Ruby's kind of in a really sad, nostalgic kind of mood right now, so I think she can be forgiven for forgetting her manners in regards to things like this.
Through Victory My Chains Are Broken, a RWBY/Star Wars Crossover
- Thread starter TheMadmanAndre
- Start date
- Crossover
Ruby's kind of in a really sad, nostalgic kind of mood right now, so I think she can be forgiven for forgetting her manners in regards to things like this.
Ehh, I'm mixing and matching. Some Canon elements, some EU elements.
- Location
- Australia
Interesting, I like it so far. Just hope Ruby tells her friends sooner than later, dragging that out will just annoy me after a while.
Anyway, she was trained by Vader, and ended up ruling the galaxy for a couple centuries, sooo... either the rebels failed or Ruby took over the Empire and achieved peace somehow with the rebels. This would be all post-RotJ I assume?
Anyway, she was trained by Vader, and ended up ruling the galaxy for a couple centuries, sooo... either the rebels failed or Ruby took over the Empire and achieved peace somehow with the rebels. This would be all post-RotJ I assume?
Tell her Friends... Yes, she tells her Friends in a manner of speaking...
And as for the galaxy? Well, the Rebels got more or less exactly what they wanted, in the end. To say anymore would spoil things.
Chapter 5
Welp, up to chapter 5. And 10 thousand words. By far the longest single chapter I've yet to post anywhere. Now that's approaching Ack-levels of quality right there.
So, back to Darth Silba. I can understand how some people aren't liking Ruby's flashback chapters. But your opinion might change around, say, Chapter 10 or so.
Anyways, on with the show. You gonna like this...
So, back to Darth Silba. I can understand how some people aren't liking Ruby's flashback chapters. But your opinion might change around, say, Chapter 10 or so.
Anyways, on with the show. You gonna like this...
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
Ruby walked through a red forest, towards a destination she did not know.
It was peaceful and serene, the sound of the cool breeze blowing gently through the boughs and leaves of the trees around her. She recognized it, from long, long before:
The Forever Fall. One of Beacon Academy's training grounds situated to the north of the city. Only this wasn't the Fall. It was…
It was somebody's recollection of it. A good recollection, a good memory that was fond and pleasant. But whose? She continued to walk, her pace brisk. The path she walked on began to open up, and soon enough Ruby found herself standing in a clearing.
It was a bright, sunny meadow. She heard the sound of wind blowing against the dull red grass. The hum of a honeybee, dancing amongst the flowers. Here the grass was a lovely shade of green, unlike the red of the surrounding vegetation. Ruby's gaze drew towards the center of this space-
-To the person whose dream she had intruded upon. It was impossible to tell who exactly from a distance. Ruby didn't recognize them from their silhouette, nor did the nature of the place, the dream, remind her of any of her friends and teammates. Were they another student here at Beacon? She began to walk through the grass and flowers, making her way to the person in the middle of the meadow.
Up close, Ruby could see more now. A blanket, laid out on the grass. A picnic basket, closed up and perhaps full of goodies. A girl, clad in a simple summer dress with a wide-brimmed hat atop her head and a simple-hewn wooden staff at her side. At some point as Ruby approached her, she became aware of her presence and turned to meet the newcomer.
She was cute. A round face, brown eyes and hair. Her skin was a shade of light brown, as if deeply tanned by the sun. She seemed genuinely surprised to see Ruby, as if she wasn't expecting company. "Who… who are you?"
"I could ask you much the same," Ruby replied. "Are you a student at Beacon?"
"Beacon? Well… I was, but… not anymore."
"I see." Ruby stood next to her, looking down at the girl. Time to get some answers. "So like you said, who are you?"
She smiled. "Amber," she replied. "And you?"
"I…" Ruby paused for a beat, closing and opening her eyes. "I am Silba."
"Silba," she repeated. "That is a nice name."
Silba nodded, momentarily lost in thought. Thinking about it now, being here, sensing it, this was not a normal dream. This...
This was like the feverish hallucinations of someone barely clinging to life, barely clinging to the pleasant memories they once had, lest they slip away into the void.
"Amber," Silba asked, "Are you asleep at the moment?"
"What?" She blinked. And then a disturbing look of worry flashed across her previously serene face. "I… I don't know."
"You… you are comatose," Silba realized. She had to be close to her, within the grounds of Beacon and no further. "I didn't know the School had a hospital facility, beyond the Nurse's station at least." She crouched down to look at Amber more closely. "Where are you in Beacon? Do you have a room?"
"No, I… I don't know," she repeated.
"Okay. Amber, bear with me for a moment." Silba reached out a hand towards Amber, reaching out to her mind through the Force-
-Pain. Searing agony as the arrow pierced her back. A boy and a girl, holding her arms - Silba realized with anger that they were the same pair that had attacked Beacon. And standing before her-
Her. It was her. The smug smirk on her face, the lust for power so palpable that Silba could sense it through a painful and horrid memory-
Silba stepped backward, recoiling from what she saw. Amber cried out at the sudden intrusion, at the sudden pain inflicted by the memory and brought her hands to her head, clearly in pain.
"Wha- what did you do?" she cried out at her.
"I- I delved into your memories. I... I am so sorry, Amber."
She screwed her eyes shut, wrapping her arms around herself. "It hurts. It hurts so much."
"Those people," Silba asked, "Do you know what their names are?"
"Their… names?" She stammered. "No, no I don't."
"I see." Silba sat down, next to the girl. "Why did they attack you and try to kill you?"
"Th- they…" she stammered again. "They wanted my power, I think."
"Your… I beg your pardon?"
"The Power of the Fall Maiden. I… have it."
The what? "Explain, please."
"There are four Maidens," she began, "Out in the world that have tremendous power. When one dies, another inherits it. My… my mother was one. I… found out when she was on her deathbed. She kept it secret from… from everybody." These were sore memories. Recent memories. Silba resisted the urge to wrap her arms around her, to tell her it would be okay.
"And… you inherited this power."
She nodded. "I wanted to be a Huntress, to help people. To protect them. But, this power…" she held out her hand, balled it into a fist. "There's someone out there, someone that wants it. She's old, and incredibly dangerous."
"The woman with the dress and bow?"
Amber shook her head. "No… she's just a… a pawn. Probably, I don't know. Someone wanting my power, it was just what my mom told me, and what Ozpin confirmed for me."
"Wait, Headmaster Ozpin?"
Amber nodded. "The one. He… he helped me, after my mom died. He also told me about… what I can do." She was silent, for a beat. "This power. I… I know my mom wanted what was best for me. Wanted me to be safe, gave me her last gift. But…"
"But?"
"All it's done is… cause me pain, and grief." She drew her knees up to her chest. "I had to leave Beacon. I had to hide. I couldn't help people openly. And that… that bitch attacked me, and for what? This power?" Amber balled a fist in anger.
Silba said nothing.
"I… just want people to get along. What's wrong with people just living in peace?"
"Peace is a lie," Silba spoke without hesitation.
A beat. "What?"
"There is no peace, there is only passion," Silba declared. "There is only focus. The motivation and sheer will to accomplish your goals and destroy those who oppose you."
"I-"
"You have it too. That passion. You believed in your mother. You believed in her good intentions, that you were- are worthy of such power, and… I do too. I can sense it in you now, that inner strength, that inner fire. You mother did as well. As did Headmaster Ozpin, when he approved of your admission to Beacon, and as it would seem, of you holding that power. And of that woman? She is unworthy," Silba all but hissed the last part.
The girl in the summer dress said nothing, for a moment. "You are… you are right."
"I am. I have no idea what these Maidens or such are, but power? That I can understand. So use that passion to grant you strength Amber, and use that strength to gain power, and break the chains holding you in this place," In a sense, it wasn't just Silba speaking anymore, but the Sith Lord within her.
"I…" She managed to curl up even further. "I'm in so much pain. The burns, what they did to me. Even here in this place I can feel the pain."
"Use it. Channel that pain into your anger, and channel your anger into the strength you need to make the pain stop," she balled her fist, emphasizing her words much like her old Master had once done. "Rage against your confinement, Amber, break your chains and break free."
"I… can I?"
"Yes."
The girl nodded. "I… I will try."
"There is no 'try.' You don't have a choice. If you wish to live, endure it. Overcome it, or you will perish. Look at me, Amber." She did, and Silba continued.
"Those people that attacked you? They attacked and hurt me too. Killed people I called my friends. Why, I don't know. For power? For the sheer evil of it?" She narrowed her eyes. "It happened, once. And now, due to the Fates themselves, I'm in a position to keep it from happening again."
"That… that bitch… you're going to try to kill her."
Ruby smiled, a full smile, showing her glittering white teeth as her eyes flashed yellow. Sith yellow. "I will." Ruby stood up, sensing the end to the dream coming close. "My time here draws to a close, young Amber. May the Force be with you."
"The… the what?"
Silba just smiled. "The next time we meet, I will tell you all about it."
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
Ruby woke up, just as her body reached the point of no return and slid free of the confines of her bed to the carpeted floor below.
"Ooph." She landed on the floor, face up. She laid there for a minute, staring at the bedroom ceiling and contemplating the woman in the meadow. It had been no dream she knew. Somehow she had slipped into the very mind of someone. Who she was exactly, she had no clue. She knew her name, Amber, but Who was she? And what was a 'Maiden' exactly? And how did she know Professor Ozpin?
"Amber," Ruby said, saying her name. "Who are you?"
"Who?" Weiss leaned out over the edge of her bed, bringing her face to look down at Ruby's, "Who are you talking about?"
"Caf please," Ruby asked of her partner. "Corellian blend, a measure each of cream and cocoa and five measures of sug-Ooph!" She was cut short as Weiss ripped the pillow off of her bed and spiked it into her face hard enough to trigger her defensive aura. She caught a whiff of the expensive shampoo that Weiss preferred, rubbed off onto the cloth surface from her hair.
"Is there some sort of mechanical device inside of you that converts the stuff into pure idiocy?" She shouted down at her.
"Mmmm, Weiss's pillow," Ruby whispered, "It smells nice, just like her-"
"No! Give me that back!" Weiss tried to snatch it back but not before Ruby wrapped her arms around it and held fast. Weiss just futilely tugged on it, locked in Ruby's grip.
"You're both insane," she heard Blake mutter from beneath the covers on her bed. "Please go back to sleep or something."
"But… Breakfast!" Ruby bolted up, releasing the pillow and causing Weiss to fly backwards onto her bed. "I gotta get dressed! We gotta get dressed!" She dashed to her trunk by the wall, ripping it open and looking for something clean to wear.
"I'm sleeping in," Blake said flatly.
"I'm not!" Yang was up at once, hopping off of her bed and landing on the floor. "Ruby?"
"Yang?" she replied from somewhere inside her trunk, looking for her alternate outfit.
"Wanna get breakfast at that cafe from yesterday? I'll treat you."
"Pancakes?"
"Yes."
A burst of rose petals and Ruby glomped her sister, hugging her tightly. "Thank you!"
"That's the Rubes I know and love," she said. "Now, maybe get dressed before it gets too late?"
Another burst of rose petals, and Ruby was once more back inside her trunk, pulling out a new outfit. "What about the rest of you?" Yang asked the rest of their team.
"Sleep…" Blake moaned.
"I… have something to do in a little while. Someone I need to call."
"Nope, not working today. It's the weekend, and I'm not letting either of you duck out on us. Especially you Blake."
Ruby heard Blake roll over in her bed, probably to look at Yang in the eye. She heard her sigh, quite heavily. "Fine. I'll go with you two."
"You three, Weiss said. "I'll join you. A regular team RWBY outing?"
"Yes!" Ruby shot up, fist in the air. "Breakfast!"
"Ruby?"
"Blake?"
"Your shirt is on backwards. And it's inside out."
"Aaah!" Ruby scrambled to fix her mistake, and her friends and teammates laughed.
Ruby didn't mind. She wouldn't take them for granted ever again.
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
Ruby… was starting to enjoy this. Being… her again.
Ruby Rose, The Huntress-to-be. The silver-eyed teenage girl that loved chocolate chip cookies and weapon schematics and wanted to be a hero. A genuine hero, straight from a fairy tale. The girl… The girl that was cruelly cut down by a black-clad nightmare with a lightsaber, and remade in his image.
Ruby forced from her mind the dark thoughts plaguing it and instead chose to focus on the conversation between Weiss and Blake. Her two teammates…
They were as different as night and day. White and black, literally. From their worldviews and their aspirations to preferred beverages. But they shared common ground in some regards. Their preferred weapons of choice were swords for instance, and such was the subject at hand.
