Chapter 17 – Ruby's Extended Family

Ruby approached the two of them slowly, making sure to keep her eyes trained on Raven's sword at all times. It was entirely possible that she wasn't aware that Ruby was on her side – heck, it was even possible that she wasn't working for Ozpin at all, though Ruby doubted it.

Dad saw her first. His eyes widened for a second, and he scanned Ruby once over. It hurt to see him look for weapons, but she reminded herself that he was a huntsman first and had reflexes drilled into him that he couldn't turn off for any potential threat. When he saw Crescent folded up behind her back, though, he froze. It wasn't a sudden freezing, one where he tensed up visibly and glared at her. No, this was a confused freezing up. Ruby's father looked at her, then at Raven, then around the bar, unsure of what he was supposed to do. The last time he'd done this had been when Ruby got her period. It was a brief moment where he took a second to two just to confirm that this was really happening, and his brain didn't catch up in time.

Raven followed his gaze to Ruby and surprisingly did the same. It was unlikely that she had been expecting to see Ruby, and she wasn't prepared to react in time. The two elder hunters stared at the younger one for just a moment, all remaining perfectly still. Ruby didn't want to make any sudden movements like throwing her hands up in surrender, lest they react on instinct and think it the first attack. Even moving her lips would be too much, so she waited for them to speak first.

Raven's eyes flicked to Crescent Rose, then to her own sword. It was likely she thought them in some sort of Vacuoan stand-off, everyone about to go for their weapons and ignite a sudden explosion of gunfire and thrown swords, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Despite warning Cinder to be ready, Ruby had no intention of fighting her way out of this one.

They didn't say anything. Ruby waited and waited, but both just stared. At long last, she got fed up with this little game and stepped closer to them.

Raven gripped her sword, but Dad reached out and gripped her hand right back. She shot him a frantic glare, but Ruby was already hopping onto a seat next to them.

"One glass of milk, please," she said, calling to the bartender.

The man, who had been serving others during the stare-down and was resultantly ignorant of the tension, scoffed at her. "We don't serve milk."

"Well, what do you serve?"

"Beer. Mead. Rum."

None of those sounded any good, so she just chose the last one. "One rum, then."

"She won't have a rum," said Dad, scowling at Ruby on instinct. It actually made her kind of happy, because it wasn't a hateful scowl like the people at Beacon had given her. This was a 'Ruby, you should know better than to order alcohol' scowl. Old Ruby had hated the look, associating it with times Dad had treated her like a baby, but now it was literally a familiar face.

"If she ain't drinking, she ain't sitting," said the barkeep, ignoring the glares of all three patrons who desperately wanted him out of their way.

"Here's twenty lien for a tankard of ice water," said Dad. "Just take the money, mate."

He rolled his eyes, but the chip was accepted, and the man turned away to prepare Ruby's water.

"You killed Qrow," said Raven. "I…"

She trailed off. Ruby double checked the door, just to make sure that Cinder wasn't listening in. She could see the woman outside, staring at them all through a window, so she kept her voice down.

"I did kill Qrow, but there's more going on than you think."

"Ruby, you need to come home with me," said Dad. "We can get you help."

"Help." Ruby laughed briefly and accepted the ice water from the barkeeper. "I don't…well, I do need help, but not counseling like you're thinking. Well, I actually probably do need that, but what I need more is a different type of help from you. From both of you."

"What…are you, exactly?" asked Raven. "You look like Summer, but you don't act at all like…" She shook her head and nursed her beverage, peering into it as though her attention wasn't completely fixed on Ruby at all times. "Here I was, expecting a miniature version of your mother, but that's not what you are. What are you, Rose?"

"I'm what you are," Ruby said. "Assuming that you're what I think you are."

She studied the reaction of the huntress, hoping to see a spark of recognition upon realizing that Ruby had also gotten a mission from Ozpin, but nothing showed. If it was there, it was well hidden.

But of course it would be. Raven's been in this for far longer than I have. She must know how to be a spy at this point, or do whatever it is she does.

"We're here looking for maidens," Ruby said, hoping to make it slightly more clear just in case Raven hadn't gotten it. "Pump…eh, hehe, A-Amber was here a few days ago, and we're looking for her."

The two of them exchanged a look that was somewhere between alarmed and concerned. Specifically, Raven looked alarmed, whereas Dad was concerned.

Dad coughed. "Ruby –"

Then, the building exploded.

