I'm back baby! Again, so sorry for taking so long, finally have a bit of breathing room and was able to complete this chapter. Super stoked that the majority of people seemed to enjoy the previous chapter and the way it was resolved. No more babbling, onto the reviews!
AkiraShidou: Always happy to put out a new update! Really happy you enjoyed the thrill of the fight, and you're correct in thinking that Ruby hasn't shown everything off just yet. Oh, you know, Blake always being a bit broody while Pyrrha... well, all in due time my fried ;D
Sithdoom: Ah, you mean the Gate of Babylon? Haha, funny you should mention that, because while that's not what Weiss was using... it's still pretty close to what I've got in mind for her down the line. Ding-Ding, correct! I took good deal of inspiration from Beowulf (Lunar Phase was pretty blatant of me), however, as far as I'm aware, 'Trick' is part of Vergil's Dark-Slayer style, while Dante's 'Trickster' (same thing Yang uses) is like an offshoot. That's... not to say that Adam won't have his own interesting little twist. Good catch with the switch-up of Motivated and Concentrated XD. Honestly, I'd agree say V and Blake line up a lot more, while Weiss only really shares the summoning aspect. Oh and don't worry, one day, Ruby and Yang will get their SSS rating XD.
Jak Fortune: Ominous indeed! You'll just have to stick around and find out what she's thinking later down the line ;D
Fomoriam191: Yup! As a Revengance fan, it's hard to ignore the reference to Jetstream Sam, and I love it.
Reaper Eye Fuck ONI: I am pleased that this story has reached your eyes, and I'll certainly do more!
KHARAKI TAKAN: Really happy you liked the chapter and the fight! Also, looking back over it, I see where you're coming from with Yang's interjections, it really breaks up the flow of combat. I'll be sure to keep it in mind dude!
RadBman21: Oh, you're going to LOVE what I've got in store for the future then XD.
Alucard45: Yeah, to be fair, the Fate franchise is... really really expansive, to say the least XD. Please do let me know if things seems to get too out of whack, and I'll do my best to correct or just erase and redo it! Y'know, I was really tempted to make the entire thing a stomp-fest with Ruby literally making Weiss bow to her, but I felt that was way too much. Still, you're right in noticing that Weiss' stiffness and inexperience is what allows Ruby and her own experience (not just against hand-to-hand fighters) let her largely counter what Weiss was going to do, as exactly (and literally) pointed out with the 'finger to the forehead'. You're right with noting that things looked a little too even at the end, but you're also right in that Ruby was just playing around. And I'm genuinely touched that you think this is a higher-level fic, thank you dude :D. To clarify, nobody really told Ruby anything about Summer's 'Death', so she just came to her own conclusions, while Yang's feeling's will be revealed later down the line. Honestly surprised too that the show doesn't go into more depth about Yang's feelings on Summer. And don't worry, Aura and the soul itself is gonna be a BIG part of the story! Thank you again so much dude!
david2299: Aaayyyeee, welcome to the train! Happy you liked to recent chapter and really glad you're liking it so far!
Kivuntappaja: Correct! It's also a Devil May Cry reference, wanted to figure out how to work it in somehow, and Yang seems like the perfect candidate XD. I see where you're coming from, but remember, Weiss was using her Glyphs to propel her entire body: all she has to do is stick her arm out slightly. I'm pleased that the sportsmanship (basically like you said, Ruby extending the fight on more friendly terms XD) was enjoyable! I actually went through something pretty similar a few years back, so this scene comes from the heart. And naw dude, all reviews are valuable and professional in some way, and your last ones were just as good as this one! So thank you dude ;D
lovecrazyhedgehog: Lemme guess, it was uncomfortable seeing Ruby like that? All genuinely pissed off and upset towards a friend? Believe me... you're gonna LOVE when she snaps against an enemy. She really WAS that mad, be she doesn't stay mad at a friend.
Anxiety King: Coooorect! The earliest draft of Ruby was more or less a lot like Misasa in terms of fighting-style. She still shares a few traits from him if you peek close enough at a few chapters!
With all that said, here's a bit of a lighter chapter! Onto the show!
