Chapter Text
Ruby sighed as she looked at the headphones she was going to use. She was well aware of the fact that she was the one that had bought them, but would it kill someone to make a pare of these things more Fanus friendly? She couldn’t put the blasted connector behind the ears because it always irritated them majorly, but the only other option for using these things was them being in front of her ears, and then she had more difficulty hearing other things around her. Though, the plus side to that would be it would be more difficult for her to hear if anyone chose to insult her because of her heritage, but the only ones who would do that would be those who somewhat recognized her ahead of time. Screw it, she thought frustratingly to herself and she threw them over her human ears, with the connector sitting awkwardly in front of her wolf ears. She pulled her hood up and entered From Dust Till Dawn.
She nodded to the shop keeper who simply pointed to the back, well aware as to why the Fanus was here. She nodded again, and then actually hit the play on her music, From Shadows, began to play. She casually picked up the newest issue of Weapons Maniac. She purposely ignored the Schnee Dust Company sitting proudly on the back of the thing. Despite her cutting off her previous ties with the White Fang, she still wasn’t the biggest fan when it came to one of the biggest suppressors of Fanus there was in all of Remnant.
She sighed as the first page she opened to was another advertisement of the dreaded thing. Why was she always unable to look at one of her favorite magazines without having what used to be practically her biggest enemy thrown into her face. She turned the page and did her best to focus on the weapons that were on the pages before her, but found that her mind was already drifting back to her official initiation.
***
She had been going to Signal two years, had successfully forged her weapon, and had begun her training with her Uncle Qrow when the White Fang had decided they wanted to know how skilled she was. Two people had accompanied her out to Cliffside Altar, where her mother, who had been a huge supporter of the White Fang, both during their times of peace, as well as when they had resorted to violence, was buried. The two had left her there, and she had turned, heading towards the clearing where she knew that the pack of Beowolves was hidden. The Grimm bait had been laid there hours ago, and she could still partially smell it.
As she continued down the path, she had seen both of her guides keeping ahead of her, one just out of the corner of her eye, heading away from her, the other as she was about to enter the clearing, when they had leapt from one of the trees to her right, to another on her left. Ruby stepped into the clearing, and saw the large number of young Beowolves. She stood there and looked around seeing that there were to many to properly count. Ruby considered starting the fight straight away, when three rushed leapt forward to attack her. She quickly used her Semblance and jumped out of their way at the last second. The three looked around, confused by their lack of contact with anything, besides snow of course.
Ruby quickly pulled Crescent Rose from her waist and quickly shifted it to gun mode with her Aura, and shot one in the head. She landed and quickly leapt over the next, shooting that one in the head as she did so. She shot the next one as she continued forward and right as she landed, she shot a fourth that had been charing at her, hoping to catch her as she landed.
She used the recoil to spring back and began rolling as she used her Aura to trigger her weapons transformation again, this time turning it into it’s scythe form. She retreated a few steps as it finished its transformation.
A lone brave Beowolf charged at her and she quickly turned and brought her scythe down, the blade missing the creature. It raised its head and growled at her, and she merely smirked at it before pulling the trigger, quickly destroying the Grimm. She continued through the motion, following the recoil.
The rest of the group began their charge at her, and she quickly spun the scythe around her, pulling down the hammer and launching the shell out of the chamber. She spun it again, keeping with the motion and slammed the blade into the ground. The pack continued its charge at her, not at all fazed by her impressive display. She quickly began pulling off shots, pulling the hammer back after each individual shot.
Knocking out a large number of the Grimm, one still managed to get to her, she quickly jumped into the air again, and pulled the trigger again, launching herself backwards from the now dead Grimm. The blade planted itself in the ground, and she landed atop of her weapon, just in time to see another large group coming from the trees. One charged at her and jumped, trying to knock her from her weapon, but Ruby saw this coming and spun around ducked all at once, ending with herself lounging on the pole of Crescent Rose.
She shot another as it began had put its head stupidly close the end of the gun, and launched herself away. She used her momentum and kicked the Beowolf who had tried jumping her earlier, landing casually. She began swinging her scythe around and began cutting both the Grimm before her, and the one that was behind her to shreds, twirling, firing more shots, pulling the hammer back, and continuing this almost dance.
