Alongside this comes a extended chapter 2
—
"Hey!" Ruby opened her eyes at Natsu's call. It was later than the guild hall normally had people in it, but tonight, it was full. Sleeping mats had been pulled out and people were lying on them. It seemed like nobody wanted to go home and risk becoming the next Shadow Gears, "has anyone seen Lucy?"
"Who?" Ruby asked in confusion.
"New member of the guild," Erza said, "she joined just after you left. No, I haven't, Natsu."
"Me either," Gray said, crossing his arms over his shirtless chest.
"Lucy! Are you here!?" Natsu called, to a lot of groans but no call of confirmation, "I'm going out to look for her."
"Alright, take care," Ruby said.
It took an hour before he returned, a blonde haired girl with her hair in a side ponytail following behind him.
"They kidnapped her," he said.
"My father…" Lucy said, swallowing, "My father was the one who hired them. This war only started-"
"Don't go blaming yourself," Ruby said, holding up her hand, "Phantom Lord would have attacked eventually no matter what. They've hated us for years. Did you get any other information while they had you?"
"No, sorry," Lucy said.
"It's fine," Ruby said, "I'm-"
"Ruby Rose, the Silver Blur. I own some of the outfits in your clothes line," Lucy admitted shyly.
"Don't remind me of that," Ruby groaned, "the things we have to do for money."
"I don't mind seeing you in those dresses," Erza said.
"Oh," Ruby said, blushing.
"You have a clothes line?" Tai asked.
"Female S-Rank mages often get asked to endorse a clothes line or do photo shoots," Ruby explained, "I don't like it, but I've done both."
"That's…" Tai said, face twitching, before apparently deciding to focus on something else, "S-Rank mage?"
"S-Ranks are the highest ranked mages in a Guild, expected to be able to take on the most dangerous missions. Fairy Tail has five, me, Erza, Mira, Laxus and Gildarts."
—
Tai stepped out of the building to see Qrow staring up at the night sky. Without turning to look at him, Qrow said, "I don't think we're on Remnant…"
"What?"
"I've been keeping track of the moon. It's unbroken side was facing us when we got here."
"So?"
"So it's been eight days and the broken side isn't even peaking out."
Tai paused, before sighing, "Add on that everyone and their brother uses magic…"
"Yeah. Magic is… Well, I always figured if it was real it was rare. Ruby's some fighter huh?"
Tai didn't answer for a second, thinking back the what he had seen at the Phantom Lord base. Ruby had rushed onto a table, and suddenly there had been beams of black outlined white light punching through everyone on the table. Mirajane had turned into a demon of some sort, the Natsu boy had breathed fire… They all had used things that were undeniably magic.
"What did Ruby call her attacks, the White God's?" Tai finally asked.
"Yes," Tai jumped as Erza stepped out of the hall, "Ruby uses White God Slayer Magic."
"What do you want?" Tai asked, curious on what could have caused her to abandon her post.
"I want to talk about your relationship with Ruby," Erza said, "Ruby has looked for any sign of her home and birth family for ten years. And now you show up, claiming to be her father."
Erza raised her sword so it was pointed at Tai's chest, eyes severe. The same weight from this morning crashed down on him.
"If you're lying, or you hurt her, I won't hesitate to cut you down. Ruby doesn't deserve to be tricked like that. That's why she refuses to open up to you. Prove yourself Taiyang, or I'll personally cut off the relationship."
"I would never hurt Ruby!" Tai said indignantly, "She's my daughter, and even if she doesn't remember me, or her sister, or her mother, having her back in my life is something I will treasure!"
"Hmmp," Erza lowered the sword, "Then you can start by helping us win this war. Because Ruby won't have time to entertain a relationship with you until the guild is safe."
"Isn't it normally the dad who's supposed to threaten the girlfriend?" Tai joked weakly, which luckily got a chuckle from Erza
"Mira and her are the most precious people in my life," a soft smile spreading across her face.
Tai signed, leaning back against the wall, mind spinning. So they might not be on Remnant, that opened more questions on how Ruby got here, and what she had been up to.
"Ruby mentioned a man who was her father?" Tai asked, "What was he like, do you know? What was his name?"
"He went by several, from what Ruby said," Erza answered, "Lugh, Baldr, Aether, Dagr, Light. And as for how he was… I'm not sure it's my place to say, I'm sorry, Taiyang."
