- Location
- Singapore
Can you guys, like, contribute too?
Maybe give reviews?
Maybe give reviews?
Lets Get To It! Rwby Ideas/discussion Thread
- Thread starter GeneralScrage
- Start date
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- Tags
- rwby ideas thread
I think something like "Rushed out of the store" or "Ducked out the back door" might make it feel a bit more in the moment.
I like the establishing scene overall though, showing a new character scavenging to get by works well.
This might have worked better as part of an internal monologue, like "That's freaking things gonna bringing every zombie for a hundred miles!' Shoes scraping against the floor he hissed, 'I should go, I really should but!-' Adam spun around and slipped onto the street, desperate to spy the source of noise for jut a moment.
I liked the description of his rush through the city, the cars, the ladders, ETC, and also how he watched Ozpin and the wave at the end, very cool and in character and the alarm clock zombie clearing strategy is a good one.
- Location
- Singapore
Yeah, I know. This was rushed. Typing on the phone, as usual.
Yeah, I know. The only thing better would have been using a remote control car, strap a camera and alarm on it, and then drive it around the city.
And then have it go across a thin and narrow bridge, placed over a canyon/ river.
Nonetheless, using Ozpin as a meatgrinder works too.
So what do you think of these OCs?
The Farmer. Dude whos'ved lived in the countryside all the time. Has a shotgun.
The military man. Good enough at guns and shooting. Not so good at talking with Ozpin.
The General. Same thing, but less good at the having Ozpin not really obey him.
The child? Saw his/ her parents eaten. Is scared. Looks to Ozpin as a hero.
The military man. Good enough at guns and shooting. Not so good at talking with Ozpin.
The General. Same thing, but less good at the having Ozpin not really obey him.
The child? Saw his/ her parents eaten. Is scared. Looks to Ozpin as a hero.
Fair enough.
That would definitely be fun as well.
They seem fairly solid, though 2 and 3 seem fairly similar.
- Location
- Singapore
Its different.
One is supposed to be, like, a peer to Ozpin. Another is accustomed to be obeyed.
Another idea is to have a hardass survivalist, that feels kinda jealous that Ozpin's got cool powers and not him.
And then there's alice.
Anyway, am I the only one that feels this thread is kinda dead.
I'm afraid I'm not quite sure which is which, is 3 the one who is the peer and so is awkward cos they are not used to having peers?
I could see that being quite realistic.
Its never been the busiest of places sadly.
- Location
- Singapore
The general is used to being obeyed.
But Ozpin, sadly, might be a bit too independent. He was once a headmaster of a school of superheroes, remember?
And the soldier is kinda... awkward. I mean, yes, he's good fighter. But he's literally superhuman. He can literally clear up entire buildings or armies singlehandedly. I mean, put this:
And scale it up so that the person doing it can do this:
And then you might know how it feels like to feel Ozpin fight and that's a part of the gulf between him and the other characters. He's not human. Not to their eyes, at least.
I'm not sure if its sad for anyone but the general, but yes him being seen as more than human makes perfect sense.
- Location
- Singapore
So....
Cult of Ozpin when?
Hmm.... So they see him as more than human. Any plot ideas coming up?
Pfft I could see it XDSo....
Cult of Ozpin when?
Hmm.... So they see him as more than human. Any plot ideas coming up?
Sorry none, kind of been struggling to write recently, there's not much that can threaten Opzin besides high impact missiles or nukes, the rest of the cast are basically dependent on him so their agency is weak and while h may want to go home, the method of how he got there and how to get back are undetermined so he's likely quite lost and just sort of taking things as they come.
- Location
- Singapore
Yes, which is why I wanted character interaction. But I'm kinda at a crossroads now. Don't know which direction to take
- Location
- Singapore
- Location
- Taipei
Hi, so I'm a fanfiction reader from ff.net, and I have a few ideas I wanted to share with anyone who is interested. This one is a crossover between RWBY and FFX-2. Feel free to nab the idea and make it a reality.
Remember how Monty Oum first started out with "Dead Fantasy"? We saw Yuna, Rikku and Tifa fighting the people from the dead or alive series. And Monty was inspired to create RWBY after working on Dead Fantasy (which is discontinued, due to Monty shifting his attention to RWBY.... and cuz he's dead, R.I.P).
Anyway, so here is the outline.
-Game & Anime, FFX-2 & RWBY crossover- Team PYRO in position, it's show time!
At the end of YRP's last mission, they found a strange broken Machina on the top of the tower. It is a beacon created in the times of Zanarkand, powered by pyrflies that will guide the way to the door of another world. Since the beacon is now activated, no one knows what will come through that door. Team YRP and the Gullwings come together once more and try to uncover the mystery about the door in the sky, and why pyrflies seem to be attracted to it.
When the Celcius flew through the mysterious door in the sky, when the group wanted to head back, they could not find the door again. They are now in the world of RWBY.
Team PYRO is consisted of Yuna, Rikku, Paine and Onyxia (Faunus OC), with Paine being the leader.
You might ask, why not Yuna act as the leader? Well, she isn't really level-headed or tactical as Paine, who has formal military training. Yuna is too emotional despite having brilliant plans.
Summoners in the ancient times of Zanarkand can call on the power of Pyreflies, which are crystalizations of the energies of the world and can store thoughts, images, sound, memories, and when focused enough, living creatures like fiends and people. Yuna can no longer summon aeons, but with practice, could potentially summon other things.
Grimms do not disperse into Pyreflies when defeated. However, a "Sending" can still negatively impact the performance of Grimm. Most importantly, a "Sending" can send away negative energy and decrease the chance of being attacked by Grimm.
All four of the ladies have different specialization despite sharing all the same dress spheres.
1. Songstress: Yuna is able to sing AND dance at the same time, Rikku is good at dancing and her dance debuffs/buffs are effective, but isn't so good with singing, while Paine is good at singing but isn't good at dancing.
2. Gunner: Yuna is the best gunner, with Rikku next and Paine third, Yuna can fire with high accuracy and fire rapidly. Rikky can fire rapidly, but her aim isn't superb. Paine's aim is superb but she can't fire rapidly.
3. Thief: Rikku is the best thief, with Paine second and Yuna third. Rikku is very swift and deadly with the blades while also good at stealing. Paine is good with the blades but isn't very good at stealing. Yuna isn't very great with the twin blades but is good at stealing.
4. Black Mage: Yuna has the most raw power, Rikku and Paine are equal in terms of power but specialize with different elements. In desperate times, they can use Ultima and Flare but require support to buy them the time to cast it. Yuna has everything except Ultima and Flare. Rikku does well with Water and Thunder spells while Paine is good with Fire and Ice spells.
5. White Mage: Yuna is the best white mage hands down. Rikku is second, and Paine comes last. Yuna has lots of experience as a white mage during her pilgrimage and is capable of casting Holy. Rikku can cast all the buffs, but her best healing spell is Cura and can only heal one at a time. Paine can perform Curaga group heals but runs out of juice easily and isn't good with buffs.
6. Gun Mage: Paine is first, Rikku is second, Yuna is third. Paine has the most amount of blue bullet skills. Rikku has the most data on monsters, such as knowing their weaknesses and strength by heart. Yuna is better at Fiend-Hunting and using specific bullets to maximize damage.
7. Alchemist: Rikku is first, Paine is second, Yuna third. Rikku has the most experience in mixing things, Paine has lots of experience handling the potions and items as she knows a lot about first aid and combat items. Yuna can throw things accurately and shoot fine.
8. Dark Knight: Paine is first, Yuna is second, Rikku is third. Paine is very powerful as a dark knight, Yuna has a knack for Arcana magic. Rikku can swing the weapon just fine and has a penchant of spamming "darkside" a bit too frequently on the safe side and can't cast many Arcana spells.
9. Samurai: Rikku is first, Paine is second, Yuna is last. (I don't know much about the Samurai class, never was a fan of it and rarely used it)
10. Lady Luck: Everyone is equal since the abilities mostly depend on luck. However, Yuna is super good with Magic reels, Paine is good with Attack Reels and Rikku is good with the Item Reels. No one likes to risk using the Random Reels too much.
11. Berserker: Rikku is first, Yuna is second, Paine is third. Rikku is nimble and hits hard, Yuna becomes very scary when enraged, Paine is patient and calculating.
12. Trainer: Everyone has their own niche.
13. Mascot: Everyone has their own niche.
Writers could decide what they want to do with Onyxia. Such as, how the dress spheres will look like and what skills she will excel at. Or, you could ignore the dress sphere system completely and just let Onyxia be someone unique.
Note: If you do not like the name Onyxia, some other possibilities are available. Like Olivia. The thing is, Team YRP, needs to end with an O, or an L. PYRO, PYRL for pyreflies. Or team PYRE, Team HRPY (With the OC that has H in her name being the leader) etc.
Remember how Monty Oum first started out with "Dead Fantasy"? We saw Yuna, Rikku and Tifa fighting the people from the dead or alive series. And Monty was inspired to create RWBY after working on Dead Fantasy (which is discontinued, due to Monty shifting his attention to RWBY.... and cuz he's dead, R.I.P).
Anyway, so here is the outline.
-Game & Anime, FFX-2 & RWBY crossover- Team PYRO in position, it's show time!
At the end of YRP's last mission, they found a strange broken Machina on the top of the tower. It is a beacon created in the times of Zanarkand, powered by pyrflies that will guide the way to the door of another world. Since the beacon is now activated, no one knows what will come through that door. Team YRP and the Gullwings come together once more and try to uncover the mystery about the door in the sky, and why pyrflies seem to be attracted to it.
When the Celcius flew through the mysterious door in the sky, when the group wanted to head back, they could not find the door again. They are now in the world of RWBY.
Team PYRO is consisted of Yuna, Rikku, Paine and Onyxia (Faunus OC), with Paine being the leader.
You might ask, why not Yuna act as the leader? Well, she isn't really level-headed or tactical as Paine, who has formal military training. Yuna is too emotional despite having brilliant plans.
Summoners in the ancient times of Zanarkand can call on the power of Pyreflies, which are crystalizations of the energies of the world and can store thoughts, images, sound, memories, and when focused enough, living creatures like fiends and people. Yuna can no longer summon aeons, but with practice, could potentially summon other things.
Grimms do not disperse into Pyreflies when defeated. However, a "Sending" can still negatively impact the performance of Grimm. Most importantly, a "Sending" can send away negative energy and decrease the chance of being attacked by Grimm.
All four of the ladies have different specialization despite sharing all the same dress spheres.
1. Songstress: Yuna is able to sing AND dance at the same time, Rikku is good at dancing and her dance debuffs/buffs are effective, but isn't so good with singing, while Paine is good at singing but isn't good at dancing.
2. Gunner: Yuna is the best gunner, with Rikku next and Paine third, Yuna can fire with high accuracy and fire rapidly. Rikky can fire rapidly, but her aim isn't superb. Paine's aim is superb but she can't fire rapidly.
3. Thief: Rikku is the best thief, with Paine second and Yuna third. Rikku is very swift and deadly with the blades while also good at stealing. Paine is good with the blades but isn't very good at stealing. Yuna isn't very great with the twin blades but is good at stealing.
4. Black Mage: Yuna has the most raw power, Rikku and Paine are equal in terms of power but specialize with different elements. In desperate times, they can use Ultima and Flare but require support to buy them the time to cast it. Yuna has everything except Ultima and Flare. Rikku does well with Water and Thunder spells while Paine is good with Fire and Ice spells.
5. White Mage: Yuna is the best white mage hands down. Rikku is second, and Paine comes last. Yuna has lots of experience as a white mage during her pilgrimage and is capable of casting Holy. Rikku can cast all the buffs, but her best healing spell is Cura and can only heal one at a time. Paine can perform Curaga group heals but runs out of juice easily and isn't good with buffs.
6. Gun Mage: Paine is first, Rikku is second, Yuna is third. Paine has the most amount of blue bullet skills. Rikku has the most data on monsters, such as knowing their weaknesses and strength by heart. Yuna is better at Fiend-Hunting and using specific bullets to maximize damage.
7. Alchemist: Rikku is first, Paine is second, Yuna third. Rikku has the most experience in mixing things, Paine has lots of experience handling the potions and items as she knows a lot about first aid and combat items. Yuna can throw things accurately and shoot fine.
8. Dark Knight: Paine is first, Yuna is second, Rikku is third. Paine is very powerful as a dark knight, Yuna has a knack for Arcana magic. Rikku can swing the weapon just fine and has a penchant of spamming "darkside" a bit too frequently on the safe side and can't cast many Arcana spells.
9. Samurai: Rikku is first, Paine is second, Yuna is last. (I don't know much about the Samurai class, never was a fan of it and rarely used it)
10. Lady Luck: Everyone is equal since the abilities mostly depend on luck. However, Yuna is super good with Magic reels, Paine is good with Attack Reels and Rikku is good with the Item Reels. No one likes to risk using the Random Reels too much.
11. Berserker: Rikku is first, Yuna is second, Paine is third. Rikku is nimble and hits hard, Yuna becomes very scary when enraged, Paine is patient and calculating.
12. Trainer: Everyone has their own niche.
13. Mascot: Everyone has their own niche.
Writers could decide what they want to do with Onyxia. Such as, how the dress spheres will look like and what skills she will excel at. Or, you could ignore the dress sphere system completely and just let Onyxia be someone unique.
Note: If you do not like the name Onyxia, some other possibilities are available. Like Olivia. The thing is, Team YRP, needs to end with an O, or an L. PYRO, PYRL for pyreflies. Or team PYRE, Team HRPY (With the OC that has H in her name being the leader) etc.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Old chapter based noticable dip in quality, ho!
---
Rathma
---
Ruby looked around, confused.
Where was she? Her dad had sent her to take a nap, and now she was standing in a black void.
"Hello?"
Nothing.
Walking along, the four year old looked around, listening for anything.
Still nothing.
Ruby wasn't sure how long she was walking, but had started to get more than a little tired, and scared, before she came across something.
Or rather, something came across her.
The winged creature came from behind her, flew over her head, and landed in front of her.
The little girl inclined her head, looking at the giant creature.
It was like someone had taken a connect the dots of a snake, and attached a pair of wings to it.
As Ruby stared into the closest ball of light, she saw flashes of images.
A boy and two girls, standing in the burning remains of a village.
A man, desperately trying to comfort a bawling blond baby, before a woman took her from him.
The same couple, the woman was in a hospital bed, gently holding a newborn. Silver eyes spread, staring sleepily.
"How did you get here, little nephalem?"
Ruby looked up, and the creature looked down.
"Hi?"
If snakes could smile, Ruby was sure it was.
"Hello. Now, how did you get here? I certainly didn't invite you."
"I- I dunno. Where is here?"
"This is my home, are you lost?"
"I think so," Ruby felt tears prickle the the corner of her eyes, "I wanna go home."
"I do not blame you. How old are you, little nephalem?"
"Four and eight months," Ruby smiled, puffing out her chest despite herself.
"A respectable age," the creature nodded seriously.
"Respectable? What's that mean?"
"It means that it should be taken seriously."
Ruby looked up at the creature, "are you making fun of me?"
It smiled, "A little bit, yes."
Ruby puffed out her cheeks, scowling, "Why?"
"Well," He, Ruby was sure he was a he, "you are not scared anymore, right?"
"...I still want to go home."
"I do not doubt it," he said, "I would gladly help you find your way, if I knew where you came from."
Ruby felt tears well up again, and desperately rubbed them. Yang would laugh at her if she found out Ruby had been crying.
"Do not worry, little nephalem. I might not know the way at the moment, but I am sure I can find it quickly. Would you like to talk while I do so? I have not spoken to anyone in a long time."
"Ok, Mr…?"
"Trag'Oul. Just Trag'Oul."
"Ok! What are you?"
"I am a dragon, little nephalem."
Ruby puffed out her cheeks again, "My name is Ruby!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that."
"It's ok! What do you do here?"
"I maintain the Balance, or try to at least."
"The Balance," Ruby cocked her head to the side, "like a tightrope?"
Ruby had watched someone walk on one at a circus a couple of months back for Yang's seventh birthday.
Trag'Oul released a deep rumbling sound, and Ruby was afraid she had made him angry, before realizing he was laughing.
"I have never heard of it described like that, but I suppose you could look at it that way. The Balance is between Chaos and Order, too much in one direction, and everything burns, too much in the other, and everything stagnates."
"Wuh?"
"It stops."
"Oh. Do you need help?"
Trag'Oul looked at her, "Why do you think that?"
"It sounds like a big job, and Dad always says I should help with big jobs."
Trag'Oul laughed again, "I think this is bigger than what they mean."
"Well, that just means you need more help!"
Trag'Oul stopped, thinking, "I suppose it would be nice to have some help," one of the balls of light descended, touching her chest, "I will meet you back here tomorrow?"
"Ok!"
----
Tai watched Ruby play with her friends at her birthday party. The newly five year old was running around, dodging Aileen's attempted to tag her.
Qrow walked out from the house, holding a parcel.
"What's that?"
"It just came, says it's for Ruby."
"From who?"
"It doesn't say. Should we let her open it now?"
Tai looked at it out of the corner of his eye. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a regular package, but he would admit it was strange that it didn't say where it came from.
"Sure. One present won't hurt anyone."
"Ruby, a package arrived for you!"
Ruby looked over, dancing away from Aileen on nimble feet. Tai couldn't help the proud smile that made his way onto her face. She was a natural.
Ruby made her way over to them, and Qrow crouched down, handing her the package.
Ruby carefully undid the twine holding it together, and the simple brown paper gave way.
Inside was a neatly folded pile of fabric, with an envelope sitting on top.
Tai gently took the envelope from her, opening it and reading the contents aloud for his family to hear.
"'Ruby,
These used to belong to two friends of mine, but they no longer need them. Since you were talking about how much you liked your mother's cloak, I thought you might like it.
I have something to deal with, so I won't be around for a bit. Keep up your training, Rathma.
Kalan.' Ruby what does- that's a knife!"