"I still think you should consider using a katana," Blake said, sipping on her cup of tea.
"And let years of Fencing classes my Dad forced me to attend go to waste?" Weiss seemed indignantly. "As if." Another sip of her coffee. "You don't want to know what Myrtenaster cost me either."
"Well, when your precious Myrtenaster breaks when you try to crack the skull of a Goliath, don't complain to me."
"Or~ you could try punching them, like I do!" Yang encouraged her, emphasizing with Ember Celica as it formed around her fist. Weiss seemed… offended at the very notion of punching anything in combat.
"Or you could just, you know, keep doing what you do Weiss, I won't stop you. Anyways, I think Myrtenaster is a great weapon as it is."
"I never thought I'd be saying this Ruby, but suddenly I'm glad you're my partner."
"Heh, me too."
"And, I'm glad that you're feeling better Ruby, since yesterday morning you've been acting… weird."
"How so?" She feigned ignorance.
"It's… it's like you suddenly started acting older at times. More, I don't know, mature."
"Maybe a little bit of you is rubbing off on her, Weiss. She seems fond of your pillow, and your scent," Blake teased her with a smile.
"I…" Weiss's face flushed a lovely shade of deep red. "Th- There are no such things happening between myself and Ruby!" She gestured wildly to her partner. "Tell her, Ruby Rose!"
"I… I like your scent though."
Weiss's face turned bright red, and Yang giggled for a brief moment before simply losing it, laughing loud enough to draw the attention of every other customer in the cafe and the visible ire from the barista. Quickly though, things settled back down.
"Uhh, Weiss, you've read a lot of books, right?" Ruby asked, seeking to change the subject.
Weiss was still flushed. "Is this about-"
"No! Not at all Weiss, it's something I was thinking about lately."
A beat. "Is it about that dream you had the other night?" she asked.
"Uhh, sort of. Umm, have you ever heard of 'Maidens?'"
Weiss seemed surprised. "Like the old fairy tale?"
"Oh yeah, I remember Mom reading me and Rubes a story about something like that when we were still kids," Yang interrupted. "Isn't that just a story?"
"A bedtime story. Ruby, are you going to tell me our fearless team leader is losing her marbles over a bedtime story?"
"I… uhh… no?"
Weiss's head fell, hitting the table. "Why… why didn't I get Pyrrha as a partner…"
"Anyways Rubes," Yang continued, "there's this fairy tale called the… uhh," Yang stammered. "I forget."
"It's called 'The Story of the Seasons,'" Blake spoke. "My mom read it to me too, when I was little." It's about four sisters and an old man in a cabin, if I remember. It's… been a long time since then."
"Oh. Okay," Ruby replied. "I… just heard about it, and well…"
"You had some crazy nightmare about it that woke you up early?" Blake finished for her.
"Yeah."
"Well don't let it get to you Rubes," Yang patted her shoulder. "And if you ever need a shoulder to lean on, we're here." Blake nodded, as she continued to sip her tea, while Weiss just rolled her head across the table, left to right.
"Ruby," Weiss asked her, suddenly raising her head. "I have a question."
"What is it Weiss?"
"This morning, you asked me to get you coffee," She said. "What's 'Corellian Blend?'"
Ruby blinked. "Huh?"
"I remember it. You asked me to get you some."
"I… ahh..." Think fast. "Wasn't it the coffee you made me get yesterday?"
"That was Mistralian blend."
"Oh. I thought I heard it differently."
Her head fell back to the table. "Dolt," Ruby heard her mutter.
Her friends, her team, being with them again. It… was good. All good things come to an end. Ruby Rose came to an end once herself. Again, she banished her thoughts. Right now, she wanted to enjoy their company. No matter how... ephemeral it may be. And if she had her way, it would be permanent.
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
A day being Ruby Rose had been… fun. Genuinely fun. Browsing the magazines at her favorite Dust shop, becoming excited at the different new models of weapons. Spending time with her Sister and her team, enjoying their company. Something she hadn't been able to do in centuries. But as the sun finally set beneath the distant horizon and Ruby split off from the rest of her team as they went their separate ways that evening, Silba took Ruby's place in a blink of her eyes. Because here and now, the Apprentice was needed, not the Huntress.
Silba stood on a warehouse rooftop, a full city block away from the building. Her meditation had failed to provide her any clues. And… whatever it was within that structure wasn't keen on showing her anymore visions, perhaps fortunately. She could still sense it within the building, somewhere on the structure's third floor. It was… angry, as most things of the Sith tended towards for one reason or another. What it could be puzzled Silba. Some sort of holocron? Or perhaps something even more… esoteric?
Silba had studied the building from afar, through a combination of her own vision and her scrying. She had tried at first to scry the interior, only to immediately hit a roadblock; it was as if the interior of the building was a black, yawning void. Like the Center, like the Maw. The angry little ball of… anger was still there, being little more than constantly angry. How the thing didn't manage to attract Grimm from the other side of the continent Silba had no answer. Perhaps it had to do with the occluded interior of the building?
Had this Maw been there, the night before? She hadn't thought to stop and try to observe the building in detail she realized, didn't stop and survey the interior like the good little spy her Master had once thought she was. She chose instead to lose her nerve and leave immediately, letting her fear control her, even for a moment.
She wondered if she was losing her edge. Silba doubted it, And she came back after all, and every other building in her vicinity could be easily scryed. Speaking of…
The one warehouse, towards the very edge of the Dockyards by the Waterfront-proper. It was absolutely full of people, even at that late hour. And not just people…
They were all Faunus, and of the White Fang no less, judging from their distinct masks and uniforms. There were several Bullheads, and numerous crates and containers of Dust and almost only Dust, and she could see weapons and munitions in some of the crates as well. It was some sort of supply dump perhaps. But supplies for what, exactly?
That… was something she would investigate for another time, and another day.
But for now, the mystery building and the task of gaining access to it. The only ground-level door was at the front, overlooked by that camera and sealed by that keypad. There might have been a back door in the past, but the corresponding threshold was as clearly bricked up as the windows were. And there didn't appear to be any sort of rooftop access either. Which meant there was only one way in or out, unless there was some sort of below-ground access point-
That was an idea. Once more, Silba sat back down and dove back into the Force, motivated by her new inspiration. She started at the edge of the metaphorical event horizon that was the building and swept her sight outward. There was electrical connections, and water and sewage. Communication lines, perhaps a hard-line connection to the CCTS. There were ventilation ducts on the roof, far too small to fit through. And there…
...Was what she was looking for. A corridor, extending out from what Silba presumed was the basement of the building, stretching off to… where, exactly?
She focused, following the blackened corridor to… to the building next door to the one she sat upon. The accessway terminated at what appeared to be a hatch some meters below her in the adjacent empty structure. "Quite the coincidence," Silba muttered to the silent night. "Now, time to exploit my good fortune."
Again Silba stood, and she strode to the edge of the rooftop before dropping down the the ground below. "I am becoming disturbingly acquainted with warehouse roofs," she said again out loud. "Then again, I am disturbingly acquainted with old Rebel facilities too." The warehouse in question lacked the sort of security measures the other building had as far as she could tell. The only security of any sort were the heavy padlocks on the outside doors, there to keep out vagrants and squatters. She gave a tug on the padlock, manipulating the mechanism within and clicking open the heavy thing.
Sliding open the door as quietly as she could, Silba slid inside and into the murky darkness within. It was pitch black, as this warehouse seemed to lack so much as a skylight. But Silba merely closed her eyes and felt through the Force for the right path. And the right path she found.
She knew the entrance- or rather the exit when she felt the outline of what appeared to be a large square hatch set into the floor. It lacked any sort of external handle or lever to open, and Silba realized it was an egress hatch meant for people beyond to readily escape. The lack of external handle was a security measure of a sort, no doubt. And like the padlock before, the hatch proved trivial to open and Silba slid through it into the blackness within.
The corridor was smooth concrete, narrow and completely barren. The light fixtures overhead were connected together by a single wire, but they were unpowered and inert. They were presumably linked to a battery on a circuit that switched on when a door ahead of her opened, thereby illuminating the path ahead for escapees. It actually reminded her of the various escape tunnels she had found in different Rebel facilities over the years; hidden routes and passages, exploited and re-purposed to act as infiltration points for covert operations, both by herself and by others.
As she walked down it, the hallway felt much longer than it had when she searched it out with the Force. But soon enough she reached yet another barrier. Silba stopped before it, puzzling over just what necessitated the building to have such a feature constructed beneath it. It was… Strange. Usually, egress routes were found in facilities where the occupants needed to get very far away from said facility very quickly in the case of an attack or an accident. Power facilities, munitions dumps and the such. Was the artifact really that dangerous? And if so, why risk studying it in the middle of Vale?
Again, she tried to scry the building now technically above her, and once more the gaping hole in reality filled her vision. Only now, right next to it - it managed to unnerve her slightly, as if she stood at the very event horizon of a yawning black hole. She probed the barrier before her next, trying to find some mechanism to open it. She found it in the form of a latch within the door, and unlocked it and swung the door back towards her before slipping through.
Ruby found herself standing in a nondescript basement, full of unlabeled crates and canisters of all sorts. Supplies presumably, for whatever activities went on here. She looked up and almost was fell backwards onto her butt by what she saw. It was… unexpected. Incredible. The swirling of colors and patterns above her. Patterns that were etched into the Force. She hadn't sensed it before, the tiny pinpoints of metaphysical light obscured by the raw energy of the Sith artifact above. But this close… They were dazzling.
"Impossible." And Silba realized with trepidation that she knew exactly what she was looking at.
But first she had to get out of the basement. There was a way up through the pitch blackness, a staircase leading up to the first floor. Resisting the urge to simply dash up the stairs in a flurry of rose petals, Silba stilled herself. Now, through the Maw… she could visualize the layout of the building.
The exterior had been deceptive. Well and truly deceptive. Silba had expected to find a rotting, run-down interior and instead found the total opposite. the first and second floors were clean, white and sterile, as if this was some sort of laboratory and not an apparently derelict structure. Silba understood why the windows and back door had been bricked up now; the entire structure had been gutted at some point and rebuilt from the ground up, the layout replaced entirely to suit a new purpose.
There weren't even three floors anymore, just two. The first and the second, with the latter having an extra-high ceiling. The first floor seemed to be composed of a number of rooms. Beyond the stairs up to the second floor and a central hallway, there was a single bathroom off to the side for use by whomever used the place. And her suspicions of this being a laboratory were confirmed as she scryed into two more rooms, each appearing to be small labs of some kind complete with scientific instruments and equipment of all sorts. Another room towards the front of the building seemed to be a small office of some kind; a few desks and chairs and a number of filing cabinets. And finally, a security station in the front-left corner of the floor.
The second floor, unlike the first was all open, appearing to be a gigantic open area of some kind. There was a sort of upper landing, which was where whatever the hell the Sith artifact was. Which seemed to be the reason Silba thought it was on the third floor - in the most technical of senses it was. What… what the hell was all of this for?
Silba realized, almost immediately, that there was somebody who could answer the question. The security station, on the first floor above her...
...Was occupied, a single person sitting at the desk there, their attention fixed upon several monitors and screens.
Silba contemplated her next move. Decided, after a moment's deliberation. She drew on the Force, layering a field of stealth around her to conceal her presence from human eyes as a precaution. She reached out to just touch upon the person's mind sitting in the station upstairs. He was unalarmed fortunately, her intrusion remained undetected and unnoticed.
She crept up the stairs, and Silba probed the door ahead of her. It was typical, and there were no alarms or even a lock on it. Silently she opened it, and stepped through into the space beyond. A short hallway stretched out before her, forming a simple t-intersection with the bathroom on the far side, and stairs at the back of the building running up to the upper floor.
There was an interior camera, one of a small number inside the building. Silba ignored it, knowing that the man wouldn't even register her presence and walked through the clean white hallway towards the front door and the small room with the man inside it. The door had a window, and peering though she saw that man facing away from her.
Taking a breath, she opened the door. The man was fast to react, she had to give him credit for. Still not fast enough. She saw him turning, eyes widening as he did to see Silba standing there- or rather not, as from his perspective the door would have opened of its own accord. A hand shot out towards the console before him to press a red button set away from the others, purely out of instinct. He never got the chance as she reached out through the Force, grabbing and lifting him by the neck into the air and choking him as she did, the chair he was sitting in clattering to the side.
