Warmth.
That was the feeling Ruby was experiencing when she woke up from her slumber. Her eyes are still closed, and judging from another feeling on her face, her hood from her cloak was draped on her face. A cool gust of morning wind hits Ruby as she starts properly waking up. Her hand touching the rock confirms that yesterday wasn't a fever dream caused by exhaustion.
She's really on the surface.
Ruby squeals in delight, at the process of seeing new lands, meeting the lightborn, proving mother wrong and so much more. Eager to view the surface landscape, Ruby got up quickly and flipped back her hood, before opening her eyes.
And immediately she wished she hadn't opened them.
"aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! WHY IS IT SO BRIGHT?!"
Ruby covered her eyes and screamed in pain as her eyes felt like someone was shoving a torch into them. Stumbling backward, she used her other hand to feel her way back inside the well. Once she felt the feeling of shade, Ruby opened her eyes and immediately start rubbing them to soothe the pain.
She was looking back towards the entrance. She sees only a bright white wall of light. The more she looks at it, the more her eyes hurt. She growled in anger, before slamming her prosthetic fist on the ground.
"CURSES UPON ME! I didn't come all the way here to be defeated by some floating light in the true sky!" Ruby looked into her sack and took out Sam's guidebook again. "There's bound to be something that can help me see through this infernal light." Ruby began to flip through the pages.
"Let's see, grimmomancy, shadowblade combat arts, crafting recipes, dark call, already know that, and maintenance, that would be useful. 'Flashborn', that's new. 'Snowflakes.'"
Ruby let out a disgusted sigh at seeing that accursed name. Moving past that, she checked for any more information before sighing.
There's nothing in the book that help deals with sunlight. Her only guess is that shadowblades preemptively go to the surface as part of their training to have their eyes adjusted to the surface, or have modifications done by grimmomancers. Putting the book back, she realized that something was amiss. She looked into her sack, and then carefully searched. She's hoping that she didn't forget a key aspect of her religion, the number of angry gods and spirits that would come after her if she forgot it. Well, Ruby doesn't want to dwell on it.
At the bottom of the sack, Ruby sees it and clutches it to her chest. An ornate, red white ceremonial tanto knife with a moon tassel, to a lightborn this would be some sort of relic they would display in their home. For Ruby, it is a significant religious tool that some key rites require. The Dusk Princess wouldn't waver in her religious duties, no matter how far she is from home.
Looking back at the well entrance, Ruby sees that the light has dimmed. Taking her opportunity, she puts the knife back in her sack, before getting up and walking outside.
The view she saw was breathtaking. The well she stood outside of is nestled in the mountainside of a mountain, the stonework lasting so long out in the open, a testament to the work of the First Era. Below her, was a large forest broken up by glades, with a rift in the treeline appearing very far ahead. Her eyes still hurt, but not as bad as it was in direct sunlight, though she has to slightly squint to see. She looked up and saw a cloud covering the sun, providing vital shade for her eyes.
While she would stay and admire the view, Ruby was taught to not waste valuable time. Walking to a suitable spot, she opened her sack and took out her notebook, before sitting down and starting drawing the landscape as fast as she could. It would be best to have a reminder on where she has to go should she decide to return, though she can find one of the shadowblades…somehow.
As the sky began to brighten, Ruby put on her hood for basic shade protection and started writing down ideas for eye protection. Perhaps she can conjure up some goggles with grimmomancy to help her see in the future. Or find some lightborn protection instead. She quickly finishes up the sketch of the landscape before it becomes too unbearable to look at the land.
"Ok Ruby, first day on the surface, and already you were blinded by forces beyond your control. No matter, change has to be made through sacrifices."
Ruby stood up and covered most of her eyes, just letting enough light in to see. She pointed to the rift in the trees far ahead.
"Might as well make my way over there, the trees down below should provide sufficient cover so that my eyes don't melt from the light. By the Moon, I feel this is way beyond my training. Though in my defense I wasn't expected blindness as part of the surface."
Ruby sighed, before slowly making her way down the mountain and towards the forest.
By the time Ruby approached the forest, dawn had ended and morning had begun. A cloud once again covered the sun and Ruby took a moment to look back towards the mountain she climbed down from.