Indeed, the first item was a large cloak. Much too large, Tai noticed briefly, for a girl Ruby's age. The second was a long curved knife, chalk white.
Tai saw Ruby reach out to grab it, and moved to stop her, "Ruby, that isn't a toy-"
Tai stopped, staring as Ruby wrapped her hand around the dagger. While it was also too big for her, there was no denying that Ruby was holding it properly. Hand wrapped around the hilt tightly enough to have a firm grip on it, but not so tight as to be uncomfortable.
"Ruby, where did you learn to hold a knife like that?"
Ruby smiled, apparently unconcerned with the blade in her hand, "Kalan taught me!"
Tai frowned, looking at the note, "Who is Kalan?"
Already, Tai was forming plans to pay this 'Kalan' a visit with Qrow. Ruby was a little girl, she shouldn't know how to use knives!
"He's my teacher!"
"And what has he been teaching you?"
"To fight."
Tai shared a look with Qrow over Ruby's head.
"Why are you learning to fight?"
"I want to be a Huntress."
"That's a very dangerous job, you could be lots of other things."
Ruby face pulled into a expression all too serious for a girl her age, "I want to be a Huntress."
Tai stopped at the conviction in his daughter's voice. Even he hadn't been that sure about his chosen profession.
"And why is that?"
"I want to protect people, and maintain the Balance."
Tai shared another look with Qrow, "and what is the Balance?"
"'If chaos rules, worlds burn. If order rules, they stagnate. If either finds such a foothold that the other cannot right, Remnant will destroy itself,'" Ruby recited, like she had memorized it every day.
Tai curled a hand into a fist, hiding the sparks gathering. Oh, when he found this 'Kalan' guy…
"And what about the people who get hurt because of the it? There are bad people out there, Rosebud."
"'There is a difference between Chaos and Order, and Good and Evil. Good should always outway Evil, but never obliterate it completely, lest Good turn on itself.'"
"Ruby, I don't want you to meet with Kalan anymore."
"Why?"
"These aren't the type of things someone your age should be worrying about-"
"I asked him to let me help!"
"And he should have said no. Give me that knife."
Ruby backed up, holding the knife in both hands, wrapping the bundle of cloth around it, "No!"
Tai walked forward gently, stretching out his hand, "Ruby," he took a harder tone of voice, "Hand over the knife."
Ruby backed up more, eyes wide as she shook her head.
As Tai reached down to take the knife, Ruby made a sharp gesture with her hand.
Tai snapped his hand back to dodge the spikes of bone that rose around him, staring at Ruby through them.
What the- was this Ruby's Semblance? Had Kalan unlocked her Aura? What kind of Semblance caused bones to grow from the ground, and what did it say about his daughter?
Qrow reached down behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder, before something else happened.
The cloak in Ruby's hand lept from it, moving up her arm like a shadow, and wrapped around Qrow's throat like a noose.
It only took a second for Qrow to remove it, but in the moment he did, a whirlwind of bones batted Qrow's hand away, and she took off.
Ducking under Yang's grasp, Ruby ran towards the backwoods, and the cloak rapidly followed her.
"Ruby! Wait-"
Ruby disappeared suddenly, the treeline not even have covered her whole body when she ceased to be.
Tai stared for a second as the bones crumbled, before rushing to look for his younger daughter.
---
Ruby ran through the black void, hot tears running down her face. She was trying to put as much space, or what passed for it here, in between herself and her family.
"Kalan! Where are you!"
A strangled sob escaped Ruby lips, and she pulled the cloak tighter around herself. She tightened her grip on the bone knife, until her skin was the same shade as the catalyst.
Didn't her dad understand? She was learning to help people! Trag'Oul couldn't help, but she could for him!
Ruby sobbed again, pulling herself into a ball.
She couldn't go home, there was no way her dad would understand. She had seen the look in her dad's eyes when she had created the bone prison, he was afraid.
Trag'Oul had told her about the last time he had people to help him, how the Priests of Rathma had lived in underground cities away from people who didn't trust them.
"Kalan! Please, I need you!"
Ruby stared into the void, but the celestial body of Trag'Oul didn't appear.
Ruby broke down completely, sobbing into the black cloak. It wrapped around her like a hug, and Ruby felt like something was watching over her. Closing her eyes, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
---
Trag'Oul returned from the conclave, glad to finally be away from his brothers, but with more questions than answers.
It was agreed, there had never been a case of a mortal accidentally stumbling into a Guardian's realm, but somehow, Ruby had.
Trag'Oul took no pride in what he was doing, indoctrinating a young girl to uphold the Balance, but was equally aware he had no choice.
He couldn't directly manifest on Remnant anymore than he could do so on Sanctuary, lest he draw attention of the Burning Hells and High Heavens to the second nephalem filled world.
As he drifted through his home, he noticed two presences. Making his way over to them, the Guardian Dragon frowned.
Ruby was curled up in a bed of bones, her hair having grown out in the three months he was gone.
Standing over her was Linarian, his unnaturally perfect features watching Trag'Oul.
"Hello, old friend."
Trag'Oul drifted over to the ghost of his first student, looking down at the two of them.
"What are you doing here?"
"She called to me," Linarian gestured down to Ruby, "unintentionally, I suspect. She was scared, and had fled here. I see you gave her my cloak."
"Yes, I-"
"You don't need to justify yourself to me. It is the cloak of the Rathma, and she is now Rathma."
"When did she come here?"
"The day you left, she had a fight with her parents. She spoke of the Balance, and it scared them. They tried to take Mendeln's knife, so she resorted to necromancy and fled here."
"She has been here for three months? How has she survived?"
"I put her into suspended animation while the changes took place, there is nothing to eat, and I fear the worst if she went out into the world unready."
"Changes? What did you-"
Trag'Oul looked at Ruby's face, and could already make out the changes to its structure. Examining her soul, he found the shackles on it loosened. The bindings of the Worldstone slowly coming undone.
"Rathma, you did not-"
"I merely made sure the potential would manifest. Something happened while you were gone, old friend."
Turning his eye to Sanctuary, Trag'Oul watched as the moment replayed itself. One of the cult stood by as an angel shattered the Worldstone. The nephalem would return naturally.
"She is a little girl, she does not deserve the curse of a nephalem."
"No, she doesn't. But we both know that sacrifices need to be made to maintain the Balance. If the High Heavens or Burning Hells learn of this place, it will be thrown into the same turmoil as Sanctuary."
Trag'Oul didn't argue, couldn't argue. Hadn't he been doing the same? The only difference was that Linarian had taken it a step further.
"She won't have all the power at once, when she wakes after I leave, she will have little more than a human who slipped the binds."
"You are playing a dangerous game."
Linarian didn't refute the statement, merely smiling, "I am maintaining the Balance, being dead has shown me what must be done. Goodbye, old friend, it was good to see you again."
The son of Lilith and Inarius faded from existence, leaving Trag'Oul with a newly awakened nephalem tackling him, sobs resuming.
---
Nora watched the other girl pick up the loaf of bread, trying to keep the look of longing off her face.
The malnourished girl briefly thought about trying to steal it, but quickly decided it was a bad idea.
It wasn't because she was scared, nope, she wasn't scared of the girl with scary white skin and a knife and-
"Hey," Nora looked up, the girl was holding out the loaf of bread.
Nora stared at it, eyes wide in shock. Was she really-?
"Come on, you need this more than I do. Take it."
Nora stretched out her hands, shaking slightly as she took the loaf.
It was hard, and cold, but it was more food than she had had in a long time.
Nora felt a ragged gasp of air escape her throat, desperately tearing a chunk out of the loaf.
The other girl sat down back against the alley wall, but Nora ignored her as she ate.
"Hey, don't eat too much, you'll make yourself sick."
Long, spindly fingers took the loaf back, and Nora felt the sudden urge to bite them. She hadn't had anything in a long time.
"Come on, you can have some more later, but let that settle."
The girl extended her hand, holding it out to Nora.
The little girl couldn't stop the tears that welled up, taking the hand.
"I'm Ruby, but call me Rathma, it's what I'm used to, what's your name?"
"Nora."
Nora followed Rathma through the streets of Kuroyuri, the other girl looking for something.
"Where are we going?"
"I'm trying to find a way home. I had an argument with my dad and ran away."
"Where does your father live?"
Nora froze, and saw Rathma grab her knife, hiding it under her too long cloak as she turned. The other hand pushed Nora behind her, and she felt something hard covering it.
Standing behind them was a man with grey and black hair, a boy Nora's age peered out from behind his leg.
"Sorry, what?"
"I asked where your father lived, you said you were trying to find a way home."
"Patch, near Signal Academy."
The older man raised an eyebrow, "That is a very long way for a little girl to get on your own. How did you get here?"
"I had help."
"And they can't help you get back?"
"Not at the moment, no."
"Well, it will certainly be very hard for you to get home, you're on a completely different continent. We can call your father from the CCT, though. Let him know you're safe."
"That… that would be nice."
"What about her?"
Nora shrank as the man turned his attention to her, crouching behind Rathma.
"She's with me."
"Alright," the man nodded, "I'm Li Ren, and this is Lie."
As Rathma let go of Nora's hand, and Nora saw white clumps fall at her feet.
"Thank you."
---
Tai read the letter again, it had been folded again and again.
Nothing. Him and Qrow had scoured every inch of patch at least three times, and neither had found anything about a Kalan, nor was there any sign of Ruby.
Tai buried his face into his hands, groaning.
He should have just let her keep the knife, then hidden it away when she went to sleep that night. Instead, Ruby was who knows where, probably with some strange cult.
Yang had been inconsolable for the first couple of months, heartbroken that her sister had disappeared like both her mothers had.
Tai's head snapped up as the long range terminal went off, something Tai had decided to splurge on after Qrow took more missions outside Vale.
Walking over to it, Tai checked the ID. The call was coming from Mistral.
Hitting the button to take the call, Tai sat down. After a brief second, the screen flickered to show a middle aged man, his hair and goatee sprinkled with liberal amounts of grey.
"Hello?"
"Hello, are you Tai-Yang Xiao Long?"
"Yes? If you're selling something-"
"I found your daughter walking around our village, she wants to speak with you."
Tai stopped, mouth hanging open as the man stepped aside, letting Ruby sit down.
She was still wearing the clothing she had disappeared in, the hoodie was unzipped, shorts ragged, and the black cape she had gotten from Kalan was around her, folded up and tucked into itself to keep her from tripping over it. The knife that had started this mess sat proudly at her waist.
"Ruby," Tai choked out, "Do you know how worried we've been?"
Her skin was ash white, but her eyes and hair were still the same.
"Dad," Ruby's wavered briefly, before hardening, "I won't stop learning from Kalan."
Tai covered his mouth to hide the sob. He was the adult here, if Ruby was going to behave so seriously, he also needed to.
"Alright, Rosebud, just- just come home, ok? We miss you. I'm going to call Qrow after this, he's in the area on a job, and will come pick you up. Ok?"
Ruby bit her lip, before nodding.
"Ok, can you let that man back on? I need to speak with him."
Ruby did so, and Tai leveled a glare at the dark haired man.
"I take it you're Kalan?"
The man shook his head, "I've never heard that name before, Mr. Xiao Long, and it isn't my place to pry. I'm Li Ren."
"Right, sorry. We've been trying to find her for months, and she just showed up with you."
"I understand completely, I have a son that's a couple years older than her, I don't know what I would do if he went missing. You said someone would come pick her up?"
"Yeah, my brother-in-law, he's in the area. Where are you?"
"Kuroyuri, it's a small village near the edge of Anima."
"He can get directions. Thank you for finding her, we've been worried sick."
"I should warn you," Li said, "don't be surprised if you get one more girl than you were expecting. There was another girl with her when I found her, she's been following Ruby around like a lost puppy. Wasn't happy when she had to wait outside the room for this call, so I wouldn't expect her to go without a fight."
"We can deal with that when we come to it, I need to call Qrow."
"Of course, should we expect him in a couple of days?"
"Yeah."
The call ended, and Tai hit the speed dial for Qrow.
"Tai, it's," Qrow looked over at his clock, and Tai saw him rubbing his eyes, "eleven at night here, couldn't this have waited until morning?"
"No. It's Ruby."
"Did something come up?" Qrow's voice was immediately wide awake.
"I just got a call, she's in a village called Kuroyuri on Anima. Can you-"
Tai stopped as Qrow stood, grabbing his scythe and sheathing it, "I'm on it, I'll find directions, and get there as soon as possible."
Qrow hung up, and Tai was left staring at the screen.
A choked, giddy laugh rose from his chest. They had found Ruby. She would be home soon.
---
Ruby's chest burned as she ran around the corner, throwing up a wall of bones as she went.
Grimm, a big one. Too big, she couldn't just launch a set of fangs at it like she had done to the smaller ones on her way to Kuroyuri.
Ruby heard the giant horse smash its way through the wall, the bone barely slowing it down.
Throwing her hand behind her, Ruby summoned several skeletons to distract it, praying that they be more successful in stopping the charge.
They weren't.
The Grimm didn't stop, smashing through the skeletons in its attempts to reach her.
Ruby dove into an alley, throwing up another bone wall to hide herself.
That also didn't work.
A hand burst through the bone, slamming into Ruby's chest and sending her skidding back. The bones around Ruby's chest crumbled, the magic keeping them together fading. Ruby's back crashed against the wall, and she closed her eyes, reeling in pain.
Something metallic filled her mouth, and Ruby spat out the broken tooth.
Ruby felt her blood trickle down the the back of her head, everything spinning.
The Grimm leaned into the alley, stretching a hand out.
Ruby braced herself for the blow, reaching back and touching her bloodstained hair.
Something distracted the Grimm, and it turned away from her.
Reaching down, Ruby touched the blood coated hand to the ground and traced out a circle. Then a simple star in it.
The last of Ruby's skeletons was thrown into the alley, before crumbling to dust.
Slamming her hand into the symbol, and watched as it grew into a eight foot golem of blood and muscle.
The golem charged forward, distracting the Grimm as Ruby slunk away.
Ruby felt the bleeding staunch itself as the Golem traded some of the energy it was draining into her through the link. Looking around, Ruby found Lie and Nora hiding under a deck.
Sliding next to them, Ruby leaned down, "Are you two alright?"
"Father, and Mother, they… they…"
"They're in a better place," Ruby placed a hand on Lie's shoulder, certain that Trag'Oul would find the perfect role for Li and An in maintaining the Balance.
Ruby felt the golem be raised into the air.
"They're dead."
The Grimm tore it in two.
"It's ok. Death isn't the end."
"How do you know that? You're younger than me."
Ruby opened her mouth to rebut, but stopped.
Wait, if her golem was dead, where was the Grimm?
A hand lashed out, grabbing Ruby by the legs and dragging her along.
"Rathma!"
Ruby grew a spike of bone from her still covered left arm, digging it into the support beam and-
She cried out as her arm cracked, the bone armor disintegrating as her arm went limp.
Her face crashed into another of the support beams, before the other hand wrapped around her and hoisted her into the air.
Ruby looked through the trail of blood as the Grimm mouth opened in a screech.
The grip tightened, and Ruby felt several somethings crack.
Ruby closed her eyes, struggling to breath. What would happen when she died? How would she help maintain the Balance in the next world?
Ruby smiled through the pain as two men manifested before her. One was unnaturally perfect, like some deity had decided to sculpt his face beyond the limits of a human. The other was shorter, with beady black eyes and an off color right hand.
They put their hands on her arms, and pushed her back. And Ruby's vision was filled with silver light.
Ruby woke with a gasp, hacking up a glob of red mucus. A pair of hands held her down, and another gripped her right hand.
"Wuh?"
A familiar face appeared over her, worry clear.
"-You alright, Ruby?"
"Uncle Qrow," Ruby noticed her speech was garbled, "what are you doing here?"
"I was coming to pick you up, remember Pipsqueak?"
"'m not a pipsqueak."
"You haven't grown that much since I saw you. You gave me a heart attack there."
Ruby felt herself be picked up, before being placed on a bed.
"Where are we going?"
"First we're going to the hospital, that Grimm really did a number on you, then I'm taking you and your friends back to Patch, ok?"
Ruby tried to move her head to the side, only for another pair of hands to stop her.
"Ruby, can I call you Ruby?"
Ruby tried to nod, only for the hands to keep her head in place.
"Yes."
"Ruby, don't try to move, you have a lot of broken bones. Including several compound fractures, those are when-"
"The bone is stickin' out, I know. Where's the Grimm?"
"Dead. Your uncle killed it while it was focused on you."
"Nora and Lie?"
"We're right here," the hand holding Ruby's hand squeezed, "don't do something like that again, please," Nora's voice became muffled, "I don't want to lose either of you."
Ruby's eyelids grew heavy as the woman holding her head placed some sort of mask over it, and Ruby drifted off to sleep.
---
Rathma
---
Ruby looked around, confused.
Where was she? Her dad had sent her to take a nap, and now she was standing in a black void.
"Hello?"
Nothing.
Walking along, the four year old looked around, listening for anything.
Still nothing.
Ruby wasn't sure how long she was walking, but had started to get more than a little tired, and scared, before she came across something.
Or rather, something came across her.
The winged creature came from behind her, flew over her head, and landed in front of her.
The little girl inclined her head, looking at the giant creature.
It was like someone had taken a connect the dots of a snake, and attached a pair of wings to it.
As Ruby stared into the closest ball of light, she saw flashes of images.
A boy and two girls, standing in the burning remains of a village.
A man, desperately trying to comfort a bawling blond baby, before a woman took her from him.
The same couple, the woman was in a hospital bed, gently holding a newborn. Silver eyes spread, staring sleepily.
"How did you get here, little nephalem?"
Ruby looked up, and the creature looked down.
"Hi?"
If snakes could smile, Ruby was sure it was.
"Hello. Now, how did you get here? I certainly didn't invite you."
"I- I dunno. Where is here?"
"This is my home, are you lost?"
"I think so," Ruby felt tears prickle the the corner of her eyes, "I wanna go home."
