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Ruby wrestles with the guards as they drag her to her cell, but the gravity cuffs around her wrists and forearms hold tight, making it difficult for her to wrench herself free. Her shoulders ache from the constant tugging and twisting, and the guards’ iron grip, but it doesn’t stop her from fighting. At the very least she can make the guards’ (and by proxy, Ironwood’s) lives more miserable.
She’s had two more guards join the escort since Ironwood sent her away. She’d started with two, but she was able to use her semblance to free herself from the guards’ grasp very quickly. Her aura was still drained from the fight with the Ace Ops, so she hadn’t actually gone very far, but it was enough of a distance for a full blown chase. Eventually, though, she was forced to keel over, and four guards now surrounded her at every flank.
Ruby growls again, but after a weak tug on her arm, she only earns a bump on the back of her neck, sending a twinge of pain down her spine. She’s about to turn around and attempt to whack the guy in retaliation, when all four guards halt in their tracks. Curious, Ruby stills, and finds herself gazing upon a threatening metal doorway, resting at the very end of the long, empty hallway.
Beeps fill the tense silence. Wide silver eyes fall upon one of the guards typing in a passcode, but another guard is blocking her view with his large stature and broad shoulders. She snarls lightly, cursing her height deficiency.
The door pops open with a hiss , and Ruby’s stomach plummets with sudden fear. The room beyond the door is dark, with a gentle light blue glow illuminating the space. If she goes in there, she’s not getting out, at least not by herself. If she lets them lock her in there, she’ll be useless. She pales, skidding backwards with her feet and shaking her head, but the guards behind her grab her biceps and shover her roughly forward into the dark room.
“Argh! Let me go, you stupid baddies!” She protests, her shoulders aching from all the twisting. Her feet are suddenly dangling in the air- the guards have lifted her up. Big mistake. She begins to swing her legs, twisting more than she has ever twisted before in her entire life.
“ Ruby ?”
Ruby’s heart skips a beat, hardly believing what she’s hearing. She freezes on the spot, and her head slowly turns to the source. Sitting behind a glowing film of light- most likely a hard-light dust cell- is her Uncle Qrow.
Her shock is enough of a distraction and an opportunity for the guards. She’s hit with a white hot flash of pain on the back of her skull, and her vision suddenly lurches.
There’s a bang of protest as her Uncle’s fist pounds against the shield. “Hey!”
Still dazed from the hit, Ruby’s thrown unceremoniously onto the ground. She pants, squinting through her blurry vision as she pushes herself weakly onto her knees. But before she can even think about pushing through the pain enough to get to her feet, a wall of shimmering blue light materializes, officially keeping her enclosed on all sides.
Damn it. Head pounding, Ruby hangs it low in defeat, still propped up on her forearms.
“ Has James lost his mind ?!” She hears her Uncle shouting, pounding on the insides of his cell. She winces, wishing he’d quiet down. “She’s just a kid ! She hasn’t done anything wrong! We haven’t done anything wrong! Are you four even listening to me?!”
The door slams shut, leaving them all in darkness once more. Her Uncle belts out in frustration.
Through the pain and the yelling, a soft voice calls out to her from her left. “Pipsqueak, you okay?”
Robyn is crouched low as close as she can get in the cell directly to her left. Ruby nods. The initial pain of the hit has gone away, but now the headache that was growing a while ago is starting to worsen. She pinches the bridge of her nose, the part right between her eyebrows. It does little to lessen the pain.
“Damn it,” Qrow murmurs. Ruby looks up at him from her position on the floor, and the moment their gazes meet his anger is quickly replaced with concern. “You okay, kid?”
“Only a bruised ego…” Ruby mutters.
“Yeah, and a bruised head,” Robyn rebuttals, eyebrow raised and a hand on her hip. “Judging by your reaction, I’d say that’s one nasty concussion.”
“Why isn’t your aura healing it?” Qrow asks.
“Out,” Ruby says, eyebrow twinging with frustration. “Got into a fight with the Ace Ops… then used the rest of it on the way here trying to escape.”
“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to recover since you’re stuck here with us now,” A smug, Atlesian drawl cuts through their conversation, causing Ruby to growl. She hadn’t even noticed the other two people in the room: Arthur Watts and Jacques Schnee.
She wants to punch both of them for what they did to Penny and Weiss.
“It’s a shame you won’t,” She threatens, clenching her fists.
“An empty threat,” Jacques counters. “You’re not doing anything behind that shield. I hardly think you’d actually do anything otherwise. After all you’re the one who brainwashed my daughter by making her think that people actually mattered and tricked her into disgracing our family name.“
Ruby feels like she just got smacked across the face, and somehow the sting is worse than the migraine. She looks at him with disgust. “I didn’t-!”
“Hey!” Robyn snaps at Jacques, blocking Ruby from his view with her body. “Leave her alone and shut your mouth. Jacques-ass .” She adds under her breath, loud enough for only Ruby and Qrow to hear.
Jacques humphs and turns his head away like a child, and Ruby scoffs and shakes her head slowly.
Trying to forget about her anger against Jacques and Watts, she instead turns her attention to her Uncle. He’s still standing, at the corner of his cell, trying to be as close to her as he can, but she can tell that there’s something on his mind. He’s looking at her with what seems to be an attempt of a reassuring smile, but his red eyes are dim, downcast. Not the same depressed look as when he’a drunk… this time his gaze is more emotional, and more guilty.
