Ruby Rose
"Welcome your highness. I hope you've been well since the last time we met." The man bowed his head, and clearly he would've kneeled if he could.
"Yes, thank you Pietro. I trust you have everything prepared for today?" Weiss spoke with a nearly tired voice, her arms had been crossed since her and Ruby had left the carriage.
"Oh I... y-yes. I have a full tour of the lab prepared and a complete detailing of my research equipment and-"
"Good. Make sure Ms Rose understands it completely please." And with that, Weiss left through the quite fancy doors that served as the entrance to this workshop... or, 'Lab'.
"Ms Rose... yeah, she's still pissed."
"O-oh! Have a good rest of your day Princess...!" Pietros voice was wasted, Weiss just kept walking without a response.
Ruby let out a sigh and turned to the wizard.
"Sorry, I made her a bit upset." A bit seemed to be quite the understatement.
Pietro tilted his head at that.
"Forgive me for speaking out of turn but, I've never seen the princess like that... she reminded me so much of her older sister just now." Ruby grimaced.
"Yeah... I can see the resemblance now... you know, besides the obvious genetic stuff."
"Well, if you'll follow me, I'll give you the grand tour. Though if I'm being honest, I've only recently become fully acquainted with this place myself."
Pietro was a... generous sized man. He was using a wheelchair to move around and Ruby couldn't figure out if he was a human or not. His brown eyes also confused Ruby at first, but after thinking on it for a moment it made a little sense.
"Homunculus are usually constructed from a clay like substance... that's probably how Penny turned out so strong..."
The lab was beautiful to say the least. The whole thing was a single large cylinder shaped room, the outside wall was littered with different benches and work stations, and in the middle on seven raised platforms were gigantic magic circles. The centre one was raised the highest and they each had mana pipes running into them directly. There were even dust dispensers scattered around the room, and Ruby had to question exaclty how much dust this lab ran through daily.
The whole thing was a clean white in colouring, with blue accents wherever they could be squeezed in.
"At least the paint job is on theme..."
Ruby pondered on how much white and blue paint the Schnee family used on a near constant basis.
"Is there a fabricator in here?" She decided to keep the paint question to herself though.
"Of course. This lab has everything short of a Cauldron and a wooden ladle. You've seen the ritual circles, but we also have a Magic Loom, the fabricator, the crucibles, and of course we have a forge as well."
Ruby's current workshop didn't have any of that stuff... though, she didnt exaclty need it for her current research.
"Wow... what are you working on currently?"
"Currently...? Well... the King has asked me to look into Soul reconfiguring..." His head lowered as he spoke.
"...Soul...? He wants you to change Penny?" Ruby had stopped walking and Pietro let out a sigh.
"I'm suprised you figured that out... but... yes. If I can alter Penny to be able to engage in combat then... well..."
"An endless supply of soilders huh...?"
"But what would that do to Penny...?"
"I'm not too keen on finding out." He gave her a wink and Ruby held a small smile in return. "I know I... created... Penny. But... she's my daughter. I've always called her that, and always seen her like that. I won't let anyone take her from me, not even the king."
"Well isn't that sweet!" Ruby winced at the voice and turned quickly, her heart rate spiking when she saw a woman with white hair... grey hair?
An old woman. With some weird goggles on, and using a cane to walk... ok probably not a Schnee that had just busted Pietro.
"Maria! You scared the poor girl." Pietro let out a laugh, but Ruby could tell he had been just as stressed as she had been for a moment there.
"I couldn't help myself! So this is the girl you've taken some time out of my visit to give a tour to huh?" She waddled up to Ruby and the girl in question gulped. She felt surprisingly intimidated by the old lady... sure she was shorter then Ruby and looked incredibly frail... but anyone that looked really old was either human, or was incredibly powerful.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Ruby." Ruby stuck out her hand to shake, probably not the best idea but Maria didn't meet her hand.
"And what are ya Ruby?"
"Maria!"
Ruby giggled a little at Pietro's outburst.
"Just a human. For now anyway."
"Oooh a human aye? Those are pretty rare nowadays. Me? I'm just a lowly elf." She chuckled and Ruby tilted her head.
