The Girl with Silver Eyes (RWRTTN: Part 3)
Hey Alexa... Play "The Huntress" by Rush Garcia.
The following post is a work of fiction. For context, read part one and part two before reading on.
In a futuristic world of magic, four young girls find themselves entangled in a witch’s plot to bring about the apocalypse…
On a barren street in an unknown city’s commercial district, the fractured moon and thousands of its fragments glow above in the night sky. A well-dressed redhead leans on his cane at the front of a weapons shop, smoking a cigar with an annoyed twitch in his upper lip.
The sound of radio static from a communicator on his wrist buzzes before clearing up for just a moment. The redhead listens in.
“…We’ve got a 211S in progress, dispatch units 21 through 24, over,” the first voice says.
“That’s a bit overkill, don’t you think, over?” asks a second voice.
“Try not to worry about what you don’t know about, rookie,” the first voice replies. “Units en route to the scene. Be there in 20, over.”
The redhead smirks through the smoke from his stogie as he catches the rookie sigh before signing off.
“Smart kid,” the redhead says to himself before tapping across the glass screen of the communicator on his wrist and speaking into it.
“Hurry it up already! I’m not paying you to window shop. Grab the Dust, grab the crystals, and get out.”
Inside the weapons shop, there’s a rather large ammunition depot with displays of Dust crystals of assorted colors and sizes encased in bulletproof glass. There are also aisles of steel canisters of powdered Dust for weaponry as well as other paraphernalia for armament customization. It’s like a hobby shop for people who enjoy gunpowder and blades.
The store’s owner, an old man, is being held down by two brutish Faunus—intelligent humanoids with physical animal traits—while their captain, a human, uses the hostage as a punching bag. The captain of the group is visibly jacked, dwarfing his subordinates and more intimidating than them in his heist gear. All of the robbers have distinct claw mark tattoos branded across their necks. They came in with guns and blades along with the redhead still keeping a lookout outside of the store.
The store owner is bleeding from the side of the head after being used to break a nearby display box. Underneath the display is a triggered silent alarm and an odd-looking sniper rifle painted crimson red.
The captain gets the redhead’s message through his communicator.
“Quit your whining and keep your eyes open, Roman. We’ll be done when we’re done,” the captain growls before turning his attention back to the store owner.
Meanwhile, in the back of the store, two random customers are being held at gunpoint by two more Faunus goons next to a door with a “slippery when wet” sign propped up at the front.
The door opens up and a 15-year-old, silver-eyed girl wearing a red hood casually walks out with music blasting through her headphones. This is where the story of Ruby Rose begins.
One of the henchmen catches Ruby in his peripheral view.
“Hey, kid,” the henchman yells. “Put your hands in the air!”
Ruby can’t hear a thing. She walks with her hands in her skirt pockets before the henchman gets in front of her and points his gun at her. Music continues to blast through her headphones and her eyes widen as she stares down the barrel of a pistol.
“What are you?! Deaf?! Put ‘em up!”
Ruby takes off her headphones and calmly puts her hands up.
“Are you robbing me?” the girl asks.
A voice calls out from the front of the store.
“Who is it?!”
“Just a girl!”
“Well, get her over here so we can tie her up,” the henchman at the front of the store says.
The grunt in front of her rolls their eyes and grabs her by the shoulder, getting her attention.
Back at the front of the store, the robbery captain continues to beat on the store owner.
“You’re lucky we’re only here for the Dust. It’s the least you could do after snitching on us,” the captain tells the still-conscious owner.
"Heh-heh, you tell ‘im brother,” says one of the henchmen. The captain snarls in response almost to say “Shut up, you idiot” before his ears perk up to the sound of gunshots from the back of the store. He draws a pistol with one hand and keeps the other ready around the hilt of his blade.
The captain goes to investigate the noise, crouching while walking through an aisle of Dust canisters and ammo boxes. Squinting to see the end of the aisle, he notices a trail of rose petals on the floor. He takes a knee and picks up a petal to see if they’re real.
