Neo's head was spinning, Ozpin was in pain on the floor, and the two new entrances were helping Neo up, dusting her off, trying to get her up and ready for what would be an attack form the crazed girl...
...then they heard crying. It was slow, steady; the sobbing was unrestricted, worrying, and destructive to all who heard it and their souls. The place was so silent save for the sobs that you could hear the tears falling to the ground, crashing in splashes and splodges on the concrete floor.
All eyes turned to Reaper, the crazed, remorseless monster.
But all they saw was a crying little girl, curled up on the ground with tears leaking from her face while her hands clawed at her face as she did so, furiously holding her face in her hands while she rocked back and forth on the floor, her knees wrapped around her chest and arms around the knees. Blake froze, and then kicked into action: using her semblance, she dashed through the crowd of frozen people, noting that some had disgusted faces and others had faces of worry and some with even admiration- it was quite the feat to be able to cry in front of the whole school with little to no shame.
She made her way closer, ever closer to the arena, and stopped in her tracks again to thoroughly assess the situation; Ozpin was on the ground, groaning slightly as he stood up with his hand on his head and the other on his cane. She then looked to Qrow, who had his own tears flowing from his eyes as he shakily stood up, heading towards Ruby with shuddering steps, and lastly, the multi-coloured team of green, black and pink. The black and green ones were helping up the pink one, who looked ready to charge at Ruby any second now; but there were also tears down her face: and a look of recognition stretched across Blake's face as she saw Neo's eyes; both held the need to comfort the girl in front of her, and the look Neo was throwing the others that were keeping her away was panicked, almost as if she needed to get to Ruby.
Seeing herself unopposed, she sprinted across the arena, making it to Ruby in few steps and shadow clones.
She fell to her knees, wrapping Ruby around her chest and making sure she was back to normal; she checked eyes, only shaking with tears, not insanity, and her mouth, no longer wide and crazed, her teeth no longer pointed.
But she muttered one word that extended to the ears of all around them. "Neo."
The girl in question knocked both of the people holding her to the ground with a sweep of her legs, sprinting towards Ruby, and just as Blake removed herself; Neo barged into Ruby and captured her in a hug. "You remember me..." Ruby simply smiled slightly and broke down into more tears, both of them hugging and crying, never letting their best friends go.
Qrow, who was watching the scene unfold curiously and sadly, walked over to Ruby, his shadow making him seem slightly taller than he was. His eyes shined with tears, and his head hung low as he kneeled down next to the crying pair, Neo taking up a defensive stance.
"So...I take it you really have no idea who I am?"
Ruby shakily shook her head, had grabbed Neo's hand, whom of which roped her up and dusted her off. She fixed Ruby's hair in place, before wiping the girl's tears away and holding her hand. Blake simply stood on the other side of Ruby and purred, only audible to Ruby, who visibly relaxed.
Qrow, now kneeled on one leg, reached into his pocket, and slowly brought out a photograph of himself when he was younger, with the same hairstyle as Ruby, and a little sister with red and black tipped wolf ears; she was an almost spitting image of Ruby.
"That..." he pointed to the image of himself with a small smile. "...Is me and that..." he pointed to the picture of his sister "Is your mother."
Ruby reached out, fresh tears in her eyes, and grabbed the picture, slowly holding it in front of her and stroking the image with her thumb, her other hand still in Neo's. Her Faunus eyes picked up nothing to indicate this was a fake image, and her fingers traced the edges of the photo, feeling the constant years of wear and tear it has been through.
She flipped it over and there, on the back, seemed to be a little sentence, written in handwriting she didn't know, but read anyway as if she had written it. "Q-Qrow and S-Summer R-R-Rose..." at the last name, her eyes widened, and her hands balled into fists. Qrow saw this, and closed his eyes, waiting for a punch that never came, or the insane, maniacal laughter that he never heard.
Instead, he opened his eyes when he felt something impact his stomach, and looked down, seeing Ruby wrapped around his stomach, her head nestled in his chest, and Neo and Blake watching on with their own tears in their eyes.
He finally could call himself an uncle again.
(^^^^^^)
Sitting in his orange and brown leather chair, he sighed, fingers rubbing through his temples to relieve the stress his head was currently going through. His green eyes shifted around the room, eyes landing on a small image of him and an unidentified female. Her name was lost to him now, his head having taken too much bumps to barely recognise her let alone her name, but the thing that stood out to him most was the man stood next to him. He did recognise him, as much as he didn't want to.
Sighing, he ruffled his hand through his black, crew-cut hair, sighing again as he sipped his coffee.
There was one man that he did recognise in a separate photograph that he could care less about, but at the same time, was like a brother to; Ozpin was a strange man, his hair having greyed at the age of eleven, him having to use a cane at the age of twenty, and he somehow became a headmaster of Beacon Academy, a school known for the training and raising of the world's greatest Hunters and Huntresses.
But he had to hand it to the man; he knew how to lead. Yes, he talked in riddles, yes he made some mistakes, but hasn't everyone? In the end of the day, Ozpin wasn't everyone; he was a little league of his own. He was a master at deception, he was a master at non-violent interrogations, and he was a master at hiding his emotions, pointing out weaknesses and generally doing everything he couldn't.
