Chapter 1
.50 Cal Gal
"What is up you sexy GunTube mother-lovers! .50 Cal Gal back with another video!"
The semi-retired huntress jumped out of her seat and rushed to the wall behind her desk, which much like the rest of the office, was covered from top to bottom with exotic weapons, some of them brand new, others centuries old. She removed a freshly painted red and black rifle off the wall, and flipping a switch, the weapon unfolded into a six foot long sniper-scythe.
"This is Crescent Rose," Ruby continued, presenting it to the camera. "You might know her as the second deadliest weapon on all of Remnant behind my uncle's Harbinger, which I've currently got hanging in my bedroom. Oops, sorry, I just noticed that I'm not centered!"
She rushed back to the desk, adjusted the camera, and returned to presenting to what the rest of the civilized world was an abomination and affront to God, especially to other weapon smiths like herself. To Ruby however it was her proudest achievement in a long, illustrious career of thumbing her nose to conventional weapon design.
"Crescent Rose is a HCSS, or High Caliber Sniper-Scythe for those of you just getting into weapon smithing. Speaking of, if you'd like to get your start into all things weapon smithing related, check out the channel's sponsor, the Schnee Dust Institute!"
Ruby breathed a sigh of relief that she had gotten through her scripted intro without getting tongue tied on only her twelfth try, and could now take a moment to catch her breath while her future self read the ad that Weiss had prepared for her and idiot-proofed on behalf of the company.
"And we're back!" she shouted. "Crescent Rose is a .50 caliber sniper rifle if you couldn't tell, but her barrel is modular which means she can shoot a variety of calibers and ammo types, but I only feed my baby the very best that the Schnee Dust Company has to offer!"
She smiled as convincingly as she could, feeling a tag guilty as the SDC didn't manufacture all of the ammo Crescent Rose regularly fired, much of which had to be handcrafted by Ruby herself. "Anyway, Crescent Rose is a bolt-action, semi-automatic rifle with a shotgun attachment and a semi-functional grenade launcher. Her scope has thermal, night vision, and-"
Ruby screamed as she accidently rediscovered the flamethrower attachment that still had a few bugs to work out, and went to work putting out the fires around her new office.
"Okay, I'll cut after the scream, have a clip of me putting out the fires, and cut back to me pretending nothing happened. With any luck maybe the clip will go viral." She took a deep breath and smiled for the camera, her face partially obscured by soot. "Everything's fine, don't worry. Anyway, let's talk about my solution to recoil!"
Ruby proceeded to explain every part and function of Crescent Rose in detail to the camera, and disassembled the rifle completely to show exactly how it operated. She went into such fine detail that the sun was starting to set by the time she had the weapon back together again.
"Wow, look at the time!" she exclaimed. "Six and a half hours of filming. Time really flies when you're having fun, huh? Guess I'm gonna have to edit the video a bit, especially since I'm gonna be cutting back and forth to me at the firing range and out in the field fighting Grimm. Oh well, future Ruby's problem! Anyway, thanks for listening and making me not feel crazy talking to myself all day. Until next time, I will see you sexy mother-lovers in the next video. Thanks!"
She bit her lip in thought. "I still don't really like that intro and outro. I know Yang says it sounds cool, but I dunno. It doesn't really sound like me." Ruby took a deep breath and proceeded to thank her viewers for several minutes, getting distracted and off-topic at least a dozen times, but eventually got back on track and ended her tirade about bullpups by waving enthusiastically to the camera and shouting "Bye-bye".
Afterward she slumped into her chair and turned off the camera, and was pleased to see she hadn't forgotten to unmute the microphone this time. She set Crescent Rose down on the desk, smiling at the recent paint job that had been necessary after a close encounter with a nest of Deathstalkers.
"From the most decorated huntress on Remnant to a GunTuber with thirteen subscribers and a gun store owner without any customers." Ruby couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of her new life. She was tired of fighting monsters, but every time she fulfilled her contract's mission quota and tried civilian life, within a couple months she'd inevitably return to the only life she knew and had dreamed about her entire childhood.
