Author's Notes

IMPORTANT NOTES ON ORIGIN STORY

We are currently on Chapter 52 out of 57.

I think that now's a good a time as any to clarify a little thing. This fanfic is "Origin Story." It is part of a three-part series titled "Origin Story and Alternate Endings."

Yes, you read that right. Origin Story will have two alternate, non-canon endings posted that explore how things might've been different had things gone better or worse for Ruby. They will begin posting when Origin Story concludes.

One will regale the odd story of: "What if Ruby was allergic to swordfish?"

The other will challenge you to ponder: "What if Ruby's library books came overdue, and she was charged three lien?"

Chilling stuff, indeed.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!

Chapter 52 – Ruby's New Plan

Ruby had thrown Lionheart to the Haven students and left him to his fate. She knew they weren't going to let him off easy after so many of them had seen and heard him with their own eyes and ears openly betray them. As she flew off with the lamp in hand, his screams gradually grew fainter and fainter.

The relics, then.

Jinn's vision had shown Ruby the locations of the vaults and the identity of the Winter maiden, whose power was the only one Ruby lacked. This was the benefit of using language like 'step-by-step' and 'all.'

Vacuo would be first, as it was the closest continent to Mistral geographically. Traversing the kingdom was no difficulty to a triple maiden/speed semblance combo Ruby, as she'd demonstrated on her rocket-like zoom from Beacon to Havel. However, to avoid burning herself out, she was now flying at a more leisurely pace and would arrive they're within the hour rather than within the minute.

After Vacuo would be Vale, both linked together by the joint landmass that made them Sanus. Ruby knew where the relic was, something Cinder herself had failed to achieve despite having spent a full semester or so there and having full access to the school. Retrieving the relic would force Ruby to keep her head down to avoid bumping into Yang or her gung-ho teammates again, who were no doubt now on the prowl for Ruby.

Then, Ruby would go to Atlas and fill in that empty spot in her magical soul with the missing puzzle piece that was the Winter maiden. Jinn had not given Ruby a location, as the Winter maiden could easily move around, but she had given Ruby a face and a name: Fria. Convincing Fria would hopefully be easy (after all, who wouldn't want to kill Salem?), and then the last relic would be hers. Ruby would unite them, summon these Brother Gods, and make this chapter in Salem's formerly everlasting life the final one.

This felt good. Her previous mission had been horrible and grizzly every step of the way, but now that Ruby was empowered beyond belief and hitting checkpoints ever few hours, she felt on top of the world. No longer the perpetual follower, Ruby now set her own means and ends.

No more murders, no more lies, no more fear – I wish I could've done this from the start.

She supposed that it was her reward, to make progress so easily. Hunters had to put in the work in the form of grueling training for many years, but then they got to go out and slaughter Grimm with near untouchability. As for Ruby, her work was much harder, requiring her to bloody her hands and fight godlike women, but now that the hard part was done, it was all smooth sailing.

Vacuo was still just as hot as last time, but Ruby herself had changed and no longer needed to experience the unpleasant temperature. Using her maiden powers, she could moderate her own temperature in a private blizzard without using precious Ice Dust or a semblance limited by aura.

Unlike Mistral, there was no corrupt headmaster to expose (as far as Ruby knew), so she didn't fly in guns blazing. Her appearance, though not quite fitting in terms of the dress code, was still reasonable for what one might expect for a student of Shade, so she landed in the desert just outside the city and walked in. Some people noticed her odd, weather-inappropriate clothing, but the Vacuoans proved their reputation of being laid back, and no one gave Ruby any grief.

While Beacon was built separate from the main portion of the kingdom and Haven was well defended by vigilant students, Shade's barricade to prevent unwanted entrants was a large, sandstone wall that rose at least thirty feet into the air. Unfortunately for them, such a preventative measure didn't take into account flight, so all Ruby had to do was circle around until she found a relatively quiet spot and just bunny hopped over.

