Author's Notes

It's time for Origin Story to start heating up and getting real. That's a promise - Rat's honor.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!

Chapter 37 – Ruby's Prisoner

Without any assignments from Salem, Ruby continued to practice expanding her maiden power in both scope and skill. She had recruited Hazel to spar with her, knowing that he was a bit sturdier than Tyrian or Watts and could probably survive a fireball to the face, so the pair of them were currently just out practicing.

Well, currently she was in a headlock, because she'd overestimated just how well she could fly, but that was surely just a temporary setback.

"I've often found that my Dust control tends to improve when I set ablaze all distractions and purify my mind from the taint of thought," he advised as she struggled to free herself from his grip. "Free yourself from your burdensome reverie, and you may experience the same state of countenance."

Ruby tried to push his meaty forearm away from her chest to no avail. "Uh, that's a bit too specific. Do you think you could do me a solid and make it more vague and confusing? Thanks."

Hazel squeezed her tighter.

Ruby tried to zap him with her fingertips, but he took the pain and ignored it using his semblance. Between the power to ignore damage and his own ability to master Dust, Hazel was almost indestructible. She'd now sparred against him and Tyrian, and she definitely knew who the most dangerous of the Evernight himbo squadron was.

Unless Watts is hiding the physique of Atlas underneath his overcoat, and his stop-sign shaped body is just a red herring.

Slapping her arms against Hazel's, she admitted defeat. It sucked to still be weaker than a normal guy when she was now an ascended, empowered being, but then again, Hazel could barely be described as a normal guy. Man was 'roided out something special.

He released her without any care, the way one might discard a mold sack of potatoes into a trash can, and she toppled to the floor on her knees. Hazel might be on her side, but he could be a real Grade-A jackass sometimes.

I need to remember that these aren't the good guys who I'm going to befriend and redeem with the power of love. They're men with no morals and no qualms about hurting innocent people whatsoever, so assuming that spending time with them will earn friendship or respect is absurd.

"Stand, child. The floor is no place for you."

Ruby followed his advice, but because she wanted to get up, not because he told her to. Grumbling under her breath, she looked around the room for Crescent Rose. Hazel had taken it off of her hands almost instantly, and he'd been very rough with her baby. Ruby imagined she'd be sanding off a few scratches this evening.

"Advice."

She looked up. "Huh?"

"You wanted advice," Hazel said. "About control."

Ruby nodded up and down vigorously.

Hazel just stared at her.

Oh, of course. He was going to ask if she wanted advice and then just say 'good' and walk off, because he technically hadn't explicitly offered to fulfill her request for advice – he'd only verified that she wanted it. Hazel was every snarky substitute teacher rolled up into one.

"To clear your mind, then. We shall begin there first."

"Wait, you're actually gonna help?" Ruby asked.

Hazel rolled his eyes. "I needed a moment to compose my thoughts before I offered them. I shall aid you. Anyways, the control of the elements, be it from Dust injection or the powers of the Summer maiden, requires immense concentration. Unlike a semblance, which is as much yours as an arm or a leg, these are external influences whose power is borrowed and thus must have a significant portion of your brainpower devoted to even accessing them."

Ruby nodded, following along. She knew that focus was important for any power, but she hadn't really thought about the specifics of how the maiden powers were used, so she hadn't done any meditative or spiritual stuff to try and use them.

"Are you saying I just need to clear my head?" she asked. "Not think about other stuff?"

"Would that it were so simple," Hazel said, smiling slightly. "No, the key is to purge your intrusive thoughts. I mentioned setting them ablaze; that was merely a metaphor for my own process. To escape my own head, I imagine all of my thoughts as a dense forest with leaves, branches, and fallen timbers abound. Then an unstoppable, immense blaze of flames clears out the detritus and liberates me from its crushing weight."

Hmmm…a controlled burn. Ruby imagined doing something similar within her own head.

"You've set your hair on fire, child."