A sharp breeze zooms by his cheek followed by the sound of a gun cocking behind him.
“Don’t move.” Ruby stands behind the robbery captain, controlling her breathing. No sudden movements from the captain.
“Drop the gun,” she says while pointing a pistol at him. The captain follows her instruction before slowly raising his hands in surrender.
“Turn around and get up. You’re all staying put until the police arrive.”
The captain slowly turns around and rises from the ground—until he explodes into action.
He charges at the girl, making sure to keep her gun out of his way. The two wrestle for a bit but not for long. He overpowers Ruby’s small frame easily and she accidentally fires a bullet into the air while she’s being tackled.
Ruby tries to back up and reposition herself but the captain, with just one hand, mushes and violently shoves her to the ground. She takes the impact of the fall to the back of the head but somehow manages to get back to her feet albeit very dazed and concussed…
In a last ditch attempt, Ruby rushes the captain with a wild and uneducated punch that he quickly picks up on. The captain replies with a trojan kick that sends the girl down the aisle and next to the store owner sitting around broken glass and his own spilled blood.
Still on the ground, Ruby looks up at the henchman standing above her.
“Hey… Lovely evening we’re having, aren’t we?”
Moments later, the well-dressed lookout, Roman, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
“Yep. They’re worth every cent, I’m sure of it,” Roman mutters to himself as he continues to question the egregious amount of time being spent inside.
The robbery captain buzzes from the redhead’s communicator.
“Hey, Roman.”
“What is it now?” Roman groans, looking up at the night sky.
Not long after, Roman goes inside and looks at Ruby alongside the robbery captain quizzically.
“So,” Roman says, “tell me again what happened?”
“What are you? Deaf and blind?” asks the robbery captain. “I just showed you what happened.”
In the back of the store, two groaning minions continue to lay on the ground with a smoking gun lying alongside them, both supposedly taken out by a teenage girl.
“And they’re still back there breathing?” Roman asks the captain, still eyeing Ruby.
“Yeah, there wasn’t any blood or anything. None of the folks in the back are hurt, I think. Popped a couple rounds but that’s about it.”
The captain looks at Roman funny—imagine the odd air between two dads at a slow youth game, cheering for their kids who’re on different teams. Once it starts feeling awkward, Roman finally turns to the captain.
“…Well, go wake them up so we can go already.”
The captain scoffs and shoves Roman hard enough to get his attention.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve using that one with me, Roman. Last time I checked, you weren’t the one lining the pockets of my brothers in arms.”
After a sharp exhale and a moment to restrain himself, Roman replies.
“True as it may be, even though I’m not the one paying, I know that Cinder is paying you and your Faunus thugs. But the last time I checked, I knew what Cinder knew. And the last time I heard, Cinder put me in charge of making sure you nitwits didn’t screw up this very simple—I repeat, very simple—operation.”
Roman, choking the top of his cane, then looks at Ruby before continuing with his rant.
“And it seems to me, that the five of you idiots are absolutely incapable of handling a little girl who took too long to take a crap!”
Ruby looks back.
“Um… Sorry?”
Roman facepalms before pointing to one of the Faunus droogs.
“You. Go back there and wake the two of the sandbags up,” he says before returning his attention to the captain. “And you. Why don’t you help Little Red up?”
“Why do I have to hold her?” the captain whines.
Roman doesn’t flinch at the comment. After an awkward silence between them, the captain, like a teen forced to take out the trash, groans in defeat before schlepping over to the back of the store. As the captain is occupied, Roman crouches so he can get a good look at Ruby.
“How adorable,” he says with a notched grin. “Humor me. What would’ve been your ‘big plan’ had you thwarted my merry band of ne’er-do-wells, hm?”
“Can’t really say that I had a lot of time to think things through,” Ruby says before a nervous smile overtakes her. “I kinda got lucky with your guys having glass jaws.”
From the back of the store, the robbery captain yells at Ruby to watch her tone. Roman rises with a shifting expression on his face.