Fighting Rose
Chapter 9
Settled hearts
…Saturday…
Ozpin closely monitored Ruby Rose ever since she stepped foot onto Beacon, and needless to say, she genuinely surprised him. Accidentally 'summoning' the Angelo Grimm, her raw combat capability, and most recently her spectacular showdown with Weiss for the sake of proving her place at Beacon almost a week ago, all of it was not what he had expected from her.
"She clearly shares the same overall demeanour of Summer," He wondered aloud, "But it's as if she's much more… intense. Still, she appears to more than understand the responsibility of being a leader, outwardly. Inwardly…" He closed his eyes and huffed through his nose. "… she is too young, yet here she remains. Perhaps it's best if I lay back and save my words for another time." He leaned back in his chair and drank his coffee, musing silently over his ponderings and wonders of a certain silver-eyed girl.
…
"C-can't….*wheeze*… breathe…!" Weiss gasped for air as she collapsed onto her back in the grass. "You… you do this… regularly?"
Ruby didn't answer for a moment as she caught her breath, grimacing slightly as she wiped the sweat from her face. "Not anymore," She sighed, "And it shows. Used to do this every morning back on patch. A handful of miles and some sprints always kept me in good condition, but since coming here and having to catch up on reading material – thanks for the help on that by the way."
"No problem," Weiss groaned with a weak thumbs up.
" – I just haven't been able to keep up with it as regularly, so I've been falling behind on a lot of exercises to keep me in top condition."
"… a handful of – Ruby, you just ran five miles in twenty-one minutes, followed up by ten two-hundred metre sprints!" Weiss cried hoarsely, "Isn't that overkill?"
"Aye, Grimm don't exactly understand the concept of overkill when they want to shred you into mincemeat, right?" Ruby chuckled before her expression wilted a bit as she muttered, "… people too, especially people." The comment reached Weiss' ears as she glanced over to Ruby with a raised brow, not getting an answer as Ruby seemed to catch her breath, standing up straight and stretching. "Okay, now for katas."
"Are you serious!?" Weiss groaned, earning a laugh from Ruby.
"Don't worry, you don't need to join me on this," She giggled, "I'm just doing it out of habit… ugh." She looked down at the tight and odd long-sleeve shirt she was wearing, strangely bulging around her waist arms parts of her forearm. Weiss looked closer at it, initially thinking that it was a simple black and tight-fitting workout shirt, onto to realize something.
"R-Ruby… is that plastic?"
"Yup," She grumbled as she struggled with both of the sleeves, finally popping it open. There was a loud *SPLSHH* as several cups worth of sweat poured out onto the ground, Ruby then going to the hem and opening that up too with an even heftier *SPLOSH* as thrice the amount spilled free.
"Excuse my northern Mistralian," Weiss said after a moment, "The fuck?" Ruby burst into laughter yet again, actually wiping a few tears from her eyes as Weiss turned redder. "You'd better cherish that, it'll be a cold day in hell when you hear me be so vulgar again."
"Weiss, I'm never forgetting that," Ruby said after she calmed down. "I don't normally bust this out, but I've been gaining a bit of unnecessary weight and sweating a bunch really helps with burning through it rapidly." She struggled with the shirt once more, managing to work it over her head.
"R-Ruby, we're in pub…! Lic."
"Duh," She said, her voice muffled by her shirt, "That's why I'm wearing a sports-bra, I'm not that dumb."
Weiss didn't hear her as she just stared at Ruby's upper half. Her abdominal muscles were absolutely shredded, a perfect six-pack that was carved from marble yet perfectly flexible, obliques that tightened and twisted like tight metal fibres under her skin, bruises from their previous match fading though still visible, the biggest one on her left shoulder from Weiss' Overloaded dust. It clearly didn't detract from her budding womanhood, gentle curves and a tight waist only accentuated by her well-trained musculature. But what really caught Weiss' attention was the almost foot-long jagged scar that ran from her lowest left rib all the way to her right hip.
'Th-that kind of wound doesn't look like a quick slash from a Grimm,' She realized, blood draining from her face. 'That looks slow and… manmade.' Looking closer, even as Ruby struggled to get the plastic shirt off, Weiss could see a number of smaller slash, stab and even bullet-wounds littering the front and sides of her body. Still, her extremely well-toned back was completely clean of any scars, much to Weiss' surprise. Ruby finally freed herself of the plastic shirt, gasping in relief as she fanned herself.
