Interlude 2
Ruby took deep breaths of the night air, the bitter chill burning her lungs with every one. The land outside Vale's walls might have been dangerous, but everything just felt more alive. Fresher or something, free of the taint and the stink and the pollution and the corruption that poisoned everything within the city limits. Out here, free from it all, she could relish the sting of merciless cold on her bare face and the cocoon of warmth her thick shirt and hood wrapped around the rest of her, could experience the simple joy of running or walking or dancing or skipping or whatever else she wanted, with no foreign eyes to worry about, every tiny package she kept tied securely to her belt a constant reminder that she was doing something that mattered, something that helped people.
Her boss had told her to wait outside the city gates until a navigator contacted her. She didn't really get why, since it never seemed like the navigators did all that much, but the SDC was pretty big on orders, so she just listened to him. It was a small price to pay for everything else.
It wasn't long before her snugly nestled earpiece crackled to life, and a young man's tenor reverberated through her ear as clearly as if he had been right next to her. "Central to Rose. Do you copy?"
"Loud and clear!" she chirped.
"Good. The CCT's been kinda temperamental lately. Glad to see it's actually functional right now. Boss said you need this one done fast, so you ready to hit the road?"
"Yup!" Ruby couldn't bite back a wince when she checked her scroll for the time. So late already… hopefully Jaune went to bed without waiting for her. Maybe she should have sent him a note, but if he asked questions, what would she say? "And yeah, I really need to rush this one."
"That's on you, then," the navigator informed her. "I just sit here and talk and make sure you don't trip. Pretty good way to get a paycheck, to be honest."
She giggled at that. "Is that something you should be telling me?"
"Just don't report me, please."
Ruby ran her body through a couple of stretches – mostly out of habit, she'd been warmed up forever ago – before pulling on a set of night vision goggles. Running got pretty scary when your only light was the shattered moon, and getting hurt by slamming into a tree would be beyond embarrassing. "I made this run in an hour last time. You think I can do forty-five?"
Even without seeing him, she could hear the open mouthed shock in her navigator. "You made it in an hour? But it's twelve miles!"
She smirked. She wasn't proud of a lot of stuff, but her speed was one of the things she was. "And I wasn't even trying. I'm pretty fast."
"No kidding. Inhuman. Absolutely inhuman," the boy muttered. "Sweet Oum, my cross country team would have loved you in high school."
"I wish," she responded wistfully. "I wasn't exactly popular… well, anywhere."
"Ah. Right. Aura and all that. If it makes you feel better, us normies all secretly looked up to you. When we weren't busy being horrified because you run twelve miles in a freaking hour."
"Nuh uh," Ruby corrected, her smirk returning even stronger than before. "It's not gonna be an hour. It's gonna be Forty-five."
And then she was off.
The road between Vale and Vitality had once been a high traffic thoroughfare, and although it had suffered from neglect, the road's generally good condition reflected that. Nowadays, most shipments were handled by aircraft. Those that weren't were apparently transported by little girls in red hoods.
"Sweet Oum," the navigator gasped. "I have to admit, I thought you were lying about your speed. Do you have a speed semblance? Or are you actually a cheetah faunus?"
Ruby grinned at that. "The first one, but I'm not using it much. Just as a little boost. It gets too exhausting otherwise."
"A little boost, she says. Exhausting, she says," he grumbled. "Running twelve miles each way is fine, but her semblance is too exhausting."
Ruby fell into a rhythm, verdant trees and shimmering lakes sliding by as she tore down the paved road. Even marred as they were by the sickly green hue her goggles painted over the world, they still shone with a natural beauty that none of the towering man made structures of Vale could ever hope to emulate. She belonged out here. All she needed was the comforting weight of a weapon at her hip. Too bad Atlas didn't want to give her one. None of the couriers got one. They used to, but there were too many cases where weapons instilled people with false confidence, and nobody lived to underestimate the Grimm twice. It was better to just avoid them entirely.
Somewhere in the distance, a howling beowolf sang a haunting melody to the distant moon, a poignant reminder that she wasn't alone, the one downside to the nature that surrounded her. Ironically, she was probably safer than she would be in a group. The Grimm were mostly drawn to negativity, and one of the first things Atlas couriers were trained to do was to mask their presence from the monsters. If they could even catch her.
"So, what's your name?" She asked, once the silence morphed from comfortable to oppressive.
"Who, me? Wait, dumb question, of course it's me. You're really weird, you know. Most couriers don't care about their navigator's name."