“Shut up, you ape!” he says to the captain before returning to Ruby. “My apologies for his behavior. He’s more animal than his so-called ‘brothers’.”
He playfully spins his cane with his hands like a color guard which seems to bring back his smile. With each twirl of the cane is an almost melodic hum seeming to come from within the staff.
“No sorry for your behavior?” Ruby asks. Roman bends over so that his face is just an inch away from hers, reeking of smoke.
“Leaders give the orders, Little Red. They don’t take them,” he says, caressing her face with one hand. Ruby meets Roman’s intrusion of her bubble with a prompt headbutt to his nose.
Roman quickly rises and tends to his bruised nose, worried that it might be broken or misaligned. He pays his younger adversary in kind and brings his cane down hard on Ruby’s head. His smile returns as Ruby struggles to lift her head in defiance.
“I guess I was right,” Roman says. “You are a bit hard-headed.”
Dazed and still finding her bearings, Ruby sits next to the store owner with half-open eyes watching Roman’s crew rounding up cases of Dust and Dust crystals before hightailing it out of the store. As her vision recovers, she slowly manages to get to her feet and starts to look for her weapon.
“If that’s how hard you swing,” Ruby says to Roman, “then your hands must feel like pillows.”
Roman looks back before turning his back on her. He leans over to the robbery captain.
“Deal with the brat. I’ll be waiting outside.”
The captain grunts and marches over to tie Ruby up. He walks over and picks Ruby up, pressing her easily above her head.
“Can’t we talk about this like civil people?” Ruby asks moments before she is flung to a different part of the wrecked store. There’s a sickening thud when she lands.
“Need… To work… On… Planning…” Ruby mumbles to herself as she continues to deal with her entire body in shock.
Regardless of how poor her “plan” was, Ruby manages to fail her objective successfully. It turns out that the Faunus brute unknowingly flung her right next to Crescent Rose—a transforming high-caliber sniper-scythe twice the girl’s size. She fiddles about with the thing, making sure that everything with it is still intact and that there’s ammunition still in its cartridge—and that the weapon’s safety is off.
Just as the henchmen are about to leave through the front door, Ruby fires a warning shot at them. The bullet zips by one of the goons, blasts through the door, and almost nicks Roman outside. One might assume that either Roman or the henchman who managed to dodge certain doom might have peed themselves in that moment.
Ruby now has all of the Faunus goons’ attention. She rises from the back of a broken display casing and rests her weapon on her shoulder as it extends into its scythe form.
“What the hell are you dolts staring at?” the captain barks. “Get her!”
The captain leaves the store in a rush with the Dust and Roman, leaving his grunts with the girl with silver eyes.
The Faunus open fire, forcing Ruby to cut it out with the cool mystique from a moment ago and duck back down behind the display case. To her, it feels like an eternity but eventually there’s a rest.
Time to reload, draw their blades, or high-tail it out of there for the henchmen. Ruby’s eyes glow before she stands up during the rest, vaults over the stand, and rushes over to one of the henchmen at inhuman speeds. Using her scythe, Ruby delivers her body’s weight into the chest of a goon through a dropkick. The poor son-of-a-bitch who eats the kick crashes through the door and lands at the feet of the captain making his way along the asphalt of a lonely road. It’s a nasty landing for the goon and the captain actually drops his load of Dust to help his subordinate. Only four henchmen remain standing.
Roman looks back and scowls at the robbery captain before trudging back to take his bag of canisters and crystals before continuing his escape on foot.
Ruby finds herself with the remaining four henchmen circling around her with their blades out.
One of the henchmen rushes the girl and her scythe. With a finger over her weapon's trigger, she pulls it. There's a gunshot but no exit wound. With some footwork and angling with the back of the scythe, Ruby uses the recoil of the gunshot to burst into a powerful spin and sweeps the legs of the first grunt of the bunch with the back end of her scythe. Three henchmen remain.
Another goon rushes her and tries to wrench Ruby’s weapon out of her hands. There's a brief struggle but Ruby manages to push them back. The henchman runs at her but Ruby uses the back end of her weapon again to quickly swing at the henchman's face and body until she heaves and sends him flying with an upward blow. Two henchmen remain.
