The frontier was a beautiful place, Ruby hadn't realized that until now. The trees swayed and rustled with the wind, creating a lovely cacophony of branches and leaves, melding with the birds' harmonic ambience. Had her mother ever done frontier work?
Ruby's hands wrung against the pockets of her dark coat. She craved a smoke, desperately. She didn't know how long they'd been walking for, but it was long enough that her toes had become numbed by the cold. Her head ached— she hadn't been away from her team for long enough to satiate her need for nicotine. Ruby didn't like smoking in front of them; they gave her worried, nagging looks, and she feared that Yang would throw her cigarettes away if she found them.
She etched the runes into her flesh, screaming her pain into a bloodied rag.
She pulled the cigarette from her lips, her smoke curling into the winter deluge.
She lay before her queen, her back splayed open like wings of tissue. Cold fingers crawled through her skeleton, embracing her spine up to her skull.
He felt the flow beneath his skin, pulsing with his heart, begging to be set free. All he had to do was let it out.
Her hands tightened around a throat. Nails scratched at her face, her eyes, anywhere they could find purchase, so she focused her Aura in her hands, pouring as much as she could. The flesh gave, her hands crushing together like a vice. Crack, squelch.
Ruby's eye flew open, and she immediately found herself in a full-blown panic. She was in a different room, something warm tightly holding her arms at her sides. She tried to strain, but her restraints were like corded steel around her waist. Ruby began hyperventilating.
"'Wuuh— ngh!" Came a shattered voice from behind, instantly shedding her paranoia away. It was just Yang, with her arms wrapped tightly around her sister, whose breathing slowly began to calm once more. There was nowhere safer to be.
Ruby took a few moments to wrench control of her lungs back. When her breathing eased, she patted Yang's encircling arms, and found herself quickly relinquished from the hold.
Ruby begrudgingly rolled out of her sister's bed and took a quick glance around her room, latching onto every tiny difference from the last time she saw it. Unfortunately, it was to no avail. She could still feel the beating heart under her fingers, fast, hot, and desperate. She blinked and shook her hands, as if that would rid her of the feeling. It didn't.
Yang's room was much messier than her own, with clothes haphazardly strewn about the floor and a stack of empty cups on her nightstand. Ruby hadn't actually been in their once-shared space since she moved all her stuff, and she certainly wouldn't have let it get this messy. Her eye caught a glowing alarm clock. 10:18AM. Ruby hummed; she usually woke much earlier.
Something soft struck the back of her head— a pillow, thrown by her sister. She turned to the blonde with a chiding frown.
Yang pointed to her, then made a waving motion in front of her nose. Ruby raised an eyebrow in confusion. Yang huffed, then pointed to Ruby again, this time very dramatically. Yang then pinched her nostrils shut and imitated multiple heaving gags.
"I stink?" Ruby asked. Yang furiously nodded.
Ruby scowled at her sister, to which Yang slowly mouthed 'really bad' in response.
Ducking her nose under her shirt, Ruby gave herself a sniff-check. Surely she wasn't that—oh. Wow. Yeah, she was that bad. Ruby hurried out of her sister's room, fearful to embarrass herself further with her supremely rank aura.
She quickly found her way to her bedroom/study, where she threw some clothes into her arms before absconding to the bathroom. Thankfully, it was empty.
Ruby rushed to drop her clothes on the toilet lid before turning on the water. She hurried to strip, doing it all as quickly as possible so she wouldn't have to see herself in the mirror. She really didn't want to know what kind of state would accompany that level of rankness.
When she finally got in the shower, she jumped. The water was much too hot, causing every scar that it touched to alight with burning pain. Of course, with most of her body having at least some scar tissue, that meant everything began to scream at her, begging her to take it easy.
Ruby hissed and quickly dropped the temperature to something less offensive, then began the surprisingly arduous process of cleaning herself. Her filthy mat of hair refused to become pliable after its first wash, requiring a second, much more intense scrub of shampoo before it was ready for her sister's conditioner, of which she stole an overly generous glob. Yang probably wouldn't mind, and if she didn't want her conditioner stolen then she shouldn't have bought such a nice one.
