Witch of Roses

by TheTHICCWeeb

Ruby Rose, huntress extraordinaire, sacrificed herself in the final battle against Salem. Instead of death she was reborn in a new world of limitless possibilities. Memories occasionally coming back to haunt her and a chip on her shoulder when it comes to gods screwing over humanity. What could go wrong? RWBY/DxD crossover with snippets of Fate

19. Chapter 19

As Ruby had feared, the whole parent visit thing did involve the magical as well.

She learned about the fact when Rias' mother had tried to forcibly adopt/kidnap Drei. Of course she agreed that Drei was one of the cutest things around but it was HER cutest thing!

Personally, she did the smart thing and after rescuing Drei didn't go anywhere near the place.

So while the school was progressively drowning in chaos, Ruby was at home, behind layers of barriers petting Drei and catching up on reading. And keeping an eye on her upgraded spear because there was a small possibility that it could cause a small-scale magical Chernobyl if left alone. Mixing demonic, divine and draconic can do that sometimes. At least she stopped adding more.

And then an angry child invaded.

"-sing me all the time! And even now, before she even showed up she painted all the flowers I put up for decorations bright pink! PINK! It clashes with everything now! And I can't even cut it off!" Sona groaned. "The thing keeps regrowing pink again and again!"

While Sona was doing circles in her living room, Ruby wondered why exactly she even let her in so that her peaceful day would be ruined.

Oh right, because I have a soft spot for spoiled little girls with a big sister inferiority complex. Thanks Weiss. I'm glad you still look out for me.

"Sona!" Ruby finally had enough of her whining. "Before you wear down my floor and ears, you can either calm down and enjoy hiding behind my barriers or you can go whining to Tsubaki or Rias."

Sona huffed but nonetheless proceeded to sit down at a nearby chair. "I'm not going back! She would embarrass me for the rest of the school!"

"Hmm, instead she is running there right now without supervision."

"I told Saji to keep an eye on her!"

Ruby looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Dammit! I left my peerage alone with her!"

And now she is back in the panic mode… Ruby sighed. "This is exactly the reason why I put myself in charge." She said with an eyeroll. She also ignored Sona's glaring at being reminded of it. "It takes just one thing out of the ordinary and you start running around like a headless chicken."

Sona took a breath to calm down. "Speaking of usurping authority, do you realize how much trouble you are in?"

"I don't care about whatever bureaucratic idiocy that is undoubtedly involved. At the end of the day I stopped the attack and made sure that the only ones who died were those who deserved it."

"Just sign this and we'll put it all behind." She threw a rolled up sheet of paper at Ruby.

It was a basic official statement that should the situation in the territory go out of control, the acting overseers had authorized Ruby to put the place under a vaguely specified martial law. More or less, what she did anyway.

Funnily enough, the date of signing was written as three days before Kakabiel showed up.

"I don't need you to bail me out by pretending this was all planned." Ruby grumbled.

Her brow twitched. "Fine! Maybe you don't! But you are going to sign it anyway!"

"Naaaah…"

"Ruby, please! You can't just-"

"I did."

Sone was getting closer and closer to simply strangling her. "Can you at least do it as a favor for me? Please!" She forced out the best smile she could but both sides knew that it was terrible and that Ruby was just being an ass for the sake of being one.

"How does me taking over affect you to begin with?" Ruby genuinely asked.

"Oh, you know. I've just had MY TERRITORY STOLEN! Do you think I would just get another?

"Yeah?"

"I swear, you are almost as big of a pain in my ass as Rias." Only the opposite sides of the spectrum. Neither thankfully compared to Serafall, who was the whole spectrum. "Please, just sign it, so when somebody asks why we didn't stop Kokabiel, we could say that we outsourced it."

"Oh? So you aren't covering my butt. You are trying to cover yours." Ruby smirked.

"Trying to help you is meaningless, you would just double down out of spite." Sone replied with a deadpan.

"Fineee…" Ruby relented but quickly checked the document anyway. It would be really silly for her to end up under a compulsion she didn't notice. Thankfully it was just the usual piece of bureaucratic BS. "Now, don't you have a school to run? With all the people in there, it might be in bigger danger than when Achilles and Whitey fought."

Sona's shoulders fell.

"Or-" Ruby decided to throw her a freebie. Besides, it always worked with Weiss. "You can take a break while I distract your sister."

She gave her a skeptical look. "And how exactly wo-" She stopped when the air in front of her shimmered and a perfect copy of her appeared.

/

Ha! Found her! "So-taaan! Big Sis wants to give you a Big Hug!" Then Sona turned around the corner and was gone.

But she saw a tailend of her skirt at the next one.

"You can't run from my LOVE!" Serafall shouted out and gave chase.

/

And I thought Yang was weird with the whole bee's knees thing…

While Serafall was running circles around the school, chasing a ghost that was wired to appear only around corners in timed intervals, Sona finally could take a breather.

Still hiding at her place.

Not that she was overstaying her welcome but it was getting a bit weird… Wasn't she supposed to try to keep the observation day organized. Try to show all the people who arrived a good time? Ooohhhh!

While she was scared of Serafall embarrassing her, Sona was utterly terrified of having to talk to Sirzechs, the ruler of all devils, because it was pretty clear that he wouldn't be happy about what was happening and he wouldn't go easy on her like he would on Rias.

Ruby cringed in sympathy.

She tried to distract her from it but… juggling the fragments of Excalibur in front of a devil wasn't the best idea. But the subsequent explanation of why her arms didn't disintegrate did the trick.

And led to something Ruby honestly didn't think much about.

"Ruby, what do you intend to do after Kuoh?" Sona asked.

Ruby didn't answer immediately, mostly because she intended to leave in about a week and didn't tell anybody about it. As for any kind of plan… Vali was her relative and was somehow connected to the whole world-ending thing, so she would go find him. "Well, travel. Mostly. Why?"

