If you can survive here, then you are welcome here. The whistling wind carried the decree with intangible strength, words that were steered by bereavement ricocheted in her brain like the grating sand in her lungs. Both left scars where they trespassed, igniting flesh like her blood embodied gasoline, and her organs, fire dust. It spurred her on, fueling and cranking the engine that furnished her determination and will to get back to the city.
Silvers shimmered with a thin film of Aura, the pressure induced by dwindling Aura reserves clutching at her heart, intensifying by the second as granules of sand grazed and abraded. The filter on her dusk mask had long since caved, relenting to the miniscule bullets that more than exercised their strengths in quantity to wear down even the most rugged of Huntsman. It was with that sorry development that led to Ruby clutching an old pungent shirt to her face, not trusting any knot to withstand the inverse hurricane she currently waged war against.
Her leg throbbed rhythmically, pulsating with the threat of an infection and the promise of another scar, with the shabby dressing that was wrapped around her right calf having been dyed scarlet not a quarter distance into her way back. The lowly concentrated liquid chlorine that she had bathed her wound in burned and tore her cells apart with unmediated fervency, carving a path of immolation as it flowed within. Proper wound treatments were still in short supply after the war, and many, including herself, agreed that medicine be better suited to the dying or Aura-less.
Overall, far from the worst situation she's been in, though she doubts someone that fought Salem personally would find anything worse than the fallen monster of the Caelestes herself. A quiet chuckle tore itself out of her, rewarding her with a teaspoon of sand for her disarmament of sealed lips.
It was funny. Even after all this time, sand kicking with a consistency that charred her lungs, sun raining down an inferno that seemed to melt through her aura, and water sometimes running so scarce that dehydration caused the coming of her sweat to seem like an oasis in the desert, she still wanted to be here, in the last standing kingdom of Remnant. Sure, the other kingdoms were being rebuilt, with foundations of rubble and dilapidation serving as the substratum for peacetime, but Vacuo was where they had withstood Salem, where they had stared her down with the rest of humanity, a 'scourge' that refused to succumb to eradication.
Though a vacation might be nice. She could barely remember the mildewed smell of Patch's forest, or the laughter and chatter of a festival gone right, or the sharp smell of snow, a heavy and chilling permeation that saturated Atla-
Like a switch, her mind snapped to captivating pale blues, silky snow-white hair that framed decorum, and symphonious laughter that apparently once bolstered her joy. Or rather, that's what Yang said Ruby used to feel. Now all she had of her partner was an emptiness left created by a circumstance of wretchedness, and a fog that manifested vaulted beclouded glass, glass which cracked like desert fissures, leaking spinose knowledge of a person condemned in absentia. Although, still a person that she would give up even Crescent Rose to feel a split undulation of recollection for. The slated throb that accompanied her partner announced its arrival with a sharp paroxysm of pain from memories long lacerated, though this sensation wasn't one of the heart and soul, but one of a more physical nature, clawing and raking at her skull from within, a shooting agony that intensified with familiarity.
Gritting her teeth, Ruby burrowed afterimages of a curved blade glimmering blood, albino thorned roses specked scarlet, and horrified Lilac. With the sun smoldering, water lacking, and her body fighting remembrance against her volition, it was another day since Salem.
Despite the setting sun, and the heat relenting to a penetrating chill that stabbed into bones, the city of Vacuo was alive with a cacophony of cheers, laughter, and ecstasy. The sandstorm howled its protests outside the city walls, but Vacuo was all too familiar with cries that have been incessant ever since Vacuo was usurped from an Oasis to the harsh lands that occupied, and so the conviviality continued. It had been some days since she had last been in the city, though the flying banners that leapt on the currents of the wind enlightened her to the anniversary of the end of The Great War. She never really was one for history.
The cobblestone road clattered with the symphony of anti-sand boots, a low thumping that reverberated in pacing legs and joyous hearts, augmenting the spirit of the festivities with an arrhythmic bassline.
Ducking her head, Ruby fixed her eyes on the winding cobbled path of white stone, tracing its patterns and engraved history as she slinked through boisterous groups that on occasion, successively gave way to long snaking queues.
The war had made the surviving Hunters famous, akin to celebrities, and everyone was looking for a chance to talk to one, interview one, or chat up one. But the scars that were inflicted in the war layered both skin and soul, leaving the few surviving Hunters to justifiably refuse such interactions with the populace. Ruby was no different, having lost her fair share of friends, family…and team members.
