Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its characters.
AN: I'm late. So very very late. I got into maple again and ended up pumping a shit load of hours into it. I blame my friend for pushing me to download extalia. :P And to add to that, I kept getting so many fic ideas. Also, I will be starting my part time job next week but it won't affect my fanfic updates that much since I clock off in the late afternoon. Phew. But holy shit 114 follows and 74 favourites?! I love you guys so much! You all make me so happy and feed my muse as well! Hopefully this chapter makes up for my absence. Enjoy. Let me know what you think about the ending and what you think the future chapters will be like!
Sunlight filtered through the dingy brown curtains, shining right on the closed lids of a certain red haired girl. Ruby groaned lowly, lifting up her hand to shield herself from the offending ray of light. Why couldn't the world just leave her alone? Flipping herself, she turned her body to face the wall, sighing when she was plunged back into darkness. She was beginning to drift off again, the call of sleep lulling her deeper and deeper until…her alarm clock began blaring.
"Oh dust why…?" Ruby moaned tiredly, a hand reaching out to shut off the alarm clock. She fumbled around for a few seconds, looking for the traitorous piece of blaring metal. Finding it and almost knocking it over, she shut it off with a slam, and was about to bury her head into the pillow again, when a knock sounded at the door.
"Ruby? I know that you're awake."
Jack called in amusement from the other side of the door. He heard her groan in response. With a chuckle, he knocked again. This time, he was rewarded with a yell of "I'm up, I'm up!" Nodding his head in triumph, he plodded away and descended down the steps to the living room.
Ruby grumbled under her breath as she reluctantly plucked herself from under the warm woolly blankets. For a split second, her hazy mind confused the single bed as a bunk bed and as she looked down, the girl almost expected to see the angry scowl of her partner followed by the soft snickering of Yang and Blake.
She blinked.
The image was gone, replaced by the dull wooden flooring. Ruby shook her head slightly. Even though she was angry at her team, it was unnerving to be separated from them. Despite them not paying attention to her, she still took some sort of comfort in seeing them in the flesh. And then, the anger from that day came flooding back to her; making her clench her fists. The longing faded away almost instantly.
Pushing the thoughts of them out of her mind, the huntress in training headed towards the small bathroom and got ready for the day.
"Well well, look who decided to join the land of the living?" Jack teased as he flipped the pancake into the air. The uncooked side found itself facing the black metal pan when the man pressed his spatula against the back of it.
Ruby, dressed in her usual cloak and black and red outfit, gave him a playful glare as she settled down at the table. "Why do I have to wake up so early during a holiday?" She whined, grabbing a clean plate and handing it to him. Jack chuckled heartily and took her plate, piling it up with golden brown pancakes. The girl felt her mouthwatering as she eyed them. As soon as he set the plate down in front of her, Ruby pounced, swiftly cutting the flapjacks with her knife before chomping them down with an expression of pure bliss.
"11 is usually not considered early, my dear girl." He told her, taking a plate of his own and filling it up with hash browns and sausages. He sat down in the seat opposite hers, his large build dwarfing the modestly sized wooden table. Calmly, he began eating his breakfast while Ruby continued inhaling all of her food. The late morning breakfast was spent in silence as the two individuals quietly ate/gobbled their respective meals. Ruby finished her pancakes with a happy sigh, taking a slow sip from her cup.
She made a face when she tasted the bitter liquid. Jack noticed this and laughed. He had forgotten that she was not a fan of coffee, black or not. 'No sense in letting it go to waste.' He thought in amusement and pushed the small tin of sugar towards her. Ruby brightened and grabbed the tiny spoon, ignoring the raised brow as she shoveled spoonful after spoonful of sugar into her cup. She took another sip. "Much better." She mused aloud, taking several more mouthfuls.
Jack swallowed the last of his hash browns and took out a small piece of paper from his pocket, the movement causing the girl to look up in curiosity. He glanced at the paper before handing it to her.
"The list of things you have to do today." He clarified when she just looked confused. "Since you'll be staying here for the next three weeks, you'll have to help out around the house too. Y'know, earn your keep and all that."
Jack grinned when Ruby's nose wrinkled up in distaste. Despite all her talent with weapons, she was still a kid, he mused thoughtfully.
"I already got the weapon blueprints ready. Since you won't need to travel back to Beacon, I gather that we will be able to finish this earlier than planned." He continued. "The customer may check on your progress so I advise you to work hard, Ruby."
He smiled kindly when she paled. Jack reached over to pat her head.
"Don't worry; I'll be supervising you too. And you've done great work in the past few months, so I'm sure you will do just fine." He assured her. Ruby gave him a weak smile. She sincerely hoped that he was right. This was her first time making a weapon not for herself, but for someone else instead.