Sona took a deep breath and mentally prepared. "The reason why I decided to go to human school was so that once I graduate, I would open a school for reincarnated devils." She announced. "The inclusion and assimilation of the new devils is almost always left to their king and… it's not always a good thing. They tend to overfocus on one subject while ignoring the others. At this point the majority of peerages are either harems, like you have seen with Riser, or gladiator bands, which are great at representing their king during a rating game but not much else. Even Lord Ajuka's peerage, the first one to be formed when the evil pieces were only being introduced, is not a functional part of society. They are just scientists who wanted immortality and resources while Lord Beelzebub wanted a professional team of assistants."

While Sona was…airing her grievances, or at least that was how she interpreted it, Ruby was picking up the actually important parts and judging whether it even made sense.

Her own thoughts on turning people into devils aside, Sona had mostly the right idea. Helping out the ones who would definitely be extremely out of depth settle in was undeniably a right thing. Unless it crosses over to brainwashing and indoctrination. And the dumb obsession with the rating games was again rearing its head.

She may have pulled the 'might makes right' on them but it wasn't exactly just about the power but overall competency.

"So essentially, you are practicing to become a headmistress… I think there are plenty of places to improve." Ruby teasingly remarked after Sona finally finished. And she didn't mean the latest emergency. That wasn't exactly school related.

The three perverted morons that were mostly unsupervised though…

Sone sighed and gave her a long hard look. "Actually… I wanted to ask whether you would like to have it."

Ruby's eyes grew wide. "What?"

"Well, you can't expect me to be both the Sitry leader and a headmaster. I can finance it, give it political backing and overall get the ball rolling, but I can't handle two roles and perform at my best."

"Huh…" Oh, so she can admit that she can't handle something… Where was that a week ago when it mattered? "I might have expected you to try to bribe me into coaching more but didn't expect this…"

"Actually, while you are definitely knowledgeable enough to be a teacher- Well, first, I don't think you would listen to anybody I can think of as a headmaster. You would still get to teach, just pick a favorite one or two."

Ruby unashamedly nodded at the first one. Then: "Hey! I don't play favorites!"

"Oh really?" Her face split into a cheshire grin. "Please tell me, who is the only person being taught actual magical theory and not just niche applications?"

"..." Ruby looked away. Maybe, just maybe, she was spending the most time with Sona.

Who also could not be an absolute bitch about it. And get rid of that shit-eating grin.

"Exactly!" Oh great, she started gloating… "You don't even do that for Maria, who is supposedly your apprentice!"

Ruby looked away. "Well, you know…ugh… She is more of a combat type and needed something more practical." Yeah, she didn't even believe that herself. Sure, Pyrrha had enough energy in her to be good with magic but her knowledge was nonexistent before she showed up. Adding a goddess who was creating an imbalance in her power and control and Pyrrha would undoubtedly become a powerful spellcaster or a battle mage but not a proper magician. "Regardless, do you really expect me to spend the rest of my life running a school? Not exactly my idea of ever after."

Sona rolled her eyes. "Actually, I think it would do you some good. You were jumpy before and with Kokabiel you are becoming really a handful. I'm sure a decade or two to calm down would be good."

"Decade or two she says…" Ruby chucked. "That's rather long from my perspective."

"And I still don't understand your antipathy towards immortality. Not wanting to be reincarnated is one thing but-"

"Sona." Ruby cut her off, the devil princess slightly flinching at the edge in her voice. "I already will have an extended lifespan due to the devil blood. Probably something around three centuries. The problem is not immortality itself, hell, I know how to achieve it if I was to bother, but… how long would it take for a normal life to lose its meaning and importance?"

There was an awkward pause until Sona cleared her throat and tried to diffuse the situation. "I see… But would you at least give a thought? It's not like I'm going to start it tomorrow." She said with a small smile.

Ruby only hummed in acknowledgement.

Sona tiredly sighed. "Well, I guess I'll go handle whatever mess my sister caused at school." And quietly left Ruby alone.

/

"Rias?" Sona carefully called out.

"Huh? Oh! Sona! Here you are! I thought you would spend the whole day running around the school, hiding from Lady Leviathan?" Rias teased. Her brother was barely able to control himself from laughing after seeing Serafall blitz past them at one point, supposedly chasing after Sona. Although she never saw Sona. Nor did the members of their peerages.

"Yeah… I decided that I should take better control of the situation." 'Can't let you botch it up' was left unsaid. "Speaking of, where is she?" She briefly looked around. She was back, in the open, and wasn't being glomped into an extremely embarrassing show of affection.

"Hmm… Don't know, actually." Rias admitted while poking her cheek. "I think I saw her run out but I just assumed she was still running after you."

"She is not here?" Sona exclaimed, surprised. "That's…a good thing?" She honestly wasn't sure.

-WoR-

"So-tan! 3" Serafall flapped her wings and nimbly maneuvered between the trees as she kept chasing her dear little sister.

"Damn it, Nee-san!" Fantastic! Her little So-tan finally had enough of this game of tag! "Why are you doing this to me?!"

Serafall beamed at her. "I do it IN THE NAME OF LO-" Her eyes narrowed.

The temperature started rapidly dropping. Leaves and trees started getting covered in a thin layer of ice.

"You know…" She switched to a deathly cold tone, barely containing the fury inside. "If I didn't have an idea who you really were, you'd be dead." She said threateningly, yet sounding like she was talking about the weather.

'Sona's' previous face of exasperation and outrage momentarily switched to confusion. Still looking like the devil princess, she changed her stance and the contrast became painfully apparent. If anything, Sera was reminded of Zechs' behavior whenever he had to meet with Zekram. The carefully kept cool face while he was looking for the smallest excuse to get rid of the old creep.

Then she just rolled her eyes and let the illusion drop. "If you behaved like that all the time, I would probably take you seriously."

Ruby Rose, the little bitchy witch that was corrupting her sweet sister! And who also saved her life, killed a ten-winged fallen in process, and humiliated the church.

