RWBY Rose Knight

Chapter 2: Stuck in the Past

WBY and Jaune stood dumbfounded by what they saw in front of them. Ruby Rose, their lost leader and friend, was now an adult and the Rusted Knight of legend no less, protecting this land with Penny's sword. It was as mind-boggling as it was impressive, despite knowing her well for her skills and determination to do good.

"How did you get Penny's sword!?" Jaune asked the first question, finally breaking the ice. No sooner than he did WBY followed suit before Ruby could so much as utter a word.

"How are YOU the Rusted Knight?!" Weiss asked a bit dumbfounded. She had endured a lot of craziness the last few days from talking animals to going around in circles for hours due to dimensional issues and illusions. To find her partner as an adult was really taking the cake.

"And when did you get sooooo-" Yang asked coyly as she eyed her sisters adult figure curiously, but it turned out she wasn't the only one.

"Awesome." Blake said like a giddy fangirl, before recoiling and blushing as Yang and the others grinned at her teasingly. She always thought the Rusted Knight she adored in her childhood stories was a man, a knight in armor to sweep her off her feet in imaginative peril. It was embarrassing to imagine Ruby in place of that, but couldn't help it.

Ruby, however, sighed heavily in response to those questions, catching her friends and sister's attention.

"Ruby?" Yang asked wearily.

"That's…a long story. Come on! It's better we catch up at home." Ruby said as she hopped onto Juniper, urging her friends to do so too.

A little over 15 minutes later they arrived at a small village, a few small huts made of cheap wood and pink paper surrounded by a rather large lake by a larger dam. What made the village sparkle in WBY and Jaune's eyes though was that it was filled to the brim with trees made of different colored and pretty origami paper. There was blue, magenta, yellow and even Ruby's favorite red.

"No wonder she lived her for so long." Yang thought.

Soon Juniper stopped its run by the house closest to the lake, kneeling down as Ruby got off him first, soon helping the others get off as well, though she was reluctant to offer her hand to Jaune as she saw the Arc grow green in the face as a nearby tree. She guessed even riding animals could make him as queasy as an airship.

"Easy vomit boy. This armor doesn't wash easily." She warned, waving at her rusted armor as proof. At first she did try to shine it, but she didn't have any wax in this world, just thin clothes so she eventually gave up after a few months of trying.

It took every ounce of will for Jaune not to hurl as he nodded, knowing Ruby a weapons and armor fanatic would most certainly show him a worse pain than in his gut right now.

"O-Okay." Was all he could find the strength to utter as he swallowed and shivered.

"Good Vomit boy." She said teasingly as she patted his head, making him pout. This was just like his sisters all over again. "Come on in girls, lets get some grub and catch up. I've waited years for yah so I'll make up a big feast." Ruby cheered as she flexed her arm and dashed into her house.

WBY and Jaune's expressions soon fell as she uttered those words. "Years." They all thought. They slowly entered, despite the urge to run in and pester her with the question on all their minds. How did she get so old?

As the newly reunited Team RWBY and Jaune sat at a handcrafted coffee table to enjoy a seafood and fruit feast courtesy of the lake and market, WBY and Jaune were startled as small balls of walking paper origami of different colors all appeared carrying their meal.

Ruby explained the paper pleasers were After-En's whom she met 5 years into her journey in this world. She noticed how fragile they were and became their guardian to aide them in fighting off the Walker and any other threat that came to their home. Penny's sword, which she carefully explained to them and Jaune, wary of his obvious guilt for mercy killing its past owner, she explained how a blacksmith traded it to her for her emblem, making Yang gasp.

"Ruby! That was mom's! How could you-" She asked frightfully, and a bit offended but Ruby cut her off.

"I needed a weapon. It was all she would take, and I…I needed to feel her warmth again. I just missed Penny too much." Ruby painfully explained, shooting down Yang's protest.

