(flashback: Ruby rose, age 5)
"Mommy? Where are we going?" a small child asked, the child was wrapped in an oversized red cloak, to fight off the winter chill. The older woman, was carrying the child while running through a dark forest. "Ruby, honey, we need to be quiet" the woman told the worried child in her arms. The child responded with a nod, feeling the seriousness of the situation but was unaware of what was happening outside of the cloak she was wrapped in.
Outside of the red cloak was a much different story than the peace inside of it. The woman was running through a heavily infested forest. Grimm were fallowing her with a vicious hunger. She feared for her daughter's safety all-the-while knowing that that fear would draw in more Grimm, her huntress training warned her to keep a level head when facing Grimm. But while holding her daughter, nothing else mattered but this young girl's survival.
The woman knew the more she ran, the more she used her tattoos, the more Grimm would be drawn to her. Power always seeks out power, and her power is at the top. But she just had to keep running, her daughter's life was at stake, she had to get at least her to safety. Her own life came second to that goal.
Summer Rose could feel the wind crystals straining with the effort necessary to stay activated for this long, she had been running for miles, it was a miracle they hadn't given out on her yet. Not that it would be disastrous if they did, the crystals recharged themselves once the tattoo stopped drawing power from them. The longer you were able to push the crystals, the stronger they grew in return. Wind was considered a limitless power source, more destructive then fire, and slower to get moving then water. But once wind got moving, nothing could stand in its way. It turns mountain ranges into massive deserts. All fire could do was burn living things, and water could only smooth a rough surface. But wind could destroy something completely.
As Summer was running through the forest, she spotted a small cave that she and her daughter could find a small amount of shelter in. she desperately needed to rest her legs. She had been running for too long, and the damage being done to her body was steadily growing the more she ran. As she entered the cave, her tattoos lost their power. She fell to the floor with a hard thud, but rolled to her back to hold Ruby to her in a protective embrace.
"mommy, where are we?" Ruby asked. "we are in a safe place honey. We will be staying here for the night. So rest up. Okay honey?" Summer informed her child. "okay mommy" Ruby said, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Summer stood, letting Ruby sleep on the ground, Summer used a few tattoos to cast a shielding spell on the mouth of the cave. They were to make the cave both hidden and impenetrable against Grimm. She hoped they would last the night. They were only a small part of her tattoos. She had acquired a large number of tattoos over the years. Too bad not vary many of them would be useful for this situation. She went over to her daughter and slept next to her, holding her close in a loving embrace.
*ssshccceeecchhh*
A loud scrapping noise shocked Summer out of her rest. Ruby stirred next to her, awoken by the sound also. "mommy what is that?" she asked, fear creeping into her words. "it's okay honey. It can't get in here. You're safe here with mommy" Summer reassured her. Ruby nodded and cuddled in closer to her mother. Summer checked the strength of her leg Tattoos, they still hadn't recovered enough energy to reactivate, the few hours of rest hadn't done what she hoped. Her current situation was worrying her, she knew her warding spell would last a long time, but chances are a bigger meaner Grimm would come by and break it. Plus, how would she get out of here, she could fight her way out normally. But she wasn't able to fight while holding Ruby. So Summer Rose, one of the greatest huntress' that had ever lived, was facing death. That realization rocked her to her core. She was going to die. But she had to first save Ruby.
There was only one way to give Ruby the power to escape. She needed to receive her first tattoo. So Summer got to work. she took out her tattoo gear. She always carried it around with her, she loved giving tattoos as much as she loved having them, but this tattoo she was going to give her daughter. This one was going to hurt. It would hurt Ruby, and it would hurt Summer. Both physically and most likely give Ruby long term psychological damage. But Summer, even knowing this had no choice. It was for her to live through this. Summer had already accepted her own death.
*ssshccceeecchhh*
The monster at the front of the cave tried to get in again. Summer needed to get to work. "Ruby, honey. I need you to come here. I'm going to give you mommy's tattoo" Summer said, as she took out her stash of Grimm blood and inks. "O-Okay. B-But why n-now?" the young girl asked. "we both need to be able to run fast. So I'm going to give you my tattoo, then you'll be as fast as the wind" Summer said, she as talking in a motherly tone, trying to explain the situation without giving any hints as to the near future. "W-will it hurt?" Ruby asked. Summer knew it would, she still had a perfect memory of when her mother gave it to her. "I'll be right here with you, and the pain will only last a few minutes" Summer lied
Summer got to work, the tattoo gun buzzing and soaked in ink. She started with the heart of the tattoo, the [Achilles hole]. It was a place where a wind crystals pierced all the way through the tendon. Normally this would result in the severing of the tendon, and losing the ability to walk, but with the tattoo it permanently fused the crystal to the tendon. But the tattoo had to be completed for that step. She mixed nevermore blood with her ink, nevermore blood was still unknown for the most part. But the women of Summers family had found this property it had that could make a tattoo that could give a person the power to run faster than they ever could before.