Another approached after she had finished off the previous two, and swung her weapon around, the blade resting just behind the creature, putting it between Ruby and the blade. Ruby quickly pulled the trigger again, and sliced right through the thing, quickly lowering herself closer to the ground. One came at her from the side and she quickly spun around out of the way of its claws. She quickly pinned this one with the blade again, and fired another shot, killing the one pinned by the blade, and another that was trying to charge at her from the front. Seriously, she thought to herself momentarily, how stupid are these pups going to get?
She jumped over the lunge of another, easily avoiding the amazingly predictable move. She back flipped away, again, as another jumped towards her, tumbling into the snow. She charged and made short work of cutting one of the arms off of the Grimm. She frowned as she realized that she hadn’t managed to kill the blasted thing like she had thought she had. She quickly spun Crescent Rose around again and knocked the thing off balance before cutting it’s legs off. She turned to the next one that was approaching her and pinned it with the blade again. This time she crawled under the the thing and quickly jumped onto its back. It shook from the added weight, but did not buckle, and let out a small roar. This one had enough sense to not try and throw her from its back quickly, realizing that it would probably decapitate itself. She watched its head and pulled the trigger, quickly beheading it, as there was little resistance from the thing’s neck.
She spun through the air so that she was looking down at the battlefield with the blade of Crescent Rose behind her. Several jumped into the air, relentlessly trying to get her. She fired another shot smacked it on the head with Crescent Rose, and landed on its stomach, almost as if it were a jump platform in a game, before leaping off again and firing another shot downward, easily killing another Beowolf. She rode through the recoil and sliced through another one. She saw another moving to attack her, and realizing that she wouldn’t be able to pull off a successful attack that would kill the thing without leaving herself easily open to other attacks, she swung her weapon in front of her and blocked the immediate attack, being launched back several feet. She quickly buried the blade into the snow again and slowed herself down.
She slid to a stop and saw the large horde of Grimm before her. This has been going on to long, she thought to herself, and quickly ejected the cartridge from Crescent Rose, and pulled out another, and loaded it into the weapon, quickly pulling the hammer back and launched herself forward, so quickly that the world was becoming brighter with these specially made bullets in place. She quickly tore through the Beowolves, and continued forward, almost as if she was floating as she continued cutting, spinning, twirling, and firing these deadly blows, not a single move wasted, and not a single attack missing. Even some of the other Beowolves that had not yet died were staring at her in awe, as if they were viewing the angel of death that had come to take their lives from them, and they could not fully grasp her role, or her beauty.
She landed finished with there being one “chunk” of Beowolf more intact than the others and she fired another shot into that one, flipping backwards, using the small blade at the end of the shaft as a sort of pole vault, and landed gracefully with a small pose. She stood there for a moment as it began to rain empty casings.
After such a display, she was quickly brought into the ranks of the White Fang from there, and had earned herself the nickname, “The Red Reaper,” despite her protests to the name. She had stayed with them for a few months, eventually even having her stop her training at Signal, so that she could focus solely on being an assassin, before she felt all of the guilt of all of the people that she had robbed and killed, crash against her heart. Her mother, had been supportive of the group, even after they had gone violent, but Ruby couldn’t understand how anymore. She tried to talk to a few of the higher ups about her concern, but they had all insisted that she would be fine, just give a bit of time and she wouldn’t feel the guilt of it anymore. Did she truly want that though? To become little more than a machine, devoted solely to killing? Weren’t they supposed to be more than that, or were all of those insults she continued to hear on the streets true? Were the truly nothing more than a bunch of liars, thieves, and murders? Summer may have supported the group through the thick and thin, but Ruby was not able to do such a thing anymore. She had quietly slipped away from the safe house she had been at with a simple note left on her bed that read, I’m sorry. I can’t continue with this anymore. Don’t follow me, there don't need to be anymore deaths following me. That had been over three months ago, and so far, they had left her alone.
***
Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder, suddenly pulling her from her memories. She was quickly flooded by the song This Will be the Day, one of her other favorites. She looked over said shoulder as she felt her hood fall, revealing her ears. If the man at all noticed or cared, he did not show it. He instead pointed to his own ears and she quickly pulled the headphones down, wincing slightly as the pulled her ears back, wondering why she hadn’t had enough sense to lift them slightly and avoid harming herself.