Ruby's eyes bulged, and she frantically reached up to her scalp. She felt every inch of it and ran her hands all along her hair, but there was nothing there.

"No, it's not," she sputtered out panickily.

Hazel raised an eyebrow.

"I-It's not! You said it was, but it wasn't!"

"Have you never heard of a joke?" he asked.

If hearing that her head was on fire had startled Ruby, hearing that Hazel Rainart had consciously and knowingly made a joke of his own free will shocked the stuffing out of her. Him, Mr. McSeriousface, joking around?

"D-Did I hit you on the head during our fight or something?" she asked, looking down at her hands and wondering just how strong she was to damage his cranium.

"No," Hazel replied. He turned away from her and picked up his coat from where he'd discarded it before their match. "You…for a long period of time, I believed you would not survive in this world and kept myself distant by design. There was no need to invest my emotions in a little girl who would break or die within days. But then the days became weeks, and the weeks months, and now you, a maiden in your own right? You are clearly here to stay, Ruby Rose, and it's time I acknowledged you rather than ignored you."

Great. So, not only was Ruby wrong about earning people's respect and all that, but she was befriending the enemy. There would eventually come a time when she left and sold out Hazel and Tyrian and Cinder and everyone to Ozpin, and that would probably lead to their deaths. Ruby wasn't too beat up by that knowledge, but she didn't want to get Stockholm Syndrome by getting too close to Hazel or the others. She would be better off if she did what he had done and kept them at an arm's length.

When the two of them exited the training room, the sound of screams filled Ruby's ears.

Her first instinct was that Tyrian or Watts had done something to anger the queen and were now being put in their place, much like she had by pre-emptively being a threat to Salem's power just a few days ago, but that couldn't be. The voice of the screamer was new, someone Ruby had never heard before.

"What's that?" she asked.

Hazel himself seemed just as confused and shrugged.

"Imma go look it up," she said, tying up her hood and breaking into a jog. "I'll let you know when I find out, new best buddy."

Hazel mumbled out something that sounded like crushing, instant regret, but Ruby was already too far away to hear him. Someone new in the castle? Her interests were piqued, and her curiosity was whet.

The sound was coming from one of the rooms lower down near the base of the castle. This far down, the rooms were lit only by glowing crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, and the hallways were lined with masses of candles in tiny purple holders. As Ruby went deeper and deeper into the dark bowels of Evernight, the sound grew louder.

When she arrived at a point where there were no more stairs, she stopped in front of a door. Whoever was making all that racket was behind it, she was sure.

Ruby put her hand against the wooden frame (this was an actual wooden door made of planks and boards and nails and things, not one of the Grimm membranes that Salem used at the higher levels). Before she could knock, though, two things stopped her. First of all, she noticed that the door had a knocker, so knocking with her hands would be silly. Second of all, a Shadow Hand reached out of the floor and stayed her wrist.

"Rose," said Salem, stepping down the stairs one at a time. "I thought I might find you here."

"What's going on in there?" Ruby asked, point her thumb over her shoulder towards the door. "It sounds like someone's being tortured."

Salem nodded. "Someone is."

Oh. That's all.

You know, I wonder what I was thinking it could have been otherwise, given that we're in an evil villain's lair.

Salem turned around and began to walk up the steps, and even if she didn't say any words, Ruby recognized that as a command to follow.

"Who is it, Lady Salem?" Ruby asked. "Tyrian? It doesn't sound like him."

"Tyrian is the one doing the torturing. He just returned after successfully capturing an annoying thorn in my side, a huntsman from Mistral who's been evading Lionheart's purges. This particular huntsman was able to escape four missions that had traps waiting for his party. Tyrian was dispatched to bring him to Evernight and determine how much he knew."

"How much he knew…?"

Salem shook her head. "Four failed attempts to kill him was too much. Honestly, three was too much. If he was somehow aware that he was being led into a trap, or aware that Lionheart was a turncoat, it could spell disaster for our organization."