The interception of wooden steps in the cobblestone path signaled the rise of her eyes to a artsy wooden sign that was nailed shabbily to its post, with a few nails having come loose, balefully teetering over the edge, and plotting their escape from their inequitable life of servitude.
A cartoonish snow fox lounging against brown discolored wood with a beer in hand stared back at Ruby, its big round eyes shining in counterfeit friendliness with a cheshire grin so wide it just looked inapposite. She reckoned it was a haphazard order from Atlas, probably from before the war considering the scratches and suspicious stains that adorned its cracked and aged surface.
Shaking her head with mirth, Ruby heaved her aches up the stairs two at a time, and crossed the threshold into the encompassing warmth with an anticipation amplified yank. The wooden door creaked its indignation as it opened, and made its resentment for labor known via the emission of a long drawn-out groan as it slowly closed, sealing the warmth into the tavern and serving as a blast door against the intruding, hostile cold outside. A few boards pinned to the top corner of the roof rattled with the force of her yank, leaking small rills of sand to announce her arrival to the occupants of the room in lackluster grandeur.
Most of the inhabitants of the tavern were engrossed in their own conversations, ale and beers flowing as easily as words, with roistering cheers furnishing the venue. The room was laid out like a restaurant, several tables clustered in each corner, red powdery streaks lining the spaces between ornately woven rugs. It smelt of earthly wood and warm food, clinging to the doors, floors, and walls, baptizing anyone that walked through with a congenial halcyon. It's become everything that she has come to associate with safety and sanctuary. An amalgam of voices, dancing lights, and homely smells, 'Under CrossHairs'.
Behind a long counter stood Velvet Scarlatina. Adorned in a simple black tunic with a deep brown apron hung over her shoulders, she enacted a startling performance of normalcy; Scrubbing, and rinsing out glasses with practiced and ingrained efficiency. Despite the noise in the tavern, Velvet's humming easily perforated the commotion, a gentle, assuaging lullaby that contrasted the tumult around her.
The entire wall behind her was displayed with different types of alcohol in odd-shaped bottles, the liquid colors inside changing per bottle. Ruby spotted a few heads twisting away as she scanned the room, an unpleasant shiver picking its way down her spine.
Shaking out her clothes and cloak, Ruby adopted a bright, genuine smile, and made her way over to the counter. Sliding onto a bar stool right in front of Velvet, she watched with a small grin as Velvet stared fixedly at the glass in her hand, her tongue sticking out in an adorable look of concentration with a frustrated rosy flush as she projected the full might of her pout on a rather stubborn stain.
"Heya Vel, guess who's back?". Ruby grinned, spreading her arms out in a histrionic grab for attention, engaging the dulled glass in a bloodthirsty battle for the most engaging of characters.
A muted beat went by…then another, congested with the sound of squeaking friction between polishing cloth and her heckling combatant. And it was clear her theatrics had been disregarded in favor of her amorphous foe. Confound it, must be one of Cinder's that escaped from the grave considering how it was smirking glaring light into her eyes.
Then, a pair of coney ears intercepted her words, relaying and screaming the information into neurons, wrenching rich brown away from scowling glass to pleased silver. "Ruby! You're back! Oh Coco has been worried sick for days, just you wait till I tell her you've been making her lose sleep for nothing." Despite the thinly veiled threat, an ecstatic grin transmuted her Faunus friend's features, eyes sparkling with the joy of distress having been triumphed over.
Casting her hand into one of her many pockets, Ruby fished out her scroll, showcasing the ugly and jagged laceration that ran diagonally, exposing the device's internals in a morbid display. Ruby huffed, shifting in her seat and supporting her head with the other hand with an eye roll that would've made ##### proud. What was she going to say again? Oh, right. "Sorry Velvs, the contract brief had a 'slight' deviation from what was really out there. Gotta say, fighting a Vacuo born baby deathstalker and its parents right splat in the middle of their nest without backup is a far cry from 'sightings of small Grimm'," accentuating her words with air quotes overflowing derision.
Velvet scoffed, setting down the glass and cloth and pinching at her eyes with a grunt. "Damn Huck. I already told him the last time to vet external contracts properly. I'll handle your contracts from now on, don't you worry. You'd think with how much we have done for the war the remaining few would be treated better." Velvet maintained her irritation, etching indignation across her face, and drawing more than a few worried glances from patrons. Even having retired, many remembered the Defenstrix of Vacuo's inner gates, remembered the maniacal roar that echoed through the labyrinth of Shade Academy, and they surely remembered the groan of the falling whale that signaled the temporary retreat following the culling of Salem's army.
