Five years later.
"Excuse me." Said a man who was hurriedly walking through the streets of Vale. He was late, again. His niece was going to kill him. Literally, that girl really could not control her anger and when she did get angry it just ment that whoever or whatever was the source of her anger would most likely wake up in a hospital bed with a broken jaw along with a couple ribs.
By no means was she a bad kid or anything, just very very emotional. Really all you had to do was follow some rules and you won't end up dead. Rule one, don't touch her unless you're in a fight with her or she lets you. Or if she looks like she really needs a hug, which was quite uncommon but still happened from time to time. Rule two, don't talk about her parents, ever. Not because she'll kill you but because her friends or uncle would. Rule three, don't touch her hair. Just don't. And rule four, if you're her uncle don't be late for anything she wants you at, be it her birthday or just hangout time, Qrow Branwen would be there.
But right now he was about to break that rule and be late for her match in the school tournament. She went to Signal, a school dedicated to teaching young children who aspire to become hunters and huntresses before they went to one of the many higher combat schools around the world.
In his rush to get to the tournament Qrow failed to notice the small girl in a red hoodie walking in front of him and as a result tripped over her causing both himself and the girl to fall over. With a quick, "sorry" from over his shoulder as he scrambled to his feet, back off was the middle aged man on his way to hopefully not get killed by his niece.
As she got up Ruby looked off in the direction the man had run off too and muttered a, "no problem" as she watched him disappear into the crowd of people, blissfully unaware aware that his wallet was now in the hands of a certain red headed girl.
Walking off into an alleyway off to the side and leaning against a wall, she looked at the contents of the wallet of the man she had just stolen from, one hundred and eighty five Lien on him, a bank card and ID card telling her that he was thirty-six and was one Qrow Branwen 'why does that name sound familiar?' Ruby thought to her self.
While Ruby was looking at the money she had and figuring out what she could buy with it a group of boys, no less then seventeen or eighteen decided that they'd go have some 'fun' with the girl in the red hoodie and ragged old grey jeans who was in the alley. One of these boys was Cardin Winchester who was hanging out with his older brother and two of his friends. His older brothers name was Lucas Winchester and he was a third year at Beacon he also just so happened to be even more of a prick then Cardin, and the other two were members of his team. His brother was the one to approach the girl first, "hey cutie. Looking to have a fun time?" His brother asked the girl, who was now looking at his brother with her one exposed eye as if saying 'was that really the best you could think of' or just a plain 'is this guy serious'. Of course none of the idiots present saw this and even if they did, why would they care? His brother with his usual smirk added, "we promise to make it worth your while."
Getting up off the wall and fully turning her body towards the newcomers, she responded with, "was that really the best you could think of? Also I'm fifteen, so how about a noooo."
Seeming not to of liked her response, Lucas forced her back into the wall by putting his arm against her throat. "Now listen hear bitch, right now it's my lil' brothers sixteenth birthday and I happened to have promised he a good time. So if you would just take it, I'll pay you later." All this earned him was a headbutt from the girl. Dealing back in pain gave Ruby more then enough time to duck underneath his elbow and deliver a swift punch to the area just under his ribs, causing his aura to flare and for him to stagger forward slightly.
Turning around Lucas aimed to punch the girl across the jaw, but before his fist could even start swinging, he felt another fist come into contact with his throat. Clutching at his injured neck while struggling to breath, he noticed that a red rose petal that was slowly dissolving into a black mist that was slowly sinking to the floor next to his face, before a foot came up and hit him across the jaw.
One of the other boys with them, seeing his leader get his ass handed to him tried to rush in swinging his long sword horizontally, careful not to hit his leader, towards the girl. Ducking underneath the on coming blade, Ruby aimed a punch at somewhere no male wants to get hit. Thankfully for the boy a dust round came in and threw Ruby back into a wall. Getting back up Ruby noticed the gun battle-axe hybrid in the other boys hands. Running towards the girl together, both boys were caught off guard as the girl raised her hand and a shockwave of wind hit them, along with everything else within a five metre radius with enough force to crack the walls and turn the little armour the boys were wearing into scrape.
Following this attack up with another, Ruby's hand was covered in a cluster of roots which came together to form the thorn covered stem of a rose but instead of a flower at the end, it ended with a blade like black stone wrapped in vines. This thing snaked it's way along the ground until it reached the boy with the battle-axe rifle, and proceeded to wrap around the boys arm and squeeze until a series of loud cracking noises could be heard, even past his agonised screams. His now limp body was thrown towards the other boy, who began looking over the broken limb finding the bone to be completely shattered.
Lucas now getting up and pushing his brother away got back into the fight, now with his large flaming war hammer. Seething in anger at seeing his team and himself beaten by this girl so easily, he charged forward and sent a swing towards her head, but as he hit nothing but air. Looking around the alley he saw that she was now five metres away from him, and using the same ability she used to send the two boys flying backwards before, she sent him flying into the air high enough that he almost saw the roof of the four story building next to him. Then just as he was about to start to fall back down to the concrete below, she sent out the snake like appendage and stabbing through his spine, pulled him forcefully back down to the ground and slammed him into the ground forcing up chunks of concrete in doing so. Cardin running over to his unconscious and heavily bleeding brother, called up an ambulance with his scroll for his brother and his teammates.
Ruby only feely a little bit bad for hurting the boys as badly as she did, disappeared in a gust of wind and flurry of dissolving rose petals.
Little did either party know a women with raven black hair had watched the whole thing and was very intrigued by a certain red girl.