Ruby had kept her aura up, knowing that Cinder was in the vicinity and couldn't be trusted, so the explosion only threw her about fifty feet into the main road of the town instead of killing her. Dad also survived, but he was blasted the other direction. The rest of the people inside the tavern weren't so lucky.

When she managed to get up to her feet, Ruby saw Raven Branwen floating in the air, aiming her arms out. Fire was shooting out from them in all directions, hitting the buildings indiscriminately.

What is she doing? She's supposed to be one of the good guys.

The buildings caught, and the burning blazes began to spread.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ruby screamed.

"If you're truly a maiden like me, and you serve Salem, you cannot be allowed to go back to her."

"Why…Why the town? These people –"

"No witnesses," Raven said, fire shooting from her eyes just the same as her palms. "All those here shall die today."

Raven aimed a hand at her, but before the lightning struck, Ruby was sprinting for cover behind a flaming building.

She's a…?

Villagers ran screaming out of the tavern that they'd gone to first.

Wait, but Amber is…

The villagers themselves were also on fire. That was why they were screaming. Oh.

Winter in Atlas, Summer in Vacuo, can't be Fall because that's Amber…

"Holy shit," whispered Ruby. In her shock, she tripped over a fallen timber that had been set aflame, but she'd lost Raven when she'd run and was briefly safe. "Holy shit…"

She hadn't expected it to happen so soon. It had to be Spring – there was no other way. The Scarab in her arm screamed in excitement at the prospect of fulfilling its purpose.

Something grabbed her, and Ruby nearly screamed before a hand covered her mouth.

"Damn it, Ruby!" Cinder whispered hardly. "Please try harder to avoid dying – you're surviving for the both of us here!"

She removed her hand when Ruby nodded.

"It's her," Ruby said, pointing to the flames. "It's her. It's her, it's her, it's her! The maiden! She did this!"

"Who is – ah. The Fall maiden!"

"No, it's Raven! She must be Spring!" Ruby said, only to immediately regret it.

"Raven…Raven Branwen?" asked Cinder. "The missing huntress? She's the Spring maiden? Of course, it all makes sense now! When Ozpin's trusted Stark enforcer got the powers, he sent her into hiding to –"

"She's gonna kill everyone!" screamed Ruby, rather upset that Cinder was casually deducing without any sense of urgency.

To be fair, everyone included basically just the pair of them at this point. Raven's fires had set ablaze the entire settlement and much of the surrounding forest, so there weren't going to be any bystanders…or any collateral damage in their upcoming fight. If this was how she kept the secret of her powers alive, by executing all those who saw her…

She can't be working for Ozpin. Damn it. DAMN IT!

Raven really was just a deserter, but then again but it didn't really matter. After all, Ruby had only wanted to trust in Raven because she desired a kindred companion in her long-lasting mission. If that mission ended today, it didn't matter.

"She may not be Fall, but she's a maiden just the same," Ruby said. "We have to get the powers from her into me."

Cinder nodded along. "She dies. Let me lead."

"But…what…" Ruby sputtered indignantly. "The whole point wa–"

"We weren't expecting to find someone today, just a trail. I'm more experienced in combat, and you've still got a long way to go. Worry not – you shall claim her powers. I cannot wield them, Ruby. You know that."

Ruby forced herself to calm down as Raven glared at the entire scene from above. It was in Cinder's best interests to keep Ruby safe when bringing down the maiden, and she needed to remember that. Cinder wasn't seeing this as the brutally climactic conclusion of Ruby's origin story – to her, it was the first step. Maiden one out of four, the unlucky first to be harvested. Ruby needed to keep sight of the whole picture, lest she falter at the very end of her journey.

Cinder grabbed her and pulled her to the other side of the building they were hiding behind as one of the load-bearing logs collapsed.

"Keep moving while we plan. She doesn't know of me or my semblance, which gives us an edge in these flames. She isn't going to leave until she's either burned this entire damnable place to ashes or until we engage her. I'll go in first, using the element of surprise to lower her aura. She'll have no choice but to engage me in swordplay. Assuming she's stronger than me, you'll need to come in with the Scarab or the scythe when she's distracted."

Ruby coughed into her arm on some of the smoke, taking care to not make excessive noise. If Raven was truly so callous that she'd kill an entire village just to…do whatever it was she wanted to do here, then Ruby would have no qualms about ending her life. She'd already killed innocents, so killing a non-innocent wouldn't be all that tricky.

That is to say, making the choice that she needs to be killed won't. Actually getting around to doing the act it might.

"Kiddo?"