The third Faunus tries the last goon’s strategy only to be promptly intercepted by Crescent Rose. The blunt end of Ruby’s scythe comes down quick onto one of the henchman’s shoulders, neutralizing him easily. One henchman remains.
The last goon sees all of his brothers crumpled, groaning, and writhing in pain, littered along the street like loose garbage. He looks at Ruby who waits for him to make a move before dropping his weapons. He puts his hands up and surrenders immediately.
Ruby's out of breath after laying everyone out—but there isn’t much time to waste. She notices that the captain remains close to one of his injured subordinates. The captain looks across the street and finds incapacitated bodies. He stares back at Ruby, feigning aggression in his eyes like a cornered wolf as the sounds of police sirens draw closer and closer.
Meanwhile, Roman makes his way up a fire escape path on the side of a nearby apartment building. Ruby catches him in her sights, holsters her weapon onto her utility belt, takes a deep breath, and continues to go after Roman.
Fast forward to moments later. By the time Ruby reaches the top of the fire escape and onto the rooftop of the building, Roman is on the opposite end of building looking up at the night sky.
“Stop,” Ruby calls out while out of breath. “You’re coming with me!”
Roman doesn’t even bother turning to face her.
“Persistent little bastard, aren’t you?” he says to himself. “I’m sorry, Little Red. Perhaps we can play together another time.”
And just as he says that, an airship descends from the sky, pulling up to Roman’s side of the building, and opens one of its side doors for him. The turbines boom and Ruby shields herself from the powerful winds. Once Roman is standing inside the airship, he departs from the scene of the crime with a cheeky tip of his bowler hat.
“I believe that this is where we part ways!" he calls out through the roars of the airship.
“Who actually says that?! That’s so corny!” Ruby replies but Roman doesn’t catch a lick of it. After barking back at the villain, she roots the tip of her scythe into the ground so she isn’t blown away. Then she starts firing off blind shots which ping off of one of the sides of the airship. Roman quickly scurries into the cockpit.
“Hey,” Roman says to the pilot of the ship. “We’ve got a wannabe huntress!”
The pilot marches out of the cockpit and Roman takes control of the airship. When the pilot moves, she is seen with a burgundy dress and glowing amber eyes that leave gold trails with each step she takes.
Below the airship, the police arrive to arrest the Faunus droogs but they quickly notice the airship and start firing at its hull.
Ruby, on the other hand, manages to crack some glass on the airship with some of her rounds. She’s persistent but unprepared for the occasion. Despite all of that, she continues to fire even with her ammo running low. When she’s finally out of ammunition, Ruby tries to rush the ship.
With a wave of her hand, the woman in the burgundy dress summons an ascending pillar of fire.
The wannabe huntress’ eyes widen as she notices the glowing fissures beginning to form right in front of her. She grips her weapon tight and tries to pull back in time. She’s hit with a shockwave, ultimately surviving the blast but not without looking up to see the airship fly away from the scene of the crime.
Ruby takes a moment to collect herself, dusting herself off, before holstering her weapon and making her way down the fire escape sulking in defeat. She’s sore, she looks like a mess, and, to top things off, she’s squinting at bright lights aimed at her face when she finally reaches the bottom.
“Freeze!”
End of Act One.
Ruby sits alone in an interrogation room—one table, two chairs, one-way glass, and a convenient plate of cookies to test one’s guilty conscience. The girl sitting alone in the room pecks at a cookie in one hand as she looks at the one-way glass waiting for something to happen soon.
On the other end of the glass, two officers stare back at Ruby.
“You said that he’s on his way?” asks the older of the two.
“He’s waiting outside right now.”
“Alright. Let him know the door’s open before we go in for questioning.”
“Yes, sir,” the younger officer replies as he holds his clipboard close to his chest.