"I do not blame you. How old are you, little nephalem?"
"Four and eight months," Ruby smiled, puffing out her chest despite herself.
"A respectable age," the creature nodded seriously.
"Respectable? What's that mean?"
"It means that it should be taken seriously."
Ruby looked up at the creature, "are you making fun of me?"
It smiled, "A little bit, yes."
Ruby puffed out her cheeks, scowling, "Why?"
"Well," He, Ruby was sure he was a he, "you are not scared anymore, right?"
"...I still want to go home."
"I do not doubt it," he said, "I would gladly help you find your way, if I knew where you came from."
Ruby felt tears well up again, and desperately rubbed them. Yang would laugh at her if she found out Ruby had been crying.
"Do not worry, little nephalem. I might not know the way at the moment, but I am sure I can find it quickly. Would you like to talk while I do so? I have not spoken to anyone in a long time."
"Ok, Mr…?"
"Trag'Oul. Just Trag'Oul."
"Ok! What are you?"
"I am a dragon, little nephalem."
Ruby puffed out her cheeks again, "My name is Ruby!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that."
"It's ok! What do you do here?"
"I maintain the Balance, or try to at least."
"The Balance," Ruby cocked her head to the side, "like a tightrope?"
Ruby had watched someone walk on one at a circus a couple of months back for Yang's seventh birthday.
Trag'Oul released a deep rumbling sound, and Ruby was afraid she had made him angry, before realizing he was laughing.
"I have never heard of it described like that, but I suppose you could look at it that way. The Balance is between Chaos and Order, too much in one direction, and everything burns, too much in the other, and everything stagnates."
"Wuh?"
"It stops."
"Oh. Do you need help?"
Trag'Oul looked at her, "Why do you think that?"
"It sounds like a big job, and Dad always says I should help with big jobs."
Trag'Oul laughed again, "I think this is bigger than what they mean."
"Well, that just means you need more help!"
Trag'Oul stopped, thinking, "I suppose it would be nice to have some help," one of the balls of light descended, touching her chest, "I will meet you back here tomorrow?"
"Ok!"
----
Tai watched Ruby play with her friends at her birthday party. The newly five year old was running around, dodging Aileen's attempted to tag her.
Qrow walked out from the house, holding a parcel.
"What's that?"
"It just came, says it's for Ruby."
"From who?"
"It doesn't say. Should we let her open it now?"
Tai looked at it out of the corner of his eye. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a regular package, but he would admit it was strange that it didn't say where it came from.
"Sure. One present won't hurt anyone."
"Ruby, a package arrived for you!"
Ruby looked over, dancing away from Aileen on nimble feet. Tai couldn't help the proud smile that made his way onto her face. She was a natural.
Ruby made her way over to them, and Qrow crouched down, handing her the package.
Ruby carefully undid the twine holding it together, and the simple brown paper gave way.
Inside was a neatly folded pile of fabric, with an envelope sitting on top.
Tai gently took the envelope from her, opening it and reading the contents aloud for his family to hear.
"'Ruby,
These used to belong to two friends of mine, but they no longer need them. Since you were talking about how much you liked your mother's cloak, I thought you might like it.
I have something to deal with, so I won't be around for a bit. Keep up your training, Rathma.
Kalan.' Ruby what does- that's a knife!"
Indeed, the first item was a large cloak. Much too large, Tai noticed briefly, for a girl Ruby's age. The second was a long curved knife, chalk white.
Tai saw Ruby reach out to grab it, and moved to stop her, "Ruby, that isn't a toy-"
Tai stopped, staring as Ruby wrapped her hand around the dagger. While it was also too big for her, there was no denying that Ruby was holding it properly. Hand wrapped around the hilt tightly enough to have a firm grip on it, but not so tight as to be uncomfortable.
"Ruby, where did you learn to hold a knife like that?"
Ruby smiled, apparently unconcerned with the blade in her hand, "Kalan taught me!"
Tai frowned, looking at the note, "Who is Kalan?"
Already, Tai was forming plans to pay this 'Kalan' a visit with Qrow. Ruby was a little girl, she shouldn't know how to use knives!
"He's my teacher!"
"And what has he been teaching you?"
"To fight."
Tai shared a look with Qrow over Ruby's head.
"Why are you learning to fight?"
"I want to be a Huntress."
"That's a very dangerous job, you could be lots of other things."
Ruby face pulled into a expression all too serious for a girl her age, "I want to be a Huntress."
Tai stopped at the conviction in his daughter's voice. Even he hadn't been that sure about his chosen profession.
"And why is that?"
"I want to protect people, and maintain the Balance."
Tai shared another look with Qrow, "and what is the Balance?"
"'If chaos rules, worlds burn. If order rules, they stagnate. If either finds such a foothold that the other cannot right, Remnant will destroy itself,'" Ruby recited, like she had memorized it every day.
Tai curled a hand into a fist, hiding the sparks gathering. Oh, when he found this 'Kalan' guy…
"And what about the people who get hurt because of the it? There are bad people out there, Rosebud."
"'There is a difference between Chaos and Order, and Good and Evil. Good should always outway Evil, but never obliterate it completely, lest Good turn on itself.'"
"Ruby, I don't want you to meet with Kalan anymore."
"Why?"
"These aren't the type of things someone your age should be worrying about-"
"I asked him to let me help!"
"And he should have said no. Give me that knife."
Ruby backed up, holding the knife in both hands, wrapping the bundle of cloth around it, "No!"
Tai walked forward gently, stretching out his hand, "Ruby," he took a harder tone of voice, "Hand over the knife."
Ruby backed up more, eyes wide as she shook her head.
As Tai reached down to take the knife, Ruby made a sharp gesture with her hand.
Tai snapped his hand back to dodge the spikes of bone that rose around him, staring at Ruby through them.
What the- was this Ruby's Semblance? Had Kalan unlocked her Aura? What kind of Semblance caused bones to grow from the ground, and what did it say about his daughter?
Qrow reached down behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder, before something else happened.
The cloak in Ruby's hand lept from it, moving up her arm like a shadow, and wrapped around Qrow's throat like a noose.
It only took a second for Qrow to remove it, but in the moment he did, a whirlwind of bones batted Qrow's hand away, and she took off.
Ducking under Yang's grasp, Ruby ran towards the backwoods, and the cloak rapidly followed her.
"Ruby! Wait-"
Ruby disappeared suddenly, the treeline not even have covered her whole body when she ceased to be.
Tai stared for a second as the bones crumbled, before rushing to look for his younger daughter.
---
Ruby ran through the black void, hot tears running down her face. She was trying to put as much space, or what passed for it here, in between herself and her family.
"Kalan! Where are you!"
A strangled sob escaped Ruby lips, and she pulled the cloak tighter around herself. She tightened her grip on the bone knife, until her skin was the same shade as the catalyst.
Didn't her dad understand? She was learning to help people! Trag'Oul couldn't help, but she could for him!
Ruby sobbed again, pulling herself into a ball.
She couldn't go home, there was no way her dad would understand. She had seen the look in her dad's eyes when she had created the bone prison, he was afraid.
Trag'Oul had told her about the last time he had people to help him, how the Priests of Rathma had lived in underground cities away from people who didn't trust them.
"Kalan! Please, I need you!"
Ruby stared into the void, but the celestial body of Trag'Oul didn't appear.
Ruby broke down completely, sobbing into the black cloak. It wrapped around her like a hug, and Ruby felt like something was watching over her. Closing her eyes, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
---
Trag'Oul returned from the conclave, glad to finally be away from his brothers, but with more questions than answers.
It was agreed, there had never been a case of a mortal accidentally stumbling into a Guardian's realm, but somehow, Ruby had.
Trag'Oul took no pride in what he was doing, indoctrinating a young girl to uphold the Balance, but was equally aware he had no choice.
He couldn't directly manifest on Remnant anymore than he could do so on Sanctuary, lest he draw attention of the Burning Hells and High Heavens to the second nephalem filled world.
As he drifted through his home, he noticed two presences. Making his way over to them, the Guardian Dragon frowned.
Ruby was curled up in a bed of bones, her hair having grown out in the three months he was gone.
Standing over her was Linarian, his unnaturally perfect features watching Trag'Oul.
"Hello, old friend."
Trag'Oul drifted over to the ghost of his first student, looking down at the two of them.
"What are you doing here?"
"She called to me," Linarian gestured down to Ruby, "unintentionally, I suspect. She was scared, and had fled here. I see you gave her my cloak."
"Yes, I-"
"You don't need to justify yourself to me. It is the cloak of the Rathma, and she is now Rathma."
"When did she come here?"
"The day you left, she had a fight with her parents. She spoke of the Balance, and it scared them. They tried to take Mendeln's knife, so she resorted to necromancy and fled here."
"She has been here for three months? How has she survived?"
"I put her into suspended animation while the changes took place, there is nothing to eat, and I fear the worst if she went out into the world unready."
"Changes? What did you-"
Trag'Oul looked at Ruby's face, and could already make out the changes to its structure. Examining her soul, he found the shackles on it loosened. The bindings of the Worldstone slowly coming undone.
"Rathma, you did not-"
"I merely made sure the potential would manifest. Something happened while you were gone, old friend."
Turning his eye to Sanctuary, Trag'Oul watched as the moment replayed itself. One of the cult stood by as an angel shattered the Worldstone. The nephalem would return naturally.
"She is a little girl, she does not deserve the curse of a nephalem."
"No, she doesn't. But we both know that sacrifices need to be made to maintain the Balance. If the High Heavens or Burning Hells learn of this place, it will be thrown into the same turmoil as Sanctuary."
Trag'Oul didn't argue, couldn't argue. Hadn't he been doing the same? The only difference was that Linarian had taken it a step further.
"She won't have all the power at once, when she wakes after I leave, she will have little more than a human who slipped the binds."
"You are playing a dangerous game."
Linarian didn't refute the statement, merely smiling, "I am maintaining the Balance, being dead has shown me what must be done. Goodbye, old friend, it was good to see you again."
The son of Lilith and Inarius faded from existence, leaving Trag'Oul with a newly awakened nephalem tackling him, sobs resuming.
---
Nora watched the other girl pick up the loaf of bread, trying to keep the look of longing off her face.
The malnourished girl briefly thought about trying to steal it, but quickly decided it was a bad idea.
It wasn't because she was scared, nope, she wasn't scared of the girl with scary white skin and a knife and-
"Hey," Nora looked up, the girl was holding out the loaf of bread.
Nora stared at it, eyes wide in shock. Was she really-?
"Come on, you need this more than I do. Take it."
Nora stretched out her hands, shaking slightly as she took the loaf.
It was hard, and cold, but it was more food than she had had in a long time.
Nora felt a ragged gasp of air escape her throat, desperately tearing a chunk out of the loaf.
The other girl sat down back against the alley wall, but Nora ignored her as she ate.
"Hey, don't eat too much, you'll make yourself sick."
Long, spindly fingers took the loaf back, and Nora felt the sudden urge to bite them. She hadn't had anything in a long time.
"Come on, you can have some more later, but let that settle."
The girl extended her hand, holding it out to Nora.
The little girl couldn't stop the tears that welled up, taking the hand.
"I'm Ruby, but call me Rathma, it's what I'm used to, what's your name?"
"Nora."
Nora followed Rathma through the streets of Kuroyuri, the other girl looking for something.
"Where are we going?"
"I'm trying to find a way home. I had an argument with my dad and ran away."
"Where does your father live?"
Nora froze, and saw Rathma grab her knife, hiding it under her too long cloak as she turned. The other hand pushed Nora behind her, and she felt something hard covering it.
Standing behind them was a man with grey and black hair, a boy Nora's age peered out from behind his leg.
"Sorry, what?"
"I asked where your father lived, you said you were trying to find a way home."
"Patch, near Signal Academy."
The older man raised an eyebrow, "That is a very long way for a little girl to get on your own. How did you get here?"
"I had help."
"And they can't help you get back?"
"Not at the moment, no."
"Well, it will certainly be very hard for you to get home, you're on a completely different continent. We can call your father from the CCT, though. Let him know you're safe."
"That… that would be nice."
"What about her?"
Nora shrank as the man turned his attention to her, crouching behind Rathma.
"She's with me."
"Alright," the man nodded, "I'm Li Ren, and this is Lie."
As Rathma let go of Nora's hand, and Nora saw white clumps fall at her feet.
"Thank you."
---
Tai read the letter again, it had been folded again and again.
Nothing. Him and Qrow had scoured every inch of patch at least three times, and neither had found anything about a Kalan, nor was there any sign of Ruby.
Tai buried his face into his hands, groaning.
He should have just let her keep the knife, then hidden it away when she went to sleep that night. Instead, Ruby was who knows where, probably with some strange cult.
Yang had been inconsolable for the first couple of months, heartbroken that her sister had disappeared like both her mothers had.
Tai's head snapped up as the long range terminal went off, something Tai had decided to splurge on after Qrow took more missions outside Vale.
Walking over to it, Tai checked the ID. The call was coming from Mistral.
Hitting the button to take the call, Tai sat down. After a brief second, the screen flickered to show a middle aged man, his hair and goatee sprinkled with liberal amounts of grey.
"Hello?"
"Hello, are you Tai-Yang Xiao Long?"
"Yes? If you're selling something-"
"I found your daughter walking around our village, she wants to speak with you."
Tai stopped, mouth hanging open as the man stepped aside, letting Ruby sit down.
She was still wearing the clothing she had disappeared in, the hoodie was unzipped, shorts ragged, and the black cape she had gotten from Kalan was around her, folded up and tucked into itself to keep her from tripping over it. The knife that had started this mess sat proudly at her waist.
"Ruby," Tai choked out, "Do you know how worried we've been?"
Her skin was ash white, but her eyes and hair were still the same.
"Dad," Ruby's wavered briefly, before hardening, "I won't stop learning from Kalan."
Tai covered his mouth to hide the sob. He was the adult here, if Ruby was going to behave so seriously, he also needed to.
"Alright, Rosebud, just- just come home, ok? We miss you. I'm going to call Qrow after this, he's in the area on a job, and will come pick you up. Ok?"
Ruby bit her lip, before nodding.
"Ok, can you let that man back on? I need to speak with him."
Ruby did so, and Tai leveled a glare at the dark haired man.
"I take it you're Kalan?"
The man shook his head, "I've never heard that name before, Mr. Xiao Long, and it isn't my place to pry. I'm Li Ren."
"Right, sorry. We've been trying to find her for months, and she just showed up with you."
"I understand completely, I have a son that's a couple years older than her, I don't know what I would do if he went missing. You said someone would come pick her up?"
"Yeah, my brother-in-law, he's in the area. Where are you?"
"Kuroyuri, it's a small village near the edge of Anima."
"He can get directions. Thank you for finding her, we've been worried sick."
"I should warn you," Li said, "don't be surprised if you get one more girl than you were expecting. There was another girl with her when I found her, she's been following Ruby around like a lost puppy. Wasn't happy when she had to wait outside the room for this call, so I wouldn't expect her to go without a fight."
"We can deal with that when we come to it, I need to call Qrow."
"Of course, should we expect him in a couple of days?"
"Yeah."
The call ended, and Tai hit the speed dial for Qrow.
"Tai, it's," Qrow looked over at his clock, and Tai saw him rubbing his eyes, "eleven at night here, couldn't this have waited until morning?"
"No. It's Ruby."
"Did something come up?" Qrow's voice was immediately wide awake.
"I just got a call, she's in a village called Kuroyuri on Anima. Can you-"
Tai stopped as Qrow stood, grabbing his scythe and sheathing it, "I'm on it, I'll find directions, and get there as soon as possible."
Qrow hung up, and Tai was left staring at the screen.
A choked, giddy laugh rose from his chest. They had found Ruby. She would be home soon.
---
Ruby's chest burned as she ran around the corner, throwing up a wall of bones as she went.
Grimm, a big one. Too big, she couldn't just launch a set of fangs at it like she had done to the smaller ones on her way to Kuroyuri.
Ruby heard the giant horse smash its way through the wall, the bone barely slowing it down.
Throwing her hand behind her, Ruby summoned several skeletons to distract it, praying that they be more successful in stopping the charge.
They weren't.
The Grimm didn't stop, smashing through the skeletons in its attempts to reach her.
Ruby dove into an alley, throwing up another bone wall to hide herself.
That also didn't work.
A hand burst through the bone, slamming into Ruby's chest and sending her skidding back. The bones around Ruby's chest crumbled, the magic keeping them together fading. Ruby's back crashed against the wall, and she closed her eyes, reeling in pain.
Something metallic filled her mouth, and Ruby spat out the broken tooth.
Ruby felt her blood trickle down the the back of her head, everything spinning.
The Grimm leaned into the alley, stretching a hand out.
Ruby braced herself for the blow, reaching back and touching her bloodstained hair.
Something distracted the Grimm, and it turned away from her.
Reaching down, Ruby touched the blood coated hand to the ground and traced out a circle. Then a simple star in it.
The last of Ruby's skeletons was thrown into the alley, before crumbling to dust.
Slamming her hand into the symbol, and watched as it grew into a eight foot golem of blood and muscle.
The golem charged forward, distracting the Grimm as Ruby slunk away.
Ruby felt the bleeding staunch itself as the Golem traded some of the energy it was draining into her through the link. Looking around, Ruby found Lie and Nora hiding under a deck.
Sliding next to them, Ruby leaned down, "Are you two alright?"
"Father, and Mother, they… they…"
"They're in a better place," Ruby placed a hand on Lie's shoulder, certain that Trag'Oul would find the perfect role for Li and An in maintaining the Balance.
Ruby felt the golem be raised into the air.
"They're dead."
The Grimm tore it in two.
"It's ok. Death isn't the end."
"How do you know that? You're younger than me."
Ruby opened her mouth to rebut, but stopped.
Wait, if her golem was dead, where was the Grimm?
A hand lashed out, grabbing Ruby by the legs and dragging her along.
"Rathma!"