"You're kinda weird too. Most navigators aren't as friendly as you are," Ruby pointed out. This one talked as much as her prior four combined, but it was nice having someone to chat with. The loneliness that could set in was one of the few things she didn't like about her job.
"Fair enough," the boy conceded. "Name's Neptune. You can call me Nep or something if you want. Just not Tune. That's a horrible nickname."
"Alrighty," Ruby agreed cheerfully. "Nep it is. I'm Ruby, but you probably know that already."
"I didn't, actually. They only gave me your code name. Ruby, huh? It's a pretty name. A pretty name for a pretty girl."
"Do you even know what I look like?" Ruby asked, suspicion coloring her question. She didn't know much about guys – or anybody her age, really – but even she could recognize empty flattery when she heard it.
"Uh, yeah? My whole job is to watch you, remember?"
She felt the heat rush to her cheeks. Gah. Of course. And had she misread his intentions? Way to look dumb, Ruby. "Oh. Right."
"And it's a really nice job, at that, if you catch my drift."
Okay, now she was certain her first impression had been right. Definitely flattery. "Are you… hitting on me?"
"Do you want me to be?" Neptune teased. "Because I'm pretty good at it."
"No thanks," Ruby told him bluntly. "I'm… I'm married. I think." Even if that marriage was nothing but an empty title and a load of responsibilities… even if she had no idea what she was doing. Even if her – her husband probably hated her.
"Aww. The good ones are always taken." Neptune mourned. "But what's 'I think' supposed to mean? Are you or are you not?"
"It's kind of a long story. Not really something I want to talk about." Just thinking about it brought up a whole host of dangerous emotions: sadness, guilt, longing, uncertainty… and maybe a little anger. Just a bit though. Not that she would admit it.
Come on Ruby, calm down. You gotta get ahold of yourself.
Another beowolf howled, much closer this time, a keen reminder of the price of losing control of her emotions. "Yeah, definitely not something I want to talk about."
"Right. Sorry. That was insensitive of me," Neptune said. "Focus on the job. I'll stop distracting you."
She wanted to tell him it was alright, that she liked his company, but the words choked in her throat. It was better this way. Distraction meant mistakes, and you weren't allowed mistakes when the Grimm were involved.
The rest of the time flew by like her journey, and by the time she was half a mile from Vitality's walls she had worked up a healthy sweat, her breath coming in energizing bursts. She pulled out her scroll eagerly, before letting loose an exuberant cheer when she saw the time.
"Thirty-nine! How about that?"
"Very impressive," Neptune drawled, "but you totally amped up your semblance at the end there. I could barely track you."
"Maaaybe," she hedged. "How are you watching me, anyways?"
"SDC corporate secret. Can't tell you. Sorry."
She wasn't entirely sure that he was telling the truth, but she didn't care enough to press him further. "Where's the drop off point? Inside the town?"
There was a slight pause as Neptune scrolled through the delivery details. "No, actually. Hang on, stop where you are. There should be a damaged statue nearby. About, oh, eight feet tall or so. Do you see it?"
It only took Ruby a quick glance to locate the statue in question. Once upon a time, it had probably been a beautiful, inspiring depiction of some legendary hunter, but now huge chunks had fallen in shattered fragments around its feet, leaving it nearly unrecognizable. "Yep, I see it."
"Good. Just drop the package off next to one of the feet."
Ruby picked her way through the rubble, taking care not to hurt herself in the darkness. Once there, she unclipped the package from her belt: a thin cylinder, paper light but sturdy under her touch. She had no idea what it was, but couriers weren't supposed to ask. They just delivered.
"That's it?" she asked, leaning the package against what was once a big toe.
"That's it," Neptune confirmed. "The garrison will take it from there. Good work, Ruby. Come home and get some rest. Maybe go a little slower this time."
"Hmm…. nah. Slow's no fu–"
A spine chilling scream of pure terror pierced the still night, snapping Ruby to razor focus. Unbidden, her heart kicked into overdrive, every instinct screaming that something was about to go terribly wrong.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" Neptune reassured her, too quickly for it to be the truth. "Nothing you can do anything about, Ruby. Just come on home."
"It came from over there…" She muttered, ignoring the increasingly panicked protests emanating from her navigator. She ran off the beaten path, towards a copse of sickly grey trees.
"Ruby, don't–"
She blew through a gap in the branches and stumbled into a clearing, and what she saw there froze her blood.