With only one eye, she had to frequently contort her neck to get a good look of how well she'd cleaned herself. She knew she was covered in soot from her workshop, various layers of dirt and ash, dried Grimm ichor, the crust of at least three people's blood, and it definitely felt like it. Whoever had cleaned her in Atlas didn't do a very good job, because it took her several minutes and many extra squirts of body wash to finally scrub her marred flesh back to its rosy, unsullied equilibrium.
Her skin felt raw by the end, especially her scar tissue, but cleanliness was a worthwhile tradeoff— she felt like she had been completely remade. After a few extra minutes of relishing the warm water, she turned it off and stepped out, then began aggressively toweling herself off.
Finally clean, she let herself look into the mirror. Sleep and a wash had done a great deal to make her look less like a walking corpse, but it didn't fix everything. New scars littered her legs— bites, scratches, and the many short cuts along her left side from the broken glass. The dark bags around her eyes refused to leave, and her lips seemed permanently stuck in a melancholy scowl. Worse still, her chin and forehead were breaking out with acne. Her fault, she supposed, she hadn't showered in who-knows how long.
At least her hair looked nice. It still fell straight down the sides of her head, nearly to her collar, but finally cleaning it gave the mop some wavy volume and made the red tips pop. She looked more boyish than she was used to, but found herself appreciating the style. It was new, and long enough that she could probably style it to cover the damaged side of her face, should the need arise.
After putting her clothes on, she gave herself a final once-over in the mirror. Black tank top, black joggers, black sneakers. It wasn't a bad look, and certainly fit her mood, but something about it…
'How dreary', Weiss would've said. She could almost hear her voice. 'You're more fashionable than this, Ruby. I taught you better'.
Ruby watched her own expression sour in real-time. She felt for the bond, but it howled like an empty cave, reminding her of the permanent pit in her soul, and not in a figurative sense. There was a distinct gap in her Aura, just as real as the gap behind her left eyelid, a hollow emptiness sitting under her skin. It felt wrong.
Ruby shuffled back to her own room, dumping the dirty clothes by the door as she entered. She'd organize them later— she had to correct her clothing situation.
Her cloak was the first thing that caught her eye, mainly because it was draped over her chair. It was colorful, and she loved it, but… it wasn't right. She couldn't wear it, not yet. She hadn't earned that right back. Plus, it was still as filthy as her old clothes, and cloak plus joggers plus a t-shirt? Weiss really had taught her better than that.
The hollow bond howled. Ruby tried to ignore the sting.
She searched her closet, seeking any splash of color. She blindly reached into a group of reds on her rack, pulling free a flannel with a simple plaid pattern of black and faded crimson. It added a nice splash of her favorite color, but did nothing to ameliorate her boyishness. As a simple fix, she tied the sleeves around her waist. There. Much closer to neutral.
She took a last glance at the mirror on her closet door, and her seemingly permanent scowl actually lifted. She looked nice, and felt quite comfortable. It was a far cry from her Huntress garb, sure, but she didn't need all that accoutrement right now. She was comfy.
Leaving the closet, she suddenly felt… better. Not okay, not by any stretch of the word, but certainly better. Rested and clean, she found herself brimming with energy. Unfortunately, she knew this was a bad thing— she had to recover. Her father had proven as much with the tongs, and the intense soreness in her body only backed the notion. Facing Adam like this would be suicide. Ruby sighed. Her stomach growled.
Seeking to remedy her hunger, Ruby made her way to the kitchen. She expected to find Tai along the way, probably on the couch, but only found a long plastic box with a note on their coffee table. Curious, she bent down to read it.
'Kids', it read, 'I went to town to grab something. These are for Ruby.'
Ruby moved the note and observed the orange box below. Her eye immediately lit up.
Cookies.
She tore the box open and marveled at the contents. Standard, store-bought cookies. The box wasn't full, but it was far from empty, so she began her rampage. Chocolate-chip-laden pastries flew into her maw at inhuman speeds, then were ground into digestible bits by furious, gnashing teeth.
The experience was exquisite. Each cookie was perfectly baked— not too hard, not too soft— and thoroughly sown with chunks of delectable, artificially-sweetened cocoa. She felt a deep craving finally sated, one she hadn't even realized she'd neglected.
Predictably, the cookies were no match for her voracious hunger; she devoured the entire box in minutes. Ruby closed her eyes and heaved a great sigh, reclining on the couch as satisfaction thrummed in her bones. With some semblance of peace finally resting in her partially-empty soul, she burped.
