*Legend 3*
Time to say Goodbye
...
Ruby's first impression of the Vanguard's Hall that it was...big. Really, really, big. It was also very full; the horde of Guardian recruits standing just a few yards from her position. What lied in front of them was blocked from Ruby's view from this angle, but there was no missing the elevated stage that lie in the very front of this large space. Pyrrha left Ruby with a nod and went to take her position somewhere near the front of the rabble. Ruby immediately began searching the crowd for the familiar cascade of yellow hair that was her sister, only Yang found her first. "Ruby over here! I saved you a spot!" She cried with an energetic wave.
Ruby poked her way through the sea of Guardian hopefuls, ignoring the occasional prod by an errant rifle butt, and finally joined her sister's side. "So, how's your first day goin' little sister?" Yang said.
"What, you mean after Glynda separated me from the rest of the group, confiscated my weapon, and I exploded?" Ruby huffed, recounting her time in The Tower up until now."
"Yikes...meltdown already?"
"No! I mean I literally exploded a hole right in front of The Tower! There was some Solar, and I think some Void..."
"Are you being sarcastic?" Yang said with pleasantly narrowed eyes.
"I wish!" Ruby sighed. "I sat on this crabby German girl's luggage, then she screamed at me, and then I exploded, and I felt really, really bad, and all I wanted was her to stop screaming at me and-"
"Sie!" Was the sudden shout from directly over Ruby's shoulder.
Ruby's mind immediately flashed back to her unfortunate meeting with Weiss, and all the yelling and the (what were no doubt) insults in a language she couldn't understand. She threw herself into Yang's arms for a sort of frightened infantile protection. "Oh, Traveler, it's happening again!" She whined.
"You are lucky we weren't blown off the side of The Tower!" Weiss snapped at Ruby.
"Oh my Traveler, you really exploded..." Yang said, awed that Ruby could possibly survive...exploding. She then crinkled her eyes in question as she asked, "Wait...who's Z?"
"It was an accident! It was an accident!" Ruby left Yang's arms in an attempt to defend herself from what she was sure would be another verbal onslaught from the the girl, only to come face-to-face with Weiss's Ghost. Which, much like the girl herself, was quite pretty; sporting a powder-blue shell decorated with minute white snowflake decals. "What's this?" She asked. Of course, she knew perfectly well what the Ghost was, what she couldn't understand why she had to talk to it, instead of it's owner.
Then the Ghost began a rapid series of pre-programed speeches and instructions in an arrogant, condescending, (and undoubtedly) female voice:
"The Schnee Light company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Light company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with an easy to follow guide to Light application and practice in the field."
Ruby was fairly certain that half her brain exploded while trying to follow what the little device just said."Uhhh..."
"Do you really want to start making things up to her?" The Ghost said.
"Absolutely..."
"Then go away and don't ever speak to her again."
'Yikes, even her Ghost is a bitch...' Ruby thought sourly.
It was then that Yang came to her sister's rescue. "Look...uhhh, it just sounds like you two got off on the wrong foot." She said. "Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?"
"Yes, great idea, sis!" Ruby said, seizing on the suggestion. "Hello Weiss, I'm Ruby." She held out her hand to shake.
"Vice?" Yang pondered out loud, likening the girl's name to it's closest English-sounding equivalent. Weiss shot Yang an angry blue-eyed stare, before turning what little attention she felt like giving back to Ruby.
"Do you want to hang out?" Ruby continued nervously. "We could go shopping for weapon supplies."
"Ja!" Was Weiss's suspiciously enthusiastic response. "Then we can paint our Ghosts, and try on Shaders, and talk about cute Warlocks like tall, blue, and fiery over there." She pointed a thumb at a tall awoken Warlock not too far from their little group, who's, unless Ruby was mistaken, head seemed to be issuing what looked like white flames.
"Wow, really?" Ruby squeaked.
The look on Weiss's face at that moment could have conveyed clearly enough the whole, 'I can't freakin' believe you took me seriously' thing. But if this girl was really that stupid, she would no doubt need some verbal re-enforcement. "No." Was her plain answer.