"Please," Tai begged, "I need to know what happened to my little girl, I've wondered for the last thirteen years.
Erza's eyes softened, just slightly, and she sighed, "I'll tell you what I know, but I'll warn you, it's not happy."
That caused Tai's heart to throb. Oh, no.
"Ruby was raised as one of ten children," Erza said, "at least, Number Ten survived long enough for Ruby to remember them. Lugh used powerful ancient magic to age Ruby and three others two years. Two of those died to the magic-" Tai jerked at that. Did that mean… Ruby was seventeen instead of fifteen? That made her apparently doing modeling slightly more tolerable, but it opened a whole new slew of problems. She was as old as Yang, "-Then, he opened their second origin, a secondary container for magical energy. I had Ruby open mine, the process was…" Erza closed her eyes, breathing in like she could feel an echo of the pain, "Agonizing, very nearly the most painful thing I have ever experienced, and that was me as a fourteen year old. For children between four and nine… It killed two of them. He then spent three years teaching the survivors White God Slayer Magic. We suspect, given the magic type, he is a god of light in disguise, but we don't know for sure. Over those three years- are you alright?"
Tai could feel himself shaking, staring at Erza through his tears. Ruby had been… She had been tortured? For some mad god's… What? Ambition? Plans? Fucked up experiment? "I- I- how can you talk about it so casually?"
"Perhaps it's because I know what it's like to suffer that much too," Erza said cryptically, before sighing, "Light then spent the next three years whittling down the survivors until there was only one."
"Ruby," Tai said, voice choked with emotion and tears.
"Ruby," Erza agreed, "he finally told her her name and then released her into the world, and she made her way to Fairy Tail when she was, depending on your perceptive, five or seven, about a month before I joined. And she's been here ever since."
Tai felt Qrow pull him into a hug, tears still spilling, "Thank you. Thank you all for being there."
"Of course. May I ask your two's relationship?"
"I'm Tai's brother-in-law," Qrow said.
"So Ruby's mother was your sister?
"No, she's from a second marriage."
"I see. Do you have any proof she's your daughter, anything at all?" Tai reached into his pocket, pulling out his Scroll and pulling up one of his most precious pictures. Ruby, days before her disappearance, in Summer's arms as one chubby fist was in her mouth and the other clutched a plush in the shape of a sword. "That woman is Ruby's mother, I take it?"
"Yes. Summer, she's… She's no longer with us."
—
Luckily, or unluckily depending on who you asked, the war came knocking the next day, and rather unsubtly at that.
You didn't get less subtle, Qrow thought, than your base turning into a mech and pointing a giant godsdamned gun at your opponent's base. But that was what Phantom Lord had done. Energy built up, swelling and roiling, before blasting at Fairy Tail. Erza rushed forwards, changing into the heaviest armor Qrow had ever seen, and threw up a giant barrier. It was only years of working with junior huntsmen that let Qrow catch Ruby in time to stop her from leaping towards Erza, and even then, it was more that he had started moving before her that did it.
The blast went off, blowing rooftops off of houses around the guildhall and causing the upper half of the hall itself to crumble. Ruby tore her way out of Qrow's arms and to her fallen lover, Mira seconds behind.
"Ruby?" Erza said weakly.
"Don't ever do that again," Ruby snapped, before standing, handing Erza off to the shirtless man, "Happy?"
What? Why was who happy? Why would anyone be happy with what just-"
"Yes?" A blue cat suddenly said.
"Can you get me to that hall before Jupiter fires again? I'm going to go have… words with Jose."
"You can't seriously be thinking about going alone-" Tai started.
"I'll go with her," Qrow said.
"I can't carry two people at once," Happy interjected, to which Qrow took on his Crow form, knowing he was gonna have to talk to Tai about it later.
"He's one of the Ten Wizard Saints," Mirajane protested at the same time, "I know you're strong but-"
"I have to give a stab at it," Ruby said, "Some of you get out of town! Make sure, if this goes badly, this is the last thing Phantom Lord ever does as a legally recognized guild! Sorry for stealing Happy, Natsu, but I gotta do this."
"Come right back for me," Natsu said to Happy, apparently knowing better than to argue with Ruby. Wings sprouted out or Happy's back and they took off towards the Phantom Lord guild hall.
—