“Okay, great. Here’s the deal: we’re gonna go in, give her the “good cop, bad cop” routine. There’s no guarantee as to whether she’s involved with the robbery but that doesn’t matter much. At the very least, we can nab her for not having a hunter’s license on her. Things with less paperwork happen, we get to leave here within the next hour, and then I get us both breakfast. Sound good?”
The rookie officer sighs. “I’m going to be playing the bad cop, aren’t I?”
The senior officer just stares back at his partner. “You just can’t help sounding like a rookie all the time, can you?”
“…So I’m not playing bad cop?”
“Just do what you gotta do and follow my lead when it’s time.”
A minute later, the two officers finally enter the interrogation room. By this time, the plate of cookies at the center of the table is almost clean to both of the cops’ amazement.
Ruby, still chewing, looks back at the officers.
The rookie sits down while the senior stands next to him scowling with his arms crossed.
“So,” the rookie starts, “hi there. My partner and I are just here to ask you a few questions and then we’ll let you go, okay?”
“Okay,” Ruby says finally finishing her last bite.
The rookie officer turns towards the one-way mirror and a shadowy figure watches the room from the other side. The rookie officer clears their throat before continuing on.
“So… Let’s start with your name, alright?”
“Sure,” Ruby replies. “Ruby Rose.”
“Age?”
“Fifteen.”
“And where do you go to school, Ms. Rose?”
“Signal Academy. It’s a hunters’ academy.”
The rookie officer nods as he takes down notes on his ledger. “So I’ve heard. Is that where you learned how to use that weapon of yours?”
“Kinda?”
“What do you mean by ‘kinda’?” the senior officer asks.
Ruby looks at the two of them. She gives the senior a look and immediately knows what’s up.
“Look, officers” Ruby says, “I was just trying to help out. I just wanted to buy a couple of rounds and bring my weapon in for a check-up. I went to use the restroom in the back and the next thing I know people were getting tied up and guns were being pointed. I just wanted to do the right thing, y’know? Battle against the forces of evil, hold down the fort, all that great and glorious hunter jazz?”
“That’s a pretty uppity way of thinking,” the senior adds, “don’t you think?”
“I don’t know. Is doing the right thing considered too much nowadays?” Ruby asks.
“For anyone outside of the law with a death wish, yes,” the senior replies. “There are professionals for that sort of thing.”
“Well, the professionals weren’t the first ones on the scene were they?”
Ruby and the senior office glare at each other, the only thing separating them being the antagonistic tension in the air. The rookie momentarily raises an eyebrow at his partner before picking the conversation back up.
“If you could just answer my question please.”
“My uncle taught me,” Ruby replies.
“And who’s your uncle?”
“Qrow Branwen. His name’s spelled with a Q.”
The senior officer rolls his eyes as if to ask “Who the hell spells that name with a Q?”
The rookie looks at Ruby and she looks back at him funny. The figure on the other side of the glass continues to watch intently.
“Tell me why you want to be a huntress, Ms. Rose,” the rookie says.
“…What does that have to do with the robbery?”
“Just answer the question,” pipes the senior officer.
“Please,” the rookie adds.
Visible confusion is written all over Ruby’s face.
“…I dunno. It’s a childhood dream? My mom and dad were hunters? My sister’s currently training at Beacon to become a huntress?”
Awkward silence. The two officers eye her and so does the figure from outside the room.
“…Yeah,” Ruby stammers, “I, uh… Yeah… Did I mention that I’m only 15? I’m pretty sure I get let off with a warning for this sort of thing, right?”
Finally, the mysterious figure behind the window lets out a sharp exhale through their nostrils at the droll comment before knocking twice on the glass. The rookie turns to the glass in a not so subtle way and Ruby catches this.
“Is someone watching us?” Ruby asks the rookie. But the rookie mutters something under his breath with a quizzical expression.
The rookie looks at his partner who makes their way to unlock the door behind them. The two then promptly leave and go to meet with their superior behind the glass—a white-haired, middle-aged man with circular specs, Oxford attire, and a special cane.
“She’s the one?” the senior officer asks.