"You shall not alert the authorities," Silba all but commanded, dismissing her cloak and appearing before the man in all her glory. She threw him roughly into the wall and he slid to the ground, gasping for breath.
"Please," he rasped, "please don't kill me."
"I am not planning to." The man was young, early twenties maybe. Fair-skinned, short-cropped blond hair and blue eyes. He reminded her of Jaune, but only just. So, to business. Silba reached out a hand towards him, touching on his mind. "You will tell me the purpose of this building."
"I… I can't," he wheezed.
"You. Will tell me. The purpose of this building." Silba repeated.
"I…" he relented. "I will tell you the purpose of this building."
"Good." Silba uprighted the chair with a gesture before sitting down in it, minding her cloak and crossing her legs. She channeled a bit of the old Empress she used to be in her posture, managing to look almost regal in the cheap store-bought office chair. "Who are you, and what is your job here?" she asked him, satisfied with her mastery over the stranger.
"My… my name is Jonas," The man seemed to have is breath back. "How did you do that? Turn invisible and throw me like tha-ack-" Silba cut him off with a gesture, applying just a small amount of pressure on his throat.
"It is a secret," she told him truthfully, releasing her grip. "Again, what is the purpose of this building?"
"It's… it's a lab," Jonas said with a cough, massaging his throat. "There's a few different labs here. They're doing research on Dust, I think. Two on the first floor, and the one upstairs."
Silba's eyes narrowed. "What goes on upstairs?"
"No idea, I'm not allowed up there. Just the guy on the day shift and the man that I guess owns the place."
"Who else works here?"
"Three or four lab techs. Some students at a technical college here in Vale," He said. "I don't really talk to them all that much, I don't think any of them like me. There's my boss that I relieve, he has the key to upstairs. And then there's a guy that works the graveyard shift. He'll be here in a few hours."
"Eight-hour shifts?"
"Yeah."
"What's so important here, that requires round-the-clock presence?"
"I… don't know. All I know is they work with Dust crystals."
A beat. "Are these Dust crystals small, and do they glow?"
"I…" he trailed off. "Maybe? I'm not supposed to even know, but I think that looks like what I saw once."
Silba was silent for a moment. "They aren't Dust crystals."
"What? What do you mean they aren't?"
"What security measures are there here?" She changed the subject.
"Uhh, alarms on the front door. Another on the upstairs one I think. Alerts the local police in the event of an intrusion."
"Can you shut them off?"
"Just the downstairs one," Jonas told her. "The upstairs security is a whole other circuit, hardwired separate from the downstairs setup. The owner wanted it that way, I figure."
"Why?"
"More secure, I'm guessing."
Silba frowned. This complicated matters. But it sounded familiar; a bubble of security within another for something needing extra protection, be it valuables or information. Plenty of wealthy people had security systems like that, especially in the Core Worlds. "Disable everything that you can right now," she pointed to the console. And do not betray me, for your sake."
He was hesitant. He probably wouldn't have a job after tonight, she realized. "Yes ma'am," he eventually relented, dutifully he walked over to the station. He typed several commands into a keyboard built into the station and flipped a switch on the separate board above it before stepping away.
His hand went nowhere near the red button. A fast learner.
"Is that it?"
"Y- yes ma'am." Jonas stepped away. "I… my boss is going to kill me for helping you, just so you know."
"What is the name of your boss?"
"Herrick," Jonas said. He's the security guy that works the day shift. Also, he's a real asshole. He yelled at me today for showing up early. I mean, who even does that?"
An asshole, Silba silently agreed. "And his boss?"
"He's the scientist that works upstairs," Jonas told her. "I think his name is Watts."
Watts. The name rang no bells to Silba. But tonight he held things of importance to her, and after tonight he would no longer have them. His loss, her gain.
"Are there any other people who frequent this facility? Cleaning staff, visitors, anyone of the sort?"
"Uhh, not really. The graveyard shift guy gets paid a little extra to sweep and mop. Oh, there was that one time when a couple of guys came in, asking to see Watts. He made me let them in."
"Describe them," Silba commanded.
"One of them was tall, soft spoken even though he had a deep voice. Pretty heavily muscled. Other one, not so much.That guy had a braided ponytail, and I got the impression he, well, wasn't right in the head. It was the way he smiled I think. I figured they were either Huntsmen or mercenaries, and they left about an hour after."
Silba decided then that there was little else she could gain from the man. "One more thing, Mr. Jonas."
"What?"
She raised her hand, once more intruding into the man's mind. "You are going to go home and rethink who you work for," she spoke.
"I'm… going to go home and rethink who I work for."
"Good. And you are going to forget you ever met me, for your sake."
"I'm going to forget I ever met you, for my sake."
"Goodbye, Mr. Jonas." The man turned and left through the door, And Silba watched the camera feed as he exited out the front, disappearing into the night.
She waited a moment, quietly contemplating his words before she stood from the chair.
She had work to do.
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
The first lab was decidedly not the source of the glittering stars in Silba's Force-sight. The second was. Silba casually tore apart the locking mechanism on the door to the second Lab and stepped inside, flicking on a light switch as she did.
It was a laboratory, obviously. Wide flat workspaces. Bunsen burners fueled by canisters of Red Dust. Plain metal lockers holding additional equipment and tools. There were even posters of the tables of Elements and Dust hanging on the wall.
But none of that interested her. What interested her was the large, heavily-reinforced safe in a corner of the room, the true source of the lights. They grew brighter as she grew nearer, and Silba reached out and touched the cold steel surface of the safe. She regarded the bulky thing, regarded the heavy door with its digital keypad. Promptly disregarded it, as she reached into the Force, reached into the safe's door and willed it to unlock.
The door swung open like all of the others before it, and for a moment, her breath caught in her throat.
There were a dozen of them, all told. Each nestled within its own small plastic tray, each an oddity of its own. There were several colors; blue, green, and most noticeably red, and one that was white and almost transparent. Jonas the security guard had thought they were Dust crystals.
These crystals were not Dust crystals. They were...
"Kyber crystals," Silba spoke out loud in near disbelief. How these hell did they end up on Remnant? A question she needed an answer to. An answer she suspected she could only get from upstairs. "Well. These do make things easier for me."
Silba reached out through the Force and the crystals floated out of their trays, and she levitated them into one of the pouches on her belt. They were orphaned, their former owners long since dead, and the connections to the Sith and Jedi who once owned them were long severed and faded. It served Silba all the better, just as these crystals most certainly would. She marched out of the lab and to the stairs at the back of the building, and then up them to the second floor above.
The stairs ended after a single flight at a short landing, just past which was a heavy steel door. Said door was solidly constructed, and the frame it was set into was equally sturdy. Again, Silba contemplated her soon-to-be actions. She had half of what she had come for, the kyber crystals glittering on her belt. She… was going to have to work fast.
Silba studied the door for a moment more, studying the sensor on the frame. The wire led to somewhere inside of the room beyond, presumably to an access panel of some sort. Jonas had been right, the upper floor's security system was separate from the lower. No way to deactivate it without alarming the entire system and alerting the owners or authorities.
She sighed. "Well, time to go loud."
She reached out to the door and pushed. It creaked in its frame, and suddenly the door ripped open, the locking mechanism holding it shut screeching and failing in a cacophony of shearing metal. Just as Silba expected, klaxons sounded from speakers as the security measures abruptly tripped. She reached out through the Force and crushed them, silencing them before she could get a headache.
Stepping through the now opened door, Silba flipped on the light switches by the door and took stock of the third and final lab. It seemed every bit as clean as the ones beneath it, every bit as focused. The half of the room further from her was similar to the ones before it; countertops and lockers, stowed lab equipment, lab stuff.
The nearer half, closer towards the back of the building appeared to be more personal. A half-ring of computer monitors set on a large desk - presumably the workstation of the mysterious Watts - and on the monitors a stylistic "W" spun around itself in a sort of simple animation. A small safe was set beneath the desk, itself something that warranted investigation before she left. There was a small kitchenette and a cot and a narrow wardrobe, presumably also belonging to Watts. It suggested someone who could live in their workplace, someone dedicated to their work…
Something bugged her. A small gut instinct that something was terribly wrong. She aimed her gaze at the relay box on the wall, and the control panel beneath it. The system was isolated, and yet… not? There were the connections to the door and the speakers, and connections running into the ceiling, and into the floor, and-
Holy shit, she realized with abject horror, suppressing a bolt of raw panic as she realized what she had blundered into and resisted the urge to run back down the stairs and through the door and flee into the night. Now, she suddenly and truly understood the reasoning behind the egress tunnel in the basement. Quickly she studied the circuit, and saw the timer and its spring-
She reached out to it and held fast. Had it not been an physical system… She had zero plans to let go, not while she was anywhere near the place. That… that thing. Holy hell. She would not have survived that, She grimly considered.
The initial terrifying scare out of the way, Silba set her gaze upward, at the area above the lab and at the object of her desire. There was a sort of raised area above the rest, a landing that was perhaps once part of the building's former third floor. She strode over to the steps leading upward and climbed them, her feet bringing her to the top.
There was little up there; only a piece of odd furniture in the corner and her objective, a plain metal canister atop a thin metal table. She noted the blatant and wide ring of yellow-and-black hazard lines around the table, as if the contents of the canister were incredibly dangerous and needed a visual cue to remind someone so. And considering what was inside of it...
Silba strode across the lines, ignoring them to stand before the case. It seemed plain and nondescript, offering no hints as to its contents. Time to find out then. She grabbed ahold of the canister with the Force and pulled, ripping apart the casing to reveal what lay within. It all clattered back to the table-
-And for the second time that night, Silba's breath caught in her throat as she recognized the object within the now ruined remains of the canister. The object was… incredible.
The very first time that Silba had held one had been centuries before. A thin, bone-white slender thing, hand-crafted by a former Jedi padawan. Tossed to her by that same padawan that she had been sent to kill by her master on her very first assignment, and presented to him along with its twin upon her success. The first of many, many tests to prove her worth to him.
This... was not that weapon. Where that weapon had been long and slender and elegant, this was short and curved and brutish. Its surface was of burnished metal, the Mandalorian Iron it was composed of utterly unmistakable. A handle of bone wrapped the curved casing, and the thick, hooked handguards on both ends caught the overhead lights in the lab, reflecting them and catching Silba's eye.
This… was a lightsaber. And not just any lightsaber, no. It was once been the weapon of… of…
The lights dimmed, and the computer monitors on the main workstation flickered and died. Silba glanced around, trying to find the source of the disturbance-
-It was in front of her. She brought her gaze back to the masterwork before her, and recoiled at the sight.
Billowing black smoke had begun to erupt and hemorrhage from within the lightsaber, coiling around the former container and the table it was set upon. At once it surged upward, and from within, the column of boiling smoke began to glow and burn.
Ruby's hands twitched, muscle memory yearning for a weapon that did not exist.
Where is your weapon, girl? You think yourself my Apprentice, and you lack so much as that? A memory, coming unbidden to her mind and appropriate for her situation, echoing to her from eons past.
"The Force is my weapon," she thought out loud, in reply to a master long dead.
"And So You Say," a voice boomed in reply.
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
The voice reverberated through the room as the burning column of smoke solidified, became defined into the unmistakable form of something- no, someone Silba recognized. "So, another hand reaches for my blade. Pray tell, little girl, do you recognize the Master whom you stand before?"
It was a Sith. Or the specter of a Sith, clad in thick armor and obscuring helm. The specter's body burned, as if composed wholly of ash and embers. He… was terrifying. Even far beyond death…
"You… you are Darth Bane, Master of the Sith."
Bane chuckled, shaking the walls of the chamber. "Yes, that I was. That I am. And do you know what I did, little Apprentice?"
Silba nodded. "You made the Rule of Two."
"Indeed. A Master that embodies power…"
"...And the Apprentice who craves it," she finished.
Another trembling laugh. The specter leaned down from where it floated above its lightsaber, to look Silba in the eye. "And… you ended that Rule. You… oh, aren't you interesting, little Silba. A true Lady of the Sith, or so you believe. You lived for so long, yet you took no Apprentice of your own in your long life. A... shame." Its head cocked to the side. "Ah, I see now. I see why you… refused."
Silba realized the specter was peering into her thoughts, her emotions. Something she wasn't sure she could even stop. "And why is that, my Lord?"
"You… achieved Apotheosis. You are the pinnacle, you believe. The power, the strength you held… And what you intend to do now, with your centuries of wisdom... " It abruptly began to laugh, long and hard, and Silba concluded - while wincing from the pain - that if the building still had windows they would have shattered from the volume. "Oh… that is rich, Master."