And Sirzechs was covering her ass, for whatever reason. Really, she had the right to at least bitch-slap her. "And if you weren't a meddling nuisance I would greet you as a good friend of Sona."

"And now I have to wonder what would be worse." Ruby deadpanned. "Anyway- Ruby Rose, the acting overseer and combat consultant. It is a pleasure to make an acquaintance with a third Satan." She gave a half-hearted bow.

Serafall almost smirked at the perfect rendition of 'bow so they don't see you roll your eyes'. "I wasn't aware you've met Ajuka." Because there was no way in either Hell or Heaven that Falbium would give her any of his precious nap time.

"Only over the phone. If anything, I enjoyed it the most. Sirzechs immediately brought up politics and I had enough big-sis shenanigans to fill a lifetime." Between being on the receiving end from Winter and all the crap Yang did, she really had enough. And now she was getting depressed over the memories…fantastic.

"Hmpf! What would you know." Serafall scoffed.

"I would know that Sona has been hiding at my place because you smother her too much." Ruby shot back with a smirk. Even if it meant that the temperature dropped from 'chilly' to 'oh my god, Atlas was warmer!' "And now that I got you away from the school, she can safely come back!" And a shit-eating grin to finish the play.

A moment later there was an iceberg in the place she was standing. In the middle of a clearing in a forest. That was now filled with floating red petals.

And Serafall Leviathan in front of it. Behind the myriad of emotions and some rather innovative ways to get back at the brat,

And twitching eyebrow,

she was quietly wondering, did she just compress time to pull off teleportation?

/

She honestly didn't understand the fascination of the locals when it came to eating on the roof. It was windy, it was definitely a safety hazard (the safety railings were too easy to get over) and the worst part was that all the crap that got picked up in the wind would end up in the food.

The large amount of dust from last week wasn't making things better.

Not her fault.

And despite all of that she still had to hypnotize half a dozen people into forgetting a small mountain of ice appearing out of nowhere. And her own teleportation too.

And then put a lazy large scale illusion to hide the thing. She would get laughed at if anybody saw how little thought she actually put into it.

Then she felt a telltale burst of energy that came with teleportation behind her. And a familiar signature.

She sighed. "I swear, I left my house for ten minutes and you are already swarming me…"

Sirzechs chuckled and leisurely approached the young girl. "Well, you've caused quite a ruckus and attracted a lot of attention."

"Don't I know it… So, are you here to chew me out for yelling at your sister?"

"Hmm, no. But I have some… reservations about you getting angry and almost snapping her neck."

Oh right, that happened… "She pushed the wrong button." He wouldn't be getting more out of her. Hell, he should be happy that she didn't fold the brat in half.

Sirzechs could only sigh. "Why are you making things so much harder for yourself? Every time you do something that would endear others to you, you always find a way to make everyone angry with you even when they are supposed to be grateful." He was actually quite impressed. At this point he owed her twice for saving Rias so she could ask for a lot of things and he would oblige her.

Deals were important.

But the problem was that-

One, she was yet to ask for anything.

And two, he honestly had no idea what she actually wanted.

Power, fame, riches and everything else a normal and proper devil would ask for? Apparently no, because he had plenty of that and he could easily share.

Preferably either make her his personal magician, he had to stop going to Ajuka over everything, the bastard was eating up way too much of his budget…

Or push a couple of Serafall's buttons to make the girl into her queen. And now that she also saved her sister as well, he wouldn't need to play whatever stupid game Serafall would come up with as revenge.

If only it was that easy… He would both tie her down to his power block and get her away from whatever shitshow she got involved with all of the gods trying to poke around.

"Anyway, the sooner I can put all of the mess behind me the better. So when will someone competent show up so I can give them the fragments." Ruby broke him out of his musings.

"International affairs are Serafall's responsibility." He then looked towards the barely concealed iceberg.

"She didn't seem to be willing to share information." Ruby sarcastically answered.

"What did you even do to her?" Serafall was quite a bit protective of Sona when it came to the witch, or maybe it was jealousy, he didn't put much thought into it, but this was excessive. Even for Sera… well, not entirely, but Rias' place already got hit hard enough, she doesn't need to add to it.

"Filled the school with illusory copies of Sona while the real one was hiding at my place." Ruby said with a small smirk. It's not every day one gets to pull one over a Mauo.

He snorted. "Just don't let it get out of control. I once lost a house to a prank war." She looked at him skeptically, so he elaborated. "Ajuka put an anti-gravity charm at my old manor. By the time I got away from all the meetings, the thing was exiting the atmosphere." To this day Ajuka kept accusing him of stealing a whole set of mutated pieces so that he could give them to Rias. Granted, he was a doting brother but that would have been an overkill, one too obvious at that. No he didn't do it for Rias. He did it for Milicas. The set will be a nice present when he comes of age and starts gathering his own peerage. "And keep in mind that she is quite unhappy with the situation as well and you are currently the only one she is willing to blame and close enough to bear her…antics."

Fantastic… Another immortal with a slew of issues and for some ludicrous reason, it's me who has to deal with it. At this point, Ruby was considering actually praying to God. The headache would be smaller.

"Speaking of unhappy situations." Sirzechs continued "There is something that must be covered before it has time to fester and cause even more problems down the line." He summoned a rolled up scroll and threw it at Ruby. "Here. Sign it. An official order from the throne to act as a protector for heiress Gremory and heiress Sitri while they are in the outer world." Dated to come into power right after Rias' match with Riser, turning the power grab into an emergency security measure implemented with the blessing of the Satans.

With a groan, Ruby rolled her eyes. "I already had to do one for Sona. Is all of that bureaucratic crap really necessary?"