Just then, the feedback of a tapped microphone reverberated throughout the room. Every head in the hall turned uniformly towards the stage erected in front of the crowd. And there at center stage, with Glynda Goodwitch at his side, was Ozpin, The Speaker of the Light. He pushed his shaded spectacles up his nose before he began his speech. "I'll...keep this brief," said his electronically amplified voice. "You have come to this Tower seeking knowledge; to hone your skills and perfect your crafts as future Guardians." He paused here, for reload, and a quick glance around the room. For some reason, Ruby couldn't help but feel that his eyes lingered just slightly on her own during their sweep. "But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy. Potential...in need of direction. You assume that knowledge will free you of this. But in your time serving not only here on earth, but on all of our worlds beyond, you will learn that knowledge will only take you so far." He paused again, and there was no mistaking it; he definitely looked right into Ruby's eyes this time. "It is up to you to take the first step."
Ozpin limped away from the microphone as Glynda took his place. "All Guardian recruits will now be escorted to their living quarters. At o' eight-hundred hours tomorrow your initiation begins." She said. "You will report back here to Cayde-6 at that time. Be ready. You are dismissed."
The hall broke out into chatter as the recruits began to file out back into the Tower Plaza. Ruby made sure to scoot out of the way of the tide of recruits as they made their way. She stood on tip-toe trying to get one last look at The Speaker before he left the stage, but had already gone. Yang's hand on her shoulder brought Ruby back to herself. "Some speech, huh?" She said.
Ruby shook her head just slightly. "I don't know. He seemed...out of it."
"Almost like he wasn't there," Yang confirmed.
In the end, they joined the very end of the que of recruits heading back across the Tower Plaza. Night had truly fallen now, and the Plaza had come alive with artificial lights. They marched back to the staircase from which they originally entered The Tower. And to either the right or left of that small staircase, were the male and female living quarters respectively. As the recruits were shown one by one where they would be staying in Tower, Ruby finally got to see who was escorting them on this short trip, and she was surprised to see that it was..."Blake!" Ruby squeaked.
The Faunus girl smiled slightly and inclined her head in greeting. "How are you Ruby?"
Ruby then introduced Yang. "This is my older sister, Yang Xiao Long."
"Yo," was Yang's greeting, maintaining her ever un-shakable coolness.
"How do you do?" Was Blake's return greeting.
"Do you live here in this section with us?" Was Ruby's next question.
"No," Blake said. "I live in the Tower North housing, along with the other advanced Guardians."
"Advanced Guardians?" Yang questioned.
Blake nodded. "There are currently thirty ranks to Guardianship; one through thirty. These ranks are broken up into tiers; one through ten is the novice tier; eleven through nineteen is intermediate; twenty through twenty-nine is advanced; and thirty and above are considered to be master Guardians."
"Wow..." Ruby breathed. She of course had no idea how the Guardian hierarchy worked until now. "What rank are you, Blake, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I am rank twenty-four," Blake said back. "My partner Lie Ren is rank twenty-two, and our leader Pyrrha is rank twenty-eight."
"Oh!" Ruby remarked. She stiffened her spine as she stood at attention in the presence of a superior Guardian. "Ma'am!" She said dutifully. Ruby elbowed Yang in the ribs and she hastily adopted the same posture.
"That's far from necessary," Blake said just a bit uncomfortably. She eyed Ruby closely through her yellow eyes. "Besides, if I were to guess, I'd say we share the same class; maybe even the same semblance..."
Ruby's eyes lit up. "I knew you were a Blade Dancer!" She said excitedly.
Blake turned to Yang. "What about you, Yang?" She said. Her eyes grazed the other girl's profile for a bit. "Titan?"
Yang pounded her right fist into her open left hand. "Striker." She said in confirmation.
Blake nodded her understanding. "Well, your room is right here on the end, it should accommodate the both of you quite comfortably." She gave each of them a nod of farewell. "Good luck to both of you tomorrow."
She turned to leave, but was stopped by an outcry from Ruby. "Wait a second!" Blake turned around, her yellow eyes full of question. "You said there are four Guardian tiers. Are there any in the master tier?" Ruby really had no idea why she needed to know this, but she supposed such knowledge could help her avoid any awkward situations in the long run.
