Disclaimer

I don't own RWBY, or any company related to it.

Any of the names other than RWBY cast are fictional and resemblances to real people are purely accidental.

AN: Info for ease of writing and reading :P.

Gentle rose - a sabre sword.

Scarlet rose - rifle

Age - 13 years 6 months 1 week

My timeline of V1-3: imgur com /a/ZyoijxK

Did some fixing in earlier chapters with which I reuploaded. Sorry if you got confused.

CHAPTER 17

Ruby sat atop the roof pondering about where to go, with the scroll on her hand checking the city map.

'So I am in a residential district and to the east there is an industrial one with a port, separated by a river. Probably I will find a hotel there, that hasn't been mentioned by the professor Port' Rose thought, before pocketing her scroll and moving out with a mix of parkour, aura enchantment and semblance.

After two minutes, Ruby reached the last building roof next to the riverside and stood there for a moment.

'Gonna make myself less noticeable, before going down. There are way too many cameras in the city. At least in Atlas there were military guards pairs every two streets' Ruby with these thoughts took off her cloak and packed it gently inside her bag, before jumping off the roof in an alley and going to the main street following the river and looking for the hotel to stay.

Ruby felt nervous having her cat ears exposed, as they were attracting glares from some people, but the majority of the population ignored them, letting her walk without interruption. After a while, she spotted a small fish bar and decided to go there, to eat something, before continuing her search.

It was a small and not so busy bar with a grill set up full of fish, meat and vegetables, board with prices, a counter and seven tables. After checking the menu, Ruby went to the employee and said "'I would like to order salmon fish with vegetables and a glass of orange juice".

"Takeout?"

"No".

"It will be fifteen lien then."

Ruby took out twenty lien from the pocket and gave them to the employee and received five lien back with the words "order sixty two, you will need to wait about five minutes".

Taking the number from the counter Ruby sat down on the nearest empty table and waited for a call out.

After taking her order containing slightly burnt salmon and eating it, Ruby gave the plate back and asked.

"Do you know any hotel nearby?"

"There is one down the street that way" he said pointing his hand in direction "but I would not recommend it to you, since the owner lost his father during the war at the hands of faunus. There is another hotel about ten minutes walking down the Sun's street, which starts at the second crossroad that way. You need to turn into the city direction, not cross the bridge".

"Thank you very much" Ruby thanked with a slight bow of her head, before leaving and going to the recommended place, through the busy streets of Vale city.

After twelve minutes of walking and looking around, Ruby found the place, which was a small hotel made from a five floor high apartment block connected with other blocks, that were all residential purposes for Vale population. The biggest difference between them was that the hotel had a banner and glass sliding doors in front.

Inside Ruby found a spacious, but small lobby with a counter that was being manned by the employee in a suit, corridor with stairs, elevator and workers offices. Approaching the black haired, blue eyed worker in the suit behind the counter, she heard him saying.

"Welcome to the 'Gray dimension', how can I help you, miss?"

"I would like to rent a room for two weeks, with breakfasts and dinners every day" Ruby answered.

"We currently have seven rooms available and two first grade apartments on the third floor with a price of four hundred lien per night. Free rooms are the one four persons with its own shower and toilet for two hundred fifty lien per night on second floor, three two persons rooms with their own showers and toilets for one hundred fifty lien per night on second floor, two one person rooms with toilets and showers for one hundred lien per night on first floor and finally one one person room with shared toilet and shower with a neighboring room for seventy lien per night on first floor. Which option should I choose for you madam?"

"I would like to have a single person room for one hundred lien, for the two weeks"

"Then it would be one thousand four hundred lien, but since the period of staying is longer than one week, we will give you a discount for the second half of the stay, by fifteen lien per day, so the end cost is one thousand two hundred ninety five lien. I just need your name to sign you here. Full payment is required, before we can give you a key card for your room. The restaurant costs ten lien extra per day, but provides all you can eat breakfasts from six to eleven and standard dinners from fifteen to twenty, special dishes are fully priced and outside of this payment. Should I add this to your checkout?"

"Yes, please"

"The end cost is then one thousand four hundred thirty five lien. Please proceed with the payment and sign there"

Ruby took out her purse and took out most of her remaining money, giving it to the man and signing with her fake name on the handed pad that she gave back right after, before receiving back the change with a card numbered seventeen.

"You can take the stairs, or elevator to the first floor and your room is on the right side. Have a nice day"

Rose then took the elevator up and searched for her room in a small corridor, before opening it by pressing the card to the reader and going inside.

It was a small white room with a bed, window outside, small TV on a wall, night table, wardrobe with a code locker and door to the toilet room that had a small shower built in.

'I will spend a week inside, before going out to the streets. I have only two hundred lien remaining so I lack fifty lien for the ticket back. I could have searched for a cheaper hotel, but the risk exists. I will need to call Sienna and tell her what happened and that the mission might be a failure. I need to earn the money too, but I think there is always help wanted in the warehouses' Ruby thought to herself, before reaching her scroll and dialing Khan.

"Hello Ruby, what happened that you are calling?"

"I ran into some troubles…" Rose then proceeded to tell Sienna a shortened version of what happened, while omitting the part with lack of money, as she didn't want to burden the high leader more than necessary.