That is until Yang and Weiss conspired behind her back and set her up with a tiny shop in The City of Vale, and obtained all of the equipment necessary for starting a GunTube channel. It was the perfect life as far as Ruby was concerned, and it had kept her occupied for nearly two months while she got the store set up, the backroom filled with tools, and used the camera equipment as an excuse to talk about her favorite weapons all day.
It even allowed her to continue her huntress work on a semi-regular basis, now chaperoning students from Signal and Beacon Academy while they cleared out Grimm in the areas surrounding The City of Vale. Anything more dangerous than a pack of Beowolves and she needed Yang's permission, which thus far she hadn't given.
Ruby yawned and stood up from her chair, stumbling slightly due to still getting used to her new cybernetic legs. Unlike her ones built for combat, these were meant for daily use and mainly by civilians. At the time, Ruby had thought that her career was over when she lost her legs fighting an Alpha, killing it just before it killed her, but not before she lost her legs.
It wasn't until she had completed physical therapy and started tinkering with her legs that she got the itch to hunt Grimm again, though not quite as passionately as before. It was that spark that had kept her alive for so many years back when escaping death by a hair's breadth was almost like a game to her, but without it, her sister and partner had seen the inevitable. Once that spark was gone, huntsmen didn't tend to last very long.
"Thirteen subscribers," Ruby laughed again, shaking her head. With some ceremony she returned Crescent Rose back on the wall. "I love you," she said, tears in her eyes. "It isn't your fault I'm like this. Ever since I was a little girl I've been the one trying to keep up with you. I got old, and I just couldn't keep up anymore..."
She kissed her hand and traced her fingers across the cold metal, her aura resonating with itself after twenty years of pouring her heart and soul into the weapon.
"Get a good night's sleep, Crescent. I'll see you in the morning. We've still got some more filming to do. After we're done, maybe we'll hit the firing range and get some ice cream. Does that sound good?"
Wiping her eyes, she exited the office, turning the light out behind her, before immediately running back in. "I'm so sorry! I'll never do it again!" she said, hugging Crescent Rose tightly to her chest as if it were a small child or teddy bear.
Together, they checked to make sure all the doors and windows were secure in what could've easily been mistaken for paranoia if not for having intimate familiarity with the horrors of the world. Even a small army of huntsmen would have difficulty forcing their way into her shop, but even if they somehow managed it, they'd still have to contend with the greatest huntress on Remnant wielding the second deadliest weapon in all of history.
Ruby finally crawled into bed an hour later, still snuggling with Crescent Rose, and covered them both with one of her spare cloaks. Her favorite was currently hanging in her office, semi-retired just like herself, except in much better condition thanks to Weiss' telekinetic and time dilation glyphs easily repairing something as trivial as an old red cloak once belonging to her mother.
Sleep always came easily to Ruby, though she rarely if ever slept the entire night. She'd had nightmares since she could remember, and would awaken a few times every week in a cold sweat and either screaming or crying, but this mercifully wasn't one of those nights. She was sleeping so soundly in fact that she almost mistook the burglary alarm for her alarm clock.
She sat up panicked only for a moment, before smiling like a little kid on Christmas morning. She turned off the alarm, put on corgi slippers, loaded Crescent Rose, and paused at her bedside table, trying to decide which utility belt to grab and which sidearms. As the former leader of the most illustrious and dysfunctional huntress team on Remnant, Ruby made the difficult decision the same way she made all of them, by closing her eyes.
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, shoot a Nevermore in the toe. If he hollers, shoot him again, eeny, meeny, miny, moe!"
She celebrated the fine selection and fastened the belt around her waist and attached Crescent Rose to it. Indoors wasn't the place for a six foot long sniper-scythe unless things went very, very badly, and instead armed herself with a handgun and a sword that had once belonged to Penny. Armed and ready for a small-scale war, she hurried out into the hallway and down the stairs, a cloud of rose petals following in her wake.
Due to how the alarm system was set up, Ruby knew exactly where the intruder had broken in, and due to her superspeed, where they were currently still located. She put her back against the wall and peeked around the corner into the kitchen as much as possible without being seen. Whoever they were, they were particularly clever, knowing exactly where Ruby kept her most valuable possessions.
She removed a flashbang from her belt and pulled the pin, still grinning ear to ear.