"Currently, there are no Guardians in the master tier," Blake said.
"Not even those fire team Cinder guys?"
"No," Blake said. "But they all are about as close as you can get at rank twenty-nine."
Even Yang was curious at this point. "What would it take to get into master tier?" She asked.
Blake shook her head. "No one knows. The Speaker once told us that master Guardians were those that have accomplished a feat so epic, that even they themselves would not be able to emulate the task."
Yang squinted her eyes. "So... they have to do something so bad-ass that they couldn't even do it again?"
"In simple terms, yes," Blake said back. She stood there for just a moment longer before saying, "Well, goodnight. Good luck tomorrow." And she left them alone.
Yang faked a yawn as she said, "Well, I don't know about you, sis, but I'm ready to hit the sack." She then quickly un-holstered her Vanguard-issue hand cannon, the Duke Mk.10 and took aim at an imaginary target. "And then tomorrow, we'll hit The Fallen!" She pulled the trigger several times, knocking the hammer on the empty barrel.
"Right," Ruby said rather dreamily. "Tomorrow..." And they retired to their quarters.
...
Ruby couldn't sleep. She knew the effort would be futile before she even lay down. So many thoughts raced through her head, faster and faster, losing track of one before the next even came to be. In her state of restless awareness, she could tell that Yang was still awake. She knew because her sister's thunder-like snoring was absent from the room. Ruby rolled over on her side. "Yang, are you awake?" she half whispered.
"Yeah," was the response.
Ruby rose from her own bed and crossed the short distance across the room to Yang's. She curled up next to her, tucked into the crook of Yang's long body, just like when she was but a toddler. Ruby's body was relaxed in this familiar position, but her mind was far from idle. "We can do it, can't we?" She whispered.
"Do what? Pass the initiation?" Yang said back.
"No, I mean...can we be Guardians?" Ruby took Yang's silence as plea to continue. "Once we do pass initiation, our lives end as we know them. I have this romanticized picture in my head of what it means to be a Guardian; to fly across the universe and protect our people, no matter where they lie. But that will be our lives; spending each and every day fighting as if it were our last..." Ruby trailed off, her voice failing her at that point.
Yang was silent just a moment before she said, "Well...then I guess it's time to say goodbye."
"To our carefree lives..." Ruby whispered.
"And the innocence of youth," Yang added. "We knew we couldn't stay helpless forever. And seeing how The Traveler extended our life spans, that makes every day we spend fighting more meaningful, because we'll be around longer to make more of a difference."
"Yeah...that's one way to look at it," Ruby smirked.
Yang ruffled Ruby's already bed-tousled hair. "Two hundred years of kickin' ass and takin' names."
Ruby chuckled to herself, her eyes closed and fading fast. With her mind eased by Yang's presence and reassurance, sleep came up to meet her almost at once.
...
BREEEEEEEEE! Ruby catapulted herself to a siting position as her heart threatened to burst out of her chest. In the center of the early day-lit room stood Cayde-6 and his Ghost, which was currently blaring it's electronic siren. Ruby's first thought was why the hell did he have to wake them so early? Her next was...wait...WHAT WAS HE DOING IN HERE!? Ruby made a desperate attempt to cover herself. "GAH! Is nothing sacred!?" She gasped.
Cayde only shook his head. "Lemme lay two things things on ya, sweetheart," he cracked wisely. "First, I'm not really here. Second, in case you haven't noticed, I'm an Exo; what you got doesn't interest me at all. Not that there's much there to begin with..." Ruby chucked a pillow at the intrusive hologram. "Let's go, ladies!" Cayde said, before vanishing from the room.
Yang pushed herself up from her sleeping position; her hair a mess and her eyes barely open. "Wherezafire...?"she drawled sleepily.
"Cayde-6 gave us a wake up call," Ruby said, already pulling on her gear. "We have to be at the Vanguard Hall."
"Oh, yeah!" Yang said, suddenly wider than awake.
In no time the two girls were geared up and heading out the door. They met a good number of their fellow female recruits in the corridor, whom they exchanged rather nervous greetings with, the reality of their immanent initiation heavy on their minds. They formed an orderly pack as they traveled across the plaza to the Hall. And once they arrived, they were met with an incredible sight.
