Flight or Fight?
Ruby stood ready to slash with her lightsaber scythe whatever came out the bushes. She wasn't about to lower her guard from fear again, not after what happened a while back that dragged her into this hell hole.
A few days ago
"So fire dust can be ignited through electricity hmmm…maybe plasma from a saber too then? But if I stab it how do I contain the explosion and avoid nuking myself?"
Ruby murmured as she was busy scrolling through a catalog she found at a Dust store, From Dust to Dawn. Her scarf was above her eyebrows, still attached to her head to cover them at a moments notice, her senses still attuning to the area. She sighed in relief as she still felt no one else's presence but the shopkeep at the counter and he was busy minding his own business..
She was focusing on hers by studying up on the usage of Dust Crystals. She needed to after all, she was bracing herself for a trial ahead for her as deadly as the Knight trials at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Her scars burned at the thought of it.
"Training night with Ozpin gah!" She quietly gaged to herself. She knew the savage teacher was going to aim for her bruised stomach for like the hundredth time tonight like he had for the last 10 years since she arrived on the planet.
"Why do I have to wear a stupid blindfold ALL DAY!? I did this in basic training." She had complained.
"Because Ruby, you want to lay low right? Well, while we can pass off your saber as a custom dust blade, your eyes are unique. They'd be a dead giveaway to your identity to any Imperial spies. You need to keep a low profile."
Ozpin's reasoning's were solid, but it made it no less annoying for her to deal with. It was hard enough laying low, let alone pretending to be blind so eyes wouldn't follow her as much. But each weekly night of training with the Huntsmen was a grueling ordeal, her wits constantly being pushed to the edge. In some ways the headmaster of Beacon Academy was even more of a drill sergeant than her previous master was, thrusting her into survival battles against hordes of small Grimm he'd save her from at the last second, all-nighter study sessions she couldn't break from till she passed out from exhaustion, and forced spars even after Grimm battles to memorize every flaw she showed, and all her cuts and staff bruises showed she had a lot. At least the spars can be fun, better than the tests in her opinion, If she could cram study now she could avoid wasting hours studying later and focus on Lightsaber training. Then she could have the chance to get some sweet revenge by jabbing her saber's blunt end into his stomach, or up somewhere else, for a change.
She snickered at the mere mental image of the old man cowering before her, before shaking her head. Revenge wasn't the Jedi way, she had to keep reminding herself that. Hiding from others was one thing, but she was getting disgusted hiding from her true identity. She had to pretend for years in public to avoid the empire, to avoid Vader. She then shivered, the only thing more nauseating than the extreme amount of force energy she could sense around her from this town's people, was the sensation of millions more across the galaxy having been snuffed out in one fell burst that day the order fell.
Soon she gagged into her hand, dropping her magazine as she felt a familiar cold and sick feeling overtake her.
"No…." She whispered. "H-He can't be here, can he?"
Her body trembled as cold sweat drenched her forehead, sensing horrible levels of familiar emotions from a figure nearing the shop. Selfishness, fear, arrogance, greed. She remembered those feelings fully well, they practically bled all over her with the blood of clones and jedi when Vader came for her home.
"I….I have to get outta here!" Her mind and soul were screaming at her as she covered her eyes with her scarf, trying to push out the mental image of his black helmet out of her sight. But her body wouldn't move afterword's, it just couldn't. Her legs were wobbly, losing strength, as she felt the dark side growing closer to her. She nearly screamed if not for her frozen state of terror when a hand shot out and grabbed her shoulder expectantly, whipping her around.
"Hey! I know your blind, but did you not hear me!? I said hands in the air!" A gruff voice shouted at her.
The voice, rather than intimidate her, actually eased Ruby's pounding heart. The voice wasn't Vaders, it wasn't a clone. Perhaps….
She lifted her scarf an inch, catching a brief glimpse of her assailants idenitities, they were just a bunch of tall men dressed in all black suits with red sunglasses, followed by the source of the dark emotions she felt, a man with a white suit, orange hair and a bowler hat twirling a cane as he threatened the shop keep for his dust, several men loading the crystals into bags. She breathed a sigh of relieve as she saw her nightmare hadn't come true, before realizing something.
"You're….robbing this place aren't you?" Ruby asked as she covered her eyes, rubbing them.