"Hey, Ruby," the intruder muttered, sounding as though their mouth was full, "sorry for breaking in, but-"
Whatever it was she was about to say was interrupted by a painfully blinding flash of light and a clap of thunder so loud that even Ruby's ears were ringing. She rounded the corner with her weapons raised, and discovered a shadowy figure writhing on the ground, screaming, cursing, and covering the top of her head.
Ruby blinked, and absently turned on the light, revealing a woman in her mid-thirties dressed entirely in black with a meat cleaver attached over her shoulder. "Blake?" she asked. "Is that you?"
"Ruby, what the hell!? Who else would it be!?"
"Blake!" Ruby went to holster her weapons but glanced at the open fridge. "Why are you stealing my food?"
"Because I snuck aboard a flight from Menagerie and I haven't eaten since breakfast!"
Ruby finally holstered her weapons, and after closing the fridge door, helped Blake onto her feet.
"You've got pretty good security," she said, massaging the cat ears atop her head. "I can't remember the last time I got caught breaking and entering. I must be losing my touch."
"Don't worry, you aren't." She smiled at Blake's puzzled look. "The alarm was for the fridge. I bought fifty packages of cookie dough the other day and don't want anybody stealing them."
Blake stared at her incredulously, her mouth hanging open. "You have hundreds of weapons mounted on your walls, a fortune in gunsmithing tools, and your fridge is what you're worried about someone breaking into?"
"Yep," she said without an ounce of shame. "I can track down stolen weapons. I've done it before, and I know all the potential buyers on a first name basis. Same goes for tools. Food is a little messier." Ruby smiled and wrapped her arms around her teammate and squeezed tightly. "It's so good to see you, Blake!" she said, having difficulty believing she was standing there in her kitchen after so many months apart. "You know you don't have to break into my home, right?"
"Your doorbell doesn't work, you weren't answering your scroll, and I tried knocking." Her smile faded and she quickly looked away. "Aren't you going to ask what I'm doing here, breaking into your shop in the middle of the night?"
"It's because you're in trouble, aren't you," Ruby's own smile widened. "Why else would you be here?"
Blake didn't say anything, only nodded, disappointed by how true it was. While she silently contemplated this regretful trend of her life, Ruby studied her, still smiling and with a hand on her shoulder. Like all huntsmen and huntresses, Blake Belladonna was aging gracefully, and due to having some particularly good genetics, was looking a decade younger than she actually was. If not for the hard years swirling in her eyes, Ruby might've thought she was a recent graduate instead of a semi-retired huntress with fifteen years of service, albeit most of it on a part-time basis.
"I take it you don't want Yang knowing that you're here," Ruby said quietly.
Blake shook her head. "Not even Oasis' staff knows that I'm here. They think I'm having another stay-cation in my apartment, reading the latest 'Ninjas of Love' book."
"That serious, huh?" Ruby finally released her, offering her a seat at the table, and turned on the coffee pot. Blake looked as though she needed the caffeine, and it sounded as though it was going to be a long night. Whenever Blake was in trouble, which had happened infrequently over the years, it always took time to leverage the important details out of her.
"How's everybody back at Oasis?" she asked, trying to make small talk. They'd both thankfully gotten better at it over the years, albeit only marginally.
Blake obliged, telling her about the seniors that would soon be the first graduates of the Oasis Academy, and how the teachers were getting along, most of whom they had both fought beside for years, and even a few they had fought against.
Oasis was the first huntsmen academy of Menagerie, founded by Blake Belladonna herself. Due to her former affiliation with the White Fang, she'd been ineligible to take part in the election to decide the newfound kingdom's first prime minister, but her experience as a huntress made her the perfect candidate to found an academy and train the first all-faunus generation of huntsmen with the help of a few friends.
When she turned around holding two cups of coffee and a platter of sandwiches, she caught Blake staring at her cybernetic feet, and Ruby couldn't help breaking the tension by wiggling her toes at her.
"Like 'em?" she asked. "They're the SDC's newest model. Well, they will be when they come out next year. Weiss got them for me a little early as a retirement present. Still have a few kinks to work out but I'm liking them so far."
"T-they look good," Blake said, forcing a smile.