"But you have him," Ruby pointed out. "Why torture him? Why not just kill him?"

If it were just Tyrian, she might have chalked it down to his sick and twisted sense of amusement, but Salem was aware of it. She didn't seem like the type to bring a huntsman to her home base and leave him alive just for the fun of inflicting pain upon him. That sounded like too much of a security risk, since the longer he lived, the more risk their was of him breaking free.

"If he knew of our intentions or, worse yet, knows of me, we must determine the extent of his awareness and how many others know. All leaks must be plugged, young Ruby. There can be no knowledge of my existence among the populace."

"How come?" Ruby asked. As far as she could tell, it would be to Salem's benefit to have people panicking upon learning that the Grimm were coordinated. That would summon more of them.

"I know what you're thinking, girl. It would not work." Salem sighed as the two of them exited the winding stairway and came back up to the upper level of the castle, where the light wasn't exclusively artificial. "I've tried it before. Human kingdoms were made aware of my existence by my own hand. I thought it would be their undoing, and I was briefly proven right; the leading civilization of the era nearly fell.

"However, the chaos was routed by Ozma, and he managed to turn it into a rallying point for the six other kingdoms that remained. It was nearly my ruin. My Grimm armies were destroyed, my base of power was reduced to rubble, and even my most loyal of minions deserted their posts in fear of Ozma's impending assault. It was only because of my own immortality that I did not bring about my own demise."

"Then…"

"…why doesn't Ozma repeat his prior success? Why let me fade away into legend when I could be the common villain in the lives of all humans and Faunus?" Salem smiled. "I know not. All I can say is that I myself have no intention of making the same mistakes." She shrugged. "Perhaps you may ask him when you next encounter his host. That man's yearning for conflict is like an itch that he must scratch; I have no doubt that he shall rear his head once he returns and seek to avenge his past death at your hand."

"It's a trap," said Qrow.

Ruby pressed her face into her pillow with such force that it might've smothered her. "I know."

"Then don't fall for it."

"I wasn't planning to." Ruby rubbed her eyes. "It's just…he's down there, all alone. I could save him."

"And do what?" Qrow asked. "Fly him to safety without being noticed? Besides, Salem will just send Tyrian after him a second time. If he can capture him once, he can capture him again."

Knowing that she couldn't change anything didn't save Ruby from having to hear the intermittent screams. If the huntsman was screaming so loudly that she could hear him from the dungeons down low, that meant he was being subjected to something horrible.

"He's probably already fatally injured," said Qrow. He shook his head and nudged Ruby's cheek with his beak. "That is, if there even is a huntsman, and this isn't just Tyrian himself faking the screams. You know, like they did when you arrived."

It wasn't that. The voice was different.

"Goodwitch warned you. She warned you that you would have to do horrible things. Well, that also means that you won't be able to do good things when you want to. Try not to think about it, kiddo. Look, if it makes you feel better, I can sing a funny little song, or tell you stories like I did when you were little."

Ruby smiled. "T-Thanks, Qrow."

Qrow wasn't real, so he told the same stories she'd already heard many times before, and his voice wasn't loud enough to drown out the screaming.

After two days, Ruby's resolve was slipping.

Training was no distraction, as the sounds echoed through the castle no matter how far Ruby fled them. This guy was still screaming, which meant that he was still down there, being tortured. If he knew nothing, he would probably have admitted that, meaning that he knew something. He was protecting his comrades by not answering Salem's questions, and he hadn't broken despite facing two continuous days of agony. Spending that much time with Tyrian was torture in and of itself even when he was on your side.

"Don't do something stupid, Ruby," begged Qrow.

"I could go at night. I'd check on everyone to make sure they're sleeping, and I'd say I was up for training if I get caught."

"I died for this mission," said Qrow. "Winter died for it. Do you really want to jeopardize everything just so that you can sleep a little bit easier at night?"

That actually made a lot of sense, and Ruby's plans to mount a daring escape came apart at the seams.