The vaults were cleverly hidden, assuming one's definition of clever was not clever, because their hiding spots were just flat out dumb. Only Vale had any subtlety to it. The other three of the four were simply hidden directly beneath the school using entrances that were fairly obvious to anyone who knew where to look or even that there was something worth looking for – an elevator in Atlas with only Ironwood having they keycard for access, a statue in the middle of the grand hall in Haven that opened into a secret passage using a stopwatch that only the headmaster had, and a spiral staircase for Shade that the headmaster knew the combination for.

Oh, and Ruby. Jinn had given her that knowledge as well.

The staircase was hidden in plain sight. The only door through which one could access it was disguised as a normal portion of the yellow brick wall on the south side of the school. Hundreds of students probably walked right by it without realizing that a secret passageway even existed it their midst. Ruby wouldn't have even seen it if she didn't know…

…except she did, and there were a million small clues that something was up. For instance, the patterned bricks that made up the wall were evenly spaced, except the four corners of the secret door were slightly shorter than all of the others. On top of that, the mortar that bound them had a hairline break along the edges of the door, and the bricks around it were slightly rubbed down.

Ruby had to give some credit to Theodore, the headmaster of Shade. To access the vault, he needed to press in a certain pattern of the bricks, but doing so would give away which bricks were needed. It was like leaving fingerprints on the buttons that made a secret code for a keypad. To prevent this, he'd sanded down every brick around the door to make them all appear scuffed and pressed in. Going with the fingerprint analogy, he'd pressed every button multiple times.

Ruby knelt down and tapped the one just above the one touching the ground on the far right side of the door. Then, reaching up on her tippy toes, she hopped up and slapped the brick in the dead center just above the top of the door. Next, she slapped the three that were to the right at about waist height, one after the other. Finally, she gave the door itself a good kick.

The sound of stones grinding against one another filled Ruby's ears, and she patiently waited as the intricate stone mechanisms worked their magic (not literally) and shifted into place. It was probably a masterwork of engineering and stonecraft behind the walls that made them react perfectly when pressed in just the right way, and it was also right now that Ruby belatedly realized that she controlled rocks and could've just busted open the door.

Jinn didn't mention any traps or tripwires.

The door fell down a few inches, revealing a portion of the entrance. Out of this partial space shot a poof of sand, and Ruby recoiled in surprise as it landed right on her head and shoulders. She was lucky that none of it got in her eyes or mouth.

She didn't mention that either. It's not required knowledge for me to get the relic, but it would've been nice to –

Another shot of sand poofed out as the door dropped down a bit more, and this time Ruby got a good mouthful of the stuff.

"Pft! PFFFT! Awww, thuck thith!"

Ruby spat out as much of the sand as she could, trying her best not to crunch any of it in her teeth as she did. That feeling was just the worst.

This damned door was moving way too slowly, so Ruby pressed down on it using her control of the stone and sand within, hoping to speed up the process. She could feel it resisting, but enough force eventually caused something within to make a loud cracking noise, and then the door dropped down without any tension or drag.

For Dust's sake, this fucking door was more of a nuisance to me than all of Haven. Lionheart really screwed that place up real good. I hope they tore him apart limb by limb.

It was unlikely. Hunters tended to have great physical strength, vengeful senses of justice, and rip-roaring tempers. These were great components for a traitor being killed in the heat of the moment, but the people were still hunters, so they probably didn't jump straight to intricate forms of torture when beating someone worked just fine.

Ruby made sure no one was watching and then stepped past the threshold. Sealing the door up behind her was trivial, and she lit a small flame within the palm of her left hand. It wasn't big enough to consume all of her oxygen, but it gave her decent light. Just in case, Ruby made sure to double-check her aura: still green. She hadn't dropped it since…uh…since she…

I've kept it up for as long as I can remember. It's become so second nature to me to raise it up as soon as I wake up that I wonder if I'll even be able to lower it when I want to.