“Yes?” She asked curiously.
The man appeared to be glaring at her, but it was more difficult to really well with how large those red sunglasses of his were. His entire outfit seemed to be a constant of black, including the fedora that he had, hell, even the guy’s hair was black. The only splash of color, that seemed to scream for her attention, were his red sunglasses and the same shade of red tie.
“I said, put your hands in the air. Now!” He demanded, pointing his sword at her.
“Are you robbing me?” She asked innocently, baffled honestly. She had never had anyone try to rob her before, so she was a little new at this whole thing. Sure she robbed other people before, but typically not with the person she was trying to rob right in front of her. No, she had been more of the, breaking and entering kind of person, taking what she had wanted or needed, sometimes just destroying the place, but she had never personally robbed someone before.
“Yes!” He yelled frustratingly at her.
Ruby’s eyes narrowed as she dragged out an “Oh.” And she quietly reached for Crescent Rose.
“Hey, what are-“ he began before Ruby smacked him with Crescent Rose, still in its carry form actually, and another with a gun charged at her, telling her to freeze. Ruby instead tackled him out the front window, and as she stood up, channeled her Aura through Crescent Rose again, causing it to switch straight from carrier mode to scythe mode, deciding that she didn’t want to kill these people straight out, and she was actually a bit less likely to kill them if she used the scythe form. With the gun form, any real attack she executed would be the other person’s execution. With the scythe form, she was able to instead hit people with the frame, which was more than enough to knock someone out, and leave them there for when the police, who are ALWAYS late on scene, to show up and take them away.
She looked over her sweetheart and smirked lightly at red and black dressed men, though there was one dressed differently than the others, primarily white button up jacket, orange hair, a black bowler hat with a single red stripe wrapping around the base, just above the outer lip, though he wore the black pants that matched the same design of his lackeys.
Her smirk turned to a frown and she twirled Crescent Rose around her several times, and grabbed her headphones off of her neck as well. She finished with the same frown on her face and slammed the blade into the ground. She clicked the off button on the headphones, ceasing the still playing song, This Will be the Day.
The orange haired man tilted his head slightly with a frown and said a long, “Okayyyy.” He then looked at his still standing men around him and with an incline of his head said, “Get her.’
They all three took off at a jog out the door headed straight for Ruby.The first one got to her and made a downward sweep with his sword, going in to try and end it quickly. Ruby tensed her legs for a second and pushed herself off the ground, hesitating in the air for a moment before giving one of her best ninja cries and spun herself on her weapon, bringing her feet around to kick the poor goon in the face. She continued with her motion and pulled Crescent Rose from the ground landing easily on her feet, ready to face her next opponent.
She fired a shot and spun her weapon around, knocking another goon skyward, before bringing it to bear and slamming the frame down on the other, both giving a closely timed cry of pain. Another came at her with a machine gun this time, firing off quickly at her. Ruby acted off instinct and training alone, and fired another shot, launching herself away from where he was currently shooting, before turning her weapon again and firing a second time, and repeating this a third time, now going straight at the goon.
With her moment alone, she hit the guy and launched him up before slamming the blade into the ground again and swinging herself around, only to pull the blade from the ground again and doing a small flip, just in time to catch up to the air-born man, and smacking him down to the ground with the frame again. He landed with an “Oof,” at the orange haired man’s feet, just as Ruby touched down lightly again herself.
“You were worth every cent, truly you were,” he muttered down at the now unconscious goon before turning his attention back to Ruby. “Well, Red, I think we can all say that its been an eventful evening.” He punctuated this by dropping his cigar and crushing it with his cane, seemingly unfazed by the sound of sirens headed their way. “And as much as I would love to stick around,” he continued as he raised his cane to point it at her, “I’m afraid this,” a small circle on the end of his cane raised itself to become some kind of, awful if anyone were to ask her, crosshair, “Is where we part ways.” As he finished speaking a glowing red shot launched itself from his cane, headed right at Ruby.