The first thing she noticed was the beowolf. She'd seen plenty of them at Beacon in training simulators, of course, but nothing could compare to seeing one in person. It towered over her, six feet of rippling muscle and jet black fur, practically invisible in the darkness if not for the night vision goggles she still wore. Lethal claws longer than her hands scraped giant furrows in the ground as it stalked slowly forward, gleaming red eyes locked on the second thing Ruby noticed.
A girl. One probably around her own age.
"Ruby, I know you have to feel," Neptune babbled, "but you really can't do anything about it. I'll contact Vitality, see if the guard can come, but–"
She tuned him out.
The girl scuttled away from the beowolf as quickly as she could, but she had barely managed a few steps before she found herself barred by a thick set of trees. She curled into a shuddering, terrified ball as the beowolf drew ever closer. Compared to the monster, her skin seemed inhumanly pale, her dark hair falling in black streaks across the pallid surface.
Ruby dashed forward, hands grasping for a weapon at her belt that simply wasn't there. The rational part of her brain screamed in terror: she was unarmed, it was night, when the Grimm were strongest, she was nearly alone in a forest with the nearest support half a mile away, there was absolutely nothing she could do. But the rest of her charged forward recklessly, because there had to be something she could do. There was always something that could be done. The problem was that most people gave up too quickly.
Not her.
"Ruby, stop!" Neptune cried.
He was right. She should stop. Running straight at the Grimm unarmed and alone? Suicide. But–
Blazing rubble fell in red-orange streaks around her, torn from its foundations by a missile gone astray. She gasped for breath, lungs burning with the acrid stench of fire, smoke, and death, the terrified screams and agonized cries of soldiers and civilians alike a fitting symphony for the destruction around her. A girl, barely older than she was, fled down the streets, a beowolf in hot pursuit. She didn't make it far.
Even now, nearly a decade later, Ruby remembered the screams.
But she couldn't. Wouldn't. Nobody was born a hero. They were forged by their decisions. And long ago, she had sworn she would become one, no matter the cost.
Golden hair and violet eyes were all she saw of the figure that filled the doorway, the only thing that stood between her and certain death. A huge grimm – a boarbatusk, she remembered they were called; wasn't it funny what people remembered – charged forward, the hinges of the doorway screaming in protest at the impact, but the figure met it head on with a furious punch that sent a spiderweb of fractures spiraling through the grimm's ivory armor. A follow up punch shattered the monster entirely, and the embodiment of mankind's nightmares disappeared in a shadow of midnight-black specks.
The figure grinned at her, and it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
"Run, Rubes. I'll be right behind you."
Neptune was screaming at her now, but even though she vaguely heard his voice it was muted and indistinct, as if he was shouting through half a swimming pool. All she heard was the pounding of her own heart, all she felt was the boundless energy that pulsed through her veins, and all she saw?
A tragedy that she could avert.
She fumbled desperately at the ground before her hand found a hefty rock. It was a pathetic weapon, but it was better than nothing, and right now it was the best she could have.
"Get away from her, you big bully!" She screamed, and hurled the rock with all her might. It bounced off the beowolf's head with a dissatisfying plink, but the monster turned its attention towards her. The girl looked up, coming face to face with her savior. When Ruby saw her eyes, her blood turned to ice.
Red. Glowing. Like the Grimm. No, not just like one.
She was one.
"Do you hear me? Get out of there Ruby!" Neptune screamed, his words suddenly sharp and distinct. "It's a trick! She's not human! She's a banshee!"
The banshee smiled, a slow, vindictive, predatory curve of her inhumanly red lips. Her mouth parted slowly as Ruby stumbled back, but it was far too late to back out now.
And then she screeched.
The sound washed over Ruby, but it didn't harm her. There was no agony of shattered bones or ruptured organs, no rush of incomprehensible dread or onset of indescribable madness. Nothing more than a high shriek in the dead of night. But it may as well have been a death sentence.
One howl answered it. Then another. And another. And another and another and another, until dozens of them turned the once-silent night into a cacophony of impending death. Like a foreshadow of things to come, the first beowolf charged Ruby, and it was fast. She only barely managed to dodge, the claws cutting effortlessly through the ancient bark of a nearby tree.
"Oh Oum, oh Oum," Neptune muttered to himself, squeaky in his panic. "Ok, I contacted the Vitality garrison. Just hold on!"