"Dust, Rubes, you tore that apart."
The voice nearly startled Ruby right off the couch, but she quickly realized it was just Tai, his arms adorned with an impressive multitude of grocery bags. Ruby sat back up, crumbs tumbling off her. "Can I help?"
Tai shook his head with a proud smile. "Nope," he answered, hiding his strain. "Got 'em all in one go!"
Ruby watched her dad waddle to the kitchen, both concerned and amused. He cursed as a particular bag struck their counter, but managed to set them on the dining room table without further issue. Ruby followed him, peeking around to get a look at the groceries. "So, what'd you get?" She asked.
Tai sighed and stretched his arms. "Just enough for you two monsters. Doctors said you'd need around a month before you could come back."
Ruby tilted her head. "Come… back?"
"To Atlas," Tai supplied. "To finish your training. They're accepting all of y'all, full rides!"
"Accepting us?" Ruby repeated, her throat going oddly numb. "To… the academy?"
Tai nodded. "Yep. To think, my girls at Atlas Academy! Damn!" He chuckled to himself and made a show of shaking his fist at the heavens. "Thought I'd raised better troublemakers than that."
Ruby tried to let the information sink in, but her dad spoke before the silence could hang.
"Oh, that reminds me. Qrow—"
Ruby rushed forward suddenly, both hands desperately latching onto her father's vest. "Is he okay? What happened to him? Is he in Atlas?"
Tai held his hands up and tried not to feel too jealous of his friend. Her concern was warranted, he supposed, they were very close. "He's fine. They've got him in Atlas with Yang's girlfriend."
"Oh thank goo— wait, did you—"
Tai waved her off with an easy laugh. "Rubes, I may be dumb, but I'm not an idiot. You should see the goo-goo eyes she gets when she talks about that girl. Plus, she totally spilled the beans last night."
Ruby stared at her father, jaw hanging agape. She wasn't surprised they were together, or that Tai had found out, but rather that they didn't see fit to tell her. Did they not trust her?
He waved a hand in front of her face, making her jump. "Rubes, you listening? I'm gonna play the message he left."
After quickly shaking her thoughts free, she nodded to her father. He tapped his Scroll a few times. Qrow's voice followed.
"Hey, kid," he said from the device, slightly more raspy than normal. There was a persistent beeping around him, giving Ruby the suspicion that he was being treated. "I'm alright, docs said I'll be free to go by the end of the day. Just gonna have some scarring— one more story for the ladies, amirite? Heh, yeah…"
A long, awkward silence passed over the room. Qrow audibly sighed, then continued. "I'm sorry about what happened, Ruby. About everything. I… look, I messed up. I wasn't paying attention, got too comfy being a teacher. I should've known what was happening— somebody should've, at least. These people, whoever they are… they're dangerous. And to coordinate it with a complete sacking of Vale…" his voice cracked under the weight of tragedy. It was easy to forget that, just beyond the horizon, one of the grandest city-states in the world had become nothing more than smoking embers and Grimm fodder.
She should've gotten out sooner. She could've redirected those ships to relieve Vale. This whole time, she'd been crying over one dead girlfriend— what was her loss compared to those in the city? Entire families, entire communities swallowed by Grimm and fire. She didn't do enough; what a Huntress she was.
Qrow's voice rang out again, piercing her thoughts. "It's not your fault, kid," he insisted, as though he could read her mind. "You did the best you could, you saved lives, and you can keep saving lives. Don't let this stop you from protecting people."
Ruby scoffed. As if this was going to stop her. If anything, it would propel her. Adam had to pay for what he did to Weiss, to her, to her weapon, and to her school. She'd make him pay.
"Don't make it about him," Qrow's recorded voice echoed from the scroll, making Ruby scowl. He knew her too well. "Don't make it about Weiss. This is more than that, Ruby. This is serious, more serious than you kids can deal with. Just… let us handle it, okay? We'll fix everything, you just focus on being the hero your mom knew you could be. Save lives, do good things, and study hard."
"I love ya, little petal. See you soon."
The recording ended with a beep, leaving the room silent. Without a word, Ruby rose from the couch and went back upstairs, back to her room, her numb feet tingling as she strode across the floor. She didn't make a noise as she found her way to her study, then silently pried open the door.
