Third person
"Dr. Rose, about my offer to you. Do you have an answer?"
"Ozpin, I thought I told you to call me Ruby. And yes, I do. I will join, but there's somethings I want you to understand. I will not fight, I am strictly a field medic. I will not live on campus. My practices come first. And I will abandon everything if a friend needs me."
"That makes you practically useless!" Glynda yelled. Ozpin raised his hand to stop her from continuing.
"Despite all these… conditions. It is still better for us to have a less liable Ruby, than no Ruby. Wouldn't you agree?"
Glynda sighed and rolled her eyes. Pushing her glasses up, she crossed her arms and settled into silence.
"Now then, shall we reacquaint you with your team?"
/Mild Break/
You'd think they'd have seen a ghost with the stupid face they all had plastered on. But she was understanding and patient, so she waited for them to come out of their shock.
Yang was the first to recover, probably because she had a deeper bond with her little sister. "Uhm.. R-ruby it's uh… it's good to see you. I mean, pfff, it's been quite some time. How've you, how've you been?"
There was palpable tension in the air. Afterall, witnessing the person standing in the same room as you, kill hundreds, creates an understandably intense atmosphere.
"I've been doing fine. I went and got piss drunk at a club the other night, but I met some fine ladies, so it's good."
Weiss widened her eyes in both shock and disgust, but being versed in proper mannerisms, she withheld any contempt in her voice. "So you got drunk and are into girls?" Well, there was no malice in her tone, but her words certainly weren't minced.
The room seemed to hold its breath, waiting to see what the monster of a leader would do. "Yup. You obviously don't approve, given the twitch in the back of your lips which is a micro expression for contempt. Buy we never did get along, did we. I should thank you, though. If it weren't for you at the air docks, I never would have gone to that bar and met those pretty woman. So, thank you." Ruby had a smile, which had all the signs of a genuine one, except the heart.
At the mention of her unruly behavior in such simple matter, without desire for retribution, without pointing any fingers, Weiss clenched her jaw shut.
"Blake, have you been well? You always were reserved, and it is perfectly understandable in this choking atmosphere to be so, but I would like to hear from you personally, how you've been. I missed you."
Blake didn't know whether to be flattered, intrigued, or confused mixed with a bit of disgust. So she settled with a neutral reply, "I've been alright."
Ruby frowned at the clipped response, but quickly returned to her smiles. "Well, it's quite obvious that none of you want me here. Don't worry, I'll be taking my leave shortly. Though, I do wish that perhaps over time, you can learn to be less tense around me. I am your team leader, and we will be working together, after all."
"Wait, you won't be stating here?" Yang raised a brow, trying to give off a relaxed vibe.
Ruby decided to perform a… test. With a yell she made as though she were going to attack. She looked around and saw that everyone had their hands on their weapons, ready to defend themselves. Their hearts probably racing. Ruby looked to Yang as though to say, "It's for the best."
Weiss scoffed, "Are you pinning all the blame on us then? Is that it? You're saying it's-"
"Weiss stop." Blake spoke up. Fear in her eyes.
"No. I won't stop. She thinks it's our fault that we're afraid. That it's stupid to be so apprehensive with her in the room. When it was her that killed all those people. It was her that single handedly slayed all those Grimm. Yeah, I'm afraid, but it's perfectly justified." Her teeth ground together as she watched the girl before them.
"I guess it was wrong of me to call myself your leader," Ruby seemed to ignore Weiss's lament. "I'm more of a deadweight. I don't know why Ozpin wants me part of Beacon so badly. I mean, the only contribution I'll be to this team is patching you up. But who needs that when you have aura? So I'm just an anchor for you guys, buried in the ground, slowing you down. Anyway, good night. I'll only be here if you need me. Try to keep in touch this time, or don't. I don't care. I hadn't gotten a single message from any of you since I've left, and you've done swimmingly so far. Like I said, Ozpin must be crazy to want me at Beacon, where those that were closest to me suddenly saw me as only a monster." There was no hostility in her tone. It was light and jovial. She might as well be planning a fun outing.
WBY stood in silence, their eyes fixed on the girl in the doorway. She was just smiling pleasantly. Her pager went off, "Oh." Unclipping the device from herself, she looked at the brief message. "Right, well, good night." Activating her semblance, she rushed to the landing pads.
Third person
"Everything ok, Dr. Rose?"
"No. But it will be." Ruby tore of the disposable equipment.
"For what it's worth, you did an amazing job on that surgery, like you always do."
"Thank you… but I am going to spend tonight alone. Sorry, perhaps some other time." Ruby walked out of the operating room foyer.
/ Mild Break /
"Another, and just leave the bottle." Ruby slurred as she swished the heavy shot glass around. Junior just grunted and focused on his other patrons.
The Miltiades watched the girl as she downed shot after shot. It was interesting to observe. It was obvious that she wasn't here to get buzzed or anything. She was drowning something. Melanie nudged her and gave a look at the girl.
With a sigh, she went. "Fine."
Melanie watched as her sister approached the girl who had given such a cold vibe last time.
"Hello." No response. "Hellooo" Again. "Hey! I'm talking to you." She was furious at being ignored.
Ruby sighed and downed the last of her shot before turning to face her visitor. "I'm drowning my feelings in alcohol." She poured another glass.
A bit of concern nibbled at the back of the older girl's mind. "You shouldn't do that." Why was she even getting involved! This is so unlike them! They hated all the clubbers, but this girl. This girl seemed to just draw them in.