Ruby grew a spike of bone from her still covered left arm, digging it into the support beam and-
She cried out as her arm cracked, the bone armor disintegrating as her arm went limp.
Her face crashed into another of the support beams, before the other hand wrapped around her and hoisted her into the air.
Ruby looked through the trail of blood as the Grimm mouth opened in a screech.
The grip tightened, and Ruby felt several somethings crack.
Ruby closed her eyes, struggling to breath. What would happen when she died? How would she help maintain the Balance in the next world?
Ruby smiled through the pain as two men manifested before her. One was unnaturally perfect, like some deity had decided to sculpt his face beyond the limits of a human. The other was shorter, with beady black eyes and an off color right hand.
They put their hands on her arms, and pushed her back. And Ruby's vision was filled with silver light.
Ruby woke with a gasp, hacking up a glob of red mucus. A pair of hands held her down, and another gripped her right hand.
"Wuh?"
A familiar face appeared over her, worry clear.
"-You alright, Ruby?"
"Uncle Qrow," Ruby noticed her speech was garbled, "what are you doing here?"
"I was coming to pick you up, remember Pipsqueak?"
"'m not a pipsqueak."
"You haven't grown that much since I saw you. You gave me a heart attack there."
Ruby felt herself be picked up, before being placed on a bed.
"Where are we going?"
"First we're going to the hospital, that Grimm really did a number on you, then I'm taking you and your friends back to Patch, ok?"
Ruby tried to move her head to the side, only for another pair of hands to stop her.
"Ruby, can I call you Ruby?"
Ruby tried to nod, only for the hands to keep her head in place.
"Yes."
"Ruby, don't try to move, you have a lot of broken bones. Including several compound fractures, those are when-"
"The bone is stickin' out, I know. Where's the Grimm?"
"Dead. Your uncle killed it while it was focused on you."
"Nora and Lie?"
"We're right here," the hand holding Ruby's hand squeezed, "don't do something like that again, please," Nora's voice became muffled, "I don't want to lose either of you."
Ruby's eyelids grew heavy as the woman holding her head placed some sort of mask over it, and Ruby drifted off to sleep.
That was incredibly upsetting and creepy but in an impressive way, kudos!
You do a great deal with very short sentences and utilize brief but eloquent descriptions that are very evocative and have cool strong imagery, the worry clear, sparks on hand, the description of Ruby's changing appearance, all very strong. (Also poor kids, all of them!)
A little surprised they let Ruby open a package from a total stranger and didn't know something was off before then, and a little surprised she was fast enough to get away and already so indoctrinated that she'd accept her own family being attacked & insist on following through after X amount of time on Anima & all that happened.
Though the fact its acknowledge as indoctrination very much helps and in many ways adds to the creepiness, unsettling nature of it all and the changes its forced on Ruby.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
It's a multifaceted case of the trope A Tragedy of Impulsiveness. Ruby is still a little girl, and is very proud of stepping into the shoes of Lenarian and Mendeln as Trag'Oul's newest Rathma, so Trag'Oul thought she might like something that belonged to them. From her point of view, Tai was being mean for no reason, and when Ruby used her necromany, he reacted in outright horror (having your five year old daughter use what he assumes is her Semblance to create a cage of bones does that) which scared her, causing her to essentially fly into autopilot mode and run to somewhere she felt completely safe. Hell, even the freaking cloak was just reacting to what it registered as a hostile action to its new owner.
With Trag'Oul having understandable reasons for not wanting to manifest on Remnant (they're having enough trouble with the Grimm, they really don't need angels and demons there too) and Ruby picking up immediately where she had been before Lenarian put her into a magic induced coma, scared because her dad was scared of her, there wasn't much choice but to keep Ruby around and continue her training until he could nudge her into trying to go home.
Everyone means well, but everyone (except Trag'Oul) interprets everyone else as being hostile.
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I can see where you're coming from even if I am not really sure I agree entirely, still your story and its written well.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
Please do me a favor, throw any criticisms you have at me anytime I post something to this board. You can't learn frim your mistakes if you don't know where there are mistakes in the first place.
---
Rathma chapter 2
---
Ruby sat as Nora pushed her along, staring sullenly at the cast around her right leg.
A compound fracture in the leg, two in her rib cage, another four with simple fractures, another simple fracture on her skull, a broken collarbone, a dislocated left arm, and a broken nose.
Despite that, it was agreed that Ruby had been extremely lucky. If her skeleton hadn't survived, she would have died. If the Nuckelavee hadn't been distracted by the silver light that had appeared, she would have died. If Uncle Qrow had been half a minute late, or not come with a medical Bullhead sent to pick up someone in the next town over, she probably would have died. If he hadn't accidentally unlocked her Aura trying to heal her, she would probably be looking at two months in a wheelchair, instead of another two weeks, plus her broken nose was healed!
Ruby signed as Nora pushed her into the classroom, reaching out and squeezing the ginger haired girl's hand.
This was the longest time the three survivors of Kuroyuri were going to be apart since the attack.
Talk about adding to your first-day-a-new-school anxiety.
"Rath- Ruby, why are you giggling like that?"
Ruby shook her head, "I'll tell you after school," Ruby smiled up at the other girl, "Thanks for bringing me."
Nora smiled, squeezing Ruby's hand back, "It's fine. See you later?"
"Of course."
Nora stopped as she let go of Ruby's hand, before tapping her finger on Ruby's nose.
"Boop!"
Then she rushed out of the room, and Ruby was left alone with Ms. Greene.
The first grade teacher looked up from her book, smiling, "It's good to have you back, you gave everyone quite the scare."
Ruby looked away, out the window where she could see a thin layer of snow dusting Patch. Last time she had been home, it had been summer.
She still wasn't sure what had happened for the first three months, Trag'Oul had been evasive about what had happened and where he had been, the next three (It might have been longer, Time didn't work quite the same in Trag'Oul's home) were spent teaching her more of the Balance, and advancing her skill with blood and bone.
Which was good, because it saved her life.
Frowning, Ruby picked at the fraying edge of her skirt. Had he know? He had never had problems returning her to his home before then, though that had been the first time she physically traveled there.
Ruby was aware that Trag'Oul knew more than he let on, she had seen Kuroyuri during her first meeting with him, and still got impulses when she thought of the stars that made up the constellar dragon's body-
-A young man, smoke rising around him as he dropped his empty magazines, reloading. Raising his gun, he fired a single bullet, bone broke beneath the ballistic blast. Tendrils of light trailed from his back, magenta with black lining-
-like that, Ruby finished the thought dryly.
"Ruby?"
The brown haired girl's head snapped to her teacher.
"Are you alright? You seemed distracted."
Ruby shook her head, "I'm fine, I was just thinking about Kuroyuri."
Ms. Greene's eyes softened, "Of course. Ruby, I understand this must be very hard for you, but if you ever need to talk-"
"I'm fine."
"Ruby, you just went through an extremely traumatic experience, it's normal to be-"
"Ms. Greene," Ruby cut her off with a smile, "I'm fine."
"You could have died."
"We all die eventually," Ruby responded, "I'm not scared to do so."
"That isn't normal, Ruby. You're just a little girl."
"Then I don't want to be normal, I'm happy the way I am."
Ms.Greene opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a blur rushed into the room, tackling Ruby into a hug and pushing her wheelchair back.
"Ruby!" Aileen's muffled voice came from Ruby's side, "Do you know how scared I was? Never do anything like that again!" Ruby's best friend continued to jabber on until Ruby stopped her with a groan.
"Leenie, 's nice to see you too, but, you're crushing my ribs."
The hazel eyed girl leapt back, releasing Ruby from her grip, "Sorry! What happened to you?"
Ms. Greene coughed into her hand, "Aileen, that isn't-"
"Got into a fight with a Grimm."
"What!? Really? Did you win?"
"No, I lost, that's why I'm stuck in a wheelchair, silly. I made some new friends, I'll introduce you after school, K?"
Aileen shrank into herself, "Ok?"
"Aileen," Ms. Greene cut in, "could you take a seat? it's time for class after all."
---
Tai growled, smashing the sledgehammer into the bone knife. Nothing. He had been at this since he came home from bringing the kids to school and had literally nothing to show for it. The knife wasn't even chipped.
Ruby had nearly died, Qrow said that she had barely been moving when they got there.
Thud.
He had nearly lost his daughter. His daughter had almost died because of this stupid knife.
Thud.
He had already lost Summer, he had already lost Raven, he couldn't lose either of his baby girls.
Thud.
And Ruby still wasn't shaken! She still wanted to learn from Kalan, and still wanted to be a Huntress.
Thud.
She wouldn't even tell them where she met with him so Qrow and him could at least meet the guy. Or even how she was meeting him, seeing as she was confined to the house.
Thud.
It couldn't have been Li Ren, otherwise Ruby wouldn't talk about meeting him. Even with her strange outlook on death.
THUD!
She was a little girl! She should be worrying about playing with her friends. Not running away from Grimm!
THUD!
The only good part of this was being there to take in the other two kids.
THUD!
Tai had lost his parents in a Grimm attack, because of course he fuckin' did, an early sign of how the world would go on to fuck with him for the subsequent thirty years.
THUD!
It was hard, everyone seemed to constantly pity you. Even if you didn't want their damn pity. Even if taking in the kids put a strain on their money, he was fine with doing that. Giving them something resembling a normal life, was worth that.
THUD-CRACK!
Tai glared at the broken handle of the hammer. He had driven it into the ground so hard it had cratered the ground and broke the hammer.
But not the damn knife. It was still looking brand new.
Picking it up, Tai shoved it into its sheath, and walked back towards the house.
Storing it in the sewn pocket of Ruby's cloak, lest she go looking for it, Tai walked into the living room.
Qrow was sitting there, staring at one of the skeletons Ruby had used to deal with her current disabled state.
Admittedly, they did take some of the difficulty out of life.
This one was cleaning the house. The vacuum cleaner was running, blocking out whatever Qrow was trying to watch.
"Tai! Sit down, man, I need to talk to you," Qrow yelled over the machine, before the skeleton walked out of the room.
"What's up?"
Qrow's face pulled into a sharp frown, "Ruby."
"What about her? We still can't find Kalan, and she still isn't talking."
"It's not that," Qrow leaned his elbows on his knees, resting his head on his hands, "When she gets better, I want to start training her."
"Qrow, I don't want her-"
"I know, Tai, but there's nothing either of us can do to stop her. She's made her choice, and I don't think there's anything we can do to change that."
"We can keep her from this, she isn't even six, man. She shouldn't be dealing with this shit!"
"I know, trust me, but if she's going to insist to do stuff like this, I want to make sure she doesn't die. Whatever those are," Qrow jerked his head at one of the skeletons, "they aren't her Semblance. I woke up her Aura saving her."
Tai stopped, mouth opening mutely for a few seconds, "She hadn't had her Aura unlocked?"
"No, so whatever Kalan has been teaching her wouldn't involve using it. I don't want that to get her killed later on."
"What would you teach her?"
"Just basic stuff, how to defend herself, different Grimm types, using her Aura. Things that will keep her from dying."
"That's- I'm fine with that."
"Good. I was going to do it either way."
"You're an ass."
Qrow laughed, gesturing to one of the skeletons, who poured him a drink.
"You know, I could get used to these things."
"I think Ruby already has, I saw her teaching one to bake cookies."
"Yang too, she had one clean the dishes when it was her turn."
Tai laughed, "looks like the conspiracy theorists were wrong, we'll be replaced with skeletons instead of robots if other people learn how to do this."
The two men leaned back chuckling, watching the wall mounted Scroll as the macabre servants walked around them.
----
Nora looked at the girl practically curled up behind Ruby's chair.
"Uh?"
"What?"
"Who's that?"
"What?" Ruby turned in her chair, "Oh, for Dust sake, Lennie, it isn't that bad- RIBS!"
"They did tell you to keep from doing stuff like that," Lie responded lightly to Ruby's cry of pain, but helped her sit up nonetheless.
"I don't want to sit around for a couple of weeks, it's borrring," Ruby dragged out the R, lolling her head to the side.
Lie adjusted her head, "Don't do that, you're just going to extend how long you're stuck in there."
Nora watched the two of them as Lie gently fussed over Ruby.
"Ruby? Lie?"
The two of them turned, and Nora tapped them both on the nose.
"Boop."
Nora watched them both blink in confusion.
"Uh, why do you keep doing that? Does it mean something?"
Thank you for finding me, for saving me at Kuroyuri, for being nice to me, for taking us home with you. I'm sorry you both got hurt there. I love you both so much.
"It's- It's something my parents used to do to me."
"Oh," Ruby chirped, kicking her feet, "That's cool! Lennie? Have you calmed down yet?"
"Yeah," the girl's shaky voice answered, "I'm good, come on, let's find our parents."
"You sure? You haven't really met Nora and Lie yet!"
"Call me Ren."
"Huh?"
"I want you to call me Ren."
Ruby shrugged, smiling, "Ok, Ren! Lennie? Are you-"
"I want to go home. I'm not feeling well," Lennie's voice came out clipped.
Ruby's smile faltered briefly, "Ok. Come on guys, let's go find dad."
Nora took over pushing Ruby's chair, looking around the school yard for Taiyang's truck.
"Why is everyone looking at us?" Li- Ren asked, looking around. When Nora checked, she saw he was right.
"Patch is pretty small, you know? Most people at least know each other in passing, so when new people show up, people notice."
"Especially when someone shows up in a wheelchair," Lennie mumbled, shrinking in on herself again, "You running into a Grimm is going to circle faster than a Nevermore."
"So? If they want to know they can ask me about it, I don't care."
"How do you keep saying that? You nearly died Ruby. We watched them cart you to the emergency room."
"Ren. I'm not scared of dying. People can think that is strange, but it's true. So long as I die for something I believe in, I'm happy."
"And you would have died for something you believe in at Kuroyuri?"
"Well," Ruby's eyes seemed to burrow into Ren's skull, "Uncle Qrow was right there, so at least you two would have gotten out of there safely. That is good enough for me."
"Don't."
"Huh?"
"Don't die like that, Rath- Ruby. I don't want to lose you."
Nora had seen what had happened to Ruby. She had stopped moving in the Grimm's hand, sagged down limp with blood pouring from her mouth. Dead.
Then she wasn't.
Ruby's eyes had started to glow, and silver lights in the shape of bone wings had burst through the Grimm's hands, burning them to ash and distracting it for Qrow.
Then she had collapsed, chest moving again, wings gone.
"Nora, Lie, Aileen, Ruby! Over here!"
Taiyang was waving at them, a brown haired woman sitting next to him on the truck bed and Yang playing with some cube, leaning against the wheel.
Faster than Nora had comprehend, the woman and Aileen left, they were bundled into the back of the truck, with Ruby's wheelchair in the bed, and heading to the house.
Their house.
Nora looked down, before grabbing Ruby's free hand.
----
Yang watched Ruby talk to Nora, animatedly moving her freshly released limbs.
"Ruby? Can I talk to you? Alone?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure, what's up Yang?"
Yang gently guided her sister to her room, shutting and locking the door.
"What's up-"
"Why did you run away?" It had taken weeks for Yang to work up the courage to ask this and she hated how broken her voice sounded at the moment. She was supposed to be the big sister.
"What do you mean?"
"You were missing for six months. I thought I had lost you, like mom," which mom went unsaid.
"Which-?"
"It doesn't matter. Why'd you run away?"
Sometimes, things happened that made you rethink your priorities. Like worrying about your little sister running off.
"I was scared."
"Then why didn't you come home?"
"I needed to train more."
"You scared me!"
"I needed to learn how to defend people."
"What about me?"
Ruby looked confused, "What about you? I needed to learn."
"You abandoned me," Yang hissed out, fists clenching. Did Ruby really not-?
"I came back."
"You left."
"Dad wanted me to stop training, I wasn't going to."
"You left me."
"Was I supposed to take you with me?"
"You were supposed to stay!"
"Why?"
"Because you're my little sister! You're not supposed to be running off without me and getting hurt."
"You haven't told me what I was supposed to do, if I stayed Dad would have made me stop training."
"Then you should have stopped training."
"I won't."
"Why!?"
"Because it's who I am, and I'm happy that way. I am Ruby Rose, and I am Rathma, and I refuse to give up either of those."
"Stop talking like that!"
"Like what?"
"Using all these big words! You're my little sister, you shouldn't be talking like a grown up!"
"Kalan taught me to speak well, it's part of who I am now, Yang."
"Then how are you my little sister? You ran away, you don't care about me-"
"I care about you-"
"You keep using big words and talking about this Balance, and all these things Kalan taught you, and you're not acting like my little sister anymore."
"People change, Yang."
"Well, I don't want you too!"
"It's happened."
Yang tackled Ruby with a shriek, pulling at her sister's hair.
"Stop saying things like that!"
"Ow! Yang, stop! That hurts!"
"Stop being so stupid then, dummy! I don't want to lose you too!"
"Ok! Ok! Fine, I won't run away again! Just stop it!"
Yang let go of Ruby's hair, pulling her into a hug.
"Don't scare me like that ever again, sis."
"I'll do my best."
"No. You won't."
"I can't promise anything better than my best-"
"You. Won't."
----
"Alright, pipsqueak, let's see that armor you can make."
Qrow watched Ruby fidget, pulling at the end of her skirt.
"What?"
"My bone armor is kind of… spikey. I don't want to ruin my clothes."
"Come on, kid," Qrow rolled his eyes, "It isn't that bad. Your mom fought in a skirt."
Ruby's eyes lit up, a smile tugging at her lips, "Ok!"
Mentioning Summer was always a good way to excite Ruby.
Ruby made a gesture, raising her hand from hip to neck level.
White gauntlets formed first, with spikes coming off the elbow, and then came the greaves, similarly spiked. Ruby's shirt bulged slightly, like something had appeared beneath it, before spikes burst from the sleeves. Similarly, her skirt was impaled on spikes of bone.
…
"..Is there any way not to include the spikes?"
Ruby shook her head, "I don't know one, best I can do is make them grow on the skirt."