Ruby once again took out her notebook, thinking for a moment that she should just be carrying the thing instead of wasting time digging out. Before using the opportunity to sketch the mountain entrance. That way she'll have a better time remembering her way back. Once the sun came out again, Ruby retreated to the shade of the forest. Smiling at the work she had done.
Ruby's smile then turned into a frown. If she wants to progress, then she has to perform the light masquerade. Putting her notebook aside, she took a deep breath before shoving her fingers into her mouth.
Ruby gagged and is both uncomfortable and disgusted by this action. She's lucky that no one, light or duskborn, is watching her perform this repulsive grimmomancy. After a moment, Ruby felt something at the back of her mouth. Something dark. Grabbing it, she slowly pulled her fingers out of her mouth, all the while feeling it being pulled out.
She then felt something snapping, before she immediately started to vomit misty black liquid. It lasts for a few seconds before she stops, Ruby collapsing onto the ground in surprise and exhaustion as she watches the black liquid slowly disappear.
She stood up before she noticed her left hand wasn't lunar white anymore. Pulling back her sleeve reveals her arm wasn't the same color as her hand before. To be sure, she unfurled Crescent Rose in scythe form and gazed at her face using the blade's reflection.
There isn't a distinguishing feature on her face beside her silver eyes. No white skin, no black sclera, no red veins anywhere. Just a pale lightborn royal face. For 24 hours Ruby was a lightborn.
"YES!"
Her shout caused some birds to be disturbed, but she ignored it. She's a lightborn, a lightborn now! I mean it's only skin deep and lasts for a day, but she can talk to a lightborn without fear. Listen to their stories and potentially make friends!
Packing up her stuff. Ruby went deeper into the forest. Sticking to the shade to both see and avoid blindness from the sun.
The sounds of the forest around Ruby pleased her to no end. It was like the forests of Luna Naturae, except the animals were more active and made more noise in the forest compared to Luna Naturae. Plus, the colors of the forest pop out to Ruby, most likely due to the sun.
To think this is just one of many forests that dot the surface, she heard that there were different variants from Muginn, from forests that are green even in the cold. To forests rich in bugs, animals, plants, and heat.
Oh, how she longed to visit every one of them. But for now, she'll stick with the forests that lie on top of Luna Naturae.
As time passes by, Ruby wonders how far she'll have to walk to reach that rift she saw on the mountain. She supposed she can use gravity and singularity dust to glide across the forest. But she barely knows how to handle the recoil of Crescent Rose, not to mention the fact that she doesn't know how to land and singularity dust can send her way farther than she planned. There's also the fact it has to be under cloud cover lest she wants to kill herself by slamming into a tree blind.
Oh well. She'll worry about it later. For now, she'll enjoy the walk towards the rift. The calming scenery reminds Ruby of a song her mother used to sing to her when she was still little. Thinking about it for a moment, she remembered the lyrics and took a deep breath.
"Red like roses fills my dreams, and brings me to the place you rest~."
It's been a good few weeks for the gang. Banditry wasn't common in Vale like it was in Vacuo or Mistral, but that just means there are more suckers than fighters. With the SDC mining towns being "graciously decommissioned" lately, his gang was able to loot some of the untapped dust and wreckages after luring most of the Grimm away.
"So do you think we can hit another town?"
"Nah you heard on the radio yesterday. Atlas is getting involved, and Jackass Schnee has to increase security because it's now cutting into his wallet."
"Ah what a shame, but it doesn't matter. We have hundreds of thousands worth of lien from the dust and equipment we stole from the SDC. Can you believe the white fang would be so brutal to those guys?"
"They're at war man. Both sides wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in each other's head."
"Yeah, but seeing those corpses, and the white fang logo made from blood. It spooks me out, man."
"Doesn't matter, all we need to know is that we're bloody rich. We can either retire, or we can get more boys and equipment, and rival the bandit queen of Mistral!"
The gang of bandits laughed as they walked back toward their camp, their spirits high. All until.
"Red like roses fills my dreams, and brings me to the place you rest~."
"Hey, you hear that right guys?"