"Bwaaah! Finally out of that freakin…" She turned to Weiss and blanched, looking down at herself to see her scars bared to the world. "… huh, I keep forgetting about them for some reason."
"Ruby, what…?" Weiss started, struggling to find words. Ruby sighed and sat down cross-legged in front of Weiss, a lopsided grin that didn't reach her eyes.
"Hmm… Weiss, can you keep a secret or two?" She nodded after a moment, sitting up as she sensed that Ruby was about to tell something fascinating. "… okay, so, I'm guessing that when Yang gave you a heads up for our fight, she said something along the lines of me having done some really stupid stuff to get stronger? Or how your training conditions don't match mine?"
"Y-yeah. How did you even hear us?" Weiss asked.
"I asked Blake if she could hear you," She said nonchalantly, "She could, and pretty clearly, surprisingly. Dunno what that's about. Anyway… Yang's right. I have done some really stupid stuff to push myself to this level. By the time I'd entered Signal, I'd devoted everything I had to building myself up, even if that meant ignoring everyone around me. I'd push my body as far as it could go, and it still didn't feel like it was enough. So… I maaay have gotten involved in the criminal underworld."
That made Weiss spit-take, choking on her own saliva. "You're a criminal!?"
"Wha-!? NO! I mean, technically yes?" Ruby chuckled, holding up her hands, "Look, don't go and call the police on me yet, just hear me out." Weiss grumbled and calmed herself, though she'd never call the police on someone she considered a friend. She was annoyed at the implication that she would, but hey, not like she'd ever do that. Right? "Fights against people my age weren't giving me any growth, and matching up against Yang wasn't getting boring, just samey. So when I heard that there was a good amount of crime both on patch and in Vale, I thought, 'hey, might as well kick around some bad guys and see how far I am, right?'"
"You became a Vigilante," Weiss realized, sighing while fighting a small grin, "That is… incredibly you."
"Ehe, thanks," Ruby chuckled with a little blush before her expression fell flat again, "It definitely worked. Bigger and stronger thugs that genuinely wanted to hurt you was a step up from kids larping in a gym with weapons they don't fully know how to use. I made an afterschool hobby out of it, kicking butt wherever I could smell injustice!" She laughed before that too died out. "… had a good thing going for a few months until on one midnight I ran into an insane serial-killer who had a Semblance that let them have a kind of smoke or smog that they used to track victims. She overpowered me, broke my aura, pinned me down and… well, that knife was pretty jagged," She gestured casually to her stomach, a tiny tremble in her hands.
"Ruby, that's…" Weiss started, trying not to hurl at the suggested imagery. "… how did you survive?"
"Ooh, this is the fun part!" She visibly brightened and clapped her hands together, aura suddenly sparking forth from her body for a moment, as if a response the girl's excitedness. "Up until that point I'd only ever focused on the physical side of getting stronger, and this was the moment where I started to take an interest in aura. When I was pinned down, I was… really, really scared. I didn't want to die. I refused to die. I wouldn't let myself die. And like that - !"
She snapped her fingers, startling Weiss, who'd been so entranced by her tale.
"My aura just surged forward, way stronger than before! I'm not kidding when I'm telling you that my will to claw onto life was what saved me. I threw her off me and managed to get one good punch in before I blacked out. I'd still lost a good deal of blood but the people I saved helped me get to a hospital where uh… Yang actually found me after she got patched up from a brawl."
"Wait how does Yang suddenly come into the picture? What was she even doing out at midnight?" Weiss asked.
"Welp, found out I wasn't the only one who liked to take a dip into the criminal underworld while also gettng their butt kicked!" Ruby laughed. "Yang does a lot of things for the thrill of it, and she'd basically been doing kinda the same thing as me but with more focus on finding information on… uh…" Weiss raised a brow, curious before Ruby cleared her throat. "… that's not something I'm allowed to tell. You'll have to ask my sis yourself. But uh, yeah, she seriously chewed me out for being really stupid, don't blame her, but she knew I wouldn't stop and decided to join me, both to help me and - !"
"Keep you out of trouble," Weiss chuckled, "That's pretty understandable."