Jack muttered a 'heave-ho' as he got out of his seat. He grabbed both their plates and made his way over to the sink. Ruby stared at the piece of paper in her hands. 'Might as well get started.' She thought wryly.
Ruby dunked the steaming hot metal into the water bath, the weight of it straining her arms. She carefully maneuvered her arm and wiped the sweat which had gathered on her forehead using her sleeve. Suddenly, the timer beeped, shattering the calmness of the room. The girl felt a scowl forming, her concentration broken. The offending instrument continued beeping noisily, and Ruby glared at it with distaste.
Thankfully, the timer quieted down soon enough, allowing the girl to go back to whatever she was doing. Lifting the long and thin piece of metal from the small metal tub, she swiftly brought it over to the workshop table where she began meticulously sharpening one end of the blade with one of the many machines. Once that was done, the girl held it up in the light, smirking when the tip of the blade gleamed proudly. Ruby placed the finished component alongside a black lacquered hilt.
It strangely resembled the grip of an umbrella, but Ruby was paid no heed to it. After all, she did carry a giant, sniper scythe. Taking a glance at the blue prints, her eyes skimmed over the details and stopped when she came to the word parasol, which had been underlined twice. She shrugged. Parasol, umbrella. Tomato tomato.
Taking off her gloves, Ruby placed them atop the blueprints before stretching. She sighed when she felt her bones pop back into place and glanced at the clock. "Time for lunch." She thought with a smile. Her stomach was starting to make the rumblies that only cookies could fulfill.
The late afternoon sun beat down on Ruby's head as she walked from her own small workshop towards the two-story shop house. Entering through the back door, she waltzed through the small hallway and into the kitchen. The store part of the house was blocked off from the home part by a brown sliding door.
Ruby hummed a small tune as she slowly rifled through the fridge for her weekday lunch, licking her lips when she found the small packet of walnut cookies and a jug of cold milk. Jack had persuaded her to use his fridge like it was her own, quoting 'What's mine is yours' and forcing her to at least store some of her favourite food stuffs in there. Her mind travelled back to the time several months ago when she had first started working.
She had slowly but surely begun to open up to the kind but sometimes rough, older man. He helped her deal with her loneliness, acting as a pillar of strength for the young girl. When Ruby had told him how her teammates had practically ignored her existence and that it was killing her from the inside out, he took her aside and regarded her seriously.
"You have to understand, Ruby, that the world is not as kind as your fairy tales make it seem. Sadly, it is a place where the weak are crushed and forgotten while the strong take everything. Accept that life is unfair. Try to learn to rely on yourself, as you will discover that no one knows your needs better than you.
Yes, humans are social creatures. But at the end of the day, the relationships are formed to benefit only themselves. You are not weak for feeling loneliness, sadness or anger. These are the common traits that bind all of humanity together. Use these negative emotions to improve yourself. Become so good they can't ignore you. And when their eyes fall on you again, make them regret for ever throwing you aside."
She felt her lips curve up in a small smile. It was a nice feeling to be cared for, Ruby thought to herself as she munched on cookie after cookie. Pausing, she took a sip from her glass, shuddering slightly when the cool liquid slid down her throat. As the girl downed her calcium fortified drink, the sudden snippets of a conversation could be heard through the wooden door. One of the voices she identified was Jack's. The low timbre of his voice was one of a kind, or maybe it was because she had spent so much time working here that his voice was now imprinted into her mind.
" –or nothing. We had a deal!" A male's voice seeped into the silent kitchen. The sentence was followed by a guttural growl. Ruby frowned, her eyebrows scrunching. For some reason, it sounded so familiar…
"–do. I make no promises." Jack responded coolly. The tone of his voice made the girl's skin tingle with unease. She never heard her employer sound like that.
The sounds tapered off, and Ruby bent forward in her chair, debating on whether to get up and investigate; when Jack walked into a kitchen. His usually sunny disposition was marred by an angry scowl. It made him look older than he really was and a lot more dangerous than he usually seemed. The man spotted Ruby frozen in her seat, and the scowl quickly melted into a familiar smile.
"Oh…was it really that loud?" He asked sheepishly, making his way to the fridge. The man seemed to have realized Ruby had been eavesdropping on him. She flushed a little at getting caught. "How much of it did you hear?"
"J-Just a little. Was that a customer?"
"Yeah…" He responded, taking a swig from his drink. "You could say that he was an unsatisfied customer."
Ruby's head shot up in disbelief. "Unsatisfied?" She said, sounding slightly stupefied. "Your shop sells the highest quality parts I've ever seen!" The girl defended passionately. "Compared to some other shops, yours is definitely one of the best." She muttered, recalling the unsavory times she had bought some expensive 'high quality' parts for crescent rose, only to find them defective.