Vitality? She would never make it to Vitality, not when most of the Grimm's cries had come from that direction. But could she run all the way back to Vale, with the Grimm in pursuit? With her semblance, she could easily outpace them for a while, but more of them would come, and exhaustion would claim her long before it did them.
First things first: get back to the open road. She was crippled in the tree line. Too hard to move. She could figure out her next move after that.
"What do you mean you won't respond!" Neptune howled, not at her this time, but at someone unseen, uncaring. "She's an SDC courier under attack, you can't just ignore–"
The beowolf rushed her again, but this time she was ready, and the claw met nothing but air as she twirled aside. She danced over and around the twisted earth and gnarled branches with unmatched agility formed by her long suffering at the hands of her ruthless Beacon instructors. Where she glided through the rough terrain, the beowolf bulldozed through it, but the stream of shattered vegetation it left in its wake slowed it enough for Ruby to reach the road well before it.
Ok now what come on Ruby think think think–
A rhythmic pounding from the direction of Vitality served as a more than clear warning sign of approaching grimm, lured by the banshee's scream. That way wasn't possible, then, especially because it sounded like the garrison wasn't willing to run the risk of annihilation while trying to save her. She'd also never last in the wilderness, not with so many grimm on the prowl, not when it was the dead of night and she was completely unfamiliar with the terrain…
That left Vale as the only possibility, no matter how slim. The open road would make it easier to use her semblance, and there was always the potential of reinforcements from SDC headquarters, if Neptune could persuade them she was worth it. A pity she was worn out from the first run, but hey, regrets weren't any use, right?
I can do this. I know I can.
I think.
Ruby took one deep breath to ready herself, heart pounding a thousand times a minute, then took off down the road, the beowolf in hot pursuit. It was quickly joined by several of its brethren, but Ruby kept pace in front of them, even though her breath came in shorter and shorter intervals.
Come on come on come on–
Her lungs burned like they would explode, but she forced herself onward, and as the minutes dragged on the cries behind her grew fainter. A quick glance backward revealed that two of her pursuers had dropped back, then another, and another after that, and then they were gone, and she was alone on the desolate road. She slowed, then stopped, bent over and heaving for air. She fought back the urge to vomit, sickened by her total exhaustion, until her heart slowed and she mustered the energy to hobble down the road. She might have been in excellent shape, but she was naturally inclined towards sprinting, and the distance and speed she had just run was quite literally impossible for even the best hunters.
Still, she had done it! Broken her time for a delivery to Vitality, and then escaped from a horde of grimm immediately after. It was definitely a feat she could brag about. Too bad she didn't have anyone to brag to.
Now she could go home and get some much deserved re–
Something large, foul, and unbelievably heavy bowled into her, sending her crashing to the unyielding road. Her vision exploded into stars as a fiery shock blossomed through the back of her head. The stink of rotting flesh blasted her as whatever had just hit her pinned her to the ground beneath its monstrous weight. It snarled in her face, and even though her world still swam Ruby realized what her attacker was.
Not all of the beowolves had given up, apparently.
Stupid, stupid, stupid– why had she assumed they were all gone, just because she couldn't see them? Some grimm lived long enough to become terrifyingly cunning, she knew that, but at the time it mattered most it hadn't occurred to her.
Well, she was sure paying for it now.
It lunged straight for her throat, a merciless blow to kill her instantly, but she managed to throw an arm in the path of the oncoming fangs. The monster clamped down, and even though the worst of it was numbed by adrenaline and her aura Ruby let out a soft cry of pain.
This is bad this is really bad–
She kicked at it feebly, but her pathetic hits did nothing to budge the crushing weight on her chest. In response, the monster raised a lethal claw and swiped downward. She twisted aside as best as she could, but the attack still found her shoulder. Her aura turned it, but it wouldn't last, not with the ravenous jaws still locked around her arm.
What could she do? There was absolutely no way she had the strength to force the beast off of her, not like the way Professor Port used to brag about in his occasional jolly moods. But there had to be something, she couldn't die, not like this…!
She thrust the fingers of her free hand at the beowolf, desperately seeking out its eyes. Miraculously, the grimm withdrew its grasp with a pained howl, granting blessed relief to her arm. She squirmed out from underneath it, a thrill of hope blossoming through her when she felt the monster's grip on her loosening. For one beautiful moment, she thought she could be free.
Then a razor claw found her weakened arm, and her aura finally gave way.