Heh, silly Ruby – I'll never want to lower it.

Even when the war was over and Salem was slain, there would always be something. The White Fang, another vengeful Schnee scion seeking to avenge Winter, Tyrian's long-lost cousin looking to continue the work of his relative – Ruby had learned that too much caution was never too much.

The staircase seemed to go on forever. Ruby briefly considered trying to speed up the process by caving it in, but that sounded like a bad idea even by her standards. There was no telling what might happen then – the entire school could collapse, the vault could be filled in, her powers might not be enough to protect her…anything.

That last one, thought…I ought to watch out. I'm three maidens, but that's still less than Salem, assuming Ozpin and she started with the same amount of magic. So far, nothing's been a true threat to me, but that could change in the blink of an eye. It doesn't even have to be Salem herself – a lucky shot, a powerful semblance, a relic.

The relic that she carried with her gave knowledge, and it was deemed the most valuable to protect according to Ozpin. But that was only because its three brothers and sisters could be located (as Ruby had) using that knowledge. Following that logic, they were the real threats.

And speaking of the devil, a large door came into view. It had the same grand design as the one at Haven, but its style and color scheme were all different. That one looked to be carved out of gold and had a lush tree flowering behind it. The relic chamber here had been built into a small mountain, which resembled a miniature version of Mount Serathusa. As Ruby approached it, she could hear the whistling of sand-filled wind coming from within this grand cavern.

Wasting no time, Ruby slapped her hand against it and willed the door to open. The powers of the Summer maiden were the key, and with them Ruby unlocked the final barrier between her and the next relic.

It was a sword. Ruby got chills, both figuratively and literally.

Figuratively, because if the lamp was supposed to be strong, she could only imagine what destruction a relic literally shaped like a weapon could inspire. Was it a powerful weapon that granted its wielder invincibility in combat? Or perhaps it shot out a giant laser beam or other manner of intense power that could lay waste to an entire city? Maybe it also had a spirit inside of it that granted three wishes, but for things to be destroyed rather than knowledge to be explained.

Literally, because the relic was stored in a frost covered valley. Despite it not being physically possible, Ruby could see snow-capped mountains off in the distance of this unreal space in which the relic gently floated atop a pedestal. The temperature change was so sudden that her own cooling magic turned against her, and Ruby had to rapidly switch it up to warming using the element of fire.

"Caw-brrrr! Get the thing! Caw-brrrr! Get the thing!"

"T-T-Time to get the thing," Ruby said, her teeth chattering. She darted forward, grabbed the sword by its handle, and ran back out the door. The sooner she could be out of this frigid un-wonderland so cold that even her hallucinations were shivering, the better.

Ruby tricked to kick the vault closed behind her, but nothing happened. In the end, she had to slap the door again, as touching skin against it seemed to be the only way to properly seal the vault.

As Ruby flew back up the spiral staircase, she gained a new appreciation for the technology that was elevators. The distance from the surface to the vault was so long that it had taken them a good two minutes to traverse by elevator it back in Mistral, and that was moving at top speed in the convenient mechanical contraptions. By the time she'd gone down and all the way back up the old-fashioned way, she was bone tired and wishing Elevator Dust was a thing.

At least I won't ever have to go back there, she thought. The relic is mine, and I've no intention of returning it. Maybe when the gods come back and kill Salem, they'll take it with them?

Ruby hadn't really paid much thought to the implication that the gods were real (and soon to return), but she figured that they probably weren't too bad. After all, Jinn mentioned that they wanted to judge humanity's worthiness, so that implied a moral compass if people being good and honest mattered to them so much.

The more pressing concern was going back home to Vale. It was closer, and as much as she liked the idea of ending this all where it began, time was of the essence. There was no telling how long she had before Salem somehow caught wind of her betrayal and reacted. If she somehow anticipated Ruby's new plan and tried to dispatch agents of chaos to Vale and Atlas to impede Ruby's quest, that could be a problem, but even if she didn't, it would be bad. Even if Salem realized she'd lost and gave up on life, then she might just order her underlings to kill a bunch of people as a final act of petty, mindless bloodshed. Brothers know that she hasn't caused enough as it is.

