Ruby Rose
Today had potential.
That was how Ruby was choosing to look at things. Sure, today could end in complete disaster, she could embarrass herself in front of a bunch of people including her sister, her sisters wife, and Weiss Schnee. Her boss... and the princess of Vale... and her crush.
But if she did well out there today then...!
"Then nothing if I can't handle the next part of the exam..."
Today certainly had potential, she was just struggling to come up with any of the good things she could make with that potential.
She let out a sight and slapped both her cheeks.
"Come on Ruby... you can do this. I think." She was waiting in a... waiting room? It certainly wasn't a changing room. There were lockers and weapon racks, but no one had actually used the lockers, and the weapon rack had been rendered empty after they had all been given a sword. She had been talking with some of the other entrees, mainly the ones that started a conversation with her first.
Velvet had been really nice! She had noticed how nervous Ruby was and came over to offer support. 'I'm nervous too... so lets be nervous together!" Ruby giggled at the memory. Entrees that finished the first test had to wait somewhere else, so Ruby's hopes of Velvet coming back were dashed immediately.
And then there was Jaune. Ruby wasnt sure about him at first. They had briefly met before when Pyrrha and Yang had spared together but this was a much better chance to get to know each other. When he walked over he seemed to be full of confidence, introduced himself cleanly... and the second Ruby mentioned they'd met before he started falling over his words.
Ruby found the real Jaune way cooler then the confident persona he very poorly stuck onto himself in front of most people. Maybe Ruby had pretty low standards, but being nice was way cooler then being confident!
"I hope thats true anyway..."
Rubys nerves had a choke hold on her, they had the second Velvet left, briefly subsided when Jaune showed up, and were now back to full blast. The sword sitting in her lap was heavy... obviously it actually had some weight to it, but she felt it as much heavier then it was.
"Can I even swing this thing? Am I just going to embarrass myself today...?"
"Next entree... Ruby Rose!"
Ruby let out a whimper as she heard Glynda's voice, the woman who seemed to be running the exam today. It would be ok... it would be fine. She could do this.
Easier said before she was actually standing in the arena.
She looked around nervously. The sword she was holding didn't have a scabbard so she had it awkwardly in front of herself with both hands, holding onto it for dear life.
As she stepped closer to the centre, a blonde woman, Glynda, approached. She was tall and... well defined.
"Ms Rose? Unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you to remove your cloak." Her voice oozed with authority, but held a soft undertone of care. Ruby wasnt exaclty doing a good job of hiding how nervous she was.
"My cloak...? But..-"
"It is magical in nature. Usually I would inspect it and allow you to proceed, but even with my skills, I am completely unable to read the magic weaved into that item." Ruby felt her heart rate spike, her breath was getting heavier and she gulped nervously before nodding slowly.
"Dammit Mum... why'd you have to make my cloak so cool...!?"
She carefully and slowly removed her cloak, folding it with care and cautiously handing it to the woman. The blonde woman held it as if it was one of the most precious things in the world... which gave Ruby a small smile.
Because to her it was.
She took a deep breath and took another step towards her starting position. She could barely think at the moment and was just thankful her legs were able to keep carrying her forward.
"I need to calm down... keep my eyes forward... don't think about the people watching you... don't look at them... they don't exist... just breath. No one else is here... it's just you... and a golem."
Strange how her alone with an enemy was somehow a better situation then reality in her mind.
Finally she reached her mark. She assumed a... well, she thought it was a stance, Qrow had never actually gotten around to teaching her how to use a sword. The figure in front of her moved in response. It was tall, probably no bigger then Yang and that made it feel gigantic. This thing would hit her, and while it wouldn't be lethal it would hurt like hell. She knew if this was replaced with a spar with Yang, she'd stand even less of a chance... but she would never actually get hit.
"Yeah... compare this pile of rocks to your comforting sister..."
Well it helped more then she thought it would.
"Come on Ruby! You can do it!!" A voice? One she hadn't expected. She had prepared for Yang or Weiss to cheer for her... she had been prepared for those voices so this one got through her defences. She made a mistake.
She looked.
By the time her brain caught up with the voice and she recognised it as Velvet yelling from the stands... bless the girl, she had only been trying to help... to offer support... but it was too late. Ruby had looked... and she couldnt stop looking.
There were people, they were watching her... and worst of all, they could tell she was nervous.
There faces, filled with pity and worry... concern that the girl in front of them was going to get hurt. The worst offenders were a line of eight women that looked so similar Ruby had to question if she was seeing things. Near them was another group of four. Her vision had started to blur it all together at this point and she could barely focus as she grew light headed. All she saw was four blobs of colour, from right to left they were-
"Red, white, black, yellow... why does that feel familiar..."