Yin to his Yang, so to speak.
His office was small, maybe, two or three people could stand in it and it wouldn't be too crowded. But that wasn't the source of his headache, no; the source was from the worrying reports he had gotten.
Reaper was attending Beacon Academy.
Now, while he knew her real identity, and he knew more about her than maybe he would like to, he also knew that she was extremely unstable; the video of the battle she had in Beacon that went viral within the first hour proved him right.
The pieces were all falling together...
But he had to wait for a perfect opportunity for his plan to work; he had to wait until she made a move first.
Besides, everyone knows in chess that the Queen makes the first move before the King does.
(^^^^^^)
A week had passed; Ruby still ha to get used to the scared looks and whispers that floated around her; about her.
Whispers, rumours and general myths being spread around didn't concern her in the slightest; what did was her friend, Neo, and her two other new friends, Emerald and Mercury. She had a funny feeling about those two. But, her being her, she was always paranoid.
Even more so when Glynda came up to her during the mandatory- even to her- combat class.
She could feel everyone's eyes on her, and could hear her own heart doing back flips at the whispers suddenly stopping, or at the eyes practically trying to penetrate her skull. She could feel her lungs constricting and expanding as she began to hyperventilate, and she could hear ringing in both sets of her ears; thankfully, her hood was raised over her head, and during the fight a week ago, no one seemed to notice her wolf ears, or if they did, dismissed them as some sort of canine Faunus ears.
Then, her erratic interior flushing was stopped, just like that, when a sound that sounded like purring entered her mind, breaking past the ringing and soothing her tensed muscles. A pair of amber eyes could be seen staring at her sweetly, softly, and a pair of hands grabbed her own, making sure Ruby was grounded and down to earth before she let go, Glynda now stood in front of her.
"The next match shall be a miss Reaper." She looked down to Ruby with a small, barely noticeable smile, before straightening her face and motioning to the arena.
Ruby slowly raised and walked over to the massive concrete space, feeling the madness try to sooth her. The sound of Blake's purring sounded through her head, and soothed her again, allowing her to, for once in her life, fight with a clear mind, and not while bloodthirsty and mad.
She brought out her scythe, nervously slamming the tip into the concrete; she didn't even put power into it, and watched slightly worried when she saw the tip breach the concrete, jamming itself into the ground stunningly and cracking the area around it, causing a vein-like spider web crater to form around it.
Glynda turned to the watching audience and raised her scroll, looking through the various people that were available to fight.
But someone shot his hand up just as she was about to pick someone. "I will!" the boy shouted, and when she got a closer look, it was the boy who helped save Ruby; by trying to shoot at her.
She gave him a blank stare for a second, before pointing to the arena and motioning for him to get ready while she put both their names on the big screen at the edge of the arena, displaying both of their auras.
When Ruby took her place, her eyes looking left and right for a way out of this, and seeing none, Mercury took a place opposite her, and Glynda called for the match to begin.
As soon as the call for the match started, they both stood, waiting for the other to attack first; mercury ran out of patience, and activated his boots, sprinting to Ruby and raising his foot in a roundhouse kick.
His kick hit nothing, and he turned around, only to back flip three times from a hesitant swing of a red and black scythe aimed at his head.
He landed, supplying the small girl with an impressed 'hum'.
This time, Ruby made the move, but not the kind he was expecting. He was expecting she would charge at him head on, swinging her scythe, causing him to fight back.
He didn't expect her to vanish in a cloud of petals.
Everyone was looking around the arena, all eyes searching for the redhead while Mercury looked around almost panicky.
He dropped to the floor in less than a second, his aura down to fifteen percent; right as an unseen, metallic fist impacted his face.
Yang winced slightly at the thought of the robotic fist impacting his face, and Neo and Blake stared in awe at the reappeared redhead girl. Weiss was gauging the girl's abilities, and finding it impossible to do that while Ruby was beating someone in less than a minute of the match starting while not insane, she had to get hands on experience.
Her hand shot up next as she stood as well, the entire hall turning their attention to Weiss, who shouted. "Miss Goodwitch! I wish to go next!"
She was about to nod in acceptance, before another voice popped out. "Me too!"
It was that green haired girl, the one called Emerald, and she sighed. She looked at Ruby, who was rubbing her neck sheepishly while trying to avoid the eyes of everyone around her.
She simply sighed again; she didn't get paid enough for this.
"Fine, both of you can fight her; as a team, got it?" she grumbled, waiting for them to enter the arena before displaying their auras on the screen.
"Ready?" she asked Weiss and Emerald, both grunting in response.
Neo was on the edge of her seat; she didn't get to see Ruby fight while she wasn't insane, and the new arm she got was really interesting her.
Blake was the same.
"Ready?" she then asked Ruby, the same harsh tone as she used with the other two. Ruby simply nodded slightly, her form shaking.
Glynda sighed regrettably, before blowing the whistle for the match to continue.
(^^^^^^)
Firstly, I apologise for making you all wait so long; college work, coupled with my other stories, is getting to me, so try to be patient please.
That said, I hope to see you all review to this. Not my best work, but the next chapter will be longer.
Lastly, this chapter just acted as a filler; you'll see the real Ruby Rose, using all of those skills she listed in chapter one and two, and not insane either.