"Why didn't you do that?"
"...'s hard."
"Yeah, we're going to have to buy you pants for training. At least until you get better at it."
Ruby glared forlornly at the torn remains of her skirt, "I liked this one."
"I'll buy you a new one," Qrow responded quickly, "now, how about your head?"
"What about it?"
"Aren't you going to cover it?"
"I dunno?"
Qrow sighed, "Kalan didn't teach you how to do that?"
"I'm gonna armor the hood when I get better."
"But you don't know anything right now."
"No?"
Qrow rubbed his eyes in irritation "He didn't teach you to do that?"
"No."
"Right, get your weapon ready."
"K!"
Ruby held out left hand, and a series of dust collected in her hand, forming bones that snapped into a scythe, before drawing the knife in her right hand.
"Ruby. What is that?"
"A scythe?"
"Why'd you make a scythe, pip?"
"Well, you use a scythe, and the Priests traditionally use scythes and knives."
And there was the confirmation it was a cult.
"What's the Priests like?" Qrow asked, fishing for answers, anything that would let him track down Kalan.
"Dunno."
"What do you mean? Haven't you met them?"
"They're not here," Ruby shook her head, "it's just me and Kalan."
"Then where are they?"
"I dunno. Kalan just says they're not here."
"Do you think they got wiped out?"
"I don't think so, Kalan would have said if they were."
Qrow narrowed his eyes, "Is priests short for something?"
"The Priests of Rathma."
"Don't you use the title Rathma?"
"It means Student, they're named after Kalan's first student."
"Does Kalan mean something?" They were definitely looking for someone older then, if they had already had a student who had an organization named after them.
"Teacher."
Qrow paused, "So, it's not his name?"
That would explain why they hadn't found the bastard.
"No."
"Then what's his name?"
"Trag'Oul."
Well, it certainly wouldn't be hard to find someone with that name.
"I'm not teaching you to use a scythe, especially not that one."
"Why?"
"Because you're too small to use a scythe, and if you end up using one later, it's going to be made out of metal, not bone."
"There's nothing wrong with-"
Qrow moved forward and used to practice knife he had to severe the scythe in three along the points where the bones connected.
Like everything else Ruby made, it crumbled to dust, disappearing as quickly as it came.
"-bone. Wuh?"
"You're not using a bone scythe. Now, come at me, I want to get an idea of what you know about knife fighting."
---
Rathma chapter 2
---
Ruby sat as Nora pushed her along, staring sullenly at the cast around her right leg.
A compound fracture in the leg, two in her rib cage, another four with simple fractures, another simple fracture on her skull, a broken collarbone, a dislocated left arm, and a broken nose.
Despite that, it was agreed that Ruby had been extremely lucky. If her skeleton hadn't survived, she would have died. If the Nuckelavee hadn't been distracted by the silver light that had appeared, she would have died. If Uncle Qrow had been half a minute late, or not come with a medical Bullhead sent to pick up someone in the next town over, she probably would have died. If he hadn't accidentally unlocked her Aura trying to heal her, she would probably be looking at two months in a wheelchair, instead of another two weeks, plus her broken nose was healed!
Ruby signed as Nora pushed her into the classroom, reaching out and squeezing the ginger haired girl's hand.
This was the longest time the three survivors of Kuroyuri were going to be apart since the attack.
Talk about adding to your first-day-a-new-school anxiety.
"Rath- Ruby, why are you giggling like that?"
Ruby shook her head, "I'll tell you after school," Ruby smiled up at the other girl, "Thanks for bringing me."
Nora smiled, squeezing Ruby's hand back, "It's fine. See you later?"
"Of course."
Nora stopped as she let go of Ruby's hand, before tapping her finger on Ruby's nose.
"Boop!"
Then she rushed out of the room, and Ruby was left alone with Ms. Greene.
The first grade teacher looked up from her book, smiling, "It's good to have you back, you gave everyone quite the scare."
Ruby looked away, out the window where she could see a thin layer of snow dusting Patch. Last time she had been home, it had been summer.
She still wasn't sure what had happened for the first three months, Trag'Oul had been evasive about what had happened and where he had been, the next three (It might have been longer, Time didn't work quite the same in Trag'Oul's home) were spent teaching her more of the Balance, and advancing her skill with blood and bone.
Which was good, because it saved her life.
Frowning, Ruby picked at the fraying edge of her skirt. Had he know? He had never had problems returning her to his home before then, though that had been the first time she physically traveled there.
Ruby was aware that Trag'Oul knew more than he let on, she had seen Kuroyuri during her first meeting with him, and still got impulses when she thought of the stars that made up the constellar dragon's body-
-A young man, smoke rising around him as he dropped his empty magazines, reloading. Raising his gun, he fired a single bullet, bone broke beneath the ballistic blast. Tendrils of light trailed from his back, magenta with black lining-
-like that, Ruby finished the thought dryly.
"Ruby?"
The brown haired girl's head snapped to her teacher.
"Are you alright? You seemed distracted."
Ruby shook her head, "I'm fine, I was just thinking about Kuroyuri."
Ms. Greene's eyes softened, "Of course. Ruby, I understand this must be very hard for you, but if you ever need to talk-"
"I'm fine."
"Ruby, you just went through an extremely traumatic experience, it's normal to be-"
"Ms. Greene," Ruby cut her off with a smile, "I'm fine."
"You could have died."
"We all die eventually," Ruby responded, "I'm not scared to do so."
"That isn't normal, Ruby. You're just a little girl."
"Then I don't want to be normal, I'm happy the way I am."
Ms.Greene opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a blur rushed into the room, tackling Ruby into a hug and pushing her wheelchair back.
"Ruby!" Aileen's muffled voice came from Ruby's side, "Do you know how scared I was? Never do anything like that again!" Ruby's best friend continued to jabber on until Ruby stopped her with a groan.
"Leenie, 's nice to see you too, but, you're crushing my ribs."
The hazel eyed girl leapt back, releasing Ruby from her grip, "Sorry! What happened to you?"
Ms. Greene coughed into her hand, "Aileen, that isn't-"
"Got into a fight with a Grimm."
"What!? Really? Did you win?"
"No, I lost, that's why I'm stuck in a wheelchair, silly. I made some new friends, I'll introduce you after school, K?"
Aileen shrank into herself, "Ok?"
"Aileen," Ms. Greene cut in, "could you take a seat? it's time for class after all."
---
Tai growled, smashing the sledgehammer into the bone knife. Nothing. He had been at this since he came home from bringing the kids to school and had literally nothing to show for it. The knife wasn't even chipped.
Ruby had nearly died, Qrow said that she had barely been moving when they got there.
Thud.
He had nearly lost his daughter. His daughter had almost died because of this stupid knife.
Thud.
He had already lost Summer, he had already lost Raven, he couldn't lose either of his baby girls.
Thud.
And Ruby still wasn't shaken! She still wanted to learn from Kalan, and still wanted to be a Huntress.
Thud.
She wouldn't even tell them where she met with him so Qrow and him could at least meet the guy. Or even how she was meeting him, seeing as she was confined to the house.
Thud.
It couldn't have been Li Ren, otherwise Ruby wouldn't talk about meeting him. Even with her strange outlook on death.
THUD!
She was a little girl! She should be worrying about playing with her friends. Not running away from Grimm!
THUD!
The only good part of this was being there to take in the other two kids.
THUD!
Tai had lost his parents in a Grimm attack, because of course he fuckin' did, an early sign of how the world would go on to fuck with him for the subsequent thirty years.
THUD!
It was hard, everyone seemed to constantly pity you. Even if you didn't want their damn pity. Even if taking in the kids put a strain on their money, he was fine with doing that. Giving them something resembling a normal life, was worth that.
THUD-CRACK!
Tai glared at the broken handle of the hammer. He had driven it into the ground so hard it had cratered the ground and broke the hammer.
But not the damn knife. It was still looking brand new.
Picking it up, Tai shoved it into its sheath, and walked back towards the house.
Storing it in the sewn pocket of Ruby's cloak, lest she go looking for it, Tai walked into the living room.
Qrow was sitting there, staring at one of the skeletons Ruby had used to deal with her current disabled state.
Admittedly, they did take some of the difficulty out of life.
This one was cleaning the house. The vacuum cleaner was running, blocking out whatever Qrow was trying to watch.
"Tai! Sit down, man, I need to talk to you," Qrow yelled over the machine, before the skeleton walked out of the room.
"What's up?"
Qrow's face pulled into a sharp frown, "Ruby."
"What about her? We still can't find Kalan, and she still isn't talking."
"It's not that," Qrow leaned his elbows on his knees, resting his head on his hands, "When she gets better, I want to start training her."
"Qrow, I don't want her-"
"I know, Tai, but there's nothing either of us can do to stop her. She's made her choice, and I don't think there's anything we can do to change that."
"We can keep her from this, she isn't even six, man. She shouldn't be dealing with this shit!"
"I know, trust me, but if she's going to insist to do stuff like this, I want to make sure she doesn't die. Whatever those are," Qrow jerked his head at one of the skeletons, "they aren't her Semblance. I woke up her Aura saving her."
Tai stopped, mouth opening mutely for a few seconds, "She hadn't had her Aura unlocked?"
"No, so whatever Kalan has been teaching her wouldn't involve using it. I don't want that to get her killed later on."
"What would you teach her?"
"Just basic stuff, how to defend herself, different Grimm types, using her Aura. Things that will keep her from dying."
"That's- I'm fine with that."
"Good. I was going to do it either way."
"You're an ass."
Qrow laughed, gesturing to one of the skeletons, who poured him a drink.
"You know, I could get used to these things."
"I think Ruby already has, I saw her teaching one to bake cookies."
"Yang too, she had one clean the dishes when it was her turn."
Tai laughed, "looks like the conspiracy theorists were wrong, we'll be replaced with skeletons instead of robots if other people learn how to do this."
The two men leaned back chuckling, watching the wall mounted Scroll as the macabre servants walked around them.
----
Nora looked at the girl practically curled up behind Ruby's chair.
"Uh?"
"What?"
"Who's that?"
"What?" Ruby turned in her chair, "Oh, for Dust sake, Lennie, it isn't that bad- RIBS!"
"They did tell you to keep from doing stuff like that," Lie responded lightly to Ruby's cry of pain, but helped her sit up nonetheless.
"I don't want to sit around for a couple of weeks, it's borrring," Ruby dragged out the R, lolling her head to the side.
Lie adjusted her head, "Don't do that, you're just going to extend how long you're stuck in there."
Nora watched the two of them as Lie gently fussed over Ruby.
"Ruby? Lie?"
The two of them turned, and Nora tapped them both on the nose.
"Boop."
Nora watched them both blink in confusion.
"Uh, why do you keep doing that? Does it mean something?"
Thank you for finding me, for saving me at Kuroyuri, for being nice to me, for taking us home with you. I'm sorry you both got hurt there. I love you both so much.
"It's- It's something my parents used to do to me."
"Oh," Ruby chirped, kicking her feet, "That's cool! Lennie? Have you calmed down yet?"
"Yeah," the girl's shaky voice answered, "I'm good, come on, let's find our parents."
"You sure? You haven't really met Nora and Lie yet!"
"Call me Ren."
"Huh?"
"I want you to call me Ren."
Ruby shrugged, smiling, "Ok, Ren! Lennie? Are you-"
"I want to go home. I'm not feeling well," Lennie's voice came out clipped.
Ruby's smile faltered briefly, "Ok. Come on guys, let's go find dad."
Nora took over pushing Ruby's chair, looking around the school yard for Taiyang's truck.
"Why is everyone looking at us?" Li- Ren asked, looking around. When Nora checked, she saw he was right.
"Patch is pretty small, you know? Most people at least know each other in passing, so when new people show up, people notice."
"Especially when someone shows up in a wheelchair," Lennie mumbled, shrinking in on herself again, "You running into a Grimm is going to circle faster than a Nevermore."
"So? If they want to know they can ask me about it, I don't care."
"How do you keep saying that? You nearly died Ruby. We watched them cart you to the emergency room."
"Ren. I'm not scared of dying. People can think that is strange, but it's true. So long as I die for something I believe in, I'm happy."
"And you would have died for something you believe in at Kuroyuri?"
"Well," Ruby's eyes seemed to burrow into Ren's skull, "Uncle Qrow was right there, so at least you two would have gotten out of there safely. That is good enough for me."
"Don't."
"Huh?"
"Don't die like that, Rath- Ruby. I don't want to lose you."
Nora had seen what had happened to Ruby. She had stopped moving in the Grimm's hand, sagged down limp with blood pouring from her mouth. Dead.
Then she wasn't.
Ruby's eyes had started to glow, and silver lights in the shape of bone wings had burst through the Grimm's hands, burning them to ash and distracting it for Qrow.
Then she had collapsed, chest moving again, wings gone.
"Nora, Lie, Aileen, Ruby! Over here!"
Taiyang was waving at them, a brown haired woman sitting next to him on the truck bed and Yang playing with some cube, leaning against the wheel.
Faster than Nora had comprehend, the woman and Aileen left, they were bundled into the back of the truck, with Ruby's wheelchair in the bed, and heading to the house.
Their house.
Nora looked down, before grabbing Ruby's free hand.
----
Yang watched Ruby talk to Nora, animatedly moving her freshly released limbs.
"Ruby? Can I talk to you? Alone?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure, what's up Yang?"
Yang gently guided her sister to her room, shutting and locking the door.
"What's up-"
"Why did you run away?" It had taken weeks for Yang to work up the courage to ask this and she hated how broken her voice sounded at the moment. She was supposed to be the big sister.
"What do you mean?"
"You were missing for six months. I thought I had lost you, like mom," which mom went unsaid.
"Which-?"
"It doesn't matter. Why'd you run away?"
Sometimes, things happened that made you rethink your priorities. Like worrying about your little sister running off.
"I was scared."
"Then why didn't you come home?"
"I needed to train more."
"You scared me!"
"I needed to learn how to defend people."
"What about me?"
Ruby looked confused, "What about you? I needed to learn."
"You abandoned me," Yang hissed out, fists clenching. Did Ruby really not-?
"I came back."
"You left."
"Dad wanted me to stop training, I wasn't going to."
"You left me."
"Was I supposed to take you with me?"
"You were supposed to stay!"
"Why?"
"Because you're my little sister! You're not supposed to be running off without me and getting hurt."
"You haven't told me what I was supposed to do, if I stayed Dad would have made me stop training."
"Then you should have stopped training."
"I won't."
"Why!?"
"Because it's who I am, and I'm happy that way. I am Ruby Rose, and I am Rathma, and I refuse to give up either of those."
"Stop talking like that!"
"Like what?"
"Using all these big words! You're my little sister, you shouldn't be talking like a grown up!"
"Kalan taught me to speak well, it's part of who I am now, Yang."
"Then how are you my little sister? You ran away, you don't care about me-"
"I care about you-"
"You keep using big words and talking about this Balance, and all these things Kalan taught you, and you're not acting like my little sister anymore."
"People change, Yang."
"Well, I don't want you too!"
"It's happened."
Yang tackled Ruby with a shriek, pulling at her sister's hair.
"Stop saying things like that!"
"Ow! Yang, stop! That hurts!"
"Stop being so stupid then, dummy! I don't want to lose you too!"
"Ok! Ok! Fine, I won't run away again! Just stop it!"
Yang let go of Ruby's hair, pulling her into a hug.
"Don't scare me like that ever again, sis."
"I'll do my best."
"No. You won't."
"I can't promise anything better than my best-"
"You. Won't."
----
"Alright, pipsqueak, let's see that armor you can make."
Qrow watched Ruby fidget, pulling at the end of her skirt.
"What?"
"My bone armor is kind of… spikey. I don't want to ruin my clothes."
"Come on, kid," Qrow rolled his eyes, "It isn't that bad. Your mom fought in a skirt."
Ruby's eyes lit up, a smile tugging at her lips, "Ok!"
Mentioning Summer was always a good way to excite Ruby.
Ruby made a gesture, raising her hand from hip to neck level.
White gauntlets formed first, with spikes coming off the elbow, and then came the greaves, similarly spiked. Ruby's shirt bulged slightly, like something had appeared beneath it, before spikes burst from the sleeves. Similarly, her skirt was impaled on spikes of bone.
…
"..Is there any way not to include the spikes?"
Ruby shook her head, "I don't know one, best I can do is make them grow on the skirt."
"Why didn't you do that?"
"...'s hard."
"Yeah, we're going to have to buy you pants for training. At least until you get better at it."
Ruby glared forlornly at the torn remains of her skirt, "I liked this one."
"I'll buy you a new one," Qrow responded quickly, "now, how about your head?"
"What about it?"
"Aren't you going to cover it?"
"I dunno?"
Qrow sighed, "Kalan didn't teach you how to do that?"
"I'm gonna armor the hood when I get better."
"But you don't know anything right now."
"No?"
Qrow rubbed his eyes in irritation "He didn't teach you to do that?"
"No."
"Right, get your weapon ready."
"K!"
Ruby held out left hand, and a series of dust collected in her hand, forming bones that snapped into a scythe, before drawing the knife in her right hand.
"Ruby. What is that?"
"A scythe?"
"Why'd you make a scythe, pip?"
"Well, you use a scythe, and the Priests traditionally use scythes and knives."
And there was the confirmation it was a cult.
"What's the Priests like?" Qrow asked, fishing for answers, anything that would let him track down Kalan.
"Dunno."
"What do you mean? Haven't you met them?"
"They're not here," Ruby shook her head, "it's just me and Kalan."
"Then where are they?"
"I dunno. Kalan just says they're not here."
"Do you think they got wiped out?"
"I don't think so, Kalan would have said if they were."
Qrow narrowed his eyes, "Is priests short for something?"
"The Priests of Rathma."
"Don't you use the title Rathma?"
"It means Student, they're named after Kalan's first student."
"Does Kalan mean something?" They were definitely looking for someone older then, if they had already had a student who had an organization named after them.
"Teacher."