Ruby remained unfazed herself and quickly moved her weapon so that the muzzle was pointing at the ground and pulled the trigger, launching herself skyward. The blast not only destroyed the ground where she had been standing, but had also launched her higher than she was expecting, throwing her off balance, and she waved Crescent Rose around a little, trying to regain it. She landed on her knees with an “Oof,” and, ignoring the ringing the blast had left in her ears, immediately looked up, only to see that the orange haired man was now gone. She looked left then right, before doing a small circle, trying to see if she could fine him, and just when she about thought he was gone, a bit of movement caught her eye. She looked up just in time to see him on the third floor of a ladder going to the roof.
She heard the shop keeper give a heavy breath as leaned himself against a door frame and she looked over her shoulder at him and asked, “You okay if I go after him?”
He gave a quick, “Uh-huh,” his voice just showing how old he really was, and she took off to the ladder, seeing the orange haired man leap onto the roof of the building. She quickly angled the muzzle back a little bit, calculating in her head the sort of angle she would need to make it onto the roof with one shot as to save time, and fired when she easily matched said angle. She landed easily on the roof and called out to the running man, “Hey!” She internally groaned, wishing she had a more mature sounding voice of a true heroine, but that was an issue for another time.
He slowed to a stop at the edge of the roof and in a low voice said, “Persistent.”
Ruby readied her self in case of an attack. She heard the sound of an engine and she frowned before a Bullhead launched itself from below, startling Ruby back a step or two. A search light snapped on with a small boom and it quickly targeted her. The blinding light stung her eyes and she was forced to close them for a couple of seconds, allowing her eyes to adjust as quickly as she could manage, before opening them again, just in time to see the man climbing onboard the Bullhead.
He turned to face her and held a red Dust crystal while shouting, “End of the line, Mutt!” (So he had noticed her ears), she thought frustratingly to herself before he tossed the crystal at her feet. She looked down at it, unsure of why he had done such a thing, but she backed up a small step in case it blew from the rough treatment.
She looked up just in time to see him aiming his cane at the crystal and she ducked her head and raised as much of her aura as she could manage. She heard the explosion and her ears began ringing again, making her give a growl of frustration to herself. She raised her head to see a woman with blonde hair, a purple cape that seemed to end in arrows and points and such, with a white and black blouse on. She gave a “humph,” at the failed attack and Ruby’s eye’s widened at the realization that this was Glynda Goodwitch in front of her. She smiled with at the fact that a childhood hero of hers was right in front of her, before a thought went through her mind that made her freeze in terror. (What if she knows I was part of the White Fang at one point?) She knew that logically there wasn’t really any way for her to know that, but she couldn’t help it.
She saw Goodwitch push her glasses up, and she waved her riding crop back, before she swung it quickly, several purple arrows launching themselves from her weapon and headed at the Bullhead, leaving behind them a purple trail. They all smashed into the bulkhead in rapid succession, pushing the aircraft back with each hit. She stood there watching it for a moment. and as it began to stabilize itself she readied herself to attack again. This time she launched a single beam that went above the Bullhead before it turned into a large purple glyph that lasted only for a few seconds before it disappeared, and in its wake a storm cloud appeared. It thundered angrily above the aircraft as it continued to grow. Goodwitch brought her riding crop down and large chunks of ice began hailing onto the aircraft, easily piercing through some of the weaker areas of the thing, including what appeared to be the cockpit. The fact that the Bullhead continued to try and even itself out was evidence for Ruby that the pilot, be it the orange haired man, or someone else, was still alive.
Suddenly, someone walked up to the open door of the Bullhead. They seemed pretty tall, but Ruby also noticed that their feet were, which she quickly realized meant that the person was wearing heels of some kind. She figured the person was a woman already, due to the short length of their skirt, but after being with the Fang, she had seen some odd things. Their arms began to burn suddenly as they moved them, and Ruby’s eyes widened again, wondering if they were doing this on purpose somehow, or if the orange haired man had done it to them. She quickly lashed her palm out at Goodwitch and a red fireball launched itself. It crashed uselessly off of a purple energy shield that Goodwitch had put in front of her, and the shards of it cluttered to the roof around them, still glowing red. The woman then raised her hand and the ground beneath Goodwitch began to glow like a fire. She leapt backwards, putting herself slightly behind Ruby as the roof where she had been standing erupted upwards. Ruby bowed her head again and brought her Aura up, wanting to avoid as much damage as she could manage.