Ruby swung around, scythe in hand, and nearly beheaded her father.

"D-Dad?" Ruby squeaked.

"Dad?" asked Cinder, an eyebrow raising.

"What are you doing here, Ruby? What's going on?"

"I could ask you the same!" Ruby shot back. "Why is Yang's ex-mom trying to murder everyone?!"

"We're here because of you, Ruby!" Dad shouted, his voice nearly rising loud enough to hop over the crackling of the flames as they raged. "When Qrow died, Raven wanted to verify that Salem wasn't making her big move. She reached out to me and asked if we could check up on the maidens."

Ruby said nothing, but she did manage to meet Cinder's eyes and verify that she was going to stay quiet about whose side they were on.

Whose side she is on. Just her. I'm not really on that side.

"We were just tracking Amber," Dad explained. "Raven doesn't care about much, but she cares enough to make sure that the world isn't going to end around her, so she came to me. We put aside our differences about…about both of my daughters and agreed to take a look around. Now you!" He pointed to Ruby. "You explain!"

"You still haven't said the most important part!" Ruby pleaded. "Why's she gone crazy?!"

"Because of you!" Dad yelled. "Ruby, you killed her brother! She got it into her head that you might've been working for Salem¸ no matter how much I tried to discourage her! And mentioning hunting the maidens like that to her certainly didn't help!"

Ruby took a step back, stunned at how poorly this was going. "W–"

"Salem?" Cinder asked, cutting off Ruby and preemptively blocking her from saying anything incriminating. "What's Salem?"

Funny – Cinder played the part of manufactured obliviousness far more naturally than Ruby could. Mentally thanking Cinder for saving her butt, Ruby added, "Yeah, who's this Salem person?"

Ruby looked at her father, who'd raised her since birth and knew every little mannerism of hers, including how she lied.

"Oh, shit," said Ruby.

"Oh, shit," said Dad.

"Oh, shit," said Cinder.

"What is going on, Ruby?" Dad screamed, all notions of hiding dying upon the revelation that his youngest was a traitor to the cause.

"She's going to hear us," said Cinder, but it went unnoticed and ignored.

"I have my reasons!" Ruby screamed right back. There was no point in denying the truth when it was so blatantly out there for them all to see. "You need to trust me!"

"Salem is evil, Ruby!"

"I…argh, it's not so simple, Dad! I told you before!"

"Can we please focus on the maiden who's about to kill us when she hears you two screaming?"

"We need to get out of here!"

"No, Dad, what I need is to kill Raven!"

That got Dad to shut up, except shutting him up wasn't exactly the goal here. Ruby hadn't meant to phrase it like that, as though her goal was to end a life in cold blood. True or not, hearing Ruby say things like that after she'd killed Qrow and Ozpin probably only made Ruby look even more unhinged or power-hungry.

Ruby's tongue tied up as her father looked at her with a mixture of emotions, none of which were pleasant. "I-It's not –"

"This needs to end," he said.

Dad took a step towards Ruby, and Cinder was on him in a flash.

"NO!" Ruby cried.

Surprisingly, she didn't hurt him. She didn't even attack him, instead placing her in between the two relatives and blocking the father from advancing with a hand.

"Sir, I don't know what the issue between you and your daughter is, but I can assure you that whatever problems you have pale in comparison to the fact that a trained maiden currently wishes to kill us all."

"S-She…I didn't know she was…"

"That's fine – we weren't expecting Spring to be here either." Cinder sighed. "Look, our alignments don't matter right here and now. I swear by my aura, all that matters to me is that Ruby is kept alive. The only sure way to protect her is to unite. Do you concur?"

"I…I do." He nodded hesitantly. "But after that –"

"Let's not focus on 'after that' while we're still far 'before that,'" Cinder said, drawing her swords and peeking out from behind her cover. "I assume you're a huntsman?"

"I am, but I haven't been in the field in a while. Still, I know how Raven fights."

Cinder nodded. "Stick with me. I'll keep the flames off of you with my semblance, and we can split her in close combat. Ruby will provide cover fire with that sniper of hers. Stay behind me until she descends."

Dad didn't look comfortable at the company Ruby was keeping, but he nodded anyways. "Ok. I'm ready."

Ruby hid in the wreckage that was still smoldering enough to produce smoke, thus keeping her from Raven's sight. The Spring maiden was floating above the village, high enough to keep an eye on the surrounding forest. If Ruby or any of the others tried to run, Raven would see them from high up and could blast them into last year.