Qrow paused, "So, it's not his name?"
That would explain why they hadn't found the bastard.
"No."
"Then what's his name?"
"Trag'Oul."
Well, it certainly wouldn't be hard to find someone with that name.
"I'm not teaching you to use a scythe, especially not that one."
"Why?"
"Because you're too small to use a scythe, and if you end up using one later, it's going to be made out of metal, not bone."
"There's nothing wrong with-"
Qrow moved forward and used to practice knife he had to severe the scythe in three along the points where the bones connected.
Like everything else Ruby made, it crumbled to dust, disappearing as quickly as it came.
"-bone. Wuh?"
"You're not using a bone scythe. Now, come at me, I want to get an idea of what you know about knife fighting."
Morphic Tide
Crazy Brainstormer, Munchkin and Wannabe Min-Maxer
- Location
- MI, USA
Have a crosspost on reasoning for cybernetic and self-upgrading Penny:
As can probably be told by the third paragraph, it's a crosspost from QQ. The utter lack of porn logic(as well as absence of lewdness in the post) required for it is why I'm posting it here, because it can justify more than just Lewds with Penny.
As can probably be told by the third paragraph, it's a crosspost from QQ. The utter lack of porn logic(as well as absence of lewdness in the post) required for it is why I'm posting it here, because it can justify more than just Lewds with Penny.
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Overall a very solid chapter, once I found the time to sit down and read it I found the scenes to flow very well, Nora's scene with boop was full of feels.
Ruby seems incredibly moody & a bit... arrogant maybe, which I am unsure if its intentional or not and while Yang being upset and not entirely trusting Ruby anymore and feelings she is not like her little sister, the language, attack and using skeletons for washing up feel at odds with her character and her stated feelings on the issues at hand. Qrow & Tai seem similarly a bit too calm about the skeletons, I mean, people can get used to anything but they're discussing magical revelations with magic skeletons around so it still feels odd.
The descriptions work well, being sharp and pieces, meshing in with the text extremely well, and the insights to stuff like combat are well delivered and make sense. The seeming jealousy and discomfort of her old social circle is rather believable and sad to watch, kudos.
Overall, a very strong piece with a solid lead out.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
---
Forged in the Light
---
Ruby smiled slightly, looking around the Hunter Conclave. It was a place to find smugglers, scoundrels, ne'er do wells. It was home.
Dominating two entire floors of the Tower, it was built like a giant bar. Almost anything that you could want was buyable if you knew who to ask, even things that were blatantly illegal by the Last City's laws. Not that anyone would say anything about it. Nobody wanted to be the one who ostracized a third of the Guardians.
It was the sort of place that, many centuries and a world ago, Ruby would have never been caught in. Now, she could hardly think of a place she would rather be.
Ruby was one of the last Guardians who remembered, back when there was no City, no place to kick off your muddy boots, hang up your cloak, and sleep in a warm bed. Back when there were no Guardians, only the Risen, and you either sold your gun to whatever petty warlord with delusions that they would rebuild the world happened to be giving the best place to rest, or wandered looking for people to help like Ruby did. Back when you did what you had to do to survive to see the end of the day. When the only law everyone respected, no matter where you went, was the Law of the Jungle. When you fought and killed over supplies. When Guns forged in Light were a rarity, not a fixture, and each one had a legend beyond compare. Now, it was possible to make mimicries of those weapons. Ruby had seen many of the originals, personally forged some, the copies didn't compare.
Where was the solar flames of Last Word? The silent void in the wake of First Curse?
She had forged the twin guns, one for herself and one for Jaren. It had been in the early days of the city, when Guardians had only just started.
She had poured her Light into every step, that's part of what made them so much better. The old ways. Now, Light was added after, and only to a few parts. The individual guns were weaker, but easier to make. Only her, Banshee, and Saladin still practiced the old ways.
Hunters, and, more rarely, Titans and Warlocks would occasionally come to her. Giving her Glimmer, or other goods so she would make a weapon for them.
She would, but the weapon would never be as good as the twins. She had poured every ounce of Light into those guns, left herself incapable of calling on the Void or Solar energies for months. One of those had been more devastating than the other.
When she had forged the twins, she had made them with the lessons instilled by Qrow and Signal. A weapon should reflect the user.
Ruby had put everything she knew about her wayward apprentice into Last Word. No magnetic holster, it was easier to get it out with an old leather, single action with a hammer made to withstand the damage that would come with fan firing. Practical, but with golden embellishments, he had only been a Guardian for a couple of years when she found him. Fire, because he loved to be the center of attention.
First Curse was forged for her, seven hundred years of dying had made her wary, drowning in your own blood wasn't any more fun the eight hundredth time than it was the first, and the gun worked with that, silent, subtle, perfect for when she had to get close up but not into melee range.
That didn't mean she was a coward, to use the Void was naturally difficult for Hunters, you had to stare into the abyss, understand the scope of the space between worlds and how minuscule you were compared to it, then you had to force it to serve you. For the self-serving men and women who normally became Hunters, it was the anathema to their existence, to Ruby, it came naturally.
Ten years of teaching Jaren and another four teaching Shin had revitalized her, death wasn't an afterthought anymore. No longer did she spend years wandering the world, only rarely returning the loft she owned in the city. A perk of being one of the first ones there four centuries ago. She had taken more responsibility relatively recently.
"Stuck in your own head again, Guardian?"
"I guess it's about time I started to act my age."
"If you were acting your age, you would be a pile of dust in the wind. You're welcome."
"I'm supposed to thank you for that?"
"Heh. Point. What were you thinking about?"
"The old days. There's so few Golden Age Guardians left."
"You, Takeo, Holborn, Lyssa, and maybe Osiris. We really are a rare breed aren't we?"
"There's also Rezyl."
...
"You didn't come here to reflect did you?"
"Point."
The First Curse rolled in her hand, before she fired all eight rounds into the air.
"Listen up! We have a problem!"
"Yeah, you just pissed off the guys above us!"
"Shut your mouth, Cayde!"
"I would if I had one!"
"Anyone here opposed to him becoming Cayde-7?
"Pretty sure Amanda would be angry if you damaged her sex bot!"
"Who said that!?"
Firing the gun again, Ruby drew attention to herself.
"Right. So, technically, Zavala wants this kept top secret, but I really don't care.
Everyone here knows Crota right? Big, ugly, responsible for hundreds of dead Guardians? Killed by a team working with that nutter Eris? Well, he has a dad. And daddy dearest is angry at us. Normally this would just be another day, but he got here three days ago.
The first thing he did was use the giant gun on his dreadnought to ruin the Reef's day, then he took Phobos. Now he's attacking Earth. We have approximately a month before he hits the City.
Now, Zavala wants to cower down behind the wall, Ikora wants to research the thing. Which means once again it comes down to the Hunters, and a few Titans and Warlocks under Shaxx, Pyrrha, and Eris, to get things done. So here's what we're going to do.
A team is going to use stealth tech to slip into the dreadnought, disable the main gun, and set up a transmat zone. From there, we're doing hit and run, both on and off the damn thing. Both the FWC and New Monarchy are kind enough to loan us their ships. Häkke and Suros are giving us some weapons."
"What about Dead Orbit and Omolon?"
"Dead Orbit don't want to risk their fleet. I can understand that, there is a very real chance that they'll be our last hope you guys fail."
"You guys? You're not going?"
"I would if I could, but it would look really suspicious if the Hunter Vanguard just up and disappeared, so I'll be busy keeping Zavala from realizing what we're doing. As for Omolon? I'd sooner throw their entire foundry at the thing than trust their weapons to not blow up on us."
"Tex Mechanica?"
"What about them?"
Ruby didn't bother keeping the disdain out of her voice. She still wanted to find out how the thieves got their hands on her design. The First Curse and Last Word weren't supposed to be mass produced.
"Cayde, I need you to find Tevis. We'll need to reform the Nightstalkers."
Ruby saw the Hunters shift at the mention of her disbanded group. Nobody was going to volunteer to join them.
"Ok."
"What about pay?" Ruby rolled her eyes at the question yelled from the back.
"You'll be paid in living to see another year, sound good to you?"
Ruby's eyes swept across the gathered Hunters, making eye contact with each of them.
"Do you know the Law of the Jungle?"
"I do," The voice came from the balcony, a Hunter, raised young.
"What is the Law of the Jungle?"
"The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is his pack."
"Exactly. You ask what your pay is for doing this? Your pay is survival. If the City falls, we all fall. I don't want to hear about any disputes between you and the Warlocks while we work on this. Today we aren't Hunters, they aren't Warlocks, or Titans. Today, we are Guardians. Once, I stood on the steps of this city as Rezyl Azzir placed the first brick. Once, I fired over the head of the Iron Lords as the Fallen lay siege to the walls. Once, I ran through the streets of a Golden Age city as two gods fought above me, and learned to embrace the Void."
Ruby's ears picked up one of Cayde's new students whispering, the white cloak pulled over her head, "What's she talking about?"
"You don't know? She's one of the original twenty. They were there. When the Darkness and Traveler fought during the Collapse, they saw what happened. You see that gun on her back? Crescent Rose? It's Golden Age tech, has a ammo replicator build right into it, and can take down a Fallen Ketch in a single shot if you give her long enough to get a bead on the fuel tank."
"Why don't we have those?" the other recruit whispered, apparently a Titan without an order, and Ruby saw him eye her baby. She would have to talk to Cayde about who he brought in here.
"The tech for them is rare nowadays, we're lucky with the progress Cassoid is making as is. People have tried to steal it to replicate the tech, but Ruby acts like doing so is the equivalent of going for her Ghost."
"Today," Ruby cut him off, "Night falls, and Darkness closes in on the City once again. They will throw themselves against our Wall, the will seek to drown us in tides of Darkness. But they forget one thing, we are Guardians, we are Light," Ruby moved her hands, fists clenched, raising her voice minutely, "They are the Night; but we are the Dawn at the end of it! The Traveler forced back the Darkness at the cost of their life, and we will force Oryx back no matter the cost! We will send his "Taken" scampering back to his Dreadnought, we will break open his ship and hunt him down until he has nowhere to run, and then? Then we kill him."
Ruby clapped her hands together, breaking the silence that had come over the room.
"Now, we're going to have to break a few laws to do this," Ruby let the grin split her face, "Let's get to smuggling, shall we?"
---
"Alright, I'm certain. She changed the lock."
Pyrrha smiled, shaking her head, "It's one of the oldest keys we have, try those, Jaune."
"Pyrrha," The Ghost said, slightly haughty, so unlike his namesake, "I'm a being made by a dying god in its last moment, I think I can tell when- nevermind, you were right."
The door slid to the side, allowing Pyrrha access to the apartment.
The first thing she noticed was that it had been redecorated since the last time that she visited.
The three walls not replaced by glass were a deep red instead of the off white they had been before, and the couches and chairs had been replaced with new ones of similar color. Positioned against the wall was a single bookcase, filled to the brim.
Walking over to it, Pyrrha ran her ungloved hand along the shelf.
"Real wood," Pyrrha mumbled in appreciation. Glimmer was always slightly off, not enough for a regular human to pick up but glaring for the superhuman senses of the Guardians.
Jaune floated over her shoulder, a hum in disapproval coming from the Ghost, "She always did waste supplies."
"Ruby has her vices," Pyrrha admitted softly, "but they're relatively small."
"She doesn't need books, she can read any of these on a Datapad."
"She doesn't want to read them on a Datapad though, she enjoys feeling the paper turn under her hand."
Pyrrha stroked the book spines, reading the titles. The Iliad, Brothers Grimm, Don Quixote, Wuthering Heights, The Second Jungle Book, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Reaper Man. Finally, Pyrrha stopped, pulling out a book called The Metamorphosis and cracked it open.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed-
"I wouldn't read that, it's really not your taste. Kafka was weird."
Pyrrha dropped the book, her modified M1 Garand appearing in a flash of Light as she spun, aiming it at the person standing behind her.
Ruby stood across from her, apparently uncaring about the gun aimed at her skull. A mug of something warm in hand.
"Coco?"
"Ruby," Pyrrha sighed, lowering the gun and letting Jaune return it to its Engram state, the small gold gem hanging from the charm bracelet she kept all her gear on, "You scared me!"
"This is my home."
"It's," Pyrrha checked the clock, "Two in the afternoon, shouldn't you be working?"
"Ikora is trying to make sense of Toland's journal. I wish her luck on that one."
"You don't think she'll figure it out?"
"Osiris never was able to, neither was Takeo. Ikora's smart, but she doesn't hold a candle to either of them."
"You knew Toland, didn't you?"
"I knew him as well as I knew any of the other Twenty. Poor guy got the worst of it when we watched the fight, he learned things about the Darkness."
"What about Zavala?"
"He's talking with Holborn, that's how I knew you were home. You said you weren't getting home for another month, by the way."
"I lied, I wanted to surprise you. I guess you beat me on that one."
"Never try to surprise a Hunter, Pyrrha, especially not a Hunter Vanguard. It won't end well. Now, coco? Or do you want me to cook you something?"
Pyrrha felt her mouth water slightly, "Oh please."
Ruby laughed, throwing her cloak on a hook near the door and grabbing an apron, her armor is disappearing in a simple flash of Light.
Ruby was by far the better of the two friends at cooking, though she wasn't half as good at it as Ren had been, having dedicated most of her time to gunsmithing and traveling.
"Can I still have that drink?"
Ruby laughed again, pushing the mug across the counter between them and Pyrrha snagged it. Drinking deeply from it, Pyrrha groaned aloud at the taste of chocolate.
"Do that a bit louder, Pyr, maybe the people below us will hear it."
"Let them, I haven't had anything to drink except coffee thick enough to choke someone in three years."
"I keep telling Zavala that we need to to make the rations better, he never does listen to me."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Ruby dropped her voice, "'Ruby, we have bigger things to worry about! The Fallen are trying to gain power and I need to find some way to make the Guardians hunt them!' But Zavala, don't you think that people would be more willing to work for us if we actually gave them actual food instead of high nutrient paste that tastes like death? 'No, that's absurd! We'll just bribe them with rewards!'"
Pyrrha chuckled at Ruby's over the top impression of the Vanguard Commander.
"And then he asks me why I'm trying to waste resources and I'm like, 'Do you KNOW how much Glimmer we waste on making these weapons!? And that half the Guardians end up throwing them out!?' Bah, I need to stop stressing, I'm going to give myself an ulcer. Does stir-fry sound good?"
"Anything is good."
"Good to hear," Ruby pulled out a large pan, "So, how was Mercury?"
"Hot. I honestly don't know how there was ever life there."
"I actually spent half a year there about," Pyrrha could tell Ruby had closed one eye, tongue sticking out, "Three years before the Collapse. It was beautiful… A lot of things were, before the Collapse."
Pyrrha didn't press Ruby for answers on that, the Hunter never spoke of what happened the day of the Collapse beyond the broadest of terms.
"Why were you on Mercury?"
"I was trying to find out if anyone had heard of Remnant. I didn't like living on the streets, mugging people to survive, you know? I wanted to go home, find out what had happened to Vale."
Pyrrha reached up, touching the starburst scar just above her breasts, "Yes. Did you ever-"
"Do you really think I would have been in Houston if I had found a way home?"
"No, I suppose not. Oh, thank you."
Pyrrha took the plate, quickly scooping a bite.
Ruby span the chair around, resting her arms on the back.
"So, where do you think you'll be going after this?"
"I'm not."
"Huh?"
"When we were on Mercury, I decided something."
"What's that?"
"I'm leaving the Host, I'm going to make my own Titan Order in the City. I'm going to be staying."
"Is the food that bad that one good meal caused you to quit? Because if so, I'm going right to the Tower and yelling at Zavala until he lets us improve them."
"No," Pyrrha shook her head, red hair flapping around as she laughed, "I've already talked about it with Holborn. I created my own branch of fighting from studying the Sunbreaker texts, and I'm going to recruit Titans to learn them."
"So the meals are just the side benefit."
"Yes, Ruby."
"Cool," Ruby stood up, walking over to where the book still lay, and picked it up, putting it back on the shelf, "You'll have to show me this-"
Ruby's Ghost appeared in a flash of Light next to her, "Transmission from Cayde, he says it's urgent."
"Put him through."
A garbled voice came through, "Ruby! Bad news, the Vex got Tevis, he's in the Black Garden."
"That's not acceptable Cayde, we need him."
"I know, I know. What should I do?"
"Attempt to rescue him, but if things look too bad, pull out. I'd rather lose one good Guardian today than your entire squad, I'll be in constant contact, go!"
"On it."
---
"Right," Cayde said, flicking open the Ace of Spades and sliding in a speedloader, "You heard the Boss-Lady, we're going in, getting Tevis, and getting out."
"And what about the army of murderously OCD time traveling robots between us and him? Are we supposed to knock on the door and ask them to kindly hand over Tevis?"
"Of course not! Hob," Cayde yelled over his shoulder at the pilot, "Bring us down on a bombing run. Everyone else, be ready to Transmat on my signal."
"Right, what should we bring along?"
Cayde grabbed the Chaperone from its place on the floor as the ship canted down, burning through the atmosphere of Mars.
"Reports say the Garden is full of close spaces, so no sniper rifles. Remember, if it moves, isn't Human, Awoken or Exo, it dies."
"What are Vex?"
"Man," Jay spoke, the Titan grabbing his shotgun, "Sometimes I forgot how new to this you are, Sunny."
"...Call me Sunny again, watch how quickly you don't need a ship to reach the surface."
"Point is, Sum," Cayde cut in before the Hunter could cause a fight in the ship, "The Vex are these really weird robots-"
"They're vexing," Tam cut in, the Warlock pulled her gloves on.
"Yeah, that. Anyway, they can warp in anywhere they've been before, because they have some weird way of working with Time. The Black Garden is one of their bases, the other the Vault of Glass on Venus."
"And we're assaulting one of them. Is Ruby insane?"
"All Guardians are a little cracked, I'd say. You can only die so many times before you need something to take the stress away. Haven't you seen the Guardians dancing on the top of the Tower?"