What? What did he just… No. Not in a million lifetimes.
"No! I am not taking my friends as apprentices!" Silba shouted it down. Duels between friends, between family, all in the name of the Rule of Two, stories of the last Sith War. "I know what you suggest, and I will not force them down that path!"
The specter of Bane crossed his arms. "And yet, the Master already has, and to one she is so barely acquainted with."
Silba's eyes went wide. The girl, in her comatose dream? "No. Not her either. I showed her a path-"
"You showed her the Dark Side, little Master," Bane pointed down to her. "You have shown her how to embrace it. You have taken an Apprentice, and have begun to induct her into our way."
"You…" But he was right. The girl, Amber, in that place between death and life… She burned with anger, with hatred. At the woman in the dress, at the two minions at her side. And… even at Ozpin. "I never planned to take her as my apprentice."
"You told her of our Code," Bane stated. "You have shown her her inner rage, taught her how to channel her pain into anger, and anger into strength. And what more? You plan to do the same with your friends, to show them true strength and not the sad, cruel mockery of it so prevalent on this world." Silba couldn't see the specter's face, but she knew it was grinning. "You would change them, re-write their destiny, all to save them from their doom. From themselves. Even if it meant breaking my Rule. Our Rule."
Silba said nothing for a moment, before eventually speaking, eyes narrowing as she did. "Yes. I would."
"Then so it is," Bane spoke. "I have seen the world you made, the empire you built. And most importantly, how you built it." A beat, as the Dark Master contemplated. "Hmm… It is… unseemly then, to hold onto something that has no further use. Perhaps then, a new Rule is necessary."
Lightning suddenly began to dance across the surface of Bane's lightsaber, drawing Silba's gaze to it. It levitated from its resting place, and floated towards her, as if enticing and inviting her to grasp it. "Congratulations Darth Silba, Master of the Sith. You are… worthy."
Silba said nothing, grinning beneath her mask as she grasped the hilt of the weapon, understanding coming to her as she did. And she promptly convulsed and collapsed to the floor, screaming in pain as the Force lightning engulfed her.
She… embraced it. She held fast to the weapon and allowed its dark energy to flow into her, to become one with her, to wrap and intertwine with the fabric of her very soul. At once it dissipated, as did Bane's dark specter. The cloud of dark smoke lost cohesion and began to circle her menacingly where she knelt on the tile floor. "Know this, Master Silba: Prove not to me but yourself that your Rule may succeed mine. Prove once more that which you believe, that the Dark Side is needed where the Sith no longer are." The smoky embers began to flow back into the lightsaber, back from whence they came.
"You seem strangely accepting of your... irrelevance," Silba rasped.
"As I said, it is unseemly to hold onto something that has no further use," Bane's voice echoed. "Farewell… Master." The smoke completely dissipated, the last dregs flowing into the weapon in her hand. It…
...Was light. Feather light, as if meant to be a literal extension of its wielder. She could sense the power flowing through the device, the sheer potential. The weapon of Darth Bane himself, once lost to time, now in her hand, returned to the grasp of a Sith Master.
A… Master. Silba… understood what that meant. What Bane calling her that had well and truly meant. And she accepted it. To cling to something of use was one thing, but to deny what you were, your very nature? That was something else entirely.
And now, she had more questions than ever before - how the kyber crystals now resting in a pouch on her belt first came to rest on Remnant, how Bane's personal weapon did. How-
A flicker, from the corner of her eye. Silba turned her gaze to the corner of the landing. The odd piece of furniture…
It moved. Silba ignited her lightsaber, the room filling with reassuring ruby light. At a glance she had thought it to be some sort of sculpture; the legs, long and slender attached to some sort of red orb flecked with white, now pulsing with light from within as the ruse was up. It levitated, the legs now twitching menacingly. Was this some sort of Grimm? If so, what is a Grimm doing here? Her suspicions strengthened when two of the bizarre creature's tentacles launched themselves at her head and extending with frightening speed, the ends of which were tipped with bony spikes.
Silba dodged, a swing of her saber severing both of the creature's limbs at once. Rolling away she reached out and shoved the creature upward into the far upper corner of the room and held it there, cracks forming on the surface of the orb. She held her saber low and defensively as she backed away, noting the now severed and dissolving limbs. A Grimm it was. Yet another question she had.
The remaining limbs showed no signs of attacking, but Silba kept her guard up. She eyed the Orb, noting the swirling patterns within. And for a brief moment she got the impression of someone's face watching her back; pale skin, red eyes, a raised eyebrow in surprise before scowling in displeasure. Silba did what any good Huntsman or Huntress would have done and through the Force she crushed it, the Grimm's orb shattering like glass and causing the creature to fall lifeless to the floor and dissolve. At once, Silba noticed something: the strange occlusion that filled the building had vanished, gone along with the Grimm. So that had been the source all along, she realized.
She resolved to find this Watts to ask him why there were kyber crystals and a lightsaber and a Grimm in his little lab, and almost regretted not asking the young Jonas where he might live before commanding him to flee. "Time to leave," she spoke, dousing her lightsaber before setting down the stairs at once.
"I am not going to let you!" a familiar voice declared back. And then someone she hadn't seen since her death all those centuries ago walked into the room.
What was she even doing here? Ruby's voice exclaimed from the recesses of her mind as Penny Polendina, once one of her closest friends, walked through the broken-open door.
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
The girl's red hair and inquisitive pale green eyes, her skirt and overall outfit with its distinct appearance. Her small, genuine smile and her eternally naive demeanor. It was her. Silba remembered how the ninth and last member of her Circle, her personal bodyguard, had been based on Penny. And in a sense, that girl had rounded out the eight-member team that the once-Empress had created to protect herself. And here and now, in the present…
"I am not at all familiar with the laws in the Kingdom of Vale, but I am fairly sure that you are breaking and entering, and destroying property, and probably other things!" she declared while pointing at her. "So I am enacting a proper citizen's arrest until the police arrive!"
For a moment, Silba remained frozen on the steps. And then she started giggling, and then laughing like a madwoman at the sheer absurdity of what Penny had just declared as she continued down the steps. "Penny Polendina," Silba spoke after regaining her composure, the Empress's voice flowing elegantly from her lips. "I am pleased to meet you."
Penny for her part seemed genuinely shocked. "How? How do-"
"-I know your name?" Silba finished for the girl, walking to the center of the room and putting a safe measure of distance between herself and Penny. "I have my sources, my good friend."
"I…" she stammered. "I do not want to hurt you, but I cannot let you lea-ahh!" She was cut off as Silba merely lifted her and tossed her- gently- into the wall, pinning her to it.
"Penny," Silba asked her, "look at the beige box on the wall to your left, and the panel beneath it."
"Wh- what?"
"It is part of the security system of this building. It contains a timer rigged to a large amount of Dust-based explosives in the floors and walls and ceiling, set to count down and explode in the event of a security breach. I assume that the owner really did not want the secrets of this place found, and he planned appropriately." Silba walked up to the girl pinned to the wall. "The spring inside the timer is being frozen in place by my, well, my semblance, so I hope you understand that I do not want to be inside this building for any longer than absolutely necessary."
Penny glanced at the box as she requested. Glanced back to Silba and her new lightsaber, clearly panicking. Silba reached out to her mind and was surprised to find the most clear and uncluttered mind she had possibly ever seen. "I… please let me go," she begged. A mind, now touched with fear, unfortunately.
"Promise not to try and arrest me inside a soon-to-explode building?"
"I- I promise," Penny nodded truthfully. Silba released her, and the girl dropped to her feet. "You… called me friend?" She asked, almost bashfully.
"Yes."
"Why?"
Silba just smiled. "I prefer to make friends before enemies. And I get the impression that you could use a friend." She turned away from Penny, setting her sights upon the safe under the desk. With a gesture the safe unlocked and the door opened wide, and Silba got a good look at the contents.
And that… was a lot of Lien. there was a sheaf of papers, and also a small handgun. Thinking for a moment, she marched to the wardrobe and threw it open, conveniently finding something she needed; a duffel bag, not unlike the one holding Ruby's clothing a number of warehouse blocks away.
"What… what are you doing?" Penny asked her.
"I am obviously committing robbery Penny," Silba replied, clipping the lightsaber still in her hand to her belt and walking back to the safe. "Well, you could probably argue that I am rescuing the contents, if you stretch some meanings and truths since the building is doomed to explode."
Penny didn't reply, merely stood there looking shy as Silba proceeded to clear out the safe of its contents. Papers, Lien, the gun, all of it went into the bag. "When did you arrive in Vale?"
"A… a few days ago," Penny told her.
"Good, good. Are you here for the tournament in a few months?"
She perked up. "I am!"
"Excellent. Talk and walk, Miss Polendina." Silba concluded her act of pilfering and, with her ill-gotten goods over her shoulder she began to walk towards the exit. Penny followed her, certainly not wanting to be anywhere near a bomb.
"How do you know my name? Nobody here should know my name."
Some days from now, my partner crashes into you on a sidewalk while we were chasing a rogue Faunus stowaway. We later become fast friends, and you confessed to me that you aren't entirely human. "As I said, I have my sources."
"Okay," she accepted.
"How did you find me?" Silba asked. "I was not expecting such a swift response from, well, anyone."
"I was bored, and, umm, listening to different frequencies," she explained. "I heard an alarm on an emergency frequency and I… I came to investigate."
Silba stopped, as did Penny next to her. "Brave. And bold, rushing towards certain danger."
"I… I was bored!" Penny repeated. "Mister Ironwood said I shouldn't leave the facility, but I already read all the magazines and the television is nothing but reruns, and gossip and, and-"
"I understand." Silba spoke. She resumed walking, and Penny resumed following her. She reached the now-ajar front door and Silba swung it open-
Only to come face-to-face with a cordon of some of Vale's Finest. Her vision was filled with light but Silba could see all the same; A half-dozen police officers, all with their sidearms drawn and standing behind the cover of three of their police cruisers… and someone who wasn't a police officer with a much bigger sidearm.
"You! Hands up! Drop your weapons! We have you outgunned and surrounded!" one of the officers commanded. "Penny!" the seventh man shouted.
Silba manipulated the force, surrounding herself in a cloak of stealth and the shadow of a doppelganger. Time for some mind tricks. "As you wish," she spoke, and raised her hands halfway-
-And pulled, and seven weapons were ripped from seven hands and they and a few flashlights came flying towards her, landing on the steps in front of her with a clatter even as she walked down the steps unseen to them and started walking east while her doppelganger remained.
"Now I am merely surrounded." Silba's copy declared.
A mixture of shock, filled their minds, of fear and of uncertainty. Not exactly qualities she'd have associated with the police. Then again, being as attuned to the force as she was had long since forced her to re-evaluate many people. The seventh seemed merely annoyed and mildly offended. Silba could respect a person who thought that way, when losing a weapon; she thought that way too.
"General Ironwood," Silba recognized him from centuries past and the copy turned its head to look at him. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Less annoyance now, more shock and surprise.
"Who are you?" The man all but ordered of her.
"I am going to start going that way-" Her copy pointed towards the direction Silba was walking, "And I expect you all to start running in a direction not that way, because the building behind me is rigged to explode and the only thing keeping it from doing so at the moment is my semblance, and I will have to let it explode to fight you all."
Looks of apprehension between them all. "Mister Ironwood sir, she is telling the truth," Penny said.
"Seriously, run." And then Silba let her doppelganger collapse, poofing into wisps of smoke.
They started running, and Silba couldn't help herself when she started to chuckle, as she made her way back towards the spot where she stashed Ruby's clothing. And after a delay - and being sure the men and Penny had gotten to a safe distance she let the spring go and from afar watched the building explode in a truly spectacular fireball; the structure simply disintegrating as much of it was launched skyward in a cloud of flaming debris that rained down on the surrounding buildings. It was like watching a Rebel munitions dump explode from a distance, after the det-charges she had placed activated. She'd done just that a few times, and had even recorded it once or twice for her later viewing pleasure.
It had also been nice, seeing Penny again. And she still had countless questions. But the only ones that Silba - now Ruby one more as she re-dressed into her black outfit and red cloak on the distant rooftop - wanted answered, was who Watts was, and why did he have a Grimm and a lightsaber in his lab?
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
So, that's written and done.
Alright, where to begin. Amber, the Fall Maiden, cruelly struck down in her nascence. And now the Apprentice-apparent to Darth Silba, Master of the Sith. Speaking of, I might as well go into a bit of detail regarding that little bit: Dark Master sort of out-ranks Dark Lord, and that basically means Our little Sith cinnabun here got a promotion, Dark Side-style. What that entails for her future, and what that entails for poor little Amber and the rest... well, wait and see.