"Sounds like someone singing gibberish"
"Or it could be a poor sucker that requires "protection money from Grimm" if you know what I'm saying." The bandit gave a devilish Grinn as he pulled out his cleaver and followed the source of the singing. His gang followed suit.
"White is cold and always yearning~. Burdened by, a royal test."
The gang cautiously crept up to the source of the singing, and what they saw shocked them. A hooded freakishly tall girl, judging by the voice, singing gibberish while walking alone in a forest in Southern Vale, but that wasn't what surprised them.
It was her clothes. This girl wasn't rich, she was loaded like the Schnees. One of them is pretty sure that her clothes are made out of Mistali Silk. Not to mention that beautiful, advanced-looking prosthetic as her right arm.
If the stuff they gathered from the SDC towns was worth hundreds of thousands. Then this chick right here was a walking piggy bank! They can sell her clothes and prosthetic on the black market and ransom her family for millions! The bandits have mentally agreed on their plan and moved out from the bushes towards their prey.
"Black, the beast descends from shadows."
The moment Ruby said that she heard movement from the bushes. Looking behind her, she sees 9 scraggily-looking men and women approaching. 3 of them are wielding ramshackle looking, what she thinks they are, firearms. 6 of them are wielding melee weapons of some variety.
They're bandits. Either that or lost explorers, but she's betting on the former.
It's kind of funny how the third line in the song resulted in her getting ambushed by lightborn bandits. Granted, on a technicality bandits are just beasts, who hunger for greed instead of food. Oh well, if they decide to attack her, she wouldn't sully her blade with their blood as she promised. But a few broken bones wouldn't be as bad.
Then Ruby realized something, though she didn't compromise her poker face. She didn't know the Lightborn language, nor bother to learn about it…this is going to be difficult, but she'll improvise.
"Well well well, what do we have here. A lone girl walking around deep in the woods. You got to be careful around here, the Grimm could easily tear a beaut like yourself apart."
The hooded girl only stared at him with no reaction, the bandit stared at her in return before continuing to speak.
"Well, we can offer you protection so to speak. From the Grimm of course, all you have to do is follow us and we can "negotiate" our terms for protection." He smiled to seal the deal, though the hooded girl only continue to stare at him.
"Well, are we going or not?"
"What are you even saying, I'm guessing you must be explorers warning me of some Darkborn ahead. Or threatening me." The hooded girl makes a thinking gesture. "Though I didn't expect there to be lightborn around here."
The bandit just stood there baffled. This girl is either speaking complete gibberish, some obscure weird, some weird obscure dialect of Vacuan or Mistrali, or some unknown language. After a quiet moment, the hooded girl turned around and began to walk away.
"Yellow beauty burns~."
"H-hey wait!"
One of his gang fired their gun in the air, stopping the hooded girl in her tracks. The bandit then smiled.
"Yeah, if you know what's good for you, you'll stop speaking that gibberish and come with us. Just for that, we'll be expecting some nice lien from your wallet, and if you're unable to pay well…I'm sure you don't need that arm."
The bandit and his crew laughed, confident in their superiority. The hooded girl turned around and faced the bandits. Thinking that she's complying, the lead bandit walks up to her with his cleaver drawn.
Only for the girl to suddenly lunged at him, everything went slow motion as he saw the prosthetic fist heading toward his face.
"Gold~."
Ruby's fist sent the bandit flying into a tree. The action of which caused her assailants to be completely caught off guard. Taking advantage, Ruby rushes to the rangers of the group. Basic combat training with Sam taught her to always target the ranged attackers in a group to even the fight.
She dealt a flying kick towards the first ranger, taking him out instantly. She rushes to the second and punches him 3 times before grabbing him and throwing him towards another befuddled bandit, the fight barely started yet she has already taken out 3 of them.
The third bandit got her bearings together and shot at Ruby, and missed. She fired again and missed, she panicked at the sight of Ruby walking toward her and struggling to load her rifle and aim without shaking. Ruby simply grabbed the ramshackle rifle from the bandit's hand, and just dropped it. The bandit girl panicked and ran from the fight.
Ruby found this amusing for some reason.