Suddenly, she shards of the roof that had been falling around them stopped. They began to adopt a purple glow as the began gathering, forming a large spear of sorts, with the head aimed right at the bulkhead. The woman on the bulkhead turned her palm slightly, and several shots launched out and hit the spear, stopping it for a moment, before it continued on as if nothing had happened. It was headed right for the cockpit before the Bullhead tilted suddenly, bouncing the makeshift spear above the aircraft, before Goodwitch brought her arm down again, and they glowed a bright purple all over again. They curled around and became three separate spears, all aiming angrily at the aircraft below them. The woman in the Bullhead stumbled slightly, and Ruby caught sight of one glowing eye, and the only thing that she could think of was lava. She only just now noticed two patterns in her dress, or whatever it was that she was wearing, were glowing as well, and it almost seemed to be flowing like lava on, or in her.
The spears were more like serpents now, and they all moved to coil around the bulk head. The lava woman, as Ruby could only think of her as such at the moment, quickly brought her arms around her, almost as if she was hugging herself, and there was another flash of light as it seemed to pulse out from her, destroying all of the purple serpents that had been around the aircraft. As the shards fell, glowing a dull orange that reminded Ruby of the embers of a dying fire, the Bullhead finally seemed to level itself out. Ruby shot a worried look over at Goodwitch, but she decided she couldn’t let these people get away. Maybe if she was lucky, if she brought down the bad guys, what ever sort of punishment she faced from being an ex-terrorist wouldn’t be quite so severe. She quickly channeled her Aura through Crescent Rose again and changed it into its gun form. She began firing at the lava woman on the bulk head, but she just moved her hand in their path and the bullets seemed worthless as they seemed to destroy themselves on her hand.
She then waved her arm in front of her, and several red hot glyphs appeared in a semi-circle around Ruby and Goodwitch. Ruby looked at them, unsure of what they were for, when she heard Goodwitch give a grunt of effort, and Ruby found herself flying forward, as the erupted behind them. Ruby landed unceremoniously on her face, and she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her face. As she struggled to stand again, she heard the twin engines of the Bullhead shift, and then it took off. Ruby stood up just in time to see it fly away.
Her mind raced in a panic, she had just lost the bad guys, and there was no way that Goodwitch was just going to let her walk after interfering the way she had. Her mind then launched at her that she was still pretty young looking, and if she was lucky, her innocent look could keep her from getting into to much trouble. “You’re a huntress,” Ruby began, not really having to fake the awe that was in her voice, but she did struggle slightly, trying her best to keep the terror she felt from leaking through. Goodwitch turned to face her with a very unhappy look on her face, and Ruby had to stop her self from gulping in fear before asking as excitedly as she could manage, while also bringing her hands up just below her face to try and make herself look just a little more cute, “Can I have your autograph!?”
Goodwitch gave an angry scowl and grabbed Ruby by her arm leading her away. She found herself being dragged down to the police station that was two blocks away from the From Dust Till Dawn. She was then forced into a chair of an interrogation room while Goodwitch paced unhappily behind her. Ruby looked down at the table, unsure of who might be watching through the oneway mirror and did her best to not look like a mass murdering terrorist.
“I hope you realize your actions tonight will not be taken lightly young lady. You put yourself, and others, in great danger,” her voice practically oozing disappointment.
“They started it!” Ruby shouted in an attempt to defend herself, not at all concerned about how childish her claim was.
“If it were up to me,” Goodwitch continued, as if Ruby had not spoken at all, her voice going from disappointment, to a tense neutral, “you would be sent home,” (what home Ruby thought to herself bitterly), “with a pat on the back,” this made Ruby’s eyes widen slightly, and a smile come on her face at the thought of being allowed to just walk, (maybe they really don’t know who I am), Goodwitch then turned only her head to face her before continuing, “and a slap on the wrist.” She punctuated this by bringing her riding crop down to where Ruby’s hand was. Ruby quickly pulled her hands up to her chest while giving a fearful yelp, fully knowing how dangerous that riding crop was.
Goodwitch sighed and continued again, “But, there is someone here who would like to meet you.” She moved aside and a man with gray hair, black glasses that had a bent frame, a green scarf and undershirt, a black jacket, black pants, a mug that seemed to be for Beacon (coffee was in it based off of the smell coming from it) and most importantly to Ruby, a plate of cookies. Ruby quickly recognized that the man before was Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon.