Silba is... an interesting character. Broken, depressed, and angry. But interesting. Perhaps Teams WBY and JNPR can heal the damage done to her soul, damage both she herself and others inflicted. She'd have to let them though, and some of that damage is what she would consider to be part of her core identity now.
Moving on; Darth Bane. People were speculating what sort of Sith MacGuffin was waiting for Silba to find, and who it belonged to; Revan, Vitiate, even Exar Kun. And as for the what, Someone even got it exactly right, (credits to user Tormound by the way). Anyways, Bane: If the Sith was a religion, that dude would be one of its revered Saints, alongside Revan. Bane was essentially the OG Sith Lord. He got sick and tired of the Sith constantly murderizing themselves and everything around them so he literally killed every last other Sith and created the Sith Rule of Two: A Master who has the power, and the Apprentice who craves it. A power dynamic that persisted for a millennium until Sidious found an Idiot Ball he refused to let go of and fell down a reactor shaft. His lightsaber is the very definition of that Rule; it can only be wielded - let alone held by a Sith Master.
As for what was going on there? Was it a hallucination on Silba's part? A Sith-alchemized lightsaber that had a security feature tripped by a right-and-proper Sith Lord? No matter what, A certain evil Chessmaster witnessed the whole thing. And as for the spare kyber crystals, and how one of Salem's Henchman came to possess them and what Ruby plans to do with them... Well, that's for a future Chapter.
Finally, Penny. She's cute, isn't she? So innocent and naive. Just perfect, malleable clay in the hands of a Sith Master. A little flattery, a dose of Speechcraft, doesn't take much at all...
Alright, where to begin. Amber, the Fall Maiden, cruelly struck down in her nascence. And now the Apprentice-apparent to Darth Silba, Master of the Sith. Speaking of, I might as well go into a bit of detail regarding that little bit: Dark Master sort of out-ranks Dark Lord, and that basically means Our little Sith cinnabun here got a promotion, Dark Side-style. What that entails for her future, and what that entails for poor little Amber and the rest... well, wait and see.
Silba is... an interesting character. Broken, depressed, and angry. But interesting. Perhaps Teams WBY and JNPR can heal the damage done to her soul, damage both she herself and others inflicted. She'd have to let them though, and some of that damage is what she would consider to be part of her core identity now.
Moving on; Darth Bane. People were speculating what sort of Sith MacGuffin was waiting for Silba to find, and who it belonged to; Revan, Vitiate, even Exar Kun. And as for the what, Someone even got it exactly right, (credits to user Tormound by the way). Anyways, Bane: If the Sith was a religion, that dude would be one of its revered Saints, alongside Revan. Bane was essentially the OG Sith Lord. He got sick and tired of the Sith constantly murderizing themselves and everything around them so he literally killed every last other Sith and created the Sith Rule of Two: A Master who has the power, and the Apprentice who craves it. A power dynamic that persisted for a millennium until Sidious found an Idiot Ball he refused to let go of and fell down a reactor shaft. His lightsaber is the very definition of that Rule; it can only be wielded - let alone held by a Sith Master.
As for what was going on there? Was it a hallucination on Silba's part? A Sith-alchemized lightsaber that had a security feature tripped by a right-and-proper Sith Lord? No matter what, A certain evil Chessmaster witnessed the whole thing. And as for the spare kyber crystals, and how one of Salem's Henchman came to possess them and what Ruby plans to do with them... Well, that's for a future Chapter.
Finally, Penny. She's cute, isn't she? So innocent and naive. Just perfect, malleable clay in the hands of a Sith Master. A little flattery, a dose of Speechcraft, doesn't take much at all...
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Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
Don't you dare implant raisins in our perfect little cinnamon bun!
- Location
- The Usual Room
- Pronouns
- He/Him
But Richardson, didn't you know cinnamon raisin bagels are the best bagels?
Ruinous Virtue
Paving the road to hell
- Location
- Blacksburg, VA
Oh my, this is amazing. Ruby as a Sith Lady is at once strange and intriguing. I demand moar!
- Location
- Upstate NY, USA
- Pronouns
- Fjf
But Richardson, didn't you know cinnamon raisin bagels are the best bagels?
Toasted sesame bagel with bacon scallion cream cheese looks skeptically in your direction...
Ruinous Virtue
Paving the road to hell
- Location
- Blacksburg, VA
Fools, the both of you! Only heathens would deny the deliciousness of an asiago bagel toasted with butter on one side and cream cheese on the other!
IMCRAZY64
Conscientious Murder Hobo
- Location
- The Dystopian Future
By the force, please stay on topic and stop making me hungry!
Speaking of topic, am I the only one hoping that when Amber gets out of her pod she goes and gives Ruby a hug in the middle of a crowd. The reactions that could cause 'shivers'.
Speaking of topic, am I the only one hoping that when Amber gets out of her pod she goes and gives Ruby a hug in the middle of a crowd. The reactions that could cause 'shivers'.
AXCN
Live to Read - (Shippers of many Ships)
Heathens! A simple toasted bagel with a light coating of butter is the true winner!
Also; Thankyou Madman for this delicious update, that is better in every way to any bagel!
P.S. Is this a bagel thread now?
P.P.S. In all seriousness we should stay on topic and not derail the thread any further.
Also; Thankyou Madman for this delicious update, that is better in every way to any bagel!
P.S. Is this a bagel thread now?
P.P.S. In all seriousness we should stay on topic and not derail the thread any further.
Last edited:
- Location
- Somewhere
I love how bagels are the big thing being discussed here... more important is the fact that Ruby has a lightsaber and ways to make more.
Now... the sith are all about using passion and power, but the rule of two enforced a perpetuating murder cycle. An order of force users capable of standing united, without the backstabbing of classical sith?
A revergence to the war-scale eras of Ruusan, and more with Dust boosting them?
Obviously, Bane's lightsaber being present means that Remnant is in the star wars universe... probably the unknown regions, as such a force relic would likely have been detected by the jedi otherwise back in the height of their power...
also, isn't Watts the filth that murdered Summer Rose?
Now... the sith are all about using passion and power, but the rule of two enforced a perpetuating murder cycle. An order of force users capable of standing united, without the backstabbing of classical sith?
A revergence to the war-scale eras of Ruusan, and more with Dust boosting them?
Obviously, Bane's lightsaber being present means that Remnant is in the star wars universe... probably the unknown regions, as such a force relic would likely have been detected by the jedi otherwise back in the height of their power...
also, isn't Watts the filth that murdered Summer Rose?
- Location
- Madoc, ON, Canada
I am hoping that Ruby sticks to a more grey path than pure darksider. Full darkside tends to lead to being self-absorbed emo edge-lords prone to incredibly violent temper tantrums when they don't get their way, which is only entertaining to read for brief periods or if you're thirteen.
- Location
- Australia
Was why I generally chose the light side options as a Sith in SWTOR. They were much more pragmatic and interesting in general. Pure Dark Side is extremely eye roll worthy.
Yes... cackle with glee...
It's a shame we never know just how real/not real Penny is. It's entirely plausible she's less a gynoid and more of a cyborg along the lines of Ghost in the Shell: i.e. a brain-in-a-case rigged up to a fully-prosthetic body. THey gust only ever told her she's 'not a real girl' to keep her in check.
Regardless, it's not the first time that Darth Silba has subverted otherwise-loyal individuals with merely words. Won't be the last either...
But Richardson, didn't you know cinnamon raisin bagels are the best bagels?
Well... I... Umm...
Yep, might as well be a bagel thread.
Well, if you mean by 'gets out of her pod' you are saying 'tries to violently murder with a lightsaber' and by 'gives someone a hug' you actually mean 'the person that put her in there in the first place' then yeah, you'd be pretty close.
Ooohh, yes... Darth Silba has plans... Many, glorious plans. Salem would weep tears of envy if she knew of them...
And as for Summer, pretty sure that's fanon. no one knows what happened to Ruby's mom and if they do they're not saying. Miles and Kerry sure haven't...
Agreed. I too prefer the more complex stories and characterization myself.
Yep. KOTOR was the same way. Being an asshole in that game would just make you feel like shit while playing it, unless you were either an edgy edgelord or a psychopath.
- Location
- Australia
Yeah, it's like Lucas, or Disney now, can't make Sith anything but irredeemably stupid evil. When I first saw ep 4, I did not get that impression initially from Vader (and the Emperor), I got ruthless, manipulative and driven... unfortunately over time Sith became screaming tantrum throwing man children with zero foresight or planning ability. Light!Sith (in terms of SWTOR, and KOTOR I guess), seem far more dangerous and potentially sinister, since if they play the longer game, while being savvy and known (to the right people) as not someone to fuck with. The Emperor (movies) is probably the closest canon version of the Sith that makes sense, but even he has his moments of the evlulz. I think I killed like, one or two people in total in the Inquistor questline (traitors and stuff), rather than every second person if I chose the Dark options (anyone from people who failed or spilt my coffee). From what I remember there was some really interesting history about Light Sith that was hinted when I played originally, like embraced the Dark Side, but channeled it constructively.
Also, never liked the rule of two. But that's another thing entirely.
Bagels are serious business. And since we're talking about Sith bagels here, the only appropriate way to prepare them is by toasting them with the blade of a red lightsaber.Well... I... Umm...
Yep, might as well be a bagel thread.
On the other hand, using Force Persuade to get out of paying docking fees on every planet was wonderful, and Force Choke as a not-infrequent dialogue option was perhaps one of the best things they did with that game. But yeah, the rest of the Dark Side stuff was just acting like a jackass all the time.
Kind of wondering what's going on with Silba, though. Earlier comments seemed to hint that she's gray, while in the latest chapter we've got Darth Bane giving his approval of her as a Sith master, with strong hints that her approach to teaching her friends will be straight up Dark Side.
I don't know if that's just her "Apprentice" persona doing the thinking, or if she's got an "Empress" in there somewhere that's gray, or what.
MasterofNog
Forger of Worlds
- Location
- Arizona
I never got why the evil overlords punish failure.
It makes more sense to punish stupidity instead, since if your well trained and very competent minions start screwing up that means either
A) Some plucky talented young 'hero' is incredibly misguided, likely because they believe you killed their family or something, and decided to mess up your operations. Meaning prime lieutenant material.
B) Your minions were fixing their competency tests, and that means executions, recruiting, and test revisions.
C) A simple case of bad luck.
D) Your hallucinating, because there is no possible way your well trained and highly competent minions could fail.
PS: Really like this!
It makes more sense to punish stupidity instead, since if your well trained and very competent minions start screwing up that means either
A) Some plucky talented young 'hero' is incredibly misguided, likely because they believe you killed their family or something, and decided to mess up your operations. Meaning prime lieutenant material.
B) Your minions were fixing their competency tests, and that means executions, recruiting, and test revisions.
C) A simple case of bad luck.
D) Your hallucinating, because there is no possible way your well trained and highly competent minions could fail.
PS: Really like this!
She's Sith, leaning Gray, with a dash of the Light Side. To say any more would spoil stuff.
Chapter 6
So, Chapter 6. Here we are, back to Ruby Rose.
Overall it's another chapter as she heals and adapts to the galaxy far far away(and shows off while she's at it). 7K words, all told. And I think these kids are starting to grow on me, just a bit.
Also, Fuck Sidious. Just. Fuck Him. Not literally though. Eww...
Overall it's another chapter as she heals and adapts to the galaxy far far away(and shows off while she's at it). 7K words, all told. And I think these kids are starting to grow on me, just a bit.
Also, Fuck Sidious. Just. Fuck Him. Not literally though. Eww...
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
Breakfast at the Rebel outpost was… nice.
After an hour or so of enjoying each others' company and talking, Ezra and Sylva led her to the canteen within the outpost, to join a short line of people that was growing longer by the moment.
For the first time since her arrival, Ruby managed to get a good and proper look at the people who called the place their home. The majority of them were human as far as she could tell. Some of them looked a little… unusual however. Most noticeably, Ruby saw a woman with pale green skin and what seemed like a pair of fleshy tails hanging down from the back of her head, as well as a man with bright pink skin and hair.
"Hey Rubies!" Ezra asked her, "Can you come sit with us after we get food?"
"Of course," she replied sincerely. "I'd love to."