It was the same as she'd left it: journal splayed face-down on the floor, with her old scope not far from it. Wandering to the obsolete tube, she slowly lifted it into her hand. Her fingers wrapped around its familiar form, knuckles turning white as her tightening grip began to shake. She drew a deep breath.
The useless thing smashed hard into the wall, casting out shards of glass as the lenses shattered. Ruby tightened her fists and locked a scream behind her teeth. That asshole! Who the hell did he think he was to tell her what to do? 'Let us handle it'? What a fucking joke! If it hadn't been for her, they never would have escaped Beacon! They would've been mulched by Adam, but he wants them to handle it? The adults? What, was she too much of a fucking kid to do anything? And how dare he bring her mother into it! Did he think that would get her to be a good girl and buckle down on her studies? She was done studying, what the fuck else would they teach her? Did they have a class for not fucking everything up and getting your girlfriend killed?
Seeking something else to lash out at, she lifted her journal from the floor. The pages that met her threatened to make her eye do the stupid fucking thing again, so she tore them apart with a loud growl, throwing the shreds at her feet until the leather covers had nothing to bind.
"Ruby, hey!" her shit dad called into the room, apparently having followed her up. "You've gotta stop this, it's—"
Ruby whirled on him without warning, getting one fist to his cheek by sheer surprise. His golden Aura held firm against the blow, and he caught the second fist in his hand.
"Stop, Ruby," he begged, his voice weak and desperate. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Fuck you!" She spat, throwing another punch with her unfettered hand.
Tai obviously caught it, but she didn't let that stop her. Instead, she used his firm grip to pull herself up, bringing both feet up while pouring her Aura into her legs, which she pushed hard to stomp into his chest.
Tai wheezed as he was thrown back out of the room, but he managed to keep a hold of Ruby's hands, taking her along with him as he fell. He twisted as his back hit the floor, his momentum rolling them over until Ruby was pinned beneath him.
"Ruby, stop!" He demanded, holding her arms firmly to the floor. "This isn't you!"
Ruby wrenched and grunted, but his grip held firm. His dopey blue eyes taunted her, hiding his smugness— he knew he could hold her down, just as he always had; Ruby, think hard about going to Beacon, about being a Huntress, you're feeble and weak, and you look just like my dead wife! I don't want you to die like her, you're the vessel of my paternal regrets and a constant affirmation that I'm a good person! Please don't leave, don't go kill the sick fuck that ruined your life! I'd be so sad!
Tai made a noise as he suddenly slumped, restraining nothing but scattered petals. A pair of falling knees struck him in the spine, making his Aura shudder as the intense force sent him spread-eagle across the floor. Ruby leapt back and hummed with satisfaction, watching Tai cough and heave as he pushed himself back up. It was a pitiful sight— the old man thought he was still hot shit, but he was realizing how much he'd let himself go. She wondered how much Yang had really sparred with him over the summer.
Ruby approached to finish him off, but a pulse in her mind stopped her in her tracks. Her eye throbbed once, showing her a single, crisp image: Yang flying down the hallway, arms wide to tackle her sister. Finally, the thing had a use besides tormenting her.
Ruby stepped to the side and turned towards the incoming blonde, then reached out to snatch Yang's extended arm as she twisted the girl's momentum against her, tossing her at their recovering father. The two of them tumbled back and landed in a pathetic heap.
Yang sprang back to her feet without a moment's recovery, her lilac eyes shining, while Tai just laid there and groaned. She obviously wanted to say something.
"Spit it out, sis!" Ruby found herself saying, the words roughly tearing past her throat and bringing a violent satisfaction. "Cat got your tongue?"
Yang opened her mouth, but only a pitiful wheeze escaped. The shining lilac dimmed slightly, but Yang kept herself in check, disappointing her sister.
"Just kidding, I know she does!" Ruby taunted. "Not that you would tell me, though! Oh, but if I get a girlfriend, then it's all your business!"
Yang tried to make some kind of gesture with her hands, but it was all meaningless. The girl was simply too dumb to communicate with anything besides caveman grunts and hip thrusts— and that was before she took a blade to the throat. In the end, she settled on a limp stance and a pathetically apologetic look towards Ruby.