It took a lot of ink to give this tattoo. It also took a long time. It had to cover every inch of Ruby's legs. Summer knew that giving a child a tattoo at this age, she had to make it cover from Ruby's hip to the bottoms of her feet. That way when she grew up, the tattoo would be in the proper location, from the knees to the bottom of the feet. When Summer was a child she received the same tattoo, it had to be made just as big because of her age at the time.
"Okay, Ruby. Look here, you see how much this line has to circle around. That is important, you need to keep the thickness constant throughout this line" Summer was explaining every detail of the tattoo as she gave it to Ruby. She was doing so for two reasons, one was to keep Ruby from panicking, hearing Summers voice calmed her down. Second was to pass on the knowledge of the tattoo. Ruby was the future of the Rose family name. It was her duty in the future to pass on this tattoo. "o-o-oka-ay" Ruby said, stuttering with the pain of getting the tattoo.
After four hours, the sound of the Grimm at the cave were much more frequent and much louder. But the ward was still at full strength. But Ruby's new tattoo was almost done. The only step left was inserting the wind crystal. But Summer didn't have any with her. Well she had two of them, but they were the ones that made up her own tattoo. "Okay Ruby, this is the last step, when you give the tattoo to your child you don't have to use your own, but I don't have any extras with me" Summer said, before using her knife to pry out both of her wind crystals. Tears came pouring out of both girls at the act. "Mommy!" Ruby cried. "don't worry, we'll both escape soon, then I can get healed up and we'll be able to make those cookies I promised you" summer said, using all of her will power to give a convincing lie.
Summer thrusted the crystal into her daughters Achilles tendon. She did so as fast as possible. Trying to lessen the time that the pain would last. "okay honey. Now I'm going to push some of my aura into your tattoo, remember the feeling, it will be how you activate it in the future" Summer did just as she said. Ruby's legs glowed with power, the crystal fused with Ruby's tendons. The tattoo healed itself using ruby's own aura, making it a permanent part of her body.
"what now mommy?" Ruby asked, she shakily got to her feet. Summer knew the ability to walk was lost to her, but she needed to fight of Grimm. So she used her glyph tattoos to create a platform just above her ankles, allowing her to put the weight on those rather than on her useless feet. "I'm going to go out first, then you count to ten. Once you reach ten I want you to run, run as fast as you can. Head the same direction we were heading in before we stopped here. Okay? Can you do that" summer said to Ruby. "Ye-yes, I will" Ruby said "you are going to be right behind me right?" Ruby asked. Summer felt her heart shatter, "of course" she said in an upbeat tone "I'll be fallowing you the whole time. But you have to promise not to look back. Just run until you get to the island of Patch" Summer told her daughter "Don't stop running! Promise me?" Summer asked. Ruby looked confident "I promise"
Summer moved herself to the front of the cave. She was face to face with over two dozen Boarbatusk. A weak Grimm by itself. But there was strength in numbers. "okay Ruby, start counting!" she called back to her daughter. "one" Summer busted out of the cave, keeping the ward active. "two" she sent her knives flying at two Grimm at once, then turned to move away from the cave entrance. "three" Summer was slicing and cutting Grimm as fast as they could emerge out of the bushes. "four" she had gained the attention of every Grimm in the area, but her estimation of 24 was way off. There were now over 50 Boarbatusk staring her down. "five" she let fly two more daggers, the inside of her battle cloak was covered with them so she didn't mind using a few. "Six" she put more distance between the Grimm and the cave, slicing a boar as it jumped at her. "seven" Summer was starting to run low on stamina, she was using more of her throwing knives then she was cutting the grim. "eight" Summer started using her trump card tattoos. Using explosive glyphs and throwing daggers with the power of the wind backing them. "nine" Summer was losing ground now, she missed an attack and was stabbed in the stomach before she could stop the Grimm. but managed to focus enough to deactivate the ward on the cave. "TEN!" ruby yelled, and shot out of the cave, passing dozens of dead Grimm. Summer watched Ruby run. Then was killed by a tusk stabbing into her liver. As Ruby ran, tears running down her face, all the Boarbatusk paid her no mind. Instead they enjoyed the meal they just killed.