“I’m certain,” says the man.
“How though?” asks the rookie officer. The man just looks at him through his specs and the senior officer gives his partner a swift nudge in his arm for the stupid question.
From inside the interrogation room, through the glass, Ruby knocks.
“Am I gonna get my phone call soon?”
The three stare back at the girl.
“Well,” says the officers’ superior, “I suppose I ought to formally introduce myself. Thank you again, gentlemen.” The man then makes his way into the interrogation room.
“Do we get paid for this?” the rookie asks his partner as the two of them leave the area.
“What do you think?
Meanwhile, back inside the interrogation room, the man walks through the door and takes a seat across from Ruby.
“You don’t look like a cop,” Ruby says to the man. “Are you a private detective?”
The man gives her a wry grin. “Not exactly.”
“Look, I realize that I probably should’ve led with this with the two from earlier but I did not rob the weapons shop. That was the guy with the bowler hat, and I just wanna clarify that, as a citizen of Vale, I am entitled to—”
“I am aware and so are the authorities.”
“Wait, really?” Ruby asks. “Oh. Cool. Awesome.”
The man flashes her another grin.
“…So, why am I here?”
“Did you know that you have your mother’s eyes?” the man asks.
Ruby leans back in her seat with a terribly suspicious and surprised look.
“How do you know that?” she asks.
“I knew her in my youth alongside your father,” the man replies. “And you fight just like your uncle.”
“What do you want?” Ruby asks firmly.
“Answers. Answers from you. What exactly do you want?”
Ruby returns the man’s question with a scowl. “Who are you?”
“I am the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Professor Ozpin.”
Ruby looks at him not with disdain but with lingering suspicion before he makes an odd request.
“Tell me a story, Ms. Rose.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because you still haven’t answered my question,” Ozpin replies.
“Too bad,” Ruby says. This seems to stop Ozpin from commenting further but the thoughtful look on his face said otherwise.
“Very well. Not only have you not answered my question but, according to surveillance recordings gathered from the crime scene, you were committing an act of vigilantism. Police records show that you are underage and, thus, are unlicensed to carry out, quote-unquote, ‘hunters’ duties’. Sure, your heart may have been in the right place but I don’t make the rules. You did not have a license on your person and I could have you charged for your shenanigans. And what good would being put in a jail cell do for your aspirations to take part in the family trade?”
“Well… I’m pretty sure I’ve still got my one phone call before all that.”
Ruby and Ozpin study each other while they both take time to think of the next thing to say to each other. Finally, after a long moment, Ruby takes a deep breath and breaks the silence between them.
“Once upon a time, my sister and I lived on an island just off of the coast of Vale. My dad taught at Signal Academy and my mom traveled around the world as a huntress, taking any and all missions she could. No monster was too scary, no creature was too dangerous for her. And she still managed to tuck us into bed and fill our heads with tales full of romance, hope, and wonder. But then, one day, she never came back.”
Ruby looks down solemnly at an empty plate before continuing on.
“She didn’t die. Not physically. I was too young to realize what had happened at the time. But she just vanished without a trace, as if nothing happened on that island—as if nobody was waiting for her to come back home.”
After a pause to fight off feelings, Ozpin asks a question.
“Why do you want to be a huntress, Ruby?
“…I can’t say that I know for sure. All that I know is that I can’t picture myself being anything other than someone trying to do some good in the world.”
“Well then,” Ozpin says. “Would you mind if I point you in the right direction?”
The two look at each other, eye to eye, finally having come to some sort of understanding with one another.
End of Act Two.
Another day comes and Ruby looks out of the glass window of a futuristic airship. It’s daytime and there’s a look of internal screaming on her face as she taps her foot restlessly while waiting to arrive at Beacon Academy.
The space where Ruby is idling by is reminiscent of a hotel lobby of sorts—nothing short of expected for the best hunters’ academy across Remnant. There are state-of-the-art media monitors, cushioned seats, and plenty of windows for clear views. The only things missing are automatons and complimentary breakfast.