Ruby could practically see the girls eyes light up, all six of them. Despite her unsettling appearance she was genuine in her feelings. Ruby felt three of her arms wrap around her waist and leg, comforting her. "I'm glad you're here with me Miss Rubies."
"Mee too." The line grew longer. Ruby noticed nods of greeting and approval from several of the people around her, as well as a 'ma'am' here and there. Several more arrived, and Ruby immediately recognized two of them; Primba and Kirrak, the… what were they called? "Ezra, who are those two? The big furry one and the one with the ears?"
"Oh, Mister Primba? He's nice," Ezra replied. He's a… a Gin-gin I think."
"A Gungan," Sylva corrected her. "And Mister Kirrak is a Wookie. He's nice too. Actually Miss Ruby, they're the ones that found you the other day."
"Oh." Of course she already had somehow known that, but only Madam Duna seemed to know how. The 'Force' thing that she had told her about. "So, how long have the two of you and the others been here in this Outpost place?"
"Well, Ezra began, "Me and Sylva have been together for a while. We… sort of found each other, over in Niima Outpost."
"Niima Outpost?"
"It's some ways away to the south," Sylva said. "It's one of the big trader hubs here on Jakku. Lots of people there, but not like here where it's just the Rebels."
The Rebels. They all wore the same sort of uniform, the same one she was wearing, due to lack of anything else. A mix of tan and khaki and brown, for blending in with the desert. Before… here, the only sort of rebels that Ruby really knew of or would even fit the definition were the White Fang and they had… had…
She shook her head. No point crying in the place's cafeteria, in front of everyone.
"Rubies, are you okay?"
"I… yeah, I'm fine. Umm, what about the others?"
"Harlan and Quinn and Zoe are from Cratertown, far to the north," Ezra explained. "They stowed away a few months ago on a Junker's speeder. They got chased out of there, but they won't tell anyone why."
"They're nice though," Sylva continued. "We sort of all met each other in Niima. And we've been close ever since."
"How did you all end up here though, with the Rebels?"
"Ehh…" Sylva trailed off, again looking bashful. "It's… well it's kinda embarrassing."
"We tried to steal some food from one of their speeders," Ezra explained with a chitter. Mister Clarss was there, and he well… He offered to let us stay here in their base, in exchange for us helping out with chores, and," she paused mid-sentence, fishing out something from her clothing. "They even pays us for our work!" She held a small rectangular object with a strange alternation pattern on it, not unlike a Lien note. "Although, he and miss Clarke say we should save up our Credits. I wanna save then up so I can open up a junk stand, maybe even help Sylva."
"Yeah, you should." Ruby replied. "It's good advice."
Ezra smiled and chittered. "Thanks, Rubies."
"Yeah. Speaking of, what about you Sylva?"
"I… want to save up, so when I'm older I can find my parents," she replied. "I'll try to buy a landspeeder or a bike from the traders, and try to find out what happened to my mom and dad. For now though, I just wanna help the Rebels."
"Oh, that's good too," Ruby smiled. She looked around her at the people in their uniforms, at Kirrak and Primba conversing, the former in his strange roars. "Who… exactly are they?"
"I think I can answer that question," a voice interrupted them. Ruby turned to see Major Clarke there, smiling at her. "Sorry, if I'm interrupting something, Miss Rose."
Ruby shook her head. "I was just wondering who everyone here is, well, rebelling against."
Clarke nodded. "More along the lines of 'from' to be more precise. And the 'from' would be the Galactic Empire," she began. "'The Alliance to Restore the Republic' is the full name. Most people just call us the Rebel Alliance or the Rebels. Or 'Rebel Scum' if you're on the Empire's side."
"I… I'm not scum," Ezra chittered shyly.
"You aren't, no one here is." Ruby was aware of several nods of approval from the people around them. "And as for why people fight them? Well, everyone here has their reasons."
"Oh." Ruby wasn't sure what to make of it. These Rebels… seemed like good people. Really good people. They had been friendly so far to her, had saved her life. They had even helped the new friends that she had made. Little Ezra and Sylva. But Ruby didn't have time to ruminate on the subject, as the steel shutters over the serving rolled to the side and a cheer of approval rose up through the line that had formed.
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
The food was good. Really good. Even better than yesterday. There was some sort of scrambled egg with sauce mixed in on her plate and a few slices of sweetly-flavored sausage, as well as a couple of biscuits. Barebones compared to the food she had once eaten at Beacon, but Ruby was far from a position to complain.
Ruby took in the sight of the small table, with the children crowded around it. Five of them all together, just like Sylva had said. For the first time she saw the other three of their little five-orphan band when they sat down with Ruby and the others. She saw Harlan and Quinn as they came up and sat side-by-side, wary of Ruby as they did and Ruby realized they were twins - boys about as old as Sylva. And then Zoe came up right behind them and Ruby almost did a double-take.
Like Sylva had said earlier, Zoe's skin was blue. Deep blue, like the blue of an ocean. The same went for her hair, a shade of even deeper blue than her skin. Her eyes were the opposite; a solid shade of red that made it hard to tell if she was looking at Ruby or not.
"Hi," Ruby told the newcomers.
"Sorry about waking you up," Zoe replied. "It was Harlan and Quinn's idea to sneak over to your room when the Doctor was asleep."
"Hey!" the first of them shot back, "It was a vote and you voted yes, remember?"
"Only because Sylvie voted yes. And I only wanted to see if what the one Trooper said was true."
"What did the Trooper say about me?" Ruby asked the girl curiously.
"He claimed that you were called 'Red' because you had red eyes like me," Zoe replied, turning to look at Ruby. "I thought you might be like me, a Chiss. I can see now that he lied, or was misinformed himself."
"Oh," Ruby replied. "You… don't like being you?"
She shook her head. "I wanted to meet a Chiss like me. I like me just fine, it's just that… I hate being alone."
"Cheer up Zoes," the other boy said. "Lots of people come through Jakku. We'll see someone like you eventually."
"So, you two are Harlan and Quinn?" Ruby asked of the twins.
"Yep!" The first replied. "I'm Harlan, and he's Quinn."
"Hello, Miss Rose," Quinn told her.
She smiled and nodded. "It's nice to meet you."
"So since you're only a few years older than us, were you abandoned here too?"
"I… no," Ruby answered unsurely. "I don't think so. I… don't quite remember how I ended up here."
Harlan hummed. "Well, doesn't matter, you're one of us now. I like to call ourselves the 'Mouse Pack.'
"I think it's ridiculous," Zoe said, "just like most of your ideas."
"Well we had a vote on it, remember?"
"And I voted no," she shot back after a bite from a biscuit.
"Hey, how about we vote in Rubies?" Ezra suggested with a chitter, while nibbling on a sausage. "We can make it off, umm, official," she said, searching for a moment for the right word.
"Good idea Ezz," Quinn said. "All those in favor of Rubies joining us, raise your hand."
Four hands shot upward immediately, Zoe being the sole exception. But with a sigh, she too raised her hand. "Democracy," she muttered under her breath.
"It's unanimous!" Quinn declared. "Well, welcome Rubies, to our little family."
"I... " Ruby stammered. It… it was…
"Rubes, you okay?" Sylva asked her.
Rubes. Yang called her that. Had… called her that…
"I… I'm fine," Ruby spoke. "It's wonderful, thank you."
"Umm, Rubies? I… I have a question."
"Ezra?"
"What… what does 'unanimous' mean?"
"It's… it's when everyone is in favor of something," she explained.
"Oh. Okay. Well I'm unanimous in favor of you Rubies," Ezra told her.
Ruby giggled. So cute and innocent. "Thanks guys," she smiled. "So, Ezra and Sylva told me what they wanted to do with their savings," Ruby began. "I don't suppose the three of you can tell me yours?"
"Well, me and Quinn here," Harlan started, "We think we'd be great cooks. Well, at least the lady in the kitchen thinks so. Maybe even get a... a sort of food truck I saw in a picture once."
"We'd go around all the settlements, selling grub to people," Harlan continued. "Good food, and not those bland bread rations they like to use for currency in Niima."
"Cool. What about you, Zoe?"
The blue-skinned girl paused mid bite. "I want to find others of my kind," she stated. "I'm told there are others like me, in an Empire of their own out in space. Somewhere called the 'Unknown Regions,' whatever that is." She scarfed down the bit of sausage she had on her fork. "For the time being though, I help out like the rest here."
"Oh, okay," Ruby spoke, continuing to eat her own food.
"Miss Rubies," Ezra asked, "What about you?"
Ruby paused, before setting her fork down on her plate. "I… I want to go home. Find my home, or find some way back to it. I… I think maybe it's out there in the Unknown Regions too. No one here has ever heard of it."
"I see," Zoe smiled. "Well, that makes two of us who belong to the unknown. Well, it was nice to finally meet you, Miss Ruby."
"Yeah, me too."
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
After breakfast, Ruby returned to her room. She was starting to get the idea of the layout of the outpost; It was mostly shaped like a semicircle, carved mostly into a stone cliff with the outermost portions forming a sort of ring around a central courtyard that held several vehicles of some sort. She wasn't sure if they were cars in the conventional sense, as they lacked anything resembling wheels. There was also a sort of staging or training area there, and as she passed by she glimpsed several of the Rebel troopers exercising there, performing various stretches and routines.
As she opened the door to her room, she was stopped by Miss Ni. "Ah, Miss Rose, I was just about to come and find you."
"Hi Doctor Ni," Ruby replied. "I'm just coming back from breakfast."
She nodded smiling. "As I said, solid food would be good for you at the moment."
"And friends too."
"I… suspect you've already encountered the children then."
"Yeah, they're really nice," Ruby replied. "I… hope I'm not in too much trouble?"
She chuckled. "Hardly, Miss Rose. I was hoping they weren't causing you trouble, if such was the case."
"Ah, no! They're wonderful!"
Ni just chuckled. "Believe me, Miss Rose, they are a handful when they want to be."
"Ah, well, I'll do my best to keep them in line while I'm around," Ruby smiled.
"Of course. Anyways, I came to see if you warranted a clean bill of health," She spoke, gesturing to the container in her hands. "Taking into account your… accelerated healing, I suspect it will be the case. But just in case, I brought some spare bandaging and bacta gel for you,"
"Okay." Ruby walked into the room and sat on the bed as Ni followed her. "I… Doctor?"
"Yes, miss Rose?"
"I… am I the weird one here?" she asked her, suddenly uncertain. "Does anyone else have… umm, what I have?"
"The 'Aura' and 'Semblance' you briefly mentioned yesterday? I will be honest, I've worked with not just humans and near-humans, but species of all sorts. And while I've heard accounts and have read a few medical journals myself regarding allegations or proof of a 'soul'..." she trailed off. "No, Ruby, I unfortunately have not. It would seem that you are… unique."
"I… I'm not," she said. "And I can show you."
"Miss Rose, while I am certain that-"
Ruby cut her off by channeling her Semblance, dashing to one corner of the room, then another and another before returning to her bed in the blink of an eye, bouncing up and down on the mattress as a veritable cloud of her rose petals were left in her wake.
"See?" Ruby smiled as the floor of the hospital room was slowly blanketed by the petals. Miss Ni blinked as one of them landed on her face and she plucked it off, examining it for a moment before looking back to Ruby. "It smells… wonderful, a nice fragrance. I... well, this warrants further… something. Investigation, analysis, I... " She began to laugh before regaining her composure. "Miss Rose, you are one surprise after another."
"Doctor Ni, there… there are thousands of people on Remnant with powers like mine," Ruby started "I mean, most Huntsmen don't have fancy or flashy Semblances but they have them. Abilities unique to them and them alone. I… my sister could become invincible, and Weiss had her Glyphs, and Blake had her Shadows and… and… Ruby shook her head, fighting back the tears. "I'm not unique at all."
She felt a hand rest on her head. Doctor Ni's hand. "Ruby… you… you remind me of her."
Ruby blinked. "I… I do? Of who?"
"My… my daughter," Doctor Ni began to explain to her. "I had a daughter and, well, she was like you in a lot of ways. Always polite, eager to please. She was a genuinely good person."
"You… had one? Is… is she-"
"-Dead? Yes, sadly," Ni spoke, lowering her head. "Her death is the reason I… I joined the Rebels in the first place. And I…" She paused for a moment, regaining her composure. "My species, my people are insular and isolationist to a considerable degree. But our government provides… services, in exchange for a price. And one of the services that the team of scientists that my daughter belonged to provided was 'Specialized Cloning.'"
"Cloning?" The word was unfamiliar to Ruby. "What is that?"