(chapter 4 fighting through the pain) [Ruby pov]
'Grimm' I thought, fear trying to wiggle its way into my mind. But I was a huntress…in training. I had prepared myself to fight these monsters. I looked over at Weiss, she was composing herself better than me. I could almost hear her thoughts as she readied herself but I had other plans. "Weiss" I said, talking low trying to not alarm the Grimm into attacking. "what is it Ruby, I'm trying to focus" she said through gritted teeth. "we need to get out of here, if we try to attack now we'll be over run in no time" I said, not moving a muscle. The Grimm still stood a dozen yards away. I hope it stayed like that for just a bit longer. "no duhh. And how exactly do you suggest we do that? Hope the giant beast lets us escape?" she said. Annoyed with me stating the obvious. "clench your teeth" I said in a low voice. "what?" she whispered. "I don't want you to bite off your own tongue, so clench your teeth together" I ordered her.
The Grimm decided to wait long enough for us to attack first. It charged at us. Branches and dead leaves flying everywhere as it raced for us. I saw Weiss clench her mouth in fear, but it was what I needed. I activated my tattoo, a flood of energy poured through me. My world seemed to slow down, it felt like I had hours until the Grimm reached me. But my priority was Weiss' safety, so I started to run. I was next to her in three steps. The Grimm hadn't even put his second raised foot to the floor. I grabbed the back of Weiss' head, holding it in its proper place. And I grabbed her waist, slightly lifting her feet of the ground as I did so. I felt my face grow hot from our closeness. But didn't pay it any attention.
I took off running while holding Weiss. I wasn't being slowed down as much as I thought I should have from her extra weight 'she actually feels much lighter than I expected' I thought. The forest was a blur around us, I could make out the details of objects that were within a five-foot radius. Outside of that I could only see the color green with random shadows and brown patches. Within a few moments we were a long ways away from our Grimm encounter. I looked at Weiss while in my super speed mode. Her eyes were just now starting to close, very slowly.
I stopped my running in what I thought was a clearing. My tattoo was pulsating my calf muscles, it had this effect whenever I turned them off. It was like they were begging me to turn them back on. I looked at Weiss and asked "why are you so light?" I was really interested in knowing. She stiffened in response "I have a tattoo, it decreases my weight. It was a very practical tattoo" she said, almost robotically. 'that was a weird way to answer' "well it certainly helped today, I probably wouldn't have been able to carry you long if you weighed a normal weight" I said. She looked at me, a serious look across her face "so are you going to tell me how you did that? I've read about a lot of tattoos, but I have never heard of one that could teleport" Weiss stated, but it felt kind of like a question. "it wasn't teleportation, but that would be cool if I could do that. No, it was just me running. I can run really fast" I said, painfully putting a smile on my face, not wanting my true feeling about it to be known.
"I want to see it" she said. "what?" I asked in confusion. "I've seen acceleration tattoos. But their speed boost is nowhere near that level of speed. I want to see how yours works" Weiss said firmly, leaving no room for argument. "after we get out of here, sure. But don't expect to understand how it works, I don't even get it" I told her. She nodded, and changed the subject. "we need to get higher ground. it would make finding those relics much faster". It was a good idea, but most of the trees in this forest were the same height, so climbing one wouldn't offer much in the way of a vantage point.
*Kaaawww*
Me and Weiss looked up at the same moment. "is that?" she asked herself. I answered anyway "yep, it's our higher ground" I said. Her eyes shot down to look at me. "are you insane?" she asked. I ignored her "do you have a way to get us up there?" I asked. She pointedly didn't answer, which means she totally did. "maybe while were up there we could harvest some blood? Nevermore blood is the rarest and it's worth the most on the open market" I said nonchalantly. "alright" she said eagerly, but seemed to catch herself and went back to being proper "okay. But if we die, I'm never going to forgive you" she said, and summoned a glyph. "step on, I'm using an acceleration glyph on us, jump when I say, you should be able to jump high enough from the power of the glyph" she explained
I stepped on and she waved her sword in the air. I felt a surge of power shoot straight into my muscles. "jump!" she yelled. I did so. 'this is awesome!' I screamed internally. I felt like a super hero, just a simple jump sent me higher than all of the trees. I looked over at the nevermore we were aiming for. It was closing in on us. But it didn't expect us to jump this high and reared up its head. But before it could positon itself to eat us, we landed on its back. I looked over at Weiss, she landed a few feet away. "this is so stupid!" she yelled over the sound of the wind. "draw the blood, I'll find the relics" I yelled back.