Ruby swiveled her head, throwing crinkling eyes complementing a consoling smile around, before tapping Velvet's fingertips lightly in an attempt to alleviate the pressure on her patronage. The sight of her ease brought solace to anxious expressions and frantic glances, resulting in the reinstatement of relaxed posture and casual conversation. It was much the same as in the war; If Ruby Rose was still smiling, all would be taken care of.
Jolting at the sensation of rapid taps on her fingers, fury impeded by bitten and calloused pads, she met understanding silver and grinned appreciatively, dispersing the tension in the air fully, and ushering back the liveliness temporarily stilled. "First thing tomorrow, I'll tell Coco to hand down any contracts requesting for your expertise to me. After all, I wouldn't wanna wake up one day and see Yang at my door."
Ruby let out a hearty laugh, before wincing as a fresh wave of stinging pain assaulted exposed flesh, brought about by the convulsions. Meeting the questioning look thrown her way, Ruby smiled sheepishly, before gesturing down at her calf, prompting Velvet to hop up on her toes, craning her neck and leaning over the counter curiously.
"What's with the- Dust Ruby!"
Ruby threw her hands up in surrender, body shrinking beneath the height of the counter, and staring up at the appalled Faunus through a veil of penitence, her best attempt at mediation of the coming onslaught. "N-Now Velvs just hear me out. I'm not that injured, and-"
Velvet grabbed a clean cloth from the underside of the bar and darted through the flip up countertop to join Ruby on the opposing side of the counter. Pacing between glancing at Ruby and her calf, Velvet muttered almost embarrassedly: "I know you're fine Ruby. I can see your aura healing and shimmering over the wound through those crappy bandages. And you've lived through Tyrian's poison so I highly doubt a deathstalker's one would do you in," pausing to kneel down, she begun wiping at the floors hastily, as though attempting to unearth a new layer of wood beneath the polish and shine.
"But these floors aren't! This is mahogany Rubes, had to get it imported from Patch, and here you are dripping your blood on this scared wood!", Velvet said, ignoring the grumbling protests of indignation from The Reaper.
Crossing her arms with a pout, Ruby sat up perpendicular, eyes squinted shut in mock outrage, stature transposing to adopt the poised replication of a nebulose memory. Through the shuttered cracks of her eyelids, Velvet halted her movements, goggle-eyed and mouth slightly agape with stuttering, catching breaths, as though she was seeing the visage of a friend gone adrift, a ghost consigned to oblivion.
"You…Sometimes you really do remind me of her, you know?"
Ruby opened her eyes, revealing blatant discomfiture through the clasping of her hands and dipping, dimming silvers, the recollection of a stranger staying ever fleeting, leaving behind naught but a dull aching pulse in her skull, and a tenantless gaping chest.
"That's what everyone keeps telling me. I just hope that if…when I see her, it won't feel like my chest is caving from the pressure, or like my head is filled with fire dust, and every breath is an ember."
A commiserated sigh reached Ruby, before she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, pulling her head into all-encompassing relief, and cocooning her in sweet, desperately needed alleviation. "Don't worry Ruby, you're going to get through this. You'll see her again soon, I know it." Ruby squeezed her eyes shut, sniffling and burrowing her head into Velvet's shoulder, seeking shelter from the pervasion of the cavity left by a memory having scarpered.
At the end of the day, Ruby was still the youngest amongst her peers. Though they had faced down the twilight devilry together with no sleep and less food, though they had each once held what was left of a family, friend, or lover in their arms, and though somewhere along the line, they had each forsaken the reality of the kids who had joined Beacon, Ruby was forced to grow up faster than the rest of them. And while they had charged towards an unquestionable demise, Ruby was at the forefront, bearing down a legend upon their adversaries.
Wiping dry eyes with her sleeve, Ruby signaled Velvet's withdrawal via a pat on the back, throwing her dear friend a shaky smile. "I will try my best, even if it hurts like hell. In fact, I'm thinking of doing another session with Yang tonight. I totally get it if it's too much trouble, but since my scroll is out of commission-"
Without missing a beat, Velvet reached into her apron, producing her scroll with an easy grin. "No problem Rubes. I'll get you a room, best one we have for the bravest person I know." Slipping the scroll into Ruby's hand, Velvet darted her eyes about, eyes scanning the crowd and door for indications of her inamorata, before shooting her a pert wink. "Don't tell Coco I said that yeah? I love her, but damn does she get jealous easy." Sharing a short laugh, Ruby beamed appreciation, twinkling eyes accentuated by the swinging of a luminous chandelier.