"Then…here's Crescent Rose, your baby back. Maybe you can trade back your emblem?" Yang offered as she handed her sister the scythe. Ruby eyed it blankly, her eyes offering no light or joy to their worry. She quickly took a nasal inhale and sighed, soon forcing a slight chuckle.

"Not now sis. I'm a bit…RUSTY with anything other than a sword EH?" Ruby joked.

Despite rolling their eyes annoyed at the bad pun, her team nonetheless grew a bit relaxed with relief seeing her smile warmly as she recalled her tales in this world. It helped after the last few days of chaos in this unknown planet of uncertainty that the Ruby they knew was still the same hero as before. Yang simply put the weapon on the table, content to let her sister go at her own pace.

Still….one question was left unanswered from her tales.

"Ruby, how many years did you spend in this world?" Yang asked wearily, drawing all eyes upon Ruby just as uneasy. Ruby sighed as she rubbed her hand, the pain in her voice and eyes ever present to them. It made their heartstrings tug as they knew they wouldn't like the answer.

"20 years. 20 long painful years I waited for you." She uttered with dread, making them recoil in shock.

"20 YEARS!" They all yelled in fright.

"Yes….have any of you ever heard the tale of the cat and the fallen girl?" Ruby asked, narrowing her eyes on Blake as she could tell her fellow book worm did at least.

"Yes. It told them how Alyx entered this world with magic, met you the rusted knight as a guide, fought a jabberwalker, defeated the Red King at chess, and was lead to her own world by a curious cat creature." Blake explained. Ruby nodded in confirmation, but her eyes narrowed bitterly, making the others breath's hitch, not expecting such deadly aura coming from Ruby.

"Good, but that's only half the story." Ruby said darkly.

"What else happened?" Weiss asked fearfully.

"She fell, but with her brother Lewis. We traveled together for a while with no issues, until we met that cat. He did lead Alyx home, only Alyx. Wonder why?" Ruby asked.

No one dared utter a word, too fearful of her suffocating aura to speak.

"Because she killed her brother and tried to kill me to do so." Ruby bitterly said.

"SHE WHAT!?" Yang screeched in anger and fright, panting a bit in worry as she rushed over to her sister, examining her for any wounds other than her neck scars. As she grew too handsy, Ruby gently pushed her off.

"Easy fire fart, she failed with me at least." Ruby sighed, making her sister stand down, or rather sit down as she pressed her firm hand down on her sisters shoulder, making her kneel.

"After we met that monster, Alyx changed. She began to grow irritable, annoyed as it asked us for information but offered none in return. Eventually it preyed on her desire to go home, offering her the way if she offered it knowledge…and some food." Ruby said bitterly, her arm shaking as she did so.

Yang's lip quivered as she saw this, knowing from experience that meant trauma lingering. She could only imagine how much 20 years apart caused her sister.

"It…ate Lewis, became a giant monster and gobbled him up, saying it could…see what he once saw. I think it ate his memories too." Ruby shivered as she said so.

"I'm sorry Ruby. B-But how did you get away, and how did you end up 20 years back in time?" Weiss asked.

"Alyx's semblance. I tried to kill her, so she used it on me too. She could manipulate a persons time, either age them by touching them physically, like she did to her brother to make him a frail old man, or send them back years into the past with an energy blast like me. My luck though she didn't have a good handle on that other power, or else I may have gone back to the dinosaur ages. 20 years was a blessing in hindsight, but years without you…or Lewis still hurt." Ruby sighed. Yang and the others soon rushed her, cradling her in a hug that warmed her.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that alone." Yang whispered, bringing tears to Ruby's eyes as she returned the hug.

Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the only time she would have tears drawn from her eyes. Ruby's eyes were bloodshot from crying as she laid them upon a burning village before her. She drowned out her teammates words, as she saw her "family" the pleasers drowned in the lake face-down.