Weiss fumbled around with her shirt, pulling out a needle and glass vile. I looked over the massive wing of the nevermore, the bird seemed confused where we went, but didn't look into it too much and carried on with its flight. Way off in the distance I saw a larger clearing than any of the others, it looked like it had some broken white pillars. "Weiss! I think I found it, be ready to jump in a few!" I yelled at her. "this is so stupid. Why did I let you talk me into this!" she said to herself. But I noticed the smile on her face, she probably didn't even know it was there.
"okay! Jump!" I yelled as the clearing passed under us. "what?!" Weiss yelled, but I jumped when I said it. Her yelling caused her to lose her grip and she fell off the bird anyways. I was in a state of pure joy, this was an amazing feeling. It made me wish for the tattoo that gave me wings. "AAAHHHHHHH" Weiss didn't sound like she was agreed with my thoughts on the matter. She sounded absolutely terrified. 'I should probably catch her' I thought. Taking out Crescent Rose, and fully deployed her. Flipping her around my hand I stepped in the non-sharp part of the blade and fried a shot. I glided to Weiss from the blast it made. "AAAHHHHHHH!" she screamed into my face. I grabbed her waist and held her close. She instantly stopped screaming. 'ahh, much better' I thought at her silence. I fired all five remaining shots in crescent rose. Allowing our fall to be nothing more than an easy landing that we both perfectly made.
"you can stop holding my waist now" I jumped back from her words, not realizing I still had been. "sorry" I muttered. "Well were here, lets grab one and head back" Weiss said, ignoring my apology. I grabbed the first chess piece I saw, a golden horse. Putting it in my pocket I turn back to Weiss. "okay, let's get out of here" I say and walk over to her. "Ruby!?" a voice called out as the person entered the clearing. "Yang? I said to Yang. She ran up leaving Blake behind. "I'm so glad you didn't get hurt, I was so worried" she said taking me into a bear hug. "nope. The forest is a breeze when you fly above it" I said to her. She let me out of the hug, and looked at me in confusion. I didn't enlighten her as to what I was talking about. "grab your relic. We'll all head out together" I said pointing to the relics.
Her and Blake walked into the circle of relics, choosing one they both came out to walk with Weiss and I. "ready to go sis?" Yang asked. She ran her gaze over Weiss. "sorry about your partner Ruby" Yang said. "hey" Weiss said offended. "Yang. I'm happy with Weiss being my partner, and friend. Be nice" I said giving Yang my best cold stare. "but sis, she was mean to you" Yang said. I was annoyed at her insistence. "no she wasn't" I said. "you only thought she was. Giving someone a lecture in a loud voice is not being mean. Right Weiss?" I said, asking Weiss as she looked down in shame. "I didn't mean to yell" she said in a low voice. "see. Now we're all going to apologize to each other. Got it" I said, looking at everyone. "I'll start. I'm sorry Weiss for knocking you down and maybe damaging your stuff" I said in a sincere voice to Weiss. "I'm sorry for yelling at you right after" Weiss said to me. Yang sighed heavily "fine, I'm sorry for judging you and wanting to hurt you" Yang said. Weiss nodded then Yang's words sunk in and she looked terrified. I looked at Blake. "what?" she said. I gestured at Weiss, then back to Blake. "what?" she said again. I stared her down the best I could. She through her head back in defeat "okay, I'm sorry for the mean, but factual things I said Weiss" Blake said. To my surprise Weiss responded nicely "while they are truthful, I didn't enjoy being blamed for them. I am not my father. I would like it if you judged me based off me"
With that done. we set off, me walking in-between Yang and Weiss. Blake was shocked for a moment by Weiss' words but recovered and fallowed behind us, not wanting to walk even with us. We walked for a while before being in an old town, it looked like it was an old worshiping site, but it was half broken apart, and most of the buildings were hardly still standing.