Sirzechs quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? Alright then. The girls are learning then." He sighed. "At least something good came out of this circus…"

"If only it could end." Ruby remarked. "But really, when is somebody from the church going to come? I'm getting really close to simply going to the coast and chugging them into the sea." While competent enough to reforge the sword in some manner, definitely a better one than the runaway priest did, she didn't have any use for it. Any research she had in mind for it was already done. Both her and Pyrrha had better weapons than the reforged sword would be. Besides, a very long time ago, the sword was supposedly meant to be given back to the Lady of the Lake Vivian by the means of throwing the sword into one. So…maybe she would even get something out of it by fulfilling something the church has been denying them for over a millenia.

To Ruby's horror, after a small while of thinking, Sirzechs smirked. "In a couple days, you will be able to deliver the shards and your grievances in person." Time to show Sera how to be mature. "Representatives of both Grigori and Heaven will be arriving to sign the treaty and to properly clean up. Seeing as you took charge of the city's security, you should get things in order." He of course would have Okita and maybe Beo, if he felt like letting him out of the corner, in charge of the outer perimeter but if the brat wanted to take up the responsibility… "Oh, and considering how paranoid you are most of the time," And that's for scaring Rias. "angels take the expression of eyes being a window to the soul quite literally." He added with a wide warm smile. "Now, if you excuse me, I have to save my sister from being smothered."

Ruby stood stunned on the rooftop for the next ten minutes.

-WoR-

"That dirty, stupid *crash* traitor! Unbelievable!" *stomp*

Pyrrha looked at the scene in shock. Sure, Xenovia was, perhaps, a bit choleric, especially with all the things that were going wrong for her, but the destroyed hotel suite she wasn't even paying for was new. At least it explained why she wasn't answering the knocking and she had to open the lock by magnetically turning it.

"Ehm… Is everything alright?" Pyrrha immediately internally winced. Of course something big had to go wrong, again, considering Xenovia's state.

The former exorcist sharply turned in surprise. She took a deep breath, recognizing that it wasn't a hotel worker or worse, one of the devils. At this point this was probably her only friend here. Or at least the nicest warden. "...sorry about the mess… I- No. It's not your problem."

"Want to talk about it?" She gave her a warm smile. "I did come to check up on you. Staying cooped up like this can't be healthy." Actually, did Xenovia even leave the room after the meeting with reincarnations was over?

Xenovia gave her a stink eye. "Is that really necessary?"

"Well, I can't have you snapping and breaking everything around you can I?" She tried to play it up as a joke but her pity slipped into the voice anyway.

"Ugh…fine!" She huffed, walked across the room, threw down the rubbish from an armchair and angrily sat down. "Irina is a traitor!" She exclaimed, her face in a grimace between anger and sadness.

That could have meant many things. For example the other exorcist simply spent more time with Issei and others than with Xenovia. "Can you-"

"She ASKED to be turned into a bloody demon!" Xenovia screamed out, voice full of disbelief and outrage. "Two weeks ago she kept on talking about wishing to fly along with the angels and now THIS?! Maybe it's a good thing our Lord is dead. If He saw this, he would give up on us…"

"Uhm…" Pyrrha didn't know how to answer. How could she even relate to this situation? When her worldview got overthrown the first time, it was done somewhat carefully by several adults guiding her through it. The second time she had years to contemplate what was happening until she at least relearned how to walk and speak. And when an actual goddess appeared… Suffice to say, she was quite desensitized to it at that point.

Sooo… she had a distraught religious teenage girl on her hands and had to help. Ozpin had to know something when he didn't make her into a team leader…she had no idea what to do. Even on the student council, whenever someone was in a bad mood she just smiled and stood in the background not knowing how to handle things like psychological abuse from the family, ill loved ones and the like. When she was younger and dealing with the confusion of reincarnation she did what she probably should have done back at Beacon. She just ran. Day after day on track, lap after lap, focusing on her breathing instead of the insanity of her life.

That's it! A physical activity to give her mind a break!

Ignoring the highly dignified complaint from the goddess who was startled by her 'revelation', Pyrrha grabbed Xenovia's hand and pulled her up. "Let's go for a quick spar, you should get some fresh air!"

/

Surprisingly, it did help.

No worrying about what the bishops were talking about. No stray thoughts about maybe following Irina.

Just the single focus of trying to last more than two minutes against that monster.

Xenovia considered herself quite well trained. Mother Griselda made sure of it. But none of it seemed to matter. Even worse, while she used Durandal to the fullest extent her control allowed her, Maria was still treating these spars a friendly game, not using any magic, summoning the spirit of her ancestor or even a sliver of a divine blessing she clearly possessed.

At least she no longer was getting distracted by either a dog teleporting and Maria petting it and politely asking to give them some space, or more surprisingly, some freaky barrier around their sparring ring that didn't even budge when it got hit by a full blast from Durandal.

After what seemed like hours, she finally had a break from this…bullying and Xenovia proceeded to simply sprawl on the grass right where she stood.

"So? Did it help?" Pyrrha kindly asked and offered Xenovia a bottle of water.

For a moment, she stopped her deep breaths and simply stared into the cloud, lost in thoughts. "A bit." She admitted. "At least until you mentioned it again." And a thousand yard sad look came back.

Pyrrha sat down next to her. "Well… I think it's actually a good thing. Let Irina explore her could've beens. From what I heard, she was friends with Issei when they were younger so who knows, maybe she will get the perversion out of him." Or join his harem for no reason was left unsaid but the bad aftertaste in her mouth remained.

"Heh…" Xenovia allowed herself a sardonic smile. "I guess it might have been better if she stayed here and helped the Red Emperor become a proper member of society."

"What about you?" Unhappy with the reaction, Pyrrha tried to steer the conversation away. "What would you be doing if-"

"Rotting in an orphanage." Came a bland reply. "There wasn't anything for me before, and when Durandal chose me as its wielder, my future was set in stone." She sighed. "Or so I thought… What about you? What would you be doing if it wasn't for angels and demons? Did you even have a choice?"

After a moment of deliberation, she answered. "I could've refused."