No, that wasn't what she wanted, she wanted to fight! "Don't fucking look at me like that!" Ruby growled, stomping towards her sister. "What, are you too scared to fight me? Come on!"
Yang met her eyes as her sister approached, but there was nothing but guilt under her lilac irises. It made her angry.
Ruby roughly shoved her, forcing Yang to stumble a couple steps back. "Well? Come on! Hit me!" She taunted, her fists raised.
Yang pursed her lips and shook her head.
Ruby growled and raised a fist, but found herself wavering at the face she was about to pummel. It was Yang, her sister. Somebody she loved, who had literally carried her to her room and helped her get the sleep she desperately needed, even with how nasty she was. Yang was the person who was there for her, even when dad couldn't be. And here Ruby was, trying to hurt her, thinking terrible things about her.
Yang leaned forwards, gently resting a hand on Ruby's arm. Her other hand cupped the girl's cheek and brought her eye up to meet her own.
Ruby bit down on her shame, averting her eyes. Even then, she couldn't push all the anger down; it nestled deep inside her like an ember, dull but undeniably hot. Some part of her still wanted to hurt Yang for not trusting her, to murder Adam, and… even Weiss. She wanted to hurt her, too. She just had to throw herself away like that. It should've been Ruby instead.
Yang squeezed her arm, bringing Ruby's attention back to her sister. Crimson slowly seeped back behind silver, leaving behind only thin red rings around her irises. Yang buried her concern— she knew Ruby didn't want it right now— and deliberately mouthed the words 'it's okay'.
Ruby sniffed, her indignant resolve shattering as she dove into her sister's arms. She sobbed into Yang's chest, weak, apologetic mumbles disappearing into Yang's bosom. With each tearful jerk of her shoulders, she felt a piece of rage slough away.
"Jeez, Rubes," Tai groaned, his spine popping loudly as he straightened back out. "You don't mess around, huh?"
Ruby didn't need to separate from her sister to feel the glare she sent his way, followed by a yelp as she slugged him.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "Just come outside when you're done, okay? I'm gonna go put the groceries away."
Yang nodded for her, and Ruby continued sobbing as her sister calmingly stroked her hair. She was angry, and sad, and scared, and whatever else contributed to her overwhelming cavalcade of emotions. Sobs wracked her body, and she tried not to think about how much snot he was getting on her sister. Yang held her tight regardless.
Ruby found her father outside after a long while, leaving Yang behind. Tai stood halfway inside of her workshop, staring at her progress.
"New weapon?" He asked without turning. "Gotta say, pretty impressive. Really solid foundation here."
Ruby cautiously approached him. "Dad, I'm so—"
He held a hand up, silencing her. "It's fine, kid. I'm not mad at you or anything, I get it. C'mere."
Tai lifted his arm, inviting her under his wing. She quickly obliged, tucking herself against him as his arm fell over her shoulders. It was warm and nice.
Tai reached towards the wall and pinched a sheet between her fingers, bringing it to his eyes. It was one of her more maddened design sheets, her mostly-illegible handwritten scrawl scratched across its surface. She wasn't even sure what the words said, but the disorganized drawings clearly depicted various head designs, including one that made her grimace in shame. This one had a serrated blade, designed to rapidly overcome an Aura with multiple points of contact. It did nothing extra against Grimm, and was conceptualized with the express purpose of killing other people. It was a tool of a bygone era, one where war gripped the world, now highly illegal, especially for Hunters. It made her gut twist.
Disgusting as it was, she still thought about using it on Adam. Even if his regenerative factor was cranked up beyond human and Faunus levels, she had no doubt that such a weapon would tear him to ribbons, permanently. That idea brought her sick satisfaction. He deserved nothing less.
Tai's arm shook her out of her stupor, and she looked up to see him wearing an expression that was mildly perturbed, but still assuring. "Pretty messed up, petal. But hey, we all gotta vent sometimes. Besides, the other ones are way lower maintenance— if any teeth break, you gotta replace the whole blade. It woulda been more viable on your last one," he remarked, almost offhandedly, as if his daughter hadn't designed a weapon for the express purpose of slaying people.