“Ruby Rose,” he said casually as he walked in. Ruby forced herself not to react at the fact that he knew her name. How, set off warning bells for her, because she had not once mentioned it to Goodwitch (Does he know who I am? How many I’ve killed? This could be really bad for me) Ruby thought worriedly.
He got closer and bent forward, getting a closer look at her, “You…” he began slowly, and Ruby feared he was going to bring up her past, talk about all the people she had killed, anything she might have done wrong before that could warrant an arrest, “have silver eyes,” he finished. Ruby frowned and gave him an unimpressed look, wondering what that had to do with anything.
“Uh…Um-“
“So,” started as he stood up, almost as if Ruby hadn’t just tried to say something, “Where did you learn to do this?” he asked while inclining his head to the scroll Goodwitch was silently holding. (Why do they have footage of me doing that, have they been spying on me?!)
“S-Signal Academy,” she stuttered out, trying her best to figure out why Ozpin was toying with her, and what his game was. What she had said hadn’t been a total lie, she had trained there for a couple of years, but had been taken out to be part of the Fang nine months ago, so she had missed almost all of her third of five years.
“They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?” He asked, clearly not believing Ruby.
“Well, one teacher in particular,” she said. Again, not a total lie, her time at Signal had been mostly spent with her going through her classes and getting her uncle Qrow to teach her how to use it after classes.
“I see,” he said, not sounding pleased. He then placed the plate of cookies right in front of Ruby. She looked up at him to see what he was doing, but he just continued to watch her, she cautiously reached forward to take one, and quickly ate the whole thing in about two bites. She looked back up to see if there was any reaction from either of the two in front of her, and when she saw none, she quickly began eating them all. As much as she had loved her mother and the time they had spent in the White Fang together, Ruby had almost never gotten to eat cookies, which was something she was not pleased about, and had taken to gorging herself on the sweets, if she was able.
“Its just that I’ve only seen one other scythe wielder of that skill before,” he continued, as if he hadn’t paused at all, “A dusty old Qrow,” he finished, looking off, as if he were remembering something.
Ruby mumbled something incoherent with her mouth full, before she blushed, swallowed, and said, “Eh, sorry. That’s my uncle Qrow, he’s a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing,” (my limited time with Yang has had a bigger impact on me than I thought) Ruby thought with a groan, “Now I’m all like-“ She stopped speaking to start making ninja noises and movements.
“So I’ve noticed,” Ozpin said with a completely straight face, seeming neither amused, nor irritated by Ruby’s antics. “And what is an adorable girl, such as yourself, doing at a school designed to train warriors?”
“Well, I want to be a huntress.”
Ozpin sat down and clarified, “You want to slay monsters?”
Ruby gave a slight nod and continued, “Yeah, I only have two more years of training left at Signal,” assuming she wasn’t forced to retake her third year of course, “and then I’m going to apply to Beacon. You see my sister is starting there this year, and she’s trying to become a huntress, and I’m trying to become a huntress cause I…I wanna help people. Our parents always taught us to help others so I thought ‘Ah well, might as well try and make a career out of it.’” Ruby gave a nervous chuckle before she continued, “I mean the police are alright, but the huntsmen and huntresses are just so much more romantic, exciting, cool, mysterious, gah! Ya know?”
Goodwitch gave Ruby a look that seemed to state that she was seriously questioning Ruby’s mental health, while Ozpin remained completely unfazed. “Do you know who I am?” he asked seriously.
“You’re Professor Ozpin. You’re the headmaster at Beacon,” (where is he going with this?)
Ozpin gave a small laugh, and said, “Hello.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ruby continued in stride, to busy wondering where he was going to wonder why he waited so long to say hello or introduce himself.
“You want to come to my school?” He asked, leaning forward slightly.
“More than anything,” Ruby said seriously. (If people see a Fanus huntress making a difference, maybe I can still inspire some equality.)
Ozpin looked over his shoulder at Goodwitch, who rolled her eyes and looked away. “Well okay.”
Ruby’s eyes widened in excitement and surprise. (I’m going to Beacon!?)