"Huh? Not blind?" He whispered a bit surprised before shaking his head. "Ugh…. YEAH! Now hands in the air!" He ordered as he took out a red sword and lifted her chin up with the blade, but she just smirked, not sensing any aura or force from him. She waived her hand.
"You don't want to rob me." She whispered, her words actually echoing in his mind as his eyesbegan to dilate.
"I don't want to rob you." He said monotone, lowering his blade and arms. His words and behavior didn't go unnoticed by the bowler hat man, looking at him with suspicion
"You want to go home and rethink your life." She said.
"I want to go home and rethink my life." He repeated as he began slowly walking out the store.
"Hey!" The leader yelled at the grunt, a vein pressing to his head when he didn't respond. "Where do you think your going?!" He yelled.
"I wanna go home and rethink my life." The grunt repeated before walking out the doors to the man and his remaining grunts bewilderment. Soon the man turned his attention to a cloaked girl beginning to walk further into the back of the store,
"HEY!" He hollered at her.
Ruby grinded her teeth as she realized she was caught, and what she would have to do now. "Damnit." She whispered.
Turning around, she heard the footstepts of the grunts surrounding the man, smiling a bit as she could count them from that alone. About 6. Nothing major, it wasn't 7 in her own assurance, which was a lucky number. They we're gonna need luck for this.
"Hello little red." The dark man mockingly sang as he glimpsed at her red cloak. "Might explaining how you "magically" reformed one of my men?" He asked, but Ruby could sense his intention, as if seeing despite the blindfold him nod to his men to get her. She didn't even need to hear one grunt approach, she instantly grabbed her blade.
"Something tells me words wouldn't work on you soooo, might as well use this thing." She sang before propelling herself with the force, headbutting the grunt approaching her and crashing him with her through the shops window. She honestly winced a bit from the sound of shattered glass, mentally promising to pay the shopkeep back, or at least have Ozpin do so, later.
As soon as they landed outside, having sensed the man go unconscious due to being close enough to him, Ruby whipped her body up straight as she clicked a button on her locked saber, unfolding it into its one blade form. She felt assured this was all she'd need, not feeling anything powerful from the hat man or his grunts despite hearing rifles click. In fact, she didn't feel anyone around her or hear anyone else. This was the perfect chance to defend herself, no prying eyes on her if she used her powers or abilities.
She ignited her scythe hilts blade, growing a medium sized curved red blade. Though she made sure to activate it on blunt training mode like always to avoid lethal actions. She wasn't a judge, so death seemed excessive even for self-defense purposes. Best she would do was give them some broken ribs, not they could tell as the grunts and man looked shocked at the unique weapon before them, one even gulping in fright at the thought of facing it. "Ugh….Roman?" He asked before the man smacked him upside the head for disturbing his thoughts.
"A huntress huh? Or maybe a beacon student?" He shook his head as he felt it didn't really matter, she'd be dead for mucking up his business soon enough. "Well….shoot her already." He said exasperated to his men who reluctantly nodded before opening fire.
Ruby smirked as she saw the bolts coming with the force and through her bandana from the lights. She clasped her saber scythe and began to twirl it, as she did so many times against droids and troopers in the past for training. In what could only be described as a fan of laser blades circling around, the scythe repelled each dust bullet back at the grunts who ducked and covered to avoid the return fire. Another benefit of the laser sword being dulled was the lowering in temperature from plasma lock, almost a protective energy shield around the blade so even if elemental dust would hit, Ruby could avoid igniting it and repel it.
As she heard the grunts groan as they stood up, some shoes skidding on the concrete, Ruby smiled as she honed in on the sounds, rushing towards them with speeds only the force could allow. She elbowed the first grunt in the gut before twirling and locking his neck as he knelt to catch his breath, then she threw him with tremendous force at a nearby grunt, swearing she heard their skulls crack as they collided, offering a fakes ympathetic wince. "OOOH! Sorry." She wasn't.
She ducked as she heard a trigger pulled, avoiding another bullet before she instinctively gripped her hand towards the source, the 3rd nearby grunt feeling his body go light and powerless as he levitated momentarily before being forcefully propelled to her. Ruby then delivered an uppercut kick to his jaw, making him black out instantly as he crashed back into the store, Roman merely moving his shoulder slightly to the right to avoid getting hit. He looked baffled at her movements and abilities as she began slashing at his last 2 remaining men.