She knew who three of them were... so distinctly sitting next to each other, it had to be them. But who was sitting next to Weiss?
She willed her eyes to focus, to concentrate. She needed to see.
For once her body listened.
"Oh... it's Pyrrha..."
That made sense... of course. Pyrrha knew Yang, and she'd be the kind of person to sit next to a friends friend to get to know them.
But now that she had focused, she could see her expression. Pyrrha was really too nice sometimes, her worry was obvious and it practically screamed at Ruby.
Yang and Blake weren't any better. Both of them looked like they were preparing themselves to leap into the arena and destroy the golem themselves...
"The golem!!"
She whipped her head back and set her eyes onto her opponent. The figure made of rocks was slowly shambling over to her. She took a deep breath, this had already been explained to her.
"It has a weakspot somewhere... I just have to hit it once in that spot with this sword."
Ruby lacked confidence in her ability to swing the weapon, so her best bet was finding the weak point first.
"They didn't give any hints... it's not like the weak point has a target drawn on it... it dosent glow or anything."
Well her best bet was already screwed and the golem wasn't exaclty getting further away.
Her brain began to go into overdrive once more. She couldn't do this... she was on her own. She needed something... anything! Anyone!
Her cloak was always her source of comfort... if she had it, she was sure she wouldn't be feeling like this. Her mother's warmth... even if it wasn't actually her, she needed it.
She glanced at Glynda. The blonde woman still had her cloak and was standing by the wall in the arena with her and the Golem. Ruby kept glancing over at her... at first she thought it was because the woman had her cloak but... no. It was something else... her eyes? Under her glasses... they were staring straight at Ruby but...
"No... she's not looking at me..."
It was strange. How could she tell...? Through the glasses, the woman's eyes were... off? They met Ruby's gaze and yet... she knew the woman was looking elsewhere.
The golem was still a few metres away... she had time. She followed the woman's eyeline... well, what she thought was the real one anyway, and it lead to-
"...Weiss?"
She hadn't actually focused on her face earlier, she couldn't stand the idea of Weiss looking at her with pity...
But she didn't have to worry about that. She almost wanted to laugh at herself for thinking that way when she met the princesses eyes.
A calm warmth, a confident smile. A gentle expression that promised she could do this. Ruby didn't believe in herself... but she trusted Weiss.
"And if Weiss says I can do this..."
She adjusted the grip of her sword and settled her face back onto the golem, now close enough that it could start swinging its arms at her.
"I can do this."
Looking at the golem again, it didnt have any obvious weakpoints, not only that, it didnt seem to have any obvious runes or magical circles keeping it moving. Perhaps they were internal? Maybe... how did the weakspot even move? She knew that each entree had to strike a different spot...
To purposefully create a breach in its defenses like that would be tricky. Why go through so much effort as well? There was a much easier solution... Ruby glanced at the woman once more and felt herself smirk.
She rolled out of the way of a swing, moving as fast as she could and practically scrambling across the ground, she felt the wind of the swipe, the golem had used a large sweeping like swipe of its arm.
She had put herself between the woman and the Golem. Of course, there was a large distance between the woman and them... but that would work to Ruby's advantage.
"This isnt an automatic golem... its a puppet."
She had put herself between the puppet master and the puppet, and in doing so created a difficult situation for her opponent.
After all... Ruby was human. If this thing hit her in the wrong spot? It could do some serious damage. She nearly felt like laughing as she thought ahout it, for once, her weakness was working to her advantage. But this wouldn't be enough to win... she had to be careful and-
It had stopped attacking? It was basically just standing there now... but why?
Ruby took a few steps back and glanced around... and nearly laughed.
The woman was moving. She was moving around the arena, still hugging the wall, but attempting to try and get a better view of the fight.
Ruby moved as well. Rotating around the golem to keep herself constantly between them. Ruby had started giggling now. The golem stood unmoving as she played a little game of sorts with the puppet master.
Every time the woman took a step Ruby followed, she tried moving the other way but Ruby kept herself between Glynda and the puppet.
It must have been an odd sight for any onlooker. Ruby walking around this thing in a large circle while the woman on the outside of the arena kept trying to outpace her to get a good line of sight on the fight, Ruby had begun laughing at this point as well, which hadn't helped this look any less strange.
Ruby tried to calm herself. It wasn't her nerves this time, she was having fun! This felt like a game in which she had found a way around the rules and the organiser was desperately trying to fix it.
