I am sorry, but college is college, and I got a bit stuck with this one. Also, a little incident occurred over the weeks...it was bad, that's all I'll say here. You want info, PM me, but only if I know you properly; it just gets weird when a random reviewer asks personal questions. Oh well, hate me, love me, but just read and review this story.
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"My past is painful, and sometimes I ...I just want to...give up."
-Ruby Rose, age fifteen-
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Three days ago...
Weiss Schnee was angry at her team leader, for probably the first recorded time in history.
She knew it was trivial, something that had no business to even be brought up, but the way she was smiling at many of the females and even some males around school was...well, it was downright wrong. What was worse? They were all smiling back, as if the little psychopathic, stupid, half-witted, half machine monster was worth their time. Of course, Ruby- Reaper- had no idea that many of those stares were full of hatred, disgust, disdain, or lust; there, she said it, lust. Some students lusted after Ruby!
What about her? Weiss was pretty, cunning, smart, agile, strong; things everyone should look for in a woman. But no, instead of an already grown, perfectly sane woman, they went for the incredibly short, overly shy and damaged, broken, insane little girl, with a penchant for killing and breaking knees- no, wait, that last one was Nora.
She still didn't think it a good idea to send Ruby- she was finally getting the name right- to Nora to allow Weiss some time to think; preferable if she were alone, but Blake being there, staring, unmoving, at her book, was just as good.
But her mind kept drifting to Ruby, the world's most dangerous psychopathic wolf Faunus- she figured out the heritage a while ago, but kept it a secret. From her mother's stories, the girl had been tortured enough already. She glared as each thought of hate passed her mind, creating storm clouds in which forced her to strike her emotions for the little girl with lightning, leaving pure hatred. A small glimmer flashed, and she thought, for a second: 'Is this how those people that hurt Ruby feel?'
Speaking of which; Nora smiled when Ruby shyly looked down at her feet, avoiding eye contact as soon as possible; Nora could tell jokes, sure, but when she told her that Ruby was probably the greatest and, dare she have said, hottest people she had ever met, Ruby's cheeks grew a shade of pink. She sobered though, with an imperious thought, taking over her thought process of survival and food; would she stay the same, feel the same, if she knew who, what, she was?
Well, Nora was...insane...like her, so why shouldn't she understand? She's already shown indifference towards the Faunus race, and shown to be a great and understanding...friend. so, should she tell her?
No. The simple answer was no. As short and sweet as any answer could be, no. It was pure luck that she hadn't died in the past, with untrained cronies and small-time gang leaders attacking her, but in here...in here, in Beacon? Well, there were trained Hunters and Huntresses, fully trained to kill anything viewed as a threat to Man and Faunus kind alike. In many people's books, that counted her among them. no, it placed her at the top of the shit list for most dangerous people ever seen, and her picture was the very definition of 'you must hate this, no matter what'.
So she lost her growing smile, saddened at having to lose the only other person here who could even remotely understand her, to even acknowledge her beyond an insane psychopath. Even better for their relationship to grow to best friend status?
They were to spar, five minutes from now.
Ruby was, internally, panicking, not knowing what to do in this kind of situation and how to resolve it; her friend- yes, she called her that-and she were supposed to fight, as if it would help in any way to gauge strengths. It's like pitting Goliath against Hercules- no one would come out of it alive, or in tact...r in one piece; literally, there might be multiple pieces of them both scattered around the arena.
What's worse? She was sore from her fight with Emerald and Weiss. Both the girls managed to land a lot of deadly hits; if it weren't for her black blood and...Other means, she'd be dead, or at least reduced to a snivelling pile on the floor, as she had been in the past.
"Aw, does it hurt the little monster?" she looked up pitifully, her black eye showing through the other bruises around her face that began to form, cheeks cut, hands broken and face bloodied. All she did was walk through the town, trying to get to the other side to find something to eat; she didn't wear her hood, to cover her ears, and this happened.
He leered down at her, crowbar in hand, as he laughed when she went to speak. "Aw, your pretty face is so broken!"
"P-Please let me go..." it was pitiful, but a simple request may have saved her in the long run; but it hadn't. He smirked, golden-yellow teeth showing through his bloody gums from where he'd bitten her, teeth stained with pieces of muscle and flesh. His eyes shone with a madness unlike her own; it was feral, less controlled than her kind, and it scared her more than any nightmare, any horror story or bogeyman.
"Now, why would I do that?"
Those words caused her to well up with more tears, scratched eyes pleading silently as he constantly beat her, laughing as she grew limp with each hit.
The crowbar came down again, faster, stronger, a hit got her in the head, her vision blurred-
"Reaper lady, are you okay?" a hand invaded her vision, her eyes widening as she snapped out of the trance she was in, body shaking suddenly before stopping just as sudden. The common signs of hell inflicted on the mind, the Devil himself torturing the poor girl into airy submission; trying to break her, as he had already done in the past. No one knew how broken she really was, how lost in the world that she had no belonging to she was, and it not only scared her, but it tortured her daily; either physically, or mentally...
Ruby jumped when Nora laid a gloved hand over her shoulder, smiling toothily, her emerald green eyes shining. "Are you worried about fighting me?"
Her silver eyes searched emerald green, and the lie detector beeped; she wasn't lying, at least not yet, anyway. This girl was genuinely confused and worried for Ruby- or Reaper's- health. It was rather disconcerting, Ruby's eyes widening in shock and confusion. Why would she worry? No one else did, they never did. It was something that felt like sandpaper being dragged across her heart that made her stop thinking. She didn't need these thoughts, not now; so she resigned her fate to sighing, shaking her head meekly- a clear lie.