She broke before the next evening.

"Please, kiddo, you cannot do this!" Qrow shouted. He was being far too loud for a sneaky mission like this one.

"If you don't wanna come along, then just go away!" Ruby hissed.

And Qrow did.

In Ruby's defense, she wasn't being stupid about this. She was going to beetlewalk first just to confirm where everyone in the castle was before she set out in her main body. It would even give her a chance to stake out the torture chamber and confirm that this wasn't just a cookie jar full of red ink l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶l̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶P̶a̶t̶c̶h̶.̶

It was upon thinking of Qrow's words that she managed to convince herself to save the guy. Yes, Winter had died in the line of fire, but she hadn't needed to. There were so many things Ruby could've done better that might've saved the specialist's life, and she had wished every day since then that she'd made a better choice that life-changing day.

Well, she now had a chance to save a life, and she wasn't going to pass it up.

Grubbie watched from his perch on the ceiling as Tyrian packed up his comedically large bag of torture instruments and exited the room. The Scarab might have stuck out in other environments, but it blended so well into the motley walls of the Grimmlands that even Tyrian missed it.

The huntsman was there, and he was being tortured. He was an old man, probably in his sixties. That alone was astounding, given how the average age at which hunters retired was forty (assuming they didn't die young). On top of that, he had endured Tyrian cutting up his arms and thinly slicing his veins with surgical precision without uttering a peep.

Well, he screamed like a goat in a viral RemnTube video, but he didn't give up any intelligence, and that was what really mattered. The man's eyes were filled with steel, and he had remained defiant in spite of Tyrian's multilingual questions.

I have to save him. If Mistral's hunter population is truly being cleaned out by Headbastard Lionheart, they're gonna need every one they can get, and the loss of a veteran like him would be an utter tragedy.

Actually, now that Ruby thought about it, Grubbie was already there. Tyrian hadn't locked the door (why would he?), and the chains that held the man couldn't be too tough to chew through. She could –

Wait. Wait, shit!

Cinder had said that Salem could check Grubbie's memories! When the huntsman 'mysteriously escaped,' she would immediately be able to tell that someone in the castle had done it, and Ruby had just recorded a video of herself scoping the mark out. No matter how this went down, if he wasn't there tomorrow, questions would be asked that Ruby couldn't answer.

Ruby turned around and crawled through the crack at the top of the doorway. She had been so sure that this was the right thing to do, that she could be clever and crafty about it if she chose to and that everything would sort itself out.

When her human eyes opened, Qrow was standing on her chest, looming over her face.

"Toldja it wasn't going to work."

"AAAAAAAH! AAH, AAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH"

"I'm sorry it took me so long," Ruby said, cutting the chains with Crescent Rose. "I had to psych myself up a bit."

The huntsman said nothing. Ruby was worried for a moment that he was dead, but his hands moved twitchily upwards after a moment. She watched with fascination as he slowly pulled back all fingers but one and pointed to his throat.

What is he…? Oh, he's probably thirsty. I bet Tyrian didn't give him any drinks in between having his ligaments slit.

"Can you walk? I'm sorry, but we need to get you out of here. We don't have time for any side stuff."

His head weakly lulled up and down, more a vibration than a nod, and Ruby took that as confirmation. Gripping him by his arms, she tried to help him to his feet.

The man's face wretched, and he opened his crusty lips suddenly. Ruby let go of him, realizing belatedly that his arms were still scarred.

Tyrian was slicing him open and letting his aura heal him up so that he could do it all again. Dear Gods, this man must've suffered so much.

"I-I'm really sorry you had to go through this," said Ruby. "I wanted to come, but it was such a huge risk…"

It still was. Ruby was essentially banking on Salem trusting her enough to not be suspicious, forgetting to check Grubbie, or assuming the huntsman escaped on his own and not mounting an investigation.

She was well aware of how unlikely that was. This was almost certainly the end of her mission, but she couldn't bear listening to the screams any longer.