"Huh? Refused what?"

Pyrrha raised her hand, palm up, and concentrated. In a flash, a roughly spear-shaped light construct appeared above her hand. "This. I didn't have this power when I was born or something like that. I was…fourteen, I think? I was on vacation with my parents somewhere in Oceania. I decided to go for a walk and then, this goddess pretty much ripped me out of reality to have a chat." She shuddered a bit at the memory. The ocean stretching to the horizon being replaced by cascading lights in an instant scared her mute back then. "In the end, we made a deal. She needed my help to protect the world from some coming cataclysm and I…"-wanted to succeed at being a savior here to atone for failing the last time- "...got to play a hero and a lightshow." She finished with a small smile.

Xenovia was only paying her half a mind to the explanation, instead focusing on the light construct. When she saw it for the first time, it was just a glimmer. Now it was radiating the power like an Excalibur shard while matching almost all of the descriptions of the angelic weapons.

And the light itself… Stripped of imperfections, polished over and over again. Even her sword, she could feel it by simply keeping her hand on it, how it stiffened, still true to its slightly unruly behavior but also realizing that in this match there would be no contest.

And this girl could summon something like that with a flick of a wrist. Even getting bea- trained by mother Griselda never made her feel this inadequate. At least then she could always explain it with an age difference.

She let the light subside and the spear quietly faded away and Xenovia was finally able to release the breath she was holding. They continued to sit in silence until the last specs disappeared, only then Xenovia spoke up. "Well, I suppose it was nice to get to use Durandal one last time." She said with a slightly bitter smile while lightly caressing the sword laying next to her.
"What do you mean? Didn't you say that it chose you? Or can it change its mind just like that?"

"No, nothing like that." Xenovia shook her head. "But the sword belongs to the church and now that I'm excommunicated, they will want it back."

"That's just dumb." Pyrrha commented.

"It is what it is." She said with a sigh. "I'm no longer in our Lord's grace so I can't carry his gift."

"Hmm…" Come on, what would Sona say to cheer up Saji… "Say, were you fighting simply for the church or for the things the church stood for? What did your god stand for?"

"I…what..? Why would that even matter?"

"Because if you fought for something you yourself believed and not because you were only told to do so, then the choice is yours." Huh…maybe I should apply some of that to myself… "A weapon is meant to be used, it chose you because it sensed something worthy."

Xenovia looked skeptical. "Even if Roland was worthy on his own, he was still a paladin, not some vigilante."

"Then find somebody worthy of following. If I remember correctly, a lot of famous knights started out like that!"

"Yeah…" She rolled her eyes. "Like Lancelot. Funny how he ended up."

Pyrrha let out a small huff, followed by a smirk. "In that case just make sure you don't seduce married women."

Xenovia actually barked out a laugh.

-WoR-

A day later, it was finally over.

The clean-up, that is.

Sona let out an embarrassingly long sigh right after closing the doors into her room. She should be at school, helping her peerage get things in order but after cleaning up the mess her sister made and even worse, receiving the bombshell in form of the upcoming summit of the three faction leaders, hse really needed to get away and have a break.

That didn't mean she would simply laze around.

There was still one unexplained mystery that wouldn't let her rest.

Those strange prophetic dreams she and Rias received mere days before shit hit the fan. And the only clue being that the Red Dragon Emperor vaguely recognized whatever magic was used to give them these visions.

Meaning that they could immediately throw away any kind of divine-based communication because there would be some sort of residue that Ddraig, their siblings or even Ruby would have picked it up. So what was left was looking for any prominent magicians that had crossed paths with the dragon or its hosts.

At least she had somewhere to start. Thankfully, almost all of the hosts were recorded so she could simply read through a single book. Issei was already in but the most competent magician he had met would probably be Ruby. Previous one never awakened. The one before was quite famous thanks to WWII but never really involved himself with magicians.

She continued to look but it was slowly becoming a drag. From what few magicians mentioned, none of them fit the criteria. Too weak, different specialization, or simply too fleeting for a being like Ddraig to actually remember.

So she ended up at the very beginning.

The first person to wield Boosted Gear. And to this day, the strongest and most famous one.

Arthur Pendragon.

And behold, not just one, but two magicians who inspired awe and fear over a millenia later.

Morgan le Fay, a frankly terrifying magician who specialized in mental manipulation and curses, and who immortalized the stereotype of the evil witches plotting in shadows. Which led to her sister's obsession with magical girls in an attempt to change it, so she hated the woman already.

And Merlin, the court wizard of Camelot and…a note pointing her to a different book. Dammit.

Almost an hour later and a quick trip to the Sitri mansion in the Underworld, she had the right one. A third edition of Hell's most infamous traitors.

In the anointed chapter, she was first greeted by a page wide portrait of a young man in white robes, twirling a dark staff surrounded by a cloud of very familiar pink petals.

Merlin

Titles: Antichrist (formerly), Incubus Prince, Wizard of Flowers

What followed was a relatively interesting read through the history of a man who on a whim decided to rebel against his father's designs and switched sides. To the misery of both Hell and Heaven.

When she got to the description of his abilities, Sona was even more surprised at how strange the wording was. On one hand the author was trying to badmouth him as much as possible and yet it still had a strange fanboyish feel to it. As to actual abilities… She had her suspect.

Clairvoyance and some sort of influence or communications through dreams. Among other things like creating stupidly powerful weapons, body enchantments and illusions.

Still…even if she had a prime suspect, that didn't give her any answer as to why.

What could a wizard stuck on the fringe of Avalon want from her and Rias? Maybe some sort of favor from their siblings? One of the main reasons why he can't just leave that place, is because there would be rows of people wanting him gone should he ever step out.

She read the chapter again.

He was a perv so maybe..? No, she and Rias were just too young even by devil standards. Maybe he was trying to woo Serafall?