The Vanguard Hall was nearly filled to capacity. Not only was it packed with all of the recruits that had made the trip to The Tower, but it seemed like every Guardian in The Tower was on hand for the event. Ruby's eyes did a slow circuit around the room as she took in the sight of so many veteran Guardians in one place. And of course, they all stared back; talking and laughing amongst themselves, no doubt sizing up this fresh group of rookies ready to be initiated. Ruby's eyes fell on the (rather unfortunately) familiar form of Weiss. Ruby gave her a small wave and shy smile. Weiss obliged by folding her arms and pointing her nose in the air. Oh well...
And when all the recruits were finally present, Cayde-6 took center stage and signaled to the rabble for silence. "Alright, listen up, 'cause I'm only gonna feel like saying this once," he began. "With Miss Goodwitch busy assisting The Speaker, that means I'm in charge of you newbies this year. As you already know, you are soon to be deployed for your initiation. Whether that takes place here on Earth, or anywhere else is totally up to chance.
"You will be going in teams of two; you, and your chaperone. And while out in the field, they will be your boss. What they say goes, period. AndIt's here that I'm gonna be frank with you; all of you will not succeed." Cayde cast a slow look around the faces of the fresh recruits, as though mentally picking out those he thought this statement applied to. "If you are unsuccessful in your appointed task, then you will be escorted from The Tower and will be free to try again in another year."
"Now, when I call your name, you will present yourself to me front and center for appraisal, partnering, and deployment." Cayde looked over the scroll in his hands as he prepared to read off from the list, but seemed to suddenly remember something of great importance. "Oh, one more thing," he said. "For all you Hunters in the crowd; in case you haven't picked up on it yet, I am the Hunter Vanguard captain, and you will show me the proper respect. Whenever I address you, or you address me, or any other superior Hunter, you will first offer this salute." Cayde raised his right hand to his forehead, the thumb tucked in, in the age-old military gesture. This action was followed by clenching the same hand in an emphatic fist pump.
The Hunter salute.
"Not hard to remember, is it?" Cayde said. "If anything it's the simplest of the three salutes." He raised his scroll again. "Alright, let's get started."
And from there Cayde began to read off names from the list of recruits. Of course, Ruby didn't know any of these people, but she was sure she would eventually. These were the very same people that she would be fighting along side with in the very near future, provided they passed their initiation of course. Ruby payed very close attention to the appraisal process of these future Guardians, as to get a bead on their classes and semblances; a tall Awoken female; Titan, Striker. A nineteen year old human male; Hunter, Gunslinger. An Exo Female; Warlock, Void Walker. And even more interesting than their appraisals, were their partners. Every recruit was paired with a veteran Guardian, to see them through their initiation.
The awoken Titan woman was paired with an absolute giant of a man named Yatsuhashi, a Titan striker. The male Gunslinger was partnered with a woman that Ruby couldn't help but to look twice at. She was just barely taller than Ruby herself. She was clad in a midriff-bearing uniform of navy blue with a pleated mini-skirt. Her body was thin, but quite curvy; her long, almost straw-blonde hair fell past her shoulders; and her eyes were brilliant green. She was a Hunter Gunslinger. Her name was Noel Vermillion.
It was about here that Ruby noticed that they were being matched class for class, semblance for semblance, likely to allow the recruits to see a superior Guardian with similar abilities in action.
Ruby waffled a little nervously next to Yang as they crowd of recruits began to thin around them. Yang was getting quite anxious herself, as she began to fiddle with her hair. This was a habit that she carried over from her childhood. Among all other things in the world, (except for her family of course) Yang loved her hair the most; it was her pride and joy. She would often take to fiddling around with it in situations where she felt challenged or excited, or nervous, like she was feeling now. And Traveler help you if you do anything to muss it up. The last guy who ripped out a strand of Yang's hair...
Well, this fic is rated T, so I can't tell you that here.
And then her name was being called by Cayde-6, "Yang Xiao Long, front and center!" Yang gave her hair a final toss before approaching the stage, her head held high with confidence. Cayde looked over his scroll. "We got ourselves a Titan here, Striker semblance. Now..." he trailed off, something highly unusual catching his attention. "Now that is somethin'," he said quietly. "Nikos, come have a look at this."