"Yes, but seriously? We're five Guardians and a pilot, are we really suited for this?"
"It took six Guardians to break into the Vault of Glass, it took the same amount to bring down Crota. We're more than enough. Hob?"
"One sec. Vanguard, this is Firefly, come in."
"Oh, are we doing Pre-Collapse Military roleplay? Ok, Firefly, this is Vanguard, I read you," there was an unusual bite in Ruby's tone, worry about one of her protégés clear.
"Come on, Ruby, I've always wanted to do this," Hob's voice took on a slight whine.
"Listen, when this is over, I'll let you borrow my ship and bomb a Cabal base. We'll do the whole bells and whistles, down to getting you a Pre-Collapse pilot suit made and awarding you a useless badge."
Cayde shared a look with Alleyne, rolling his eyes lightly at the byplay.
"We're coming in-"
"I'm piggybacking off the Cabal defense array, I know exactly where you are," Ruby cut off Hob with a sudden snarl, "I want you to bomb the hell out of their forces, everyone else mount up, you'll be dropping right from the ship and rushing the portal."
"Why-"
A explosion ruptured the air about them, and Cayde could hear see warning lights flicker on.
"They have a Gate Lord. If you can't kill it in one go, Hob, everyone else has to make it past that thing and you'll circle around for another go at it. Every minute you're not in the Black Garden is a minute Tevis could die."
"Alright, everyone on your Sparrows!"
"Aim for the glowing crystal, Hob. They hate it."
Cayde swung his leg over the body of his vehicle, waiting.
"Anyone got any music?"
"I've got some classical," Jay threw out.
"Hit it."
Music blared through the speakers of Cayde's helmet, and he waited for the word.
"Steady, Hob. Steady."
"Any closer and they'll get a bead on me."
"Stay far enough away and it will get a bead on someone else if it survives. Trust me."
Cayde could see Sum's hands tighten on the Sparrow's handle, could hear Tam muttering something under her breath.
Another explosion burst through the air, and Cayde felt his servos rattle in their sockets.
"I need to fire."
"Five."
"Ruby, I need to fire."
"Four."
"It's aiming right at us!"
"Three."
"Ruby!"
"Two."
"I'm going to fire-"
"Hob, listen to her."
"One."
"Boss!"
"Fire!"
Cayde heard the missiles launch, followed by the ship shake one last time.
"Cayde, drop! Hob, be ready to pull up the minute they do, it's hurt and it's reeling but it isn't dead!"
Cayde's Ghost activated the button, sending them all flying towards the Vex gate.
Rocketing past the staggered robot, Cayde and the rest entered the Black Garden.
As Cayde jumped off his Sparrow, allowing his Ghost to encrypt it, he brought up the Ace of Spades. Twelve shots tore through the air, piercing the crystals in the guts of the Goblins waiting for them.
As he heard the rest of the crew join him, Cayde pulled the Chaperone off his back, leveling the shotgun and firing a slug into the head of the charging Minotaur.
Once the robots stopped for a second, Cayde calmly opened the Ace of Spades, reloading his prized revolver.
"Anything?"
His Ghost flickered into existence, the various spikes hovering around his eye as he scanned the area.
"Yes, it's faint, but I'm picking up Tevis's Light!"
"Right, you heard him! We're moving, point us in the right direction."
The group followed his Ghost for about ten minutes, before they found the first sign of Tevis.
A Minotaur was pinned to the wall, a purple arrow torn through its chassis.
"What the-?"
"Never seen a Nightstalker in action, Jay? They're the perfect blend of area denial and destruction. If anything not bathed in Light came near this thing, it would latch onto them with a nearly unbreakable gravitational pull and then crush 'em. I once saw Tevis use it on a horde of Thralls, not a pretty way to go. Come on, we need to keep moving."
When they got to the next set of Vex, Cayde stopped again.
"Tevis didn't do this."
"You sure?"
"Nightstalkers don't make ice. That's high level Solar manipulation, you'd be hard pressed to find any Hunter who can do that."
"Why?"
"We're creatures of pragmatism," Cayde answered Sum's question, nodding to Alleyne, who stepped up, pressing her hands on the giant spikes of ice barring their path, "why bother learning how to make ice when you could make your flames hotter? Better to leave it to the Warlocks, they like sitting around figuring these things out. We good?"
A single rough punch from the Hunter saw the ice rapidly dissolve into steam.
"We're good. Come on."
They traveled deeper into the Black Garden, finding more destroyed Vex.
"Well, whoever they are, they're with Tevis and they're giving the Vex a hell of a time. Ruby! You picking up?"
"I got you, Cayde. Hob, dodge left! Lead it through that valley!"
"You alright?"
"Gate Lord's just being a pit pissy about taking a nap, it'll be in bed by the time you get out of there. In fact," Ruby stopped talking for a moment, "Bang! Right in the kisser! Oh boy, that just made it angrier…"
"That isn't good!"
"Don't worry about it, Hob. I have an idea! Finn, if this works, remind me start pestering Zav to let Fenchurch back into the tower."
"What!?"
"You see that Cabal artillery battery? Fly right over it."
"Are you insane!?"
"It's fine! Finn, begin broadcasting frequently 7.14.4 through the ship.
"Who's Finn?"
"Her Ghost. Ruby, there's someone else stuck here with Tevis!"
"Then rescue them too! You should have a clear evac zone in five minutes."
"I'm not flying over a damn Cabal artillery battery! You've been doing nothing but-"
"Hob, I will have Finn override your controls and pilot that ship myself if I have to. That Gate Lord needs to die, and this should do it."
Cayde heard Hob snarl an affirmative, before shutting off the argument.
"Let's go."
"Is she alright?"
"Ruby doesn't like her students dying, Tevis might bite it if we don't get there, so I'm not surprised she's acting a little maniac. It'll be fine, Hob's just a bit skittish."
"But-"
"Ruby almost always has a plan, if she told Hob to fly over something, there's a reason for it. Come on."
It didn't take much longer for the sounds of fighting to reach them, picking up into a sprint, Cayde turned the corner.
Vex were marching towards two people, the familiar frame of Tevis stood, launching arrow after arrow from this dusk bow, and the other was stabbing at the Vex with a sword, favoring her left arm.
Cayde took the six feet between them in a single blink, planting a dagger into the back of the Minotaur leading the assault. Then, he reached for the coil of energy deep inside him, his optics going black as he cut himself off from the rest of the world.
As the Vex turned to look at him, the Exo allowed the Arc to roll off his frame, a long knife rolling into existence to be caught by his hand.
As the Bladedancer brought the blade up, there was a brief lull. The single, red eye of the Goblin in front of him met his two. The gauntlets, inlaid with bones, tightened as Cayde gave the Exo equivalent of a grin.
Give me your arm, oh bearer mine. Let me help you fill the world with teeth.
Cayde's hand flicked out, hacking the Vex in two in milliseconds. The body was rapidly consumed by the Arc.
Then Cayde moved.
With the speed that could only truly be achieved with an Arc empowered body, Cayde hacked through the army of Vex with surgical precision. Each kill drove him further on, revitalizing his shields as he recycled the energy.
Cayde felt, rather than heard, the Hobgoblin's shot strike him, the roar of the Arc blocking out everything.
Tevis launched another arrow over him, before the bow sputtered out, his Light spent.
Cayde turned, Sum and Alleyne had golden revolvers in hand, each shot consuming their target in Solar flames. After three shots, Sum's faltered, disappearing as she rushed to grab her pulse rifle. Alleyne's continued, her fifty years as a Guardian having strengthened the bond between her Light and her, even in this dark place. More bullets than could have physically been held in it were fired before it faded.
Tam launched a spear of Void, scattering the last of the Vex.
"Hob, be ready to transmat us on my mark!"
"The Gate Lord is still alive!"
"No. It isn't," Ruby's voice cut across the channel, icy, "Finn, fire all guns from sector 3A to 3F."
Silence.
"Holy shit," Hob breathed out across the channel.
"Hob?"
"It's dead. Ready for transmat when you get out of there."
The combined party got out of the Black Garden, the Vex having apparently decided against throwing more at them, and were on the ship within half an hour.
Once Tevis was reuniting with his resuscitated Ghost, and they were on their way to the Tower, Ruby came on the channel.
"Tev," Ruby's voice was clipped, the anger clear.
"Ruby."
"What did you think you were doing, going into the Black Garden alone?"
"I was making sure the Vex weren't up to anything. We both know Osi-"
"You nearly died, Tev. You die there, you die forever. I already lost Jaren that way, I can't lose you too."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Good," Ruby voice lightened, "Shin's coming to the City soon, I expect to see you both at my place."
Cayde could have sworn he heard Tevis mutter something unflattering under his breath, "Yes, Ruby."
"Now, Cayde. You said there was someone else there?"
"Yeah. Hey, Warlock, what's your name?"
The girl blinked, "Me?"
"Yeah, you."
"Why did you call me, Warlock?"
"Well, that was pretty advanced Light manipulation you did, so I figured you were a Warlock. Where's your Ghost?"
The girl's brow scrunched up, "Ghost? I'm sorry, I don't know what you are talking about."
Great, it was Sum all over again.
"What's your name?"
"Weiss Schnee."
"And you don't-"
"Hob," Ruby's voice came, suddenly serious, "I want you to double time it back to the City. Cayde, you bring Weiss to my office the minute you get there."
"Ok?"
"Good. I need to go, Zavala is probably looking for me."
Ruby disconnected, leaving everyone sharing looks of confusion.
Forged in the Light
---
Ruby smiled slightly, looking around the Hunter Conclave. It was a place to find smugglers, scoundrels, ne'er do wells. It was home.
Dominating two entire floors of the Tower, it was built like a giant bar. Almost anything that you could want was buyable if you knew who to ask, even things that were blatantly illegal by the Last City's laws. Not that anyone would say anything about it. Nobody wanted to be the one who ostracized a third of the Guardians.
It was the sort of place that, many centuries and a world ago, Ruby would have never been caught in. Now, she could hardly think of a place she would rather be.
Ruby was one of the last Guardians who remembered, back when there was no City, no place to kick off your muddy boots, hang up your cloak, and sleep in a warm bed. Back when there were no Guardians, only the Risen, and you either sold your gun to whatever petty warlord with delusions that they would rebuild the world happened to be giving the best place to rest, or wandered looking for people to help like Ruby did. Back when you did what you had to do to survive to see the end of the day. When the only law everyone respected, no matter where you went, was the Law of the Jungle. When you fought and killed over supplies. When Guns forged in Light were a rarity, not a fixture, and each one had a legend beyond compare. Now, it was possible to make mimicries of those weapons. Ruby had seen many of the originals, personally forged some, the copies didn't compare.
Where was the solar flames of Last Word? The silent void in the wake of First Curse?
She had forged the twin guns, one for herself and one for Jaren. It had been in the early days of the city, when Guardians had only just started.
She had poured her Light into every step, that's part of what made them so much better. The old ways. Now, Light was added after, and only to a few parts. The individual guns were weaker, but easier to make. Only her, Banshee, and Saladin still practiced the old ways.
Hunters, and, more rarely, Titans and Warlocks would occasionally come to her. Giving her Glimmer, or other goods so she would make a weapon for them.
She would, but the weapon would never be as good as the twins. She had poured every ounce of Light into those guns, left herself incapable of calling on the Void or Solar energies for months. One of those had been more devastating than the other.
When she had forged the twins, she had made them with the lessons instilled by Qrow and Signal. A weapon should reflect the user.
Ruby had put everything she knew about her wayward apprentice into Last Word. No magnetic holster, it was easier to get it out with an old leather, single action with a hammer made to withstand the damage that would come with fan firing. Practical, but with golden embellishments, he had only been a Guardian for a couple of years when she found him. Fire, because he loved to be the center of attention.
First Curse was forged for her, seven hundred years of dying had made her wary, drowning in your own blood wasn't any more fun the eight hundredth time than it was the first, and the gun worked with that, silent, subtle, perfect for when she had to get close up but not into melee range.
That didn't mean she was a coward, to use the Void was naturally difficult for Hunters, you had to stare into the abyss, understand the scope of the space between worlds and how minuscule you were compared to it, then you had to force it to serve you. For the self-serving men and women who normally became Hunters, it was the anathema to their existence, to Ruby, it came naturally.
Ten years of teaching Jaren and another four teaching Shin had revitalized her, death wasn't an afterthought anymore. No longer did she spend years wandering the world, only rarely returning the loft she owned in the city. A perk of being one of the first ones there four centuries ago. She had taken more responsibility relatively recently.
"Stuck in your own head again, Guardian?"
"I guess it's about time I started to act my age."
"If you were acting your age, you would be a pile of dust in the wind. You're welcome."
"I'm supposed to thank you for that?"
"Heh. Point. What were you thinking about?"
"The old days. There's so few Golden Age Guardians left."
"You, Takeo, Holborn, Lyssa, and maybe Osiris. We really are a rare breed aren't we?"
"There's also Rezyl."
...
"You didn't come here to reflect did you?"
"Point."
The First Curse rolled in her hand, before she fired all eight rounds into the air.
"Listen up! We have a problem!"
"Yeah, you just pissed off the guys above us!"
"Shut your mouth, Cayde!"
"I would if I had one!"
"Anyone here opposed to him becoming Cayde-7?
"Pretty sure Amanda would be angry if you damaged her sex bot!"
"Who said that!?"
Firing the gun again, Ruby drew attention to herself.
"Right. So, technically, Zavala wants this kept top secret, but I really don't care.
Everyone here knows Crota right? Big, ugly, responsible for hundreds of dead Guardians? Killed by a team working with that nutter Eris? Well, he has a dad. And daddy dearest is angry at us. Normally this would just be another day, but he got here three days ago.
The first thing he did was use the giant gun on his dreadnought to ruin the Reef's day, then he took Phobos. Now he's attacking Earth. We have approximately a month before he hits the City.
Now, Zavala wants to cower down behind the wall, Ikora wants to research the thing. Which means once again it comes down to the Hunters, and a few Titans and Warlocks under Shaxx, Pyrrha, and Eris, to get things done. So here's what we're going to do.
A team is going to use stealth tech to slip into the dreadnought, disable the main gun, and set up a transmat zone. From there, we're doing hit and run, both on and off the damn thing. Both the FWC and New Monarchy are kind enough to loan us their ships. Häkke and Suros are giving us some weapons."
"What about Dead Orbit and Omolon?"
"Dead Orbit don't want to risk their fleet. I can understand that, there is a very real chance that they'll be our last hope you guys fail."
"You guys? You're not going?"
"I would if I could, but it would look really suspicious if the Hunter Vanguard just up and disappeared, so I'll be busy keeping Zavala from realizing what we're doing. As for Omolon? I'd sooner throw their entire foundry at the thing than trust their weapons to not blow up on us."
"Tex Mechanica?"
"What about them?"
Ruby didn't bother keeping the disdain out of her voice. She still wanted to find out how the thieves got their hands on her design. The First Curse and Last Word weren't supposed to be mass produced.
"Cayde, I need you to find Tevis. We'll need to reform the Nightstalkers."
Ruby saw the Hunters shift at the mention of her disbanded group. Nobody was going to volunteer to join them.
"Ok."
"What about pay?" Ruby rolled her eyes at the question yelled from the back.
"You'll be paid in living to see another year, sound good to you?"
Ruby's eyes swept across the gathered Hunters, making eye contact with each of them.
"Do you know the Law of the Jungle?"
"I do," The voice came from the balcony, a Hunter, raised young.
"What is the Law of the Jungle?"
"The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is his pack."
"Exactly. You ask what your pay is for doing this? Your pay is survival. If the City falls, we all fall. I don't want to hear about any disputes between you and the Warlocks while we work on this. Today we aren't Hunters, they aren't Warlocks, or Titans. Today, we are Guardians. Once, I stood on the steps of this city as Rezyl Azzir placed the first brick. Once, I fired over the head of the Iron Lords as the Fallen lay siege to the walls. Once, I ran through the streets of a Golden Age city as two gods fought above me, and learned to embrace the Void."
Ruby's ears picked up one of Cayde's new students whispering, the white cloak pulled over her head, "What's she talking about?"
"You don't know? She's one of the original twenty. They were there. When the Darkness and Traveler fought during the Collapse, they saw what happened. You see that gun on her back? Crescent Rose? It's Golden Age tech, has a ammo replicator build right into it, and can take down a Fallen Ketch in a single shot if you give her long enough to get a bead on the fuel tank."
"Why don't we have those?" the other recruit whispered, apparently a Titan without an order, and Ruby saw him eye her baby. She would have to talk to Cayde about who he brought in here.
"The tech for them is rare nowadays, we're lucky with the progress Cassoid is making as is. People have tried to steal it to replicate the tech, but Ruby acts like doing so is the equivalent of going for her Ghost."
"Today," Ruby cut him off, "Night falls, and Darkness closes in on the City once again. They will throw themselves against our Wall, the will seek to drown us in tides of Darkness. But they forget one thing, we are Guardians, we are Light," Ruby moved her hands, fists clenched, raising her voice minutely, "They are the Night; but we are the Dawn at the end of it! The Traveler forced back the Darkness at the cost of their life, and we will force Oryx back no matter the cost! We will send his "Taken" scampering back to his Dreadnought, we will break open his ship and hunt him down until he has nowhere to run, and then? Then we kill him."
Ruby clapped her hands together, breaking the silence that had come over the room.
"Now, we're going to have to break a few laws to do this," Ruby let the grin split her face, "Let's get to smuggling, shall we?"
---
"Alright, I'm certain. She changed the lock."
Pyrrha smiled, shaking her head, "It's one of the oldest keys we have, try those, Jaune."
"Pyrrha," The Ghost said, slightly haughty, so unlike his namesake, "I'm a being made by a dying god in its last moment, I think I can tell when- nevermind, you were right."
The door slid to the side, allowing Pyrrha access to the apartment.
The first thing she noticed was that it had been redecorated since the last time that she visited.