"Elves live about five hundred years I think... so she's probably younger then dad..."
"Of course, at least I'm not a Dwarf like ol' Pietro over here!" She let out a hearty laugh and Pietro grumbled.
"Your just jealous that I still have my eyes!" He yelled out in frustration, to which Maria only laughed harder.
"You bet I am!"
Ruby found the whole interaction incredibly awkward, she wasn't sure if either of them were actually upset or just joking.
"So Ruby, you said for now? What you planning on becoming huh? You got a lot of options girly!"
"Don't you still have the Full elemental formula Maria?"
"You bet I do! Got some Lesser Dragon Formula's rolling around in here too!" She bumped the side of her head with another laugh and Ruby let out a small awkward laugh of her own.
"Ok, ok, i think i should continue with the tour for Ms Rose, lest the princess think im shirking my task." Pietro turned but Maria froze.
"Rose? Ruby Rose? Your last name is Rose?"
"Umm... yes...?" Ruby was confused, especially when Maria stuck her cane in Ruby's face.
Well, she wasn't confused for much longer. It was replaced with... intrigue. That cane... it was magical... but, magical in a way she had only seen twice before.
"It feels like Uncle Qrows weapon..."
And her cloak...
"This cane... is it... a weapon?" Ruby asked her question cautiously, but that only caused Maria to smile.
"It used to be."
"Really Maria? You never told me that... And how did you tell Ms Rose-?"
"Enough out with you Pietro! I'm taking over the tour! Out!"
"What? This... this is my lab...!!"
Ruby stood there awkwardly while they argued... and surprisingly the old lady won. She kicked the Royal Wizard out of his own lab.
"So girly-" Maria had made Ruby sit and had joined her at the opposite seat at the small table. "You have Silver eyes."
"Their grey sorry." Ruby told the lie before she even registered it, but Maria shook her head.
"I sent Pietro away so we could talk about this. You can't lie to me about it... only someone like us could read the magic in this cane, especially as a human."
"Someone like us...?"
"Your Affinity-"
"Yep. I had Silver eyes once too." She let out a blissful sigh and continued. "I lost them a long time ago. Of course, I still have my Affinity, but it's much harder without being able to see."
"Those goggles-"
"Yeah they let me see but it's not the same. My mana can't pass through it... the information dosent get sorted out by it before hitting my brain. I can't understand technical magic just by looking at it like you can, not anymore." Ruby nodded her head a little. "But enough about an old woman who's time is nearly up. Why are you here? Trying to learn from a normal Wizard?"
"Normal Wizard..? Mr Pelladonna is the Royal Wizard and-"
"Bah! 'Mr Pelladonna'. Don't feed his ego Ruby, lord knows others do that plenty already."
"Umm-"
"You know what bugs me most about normal Wizards?? The way they name things! Seriously! Everyone leaves there names all over everything they make! You can bet if there's a famous enchantment or curse out there that some Wizard has slapped there name in it somewhere." She let out a sigh. "At least no one can do that with Formulas..."
"Formulas are already written, you cant just change one to add your name to it..."
"I still think Mr Pelladonna is plenty amazing at his work."
"Oh don't get me wrong, his work with young Penny is amazing. But I can guarantee that he started calling her his daughter because he knew she'd outlive him. Not saying he dosent actually think of her like that now but... you know what I mean."
"So why is me trying to learn from him so strange...?"
"Because of your Affinity. No one with a Fire Affinity is going to sit there and let someone without one lecture them on Fire magic. You didn't have a teacher? Silver eyes are usually hereditary, your parents?"
"My mother... she had Silver eyes but..." Ruby solemnly shook her head.
"Ah. Well, there's only so much i can help you with im afriad. Without my proper sight my own abilities are limited... but trust me, even I can teach you more then ol' Pietro." Ruby smiled softly.
"Why do you want to teach me though?"
"Across four-hunded and seventy years... I've only encountered a few others with Silver eyes... I'm suprised that the Rose bloodline is still around to be honest. It wouldn't suprise me if you're the last member."
"The Rose bloodline...? Was my family special...?" That had caught Ruby's attention.
Maria nodded.
