to explode. The VTOL aircraft lose their lifting power and went down. The woman in red managed to jump away after the explosion to the nearest rooftop. The same could not be said for Roman, who went down along with it.

The woman was standing straight at the rooftop of the building across from theirs. The moonlight now revealed the rest of her face, although the group cannot see her facial details because of the distance between them. Lèi could see her smirked amusedly however, and she began to jump down the buildings.

"I think I should go after her while you two apprehend Roman." Lèi said while pointing to the destroyed VTOL on the road, but then he face-palmed himself in the forehead. "I'm ordering you around again, aren't I?"

"I think I miss it actually." Glynda sighed while lifted her lips in one side. Then she shifted her attention to the girl beside her, her expression went from soft to stern and her eyebrows showed her disapproval. "You and I will have a talk after this, young lady." The scythe girl smiled awkwardly while scratching her head. Lèi could only cringe at her. He had no idea the once shy Glynda were able to be a scornful woman.

After that, Lèi went down by sliding down a nearby sturdy pipe, and then landed on the dark alleyway. He ran to the main roads, which he found empty at the first glance. Lèi ran around and searched through nearby blocks, but he cannot find any trace of the woman. However her disappearance was not his primary concern. It was her power that troubled him a bit. Although one could say that Glynda is evenly matched with the fiery-eyed woman, she was capable of unleashing her powers without tools or weapons. Glynda could do that of course, but she uses her crop if she wants to be in her one hundred percent.

"So, where did you go now?" Lèi slowed his pace into a stroll and mumbled to himself.

"You are one of a kind, you know that?"

He was startled by the whispering, alluring voice dangerously close to his ear. Lèi reflexively turned around while directing his fist onto whomever behind him. His hand was caught by a delicate palm, but it was firm enough to stop the swing. Before Lèi could see the face, he was sent flying by a blast of fire, exploding right in front of his chest. He was sent stumbling, but Lèi managed to right himself into kneeling position.

"So handsome and mature," the woman in red dress approached slowly. "It is such a pity that we are on the opposing sides."

"That power of yours," Lèi spoke while getting up. He managed to see at the woman more clearly now, but she was hiding her face by keeping herself in the shadows. She was carefully hiding her identity, Lèi remarked silently. "It is not a power you can have by training alone. Who are you?"

"So you've noticed." She answered calmly. "My name is no importance to you, Huntsman."

"You worked with a wanted man." Lèi commented; the Rhongomyniad on his back was now in his hand. "I'll let the police do the asking."

"I have no interest to go to jail." The nameless witch said lazily. "Another place, another time, we will cross each other again."

She moved her arms flexibly into a gesture Lèi did not care to know, and beneath his feet the once stone cold pavement was now burning red. Rather than evading backward, the Huntsman leaped forward towards the witch leaving the explosion behind him; the spear's silver tip charged to her head. She did not evade either; instead she created a blast of flame barrier that blew everything around her. Lèi stopped at his track and kneel down. When the blast was gone, he looked up to find nothing but smouldered debris of concretes.

"The orange guy…" Lèi looked around the corner and saw the girl in red and Glynda ran towards him. The girl spoke while panting for air. "He was gone, not even a piece of his hair."

"He was able to avoid the police for years," Glynda added. "Roman Torchwick and that woman were in the same level of a fully trained Huntsman."

"Also with that firepower, these guys were up for something more than Dust robbery." Lèi said while cleaning his clothes. Although the coat was burned black from the fire, he was glad that his white cloak was still in one piece. "We… can discuss it for later." Lèi added after he noticed that the girl was there.

"Yes. Young lady, please follow me." Glynda walked ahead and grabbed her 'Scroll' – a communication device that was introduced in the last few years. Lèi had one too, but he never gets used to the concept of a 'computer' small enough to fit into pockets. He prefer his laptop if it comes to typing some texts.

"By the way, you guys… I-I mean Sir and Ma'am…" The girl stuttered from excitement. "It was such a honour to fight together with you. I never imagined I can even fight together with real Huntsmen!"

"Real Huntsmen, you say…" Lèi raised an eyebrow while walking beside her; her strangely familiar silver eyes were gleaming. "I thought you are also a Huntress?"

"Err…" the girl went silent, looking for words. Lèi had suspected that she was too young to enter Beacon Academy anyway, but her skill as scythe wielder was fascinating. She somehow reminded Lèi of Qrow.

"Do you have a name?" Lèi asked out of curiosity.

The girl in red cloak looked at him and smiled widely. "I am Ruby. Ruby Rose."

Author Notes:

This chapter was sitting for a while, waiting for my mood to kick in. Although I'm not supposed to leave you hanging that long, I cannot help it. I have no excuses either, so forgive me.

If you haven't realized by now, the titles of every chapter is the title of a song I heard when I thought about it. I usually decided the title after I finished the chapter, then I played my playlist on random to find anything that 'represents' the story. The first chapter title was a song was from a local band in my country, Letto. The second's already mentioned on the last note. This one however, is something from Final Fantasy VII battle theme, "Those Who Fight" from Nobuo Uematsu. This is the only one which fits the fighting mood. :)