Sona groaned and threw her head back. "Maybe he tried to reconnect with Ddraig?" She mused out loud, grasping at straws. "Why me..? I don't want to deal with this, my peerage isn't exactly ready for reenacting the Arthurian legends…"

Just what she needed right now…

First there was a girl throwing rose petals around, now she was ..whole…flowers.

A shiver ran down her spine.

The Incubus Prince.

Are you a succubus?

Illusionist.

Four fallen fighting thin air and a witch sitting on a bench with a frown.

And an unknown father.

Almost dropping her phone, she managed to make the call.

"Ruby! You need to come to my place!"

Maybe she sounded a bit too panicked or she was just losing it from all the curveballs during the last week but apparently her tone was bad enough for Ruby to act on it.

In her usual fashion when things start going wrong.

One moment she was only slightly nervously speaking to her on the phone, the next, all of the barriers she painstakingly put up, torn in an instant, followed by a bright red rose sigil briefly appearing in the middle of the room.

A slash of light and here she stood. Weapon already in hand and Sona was really starting to hate that holy piece of crap. She didn't care that it wasn't actually holy but it hurt to look at anyway.

Ruby slowly scanned the room and aside from the slightly pale Sona, nothing seemed wrong. No foreign magical signatures, no signs of conflict so… "What's wrong?" She unsurely asked, Crescent Rose in hand and ready to go if there was something actually hiding in the room with them. Or maybe there is a shapeshifter in place of Sona.

"Uhm…can you put that thing away first? I just…found something that might be important. For you, I mean."

Ruby raised an eyebrow and after a short deliberation, put her scythe away and walked up to Sona's table. Which despite its size had only a single book on it. "Sona. Didn't sound like you just found- who's that?" She noticed the large picture in the book. The weirdest part? His hair color was completely the same shade of almost white gray as the tips of her own.

"That would be Merlin." Sona forced herself to give a calm answer while carefully observing Ruby's reaction.

"Huh, so that's what he looked like? I expected a beard or something."

"Ruby…do you really not know which pillar you are from?"

"I'm a quarter hybrid so-" She tried to give a usual smartass answer.

"Ruby!" This time Sona didn't let her get away with a simple eyeroll. "Please…take it seriously. I… I wouldn't be asking it again if it wasn't important."

She huffed. "I swear, devils and their bloodlines…" She muttered under her breath. "I tried to find it once. My crest changes when I dip into my devil reserves so I knew what to look for but it wasn't in the active roster, so I didn't bother further. I'm just some lost remnant of a dead clan." She said, punctuating the end with a shrug.

"Can you show it to me?" Was that trepidation in her voice? "Please."

Ruby sighed but at this point she was so done with literally everybody trying to put a clan label on her so she might as well give it to them. With a flick of her wrist she summoned a standard bright red mandala.

Her old emblem of a rose in the middle of a lazily spinning circle.

Another flick and the transition started.

The color got a shade darker and the rose started to unravel, giving an illusion as if it was blooming.

Revealing a four winged horned bat.

Sona sucked in a breath.

Of course she knew who it belonged to.

No matter the conclusion of the civil war, this was still the most important part of their history as a species. Their origin point. The one who began it all.

Hell, they still had the old banners in the attic, each one having this image black on red right in the middle.

"Lucifer." She breathed out.

"Huh…" Ruby let the mandala fade away. "I guess Sirzechs was on point."

It took a second for Sona to shake off her shock, despite her already suspecting the outcome, and register Ruby's words. "Excuse me?"

"Well, he guessed I might be a Lucifer when we talked during Rias' party but we just laughed it off." He also mentioned some other, more…concerning things about her apparent family but she reserved judgment to herself for now. "Oh. Is that why you have a book about Merlin? You think he is my old man?" She picked it up and studied the picture more intently. From what she remembered her mother telling her, he did fit the description.

And he had a crush on Scathach, who she spent several years with… Awkward~!

"Yeah…something like that." Sona was studying her lack of reaction except some mild curiosity. "It's just… You are a really good magician, I'll admit that. You play around with illusions like it's nothing. You suck magic out of others that would make the majority of the actual succubi feel embarrassed. And there is literally just that one half-devil who excelled in all those things before who is also known to really like women." She let out a small snort. "When I read his entry, it all just clicked."

"You just can't leave things alone, can't you." Ruby remarked with a small smile and put the book down. "So? Should I invade Avalon to get a hug or shoot him? Who knows, maybe I can bribe my way in with Excaliburs."

"More likely to get yourself executed by the fairies simply due to being associated with Merlin." Sona deadpanned.

"Heh, probably." She agreed with the assessment. "What happens now? You found my heritage and put a proper label on it. What are you going to do with it?"

"Nothing." Sona resolutely said. "Nothing at all." She sighed and looked Ruby in the eyes. "You are crazy. You ignore the vast majority of things anybody tells you, especially if they are in any way your superior. You are infuriating to deal with on a best day and whenever your temper actually goes over whatever limit you have I'd prefer to fight Kokabiel one on one. And a thousand other things that speed up my graying by a few centuries at minimum." A pause to take a breath. "But! Despite all the times we argued, that dumb 'prank war', which I won. All of your problems with Rias and everything in between…you always came around." She gave Ruby an honest warm smile. "You helped Rias win her freedom. I still don't understand why both of you are so secretive as to how but you still did it. You taught me more about magic in the couple months more than I learned on my own in the last five years! Tsubaki can now hold off the rest of my peerage by herself and my bishops will probably qualify as journeyman curse-breakers. And fine! I admit that trying to keep you out of the Kokabiel mess was probably counterproductive."

"And you coming back was extremely-"

"Yes yes, whatever! But you have to admit that we were much more worried because, you know, nobody in our peerages can ascend into demigodhood on a whim." What she would never admit, was that she was simply refusing to throw in the towel and call her sister out of pride. "And the next time you pull 'might makes right' on me, at least wear the badge with some pride. It was your grandfather who put that idea in the core of devil society." She fixed her with a pointed look but shortly relented. "What I want to say. You are still you. Sure, you are related to the most important devil in history, the biggest threat to the current regime and your father is possibly the greatest magician of all time, but I've only ever heard of them from a second or third hand account. But I know you. And you are a friend. Even if sometimes you are way too much of a nag."