Turning to face the five remaining bandits, she sees that they regained their morale and drawn out their weapons, which are a collection of poorly maintained cleavers. However, she can see the fear in their eyes, the way their body shakes in fear of her. Honestly, she shouldn't even try to fight these low lives.
But she knows if they aren't dealt with, they'll alert their camp and she'll have to fight way more than she has to. Charging immediately, she grabs the face of one of the bandits and slammed him to the ground. A bandit took a chance to swing at Ruby, however, she block the slash with her prosthetic.
The cleaver bounced off the arm, and Ruby quickly turned her attention to another attacker. The bandit stared at her cleaver in horror.
"That's stone, that ain't steel. That's a god damn stone prosthetic…and she has no aura. That's not pure strength… right? That's gotta be some weird semblance and not pure strength right?" She starts shaking in fear.
"No Aura?!" A bandit shouted back, meanwhile Ruby used her body to slam into another bandit, knocking them out. The three stopped attacking Ruby and backed away quickly. They stared at each other and Ruby before.
"Yeah screw the lien I'm out of here!"
One of them ran away, causing the other two to rout. That amusing feeling Ruby got soon went away when they left. Looking up to the tree canopy, she sees that the sun is covered by clouds again.
Good, given how there were escapees, she has some time to build distance from them before they come in full force.
An idea came to Ruby's head. If the recoil from Crescent Rose caused her to fly back from yesterday, then combined that with gravity and singularity dust rounds…
She took out Crescent Rose in scythe form and slammed the blade into the ground. Looking into her sack, she replaced the normal dust rounds with 15 out of 16 gravity dust rounds. She once considered the singularity rounds. But it would be too wasteful of them.
She fiddled with the positioning of the barrel and her footing for a while before she heard shouting in the distance. Ruby placed her foot near the shaft of her weapon and pointed toward the ground.
"Deep breaths Ruby. Deeep breaths."
Her finger squeezes the trigger.
"Annnd fourte-EEEEEEEEN!"
Ruby went flying into the air, shooting past the tree canopy. The arriving bandits only heard her screaming in the distance and the results of the battle she had.
\\++++/
"OH GODS, OH MOON! THIRTEEN!"
Ruby screamed as she flew across the forest, the dust rounds being the only thing preventing her from death by tree slam. Weirdly, she finds this quite fun, but the adrenaline from flying across the forest prevents her from enjoying it.
"TWELVE…ELEVEN!"
She sees the rift in the woods, a large, long straight path in the middle of the woods. She doesn't know what caused this path to appear, be it natural or lightborn. Ruby's heart is pounding due to the adrenaline.
"TEN!"
She overshot the forest rift. Quickly acting, she pointed her gun forwards and flew back towards the rift.
"NINE!"
It's a good thing she was taught that saying your ammo count was better than counting it mentally in high-stress situations. Because there was no way she would have remembered how many dust rounds she had left. Flying back to the rift, Ruby only needs to get down to investigate the strange area…
"Wait, how do I get down…HOW DO I GET DOWN?! EIGHT!"
She flew upwards, only to buy time for her to think. Ok, so she can't slam downwards, as she doesn't have a shield nor the grimmomancy to protect herself. But she can't just stay in the air forever. She also has to figure out how to avoid damaging her resources.
"SEVEN! Screw it I'll just improvise like it is a fight between Sam!"
She fired towards the sky, and then towards the ground at an angle.
"SIX AND FIVE!"
She glided across the rift, to which it seems to stretch on to unfathomable distances. She fired again at an angle as she got closer to the ground.
"FOU-OH GODS I ANGLED TOO HIGH!"
She fired ahead to avoid slamming her head into the ground. However, she then fired backward to reorient herself. Now Ruby is beginning to panic as she's dangerously close to the ground. She fired at the ground to gain air, before letting herself fall closer to the ground and firing at an angle. Now calm she loads another dust round and pressed the trigger.
She pressed the trigger again, yet no round came out.
"Uh oh."
Panicking once again, Ruby dropped Crescent Rose and her sack and tried to curl herself into a ball, before slamming and rolling into the ground.