A raging inferno of agony lanced through her from wrist to shoulder, momentarily obliterating the world with its intensity. She let out an involuntary scream and instinctively curled into a ball, helpless in the face of her death. All she could do was watch with blurry eyes, half lidded by pain, as the grimm lunged for her throat once more, intent on finishing the job.
Sorry Yang.
I think I'm coming to join you.
But then a voice that was definitely not Yang replied, a husky growl that nonetheless carried a warm familiarity that she couldn't quite place.
"Not your time yet, kiddo."
The beowolf barely had time for a terrified whine before silver flashed through the night sky, and the monster was gone, severed cleanly in two by a single slash. A scattered rain of black was the only sign of the beast which had nearly taken her life.
And then she was alone under a forest of stars, and there was silence.
Ruby dragged herself off the ground, delicately favoring her injured arm, and scanned the darkness for her unseen savior. She found nothing. But she couldn't have imagined it, could she? Something killed the beowolf, and it sure hadn't been her. But people didn't just disappear, either. Besides, if somebody went to all the trouble of following and protecting her, why would they just run off afterwards?
Her throbbing arm dragged her attention back to reality. She needed to treat it, and fast, especially with her aura so badly depleted. If she remembered correctly, her home had a medical kit stashed somewhere, and it wouldn't take her too long to–
"Ruby!" Neptune's voice crackled to life, heavy with relief. "Oh thank Oum, you're alive. The CCT cut out. I was certain you didn't make it."
"I barely did. Someone… someone saved me. Or at least I think they did."
"I'll be sure to thank them, then, if I ever meet them. Can't imagine who would be crazy enough to be out there, though. Except you." There was a brief silence, before Ruby was startled by a sharp hiss. "Oh Oum, your arm. That looks so bad."
"It feels even worse," she chuckled weakly. Now that the shock of her brush with death was wearing off, the pain was intensifying, and it had been bad enough before.
"Can you make it back? Officially, we can't get you to a hospital, but there are SDC medical wards if you can make it to them. If they know you're a courier, they won't ask questions."
"Thanks, but I'm gonna take care of it at home. Don't really wanna be stumbling around trying to find new places at night." It was an easy excuse, but not exactly true. What she actually wanted to do was get back before Jaune woke up and started asking questions she really didn't want to answer. Not that she was doing anything wrong, because she wasn't. It was just easier not to explain. And it was already so late…
"I see," Neptune said, sounding for all the world like he didn't see at all. "Are you sure? I really think a doctor should take a look at your arm. It looked super bad."
"It's fine," Ruby lied. "It's already healing. Now it barely hurts at all." If 'barely hurts at all' meant 'burning with the intensity of a thousand fires.' Which it didn't. Mean it, that is. Her arm did hurt like a thousand fires, and what was she thinking again? There was a point. Wasn't there?
Blood. Losing blood. Bad things.
"Inhuman," Neptune muttered. "Absolutely inhuman. Alright, then. You probably figured this out, but don't come in tomorrow. You earned the break. Go get some rest, and if your arm worsens, get to an SDC clinic."
"Alright, dad," Ruby teased. "Get some rest too."
"Very funny," Neptune drawled, and then the line went dead, leaving Ruby alone to limp the short distance back home.
No matter how she looked at it, she had messed up, and badly at that. By dropping the matter and letting her go, Neptune had given her a lot more leeway than she deserved. There were serious consequences for couriers who went against orders, and charging off into a dark forest alone against the command of your navigator definitely qualified, especially If you suffered crippling injury as a result. Not to mention the trap itself. Banshees masqueraded as humans, she'd learned about them before, but at a moment's provocation she'd rushed of regardless, and she very nearly had paid the price with her life. She should have, would have, if not for the interference of a miracle.
But none of that mattered. Even if it had been a mistake, even if it had been foolish, even if she almost died, she didn't regret it. If she came upon the exact same situation again, she would rush to help once more, because one day it would be a person, and on that day, she might be the only thing standing between the Grimm and a life, and on that day, she would be the mysterious hero that saved someone else. She wasn't going to – no, couldn't – let just a single mistake get to her. Heroes didn't give up.
Maybe next time she could get a weapon, though.
A/N:
Wow. Last chapter wasn't too popular, huh?
Well, sorry about this one then, but I already had most of it written so I figured I might as well post it. At least it's Ruby? Next chapter is back to normal, so for those of you who had no interest in this interlude, fear not! It is over.
Bad news is I'm pretty burned out, so no promises on when the next chapter is coming. I'll probably have it done before February though.
Probably.
Happy new year everyone, and see you next time!
