*TRIM AND NOTHING ELSE*
"That's vague." Ilia commented.
"It might be referring to a barber shop," Jaune replied.
"And the words are green," Ren added, "So what does that mean?"
"Well, I doubt it's going to be focused on me."
"Don't count on it, Ruby," Qrow retorted.
*The words disintegrated, becoming dust in the wind, as a Mistralian skyline could be seen.
On a hot summer day, at the hour when a warm breeze brushed afternoon away to make room for evening, Jade Finkatu stood in a nondescript barbershop named after her*
Initially confused, Jade's face started sparking memories.
"Heeeeey," Nora slowly said, "Isn't that…?"
"That's Emerald," Blake answered, "I barely recognized her."
"This has to be years later," Winter declared, "Compared to her previous pictures, she's easily in her early twenties."
*Her current name, Jade, not the one she'd gone by for most of her life.
Jade would be perfectly happy if she never again had to answer to the name "Emerald Sustrai."
Emerald was a thief and a terrorist and was wanted in all four kingdoms.
Jade was not.
Emerald had stolen from everyone she could, had been Cinder Fall's right hand, and had tried to bring down the Huntsman academies.
Jade owned a barbershop in down-mountain Mistral, paid her bills with legally-earned money, and sometimes flirted with the cute redhead who'd moved into the apartment next to hers. She'd even managed to obtain a promise to go grab drinks later that night, an event which she awaited eagerly.*
"Man," Yang commented, "It's weird seeing one of our most hated enemies being…normal."
"And she even looks happy living a normal life," Weiss added, "Makes me wonder why she'd throw in with Salem."
Ruby's eyes widened. "It's not Salem. It's Cinder."
*So when the bells on the barbershop's door rang to announce the arrival of a customer, Jade couldn't help but sigh.*
Ruby continued, "Back at Haven, she said she owed Cinder everything. She didn't care about Salem."
"Maybe," Ilia interrupted, "Emerald used to live in poverty, had to scrap whatever food she could steal to survive. Then Cinder came and pulled her out of that."
"So the thief sees Cinder as her savior," Qrow stated dully, "Despite the fact that I doubt Cinder even cares all that much about her."
*"Welcome to Jade's Hair Emporium," she said, cheer just a tad more forced than usual. "What can I get for you?"
Her customer was a girl dressed in red, highlighted hair falling across her face and ending just above her shoulders. It was parted off-centre so that one side of her face was covered.*
Any further discussion was shelved immediately upon seeing who entered.
"What are the flippin chances!?" Nora exclaimed.
"Astronomical." Penny replied.
*For a moment Jade wondered why she didn't brush it out of the way, before a shift revealed the eyepatch beneath. It was a beautiful thing, black leather with red embroidery in the shape of a rose.*
"Got to say, Ruby, you look good."
Ruby blushed at Yang's comment. It was kinda weird seeing an older version of yourself, even if only slightly older.
*Her remaining eye was silver, Jade noted. For a reason she couldn't quite grasp, this felt noteworthy; then again, maybe that was just the rarity of the colour striking her.
"I've been thinking of getting a trim and a side shave," the girl said. "Could I pull it off, in your professional opinion?"
Jade was partial to side shaves, having given herself one in the days after Cinder's murder in an attempt to hide her identity. Ideally, people would have looked at her and thought 'That girl's a lesbian,' instead of what they would think if they saw her with her old haircut, which would be more along the lines of 'Isn't that lesbian wanted on charges of terrorism and high treason?'*
"Pfffffh," Yang wheezed, "You know, when laid out like that, it's kinda funny."
*It was a little thing, but Jade liked to think it had put her on the path to her current career; nowadays, she kept her hair long enough to fall down her back, but the experience of chopping it off in a dingy bathroom had been memorable enough to stick with her when she was looking for a job months after the fact.*
"Funny how 'simple' things like that can help form a career." Pietro exclaimed, "I mean, I used to be an athlete."
"What?" RWBY/JNOR exclaimed at once.
"He was," Ironwood acknowledged, "He probably could've become a Huntsman if he wanted to."
Pietro waved him off, "I had no interest in weapons at the time."
*It also helped that they looked real nice.*
"What changed your mind?" Ruby asked. Pietro looked at his left leg. Unseen by the others, Ironwood rubbed the back of his neck, trying to avoid looking at Pietro.
"I'll tell you when we all get back. We have a story to watch."