…

"Quite a good speech." Ruby broke the silence after Sona finished.

"Of course." Sona pushed up her glasses. "I'm a king in the end."

Ruby's smirk told her everything she needed to know about her opinion on the hierarchy. "I suppose politicians need to be able to talk well. My response used to be to simply raise the hood and pretend to be mute."

"Really?" By the Satans! She is sharing some personal history? And it only took several months and a trip down the devil history! "You seemed quite confident leading Kokabiel into wasting time."

"'Fake it 'till you make it' is a really good way to deal with terrible odds." She offhandedly said and shrugged. "Just one more thing about this whole Lucifer thing. Don't tell Sirzechs."

Sona gave her a sad look. "The war is over, Ruby. He is not going to persecute you just for being distantly related. Hell, you are a child of a traitor of Old Satans, you are on our side to-"

"I didn't mean anything about politics!" Ruby quickly placated her. "I just don't want to give him the satisfaction of guessing right."

Sona blinked and let out a long breath. "... I suppose you have your priorities…" Really, what's with being so incredibly…petty when it came to authority figures?

-WoR-

He really hated his current assignment.

Go to Kuoh, again, and arrange the things for when Azazel comes for literally a single day.

Alternatively, he was away from that ass and didn't need to listen to all the teasing about getting caught off guard by a teleportation spell and then being treated like a lost puppy by Lugh.

Worse, he had to admit to both of them that he got caught.

And now Azazel sent him back to this damned place… At least he would get to see his rival in better shape and not beaten into the ground.

And then there was one really nagging question, thanks to Albion pointing out a small tiny detail about the magician who ambushed him.

But, as the air around him was filled with the scent of roses, that was something for later. And definitely for a more private venue than the front entrance of a school. And she was already pointing a gun at him. Oh joy, feels like home already.

"Why are you here? Again?" Well, he didn't catch any kind of actual animosity. More curious, good.

"Well, somebody had to set up things from the Grigory side for their meet up and I was in the city once. It was either me, or the three idiots devils kicked out some time ago." So he didn't exactly need to take the threat too seriously. It was more for show anyway. He'd also be damned if he ever cover before a gun while still having Divine Dividing.

"I somehow doubt that would involve the school." She said with sarcasm. "Unless he intends to actually live there instead of just coming for the talks." If only she knew… Azazal was crazy enough to do something dumb like start teaching there just for the laughs. And with the Red Dragon here…

"Who knows with that old crow." He shrugged. "Right now, I want to say 'hi' to my eternal rival."

She narrowed her eyes. "The place was just rebuilt after your last visit. If you end up blowing it all up again, it won't get fixed for the big day."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't get your panties in a twist… When I say I came to talk, I mean it. If you are scared we start a fight, tell Red not to." She briefly looked at the approaching devils and after getting two nods from the heiresses, she made the gun disappear. "Oh, and before you go." He called out in a much more serious voice. "There is a thing I want to talk about. Without unnecessary company."

Her smirk told him that she most likely guessed what he meant. "I'm sure you'll be able to find me later."

/

"Aren't you dramatic…" Vali said with a mirth in his voice as he appeared on one of the few skyscrapers in the city. "I approve."

Mirroring his smile, she answered. "I need a good vantage point to keep an eye on the place."

"Then why not the tallest?" He threw a thumb on the building next to them which had about ten extra stories.

She rolled her eyes. "Too predictable." She turned around and stepped away from the edge. "Just so we are on the same page, what exactly did you want to talk about?"

Vali was a bit nervous about this moment, uncharacteristically so. "Just a small detail that I didn't notice immediately and Albion had to point it out after I was out of Ireland. Fuck you by the way."

And your smirk too, cheeky bitch…

"The thing is, he said that your smell was quite similar to mine which translated from the way dragons interpret those things, means you are my family in some way." And considering his experience with his family, he wasn't exactly thrilled.

She just looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as if asking 'Is that all you've got?'. Then she took a deep breath and made the fakest curtsy imaginable.

"Ruby Rose, as of…2 days ago, daughter of Merlin."

/

The hours after the revelation were a bit depressing. Mostly because she already had to see her life play out as the chosen one. With her eyes being a literal divine blessing she was the ultimate trump card against the grimm and later when she became the summer maiden, her position as the light's spearhead was absolute.

She didn't want to be that again. This whole destined for greatness… She had enough. Both her own life and the lives of her team.

The heiress of the richest corporation with absurdly powerful semblance.

The daughter of faunus royalty.

And the daughter of the Mistalian bandit queen and a spring maiden.

So when she learned that she was again some impossible super important child left a bad taste in her mouth.

Even what Sona said, despite probably not meaning to, was attributed to that.

Her skills? It wasn't thanks to thousands of hours of training, experiments and stuff blowing up into her face. It was because of how great her daddy was.

But in the end, Sona probably said it best.

It didn't matter.

She kind of already started making a mess for everyone, simply because she wanted a change for the better, not because it was some political multilayered strategy.

She was Ruby Rose, not Ruby Lucifer, so she would just do what she was doing before.

But then, what was the White Dragon host's game? He was almost definitely a Lucifer but also a hybrid and, for some reason, a member of Grigory.

For once, the universe seemed to favor her when her object of interest crossed into her barrier alone and of his own volition.

Once she went to see him, it was obvious that he had noticed their connection.

And he wasn't exactly happy about it.

When Pyrrha described their fight, he was acting careless and was simply having fun despite being in the middle of battle.

Now she was facing a nervous high strung teenager.

Well, if she took the things Sirzechs told her about the Lucifers at face value, he might have a point. It would also explain why he ran off and joined Grigory.