Ruby blinked, suddenly finding herself deprived of warmth as her father pulled away. He stepped deeper into the workshop and lifted her in-progress piece— the head of her new weapon. Only its basic dimensions had been hammered into shape, a bit thicker than her own head at the base before gradually tapering to a point over the course of five feet. It was longer than Crescent Rose's was, but she had yet to work the intense bend into it.
"This is pretty long," Tai mused with a hum, "you gonna be able to work with this?"
It took a moment for Ruby to realize she'd been asked a question. "Y-yeah, of course! It'll have a pretty serious curve, so it shouldn't be that much longer than C-R in the end."
"And the back?" Tai probed, returning to her wall of designs. "I mean, how's it gonna attach?"
Ruby approached her wall, but she didn't really need a refresher on the concept— it had been the best part of her design frenzy, one of the few she actually remembered. "Well, actually that's the really unique thing…"
Tai watched with growing pride as his daughter energetically pointed between various schematics, frequently mentioning Qrow's own weapon in reference to the mechanism. Honestly, most of it flew over his head, but he was still achieving what he'd set out to do.
"And the whole assembly can be super reinforced!" Ruby gushed, nearly breathless as she concluded her explanation.
"Well, what about the cogs and gears?" Tai asked, tuning back in. "They seem kinda fragile."
"Wha- dad!" Ruby crossed her arms and huffed. "Were you not listening at all? They're superficial!"
Tai blanched, caught red-handed. "I-I'm just, uh, wondering what the point is if they're just gonna break, y'know?"
Ruby pursed her lips, but her expression eased slightly. "They're sorta like a nod to uncle Qrow, but…" she hummed, pinching her chin between her thumb and forefinger. "I dunno, we'll see how I feel about it when I get the rest done."
"Yeah, that makes sense," Tai nodded, relieved that he'd managed to save that.
Then, silence. It wasn't particularly awkward or pleasant, and Tai wouldn't let it get to that point. After a few long moments, he turned to her.
"So, Ruby," his face was serious, but his tone was gentle. "You wanna tell me what happened back there?"
Ruby froze, but managed to maintain her composure. This had been Tai's strategy, she realized, to butter her up by chatting about her weapon, that way she wouldn't crumble when he asked her to explain why she attacked him. "I, uh… I…" she mumbled, her face turning red.
Tai stood in front of her and laid a hand on her shoulder "It's okay. You got angry, it happens."
It was embarrassing to be treated like a child, but she couldn't enunciate her feelings herself, so she just nodded.
"It was what Qrow said, right?"
Ruby shook her head. "No, no… I mean, yeah, but… it's just everything," Ruby sighed, feeling the mental fatigue fog over her mind again. "Beacon, Weiss, my fu-" her voice cracked, tears threatening to spill out at its mere mention, "friggin' eye… curse… thing. I just— it sucks!"
"You need to tell someone," Tai insisted.
Ruby threw her hands up and scrambled back. "No, I can't! I-I mean, what if they're not even real? Or if they're wrong? Sometimes they're really vague, I wouldn't want to worry anyone with just, like, some weird prophecy that doesn't even make sense!"
Tai frowned at her, then sighed. "Yeah, that's what Summer always said. She never shared it with anyone."
"Were hers right?" Ruby carefully probed, fearful of hurting her dad.
Tai shrugged. "Dunno, she never said if they were or weren't. What she did do, though, was keep a journal of all of them."
"A journal?" Ruby repeated, feeling dumb. She hadn't even considered that. "I, uh… I guess that could help."
"She said it did," Tai agreed with a small smile. "Especially after she had you. It kept her focused, and helped her get grounded after some of the… rougher ones."
"O-okay," she felt a little better at the idea. "But, uh, I kinda…" tore my precious journal filled with my last innocent memories of Weiss into shreds in a fit of rage.
"I'll get you a new one," Tai promised.
Ruby nodded, and there was another long bout of silence. This time, it was she who broke it. "Was there anything else?"
Tai grinned. "There is something."
Ruby's eyebrows rose high. She didn't like that tone.
"You've got Xiao Long blood, Rubes," he chuckled mischievously, then cracked his knuckles. "That means you get to train like a Xiao Long."
Yang burst through the door, as if summoned by the word 'train'. Her tablet was held high above her head, with words in huge typeface and bold print: 'YALL MFS TRAINING?'
Ruby groaned, but she couldn't hide her smile.
AN: ruby is a nasty garbage boy