But, she still had to win the game.
The weakspot wasn't a weakspot at all Ruby concluded. It was most likely the spot where Glynda's connection with the figure was strongest, the point in which her mana was entering it and then spreading from... and the easiest way to figure out where that spot was?
The woman took a step and Ruby moved in the opposite direction, now with a clean line of sight on the 'fight', the golem moved to attack again... and Ruby watched carefully.
It's body jerked forward a little before it swung with its arm, the jerking motion had been like someone pulled on a rope that was attached to the centre of its chest. She stepped back to dodge, then overextended, thrusting her sword forward in a desperate lunging attack.
But it wasn't desperate, at least not complelty. She had picked the spot she was striking carefully. The centre of the chest. Right smack bang in the middle.
The tip of the sword met stone, and the second arm that had been mid swing froze in the air... before the whole thing collapsed. The magic keeping it moving leaving it as it fell back into a pile of rocks.
Ruby breathed heavily. She had been sure it was the right spot... but that last attack was too close for comfort. Still...
"I did it..."
She felt a smile cross over her face as she looked up to the stands. Some people were clapping, Yang was cheering and the line of women from earlier had joined in... but she was focused on one person.
A person that was simply clapping and smiling down at her with pride, a person that Ruby was beaming up at.
"I did it Weiss!"
"Ms Rose?" Ruby winced a bit as the woman approached her from behind.
"H-hi!" She turned quickly and put on a nervous smile, meeting Glynda's geniune one.
"That wasn't exaclty what I had In mind for this part of the test... but still. Well done."
"T-thank you Ma'am!"
She chuckled at that and handed Ruby back her cloak.
"Please call me Glynda." Ruby wasn't going to do that.
"Ruby that was awesome!" Velvet had been the first to meet her when Ruby had returned to the stands, suprising Ruby, she had expected Yang or Weiss to be on her first... where was Weiss?
Velvet tried to hug Ruby but was pulled back at the last second by the back of her collar.
"Velvet, she's human." This woman looked... oddly familiar. Oh! She had been in the stands... duh... But Velvet had mentioned her earlier! Her name was...
"Damn Coco, didn't know you handled your girls like that." Yangs remark left both Velvet and this 'Coco' blushing, though one of them handled it better then the other.
"We... we're not-"
"Anyway, Velvet-" Coco coughed into her hand to try and distract from her blush. "We should let them congratulate Ruby." Coco dragged the faunas girl away and Ruby giggled at Velvets attempts to break free from Coco's grasp.
"Nice job Rube's!" Yang plopped a hand onto her head and Ruby whined a bit as she tried to shake her free, Blake giggled at there shenanigans but pulled Yang away before Ruby got too annoyed.
"Hey umm... Where's Weiss?"
"Smooth Ruby... very smooth..."
"Oooh? Couldn't wait even a minute to ask that huh?"
"Yaaaang!" The yellow oaf let out a laugh straight from her stomach at that.
"I believe she was having a conversation with Pyrrha and Jaune." At least Blake was being helpful.
"Oh that's where she is. Talking to Jaune and Pyrrha... Pyrrha... super powerful and pretty Pyrrha... who she was sitting next to... and probably talking to for the whole match..."
Cool. Super cool. Definitly one hundred percent totally cool. Ruby was cool with this.
"You wanna go see what there talking about-?" Ruby was brushing past before Yang even finished speaking.
Ruby wasnt jealous. No way. How could she be jealous? Her and Weiss weren't even a thing after all... no. She definitly wasn't jealous. Terrified that Weiss might see how much cooler Pyrrha was then Ruby, that's what she was.
"There they are."
It wasn't like they were hiding, but as Ruby approached Pyrrha glanced at her and mentioned something, she still couldn't hear them! It was frustrating, especially when there conversation seemed to end before she reached the trio.
"Come on!! What were they talking about!? They weren't talking about me right?? No... no.. calm down Ruby. There's no way they were talking about-"
"Hey Ruby! We were just talking about you!"
"I knew it!!"
Weiss gave Jaune a look of disdain that he missed as he took a step over to Ruby.
"Weiss and Pyrrha were just telling me about how you beat the golem. That sounds really cool, how'd you get it to stop like that??" He was genuinely excited and usually Ruby would have joined him in shared excitement but...
"Pyrrha is still standing next to Weiss..."
"It looked like you were chasing Goodwitch around the arena to be honest." Pyrrha giggled a little at the thought and Ruby couldnt resist a smile at the memory.
Weiss seemed stuck looking at Ruby with that same calm smile. Like she was waiting for her turn to talk to her... Ruby knew because she kept stealing glances at the girl.
