Chapter Text
Reports are saying that The Crimson Reaper has appeared again tonight. Citizens are still wondering who this hooded figure truly is, friend, or foe? Let’s talk to…
“Sheesh, the news just won’t shut up about that reaper person, hey?”
“Oh come on, dude, it’s a big deal-” The few conversations happening in From Dust Till Dawn ceased upon the noise of the door opening.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?” A man wearing a white suit and black bowler hat, flanked by four men in black suits and red sunglasses, strolled into the store. He flicked a bit of cigar ash onto the counter in front of the shop owner. One of the men flanking him pulled out a mid caliber pistol and aimed it at the owner.
“J-Just take my money!”
“Relax, we’re not here for your Lien. Take the Dust.” Immediately, the group split up. Some went for the granulated Dust while others searched the store, and one stayed by the store owner to get some Dust crystals. One in particular moved off to the right, spotting a small figure obscured by a red cloak.
“What… No- no, it couldn’t be them.” The man reassured himself, taking a quick breath before walking up. “Hey, kid! Give me all you got!”
The figure didn’t respond, continuing to read its… weapons magazine? The man, impatient, grabbed the figure’s shoulder to find that… They were wearing headphones. Along with having two fluffy wolf ears atop her head. The man sneered, gesturing to his ears.
“Yes?” She took her headphones off.
“I said put your hands in the air!” This girl was unnervingly calm for the situation she was in.
“Are you… robbing me?”
“Yeah!”
“Ohhh…” The next thing he knows, the man crashes across the room and is more than a little dazed.
The rest of the men, other than the lead one with a white jacket, moved to approach the commotion, but are cut off when a swirl of petals launches through the window, taking one of the men with it.
All four rushed outside, the man in the white jacket sighing and taking another drag of his cigar before doing the same.
Sching!
The girl takes an object from behind her back and presses a button, then the next thing any of them know the odd object has unfolded into a gigantic, red and black war scythe.
“Well… get her!”
—
Jump, kick there, swing the handle around to hit his shin… vault over that, oh, slash there… Ruby was a whirlwind of steel and Aura, none of the men could even get close to her and in only a few seconds each and every one of them was flat on their ass. She allowed herself a little celebration, stabbing the end of her scythe into the ground.
“Well, if it isn’t the little red scythe. You’ve been annoying me and my business for a while now. I can’t say I expected you to be a faunus. Not that I care, I have a reputation to uphold! So I’m afraid this is where I have to say goodbye!” She looked up to see the lead man point his cane at her, a small crosshair flipping up above it. Her eyes widened, and she activated her semblance to jump up.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, the man was nowhere to be seen, but she’d dealt with this location before. Turning to the nearby fire ladder on another building, she saw the man she expected. Roman Torchwick, if she remembered correctly. Without another word, she shot off after him in a storm of petals.
“Tch. Persistent, aren’t you red? Well, it’s the end of the line!” He stepped back and a bullhead popped up from behind the building, how had Ruby not seen that? “I’m afraid I’ll have to never see you again!” He jumped backward onto it and hurled a red Dust crystal toward her. But Ruby didn’t just stand there for him to detonate it, firing a shot backward and hurling herself toward the bullhead.
She wound Crescent Rose back and slammed it forward, slicing deep into the side of the bullhead and latching her on. “Oh you little-” His exclamation was cut off by a kick from Ruby, narrowly missing but giving her the space to rip her scythe free and swing it around, hooking into the opening in the door.
When Roman tried to kick the scythe off, she fired, the bullet pinging off of his Aura and causing him to wince, clutching his nose. The next time he tried, though, he succeeded, kicking Ruby off.
Ruby was about to activate her semblance to reach the ledge again when her body seized, floating mid air and moving toward the roof of the building. On which she saw a blonde woman carrying a riding crop and appearing very angry. Ruby stumbled onto the roof, catching her bearings and standing.
The woman flicked her riding crop and the debris from the explosion Roman had caused earlier surged into the air, forming a spear and traveling toward the ship. Roman disappeared into the cockpit and out came a woman that Ruby couldn’t quite make out beyond clothes that seemed to glow orange.
The woman threw multiple fireballs at the spear of debris, but every time they just formed together again, allowing it to jut itself into the side of the bullhead. Next, the spear split into 4 tendrils, swirling around the bullhead. Ruby saw the woman in the ship swirl her arms together.
She had no idea what the woman was doing, but it was almost certainly a good idea to stop her. She pulled the lever on her custom mechashift component and Crescent Rose collapsed into a proper sniper. She fired a bullet just in time, catching the woman off guard and pinging against a dull orange Aura, staggering her arm.
The tendrils of debris swarmed in on the bullhead’s engines, but the woman still managed to react in time. She sent a wave of fire or heat or something like it in every direction, completely melting the spears and not allowing the blonde huntress to use the debris as weapons.
With the woman actually expecting attacks, Ruby’s bullets didn’t do much as the bullhead switched to travel mode rather than hover and shot into the night, despite seemingly having resistance from the huntress’... likely semblance.
Ruby turned to said huntress, looking up at her. “You’re… a huntress… Can I have your autograph?” Her face fell when she looked closely and saw a mixture of annoyance and rage on the woman’s face.
—
“Do you have any idea the danger you could have caused?” Ruby hadn’t had much choice in going to the police station, this time. She just had to hope that the whole ‘vigilante’ thing didn’t get uncovered.
“No… sorry…”
Glynda sighed, pacing back and forth in the small interrogation room. “If I was making the choices, you’d be out of here with a pat on the back,” Ruby smiled, “and a slap on the wrist!” She quickly yanked her hand away as the riding crop came down toward it. “However… I am not. Instead, someone who is vastly less responsible would like to see you.”