Ruby's body was aching in pain. She laid on the ground for a few minutes to let the pain fade a little. After a while, she slowly got up, slightly cleaning the dust and dirt off her clothes, and stumbled towards her weapon first.
She picks it up and inspects it for any damage. She cocks the bolt back to see if there's anything internally damaged, before cocking it back, she'll perform maintenance on it when she has the time.
Moving towards her sack, she's surprised she didn't lose everything due to the dust rounds going off inside along with the dust. She opens it to see if there's anything broken inside it, asides from everything in it being disorganized, and some battered food containers and the two singularity rounds having some medicine and ammo being stuck to them. Nothing was broken inside.
Letting out a thankful sigh, Ruby ate a medicinal pellet from her sack before working to pry the ammo and medicine from the singularity rounds and organize them somewhat. While she was organizing her sack and cleaning the corrupted gravity dust rounds, she noticed something about the environment around her.
Several large long metal ladders were on the ground that seemed to stretch on forever both ahead and behind her. They have a consistent pattern, but why they have that pattern remains unknown to Ruby. She stops organizing and placed her hand on the rail.
And felt it vibrating.
Ruby was confused as to why the metal ladder was vibrating until she heard…something ahead of her. It sounded like a horn.
Something was an understatement, it was some weird black thing that suddenly appeared in front of her, Ruby stared at it for a while. Trying to determine what it was and if it was just an illusion caused by her fall.
The second horn clarified to Ruby that it wasn't just an illusion, it was also coming straight for her.
Ruby started to panic. Her body is still sore from the roll and would be unable to sidestep the thing, and that's if the thing wouldn't just change direction and run her over. Given that every time that she looks up it's getting closer and closer. Her only hope was the singularity rounds in her hands.
Ruby starts quickly prying everything off the rounds, constantly checking on the rapidly approaching black horror that's intending on killing her. The first round cleaned and she loads it in Crescent Rose, followed soon by the second round. Looking up she sees that it's almost here. Grabbing the last gravity dust round and loading it in her weapon, she hastily closes her sack and puts it on.
Ruby then points her weapon on the ground in scythe form and fired the first singularity round. She catapulted into the air alongside some dirt right as the black and horrifically long object just barely misses her legs. Ruby then aimed at the sky and fired, for if she didn't the nature of singularity would ensure she'll be nearing the rock ceiling or sky in this case.
She fired the last gravity round at an angle and braced for impact with her scythe.
She slammed on what she now thinks is a metal king taijitu, her scythe slamming into the hide and letting out a horrific metal screech as Ruby desperately tries not to fall off. Ruby eventually slows down, and she gets up to realize that the metal taijitu is moving at a speed that only a nevermore could achieve.
She walks across the top, seeing that she's near the front of the taijitu, before noticing an entrance down below. Seeing no other way and wanting to not be exposed. she climbed down carefully and sees a rather short door before entering.
Ruby found the interior strange, given how it was illuminated with no candles visible, before finding some boxes she can hide behind and relaxes.
"Well…this has been an interesting first day on the surface."
Ruby looked at her aetheric moonstone prosthetic, before taking the forearm off after some fidgeting.
"Moon above I am tired, but after what I did. I should make sure everything is working fine and dandy. Mother would kill me if she sees me with a broken prosthetic or weapon. After that, I can brush up on the flashborn section in Sam's book."
Lusus stares at the empty chair next to her. It's close to noon yet Ruby hasn't left her room, her food is already cold. She feels a pang of immense guilt hit her. Gods how can she be so stupid. She let her damned hallucinations get the better of her and she slapped Ruby. Her flesh and blood. She thought of heading to Ruby's room to check up on her, but Sam told her to let things cool down between the two.
Lusus sighed, before finishing her food. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, especially one that lasted as long as her. She stood up as a servant approached and started cleaning up, she'll let Muginn deal with the traitor, though she'll send a messenger to let him know that the punishment would be Timeless Redemption.
Gods this would be a long eventful cycle.
"DAMN IT! YOU STILL DON'T KNOW WHO'S BEEN FRAMING US FOR THESE ATTACKS?!"
"I-I'm sorry Adam, but with the Grimm occupying the towns, it's been hard to find evidence that points to the culprit. We do know that they're both thorough and ruthless, both our oppressors and brothers and sisters have been killed without mercy."