Pyrrha strode over from her position on the far right of the stage. She read over the scroll Cayde held before her and she let out a low whistle. "A Striker with a Solar affinity," she said slowly. She locked eyes with Yang, "I'm interested to see what your Fist of Havoc can do." Yang set her fists on her hips proudly at the remark. "I'll take her," Pyrrha said suddenly.
"Your enthusiasm is appreciated, Nikos, but we both know that's out of the question," Cayde said.
Pyrrha rolled her eyes pleasantly. "It is rather boring just staying stuck here in the Hall all the time," she said. She gave Yang a last nod before returning to her position on the stage.
Cayde returned to his scroll. "Hmmm. We seem to be running out of similar semblances," he said. "I'll have you go with..." he set in motion the scroll's RNG function, and it landed on, "Blake Belladonna," he said.
Blake heard the call and descended from her position on the balconies overlooking the Vanguard Hall. She offered Cayde the Hunter salute and then joined Yang's side.
"Alright, so you two are heading for The Moon," Cayde told the two of them. "One of our lunar colonies has lost a few vital bits of Earth-related information to a few Prying Servitors. You are to stalk these Servitors and eliminate them. Clear?"
"Yes, sir!" The girls said in unison. They moved from the stage and stood with the other Guardian-recruit parings.
Cayde continued to read off more names from the list and before she knew it, she was the final recruit left. Ruby felt intensely vulnerable standing here all alone in the center of the Hall, the eyes of everyone on her at once. 'Picked last again,' Ruby thought abysmally. 'It's elementary school kickball all over again...' And just then, the call of "Ruby Rose!" had come from Cayde. Ruby sucked in a breath as she approached the stage. She passed Yang along the way who gave her an encouraging nod. Ruby presented herself to Cayde and waited for him to begin.
"Let's see here..." he said. "Looking at a Hunter here, Blade Dancer Semblance." He stopped his speech here and glared at Ruby through his electric eyes. Ruby started as she realized she had forgotten to pay respect to her Vanguard Captain. She mimicked Cayde's earlier salute the best she could. Cayde seemed satisfied.
"Alright," Cayde said, going back to hi scroll. "It seems that all of our on hand Hunters have already been partnered, which means you'll be accompanied by someone of a different class than yourself." Cayde let the RNG do it's thing. "And that person is...Weiss Schnee."
'Oh, no' was Ruby's mental moan.
Weiss marched onto the stage and turned to face Cayde, not even glancing at Ruby. "You two are going to the Cosmodrome in Russia," Cayde instructed. "Relatively short trip, I know. "As it turns out, a small Fallen house has sprung up near their Sky Watch; nothing to serious, the reports indicate it's about a dozen Dregs and an overly ambitious Vandal. Your orders are to quell this house and all those inside it, clear?"
"Yes, sir!" Ruby said. Weiss simply nodded, her brow furrowed.
"Alright, that does it for the pairings," Cayde said to the group in large. "Your chaperones will now escort you to the Hangar Bay where you will disembark for your missions. Good luck, and Light be with you, Guardians." He offered the Hunter Salute in parting and the teams left the Hall for the Hangar Bay.
All except for one team that is. Weiss simply stood with her arms folded as she chewed her bottom lip. She looked for all the world like she she did not want to be approached, but Ruby tried anyway. "So...Weiss, should we get going?"
Weiss ignored Ruby completely and marched right up to Cayde-6. "Um, Herr Cayde?" She said.
"Hm. What is it, Warlock?" Cayde said, his eyes not moving from his scroll's display.
"It's...about my partner..."
"Go on."
"Is there no one else on hand today?"
"Oh, you're not happy with the pairing?" Cayde said.
"Well, frankly sir...no, I'm not."
"We can do something about that," Cayde said.
"You can?" Weiss responded, her hopes rising.
"Sure!" The Exo responded cheerfully. "I would be more than happy to demote you a rank!"
Weiss deflated at that statement. She huffed a sigh and made her way back to Ruby. "By no means does this make us friends," she said bitterly, literally dragging Ruby from the hall by her red cloak.