*Kaaahhh*
The same nevermore Weiss and I rode in on was perched on a pillar that was standing in a deep ravine. "do you think he is still mad at us?" I asked Weiss. In answer the nevermore flapped its wings, sending a volley of blade tipped feathers right at us. We all dove behind various buildings. "we need to make it across that bridge!" Weiss yelled from behind a wall. "well unless you have bird repellent there is a small problem with your plan!" Yang yelled back. "we need to kill that thing" I said, getting a look from everyone that said I was crazy. "I'm serious, we need to get it closer. If we distract it, we can get higher ground and attack down at it" I explained. Yang nodded "okay, I'll get it to pay attention to me, you make it across the bridge and climb those pillars" fear griped me at her words. "NO!" I screamed, panic pouring out of me.
Yang knew why I said it the way I did, fear from what happened in my past with my mom. "no one is getting left behind! We all go together or we all wait here. Nobody is going to be bait!" I yelled to everyone. Weiss and Blake nodded to me, Yang knew I was serious about this and nodded too. "fine sis, what's the plan?" yang asked, and we all grouped together behind a wall to talk without the need to yell. "Weiss, I need you to use that acceleration glyph and give you three a speed boost, I'm fast enough on my own. We need to make it to those pillars, the nevermore should take off once we come into view" I explained. If we can't outrun it like that, we come up with a plan once we cross the bridge.
We nodded and Weiss did as instructed. Giving Blake, Yang, and herself a speed boost. "GO!" I yelled and sped off, staying in front of everyone, but moving slow enough to stay near them. The moment we crossed the ark that started the bridge, the nevermore took flight. Circling high above it rained down volley after volley of feathered blades. We did our best to maneuver in between the shots. Coming close a few times, but not close enough to do damage, the nevermore seemed to have unlimited ammo. As we crossed the halfway point, the bird flew under the bridge, destroying a support pillar in the process.
The half we just crossed gave out and fell to the bottom of the ravine. "get higher ground NOW!" I yelled back at everybody. In reaction Blake shot her gun, launching it to a tall pillar next to the bridge, the elastic rope attached to her gun slingshoted her up to the pillar. 'that's it' I thought coming up with a plan so crazy it might actually work. "Yang, get to the top of that pillar" I pointed to the one parallel with Blake's" she nodded and jumped off the bridge, I panicked until I was blown back by a gust of wind caused by the rising nevermore, Yang shooting blast after blast into the beast's mouth. I looked back to Weiss "I need you to fire me right at the nevermore" I said calmly to her. "how?" she asked, confused by my request. I turned to face the pillars where Blake, and now Yang were. "Blake throw that rope to yang, make a line separating you two" I yelled at them. Blake fallowed my orders and fired her weapon, sending her elastic ribbon to Yang. I unfolded Crescent Rose, and launched myself upward, then to the top of the cliff. The nevermore fallowed me and positioned itself perfectly for my plan. Firing myself straight past the bird I hooked Blake's ribbon on the dull end of my blade. Weiss used a triple layer Glyph to hold me farther back, turning Blake's ribbon into a giant slingshot. "you are absolutely out of your mind. But this might just work" Weiss said as she lined me up to fire. "do you think you can make the shot?" I asked, knowing if she missed I would end up being bird food. "can I~" she said, a little over confident. "can you?" I wanted to know, my life was on the line here. "of course I can you dolt" she said, annoyed at my insistence
The nevermore hovered in place directly in front of me, just long enough for Weiss to let go of the energy holding me in place. I launched through the air spinning my scythe to position it for the perfect strike. Right as I passed the Grimm's head, my sweetheart gripped firmly onto its neck. My momentum was enough to send me, while holding the Grimm, right into the cliff wall. But instead of falling, my feet hit the wall as if it were the ground, I started running up the vertical wall, 'must be gravity manipulation' I thought. But I didn't think long. This beast was HEAVY! And I didn't have the raw strength to drag it upward. I used the remaining bullets in Crescent Rose to boost me up to the top of the cliff. As soon as I reached the top, I went to the normal level ground and yanked my scythe. Severing the nevermore's head in the process. I stood at the top, the rose pedals caused by me using my tattoos to run up the cliff reached the top and the wind circled them around me. "WE DID IT!" I yelled down to my friends, the loudest I could manage. After which I blacked out from exhaustion.