"The act of making a copy of a living organism," Ni explained. "Our kind are… experts in the field of biology, genetics and such. And as such Kamino, my homeworld, had the best Cloners in the galaxy. And my daughter…" Ni again trailed off for a moment before speaking again. "She worked on a team providing a… unique service, to a specific individual. A… project of some sort, the exact nature of which I never found out beyond its extreme importance. But…" A pause, before she continued, "I know who killed her."
"Who?"
"The Emperor of the Galactic Empire," Ni said with finality, and bitterness in her voice. "His name is Sheev Palpatine. I… don't know the specifics, but he had been… upset with the progress of the team my daughter was a member of. And to show his dissatisfaction, he…" she trailed off. "I'm told she was electrocuted by him."
"Ni, I'm so sorry."
Doctor Ni said nothing for a moment. "Thank you Ruby. She… was why I left Kamino. Why I left to join the only people willing to fight the Empire-"
Ruby hugged Miss Ni, wrapping her arms around her. "I… I know what it's like," Ruby told her as tears began to stream down her face. "I'm… I'm so sorry Ni."
"I'm sorry too," she hugged her back. "I'm sorry too."
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
"Oh hey there little lady," the man on the other side of the desk asked her. "What can I do for the outpost's newest and cutest little Rebel?"
"I… umm…" she stammered. Only part of it had to do with the fact that the man before him was probably flirting with her. The rest had to do with the fact he was pink. His skin, his eyes, even his hair, and Ruby realized that he was the man she had noted earlier at breakfast. She steeled herself before continuing. "I'm here for my weapon. Miss Ni said it was here in the Armory, along with some of my other things."
"The pink man squinted at her. "Ah! Miss Red! Or should I say Ruby Rose," he spoke, almost jovially. "Heh, I should thank you, I'm about a hundred Credits richer thanks to you."
"I… what?"
"It was that emblem on your belt, you see, I realized what it was! Ah, you know what, never mind," He spoke before disappearing around the corner of the room. Behind the counter Ruby could see a veritable arsenal stowed away. Strange weapons, what appeared to be rifles and pistols of some sort. She saw even larger weapons meant to be crew-served sitting on the floor. And hanging on the wall were a couple of what she had to guess were rocket launchers of some kind, ready to be used at a moment's notice.
All of it serving as reminders, that she was in a military base, living amongst soldiers.
"Ah, here we go," the man came back, a large box in his arms. He set it on the counter and Ruby immediately peeked inside, relieved to see Crescent Rose, intact and in good condition. "Everything's all there, for the most part."
"Everything?" She asked him.
Everything that wasn't tatters when they brought you in. The weird boxy thing that I'm guessing is your weapon, the few rounds of ammunition you had on your person. There's that weird device I'm guessing is your communicator. Your boots and belt and the pouches attached to it. Oh, and the rose crest. Thanks again for the tell," he smirked.
"I, have no clue what you mean."
"Well like I said, lots of people here are a bunch of Credits richer little lady. Now, anything else I can get for you?"
Uhh, yeah," Ruby began. "I… umm, need to look my weapon over."
"So a place to work?" He asked her.
"For just a moment, if it isn't too much."
"Well, you can use one of the tables back here," he gestured over his shoulder. "Don't mind at all."
Ruby nodded and smiled. "Thanks." He led her back, showing her the table in question. All around Ruby in the room were weapons of all kinds. There were cases of what she assumed to be whatever sort of ammunition they used, some cleaning supplies for the weapons. At least she assumed, since everything that looked like text was written in the weird script that seemed to be predominant. She was going to need to ask someone about how to read it.
Ignoring it for the moment, she quickly got to work going over Crescent Rose's exterior, fishing the small toolkit from one of her pouches. It was… intact at least, but unresponsive. Odd. As she held it, tried to figure out if the power leads from its battery were damaged or disconnected, she felt a sudden familiar hum of energy course through her weapon. At once, it extended into its Rifle form to her relief.
"Whoa," came the sound of the Rebel armorer behind her. "The thing really is a gun."
"What did you think it was?" she asked him.
"I… not sure really. My plan was to ask you. I've never really worked with slugthrowers."
"'Slugthrower?' She's my customized High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe," Ruby explained, gesturing with Crescent Rose. "I use her to hunt Grimm."
"That's… pretty interesting," the pink-everything man replied. "So, what's a 'scythe?'"
"I'll show you." First making sure that the chamber was clear, Ruby took a step forward while bringing Crescent Rose to bear. With a small flourish the weapon extended into its final Scythe form, and with a gentle spin she planted the haft of her weapon into the bare floor of the armory. "See? She's my baby," Ruby said as she cuddled the weapon.
The Armorer was speechless, his jaw completely slack. And then Ruby heard the sound of a coffee cub dropping and shattering and turned to look at the counter-
And she saw Lieutenant Lews and Madam Duna standing there side-by-side, looking at her with the same slack-jawed amazement as the pink man.
"Huh, so that's what a scythe looks like."
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
"Well, I've seen just about everything now," Ruby heard Major Clarke say as she, and the Captain, and a substantial portion of the people that seemed to be at the Outpost had gathered in the courtyard. How word had spread so quickly that the Captain wanted to see Ruby, well, perform as he had said, she didn't know. But they were here, and a lot of the Troopers were as well, and so were the orphans and Madam Duna. She saw Primba and Kirrak too, sitting on the front of one of the weird cars.
It was, quite frankly a little embarrassing. But she had fought in the Vytal Festival, and millions were watching that. The Outpost was a far cry from the tournament, certainly.
She looked over to the kids, her friends sitting on the rooftop and watching her. Felt the heat of the sun above on her skin. Ruby smiled and, like she had a million times before drew Crescent Rose from her belt.
In an instant it had transformed into the Scythe she knew and loved. In an instant it was spinning, and she spun it around her before planting its pointed blade in the sand, aiming at the dummy set up for the occasion and fired.
Crescent Rose roared, and the dummy exploded as the Fire Dust shell impacted the top half, sending wood splinters and a cloud of dust into the sky above. A cheer erupted from the small crowd that had assembled. But Ruby was far from done.
She charged, sprinted towards the dummy as she channeled her semblance and left a trail of rose petals in her wake. One, two, three lightning-fast swings of Crescent Rose and the Dummy was in as many pieces, raining down around her in the courtyard.
Still not done. Ruby carried through, Charging the wall and leaping, planting both feet against it and rebounding back towards the direction she came, trailing petals all the while. Just short of the crowd her feet touched the ground and she leapt, clearing the low buildings in a single leap. She landed on the roof and leapt again, sending herself towards the cliff above and behind the buildings.
Her feet planted on the unyielding rock of the cliff and she kept sprinting upwards, channeling her aura all the while and defying gravity all the same. She was aware of the crowd below her roaring, cheering and praising her. She reached the top of the cliff and, just prior to clearing the lip of it she dug her boots into the rock and launched herself back downwards, back towards the ground and Outpost below.
With a well-practiced movement of her scythe and a timed burst of her semblance she shifted her momentum and landed with a roll, finally coming to a stop after her frenetic burst of energy. She planted her scythe in the sand, suddenly feeling somewhat drained. She turned to the crowd-
And the applause was almost deafening. And Ruby couldn't help but let herself grin.
"That was awesome Rubies!" Ruby heard Ezra shout down from her perch on the roof. Ruby was aware that petals were still falling from the sky, from her impromptu ascension of the cliff.
"Oyl, moole, moole!" she heard the Gungan shout. "Dat wassa greatest ting eva!" A roar from his partner next to him. And all around her Ruby was aware of the praise she was receiving. It felt… nice.
Ruby suddenly found herself wishing that Yang, and Blake and Weiss… that they were there with her…
"Alright, alright, show's over everyone, back to your shifts," Major Clarke called out. "Same goes for you five up there, I think there's a lady in the kitchen who's looking for all of you."
"Aah!" she heard Harlan shout before they all disappeared back over the ledge. Ruby saw Ezra wave to her meekly before she too joined the group.
As the crowd dispersed, The Major and the others, Lews and Clarss approached her. She saw the Madam was with them, who immediately stepped forward.
"Miss Rose, that… that was the single greatest demonstration of Force application I have ever personally witnessed," she began, her expression one of awe. "And, the actual creation of physical objects with the Force… I've only read about it in old books and journals. But to actually witness it first-hand…" Suddenly, Madam Duna collapsed to a knee, kneeling before Ruby. "Miss Rose, please, come with me back to the Church. With training and guidance and instruction…" she trailed off. "You… you are amazing. You would be amazing."
"I… I'm not even all that good," Ruby told her. "You… you should see Uncle Qrow or my Dad! They're real Huntsmen, and there's lots more just like them."
The thing is Ruby, there's only one of you here at the moment," Captain Clarss stated. "I agree with the Madam, that… goddamn. I've never seen or even heard of someone doing what you just did."
"If the Rebels had a planet of… of…" The Lieutenant trailed off. "The Empire would fear us."
"Yeah," Clarke finished for him.
"Anyways, Miss Rose, I believe that Doctor Ren would probably want a sample of those… petals of yours," He told her as he plucked one from his shoulder. "I don't think I've seen her ever talk quite that fast or excitedly about anything, while describing you."
"Umm, okay," Ruby replied. She collapsed and sheathed Crescent Rose, returning it to the clips on her belt. Her actual belt and pouches, the ones holding the few rounds of Dust she still had. She only had the one magazine's worth, so… she'd have to be careful in using what little she had left. "I'll go find her. And thank you, for enjoying it."
"Miss Rose, please," The Madam was almost begging her. "Please consider my offer."
"I… I will, miss Duna."
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
"Miss Rose, can we have a moment with you?"
Ruby had just finished eating lunch with the kids at their table when she heard someone call out to her. She turned in her seat to see the now-familiar faces of Captain Clarss and Lieutenant Lews standing behind her. "A moment?" She asked.
The Captain nodded. "Yes. Privately, if preferable."
"Oh, umm, okay." Ruby stood, picking up her tray as she did.
"Rubies, promise to tell us more stories about Remnant and the Grimm-things?" Ezra asked her as she made to leave.
"I will," Ruby replied. "I need to talk with the Captain though."
"Okay." Ruby bid her goodbye and left her and the other orphans to continue eating, as she bussed her tray by the serving area. "What do you want to talk about, Captain?"
"Talk and walk, miss Rose, we'll head to my office."
"Okay." Ruby was led through the complex, and she noted how the troopers here and there would stop and salute the man as he did. He must be very well respected here, she thought. Eventually they ended up back in the command center, through which the two Rebel officers led her to an office off to the side.
It was spartan; a bare metal table with several chairs, a set of shelving filled with various books and documents of some sort and a flag hanging on the wall. The flag was simple; an odd, curving three-pronged orange symbol on an all-white field. Captain Clarss walked around the desk and took a seat, and gestured for Ruby and the Lieutenant to do the same in the seats across from him. "Please, make yourselves comfortable."
They did, and the Captain continued. "So, you've been here for several days, now, Miss Rose. And I have to say,in those several days you've made a lasting impression on the people here. Impressive, I must say."
"I… I don't know what I could have done or said."
"The show you put on earlier notwithstanding," Lews spoke up. "I've never seen someone dash around like that before. Hell, I didn't know it was even physically possible. And between that and the Madam all but proposing to you, well…" he trailed off.
"I… oh."
"Yeah. And you helped find a pack of the local Bloggins, which helped us with our ration problems," Lews continued. "And that was before we even get into the bet the troopers took about you."
"Wha- what bet?"
"Yeah," Clarss sighed. "Care to explain that, Lieutenant?"
Lews chuckled. "Well Ruby, people were taking bets on whether or not your name was related to the color red. People were betting it was, lots weren't. Lots of people lost Credits this morning, so I'll just leave it at that."
"Oh."
"Anyways," the Captain continued, "I wished to speak with you privately Ruby, mainly to answer any questions you might have. And not only that," he took a breath before continuing, "I would like to formally extend an offer to you from the Alliance to Restore the Republic; an offer to let you join us as a member and a soldier, and perhaps even more"
"I… join you?" she stammered in surprise.
"I thought about it earlier. I saw the way you moved, how you described yourself during that little demonstration. Your physical capabilities…" he trailed off. "I'd- no, we would be fools not to extend the offer."
"I… Madam Duna already offered to let me stay with her people. The kids too."