“Uncle Qrow,” Ruby says warily, rubbing her arm. “Are you… okay?”
Qrow sighs deeply. “No,” He admits. “I’m starting to feel like I’m never going to be okay… but… at least I can’t get drunk?”
Ruby’s heart melts and she smiles sincerely. “Yeah. I wish I could hug you. I’m proud of you.”
“Me too, kiddo.”
There’s a long, pregnant pause as Ruby catches her breath and tries to relax. Her migraine is killing her, but at least she doesn’t have to suffer through it alone. Figuring she won’t be getting out any time soon, she sits down on the wide bench in the middle of her cell and rests her head in her hands as best as she can with the cuffs still on, trying to block out the pain. When she closes her eyes, she can see lights dancing across the dark void. That can’t be good.
“Ruby?” Uncle Qrow calls out to her. She can barely hear it, the ache muffling her hearing slightly. “Come on, kiddo, talk to me.”
“Head hurts…” She murmurs. “Migraine.”
“From the concussion?”
She shakes her head, stopping as soon as the lights in her head start to blur together. “It was… before that. Just before I called about Ironwood.”
She notes the heavy pause that follows. “Did… something happen?” Robyn asks warily.
A lump forms in Ruby’s throat, and she swallows. It suddenly hits her how thirsty she is. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
An image of her mother on the edge of a cliff with her back turned tries to force its way back into her mind but she blocks it out. Please. Stop it. She begs.
Watts chuckles smugly. “Ah, yes, the idiot took the bag, didn’t he? Predictable.”
Ruby opens her eyes, letting her vision adjust before she looks up to glare sharply in Watts’ direction. He… left Ironwood the bag that held the Seer? On purpose? She chokes out a response, but it comes out as a wheeze. “You-“
“He’s terrified,” Watts explains, getting up and returning the stare. “I thought bringing her would give him the fear he needs for that extra push. It seems it worked on you too.”
Ruby’s chest tightens, feeling tears spring into her eyes. The last thing she wants to do is let him get the satisfaction of seeing her cry, so she yanks up the hood of her blood red cloak and turns away. She pulls her knees to her chest up on the bench, biting her glove to muffle her sobs.
“Ruby…” She hears her Uncle call out to her gently, but she tells him to leave her alone.
Even though right now she doesn’t really want to be.
The pipsqueak has been quiet for a while now, which means that Qrow is back to sulking (and from the gentle sounds of his breathing, fast asleep) which leaves Robyn alone to talk to herself.
Again.
She sighs for what seems to be the hundred-thousandth time. She hates not being able to do anything. She hates knowing that the other Happy Huntresses are having to fight this fight alone. She hates it even more so now that she knows who they’re fighting. That in itself is a whole other level of crazy. Even though Robyn knows they can handle themselves and are very capable without her, she still doesn’t like being completely out of contact with them.
They’re the only family she has.
Robyn’s heart aches when she thinks about Joanna, May and Fiona, her friends, alone, wondering if Robyn herself is okay. She’d almost lost Fiona to Penn- Tyrian. It’d been Tyrian’s fault. She knows that now.
Robyn looks over to the pipsqueak, whose cloak is still turned away from them. Guilt washes over the Happy Huntress as she remembers that she had pushed the kid away when she was only trying to help . She’d been trying to stop the blood flow. She hadn’t been trying to hurt her. In fact the pipsqueak- Ruby - seemed just as surprised and in terror as Robyn did during the massacre, which she supposes in hindsight that she should’ve seen.
She hadn’t been thinking straight at the time.
Robyn sighs and breaks the heavy silence. “Kid… If you’re still paying attention… I’m… sorry about what happened at the massacre. I’m sorry for not believing you all when you said it wasn’t your fault.”
The hood of the cloak shifts. “No… it’s okay. I get it,” She finally turns around, but the hood is still over her head. She can barely see Ruby’s face, but she’s only ever seen that tired, worn look on someone who’s been through some shit, and the girl doesn’t even look like she’s an adult yet.
It’s a cruel, cruel world, and they both seem to know it well. Too well.
“You know,” Ruby says, barely above a whisper. “I never really had anything against you. I knew you were doing the right thing. You just…”
“Didn’t know what we were up against,” Robyn finishes with a nod. “You were trying to do the right thing too. Lot of good that did us.”
Ruby smiles, and finally the hood falls off of her face, revealing a red rimmed face and brilliant silver eyes. “Maybe… since I guess technically we’re on the same side now… we can work together?”
“Sure kid,” Robyn places a hand on her hip. If this truce/team-up is going to work, there needs to be trust, and there needs to be no more secrets. She’s not letting anything get past her again. “But I’m going to need to know everything.”
“Done.” Ruby says immediately. “I’d shake your hand but there’s kind of a wall in the way.”
“We’ll shake after we get out of here.”
“And how do you plan on doing that , might I ask?” Watts drawls.
“SHUT UP, WATTS!” Both huntresses yell. Ruby makes a good show of it by sticking her tongue out at him.
“Two jailbirds and a pipsqueak, huh,” Robyn says. “Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.”
“It does, as long as we’re not walking into a bar.” Ruby points out thoughtfully, nodding over to her slumbering Uncle.
“Fair enough. Any ideas on how we’re getting out of here?”
There's a glint of mischief in Ruby’s bright, steel eyes as she grins. “I’ve got one.”
And suddenly Robyn feels something she hasn’t felt since she’s been locked up in this hell hole: hope.