She's serious about no one witnessing her using the powers. This must've been why Salem and Ozpin both couldn't find her for so long.

It was tempting to take a few shots from her hidden position and whittle away Raven's aura, but Cinder's plan was sounder. Ruby wasn't yet a fighter on the adults' levels, and it would be a mistake to pretend she was. Dad had sparred with Ruby and Yang many a time, and he'd yet to lose, even when they teamed up.

Let's hope Cinder and Dad are better at team-ups than Yang and me, and Raven is worse than Dad.

Ruby cringed at the logic she'd just tried to apply to that comparison.

Let's hope we win. There, that's better.

An arrow flew up to Raven, but it bounced off an invisible shield. The maiden's attention was caught, though.

"Raven Branwen!" said Cinder's voice. Ruby couldn't see her due to the burning cabins in between them, but she could still watch Raven's response as she floated above it all.

"…who are you?"

"I am the woman who's going to kill you."

Raven lifted a hand and shot down a stream of fire. Nothing blocked the part of the stream Ruby could see, and for a second she worried that they had underestimated just how powerful their enemy was.

Her fears dissipated at the sound of Cinder's voice. "Is that the best you've got?"

Raven snarled and flew down closer, dodging an arrow as it shot her way. The sound of clashing metal filled the air shortly after she disappeared from Ruby's view.

I need to be able to see, to know when to strike.

Slipping from burning building to building, Ruby inched closer a few steps at a time. The sounds of the swordfight were enough for Ruby to be able to keep at a distance, safely out of sight.

"Taiyang! You traitor!"

"You're trying to kill my baby! You're the traitor!"

Ruby couldn't hear Dad's punches, but his enraged banter with Raven was probably loud enough to catch the ears of their old neighbors in Patch.

"She's chosen her side! With the enemy!"

"The enemy? Tough talk coming from someone who's kept the Spring maiden away from us for over a decade."

"Grow up, Tai! Summer's brat is lost to you!"

"Leave it to you to give up on a daughter too early."

"ARGGGH!"

A blast of light filled the sky, and the sound of wood splintering came from the fight. Ruby peeked out from around the corner to see a Dad-shaped hole in a wooden wall of one of the few buildings that still stood. Cinder had engaged Raven in melee, but she didn't seem to be holding her own very well.

"And you? What is your goal here?"

Cinder had no response.

"To survive? Or do you wish to claim my powers?"

Again, Cinder said nothing, only blocking Raven's katana with her own blades. She was blocking most of the more dangerous hits, but every second was that much more ground lost to the maiden, who was cheating in the fight by using lightning and ice to give herself the advantage. The fires of the burning settlement might not have hurt Cinder, but if she found herself with her back to the wall, Raven would kill her using her superior swordsmanship alone.

It's not time yet, but I need to intervene.

Ruby lined up the scope of Crescent Rose, aiming directly at Raven's legs. Trained hunters tended to protect their head, neck, and center of mass preferentially to avoid fatal injuries, so if Ruby wanted to damage Raven enough to give Cinder the advantage in the upcoming fight, she would need to aim elsewhere.

The second she pulled the trigger and watched the hit, she dipped back behind the cover of the burning building and ran as fast as she could with her semblance. Raven might've been able to follow after her in a single fight, but Cinder was keeping her too busy to chase the stray sniper shot back to its point of origin.

When she was on the entire opposite side of the fight, Ruby lined up another shot at Raven and cautiously took it. Her instincts told her to push, and she took two more shots from the same spot before running away this time. Cinder was now fighting to prevent herself from being killed, and Raven was taking no damage apart from what Ruby got on her.

As Ruby ran from hiding spot to hiding spot, she desperately tried to think up other ways to turn the battle in their favor. Dad was somewhere, but finding him would mean stepping away and leaving Cinder to her fate. Continuing to snipe from afar wasn't working fast enough, and if Ruby joined the fight head on, Raven would cream her. One measly month of training was all that separated her from an above-average combat school student.

I could try the beetle trick I used on Roman, but I'd need access to her mouth, and that also means getting close. Plus, her aura is up, and it only worked because his was down.

Would stealing the maiden powers directly work? Probably not while Raven was still fighting, or Cinder would've told her to start with that. The beetle's purpose was to ensure that the transfer went to Ruby, not to instantly destroy an opponent. Raven, with her sword, could just cut Grubbie in half before she lost much power.

Maybe…Maybe…

If Ruby risked everything, and she meant everything, they might win this.