"So Ruby, do you want to-" Jaune was cut off by Glynda announcing the next entree. Realising they were just standing in front of the seats, they decided to sit once Yang and Blake had caught up.
Ruby had managed to snag a seat in the middle with Weiss to her left and Blake to her right. Of course Yang sat next to Blake, Jaune sat next to Weiss which confused Ruby, and Pyrrha next to him.
Ruby tried her best to concentrate as the next person stepped into the arena... but Weiss and Jaune were whispering about something!
"Am I supposed to be jealous of Pyrrha or Jaune... maybe there both after Weiss!! Wait... why am I even jealous!?"
She let out a soft groan that didn't go unnoticed, Weiss turned to her with a worried look and Blake turned to Yang to talk for some reason.
"Are you alright?"
"W-what? O-oh uh... yeah. Perfectly fine." Ruby put on her biggest smile, but one look at Weiss showed she didn't believe it for a second.
"I know some healing magic if your not feeling well Ruby." Jaune had leaned forward to get a better look at her past Weiss.
"I believe Blake is much more potent with healing magic then you are Jaune." Weiss's comment had a bit of venom underneath it, which didn't go unnoticed by Pyrrha... but Jaune seemed completely unphased.
"Then I'll just have to get better at it!" He said it with a big smile and Ruby swore that Weiss winced at the words.
"Blake can you check Ruby please?" Weiss leaned closer to inspect the girl and Ruby had to fight off a blush. The princess was so close that Ruby could have sworn she was going to reach up and touch her cheek when her hand twitched.
"Ruby's fine Weiss. Trust me, I was watching closely the whole fight. She didn't get hit once."
"Yeah she didn't! Rube's was awesome down there!" Yang threw both hands up in excitement and Blake rolled her eyes, still holding a smile however.
Ruby let out a small awkward laugh before turning back to the arena, wanting to see the how this person did-
The golem fell to pieces on the ground, and the girl had already started to walk away... that had been fast... like... faster then Velvet, and way faster then Ruby!
"Huh... she's quite good."
"Think you have some competition Pyrrha?" Blake commented with a smirk, to which Pyrrha blushed and let out an awkward laugh.
"I don't enjoy comparing myself to others like that." Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"Why not? Aren't you Conquest? Isn't being better then other people your whole thing?" Weiss turned to Ruby with a look mild shock, and Pyrrha winced a little.
"That's fair I suppose... the title of a Harbinger isn't something you can reject though..." She looked back to the arena with glazed eyes and Ruby watched the girl exit the arena as well.
Bright green hair, dark skin, glowing red eyes... her name certainly matched her appearance.
"Emerald huh?"
"You interested Blakey? Should I be jealous?" Yang scoffed and Blake rolled her eyes.
"Please Yang, you know you don't have to be jealous-" Blake had turned to Yang to whisper the next part and Ruby jumped a little as she felt Weiss's hand on top of hers. She turned to the princess and they locked eyes as Weiss smiled gently.
Blake's whisper to Yang was just loud enough for Ruby to hear.
"I only have eyes for you."
The next part of the exam was... well, frankly it had been really, really boring.
A written exam... sure it wasn't the worst thing in the world, the subject matter had been magic circles and curses so Ruby found it incredibly easy...
That was the problem though.
It was way too easy. So easy in fact that it had taken Ruby five minutes out of the hour they were given to be done... and she hadnt eveb been allowed to leave her seat!! Even worse that they all took it in the arena, they were seated at a bunch of single tables like they were in a school hall for an exam. But it felt weirdly like an experiment with all of the people in the stands still watching.
She had been allowed to wear her cloak for this test, in fact, everyone besides her had at least two magic items on them... a lot of them looked the same as well.
And then there was the part about how there were more people taking the test then there had been in the waiting room initially! Where had the others come from!?
"This is all so weird!!"
Ruby had chosen a seat in the middle of the exam, mainly to try and block herself somewhat from the people watching in the stands... that hadnt really work too well though. She had taken to flipping through her exam for most of the time she was waiting. Reading over every question again and again. She must have gone through the papers like twenty times!
Across the whole hour there had been interruptions too! Well, interruptions for everyone else, for her they had been things to watch while she waited for the timer to finish.
A fight between two people in the stands, Coco and Yang had randomly started singing, and the weirdest one of all!!
The golem had 'malfunctioned' at one point, getting up from its place over near a wall of the arena and started moving over to the tables. It hadn't actually reached them, and Ruby hadn't moved an inch.