*As Jade led the girl to the seat, she examined her. A little touch of her semblance on herself to imagine more clearly what the haircut would look like (a trick that, cumulatively, she had taken advantage of even more than her semblance's original use) confirmed it.*
Ruby's mouth was slightly open. 'Such a devastating Semblance, and yet such a simple and amazing application of it. It wasn't just hair, either. Imagine clothing, furnishing, the applications were nearly endless. And it belonged to someone working for Cinder. But why are we being shown this?'
*"Yeah, I think it would look good on you. Got a preference for which side?"
A polite way of asking if the girl wanted to draw attention to or away from her missing eye. "This side," she said, motioning towards her remaining eye. Drawing attention away from it, then.
Her hand shook, just a little. She seemed nervous.*
Ruby squinted her eyes.
"...I know it's Emerald."
"Then why aren't you doing anything?" Yang replied.
"I'm not sure. Maybe...maybe I'm testing her. Like I said, she's loyal to Cinder for saving her. Perhaps she's not completely evil, it at all. And I'm putting myself in great danger to do it."
Weiss rolled her eyes with a smile. "I feel like that's something you would do."
*Jade felt like rolling her eyes, but she got it. Trivial as it was compared to everything she'd gone through, she'd done enough of them to know that baby's first gay haircut could be a big deal.
The girl sat down in the barber's chair, and Jade was preparing to wrap the sheet around her when the girl's scroll rang.
"Oh, so sorry," the girl said with a nervous chuckle. "I have to take this."
It took everything Jade had not to roll her eyes. Seriously?
The girl took her scroll from her pocket, held it to her ear at an odd angle that left most of the screen visible, and said, "Hey dad."*
"If Ruby is testing her, how much do you want to bet that your entire family is just outside, waiting for Emerald to screw up."
No one needed to reply to Nora. It was practically a given.
*She said more, after that, but Jade didn't hear it.
Because she knew the face on the contact screen. A man in his forties, blond hair and blue eyes, and the name Xiao Long.
The man who had killed Cinder.
The memories rushed back, clear as the day they happened; the strange man showing up at their dorm, the sound of fighting drawing her and Mercury to Cinder, Branwen and Goodwitch and Ozpin and Xiao Long standing over her body with blood on his fists-*
"They saw it! Why were they in Vale?"
"Keep in mind, Amitola," Qrow replied, "That Cinder and her team were infiltrating Beacon. Cinder may have been too confident for her own good, but I doubt Emerald or Mercury would be blinded by arrogance. They probably thought something was up and followed Tai back to Vale. I'm surprised she didn't see you there, Jimmy.
Ironwood shrugged his shoulders. "Likely from a different angle."
*Her hands shook. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears.
This girl was his daughter. The daughter of Cinder's murderer.
"Sorry about that," the girl said. She slipped her scroll back into her pocket. If she noticed Jade's reaction, she didn't show it. "I'm good to go now."
Wordlessly, Jade grabbed her scissors and got to work.
As a professional, her tools had to be kept in top condition. Dull scissors wouldn't do the job, and so each one she had was kept sharpened to perfection.
Snip.
She could plunge them into the girl's neck. It would be simple. Keep the scissors open just a bit, then stab them into the carotid artery. Cut the thing in half and watch her bleed out on the barbershop tile.*
Despite how very likely it was that Ruby had her Aura up, it didn't defuse the tension.
*Snip.
It would be so easy. All Jade had to do was kill her, and then…
Snip.
And then what? No matter how well she cleaned the blood or how well she hid the body, they'd find her sooner or later. The girl had taken a call inside her shop, she'd be an easy first suspect.
She would have to pack up her valuables and run. Again.
Get a fake ID and hope her semblance could make it work. Again.
Uproot her entire life, everything she'd spent the past few years working for. Again.
All to avenge Cinder.
All to kill this girl.
Snip.*
"Gods, this is horrible to watch," Nora commented, "It's like those horror movies where, you KNOW the bad guy's about to jump, just do it already," her eyes widened as she realized what she implied, "Not that I want Emerald to try to kill you, Ruby."
*She hadn't fully realized it at the time, too wrapped up in her own teenage bullshit to have a little bit of self-reflection, but she had loved Cinder. Loved her the way a priest loved their god. Loved her the way a knife loved a steady hand. Cinder had taken her from nothing and made her important, made her responsible for the fate of the world, and even that had been nothing compared to little bits of praise that would make her feel complete, special, perfect.*
"Man," Yang rubbed the back of her head, "When she says that, it makes what you said about her make more sense, Sis. She really does owe her everything."
"So," Winter added, "What's more important to her? Stability, or vengeance?"