Adam sighed, before gesturing for the White Fang member to leave his tent. Ever since the White Fang went under Sienna's leadership, an unknown group has been pinning the destruction of the SDC towns on the White Fang. Their calling card is the White Fang warrior painted in the blood of his fellows.
So many innocent Faunus, first condemned to slavery by the Schnees and then second condemned to death because an unknown group doesn't want SDC presence in Southern Vale. Sienna is hounding his ass because this group is creating a terrible PR nightmare for her, demanding the head of whoever is responsible for this.
"Adam, can I come in?"
Blake's head peaked into his tent, in her hand a small tea set. Adam gestures for her to come in. She sat across Adam and began pouring tea for the two of them.
"It's that bad isn't it?"
"You don't even know the full extent of it. They're exactly what the humans claim us to be."
"But why? We're just freedom fighters, we just want equality. Not wanton bloodshed and massacres. I mean it should be obvious it wasn't us given how…the Faunus were killed like everyone else."
"Tell that to the humans. As far as they know, we're the ones committing the massacres on our people to get back at them."
The two fell into a silence for a moment, the only noise being from them drinking tea. Blake then decided to bring the news to Adam.
"Atlas is bringing their army to Vale."
"Yes I know Blake, Jacques whined about it on the news so now the council has to obey."
"No, I'm talking about their actual army, mobilization and all. Dust, knights, weapons, even marines from Oblivion's Gate. Some of our spies, and those sympathetic to us within Atlas are saying that they're finalizing new experimental models to be unveiled to the public. Something got them spooked for them to act like this, and I know that despite his wealth. Jacques is nothing but a whiny coward whose complaining wouldn't get Ironwood to act like this."
Adam takes a moment to process this new information. It's hard for Blake to tell what he is thinking given how his mask obscures his eyes. Adam then sighed and grabbed Wilt.
"We have to hurry then. Get ready Blake, the Forever Fall plan starts tomorrow. If Atlas is coming then we have to prepare for them."
Blake nodded, before getting up and leaving Adam's tent. At least her plan to redeem herself wouldn't be affected.
The cargo train slowed to a stop at the trainyard. Workers started to move to and from the train as it was loaded with Dust.
"So you heard the news?" One worker asked his coworker while carrying a crate of dust into the train.
"Yeah, I know, guess those attacks finally bite into his wallet. Kinda sucks that it took 15 towns to be destroyed for him to start increasing security and getting Atlas involved but oh well. Not much I can do about it as a trainyard worker."
"HEY! THERE'S A LARGE GASH ON THE ROOF OF ONE OF THE CARS! SHOULD WE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!?"
He turned to a worker on top of one of the cars and cupped his hands around his mouth.
"IT PROBABLY CAME FROM A NEVERMORE! YOU KNOW THOSE THINGS LOVE BEING TRAINFODDER! AS LONG AS IT IS NOT SERIOUS WE SHOULD BE GOOD!"
The worker on top gave a thumbs up before disappearing. He then turned back to his coworker.
"You think the White Fang is going to raid this train?"
"They can try. This thing was planned to have a large amount of 130s stuffed inside for security, along with a special toy from Atlas. That's what the boys at the dockyard told me."
There was a period of silence between the two as they loaded dust containers inside the ship until his coworker decided to speak again.
"You know, I always wonder. Why did our city founder name this city after himself? Like everywhere else it's named after a regional marker or point in history, kinda like how Patch was named because it was a patch of land in the ocean in front of Vale in the early days. Here…we're called Alexandria."
"Beats me, but that Pharos lighthouse he made sure makes a good substitute as a primary combat school. Man am I going to miss Monthly Fashion with Coco Adel."
The two workers chuckle before getting back to work.
Ruby woke up to the sound of a cannon being fired. Jolting up, she realized she fell asleep with her forearm detached and Sam's book on her face. Reattaching her forearm and drawing out Crescent Rose in katana form. She picked up the book to see she fell asleep on the page describing the flashborn.