"Yeeeaaah…" Ruby chuckled, idly running her hand over her scar before she smiled, "I'll still never regret why I got it. The look of relief on that family's face… that was more than enough reward. Still, I needed to find out why I survived, and how to never let something like that happen again. If I died, what would've happened to that family? What about Yang and dad? So when Yang introduced me to one of the biggest Info-Brokers in Vale, I wanted knowledge, and I got it."
She lay down, staring at the sky. "Rare books, reports, a contact or two, recordings, all of them centred around uncommon cases of aura. It sounds like a lot, but there really wasn't much, since people only see aura as a shield and don't bother to develop it even further. Gods, even still you should see some of the craziest cases!" She said with wonder and glee on her face, "People using aura to supercharge dust-attacks, fire freaking lasers, make weapons! Since my semblance is kinda augmentative, I focused on improving the enhancement side of aura."
"Enhance…?" Weiss trailed off.
"Yup!" Ruby hopped to her feet, breathing out as she let her aura fully envelope her.
'She did that entire workout without aura!?'
"So, you notice how there's a clear difference in terms of athletic ability before and after your aura's been unlocked? That means that there's clearly some kind of internal strengthening aspect to aura itself, along with the healing and defensive properties of it. It's also why I don't use aura when I work out, helps me toughen up faster and I can cheat the recovery-process by just unsealing it without any drawbacks."
Weiss had never thought of it like that, but it was certainly true. Even with a broken or sealed aura, a low-level hunter on full stamina could easily outperform even a top athlete, yet it was a fact that didn't seem to gain any real attention.
"I pieced things together and learned that more than just moving aura around your body to increase its defence in one area, you can also channel it into your muscle-groups to super-boost your strength and speed!" Ruby demonstrated first by throwing a series of rapid jabs without aura, sharp and fast in their own right. When she added aura however, her arm turned into a blur, whipping through the air like rapid-fire bullets, Weiss wincing as she remembered the piercing impact of her punches, the phantom pains digging into her cheek, jaw and gut.
"Of course, the boost is different for everyone because of a lot of different factors," Ruby said as she stopped, "Some may be more suited for raw strength, like Yang. I'm more inclined for speed, your boost overall may be lower than ours but more evenly spread between speed and power, someone might have really low strength but more than enough aura to completely negate the problem altogether."
"You've… really done your research," Weiss admitted, almost overwhelmed by the information. "But if you don't mind me asking, why only aura?"
"…I uh, I don't know what you're getting at…?" Ruby asked with a rather cute tilt of her head.
"I mean, you're clearly smart enough when it comes to weapons. You know the makeup of Myrtenaster just as well as I do, along with all of our other weapons, so why not just make one for yourself? Surely you'd be more than capable of creating and handling a weapon that suits you?"
"You're not wrong," Ruby chuckled as she suddenly started to go into a slow kata. "I've dabbled in swords, axes, spears, heck I'd probably be able to handle a scythe pretty well, but… none of it feels as right as my body and my soul." Slowly, she moved into a traditional karate-style punch, a sharp snap right at the end of the movement despite her lack of speed. "You ask why I use aura specifically? Well… dust is considered a gift from the Gods of ages past. Weapons made by man can become extensions of ourselves. But in the end, it's aura that is the flame of potential of all mortal life. Where weapons remain as tools used to kill, and dust can be limited…" She balanced perfectly on one foot as she kicked straight up, her form unwavering, "We will continue to grow, that potential ready to be fulfilled so long as we put the work in. We can both hurt and kill others, but also heal and help. And I think that there's… something beautiful about that."
The absolute sincerity, the determination in Ruby's voice… it was something absolutely striking to Weiss. Sometimes, Ruby really did give off the impression that she was older than she appeared.
"… aaah, sorry, I went off ranting again!" She cried out, her face flushing red before she covered it with her hands as Weiss raised a brow and smirked.
'Older huh? Could've fooled me,' She chuckled to herself as the younger girl tried to school her emotions again. "Well, since you were kind enough to talk to me about your scar, then it's only fair that I tell you how I got mine."
"Oooh, tellmetellmetellme!" Ruby said eagerly as she sat right in front of Weiss with that familiar childlike glee.