If she charged in headfirst and slammed everything she had into Raven with no regard for her own safety or ability to steal the maiden powers, Cinder might be able to overpower an injured Raven. Then, when both Ruby and Raven were unconscious, Cinder would be smart enough to critically injure Raven without killing her, maybe breaking her legs or something while knowing that Ruby could seize the maiden powers at her leisu–

Something struck her from behind. If Ruby hadn't been practicing extensively at spreading out her aura, she might have gone unconscious from the hit. Instead, her own aura dropped…a lot. Too much to go through with the plan she'd just come up with.

"Dad? Why are you –"

Her father swung the plank of wood at her again. "You need to come with me, one way or another."

"Cinder –"

"– is part of a cult dedicated to bringing death and devastation to the kingdoms. Let her and Raven kill one another." Dad swung the wooden board again, missing Ruby when she ducked out of the way.

This wasn't a winning battle. With Dad on their side, maybe. Without him, possibly. Against him, no way.

Ruby backed away from her father, but she was between him and the fight with Cinder and Raven, so every step away from him meant one closer to them.

Dad lowered the plank and held out a hand to Ruby, but he kept walking towards her. "Ruby, whatever you've done, whatever happened with Qrow, I'll protect you from it. I'm not trying to take you to jail or an asylum, I just know that you probably see Salem as the only option for a wayward huntress far from home. But it's not! You can come home, Ruby. I know you think you can't, but you can."

"I can't!" Ruby hissed, painfully aware that she was nearly visible to Raven. Only about two more steps and she would be out from the cover of what used to be an alleyway but was not a smoking hunk of charred wood.

"You can!"

"You don't understand, dad! There's…"

Dad rushed forward, and Ruby stumbled back into the center of the village just in time to watch Raven knock the sword out of Cinder's hands.

Dad was going to take her back from her mission and try to convince Ruby to either reform or live the rest of her life on the run.

Raven was going to kill Ruby and continue to hold the Spring maiden powers, endangering Remnant with their insecurity.

Cinder would help Ruby complete her mission, albeit unwittingly and unknowingly.

Ruby chose Cinder.

Dad got in too close, and Ruby kicked him in the stomach from the ground. He'd clearly never expected his darling daughter to turn on him so viciously, and the surprise attack caught him off guard.

Ruby scrambled to her feet and tore out her scroll as Raven raised her sword. Before she could bring it down, Ruby screamed, "WAIT!"

Raven didn't wait, and Cinder's left eye disappeared with a glint of steel, a shimmering shattered aura, and a spray of blood. As much as she may have disliked Cinder, she was still a person, and a person who'd been on Ruby's side for the past while now, so seeing her suffer like that shook Ruby.

As Raven drew up her sword for the finisher, Ruby tapped the button on her scroll.

"WATTS!"

The device responded to the screamed name. "Ah, young Lady Rose. What can I–"

"The Spring maiden! It's Raven! Tell Salem!"

Watts was actually in Atlas, as Ruby recalled, but Raven didn't know that. Having her identity revealed actually gave Raven pause, if only for a moment. She turned around, her eyes blazing with fire and rage, but Ruby was already gone. The second Raven's head had begun to turn, she'd dropped the scroll and ran behind Raven's back in her blind spot, keeping out of her direct line of sight at all times. Sprinting over to Cinder with her semblance, she grabbed hold of her arm.

With one hand on her scythe and the other on her half-blind ally, Ruby ran straight through the fires of the flaming village and into the burning woods beyond.

Coming Soon – Ruby's Underling

And now, a tip from Ruby:

Ruby's Tip #706 – Can't remember Planck's Law of Blackbody Radiation? The equation, B(V,T) = 2*V3/(e^(v/T)-1)), can be remembered by this simple pneumonic: Beverages Viewed Through two Voluminous cubes experience Violent Thrusting Minus One.

Author's Notes

If it's not clear, Ruby's little hints about 'being the same as Raven' and sly winking was misinterpreted. Raven thinks she's facing down a Salem-aligned maiden and needs to bust out her full strength, hence her willingness to reveal her identity so early. However, when it becomes clear that Ruby isn't a maiden (by her lack of doing any maiden shit), she just decides to kill them all to mop up the witnesses.

It's fun to wrangle characters together for crack-level team ups that somehow make sense in context. Cinder and Tai unite against Raven for the common purpose of saving Ruby – who'd have ever thought that would be the way and the reason the battle lines are drawn?

But yeah, no, we aren't ending this fic that soon.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!