Ruby raised her pajama pants to show where they connected below her knees. "They're actually pretty similar to the civilian model Penny wears when she's not on duty, but I passed on the synthetic skin. Gets dirty and doesn't look as cool. Anyway, what's new with you?"
Despite her mood, Blake couldn't help but chuckle, fondly reminded of Ruby's unique ability to somehow always lighten the mood with how easily she got distracted. Always looking on the bright side of life was always a welcome contrast to Blake's own way of seeing the world even if she didn't necessarily agree with it.
"Yang can't fight anymore, not like she used to anyway," she said. "More importantly she's also got kids to worry about now. Even if she is my partner, I can't put this on her shoulders. I don't even like coming to you with this, but I don't have much choice. I need help, and you're the only person I can trust with a job like this."
Her former leader took a seat beside her, grinning ear to ear. Once upon a time not that long ago, Blake wouldn't have gone to anyone with her problems, and would've shouldered her burdens alone and consequently suffered alone. Even now she was having difficulty asking for help, but she'd come anyway, despite her solitary nature.
'Must be bad,' Ruby thought to herself, excitement building like it hadn't in months.
"Good thing I don't have kids and I'm not running a huntsmen academy or billion dollar company," she said aloud. "All I've got is this shop and thirteen subscribers on my GunTube channel. I'm what the kingdoms consider 'expendable' and an 'acceptable loss'! Ask me how I know?" She wiggled her feet again in case it wasn't obvious.
Blake chuckled again. Ruby was the most decorated huntress on Remnant, and had saved more lives than entire generations of huntsmen, and yet still thought of herself as Team RWBY's kid sister and little more than a slightly above average huntress even after all these years. She had also picked up a fair amount of her teammates' dark sense of humor over the years, which Blake was equally as pleased to hear as she was disturbed.
"So," Ruby drawled. "What brings you to my humble weapon shop that doesn't even have a name yet?"
"I need help locating someone."
Ruby waited for her to elaborate. "Gonna have to give me a little more than that. I'm good but I'm not that good."
Blake sighed and took a deep breath. "The White Fang never completely disappeared after the Maiden War," she said, pausing once more. "They're not as radical as they used to be, but they will be given time. One of their leaders came to Oasis to try and persuade some of the students to join their cause. The staff didn't know until it was too late and he was already gone. Thankfully not a single student left with him except one fifteen-year-old girl still in basic training."
"Search and rescue mission," Ruby said, prepared to leave at that very moment if Blake asked her to. "Where are they and who am I looking for?"
"You're not going alone," Blake said quickly. "It's a Grimm infested city in southwestern Anima. Since faunus aren't as easily sensed by Grimm as humans are, they've been using the city as their base of operations. It's not much of a secret."
"I know the city you're talking about. Mistralians used to call it Eden before it became bad luck to say aloud. Bandits and rogue huntsmen hide there from time to time. Who is it you're looking for? It's not like you to stop someone from making their own choices even if it is to join the White Fang."
Blake averted her gaze. "The girl's father and I go back a long ways. As a matter of fact, so do you."
"Okay, but who?"
She looked up tearfully, struggling to speak. "Her name's Eve. She's the sweetest girl you'll ever meet, and she's the daughter of Adam Taurus..."
(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. The premise of Ruby running a gun store and being a "GunTuber" was partially inspired by YouTubers like Brandon Herrera, Demolition Ranch, Donut Operator, Fat Electrician, Garand Thumb, Eli Double Tap, Kentucky Ballistics, and others, all of whom I highly recommend. It was also partially inspired by "Gunsmith Cats", which is a manga series and three part OVA about two young bounty hunters named Rally and Minnie living in Chicago. I highly recommend the OVAs, and I wish I could recommend the various manga series, but I haven't read them yet due to (most of) them being out of print and therefore rather expensive.
"Eve of Despair" started with a simple premise of Ruby owning a gun store and being a fledgling GunTuber, but there wasn't exactly much of a story until I got the idea of Blake coming to her for help with the White Fang. Eve was a bit of a happy accident while bouncing ideas around, and I'm pretty happy with both the premise and the story now. I hope you are too, and I hope you enjoy the coming chapters.
All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and wonderful readers such as yourself. God bless)