A few minutes ago, the walker's attacked the village and her team. Ruby did the best she could, despite her aching muscles from aging, she used her semblance to make up the difference as she flew circles around each walker she crossed, slashing their bodies to the point of skinning them. Sometimes uppercut thrusting the blade into their jaws to kill them. Her team were no slouches either, Blake and Weiss combining clones with dust and glyphs to bomb them while Jaune boosted Yang's aura to let her pummel and burn any walker without taking a hit. But one hit she did took from the demons proved to be Ruby's home undoing. She was sent crashing into the dam, her heat catching the wooden logs aflame as a massive flood swept her, her scythe in her house, and her village's people all up.

"YANG!" Was all Ruby could hear from Blake and Weiss as Jaune tried to shake her awake. Fortunately Yang emerged from the lake weak and soaked but alive, but Rose could only utter one thing in disappointment.

"Only her?" Ruby whispered as she couldn't take her eyes off the bodies of her citizens, the people she swore to protect just like so many before them. But once more, she had failed, she had lost so many people just like at Beacon, just like at Atlas and Mantle she wanted to save. She couldn't save anyone.

This grim reality before her made her blind even to the fact one Walker soon slowly got up, having not yet died. It morphed into a pillar of pink light, soon a pink and brown haired girl appearing before them with a smirk as she eyed Ruby, finger banging at her before opening her umbrella up, seemingly floating away with the wind.

"N-Neo?" Weiss said in fright.

"But she…she couldn't make clones before. How did she get so powerful?" Yang asked in shock. Her voice soon lit a fire in Ruby, as she forced Jaune off her shoulders to his surprise, clenching her teeth and fists as she trembled with rage.

"Easy. Because she's the bad guy. They always win. So why can't I?" Ruby asked darkly, shocking her friends.

"Um…Ruby? What are you talking abou-" Weiss asked slowly, but winced as Ruby glared at her. Her angry red eyes frightened her worse than her fathers cold black ones or his sharp hands that struck her face as a child. If looks could kill, Weiss would be incinerated right now.

"What do you think I'm talking about!?" She yelled angrily. WBY and Jaune recoiled in shock, never expecting such venom to come from Ruby of all people.

"Ruby?" Yang asked, putting out a hand that she quickly retracted as Ruby slapped it away and huffed around in anger, rubbing the sides of her head as she groaned.

"Of course I'm the bad guy! I never save anybody! Those walkers, NEO! She came for me, because she hates ME! I never protect anybody I just get them killed! How am I a hero?!" She yelled.

"Ruby…I know we lost a lot but-" Blake said with a sad smile, trying to alleviate her friend but her ears fell as she shuddered at Ruby's cold next words.

"Shut. Up." Ruby bitterly told her, tears streaming down her face, silencing the whole group in shock.

"I don't want to hear it, but I guess I won't get even that. I wanted to be a huntress, a hero like mom who could save everybody….but I got nothing but failure and death in return. All I ever did was lose, and people lost their lives because of it." Ruby huffed.

"Ru-" Yang forced herself to try and say, but Ruby just choked on her sobs.

"I'm no hero. I never was." Ruby bitterly said before petal bursting into the sky, flying towards the nearby origami forest to her team and Jaune's sorrowful shock.

Off in the distance however, a pair of eyes gazed upon the storm of red petals flying off with glee. A small tongue licking a monsters lips as it chuckled at the sight of the marred warrior's retreat.

"Purrfect." It whispered as it walked into the forest after its prey.

Author Notes

So I decided to make Lewis die by the cat, eaten for knowledge as a twist as I wanted to make this AU a bit more original than canon unlike Rusted Rose. Ascension will exist, just to clarify, but no Little and the pleasers I didn't write the desire to evolve because I felt it wasn't necessary for this chapter as I wanted death to seem permanent here for now to drive the death and despair Ruby was going through home. They will explain Ascension though after they return. Ruby's armor isn't the only thing degraded. Corroded by years of dwelling on her loss, it wore down her soul, so will the cannibal cat devour her weakened body? Will Neo slay her like in canon once? And how will WBY and Jaune help her? They know loss too, but they never dealt with Ruby losing her spirit. Next chapter comes the torture scene with an interesting twist coming. Leave a review and guess what you think it will be.