Jack shrugged. "Well, some people just can't be pleased." He concluded with a small smile. Mood fairly improved, Ruby beamed at him and continued eating her cookies. Finishing up her lunch/mid-day snack, she bid him goodbye and returned to her sweltering hot paradise of weapons and soldering.
Jack watched her leave, his smile slowly disappearing after his charge had left the room. He eyed his coffee sullenly, his mind lingering on the previous conversation he had with his 'customer'. Sighing lowly, he sipped the beverage and immediately grimaced.
"Bitter..."
The rest of the week passed without any sort of interruptions. Ruby continued working on the weapon dutifully; crafting the parts with Jack looking over her shoulder. As she suspected, it was no easy feat to make a weapon from scratch. Crescent Rose was a different story as she had drawn her own blueprints upon Qrow's basic design and built it with high tech machinery, which the work shop did not have.
It was extremely exhausting to mould the metal into a specific shape, and it didn't help that Jack kept asking her to redo some of it. His need for perfection was a double edged sword, although it was what pushed the girl to work for him in the first place.
"Another dud." Jack said with a sigh. He threw the imperfect piece of scrap into the bin while Ruby slowly began to gather all materials needed to start the process again. She sluggishly placed the uncut metal into the crucible, preparing to plunge it in the furnace for the umpteenth time. When she nearly tripped on her own feet, the man shot forward to steady her. He frowned when he saw that she could barely hold the crucible, her hands shaking slightly.
"Maybe you should take a break."
"W-What about the…?"
"Don't worry Ruby. Since it's only Sunday you deserve get a short break. As a matter of fact, you should just take the rest of the day off. No use in spreading yourself too thin and getting hurt. You'll have plenty of time to work on it next week."
He told her with a reassuring smile. The girl nodded hesitantly. In all honesty, she was too tired to even argue with him. Her mind was blank and her hands were hurting like a bitch. Her vision blurred for a moment and she reached up to rub her eyes gently. Her body felt heavy, and her eyelids were fighting to keep open. 'I must be really tired.' She thought wryly.
Maybe she really needed a break. Jack ushered her out of the workshop and left her to her own devices. Ruby headed towards her room with only one goal in mind and as she headed back towards her room she almost lost her footing a number of times, close to face planting on the carpet. Finally reaching her destination, she pushed her room door open weakly and immediately flopped onto the bed. With the little energy she had, Ruby kicked off her shoes before her eyes fluttered shut.
When Jack entered his workshop again, he was relatively unsurprised to see someone leaning against the wall. Not saying a word, he dragged an unoccupied chair near the window and placed it on the other side of the table. Then, he began clearing all the tools left lying around the work desk, making sure that everything was back in its proper place. Once he was done, Jack walked over to his own seat and sat in it with a huff.
Neo observed him silently; her tri-coloured notebook sprawled on the table, its white pages exposed to the humid air.
"Neo." He greeted stiffly, a hint of a frown on his face. She responded with a small smirk, taking out a pen from the pockets of her suit.
'Will we be interrupted?' She scribbled.
Jack shook his head. "I slipped a few sleeping tablets into the milk today." He told her. A flicker of guilt crossed his moustached features. "I made sure not to put too much. Just enough to let her sleep like a baby for the next couple of hours."
'Good. Then let's get down to business.'
At this, Jack felt his muscles tense at the inevitable conversation. He gave her quick once over. She hadn't changed in the slightest. Neo was still wearing the same fancy suit as before, and her hair seemed even more brightly coloured; the pink, brown and white locks pooling at her shoulders, framing her petite face. The only thing different about her was the lack of a weapon, to which she substituted with a cream white cane.
"As you wish. But first I need to know…"
Neo looked up with a hint of a frown on her face. Her gloved fingers threaded one another as she waited for the man in front of her to continue. Jack swallowed, a sudden surge of protectiveness shooting through him.
"Why are you so interested in Ruby? What do you want with her?"
He asked. No matter how dangerous and how well connected Neo was, Jack would sooner purge himself than put his charge in danger. She was more than just his assistant; Ruby was someone who brought the light into his life. He had been drowning in the hatred for his brother for so long that he had forgotten how fulfilling and satisfying happiness could feel. Jack couldn't help but feel guilt that he would be dragging the innocent girl into his quest for revenge. It seemed almost sinful to sully a light as bright as hers.
Neo let out a giggle at his question, causing the man to look up in bewilderment. She thought about it for several seconds, twirling the pen dexterously in her fingers. Then, she clicked her tongue and proceeded to write something in the notebook. Jack picked up the notebook she slid over to him. What he read made his blood run cold.
'I'm sure you've heard the story of the little red riding hood. I'm interested in knowing how her story will end. Will she remain the prey…?'
Neo grinned wolfishly.
'…or join the predator?'