"Well…" Weiss should have felt uncomfortable about it, but she found herself strangely at ease, a small sigh escaping her lips. "…My father would have preferred if I'd stayed in Atlas to better monitor me, but I insisted to come to Vale, to Beacon."
"To freedom," Ruby supplied, again surprising Weiss was the soft look on her face.
"Yes. Yes, exactly. But my father is… unwilling to let go of an asset so easily. So in order for me to go, he had me face off against a multi-Geist possessed suit of giant armour. I took a punch to that face and almost lost hope when I felt this wound," Weiss admitted.
"But here you are!" Ruby said with a big grin, "It's only natural that you start to lose focus once a big hit gets ya', but you came back and whooped that Grimm's butt like nothing else!" Weiss laughed at the rather silly way Ruby had put it, but it was true nonetheless. The memory of the Arma Gigas made Weiss recall a more recent memory with another Grimm, one far more powerful, enough to have pushed everyone to the brink.
"…Ruby, there's something else I've been meaning to ask you," She said with a slight shudder, "That… Angelo. It… it spoke. I didn't even know Grimm were capable of something like that."
"Yeah, well, they're just full of surprises," Ruby groused, though she didn't hide the troubled look on her face as well.
"And you said you fought one with your sister before? How?"
"Oh, we were just training on a patch of open ground not too far from our house, when boom, a beefed-up Ursa Major comes trampling in to disrupt us. We're both tired, Yang slips and it almost rips her in half with its mouth and I… did something to beat it. That's when an Angelo popped out and almost beat both of us to death before my dad hopped in and saved us."
"… Ruby, you know why the Angelo popped up, don't you?"
"…" Ruby sat down again, the mood more sombre. "… I think I do. At least, Yang and I think we've got an answer. An answer to a lot of things." She fidgeted nervously, eyes darting around before looking up. "How many people in your life have you met had Silver eyes?"
"… eh?" She shook her head, trying to think until… "Well, I'd say you're the only person with eyes like that. I'd remember if someone else had similar eyes."
"Yeah, funny how rare it is, huh? My mom had them too, you know? It's also really funny how often she went out on missions, and get this, one day she goes out for a mission and just… never comes back!" Ruby's laugh was dead, the smile not reaching her eyes as she tried to hide how hard she was gripping her leg for a moment, at least before she calmed down. "But… yeah. Yang and I think that… Silver eyes can destroy Grimm. It's an ancient legend, all the way from the Age of Divinity."
Weiss just stared at Ruby, barely able to process the information.
"I know, I know, it sounds dumb. But why do you think that Ozpin allowed me to get into Beacon so early? It had to have been the same thing with my mom, when she got in at sixteen. There has to be something behind the scenes, something…!" Ruby's frustration was apparent, but she sighed and shook her head.
"It… makes sense…" Weiss said after a moment, "But what you're saying suggests that there's a shadow-war going on behind extremely thin curtains, with players and pieces that are instrumental to keeping that curtain closed. Right?"
"I mean, when you say it like that, it just sounds super-dumb," Ruby chuckled a bit. "But this… power of my eyes. I've barely tapped into it, and it seemed pretty good at first, but if it's going to cause problems like Angelo-types to pop up, then it isn't worth using them. Haven't been able to improve them anyway."
"Well… thank you for being honest about potentially game-changing powers," Weiss sighed, though her own mind was working rapidly. "It seems to be hereditary, so possibly like a secondary semblance?"
"Yet there's records of several of different people with the exact same abilities? Nah. Besides…" Ruby was serious for a moment before she broke out into a dopey grin, "Maybe one day I can fire beams from my eyes! That'd be so coooool!"
"You are such a child," Weiss sighed, though her gin wasn't something she could hide this time. "Anyway, I think I've recovered enough. I shall join you and practice my combat forms – !" As soon as she tried to stand, her legs wobbled and gave out as her backside hit the grass. "… okay, maybe not."
Ruby laughed as Weiss flushed red, the air between them light as Ruby went about whipping her scroll out to snap a picture of herself and Weiss for her Dustgram page. All was right it the world, it seemed.
(TWBY Continued...)
Wanted to keep things a bit light, while also giving some background info for Ruby! Hope you all enjoyed something a bit more light-hearted, and peace out!