Nora's eyes squinted, almost comically, and her throat released a low hum of suspicion, but Nora's lie detecting must have not been that good, because she smiled afterwards and clapped her hands like a juvenile child, her form bobbing up and down repeatedly as she jumped in spot. "Great! Then let's get going!"
And just like that, Nora ran, sprinting down the halls with an unlucky and frightened Reaper holding onto her jacket as if it were a lifeline.
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Present day...
Ruby froze, her blood ice as her head swivelled from each person, fully taking them in and their expressions to be accounted.
Hammerlock was sat there, nonplussed as ever, his grey moustache twirled and twisted between his right hand as the left one lifted a cup of what she presumed tea- the smell wafted to her nostrils, definitely tea- to his lips, allowing him to sip at the mug as if it were his treasure; he practically held it lovingly, his hand caressing the outer shell of the cup before and after he sipped it, idly running his fingers around the rim. His brown eyes shone behind his thick glasses, showing off just how much he polished them- or it was really sunny inside. She couldn't see his hair beneath his hat, but she could tell it could be either receding, or simply he was a bit bald. He wore a shirt in such a fashion that the sleeve on the left side went down to the wrist, but the sleeve on the right barely reached past his bicep; presumably to stop a perfectly good shirt from ripping due to the mechanical arm, but she figured it had a different reason.
The woman, Hammerlock's wife, was, well, gorgeous; an hourglass figure to die for, hips that would hypnotise and blue eyes to get lost in forever. This woman was simply a goddess in human skin. She wore a red and black apron, something that would be seen in a classic housewife role, while her legs were accompanied by sinfully short leggings and brown, knee high boots covered her feet. Blue eyes burned with normality, as if the woman had once been an adventurer, or something of the sort, and longed to be back out there, fighting Grimm and saving lives; the temptress may very well have done that, or something of the sort- she fit the public peacekeeper role all too well for 'housewife' to be added to her list of achievements.
But it was the girl next to her, the one that asked such a provocative question, that caught her investigative eyes; brown hair- presumably shoulder length- tied in a ponytail, green eyes shining, exaggerated by the oh-so subtle working of eye shadow and thin lines of eyeliner. Skin was deathly pale, almost matching Ruby's, but not quite, while her lips were bright red, but not too bright to be unappealing; almost cherry, but a shade darker- it seems this girl was a fan of the colour of crimson as Ruby was. She could not see her legs- a small, undetectable blush crept its way on her face at the thought- and her footwear was almost invisible, but she could see the black, grey and red zip-up jacket covering a large portion of her upper body, the rest being contained within a simple red t-shirt.
She noticed it had 'Reaper 4 Life' written on the front, and her gaze seemed to catch the girl's attention.
She looked down, then back up to a staring Reaper, before it clicked; she had no idea where she was, and was probably wondering who these strange people were, right? Introductions always matter, even if she hated the gentlemanly thing her father had going on.
She smiled, showing off pearled white teeth, and blushed when she saw the Reaper- who had never been seen by a civilian before- look her right in the eye.
"Hi, name's Tess"- the girl in question shot her hand out to shake Reaper's, but pulled away when the vigilante flinched away and shook-"uh... I am a big fan of yours."
Ruby's head shot up and eyes widened in disbelief; a fan? She had a fan?
...what's a fan?
Tess smiled, her eyes lighting up when Reaper blushed; maybe her dream would come true, but who knows? She had a damn hero staying at her home for Dust sake! This was good enough, right here.
Reaper simply scanned the room, her robotic eye roaming around while her organic eye followed, running over the location she was in.
She spotted a curtain of black hair, and internally panicked, before sighing in relief when she spotted a purple and grey streak; that wasn't her, thankfully, and Reaper turned back to her captive audience.
"Ah..." she tried talking, but began wheezing and clutching her throat, running a hand involuntarily over her new scar, wincing as the memories flooded her senses.
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Three days ago...
Weiss' furious temperament may have hindered rational thought, and may have caused her to...well, to practically force Goodwitch into allowing her to fight Ruby one on one, or else the woman would be fired. So, begrudgingly for the sake of her job, Glynda allowed the fight to occur, Nora sitting on the side lines wishing her friend good luck to whatever god the little Reaper worshipped.
Weiss took her side of the arena, and Ruby slugged her way to her own, as Weiss furiously began changing rules were as follows:
Handicaps: Ruby was to be a weapon less; hardly fair, but Weiss was pissed, so she hardly cared for the other girl's safety at the moment. Ruby, to be fair, didn't even complain.
Match Length: until first blood; literally, if either bled, it was game over. Ruby didn't even seem concerned with her own health when she was issued the list of rules. In fact...she stared at nothing, as if deep in thought.
Lastly, Ruby was, effectively, to be Weiss' punching bag, allowing the girl to let out steam at the young vigilante's expense of health.
The bell rang, and Ruby didn't move; Weiss didn't care, and without a doubt, Weiss may have taken the 'first blood' rule a bit too far.
For example, within seconds, she jabbed her rapier into a surprised Ruby's eye, effectively pulling it out when she released her blade form the screaming Ruby's face.
But, apparently, Weiss' rule of first blood meant that the blood had to be red. so...well, she took it another step forward, anger and frustration completely blinding her actions. She'd never do this to a normal person, never, but this insane little girl that had stolen nothing from her, yet she felt everything leave her the second she met the Reaper. It pissed her off, her vision becoming red, veins pumping and eye twitching furiously.
While Ruby was hunched over, trying to keep the contents that her eye had left over within her skull, Weiss swiftly and deftly brought her blade, edge pointed, to Ruby's throat...
...and sliced.