In that case, she just had to prove herself different, right?

/

Barely suppressing his surprise and especially laughter, he mirrored her actions by giving the most mocking bow he could perform.

"Vali Lucifer, my father doesn't deserve mention." Once he straightened back, he burst out laughing. "HIS? Pfff hahaha!" What a great day! She was the daughter of someone who both his father and grandfather hated! With Rizevim it was even to the point he would destroy any flower wherever he was staying.

And Merlin was so petty that he would spawn a bunch of flowers in every single place Rizevim visited that would always grow back regardless of light, water or even soil!

Once he managed to calm down he continued like nothing happened. "So you are like my aunt or what?"

"Half-aunt? Or just a cousin, I think? I don't know." Qrow wasn't even related to her but he was her uncle. Yang was her sister despite being a half. And guilt-tripping Raven by calling her aunt was priceless. As long as it lasted.

"Might as well call you sister, always wanted one." He said with a smirk.

Ruby let out a snort. "From what I heard about the relationships between devil siblings, I object."

"Heh." He had to agree. Sirzechs' and especially Serafall's siscon-ism was legendary. "So, my dear cousin, princesses told me they put you in charge of protection for this show, how do you think it's going to go." It was really hard not to start laughing again, knowing what exactly was going to happen.

Ruby groaned, laid down and stared into the sky. "It will be a complete shitshow." She said with certainty.

"Well that's reassuring…" Vali replied, still smiling.

"Come on, between Grigory not being able to follow orders, the Church lacking common sense when issuing them and the Underworld lacking it altogether, it's a miracle that their structures haven't fallen apart on their own. Now their leaders will all be in one place. It will either blow just because or somebody will see it as a too valuable target." Really, what are they thinking? She didn't care for the bunch of overpowered morons but did they need to use Kuoh as a meatshield?

"Good thing I will be there."

"To pick a fight with Issei when they take a break?"

Vali rolled his eyes. "I do like a good fight but I won't go out of my way that much to find it…"

Ruby shot him a smirk, still laying on her back. "Is that why you picked a fight with my friend for absolutely no reason?"

"I came expecting a fight and somebody stole my prey, so I made due."

"You should have made due with your issues first." Ruby said halfheartedly.

White light flashed as Vali unleashed his Sacred Gear and spread the blue glowing wings. "When you are the strongest incarnation of the White Dragon Emperor you don't have to worry about those things." He said, his smile now turning predatory.

"Oh my, then I suppose I missed a chapter in which Arthur killed you, Lord Vortigern." She teased.

Vali chuckled. "Don't get over your head, cuz. You may have beaten Kokabiel but I'm on a different level."

"Are you?" Ruby looked away from the sky and into his eyes.

"I did come to sto-" He grunted and stumbled through Ruby as something smacked him on the head. "What?!" He whirled around, the girl he walked through fading away and the real(?) one standing before him with his hand raised. "So you want to give it a go, huh?"

"Well, I am your aunt in a way. Might as well fix some behavior issues." She replied matter-of-factly.

"Oooh, I'm all for you to try but!" He raised his arm. "Too bad you are a magician."

"DIVIDE"

He felt the mass of energy jump from her to him and as it began to integrate…

"Ghah!" The wings, the physical manifestation of Divine Dividing, exploded into glittering shards and he felt that almost everything he took went back to its original owner.

"I swear, both you and Saji think yourself a perfect counter to casters while not understanding how to properly fight one." She mockingly monologued while shaking her head. "What made you think that the power you take from me would immediately become yours? What's stopping me from simply taking it back?" Aside from a dragon. If he actually knew how to counter it, she'd get back only about half. But now she had him spooked so he wouldn't even try to begin with. A perfect bluff.

Vali just shortly laughed. "I guess that Miss Achilles had to get that trick of hers from somewhere." He reformed his wings. Along with the rest of the scalemail. "You know that I can do more, right?"

This time Ruby facepalmed. "You really do have issues. Either go get laid or I'll throw you to Ireland again for them to beat this idiocy out of you."

While she could see his face, the body language made his discomfort obvious. "Yeah…about that. I do like a good fight but-"

"The one with purple hair would turn your wannabe dragon ass into a pair of boots? Yeah, totally."

"..." He couldn't in good faith oppose that.

"Anyway, I think I'll call it a day. I have some things that I need to keep an eye on, so please don't become one of them. This place has enough problems."

"Fiine mooom… I'll be in a hotel, stop by if you need anything." He let the scalemail fade away. "Oh, and Albion is pissed you siphoned his power."

"And you broke my phone last time we met." She gave him a cheeky smile before turning to leave. But when she was about to vanish she half turned back to him. "Vali, whatever you are planning on doing, think it through okay? Everything has consequences and I wouldn't want to add family drama to my problems."

And she was gone.

Well…that was weird. Vali stood there, slightly glaring at the empty spot she left. You think she knows?

That wizard was clairvoyant to an extent…It could be possible.

"Hmm…"

In a white flash, the roof was empty.

/

/

/

From the ashes of procrastination, Sonic Frontiers and World of Warcraft, I rise again like the shitiest phoenix in existence!

For the next chapter:

Ruby wears aviators, Ddraig and Albion agree on something and Sona can't pick up a phone.

/

Now onto replies:

Oh boy! Did the last chap have a reaction xD Mission accomplished for me. Personally I think you guys took it much more extremely than I had expected.

Lione des bois has probably the best take, or so to say, he understood the chapter in the way I intended.

Alas, the wonder of books is that the reader's imagination is sometimes more important than the writer's (lack of) talent.

I'm not making excuses or saying that one take is correct and the other is wrong. Make up your own mind. Pick your own heroes and villains, bcs while Ruby is the MC of the story, hero and villain is a PoV problem.

Replies to review that didn't talk about 'the thing':

To GrimmjowTaichou: Yep…rechecked the wiki and wrote it out.