"I know."
"Well, do you have a ride? You can't possibly be so drunk and drive."
"No, I drive that motorcycle. Of I were to collide with another vehicle, the most I would do is dent it. And I have insurance." She took another swig.
"What about your own life? You'll die. Don't you care?"
"Not tonight." She let the burning solution sit in her for a bit, focusing on the feeling. With a sigh, she took a break. "Usually, I would love such a beautiful girl's company such as you and your twin. But tonight. Tonight I just want to get so numb I won't feeling anything for awhile. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but can you leave me alone." She returned to filling her glass. She lifted the glass to her lips, but growled in frustration as her phone went off.
"Hello?"
"Ruby?"
"Velvet?"
"I'm glad to hear that you are part of Beacon again. I hope we can see each other more."
"Yeah, thanks. Me too." Velvet noticed the slur in her words and the blaring music.
"Where are you?"
"Junior's club. Getting drunk. I'm trying to drown my feelings so I'll call you later."
"Ruby wait, why are yo-" She ended the call and drank the last of the bottle.
/ Mild Break /
"Velvet? It's odd to see you here. What's up?"
"Yang, did you know Ruby is at a club, getting drunk?"
Weiss scoffed from across the room, "She's probably picking up some floozy, too."
"What?"
"She's a rug muncher, Velvet. She's probably at that club, getting drunk, and picking up some cheap girl for the night."
"That's enough, Weiss." Amber eyes glared at the heiress. Weiss rolled her eyes.
Hearing such blatant bad mouthing about someone she considered a friend, from a friend, who used to be friends, really set the timid faunus off. "Why do you all hate her! She was your leader! Your friend! She put her life on the line, expecting to die, In order to save you three. And you repay her by treating her like an unwanted monster, when in reality she is a misunderstood hero. How can so much love mean nothing to you? Yang, you're her sister, and you don't even call her on her birthday."
"Wha- how did you, how did you know that?"
"She took me out to lunch and she told me. She told me the absolute truth on whatever I asked. I asked, how's your team. And you know what she told me? She told me that she doesn't know. She didn't know how the people closest to her were doing. Then she showed me the unreplied messages and unreturned calls. She said that maybe if she kept trying that you'll answer one day. But then she said, that's what she hoped for, but knew it wouldn't come true. I asked her about her work. She told me about the time she helped Winter Schnee out."
Weiss grit her teeth. "Weiss…"
"Don't you dare judge me!"
"Weiss! When she saw you, she said she was so relieved that you looked well. But whenever she tried to talk to you, you'd brush her off. Again, and again, she tried, but you just couldn't see past the fact that she did what no one else was willing to do in order to save countless lives. You only saw it as her mercilessly killing. And that day at the air ships. You pinned the blame on her. That she was the one avoiding you. And then you pretended like you wanted her at Beacon, but followed up with calling her a coward and a fool. What kind of partner does that?"
"You wouldn't understand. You weren't there." Weiss's rebuttal was weak, just like her voice.
"Blake… I just. I'm disappointed. Well whatever. I came to tell her caring teammates that she's off getting blackout drunk at some bar, but it seems they aren't here. Not anymore."
/ Mild Break /
The worst of the hangover had passed. She had made it home safely that night, unfortunately. Now she just lay in bed. She had missed many days of work these past few weeks, but the bosses didn't seem to care. It seems no one did.
Her scroll vibrated intensely. Rolling over, she answered the call. "Hello?"
"Ruby, its Yang, listen you need to-"
"Is there an emergency?"
"Well no, bu-" She hung up and closed her eyes.
/ Scene Change /
"She hung up!"
"Who did?" Pyrrha asked as she sat down next to them.
"Ruby!"
"Oh, you're talking to her again! That's great. She would always tell me how she'd hoped you guys would."
"..."
"What?" Pyrrha looked between Yang and Weiss.
"You kept in contact with her this whole time?" Weiss narrowed her eyes.
"Well, yeah. She's my friend. She helped me countless times. I would hate to break off with her."
"But you were there on that day!" Weiss pursed her lips.
"Indeed. I saw a leader who would have readily died for her team, but lived and came back shaken. It was a bit unnerving at the time, but Ruby would never hurt us. She loves us all too much. Don't you believe that?"
"Maybe you aren't so affected by it because you weren't as close to her as we are- were."
Pyrrha lost her civil expression. "You're right Weiss, maybe that is the reason why, but I think you're all just trying too hard to find flaw in her." The Amazonian picked up her tray and left, her team, who had just arrived and yet to sit down, followed her.
"Maybe she's right. Maybe they both are, Pyrrha and Velvet. Maybe we are trying too hard." Yang stared at her food in solemn thought.
"Pft. Do you even hear yourself right now? Try too hard? That doesn't even make any sense. Why would we want to hate her?"
"Do you really want to know?" Blake joined in. "Yang feels betrayed, You because she's your junior but became team leader and as it turns out, a lesbian. And me, I… I just can't seem to separate the fact that she killed all those faunus. I mean they were in the White Fang, and I know that, but I just can't."
"So… what do we do? I mean, every chance she's given us to patch things up, we burned in seconds. She went and drowned her feelings in alcohol and then drove a motorcycle. Knowing full well she shouldn't be walking, much less operating a vehicle at 70 miles per hour. She won't even come here unless we tell her it's an emergency."
"Do we know where she lives?"