"Abort the mission then, I will order Adam, the man, who I appointed recently as the local leader of Vale branch to continue this task. You are to continue your plan and come back after the second week. Also, good luck and be safe Ruby, you are to come back safe and in one piece, that's the order" after that she hangs out, but Rose understood the meaning of this, as not a goodbye, but see you soon and don't dare to say anything against that order.

Placing her stuff next to the bed, she looked out of the window onto the busy streets of Vale. After looking around and getting enough of it, sheade a move to close the curtains, but her hands stopped as she saw a strange behaving crow flying above each street around the various buildings. For a moment she was looking at it, before sharply sealing the view from the window, as she recalled the stories of a certain magician that could change into a bird and fly. As she sat on her bed, Ruby recalled her uncle Qrow and cried for a moment as all the almost forgotten, distant and fuzzy memories came back.

Couple of hours later spent on watching TV, Ruby got up and took a shower, changed clothes into a pyjama and lied on the bed thinking 'first day almost gone, six more in isolation, then seven more to get some kind of money and come back'.

Ignoring the footsteps on the corridor, as they were most likely guests returning to their rooms, Ruby fell asleep.

Next morning after changing clothes, Ruby took only her sword, scroll and a couple of lien and left going to the elevator. Inside she heard a male voice yelling "please stop the elevator!", so she stuck her hand onto the sliding door, blocking them from closing and let a man with cane and bowler hat, woman with mismatched eyes and light colored clothes with a small Faunus panda girl, who had her eyes blank and unfocused.

"You see Neo, sometimes you just need to ask and people will do you a favour" the man said to the woman and she replied with a sign in her hand that appeared in the middle of nowhere, causing Ruby to look at the man with an unspoken question in her eyes.

"Well red, since you are practically begging to ask the question, I will answer it. Neo is mute and my adopted daughter is blind, but cute. You don't need to look at me with that expression, as it was practically written on your face. Well at least this is two versus two now." Man answered with a small laugh.

Ruby decided to get a little revenge, before elevator stop and using her left arm, she detached the mechanical arm and reached with it to him saying with a small smile "Name's Ruby", with caused the woman next to him to snicker silently and a bewildered look from the man as he answered "Roman and I will remember that. It is not often when somebody is able to make fun of me, but that was a good one this time. Also I am not adopting you, too old and troublesome".

They split off to their tables and she ate in silence, before going back to her room and watching TV, doing push ups, lazing and studying on her scroll, as she waited for the time to pass. It became quite a norm for them to all be at the elevator in the morning, even though it was by accident all the time. The flying crow completely disappeared after reappearing once on the third day.

As the week has passed, Ruby finally left her hideout and went to the port, to search for a period job, but failed miserably as no one wanted to hire a young child, who happens to be way below the work age limit

"You look little down there, little red" Roman commented on the next morning, just before entering elevators even though she left her room ten minutes later than the day before.

"Just got a problem with finding some kind of job, to raise the missing amount of money for the ticket back home. It is just fifty lien, so two days of working a simple job is enough, or one day if the job is compatible with my abilities".

"Ahh... I know how hard it is to earn money, but if you need a job I can give you one, but it will require a lot of cold nerves and it will happen in three days in the afternoon. If you accept, then I will pay you one hundred lien and you have time to accept it until morning on the job's day, but then you are not allowed to refuse, or stop in the middle of it. My room number is twenty two".

"Thank you, I will see if I can find something before and tell you the answer" Ruby responded with a smile, before going for breakfast and searching for a job.

In two hours she found a newly opened shop with a forty year old male owner who wanted to get somebody to spread the pamphlets around the area for thirty lien, so she decided to do the task.

For the next three hours Ruby walked around placing the pamphlets into the various post boxes, advertisements bins near the block houses, before returning and telling the man that she did it. The person who hired her did a fast scroll call to his wife, who apparently checked her post box for ads and confirmed. After a while Ruby received forty lien for a job and said "you gave me too much mister" with her hand outstretched containing ten lien.

"That's a bonus kid, see you in future" Owner answered with a smile, while also rejecting money with his right hand.

"Thank you and have a nice day, bye mister" Ruby said while leaving and pocketing her earnings with a smile on her face.

'Now I need only ten lien more and I am set for leave. Somehow I don't think that taking a job from that Roman guy is a good idea… Better reject it, even if I don't get the money. In an emergency I can always go out in the dark to some kind of alley and find somebody, who would try to attack, or rob me. That way I can take their money, while teaching them a lesson' Ruby thought with a smile, as she was slowly walking back to the hotel.

AN: Sorry for the delay in release, but got busy / tired / sleepy.

Also:

This story is Ruby Point of View (POV) only, so there might be things happening in the background that aren't told directly. Like last chapter the Professor went out with a report to the headmaster, but missed him, because he wasn't at the office, which caused Ozpin to drop his mug in surprise and shock.

There is action and reaction and those actions can have long reaching consequences, even though you might not know about them, until it is too late.

No all knowing narrator narrate the story, just Ruby living her life in a different setting.

Have a nice day, also merry Christmas if I fail to write the next chapter, before them. Also special thanks to readers, who actively comment such as BlindFaunusGirl, Midnightwolf64, Radbman21 and others. Now I am going to post it and sleep since it is 1:13 am.