The three walls not replaced by glass were a deep red instead of the off white they had been before, and the couches and chairs had been replaced with new ones of similar color. Positioned against the wall was a single bookcase, filled to the brim.
Walking over to it, Pyrrha ran her ungloved hand along the shelf.
"Real wood," Pyrrha mumbled in appreciation. Glimmer was always slightly off, not enough for a regular human to pick up but glaring for the superhuman senses of the Guardians.
Jaune floated over her shoulder, a hum in disapproval coming from the Ghost, "She always did waste supplies."
"Ruby has her vices," Pyrrha admitted softly, "but they're relatively small."
"She doesn't need books, she can read any of these on a Datapad."
"She doesn't want to read them on a Datapad though, she enjoys feeling the paper turn under her hand."
Pyrrha stroked the book spines, reading the titles. The Iliad, Brothers Grimm, Don Quixote, Wuthering Heights, The Second Jungle Book, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Reaper Man. Finally, Pyrrha stopped, pulling out a book called The Metamorphosis and cracked it open.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed-
"I wouldn't read that, it's really not your taste. Kafka was weird."
Pyrrha dropped the book, her modified M1 Garand appearing in a flash of Light as she spun, aiming it at the person standing behind her.
Ruby stood across from her, apparently uncaring about the gun aimed at her skull. A mug of something warm in hand.
"Coco?"
"Ruby," Pyrrha sighed, lowering the gun and letting Jaune return it to its Engram state, the small gold gem hanging from the charm bracelet she kept all her gear on, "You scared me!"
"This is my home."
"It's," Pyrrha checked the clock, "Two in the afternoon, shouldn't you be working?"
"Ikora is trying to make sense of Toland's journal. I wish her luck on that one."
"You don't think she'll figure it out?"
"Osiris never was able to, neither was Takeo. Ikora's smart, but she doesn't hold a candle to either of them."
"You knew Toland, didn't you?"
"I knew him as well as I knew any of the other Twenty. Poor guy got the worst of it when we watched the fight, he learned things about the Darkness."
"What about Zavala?"
"He's talking with Holborn, that's how I knew you were home. You said you weren't getting home for another month, by the way."
"I lied, I wanted to surprise you. I guess you beat me on that one."
"Never try to surprise a Hunter, Pyrrha, especially not a Hunter Vanguard. It won't end well. Now, coco? Or do you want me to cook you something?"
Pyrrha felt her mouth water slightly, "Oh please."
Ruby laughed, throwing her cloak on a hook near the door and grabbing an apron, her armor is disappearing in a simple flash of Light.
Ruby was by far the better of the two friends at cooking, though she wasn't half as good at it as Ren had been, having dedicated most of her time to gunsmithing and traveling.
"Can I still have that drink?"
Ruby laughed again, pushing the mug across the counter between them and Pyrrha snagged it. Drinking deeply from it, Pyrrha groaned aloud at the taste of chocolate.
"Do that a bit louder, Pyr, maybe the people below us will hear it."
"Let them, I haven't had anything to drink except coffee thick enough to choke someone in three years."
"I keep telling Zavala that we need to to make the rations better, he never does listen to me."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Ruby dropped her voice, "'Ruby, we have bigger things to worry about! The Fallen are trying to gain power and I need to find some way to make the Guardians hunt them!' But Zavala, don't you think that people would be more willing to work for us if we actually gave them actual food instead of high nutrient paste that tastes like death? 'No, that's absurd! We'll just bribe them with rewards!'"
Pyrrha chuckled at Ruby's over the top impression of the Vanguard Commander.
"And then he asks me why I'm trying to waste resources and I'm like, 'Do you KNOW how much Glimmer we waste on making these weapons!? And that half the Guardians end up throwing them out!?' Bah, I need to stop stressing, I'm going to give myself an ulcer. Does stir-fry sound good?"
"Anything is good."
"Good to hear," Ruby pulled out a large pan, "So, how was Mercury?"
"Hot. I honestly don't know how there was ever life there."
"I actually spent half a year there about," Pyrrha could tell Ruby had closed one eye, tongue sticking out, "Three years before the Collapse. It was beautiful… A lot of things were, before the Collapse."
Pyrrha didn't press Ruby for answers on that, the Hunter never spoke of what happened the day of the Collapse beyond the broadest of terms.
"Why were you on Mercury?"
"I was trying to find out if anyone had heard of Remnant. I didn't like living on the streets, mugging people to survive, you know? I wanted to go home, find out what had happened to Vale."
Pyrrha reached up, touching the starburst scar just above her breasts, "Yes. Did you ever-"
"Do you really think I would have been in Houston if I had found a way home?"
"No, I suppose not. Oh, thank you."
Pyrrha took the plate, quickly scooping a bite.
Ruby span the chair around, resting her arms on the back.
"So, where do you think you'll be going after this?"
"I'm not."
"Huh?"
"When we were on Mercury, I decided something."
"What's that?"
"I'm leaving the Host, I'm going to make my own Titan Order in the City. I'm going to be staying."
"Is the food that bad that one good meal caused you to quit? Because if so, I'm going right to the Tower and yelling at Zavala until he lets us improve them."
"No," Pyrrha shook her head, red hair flapping around as she laughed, "I've already talked about it with Holborn. I created my own branch of fighting from studying the Sunbreaker texts, and I'm going to recruit Titans to learn them."
"So the meals are just the side benefit."
"Yes, Ruby."
"Cool," Ruby stood up, walking over to where the book still lay, and picked it up, putting it back on the shelf, "You'll have to show me this-"
Ruby's Ghost appeared in a flash of Light next to her, "Transmission from Cayde, he says it's urgent."
"Put him through."
A garbled voice came through, "Ruby! Bad news, the Vex got Tevis, he's in the Black Garden."
"That's not acceptable Cayde, we need him."
"I know, I know. What should I do?"
"Attempt to rescue him, but if things look too bad, pull out. I'd rather lose one good Guardian today than your entire squad, I'll be in constant contact, go!"
"On it."
---
"Right," Cayde said, flicking open the Ace of Spades and sliding in a speedloader, "You heard the Boss-Lady, we're going in, getting Tevis, and getting out."
"And what about the army of murderously OCD time traveling robots between us and him? Are we supposed to knock on the door and ask them to kindly hand over Tevis?"
"Of course not! Hob," Cayde yelled over his shoulder at the pilot, "Bring us down on a bombing run. Everyone else, be ready to Transmat on my signal."
"Right, what should we bring along?"
Cayde grabbed the Chaperone from its place on the floor as the ship canted down, burning through the atmosphere of Mars.
"Reports say the Garden is full of close spaces, so no sniper rifles. Remember, if it moves, isn't Human, Awoken or Exo, it dies."
"What are Vex?"
"Man," Jay spoke, the Titan grabbing his shotgun, "Sometimes I forgot how new to this you are, Sunny."
"...Call me Sunny again, watch how quickly you don't need a ship to reach the surface."
"Point is, Sum," Cayde cut in before the Hunter could cause a fight in the ship, "The Vex are these really weird robots-"
"They're vexing," Tam cut in, the Warlock pulled her gloves on.
"Yeah, that. Anyway, they can warp in anywhere they've been before, because they have some weird way of working with Time. The Black Garden is one of their bases, the other the Vault of Glass on Venus."
"And we're assaulting one of them. Is Ruby insane?"
"All Guardians are a little cracked, I'd say. You can only die so many times before you need something to take the stress away. Haven't you seen the Guardians dancing on the top of the Tower?"
"Yes, but seriously? We're five Guardians and a pilot, are we really suited for this?"
"It took six Guardians to break into the Vault of Glass, it took the same amount to bring down Crota. We're more than enough. Hob?"
"One sec. Vanguard, this is Firefly, come in."
"Oh, are we doing Pre-Collapse Military roleplay? Ok, Firefly, this is Vanguard, I read you," there was an unusual bite in Ruby's tone, worry about one of her protégés clear.
"Come on, Ruby, I've always wanted to do this," Hob's voice took on a slight whine.
"Listen, when this is over, I'll let you borrow my ship and bomb a Cabal base. We'll do the whole bells and whistles, down to getting you a Pre-Collapse pilot suit made and awarding you a useless badge."
Cayde shared a look with Alleyne, rolling his eyes lightly at the byplay.
"We're coming in-"
"I'm piggybacking off the Cabal defense array, I know exactly where you are," Ruby cut off Hob with a sudden snarl, "I want you to bomb the hell out of their forces, everyone else mount up, you'll be dropping right from the ship and rushing the portal."
"Why-"
A explosion ruptured the air about them, and Cayde could hear see warning lights flicker on.
"They have a Gate Lord. If you can't kill it in one go, Hob, everyone else has to make it past that thing and you'll circle around for another go at it. Every minute you're not in the Black Garden is a minute Tevis could die."
"Alright, everyone on your Sparrows!"
"Aim for the glowing crystal, Hob. They hate it."
Cayde swung his leg over the body of his vehicle, waiting.
"Anyone got any music?"
"I've got some classical," Jay threw out.
"Hit it."
Music blared through the speakers of Cayde's helmet, and he waited for the word.
"Steady, Hob. Steady."
"Any closer and they'll get a bead on me."
"Stay far enough away and it will get a bead on someone else if it survives. Trust me."
Cayde could see Sum's hands tighten on the Sparrow's handle, could hear Tam muttering something under her breath.
Another explosion burst through the air, and Cayde felt his servos rattle in their sockets.
"I need to fire."
"Five."
"Ruby, I need to fire."
"Four."
"It's aiming right at us!"
"Three."
"Ruby!"
"Two."
"I'm going to fire-"
"Hob, listen to her."
"One."
"Boss!"
"Fire!"
Cayde heard the missiles launch, followed by the ship shake one last time.
"Cayde, drop! Hob, be ready to pull up the minute they do, it's hurt and it's reeling but it isn't dead!"
Cayde's Ghost activated the button, sending them all flying towards the Vex gate.
Rocketing past the staggered robot, Cayde and the rest entered the Black Garden.
As Cayde jumped off his Sparrow, allowing his Ghost to encrypt it, he brought up the Ace of Spades. Twelve shots tore through the air, piercing the crystals in the guts of the Goblins waiting for them.
As he heard the rest of the crew join him, Cayde pulled the Chaperone off his back, leveling the shotgun and firing a slug into the head of the charging Minotaur.
Once the robots stopped for a second, Cayde calmly opened the Ace of Spades, reloading his prized revolver.
"Anything?"
His Ghost flickered into existence, the various spikes hovering around his eye as he scanned the area.
"Yes, it's faint, but I'm picking up Tevis's Light!"
"Right, you heard him! We're moving, point us in the right direction."
The group followed his Ghost for about ten minutes, before they found the first sign of Tevis.
A Minotaur was pinned to the wall, a purple arrow torn through its chassis.
"What the-?"
"Never seen a Nightstalker in action, Jay? They're the perfect blend of area denial and destruction. If anything not bathed in Light came near this thing, it would latch onto them with a nearly unbreakable gravitational pull and then crush 'em. I once saw Tevis use it on a horde of Thralls, not a pretty way to go. Come on, we need to keep moving."
When they got to the next set of Vex, Cayde stopped again.
"Tevis didn't do this."
"You sure?"
"Nightstalkers don't make ice. That's high level Solar manipulation, you'd be hard pressed to find any Hunter who can do that."
"Why?"
"We're creatures of pragmatism," Cayde answered Sum's question, nodding to Alleyne, who stepped up, pressing her hands on the giant spikes of ice barring their path, "why bother learning how to make ice when you could make your flames hotter? Better to leave it to the Warlocks, they like sitting around figuring these things out. We good?"
A single rough punch from the Hunter saw the ice rapidly dissolve into steam.
"We're good. Come on."
They traveled deeper into the Black Garden, finding more destroyed Vex.
"Well, whoever they are, they're with Tevis and they're giving the Vex a hell of a time. Ruby! You picking up?"
"I got you, Cayde. Hob, dodge left! Lead it through that valley!"
"You alright?"
"Gate Lord's just being a pit pissy about taking a nap, it'll be in bed by the time you get out of there. In fact," Ruby stopped talking for a moment, "Bang! Right in the kisser! Oh boy, that just made it angrier…"
"That isn't good!"
"Don't worry about it, Hob. I have an idea! Finn, if this works, remind me start pestering Zav to let Fenchurch back into the tower."
"What!?"
"You see that Cabal artillery battery? Fly right over it."
"Are you insane!?"
"It's fine! Finn, begin broadcasting frequently 7.14.4 through the ship.
"Who's Finn?"
"Her Ghost. Ruby, there's someone else stuck here with Tevis!"
"Then rescue them too! You should have a clear evac zone in five minutes."
"I'm not flying over a damn Cabal artillery battery! You've been doing nothing but-"
"Hob, I will have Finn override your controls and pilot that ship myself if I have to. That Gate Lord needs to die, and this should do it."
Cayde heard Hob snarl an affirmative, before shutting off the argument.
"Let's go."
"Is she alright?"
"Ruby doesn't like her students dying, Tevis might bite it if we don't get there, so I'm not surprised she's acting a little maniac. It'll be fine, Hob's just a bit skittish."
"But-"
"Ruby almost always has a plan, if she told Hob to fly over something, there's a reason for it. Come on."
It didn't take much longer for the sounds of fighting to reach them, picking up into a sprint, Cayde turned the corner.
Vex were marching towards two people, the familiar frame of Tevis stood, launching arrow after arrow from this dusk bow, and the other was stabbing at the Vex with a sword, favoring her left arm.
Cayde took the six feet between them in a single blink, planting a dagger into the back of the Minotaur leading the assault. Then, he reached for the coil of energy deep inside him, his optics going black as he cut himself off from the rest of the world.
As the Vex turned to look at him, the Exo allowed the Arc to roll off his frame, a long knife rolling into existence to be caught by his hand.
As the Bladedancer brought the blade up, there was a brief lull. The single, red eye of the Goblin in front of him met his two. The gauntlets, inlaid with bones, tightened as Cayde gave the Exo equivalent of a grin.
Give me your arm, oh bearer mine. Let me help you fill the world with teeth.
Cayde's hand flicked out, hacking the Vex in two in milliseconds. The body was rapidly consumed by the Arc.
Then Cayde moved.
With the speed that could only truly be achieved with an Arc empowered body, Cayde hacked through the army of Vex with surgical precision. Each kill drove him further on, revitalizing his shields as he recycled the energy.
Cayde felt, rather than heard, the Hobgoblin's shot strike him, the roar of the Arc blocking out everything.
Tevis launched another arrow over him, before the bow sputtered out, his Light spent.
Cayde turned, Sum and Alleyne had golden revolvers in hand, each shot consuming their target in Solar flames. After three shots, Sum's faltered, disappearing as she rushed to grab her pulse rifle. Alleyne's continued, her fifty years as a Guardian having strengthened the bond between her Light and her, even in this dark place. More bullets than could have physically been held in it were fired before it faded.
Tam launched a spear of Void, scattering the last of the Vex.
"Hob, be ready to transmat us on my mark!"
"The Gate Lord is still alive!"
"No. It isn't," Ruby's voice cut across the channel, icy, "Finn, fire all guns from sector 3A to 3F."
Silence.
"Holy shit," Hob breathed out across the channel.
"Hob?"
"It's dead. Ready for transmat when you get out of there."
The combined party got out of the Black Garden, the Vex having apparently decided against throwing more at them, and were on the ship within half an hour.
Once Tevis was reuniting with his resuscitated Ghost, and they were on their way to the Tower, Ruby came on the channel.
"Tev," Ruby's voice was clipped, the anger clear.
"Ruby."
"What did you think you were doing, going into the Black Garden alone?"
"I was making sure the Vex weren't up to anything. We both know Osi-"
"You nearly died, Tev. You die there, you die forever. I already lost Jaren that way, I can't lose you too."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Good," Ruby voice lightened, "Shin's coming to the City soon, I expect to see you both at my place."
Cayde could have sworn he heard Tevis mutter something unflattering under his breath, "Yes, Ruby."
"Now, Cayde. You said there was someone else there?"
"Yeah. Hey, Warlock, what's your name?"
The girl blinked, "Me?"
"Yeah, you."
"Why did you call me, Warlock?"
"Well, that was pretty advanced Light manipulation you did, so I figured you were a Warlock. Where's your Ghost?"
The girl's brow scrunched up, "Ghost? I'm sorry, I don't know what you are talking about."
Great, it was Sum all over again.
"What's your name?"
"Weiss Schnee."
"And you don't-"
"Hob," Ruby's voice came, suddenly serious, "I want you to double time it back to the City. Cayde, you bring Weiss to my office the minute you get there."
"Ok?"
"Good. I need to go, Zavala is probably looking for me."
Ruby disconnected, leaving everyone sharing looks of confusion.
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Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
Ok, @ThatOnePsycho
Straight up that needs its own thread like now. That fragging rocked, more please.
Straight up that needs its own thread like now. That fragging rocked, more please.
ThatOnePsycho
Tilting his Vanes and Ennobling His Spires
I'll probably do so once I have more than three chapters done, and finish some corrections to make them more tolerable for me as a writer. (I locked myself into Victory Rose a bit too quickly for my tastes, even if it makes more sense for Ruby and Pyrrha to have hooked up "offscreen" in the seven hundred or so years they've been Guardians instead of them only just starting to toy with the idea of a relationship)
Well now that was quite fascinating, I take it this is new and based on Destiny right? Just want to make sure XD
Seriously though it was quite impressive, the fusion is odd/interesting, Pyrrha & Jaune are there, but Weiss and Ruby seemingly come from Remnant (Weiss seems oddly subdued all things considered) but at different times?
The descriptions are evocative and compelling, painting a grand image of the world and setting while tying in excellent world building and character info and hints about the past, such as Ruby's time training with Qrow.
Some portions of the exposition felt a little forced like the "She doe snot like letting her students die" bit. But those were in the minority compared to far more natural interactions and there was a good flow, especially in the rescue mission.