"You could say your family is... well... infamous, in Atlas anyway. At least to anyone who can still remember, the name has been erased from the history books, so only people who were alive back then might remember."
"...What did we do...?"
Maria shook her head.
"What did they do Ruby. You aren't your ancestors... but... if you want to know..." She let out a deep sigh. "One of your Ancestors, a Rose. He lived in Atlas... I'm not sure for what exact reason but... he hated Dragons. Not the Schnee... just the Dragons. But... he couldn't kill them. Not as he was. So, he came up with a plan... he managed to trick a member of the Schnee family into falling in love with him. They both wed and not long after that, the family shared its Formula with him. Turning him into a True Dragon, in this particular case... he was the Rose Dragon. Dragons are unique in that they always grant an Affinity that you already have when you become one... so this man became quite possibly the first person to ever have a double Technical Magic Affinity. And with it... he created a weapon... perhaps the most powerful one ever constructed... no one knows its true name, so people simply called it 'Dragon Slayer'." Ruby gulped. "He used the weapon to purge all of the Dragons in the Schnee family... killing them all one by one... the only member of the Schnee bloodline left after he was finished was a cousin who had been lucky enough in this case to inherit his mother's human blood... The Rose Dragon let him live... then turned the Dragon Slayer on himself to finish the Dragons once and for all."
"That's... that's..."
"That's history... well, the true version no one likes telling. It's why the Schnee today are human..."
"I'm suprised the Human Schnee even managed to keep power in Atlas..." It was a mumble from Ruby, mainly her just thinking out loud to try and keep her mind off of the story.
"Ah... well that's actually another important part of the tale. What do you think happened to Dragon Slayer once the Rose Dragon died?" Ruby shrugged. "Well, the last remaining Schnee found it on the Dragons corpse. While it was a weapon meant to kill Dragons, it wasn't incapable of killing anything else. It was just enough power in his hands to keep the throne."
"That makes sense I guess... I wonder if it's still in Atlas..."
"But i think that's enough of a history lesson today. Tell me... what are you working on?"
"H-huh...?"
"To come looking for help from a Wizard, you must be doing something difficult."
"To be fair, Weiss is the one that made me come here." Ruby grumbled while crossing her arms.
Maria let out a laugh and Ruby smiled, she was warming up to the elf.
"Even still, it must be something big for you to be working for the princess."
Ruby sighed.
"I'd ask if you could keep a secret but... I'm pretty sure your already keeping plenty." Maria just smirked at that and Ruby continued. "I'm working on cracking a Formula."
That made Maria tilt her head and shuffle her chair a little closer.
"Oh? How interesting. First a Rose destroys all the Dragons, and now a Rose wants to bring them back?"
Ruby nearly fell out of her chair.
"I... I never said...!"
"But what other Formula could stump someone with Silver eyes?" Ruby nearly let out a whine.
"I guess..."
"If you want my advice? Follow your instinct. You're soul knows what it's doing... if it pushes you in a direction, let it. Worst case scenario is you waste a day or two."
"Best case scenario and I save months of time..."
"Is It really that easy?"
"No. It's not. I once thought about trying to uncover that Formula myself but I didn't bother... I'm already an elf afterall." Ruby nodded, it wasn't possible to change your species unless you were a human... well... that wasn't completely true but-
"The Abbadon curse is only a theory anyway..."
"Still, I think I could have cracked it if I tried... how close are you?" Ruby held up three fingers and Maria nodded. "Impressive... you're very close."
"Yeah... too close... it feels like I'm not making progress anymore."
Maria shook her head.
"You can continue working on it like any other Wizard... or you can be greedier. Take risks, gambles."
"That dosent sound like the best idea."
"Maybe not... perhaps if I didn't have this mindset I wouldn't have lost my eyes. But if your desperate to see your goals come to fruition, you can't just expect to accomplish it by doing the same thing over and over again. Dragons are symbols of Power and Pride, if you want to be one, you need to first accept what you'll become when you are one."
"What do you mean?"
"There will be differences between Ruby the Human and Ruby the Dragon. Blur the lines while you still can from this side, and it will be easier to blur the line from the otherside once you're there."