She stepped to the side as a man with dull silver hair and orange eyes walked in the room, carrying a plate of cookies. He set them down and leaned close to her. “Ruby Rose. You have silver eyes.” When Ruby hesitated, he gestured to the plate and Ruby started eating the cookies. “Now, who taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?”
“Oh, my Uncle Qrow, at Signal! I was complete garbage before he took me in…” She rubbed the back of her head, looking at the man.
“I see. And what is a girl like you doing fighting monsters and criminals?”
“I want to be a huntress! The police are cool, sure, but huntsmen and huntresses are just so much more romantic, you know? My sister’s going to Beacon and I plan to do the same in two years!”
“I see. Do you know who I am?”
“You’re Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy…”
“You wish to go to my school?”
“More than anything…”
“Well, good. I was going to invite you early.” Ruby saw Glynda sigh and roll her eyes to his right, but she didn’t say anything. “I was going to, but this incident was just what I needed to justify it to the council, and your father. I would pack, initiation is in only a few days.” He took a sip from his mug, smiling somewhat. “Tell Tai I said ‘hello’ for me.” And then walked out the room.
—
Ruby practically barreled down the front door to her home in Patch. “Dad! Guess what?” As she reached the kitchen, she saw her dad cooking, smelled like steak!
“What, Ruby?”
“So, I stopped another robbery-” she ignored her father’s worried look, “and I got caught this time! But I didn’t get in trouble!” She was fairly sure that if she had been born with a tail, it would be wagging, but she didn’t care. “Instead, it was a teacher at Beacon! And Ozpin invited me two years early! I’m just that good!”
Taiyang froze, looking over at his daughter. “That’s… wonderful… Are you sure about this?”
“Duh! I get to go in the same year as Yang! And since it’s not Signal, I don’t have to hide my ears! Well, you said they have a much more strict anti-bullying policy than Signal, right?”
Tai sighed. Ozpin, Ozpin, Ozpin. “That is correct… but don’t feel pressured. You can choose to show them or not to, I’m sure Ozpin would be willing to pull some strings to get you registered as a human, anyway.” Slowly, he turned back to cooking.
“No, I’m gonna do it! I’m not ashamed of them, anyway… As long as Yang stops teasing me about them, I’ll-”
“What am I not teasing about? Because we both know that’s not happening, Rubes.”
Ruby groaned, turning to her sister, “Yang, I was saying not to tease me about my ears at Beacon…”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about that for 2 years, anyway. It’s not like you’re going two years early.” Yang casually walked into the kitchen, grabbing a bite from the… mostly cooked steak, much to Tai’s obvious annoyance. But when she turned to Ruby and saw her face…
“You’re going to Beacon 2 years early…”
Ruby shrugged and nodded, then tensed as she was rapidly brought into a hug with a vice grip. “I can’t believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This’ll be the best!”
“Stahp… can’t… breathe…”
“Alright, girls, that’s enough suffocating each other for today, how about we have dinner. I’ll have a chat with Ozpin tomorrow, alright?” He set down 3 plates with the freshly made steak, giving Ruby the largest portion and giving Yang about half as much as normal.
“Hey! This isn’t enough!”
“Then don’t eat it while I’m cooking, firecracker.” Tai teased, taking a bite of his own food as he watched his girls sit down. “And you’re absolutely sure you want me to register you as faunus in the school?”
“Ugh, yes dad! I’m done hiding…” She faintly heard him mutter something about vigilantism and tensed up, but when he didn’t press further, she sighed in relief. “Thanks for the dinner…”
Tai smiled, turning to her again. “I… I have a lot of time to make up, so I’m doing my best now. Alright, now that’s enough talking, eat. I bought you cookies that you can stuff with meat like the psycho you are.”
—
Tai woke up early the next morning, specifically before Yang or Ruby would. He grabbed his scroll and walked outside. Despite the need to call Oz, it was probably a good idea to let out some steam first.
The first dummy didn’t last long, nor the second, or the third. But eventually, he managed to calm down enough not to accidentally use his semblance on the dummies so he could actually let off that steam he needed to. After going through at least 15 dummies, he finally felt ready to call Ozpin.
“And to what do I owe you the pleasure at…” there was a pause from the other end before Ozpin continued, “4 in the morning, Tai?”
“You know why, Oz. Why did you invite her early? You know that’s-”
“The safest option, Tai. You know of the Crimson Reaper, yes?”
“What does this- I think, I’ve heard the name a few times. You know I don’t get off of Patch.” He heard a sigh on the other end, Ozpin seemingly rethinking his strategy.
“Well, you know that Ruby has been going out and fighting crime and grimm, yes?”
“Yes…”
“And you’ve tried to stop her?”
“That I have.”
“But she continues to. And she will do so, if she is anything like her mother. Now, would you rather Ruby continue to fight crime as she is now, or go to Beacon where she can learn the skills needed to do it properly?” Tai could hear him take a sip of his hot cocoa even through the scroll call. “Because whether you like it or not, she'll be out there. Your choice is whether or not to let her learn properly first.”
“Give me a moment.” He put his scroll down and grabbed another straw dummy from the shed. He wound his fist back and thrust it forward, the stored energy from oh so many battles erupting outward and vaporizing the dummy from the waist up, then walked back to grab his scroll. “Fine. She can go to Beacon. But you better make sure she learns the material of those years she’s missing at Signal.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Ozpin’s voice held a bit of humor, now, “Glynda wouldn’t let me avoid that even if I wanted to.”