*And then she'd died.
Didn't Jade owe it to Cinder, to avenge her?
Snip.
...So why wasn't the girl bleeding out on the floor? Why was she hesitating?
Snick.
Jade looked down and realized her last flick of the scissors had cut nothing but air. She was getting distracted.
The girl didn't seem to mind Jade's silent intensity, or her less than accurate scissorwork. She didn't even seem to have noticed.*
Ruby highly doubted it. She may not have Blake's Faunus senses, but she would certainly be aware of Emerald's gaze, especially if Screen Ruby knew who 'Jade' was.
*Jade hadn't messed up her hair too bad, at least.
Messing up the girl's hair shouldn't matter, because Jade should be stabbing the scissors into her neck any moment now.
And yet she wasn't.
She got back to work
Snip.
Maybe it was selfishness that kept her from killing this girl.
For all that the thrill of her old life had kept her going, Jade thought of losing what she had now— her crappy apartment, her asshole friends, her stupid little barbershop in the shitty part of Mistral— and it tasted like bile in her throat.
She had never truly thought about it, too focused on moving from day to day, but she liked this life. She wanted to keep getting drunk on cheap beer and singing awful karaoke and counting the month's earnings and realize she'd saved up enough to get herself something nice.
She wanted to meet people and not wonder if they were cops, not have to worry that at any moment she might slip up and find herself surrounded.
And Gods damn her, but Jade wanted to have a nice date with the cute redhead next door. Was that too much to ask?*
To RWBY/JNR, it was strange to see Emerald, someone they see as the enemy, throwing away a chance at revenge for simple stuff like that.
Maria simply chuckled, "Never underestimate the appeal of a simple life, kiddos."
*She'd started relaxing at some point, and she hadn't even noticed until she had to stop. She loved just existing in a way that had seemed impossible when she had been Cinder's lieutenant. When enjoying life was something other people did before you tore their world apart.
She didn't want this life to end.
And, as much as she hated to admit it, it wasn't just selfishness that kept her scissors flowing through the girl's hair instead of her neck.
Maybe she'd grown soft from years of civilian life, but she didn't want to kill this kid.
She was clearly a teenager. No older than Jade had been, when her world had come crashing down.
How much of life had this kid not yet gotten the chance to see? Had she ever been out drinking with friends? Had she known love? Loss?
How much of existence would Jade be denying her, just to hurt her father?
For that matter, how would Xiao Long take the death of his kid? Did he really deserve to bury his daughter, because he killed Cinder? Killed someone who, all these years later, Jade could admit had done nothing but hurt innocent people?
Most of all, Jade thought of how distraught she had been after Cinder's death. How the whole world had seemed to collapse around her.
He did that to me, a part of her said. He should suffer exactly what he put me through.
That was the worst time of my life, another part said. Every day was torture. Why would I ever make someone else go through that?
In the end, Jade looked inside herself and found there was no decision to be made.
She didn't want to be a murderer. Just a barber. This girl came in for a trim and nothing else, and that's all Jade would give her.*
"And there's the title of this chapter," Ren states, "Emerald isn't evil. She doesn't want to work for Salem. I doubt she wants to work for Cinder."
"But, out of sheer loyalty, she's practically forced to do it." Winter said. She thought about Emerald's devotion to Cinder. What frightened her…was that it was almost comparable to her own loyalty to General Ironwood. She doubted that he would go as far, but…given the embargo, and the curfews…Well, she could only hope that this knowledge helps prevent him from crossing a line. She certainly didn't want to question her own loyalty, like Emerald likely has already, in both timelines.
*With one final snip, Jade put the finishing touches on the girl's new haircut.
"How's it look?" Jade said, holding up a mirror so the girl could get a proper look at her shaved side.
"Fantastic!" The girl said, beaming up at Jade. She bounced out of the chair with far too much joy for a simple haircut. "How much do I owe you?"*
"Yeah," Qrow smirked, "You were definitely testing her. No way you're that happy over a simple haircut."
Ruby smiled. She was glad her assumption was right. Emerald is a good person, deep down. Now they'd have to find a way to make their Emerald willing to switch sides.
Also, it helped that the haircut didn't look half bad.
*The girl paid. Every so often, she brushed her hand over the shave and giggled.
"Seems like you're satisfied with it," Jade said. "You ever get one of those before?"
"Nope," the girl said. "I've been thinking of getting one for a while, but I'd always worried I'd hate it and be stuck like that until it grew back. My girlfriend kept telling me to go for it, and here we are! I'll have to thank her later."*
If Qrow was drinking anything, he'd have spit it out. In its place, he displaced thin air.