Her talk with Maria had been... interesting.
Ruby wasnt sure what to make of it at first, and the months that followed were a lot of the same.
She couldnt just change who she was overnight... but isn't that would what basically happen to her anyway once she had finished the Formula?
She was planning on casting the ritual on herself immediatly after getting the whole thing... but would she be prepared for that? Was she ok with changing who she was?
Was she ok with being someone else...?
"Do i even like who i am now...?"
Ruby layed in bed, the moonlight being the only thing keeping the room from being pitch black, and it was snowing outside still. Penny had told her to call it for the night a few hours ago... but she couldnt stop thinking, she couldn't keep her thoughts still enough to allow her to sleep.
Her progress since her two week binge had basically stopped dead in the water. Penny was keeping a way tighter control on how much Ruby was allowed to do per day at Weiss's order, and Ruby wasnt allowed to go into a full trance either.
Her progress had basically dropped to trying ten to twenty Phrases per day... this wasn't going to get her anywhere. It was an over reaction... she knew what had happened was bad but... this was worse.
Why was Weiss forcing her to stop like this?? What reasoning was there??
It didn't make any sense... the more she thought about it the more she was stumped...
"Be greedier."
What does that mean...
"Blur the lines now."
How would she do that...?
"Do I even like who I am now...?"
She threw the blankets off of herself and rolled out of bed, grabbing her cloak as she went and throwing it on.
Maybe she didn't like who she was now... maybe she needed to be greedier.
"This is my life... i need to do what i can... while i can do it..." Weiss had been right, what she had done was too much. But this? Dialing it back this much? This was also too extreme.
There was a middle ground between the two extremes... Ruby had been there before.
She stepped out into her workshop and Penny looked at her with suprise.
Penny didn't need sleep, in fact she couldn't really. The closest she could get is knocking herself unconscious with magic. So that usually meant she would either stay in the workshop cleaning overnight, or work on some stuff of her own. Apparently she enjoyed testing different enhancement magics on herself.
"Ruby? What are you doing up?"
"I'm going to work some more... no. I'm gonna try one more Phrase." She had already been thinking of an idea... it wasn't next on her list but... it was speaking to her for some reason... something Maria had said.
"But... Ruby... Weiss said that-"
"Penny. You can try to physically stop me, or you can let me do this last Phrase." Her heart was beating in her throat, and Penny looked suprised... Ruby had never spoken to her like this before.
"Ruby I...-"
"Penny. I promise. I can't sleep anyway until I get it out of my head." She walked over to her and handed the girl her Scroll.
"You can even call Weiss if I do more then one." With that, she headed over to one of the circles.
Ruby sat cross-legged and pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders. With a deep breath she altered the circle until a glowing word appeared floating above it. She looked over and Penny handed her a vial of dust... Ruby smiled.
"Thank you."
She took one last deep breath... and let the vials contents drift onto the centre of the circle.
A pulse she had only felt three times suddenly filled the room as the ritual consumed the dust. Her body nearly felt sick at the sudden push of magic but she held her ground and kept her stomachs contents inside. Penny seemed to be knocked back a bit and was pretty shocked from the sudden mana wave...
But both of them froze in shock afterwards.
Ruby had described what would happen when she got a correct Phrase but Penny had yet to see it... until now anyway.
"Dragons are symbols of Power and Pride."
Power had been the first Phrase... And turns out Maria was right.
"Follow my gut huh..." Ruby was wearing a small smirk.
"Ruby... is that...?"
"The fourth Phrase of the Dragon Formula. The magic word for Pride."
"Superbia."
Weiss Schnee
"And you're sure?"
"Yes... Ozpin was sending Yang on the mission anyway, so I'm going to have her check it out while she's there tonight."
"And you're sure Yang will know what to look for...?"
"Weiss."
"Sorry, sorry. It's odd though..."
"You're telling me... I know Ozpin has been preparing Hunters to go raid the warehouse for a while but... I just don't get it..."
Weiss couldn't agree more, it didnt make any sense. When Blake had returned with the information from her Fathers office... she could hardly believe it herself.
"Why is my father making a deal with the White Fang..."