"It's a puppet! It can't just get up unless Glynda uses magic to make it move! Why is she purposefully interrupting everyone!?"
Suffice to say, it had been a very boring fifty-five minutes. The only real fun part was when she had finished her work at the start. She had loudly asked Glynda if she was allowed to return to the stands because she was done and the woman was stunned for a moment before answering no. Everyone else taking the exam had eyed Ruby when she said that and Weiss had burst out laughing from the stands.
It was all really confusing... but seeing Weiss laugh like that had definitly helped.
Finally the exam had finished. Glynda came around to take the other exams and then informed them that they could return to the stands... but something weird happened.
"Thanks for the help Red!"
"Thank you!"
"Nice work!"
"Thanks!"
Nearly everyone else had come up to her to thank her for some reason... what was going on??
Finally Velvet and Jaune were left and they all walked up to the stands together.
"Seriously though, that last Question had me stumped. Thanks Ruby!"
"Why does everyone keep thanking me!?" She whined it out as the reached the top of the stairs and Velvet gave her a puzzled look.
"Ruby you dont have to keep pretending, Glynda won't dock points after the exam is over." That just confused Ruby even more!!
"Hey Rubes! Can't believe you carried everyone like that." Yang greeted them with a grin and Velvet waved as she went to sit with Coco again. Ruby let out a groan and sat next to Weiss once more.
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Weiss was still giggling, but managed to calm herself for long enough to explain.
"Ruby... the exam was meant to be a test of stealth. There were people planted on all four corner desks that had all the correct answers already, and the test was about gathering that info."
"...what." Weiss let out another batch of giggles and Blake continued explaining in her stead... Ruby tried her best to not be distracted by how adorable Weiss was sounding.
"The questions are possible, but the idea is that there so different from normal relevant information for a Hunter that they couldn't possibly answer the questions. The people with the info are stationed on all four corners to make gathering the answers really hard, and there are regular interruptions to try and give people a chance... but you sat in the middle!" Blake was trying her best to not laugh as well.
"And... I knew all the answers...?" Everyone nodded and Yang continued the explanation.
"So when you announced to Goodwitch that you were done, everyone took that as a signal to copy off of you! And you kept flicking through the answers! You really weren't doing that on purpose??" Ruby blushed and shrunk in on herself while shaking her head, carefully pulling her hood over her head to try and hide her embarrassment.
The rest of the day had been underwhelming after that. Some target practice with a plethora of choices for ranged weapons, Ruby had surprisingly enjoyed the larger crossbows... They also had a simple magic puzzle they had to solve at the end. It involved a lot of figuring out which element was good against which... thankfully they were on teams and Velvet had practically carried there's. Ruby had tried to apologise for that, but Velvet had to remind her that she had carried all of them on the written exam.
Overall this first part of the exam had felt... easy? Way too easy especially for people that were meant to be the greatest knights in Vale... so why?
Well, Yang had so kindly explained when Ruby asked.
"This part of the exam dosent really matter to be honest." She had said it so casually and Ruby had to pause as they exited the arena.
"What?"
"I mean.. it's important, but if you fail this and pass the second part of the exam you'll probably still become a Hunter. But if you pass this part and fail the second? Less likely."
"So... today was for nothing...?" Blake kindly stepped in before Ruby felt like this had been a waste.
"Not nothing Ruby. There's a big difference between those that pass the first exam and those that don't-" She glared at Yang. "Take your sister and myself for example. I passed the first part while Yang didn't. That meant that when we became Hunters, I was a higher rank then her. I still am actually." Yang grumbled something after that and Ruby tilted her head.
"Hunters have ranks?"
"That's not important for now." Yang seemed to be pretty chill about this.
"Wait, where's Weiss-... of course."
Turning around, Weiss was talking with Jaune back towards the start of the exit. The long tunnel was nearly empty at this point and Ruby could see Pyrrha standing a distance away from the princess and Jaune.
She didn't like it... she really didn't like it.
"Which is so frustrating because... because...!"
She let out another groan and turned to Yang, hugging the older girl and sagging into her, throwing her hood on once more for good measure. Yang was quite confused for a moment but returned the hug slowly.
"Ruby...? You ok sis...?" Ruby didnt respond for a moment, but eventually shook her head. "You wanna talk about it?"
"Not much to talk about..." Ruby's voice was probably too muffled for Yang to hear... but Blake was standing by and she could definitly hear her... she was probably repeating her words in a whisper to Yang.
"Not much is still something... wanna try...?"
"Screw it..."
"...I like Weiss..."
Chapters are gonna slow down in release a bit, but should hopefully see a boost in quality.