"Girlfriend!?" He was gobsmacked. At least Ruby wasn't as thick headed about love as Summer was.
"Oooh," Yang hugged Ruby, "My little sister's got a love interest."
"Get off me, Yang! And, frankly, a girlfriend would be the only person who could date me."
"You only prefer girls?" Ilia questioned.
"No, because Yang scared off any potential boyfriend, not that I was interested at the time."
Yang's smug face told them that she didn't regret a thing. Ren and Jaune looked at each other, wondering why Yang didn't try to scare them off. Luckily, it also distracted everyone from the next obvious question.
Who?
*Jade laughed, and tried not to think of how close she'd come to killing the girl over something she hadn't even done.
"I'm glad she did," Jade said. "Hey, if she ever needs a haircut, send her my way and I'll see if I can't give her a discount." It wasn't much, as far as apologies for almost-murder went, but she couldn't do much more. Especially without raising questions she would rather not answer.
The girl laughed like Jade had told an inside joke without realizing it. "Yeah, sure. If Penny ever needs a haircut, I'll mention you."*
"Wai-WHAT?!" Ruby screeched. Ruby and Penny were a couple. Practically everyone, with the exception of Maria, were shocked. Ruby's original pink blush from hearing she has a girlfriend turned into a full crimson red. Penny herself would have blushed too, if her body had that feature.
Qrow felt a smirk coming on. "You know, now that I think about it, it makes sense that you'd end up falling for the weapon that's shaped like a human (no offense, Penny)."
As everyone laughed around her, Ruby pulled up her hood, and tried to bury herself into it.
"I…well…I think our alternate selves are a great couple."
"You're not helping, Penny!"
*She turned to leave, and in one last act of recompense Jade said, "Sorry, I don't think I ever caught your name."
The girl paused. When she turned around, her expression was a lot less happy and a lot more pensive.
"Ruby," she said. "Ruby Rose."
"Ruby Rose," Jade repeated, turning over the name in her head. "That's a nice name. I'm— well, you can probably guess."
She gestured vaguely at the sign proudly displaying her name and laughed, just a little bit.
Ruby didn't.
"It's okay," Ruby said, staring at Jade with pursed lips. "I know your name, Emerald."
Jade blinked.
She blinked again.*
Yang and Nora wheezed.
"The look on Emerald's face," Yang exclaimed, "Confusion turned to horror."
"Yep!" Nora added, "That's like those horror movie moments, when the heroes realized they screwed up big time, right before the monster jumps them."
*"I— that's—" She couldn't speak. Couldn't form the words.
"Dad and Yang and Uncle Qrow wanted to bust in and arrest you when they found you here," Ruby said. "But I convinced them to give you a chance. You were never as cruel as Cinder, or as callous as Mercury. You always had a bit of good in you, and I figured you deserved a chance to prove you weren't the person you once were. Everyone deserves a chance."*
"Okay," Jaune exclaimed, "So you guys are probably literally right around the corner, maybe even just outside the door, ready to pounce. Good to know we had that confirmed."
Qrow shook his head. "No. As much as I'd hate to have Ruby right next to her, if we stacked out too close, we'd get spotted, either by Emerald or some passersby. That being said, a bird is most certainly outside the door."
*Jade could only gape dumbly, barely able to process what she was being told.
"They said you would try to kill me," Ruby continued. "Once you figured out who I was. I came to see if that was true."
Jade gulped. She could barely hear Ruby over the blood rushing through her head.
"I don't understand," she said, chest tight as she struggled for air. "What, what is this?"
"A test, I guess," Ruby said. "And you passed! You had your shot at revenge and you didn't take it, so the way I see it you can't be that much of a bad guy anymore." She forced a smile as she said, "Just stay on the right path, Emerald," and turned to leave.
"Wait!" Jade choked out before Ruby could open the door. "You, you said I wasn't as bad as Cinder or Mercury— you talk like you knew us, like you were there, but I've never seen you before in my life. Who— I don't understand!"*
"Wait, did she-?" Winter stopped herself, "Right. Even Cinder didn't know the truth about the Grimm Hybrids. So Emerald wouldn't know, either."
*"I was there," Ruby confirmed, frowning as she did. "You've seen me before, but I get why you don't recognize me. Actually, I'd be worried if you did."
Jade cast her mind back as far as she could, but no one made sense. There wasn't anyone involved with Cinder who could possibly have been Ruby Rose.