For a moment, pools of brown darkened, a shade of perturbation muted festivities, casting a spike of uncertainty into Ruby, muddling her perseverance, and staining her hopes for a night of betterment.
"I'll get everything else ready too Ruby, just in case we get a repeat of last time."
"Thanks V."
"Woah, you're telling me, you purposefully tanked a hit from the stinger, just so that you could cut it off? That's badass Rubaloo!"
Ruby rolled her eyes, staring up from the bed at her grinning sister, both arms extended fully to allow for her sister to get the full extent of her contempt. She sunk her head deeper into the pillow, taking comfort in the pristine white softness that seemed to encase her cheeks, and the strangely addictive smell of scented product. Damp scarlet tipped hair framed her face, perfectly highlighting every detail of her mock exasperation, further put in the spotlight by the contrasting white pillow casing and the shattered moonlight diffusing into the darkened room through translucent blinds. Blake seemed to agree with her sentiment, judging from the startled yelp and the swift snap of her sister's head off to the side.
"Did you just-"
"Yes, and I will do it again if you keep encouraging Ruby to take increasingly dangerous risks," a mockingly sweet voice sounded off from the right side of the screen, prompting a smirking wink and a finger brought up to curl at her blonde mane.
"I love it when you're feisty"
Laughing heartily at the faceful of pillow that her sister encountered, Ruby sat up and leant against the backboard, propping herself up, and enjoying the diminishing efforts of Yang's pillow armed swings as she succumbed to the superior, though underhanded, tactics of team R#BY's personal shroud.
"RuRu…Avenge meee…", a defeated Yang croaked out before letting out a hyperbolic groan as her departing words trailed off and her battered head slumped, a finale that could only be chronicled as a video game character's end.
Ruby averted her eyes upwards, rubbing her chin as though pondering one of the world's great truths, "With theatrics like that maybe you should've taken Oscar's offer as Headmistress, Brothers know you would've fit right in with Sun and Neptune." Smirking at the undignified squawk that followed, her toothy smile only widened as Yang's mouth fell agape comically, placing a hand on her chest.
"Your words wound me little sister, you could even say… they stung"
Glancing down dispassionately at her now properly bandaged calf, she fixed her sister with an inscrutable deadpan that would've…did make Blake proud. Amber orbs popped into view, an approving look gracing her features as she threw Ruby a gratifying nod of respect.
"Seems like you got this one handled Ruby. Take her off my hands for a while, would you?"
Yang sputtered as Blake slinked out the room, casting her hand out in a feeble attempt at seeking commiseration. She gave an anguished cry, and buried her face in her hands, weeping for a future never realized and cast to the dimension of what-ifs.
This song and dance was one Ruby was familiar with however, and she simply raised her eyebrow, waiting as lilac peeked out from the gaps of enclosing fingers. Not one to let a joke run dry, Yang shot her head up with a pert, broad smile, hands coming up to rest on the back of her head, like a jester proud for the chortling court.
"Oh well! She'll come back eventually; she always does."
Ah Yang. A handful as she is, Yang had been an invaluable person to everyone in the weeks following Salem's defeat. Her lively personality and ability to make everyone groan comically brought a dash of repose to the desolate Hunters in her presence. It was a requiem for the charming, unworldly days of Beacon, and the antiques of one Yang Xiao Long that had often left Glynda incensed.
…
In the last days, when aura gave way to flesh, when blood surrogated sweat, and when she was torn apart, a Headmistress she was not; Another friend was lost. She would not let her partner stay amongst their ranks.
Taking in a steeling breath, Ruby projected her reserves of courage, shaking fingers gripping the edges of the scroll in apprehensiveness, yet marshaling determined resolution. "I want another session." Shocked lilac shot up, wide eyed and fretful, flashbacks echoing across their glassy surface.
"Ruby…"
"I know Yang. I know. But I have to do this, I need to know who she was."
Yang rubbed at her face, nervousness strewn in the shaking of her fingers, and the punctuated halting in her breaths. Yang cleared her throat, shaking the image of writhing and pleading from the forefront of her mind and the echoes of her eyes. "Last time didn't go so well Ruby. And that was with Ren's Semblance to help."