The problem wasn't finding the relic in Beacon or getting to it. No, the problem was going there without breaking down into tears. She'd need to be strong, stronger than ever before. This was for a good cause – if she could finally end Salem's reign of terror, it would make the world a better place. It would make all of those bad things Ruby had done worth it all.

Ruby unsealed the brick door at the end of the spiral staircase, stepped out into the sunlight of Shade, and got stabbed in the side of the head.

The sword ricocheted off her perpetually raised aura, but the surprise of it left her flustered. She'd thought herself stealthy and was sure that no one had seen her go into the vault – no one!

Her assailant brought his sword up for a killing swing, and Ruby reflexively raised her own weapon to parry the strike. However, in her haste to stop his strike, she'd forgotten that she held the Summer maiden's relic, not Crescent Rose. Her sword struck the enemy's sword.

And it carved right through it. It wasn't as thought the other sword broke; it literally just continued right through it as thought the bad guy's sword had zero structural integrity or were made of paper or something. Ruby had been expecting weight to stop her swing, and her arm kept moving when nothing did, all the way into her enemy's chest.

His aura was up – she could see it spark when destroyed shards of sword flicked against his thin shirt – but the relic sword passed right through that as well.

It didn't break it. No, his aura remained steady and even began to work at slowly sealing the wound up (far too slowly), but Ruby's relic had seemed to bypass it altogether. Like the sword, it just ignored it and went through it altogether.

For a horrific second, Ruby and the guy who'd attacked her just stood there. Then, she gathered her wits and pulled out her sword, leaving a wide hole in his stomach.

"S-Should've known," coughed the man weakly, collapsing backwards. "Relics' spirits have almighty powers, but…vessels are made of the God's Metal. Shouldn'ta counted on watered-down magic…aura to protect me from…sumpin' that doesn't even reccer'nize it."

"Why'd you attack me?" Ruby asked pointedly. She didn't like interrogating this dying man in his final moments, but he had just kind of randomly tried to murder Ruby. Regardless of whether or not she'd murdered him back, that was still a crime he'd committed.

"Stealin' the –"

"I wasn't stealing the relic!" Ruby shouted at the dying man. "I'm the Summer maiden! It's mine, and I'm using it to kill Salem once and for all!"

Qrow made some crow-laughter sound, so Ruby struck him out of the sky with a lightning bolt. Unfortunately, the bolt passed right through his noncorporeal body and hit some random sand, forming a beautiful shape of fused glass.

"Shut up!" she screamed into the empty air above her. Then, at the man, "And you! Why would you try to stop me? I'm going to summon the Brother Gods and end Salem forever. Why wouldn't you want that?"

"S'my…job to…headmaster of…"

"Headmaster?" Ruby looked the man over. He was dressed like a Valean hobo with his thin clothes that Ruby had assumed worn down, but looking back, she'd actually seen a lot of Vacuoan's with similar garb.

This was the headmaster?

And she'd…his chest was bleeding out a wide hole in the near-center.

Maybe…

Maybe she had been a bit too…

Maybe she could…

Maybe…

Maybe if she…

No. No maybes. Time is of the essence. I need to go to Vale, now.

"I'm sorry," she said to the dying man. "If there were anything I could do to help you, I would. But it's too late for you, and I can still save the world. Your death won't be in vain, Mr. Theodore. I promise you."

Ruby rose up into the air, leaving the coughing, bleeding man behind.

Coming Soon – Ruby's Relics

And now, a tip from Ruby:

· Ruby's Tip #994 – Not sure if you should get a pet cat vs a pet dog? Buy both and have them duke it out for the spot. Then, adopt the victor. May the strongest bloodline persist!