"You came back!" Ruby squeaked in relief.
The two made their way to the Hangar Bay, which was now alive with activity due to the influx of departing Guardians. Weiss waited near one the Hangar elevator plates for her ship to be presented. And with a deafening mechanical clang, her ship came up. Ruby recognized the model as the LRV1 Javelin. "The transmatt, if you would, Windig," Weiss said to her Ghost.
Ruby had never actually been transmatted before, and was quite nervous at the prospect. But before she could prepare, she found herself already in the ship, in a seat right behind Weiss. Ruby knew that most Guardian jump ships were only modeled for one person, and she found the seat and the cockpit to be just a bit cramped.
Weiss minded the controls as she flipped various switches and levers, talking in rapid German to her Ghost the whole time. Ruby did her best to find a comfortable position for her squashed knees as she attempted another conversation with her partner. "So, Weiss...what rank are you, if I can ask?"
Weiss leaned back in her pilot's chair, her white ponytail falling over the seat. "I am rank four, if you must know."
Ruby balked. "That's it?" Ruby said glibly. That seemed strange considering that the other recruits were paired with Guardians who were rank twenty and up.
"I don't have much of a rank for two reasons," Weiss began defensively. "One; I am what's known as a floater, a Guardian that does not have a true Fire Team yet. I fill in where other teams are down a member, or run patrols for the Vanguard. And second; I am currently taking rigorous Cryptarch courses, as that is my other aspiration, thank you very much."
"A Guardian Cryptarch..." Ruby mused. "That's kinda cool!" A thought then occurred to her. "Wait. Wouldn't it be kinda hard to do both?"
"It is," Weiss said. "The Vanguard demands my status as a Guardian be upheld at all times, but I don't want to fall behind on my Cryptarch courses either...so I try to balance them out."
"Well, if it were me, I would try to figure out which one I liked best, and stick with that. I always wanted to be a Guardian, so that's what I would do. But, I digest," Ruby finally.
Weiss turned around to face Ruby. "Digress," she corrected her.
"Bless you."
Weiss groaned and turned back in her seat. "Why are we just standing here?" Ruby said, seeing that off to their left, another jump ship had just departed the Hangar.
"We have to cleared," Weiss told her. "The air traffic is quite heavy right now, so we need to wait for a clear flight path. Honestly, don't you know anything?"
'I know that you're a jerk...' was Ruby's first thought.
"LRV1 Javelin registered to miss Weiss Schnee, you are now clear for take off. Light be with you." Said the flight hand through her Ghost.
"Ausgezeichnet," Weiss said. She cast another look back to Ruby. "You stay quiet and try not disturb me, okay?" Ruby waved her hand with a smile. As soon as Weiss turned her back, this wave became a...one-fingered salute.
Weiss began her pre-flight checklist; "Mototemperatur, scheck; Triebwerke, scheck; Stabilisatoren, scheck. Alle systeme gehen!"
Suddenly the cockpit was bathed in red as the ship's error lights flared on. "A program error!" Ruby said.
"It's thought noise, I told you not to disturb me," Weiss said.
"What do you mean?"
"You're thinking in English aren't you?" Weiss snapped. "If you must think, do it in German!"
"Well, let's see," Ruby thought aloud. "Strudel, bratwurst..."
"Dummkopf!" Weiss cut her off sharply. "Set language interface for English. Let's go."
And Weiss powered the ship's thrusters and the two were off for the Cosmodrome.
...
*End of Legend 3*
...
A/N:
Good grief, this took a while to type, due mostly to my Gemini trait of inconsistency (look it up). In Destiny news, with the whole Dark Below expansion, I have to remodel all of my weapons, and my armor to reach the new standards, so I've been hittin' the 360 pretty hard lately. Of course I've much bigger things to worry about with the whole healthcare (Ha!) employer mandate kicking in again. Business owners around the country are already starting to sweat. If your hours on the job get cut, just know why :/
In any case, I would like to thank guest and member alike for giving my story a read, and a even bigger thank you for the well-constructed criticism in the reviews thus far. I'll post again when I can.
-B.D. Skunkworks