A shaky exhale proved futile in fortifying her mettle. A Semblance manifesting speed had many uses, but while the world slowed, and time stilled, her body continued in motion. It was widely understood that the instinct to live triumphed a Hunter's stamina, allowing Hunters to utilize a surge of terminal lucidity in that last femtosecond before death, instinctively empowering Aura and Semblances in a frenzied grasp for the next breath. Though the rules changed when your Semblance slowed time, prolonging a femtosecond by just a fraction longer. And that fraction, was just what she had needed against Salem.
But now, when the sessions brought her to the verge of death, when her heart skipped cycles that spanned seconds, and when her semblance prolonged these seconds into agonizing, soul splintering eternities? In that everlasting eon of agonizing pain, feeling like she was being ripped apart from her heart's center, and feeling every fiber of shredding flesh that withered from muscle necrosis, she had wished her semblance would turn off, that her barbed blood would stop racing, so that she could stop fighting it. To say she was terrified was an understatement. "I know, I…I want to try again, Velvet knows what to do. If anything goes wrong, you just give her a message or a call, and she'll work her magic with the concentrated lightning dust."
To know nothing of the friend she battled with and for, the friend who had cast herself aside despite the self-imposed torture she would have to endure, it was a form of torment by itself. Her partner was one she needed to remember, to know why she was willing to face down ruin once again for.
Her sister wore a forlorn look, eyes shining with worry, and sympathy, all wrapped up into a ball of tumultuous emotions that settled restlessly into a deep pit at the bottom of Ruby's stomach. Yang's somber nod predicated on a pronounced swallow, intricate gears whirring and humming as she pushed herself up with her prosthetic.
But of course, Ruby Rose couldn't always be the brave one. As the shuffling of Yang's footsteps withdrew, the shield holding back her doubts fissured, the slow inception of a betraying call for retreat forming in her mind. The air felt thick, and her lungs pleaded for oxygen as she inhaled cement, a bulky, merciless lump that formed in her windpipe, imprisoning her anxieties and terror within a pallor, trembling, and splintering husk.
Throwing the scroll aside, she drew her knees up to her chest with her head buried between them, encasing her in a little shelter where she didn't need to put up a smile, a void where she could let her ills out in shattered gasps and grated cries. Why…why was she compelled to go through such pain again, all for an improbable chance?
Sweat glued her nightshirt to her back, leaving her feeling sickly and shaking as it conducted the night chill that gravitated towards her through closed window blinds. Goosebumps layered her skin, accompanying the prickling fear that ran down her spine, assaulting flesh and organs in a malicious display of its jurisdiction. Tinnitus rang in her ears, intensifying even more so as she clutched at her ears with a clenched jaw, defending against the shrill assailant to no avail.
She was…
"Ru…"
So scared…
"Ruby…"
What say you Yang?
"Ruby!"
Her sister's panic shot through hers like a bolt of clarity, clearing the fog and mist. A lighthouse in a nightmare that shined a beacon of cognizance upon her person. Scrambling for the full screened Yang that was seemingly trying to poke her head through the screen out of worry, Ruby came into the camera's view, shooting her sister an apologetic smile.
Dipping her head down, Yang looked almost chastised as she radiated relief and ruefulness. "Thank dust Ruby. You ok? Crap I'm sorry I shouldn't have left you especially before a session when she's…You know, running through your head"
Ruby was almost affronted that her sister thought herself at fault. "What? No, Yang it's my bad, I got too lost in my head. I'm just…really glad you're the one doing these sessions with me, I mean Blake is great and all, but you know…" An earnest peer into lilac, "You'll always be my big sis."
Yang returned the sentiment with a heartfelt toothy smile, eyes crinkling with blood rushing into her cheeks from the heartfelt sincerity radiating from her screen, emotion channeled across land and ocean by softened silver conducting a subdued smile. "Anytime Rubes."
A beat. Grins and unspokens exchanged.
"Well. I'm all set up on my end, I got everything we had last time, plus something new I found on my old scroll but we'll keep that aside for now."
Ruby nodded, silver eyes conforming to steel as she sat up straighter, narrowed eyes carrying a sharp glint of focus that had Yang smirking at the appearance of team RWBY's Reaper.
"Let's start, shall we?"
Author's Note:
Next chapter will probably be posted sometime next week. Hope you guys enjoyed, please do comment any criticism you may have.