"Ah yes," the Captain replied, "our Church of the Force acquaintance. Well, as I said, it's an offer miss Rose. Take all the time you need to think on it. In the meantime, you're more than welcome to remain here at the Outpost. And in all honesty I do suggest going with her first." He steepled his fingers, looking as if lost in thought. "Maybe there is something to what she has to say. It's starting to make a believer out of me. I just want to let you know that the offer is on the table."
I, umm, okay," Ruby stammered. "Thank you. And umm, there is something else I do want to talk about."
"Shoot."
"The kids," Ruby asked, "Well, what can you tell me about them? How did they end up here and as orphans?"
Clarss nodded. "Well, you see Miss Rose, about the kids… well…"
"They come from all over," Lews finished.
"I… I don't follow."
"There aren't many people from Jakku," Lews began. "Plenty of people from everywhere else, but not from here. Life is… hard on this planet. And when kids get abandoned or their parents sell them for drinking money…" he briefly trailed off. "They end up as orphans. Or slaves. Or worse."
"That's… terrible," Ruby replied.
"I know. The five kids here at the outpost, they're something of a charity case. I brought them in, gave them the small storage room to sleep in and a small stipend to keep them out of trouble. As for orphans in general around Jakku, sometimes the Teedo will care enough to take them in and look after them, but that's rare. Rarer still is someone genuinely nice enough to take them in and adopt them."
"The Teedo?"
"They're a strange bunch, native to Jakku I think," Lews explained. "They mostly keep to themselves, only really trade with others if they need something in return. If you ever see what looks like a child wrapped in robes or wrappings and riding a luggabeast, that's a Teedo."
"Oh, okay."
"Well, anyways, about the kids. I wanted to show the locals that we mean well. Hearts and Minds, so to speak, so I brought them in. Mostly though, I think the Constabulary at Niima Outpost were just glad they didn't have to deal with them anymore," he gave a small chuckle. "Honestly, they're starting to grow on some of the Rebels, what with helping out with chores and whatnot."
"What's… going to happen to them?"
"Well, when our last supply ship departed, I sent word out to our regional command, to see about maybe finding an orphanage somewhere more civilized, somewhere where they won't have to be, well, homeless. Even then, I don't think a few of them want to leave." Clarss scratched his chin. "I was expecting word back with the supply ship that was supposed to be here, but they're more than two days late now. And quite frankly that's the more pressing issue at the moment."
"Oh. Umm, I'm sorry about the supply ship, and…" Ruby trailed off for a moment. "Umm, do you really have a spaceship?"
"Ruby, the Alliance has lots of spaceships," Lews said proudly. "I've even set foot on Home One, Met the best Admiral we have. A Mon Calamari and as skilled as they come."
Clarss chuckled. "As the Lieutenant said Ruby, yes there are spaceships. Does your world not have them? At all?"
"I… no," Ruby shook her head. "There aren't any spaceships on Remnant. Airships yes, but those don't go to space, I'm pretty sure of."
Lews seemed surprised, while Clarss merely shrugged. "Well, change of subject, then. Is there anything you might need?"
"I… I don't think so," Ruby smiled. "And, about what you said about, umm joining your Rebellion and stuff…" she trailed off. "I… I need to think about it."
"Well, I won't rush you," Clarss replied with a smile. "Although, if I may make a suggestion."
"What kind of suggestion?" Ruby asked.
Clarss looked to Lieutenant Lews, who glanced back at him before looking at Ruby. "Do you wanna see a spaceship?"
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
Ruby's eyes were wide as saucers at the sight of what she was seeing.
Clarss and Lews had led her through a wide side tunnel shooting off from the main base, towards what he called the main hangar. He'd explained they only had one hangar off to the side of the base, but the Rebel's naming nomenclature still stood or something along the lines. She had initially puzzled over it, but her thoughts were soon filled with the sight of arguably the coolest thing she had ever seen.
It… was huge. Not as big as an Atlas airship but still. The vessel was shaped like a gigantic, elongated egg, the bottom half of which seemed to be composed entirely of cargo containers of different sorts. The back portion had what were clearly engines jutting out from nacelles, and there was what appeared to be a cockpit or control deck of some sort on the top of it, further to the back.
"It's a pretty typical GR-75 Medium Transport," Captain Clarss explained. "Standard cargo haulers for the most part. The Alliance uses them mostly for… well, everything short of combat, really."
"It… it's awesome," Ruby said with glittering eyes. "Are there… others like it?"
"Kid, there's loads more like it. You should see the rest of the Rebel Fleet," Lews told her.
"I'd like to I think…" Ruby trailed off as her sight moved to something else in the hangar. Several of something else.
They were smaller than the giant that dominated the hangar. Ruby saw several troopers wearing orange jumpsuits of some sort, milling about them. They were white and red, long and slender and almost reminiscent of a dragonfly in their shape. She spotted thin engine nacelles, mounted on the bases of each of the four wings. And what might have been weapons on the ends. Almost automatically Ruby began walking towards them, fixated on the craft nearest to her.
"Ah, the good ol' T-65B," Clarss explained. "Used to fly one, before I got injured and bumped to a desk," he chuckled. "They're based of of an old Republic design from the Clone Wars. Tough little birds. These we mostly used for reconnaissance."
Ruby found herself standing before it, drawing the attention of who she presumed were the pilots. One of them meekly waved, and Ruby saw she was the green-skinned woman from the canteen. Ruby waved back and smiled.
"So, yeah, good little snubfighters they are," Clarss continued. "Four laser cannons, proton torpedo launchers. The fly with a crew of one pilot and one astromech droid. All around, they're good fighters and individually superior to the TIE fighters the Empire has."
"Is… is it fast?" Ruby asked in awe.
"They don't come much faster kid," Lews patter her on the shoulder. "They got their own hyperdrives too. You could go anywhere with one of these."
"It's… it's awesome. Thank you Mister Clarss, for showing me."
"No problem," he replied. "As I said, you're welcome here fore the time being. And if you want, you can talk to the crew here, the pilots. I'm sure they'd be able to answer any questions you have. Now, if you excuse us little lady, the two of us have business to attend to."
"Oh. Okay." The two men departed, leaving Ruby alone in the hangar. Once more, she turned back to the giant transport in the hangar, and the possibilities it entailed.
- - ----====| | |====---- - -
The spaceships, the Rebels. Her sudden display of skill in the courtyard. All of it had been fun.
As the day wound on, Ruby found her way back to the small hospital room that had begun to double as her quarters. She set Crescent Rose on the table, before sitting down on the bed.
"Rubies!" Ezra popped her head in from just around the corner of the door. Are you awake?"
"It's only the afternoon Ezzy," Ruby replied. Kinda waiting for dinner time."
"Oh, uhh, sometimes we take naps in the middle of the day," she chittered, stepping into the room and sitting down next to Ruby. "Umm, what did Mister Clarss say?"
"He asked me to join them," Ruby told her.
"Really?"
"Yeah," she replied. "I… don't know if I should. I'm kinda torn. On one hand there's the Captain, and on the other hand there's the Madam. He says I could be a great soldier, and she says I can use the Force and... I'm so confused."
"Oh. Umm, I don't really know what to say, Rubies," she chittered. "I think Sylvie would say 'follow your heart' but she's napping at the moment. I… I don't know what that means though." She wrapped her arms around Ruby's arm. "But I trust you, and Sylvie and Zoey and the brothers seem to trust you too. If you stay here with us, or if you want to go to the stars, we won't hate you."
Ruby looked down into her glittering eyes, her twitching mandibles. "Thank you, Ezra. I… I think my sister would have adored you."
The little girl smiled, nuzzled the arm she was hugging. "I would have liked to meet her too."
"Rubies?"
"Ezzy?"
"Can I… can I sit here with you for a while?"
"Yeah."
Ezra curled up next to her, resting on her shoulder. Just like she herself did with Yang when they were younger. It was comfortable, and Ezra was warm and fuzzy. With the two of them leaning into each other, Ruby couldn't help but start to nod off herself…
- - ---====| | |====---- - -
Another dream. Like… like before.
The command room, just like before. The Captain and the Lieutenant were there, only now the table was covered with papers; printouts and logs of what, Ruby couldn't read.
"Captain, please tell me we have something to go on as to where our resupply ship is," Major Clarke spoke as she strode into the room.
"Ah, Sergeant Major, just the person I was expecting," Captain Clarss replied. "And no, still no word."
"This is… bad. Really, really bad," Lews said. "Something's happened to them."
The Captain narrowed his eyes. "Lieutenant, have we logged any movements of Imperial forces in and out of the Jakku system? Specifically warships, troop transports, anything of the sort?"
"No sir," he curtly replied. "Nothing coming in from the Unknown Regions either. Not unless..." The Lieutenant's eyes went wide. "You don't think that the Imperials have-"
"Yeah, I do think," The Captain replied, his expression turning grim.
What's going on Captain?" Clarke asked.
"We've been had, Major," Clarss spoke with barely constrained fury. "The resupply ship has been captured, their crew's probably being interrogated and tortured as we speak. What's more, Jakku has been blockaded. Nothing's going to be coming in or going out, not until the force that shows up to deal with us does."
Clarke's eyes went wide. "Oh no. How do you know for sure? It could be-"
"Pure gut instinct, that's how I know Major."
"What do we do?" Lews asked.
Clarss drummed his fingers on the table. He was silent, for a long moment. "We're leaving."
Ruby was jolted awake with a start. Was that a dream? She thought, wondering. No, no it wasn't a dream.
"Rubies?" Ezra asked her. "What's wrong?"
"I… I don't know, Ezzy, I think I saw something in my dreams."
"Oh, a bad dream," she replied. "Well, those-"
Ezra was cut off, as the sound of wailing klaxons filled the outpost.
- - ---====| | |====---- - -
Another chapter done and gone.
The Obligatory Species Mentions:
Twi'lek: The nameless pilot is a member of this race. You might remember the slave girl that got turned into Sarlacc food in RotJ.
Zeltron: The nameless Flirty Armorer. They're virtual background characters in Canon, but have a few notable appearances in EU lore.
Mon Calamari: An of-the-cuff mention, but still. Remember Admiral Ackbar? Then you know what a Mon Calamari looks like.
Teedo: Pretty much as described here. Not much about them, beyond them being natives of Jakku and apparently running off a hive-mind.
Odd, I'm averaging exactly four new species' mentions per side chapter. I wonder how long I can keep at it...
Now on to the meat. An all-around solid chapter, that's longer because I decided to say 'fuck it' and condense two chapters into one. Now you get the anticipated Vader fight in Chapter 8...
As for Ni Ren joining the Resistance... yeah. Your daughter getting personally lightning-murdered by the Emperor... that would do it. As I said, fuck that dude with a lightsaber chainsaw. And as for his sooper-seekrit project... Hehehehe...
It would seem that Clarss and Duna are fighting over who gets to play with the cute lil' cinnamon bun. Each of them have their own Benefits Packages too...
Moving on, I find it touching that these kids have their aspirations and hopes and dreams... Ezra is especially cute, and has become especially attached to Ruby...
Also, of course Ruby would geek out over spaceships. Just wait until she sees what the Empire has in store...
The Obligatory Species Mentions:
Twi'lek: The nameless pilot is a member of this race. You might remember the slave girl that got turned into Sarlacc food in RotJ.
Zeltron: The nameless Flirty Armorer. They're virtual background characters in Canon, but have a few notable appearances in EU lore.
Mon Calamari: An of-the-cuff mention, but still. Remember Admiral Ackbar? Then you know what a Mon Calamari looks like.
Teedo: Pretty much as described here. Not much about them, beyond them being natives of Jakku and apparently running off a hive-mind.
Odd, I'm averaging exactly four new species' mentions per side chapter. I wonder how long I can keep at it...
Now on to the meat. An all-around solid chapter, that's longer because I decided to say 'fuck it' and condense two chapters into one. Now you get the anticipated Vader fight in Chapter 8...
As for Ni Ren joining the Resistance... yeah. Your daughter getting personally lightning-murdered by the Emperor... that would do it. As I said, fuck that dude with a lightsaber chainsaw. And as for his sooper-seekrit project... Hehehehe...
It would seem that Clarss and Duna are fighting over who gets to play with the cute lil' cinnamon bun. Each of them have their own Benefits Packages too...
Moving on, I find it touching that these kids have their aspirations and hopes and dreams...
Ezra is especially cute, and has become especially attached to Ruby... Also, of course Ruby would geek out over spaceships. Just wait until she sees what the Empire has in store...
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I find the chapters set on Remnant to be a lot more interesting than the chapters full of OCs that I've already written off as doomed.
It's not bad, it's just not as engaging to me.
It's not bad, it's just not as engaging to me.