Running into the school's training room just on time and at seeing his niece waiting for him with a worried look on her face, he waved at her to show that he was in fact there. Seeing her zero in on him and for a smile to make its way onto her face, gave the man a nice feeling inside. The tournament was happening after school as to not interfere with the students education and training. Taking a seat Qrow started to watch the matches with a small content smile on his face. Ever since Taiyang, the prick, lost custody of the one kid he was able to actually get to know, and Qrow found out that he actually even had a niece, and Qrow being the only blood relative she had left who wasn't presumed dead or well was dead a couple weeks later, adopted her. By no means was he dad material, but God damn was he going to do his best job of being an uncle, and so far he thought he was doing a damn good job of it.
Yang wasn't the only one to suffer abuse from Tai, he also abused the mother of his other kid Summer. Back at Beacon when they were all part of the same team, Summer and Raven both fell for Tai and both subsequently had a kid with him, but only one stuck around long enough to see what man he'd become. Summer went through four and a half years of verbal and physical abuse before she left Tai, taking they're kid with her leaving Yang to then take the rest of the abuse for the next seven years she was in his custody. But after Tai lost Yang, he hunted down Summer and her kid and killed her and someone then proceeded to kill him in return. The kid, Ruby if he remembered correctly was never found afterward, and was likely dead as well. Qrow had tried to find the girl but the only lead he'd gotten in his five years of searching was when a girl with silver eyes and red tipped hair was arrested for theft and two cases of assault three years ago, when he got there though it turned out the girl had escaped from her cell.
Qrow was brought out of his thoughts by seeing that Yang was now up against a much larger student. The kid was like a wall of muscle, standing at almost seven feet tall and wielding a massive great sword on his back. He wore a black cloak that partially obscured the armour of a similar color only few shades darker. The great sword it self wasn't a hybrid like most of the weapons that could be found in possession of the students at Signal, but made up for this with sheer size and weight alone. He knew this boy, it was Guts Crimsonblade most likely the scariest boy he had ever met.
Right now however he wasn't worried because Yang had the range advantage with the use of her shotgun blasts, but if she got too close he knew that sword would, to put it simply, wreck her shit.
Yang also seemed to know this and as the match between them started kept her distance between her self and the towering man, which she found quite different with his shocking agility which allowed him to keep up with her even as she dodged and weaved her way around him. Managing to get to a distance far enough away from him that she could safely take a couple shots at him, Yang sent a barrage his way which he was forced to dodge or to slice through the ones that got too close, all the while still approaching Yang. Taking a horizontal swing at Yang which she dodged under just barely missing her.
All but a single strand of hair that is.
Seeing this Yang with a scream of rage shot herself towards the young man, which he managed to counter with a swing from his sword sending her to his right. This was a very bad thing for him however as her semblance took on the force of the attack and added it to her own. So getting back up with flaming hair and scarlet eyes, Yang shot towards him again only this time as the blade came towards her she punched it out of his hand and then proceeded to pummel him.
As the match was called, his niece did a little victory fist pump and Guts got up from the ground looking like he actually enjoyed the match himself, Qrow continued to watch the tournament until it's end.
Hours after the altercation between her self and the boys who had tried to have sex with her, which ended up with one of them being paralysed and the other unable to use his arm, and the other two properly had a vendetta against her. She didn't feel too bad about it either. She still felt remorse for them, if she didn't they'd be dead right now. But she still would have done it again, hell she might actually kill one of them if she did meet them again but that was unlikely.
Right now however she was eating a burger and chips (fries if you're an American reading this) on a roof top overlooking the busy streets of Vale. Jumping down into a nearby alley after finishing her meal, Ruby failed to notice the women standing seven feet away from her. Stepping out of the shadows and clearing her throat to get the attention of the red hooded girl the women made her presence known.
At hearing a throat being cleared behind her Ruby turned to see a women with ashen-black hair and eyes an almost golden color. The women's hair was cut short but still covered her left eye, the women wore a dark red dress which matched with the two arm gloves that had yellow markings running down them she also had a belt on which had a small pouch attached to the side. She also wore a ear ring in her right ear lobe and had an black anklet set above her one of the heels she wore.
"What do you want?" Ruby asked the admittedly imposing women.
Looking Ruby over, the women's gaze lingered on Ruby's right hand for a moment before moving on, she answered, "show me your hand."
Being a little reluctant, as well as annoyed this women hadn't answered her question, Ruby tried to change the subject, "hey, I asked yo-" and was promptly cut off as the women took two steps forward.
"Show me your hand," the women said again, it was only now Ruby noticed the two curved blades on the women's back, "I'm not going to hurt you for it." The women added with a roll of her eyes.
Taking a couple steps toward the older women, Ruby meekly offered her hand towards the women. Turns out the mark on the back of her hand was seen as a sign of decay and chaos, sometimes just even just being evil. It was said that those bearing the mark were always destined to do something, good or bad, that would change the course of history forever onward, and as a result you could be killed just for having it. So just showing it off to a stranger wasn't really a good idea, but something about this women just did not fell right to Ruby, it was like she could just kill her at any moment.
At seeing the mark on the back of the girls hand, the women felt a smile break out onto her face. This would make her future plans go much much smoother. Looking back up at the girl who looked extremely uncomfortable, if the averted gaze and fidgeting was anything to go by, "what's your name?"
Her one silver eye looking back up at the women before her and her facial expression turning to one of shock, Ruby stuttered, " R-Ruby. Ruby Rose."
"Well, Ruby, my name is Cinder Fall. And I may need your help with something." She said turning to leave the alley.
"Why me?" Ruby called out after the aforementioned Cinder, stopping her.
"Ruby we both know what that mark on your hand is, don't we? So why don't you just follow me." Was Cinders response. And so as Ruby ran to catch up with Cinder, did Ruby's life change once again.