The huntsman nodded gratefully and stood on his own two feet. Ruby went first up the corridor back to the main castle, silently gesturing when it was safe for her rescued ally to follow. It was 4am, so no one should be out at this time, but that didn't mean that a Seer wasn't going to be up and about.

Her instincts proved right. Seers were few and far between, but one of them did float by ahead of them. Ruby and the huntsman waited patiently for it to pass, both of them sweating buckets the entire time (except the huntsman, who couldn't sweat due to dehydration).

To take no chances, Ruby waited for a full two minutes before proceeding, just in case the Seers had set patrol routes. She regretted not having paid more attention to these ominous orbs until now.

Miraculously, she encountered no opposition as she walked the old huntsman out to the docks. There weren't any more Seers along the path to avoid. Tyrian didn't burst through the windshield as they entered into a bullhead that Ruby had swiped a key for. No army of Shadow Hands summoned by Salem interrupted as she shook the huntsman's hand and watched his airship fly away.

"You might wanna check for bird doo-doo whenever you take a step on the way back," said Qrow. "Because I think I was shitting myself into extinction for that entire time."

It was early the next day when the other shoe dropped.

"Rose," said Dr. Watts, his head sticking through her doorway. "Our queen has called a meeting, and all of us are required to attend."

Ruby nodded. She'd been lying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling for the past three hours straight and trying to ignore the guilt. Sure, she'd saved the huntsman, but she hadn't anticipated that there would be a fresh source of shame over having ruined everything she'd worked for.

But still…there was something else.

Being called to her execution didn't leave Ruby feeling scared.

Something else…

Welp, no time like the present. Ruby laced up her combat boots, scooped up Crescent Rose, and stepped to match pace with Watts as they made their way towards the throne room. She figured that if Salem already knew, bringing a weapon wouldn't be admitting guilt to anything new, so it couldn't hurt.

"Do you have any idea what this meeting might be about?" asked Watts as he walked alongside her. "I'm afraid her grace didn't elect to inform me, only insisting that we all be present."

He waited for a few seconds, leaning his head her way, then gave up with a frown at Ruby's lack of a response.

Qrow smirked as he flew overhead.

They were all waiting for her when she entered the room. Salem sat at the head on her throne, her arms resting on the table with her fingers interlocked. No emotion was on her face.

To her right was Tyrian, his face a fluid mixture of too many insane emotions to count. Ruby couldn't help but notice that the Faunus was armed, and his tail was wrapped around his chair in numerous anticipatory coils.

To her left was Hazel. The gargantuan man's eyes were narrowed, and his posture looked more rigid than usual. Ruby let out a long sigh when he folded his arms upon seeing her.

Watts took his seat next to Tyrian, leaving the last available chair next to Hazel for Ruby. The Grimm Queen had called her councilors to convene, and here they were.

The table in front of Ruby was what death looked like.

"Ah, you're finally here. Have a seat, young Rose. We have much to discuss."

Ruby closed her eyes, forced herself to inhale, and took a seat.

"Excellent. Now that we are all gathered, we may begin. As you all know, Tyrian recently brought in a huntsman who had periodically plagued our efforts in Mistral and imprisoned him in the dungeons. The purpose behind this capture was twofold. The first was obvious: to determine if the huntsman had any knowledge of my existence and operations."

Salem turned to her left, to the…

…Ruby's heart skipped a beat…

…to the side of the table Ruby was on.

"The second reason I had him interned here was to verify your disloyalty to my cause. And you have confirmed it to me."

Ruby closed her eyes. The something else she'd been feeling became clear as she pinpointed the emotion.

My mission is over, then.

She smiled in a relief she could finally show.

Finally.

Coming Soon – Ruby's Loyalty

And now, a tip from Ruby:

Ruby's Tip #648 – If you find a guy, don't rescue that guy. It's only going to end poorly for you. Trust me on this one.