"Please, tell me," Jade said. "You can't bust in and tell me all this and then just— please."*
"If Emerald really is as good hearted as we're being shown," Penny said, "Then hearing the truth will horrify her."
*Ruby sighed.
Behind her, the setting sun was visible though the barbershop's glass door.
"Okay," she whispered.
"You called me the Hound."
As Jade's eyes widened, as she felt her heart stop, as she collapsed to her knees, Ruby turned around and left.
It took a minute for Jade's brain to process everything that had happened in the past few minutes.
Her first instinct was to grab her valuables and run. Burn everything and start over again. Flee once more, maybe to Vacuo this time. She pushed it down. Ruby had all but said the authorities weren't after her any more. Panicking like that would just ruin everything she'd worked so hard to build.
Her second instinct was to hyperventilate, scream, and vomit into the nearest toilet. That one, she indulged without a second thought. Not like she had much choice in the matter.*
"I don't blame ya," Yang exclaimed, "I'd probably have done the same if I was in your position."
*Her third instinct was to think of Ruby Rose, wearing a sad little smile with the sunset at her back, saying those five fucking words.
Her fourth instinct was to stare at the ceiling of her barbershop's toilet stall and wonder how the hell she was still alive.*
Ruby stood up as the screen went black.
"Well, I guess that's tha-"
A bright flash of light blinded her, and, just as quickly as it appeared, it dissipated. As a result, she ended up walking straight into a wall.
"Bwah!"
Everyone reacted harshly, particularly Maria, who realized she kinda needed to repilot the now occupied Manta. As a result, the Manta ended up dipping down, causing a bit of a scuffle for everyone else.
"Damn," Yang groaned, rubbing the back of her neck, "Did he have to drop us so harshly?"
"He did say he was running out of energy," Blake replied, "I think we just saw the last bit of energy he could use. I just hope Ilia's alright."
"She'll be fine. At least we don't have to worry about Salem targeting her or your family…Yet."
Blake's expression indicated she was not amused.
Weiss was about to add on to it, when she saw Ruby was smiling wide. "So, I take it you enjoyed the experience, Ruby?"
"Of course! We learned so much, and Salem has no idea about it. We know that there's good in Emerald, that she doesn't want to do any of this. We could use that."
"More than that," Maria added, "We learned that Arthur Watts is alive. Pietro will likely be working on making sure that crazy coot can't hack anything in Atlas ever again."
Ruby nodded, "But, most importantly…We know about Salem's Hybrids. That mom is one of them. And," Ruby turned to Oscar, "How to save her."
Oscar looked down, once again-
'Could they truly forgive me, if I did this?'
Oscar's eyes widened in shock. Ozpin spoke for the second time today. Oscar went to mentally reply, but felt Oz go back into the recesses of his mind. He'd tell the others about this later.
"Hey, kids," Qrow smirked, "Speaking of good fortunes, you might want to see this. You never forget your first time."
RWBY/JNOR moved to the front of the Manta.
"I can't believe we finally made it."
"Well," Weiss replied, "Believe it, Yang."
In front of them was the kingdom of Atlas, with the cities of Mantle and the namesake city floating above it. The majority of the group were in awe at the sight. Weiss then leaned forward.
"Girls."
At Weiss's words, the group looked above the canopy…to see the entire Atlesian Air Fleet in defensive formation above Atlas.
"Well," Qrow stated, "Jimmy did mention things were tight. Let's see if we can lighten the burden on him, shall we?"
Ruby smiled. Despite how ominous it looked, they now had an advantage over Salem. And they were going to hold it for as long as possible.
"Manta 5-1," their radio blared, with an Atlesian Air Traffic Controller responding, "Welcome home."
To be continued in...RWBY Responds to 'I Can Almost Hear the Hounds'
Author's Notes: That's right, this baby's getting a sequel! It's something that's VERY rare, this type of fanfic. Sure, you've seen thousands of reaction fanfics. However, only 1 percent of them (from what I've found) actually finish. And, of those that finish, 1 percent of THOSE don't have the characters go forward with the knowledge they have. The story simply ends, or their memories are wiped. Not this story. Frankly, it's mainly going to cover the events of Vol 7-8. Our heroes are now aware of the Grimm Hybrids, Summer and Arthur's current condition, and several other factors that have made their position much stronger. Something tells me things will be looking up from here on out.
But that story is WAY off, possibly a year from now. I've got other stories I need to divert my attention to, particularly a certain remake (to those who know what I'm talking about, it'll be ready before next month is over)
As always, leave a review, fav/follow, and I'll see you all next time.