She also saw that her hand is now its true color than a lightborn. Panicking quickly she went behind some crates and start expelling the darkness within to maintain her lightborn appearance. During which the sounds of combat were being heard outside, whoever's fighting, it sounds heavy duty with multiple gunshots and explosions being heard.
As Ruby finishes doing Light Masquerade. A loud sword slash is heard, and she swore her vision went red for a split second before it return to normal. Ruby pointed her weapon at the door, it may be an enclosed space, but she can use the scythe form as a quick surprise towards whoever may appear.
She waited…and waited…and no one came through. Whatever was going on outside, it ended when everything went red for a second. She put away Crescent Rose and went back to her hiding corner before reading on the flashborn.
"Flashborn. The true warriors of the lightborn. These lightborn are masters of the lifeforce shield and are the key pieces in a lightborn-darkborn conflict. Their ability to not be hampered by the activation of their lifeforce shield baffles even the Timeless Queen. Their name comes from their lifeforce shield flashing when they are struck. Though they have stayed consistent throughout the ages, recently they have begun appearing more and more strange in their appearances."
"To identify a flashborn, you must pay attention to these key points: They're not a mutant, for the lightborn wouldn't empower those they enslave. Wearing flashy impractical clothing with colors that stand out like apathy at a party. Wielding strange, impractical practical weapons that form as both a melee weapon and a firearm. Finally, having a singular magical ability that they used to their benefit."
"You can't fight a flashborn. Not only will they kill you, but they are simply too powerful for a typical shadowblade to deal with due to their lifeforce shield enhancing their strength and durability. Best leave it to the ravens or me to deal with them."
As soon as Ruby finished, she heard the door open.
Blake sighed. The first steps towards liberation will never be easy, but she wished that Adam will just forget about her and focus on the Fang. The same Fang that is falling into misguided extremism and hatred towards all humans. It doesn't matter, she'll redeem herself by attending Beacon and becoming a huntress.
Given how she has never seen the crew on this train, she thinks they were holed up in the engine when the security alerts rang out. She opened a door and crossed to the next car. She'll have to find a place to hide when the train reaches Vale, and from there make her way to Beacon.
She looked across the room inside the car, she hears something hissing, sort of like the same hissing that Grimm make when they disappear. Until she saw someone's head emerging from some boxes.
Blake gasped as she didn't have her ears covered, her cover was already blown! Before she could react the person came out of their hiding place and rose…and rose…and rose…
Good lord that is one tall girl.
Blake and the girl examined each other, and Blake sees how out of touch this girl looks compared to her. Her clothes are black and red yes, but they look suitable for someone incredibly wealthy like the Schnees, she swears that it looks like it was made out of silk. But they are also practical enough for combat. The girl had a silver circlet with a ruby attached, and her right arm was an ornate advanced looking white prosthetic that she was unashamed in displaying, her eyes were also silver.
She looks like she crawled straight out of the books Blake reads for fun.
The girl's expression turned happy, and she spoke…in a language that resembles nothing Blake has heard before. She pokes her cat ears curiously and Blake steps backward. Just what the hell is this girl?
The girl then asks her something in her language, before she gestures to her behind. Blake can only guess that she's asking where her tail is, which is rude and offensive… she thinks. The girl also makes a gesture to her wrists, mimicking…shackles.
"Ok, I don't know who you are, or what you're saying. But what you're saying is wrong, just because I'm Faunus doesn't mean I'm a slave."
The girl gave her a quizzical tilt, blake guess that she didn't understand what she said but she understood the tone. The girl then asked her a question that she couldn't answer.
Blake sighed and went to lean on a wall. One part of her wants to ditch this strange royal girl as it would drag her down and ruin her chance at redemption. However this girl couldn't even understand basic Valean, and given how she helped robbed a train full of dust, she'll have the blame pinned on her. Especially since she doubts that she has any form of identification given how archaic she looks.
She ponders for a moment before she groans and drags the giant girl to the hiding place she came out from. She gestures to her to stay here and stay quiet until she says so, and the girl nodded.
"Attention crew, we're about to enter Vale. Vale PD has been alerted and is awaiting our arrival at the station. Make sure you have everything ready because we're probably part of the biggest heist of dust in recent history."