"Levitation semblance hmm? Just like Pyrrha Nikos. Relative maybe?" He muttered to himself before grabbing a red crystal from the bags left on the floor of the store, glancing at the cowering elderly owner at his counter. "This is on the house right?" He mockingly asked and the man nodded fearfully. "Thanks for your hospitality." He sang before walking out the shattered window. Ruby ignited the other end of her saber, forming a staff form as twin blades circled as their master stood guard as she felt him grow closer, sensing his emotions fear, curiosity, bloodlust, growing stronger.
"Oh little Red it's been really fun tonight, but we really must end this show." He sang.
"Roman was it? If you don't want to save yourself a trip to the hospital then drop your crystal and go to prison instead!" She hollered, he only laughed instead.
"With pleasure." He said darkly as he threw the red dust crystal towards her feet. Quickly he shot a bullet from his cane towards the crystal. Ruby felt the heat rising from it, her eyes widening behind her scarf as she realized.
"FIRE DUST!" She thought with a fright as she dropped her saber and shot out her hands towards the explosion coming at her. Her hands felt the extreme scorching heat surrounding the jedi as she created an invisible force field around her, the fire blowing past her as it began to blast the entire block, igniting cars nearby and causing the fire and explosions to surge. Ruby knelt in frustration as her head pounded, willing herself to focus more to contain the blast within the area rather then let its spread. With a deep, humid breath the force field around her barely let, Ruby shot her hands towards the sky willing the fire and explosive force into a large star-like ball that shot upwards before imploding midair.
"Okay, I NEVER want to do that again." She groaned as she collapsed onto her red hands, panting on the streets as she felt her energy evaporate. But beyond the sounds of sirens and panicked people arriving on the scene, Ruby's eyes widened as a thought crept into her mind.
"The news!" She thought with fright as she instantly deactivated her saber. I gotta get outta here before-
The sound of blades cutting threw the air that blasted her face, knocking off her scarf also instantly knocked Rose out of her stupor, she glanced up eyes wide open as her jaw gaped seeing the source. Roman Torchwiq was dangling off a drop ladder from a helicopter above her, grinning madly as a masked woman with long black hair wearing a Chinese-like red dress aimed what looked like a bow at her.
"This was fun Red, but we really must close the curtain on this show dear!" Roman called out as he climbed up the ladder. The moment he did Ruby could practically hear the fingers release the line on the bow before a large fiery arrow shot at her at blinding speed as the copter flew away. She had no time from her shock to reactivate and raise her saber to deflect.
Luckily she wouldn't need too as a purple light flashed before her, the heat from the arrow blasting her face was all she felt, as she gazed in wonder as the fire was frozen mid air in a stasis.
"WHOA! Force stasis! I never got that far! Who-" She thought in amazement before she heard a huff behind her. Turning around she saw a mature woman in professional gown and leggings holding a riding crop, also glowing purple. One could almost mistake it for Windu's lightsaber. But Ruby grimaced as she saw something that was undeniable as green eyes stared into her like daggers.
"Your coming with me young lady!" She yelled with a stern fury.
"Yup, she's pissed." Ruby whispered.
After that, Ozpin came to bail her out, on the condition she take the hunters exam at Beacon sooner than anticipated. After all, he did say 18 was a better age to try considering her birthday was around the corner. In his words she could "retain her innocence a bit longer."
"That was blasted and slashed by Vader and the separatists years ago Ozzy." Ruby had groaned to herself.
But now back at the exam, Ruby felt any innocence she might have once had dangling by a thread from her war-torn past was shredded as she stood visibly shaken from the yellow eyes glaring daggers at her just as Grievous once did to her at Felucia. She didn't know why, but she actually was beginning to wonder if facing the cyborg with her master that day was more preferable to the surprising amount of rage she was being blasted with.
"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!?" The girl screeched at her.
"By the force this is gonna be a long night." Ruby thought with a sigh.
AUTHOR NOTES
Flashback before we get to Ruby's new partner and we find out what her deal is with Ruby. Also, we will get some clone wars flashbacks soon, Ruby and Qrow fightning the cyborg will be a point another time, after all, she dealt with a far scarier one before she escaped to Remnant. Find out more next chapter.