As she’s still thinking to herself, Ruby suddenly feels a pair of dense hands landing on her shoulders from behind.
“Hey there, step-sis!”
“Nobody talks like that, Yang.”
“Relax, dummy, I’m just having a laugh,” the older step-sister says before noticing a worried look on Ruby’s face. “Okay, spill it. What’s gives?”
“Nothing,” Ruby says. “It’s just… I’m still taking it all in.”
“I see,” Yang says with a coy smile. “I know that it must be so hard being a hero overnight—the paparazzi, the interviews, the complimentary drinks from strangers.”
“You do know that I was arrested, right?”
“Details, details.”
Despite Yang’s best attempts at humoring her sister, Ruby continues to look blue. That doesn’t stop her from trying to cheer her up again.
“I know that the life of an emerging heroine can be a lot. It can be a lonely existence when you’re the bee’s knees.”
Yang looks at Ruby with a dead stare as her serious look seems to get her to break.
“Shut up,” Ruby says chuckling. “I’m not a heroine and I don’t want to be the bee’s knees. I’m just feeling a bit…”
“Nervous? Anxious? Caught up with butterflies in your stomach?”
Before Ruby can reply, a voice from the other side of the ship calls out. It’s one of Yang’s numerous acquaintances that she probably can’t remember—or doesn’t bother—to remember.
“Yo! Xiao Long!”
Yang turns and sees a group of teenage boys giving her invitational nods. She nods back in reply before Ruby notices what’s going on.
“I’ll be fine,” Ruby says. “I just need some time alone, that’s all.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Sure. Totally. Why wouldn’t I be sure about that?”
“I dunno, your aura of self-loathing and anxious gloom might be giving off the wrong signals.”
Ruby looks at Yang, mildly insulted, and tries to walk away before her sister realizes her mistake and takes her by the arm.
“Look, I’m really trying my best here,” Yang says before motioning to the aforementioned group of acquaintances. “Why don’t I introduce you to some of my friends? They’d love to meet last night’s hero!”
Ruby quickly glances over at the group before looking back at her sister. To her, they don’t seem rather friendly. One might argue that they don’t seem rather smart either.
“Your… Friends?” Ruby asks.
“Yeah! You don’t like them?”
Ruby takes one last look and sees the group frying up some poor bumpkin of a student with a shield strapped around his over-stuffed knapsack. It’s clear to everyone on the ship that the poor guy has never flown before by the shade of green in his cheeks and the sickening rumble coming from his stomach.
“I think I’ll be good,” Ruby assures Yang.
“Aw, come on, Ruby. You’ve gotta work with me here. It takes two to tango and only one to start the road to recovery.”
“…Yang, what the heck are you talking about?”
Yang notices a look on Ruby’s face when she was asked the question but she can’t tell if it’s a look of frustration or disdain. She looks over at her group of “friends” and frowns before turning back to Ruby.
“Look, I’m sorry that you’re not doing too hot right now. I was just trying to help.”
“It’s fine,” Ruby says.
“No, it really isn’t.”
“No. I’m telling you it’s fine.”
“I know that you probably hate me right now but I promise you that things will be easier after today. The sun on the first day always feels the hottest,” Yang says while holding up two thumbs up.
“I don’t hate you,” Ruby says before scoffing. “But you do sound like dad right now.”
“He got that line from mom, you know.”
A voice from Yang’s group tells Ruby’s older sister to hurry up. Yang looks at Ruby and yields a worried face.
“Check it out,” the voice calls out. “Your lil’ sis’ on the news!”
Ruby and Yang hear the call. They turn and walk over to the nearest broadcast screen. Immediately, Yang starts to pep up again.
“I can’t believe my baby sister’s a celebrity!”
“Please stop.”
The two watch the news broadcast along with the other students on the airship.
“Following last night’s top story, officials have identified the individual responsible for the recent armed robbery in Seferton. The man going by the name Roman Torchwick, previously convicted for numerous crimes, was caught on film by Valerian public security cameras alongside five Faunus accomplices.”
Still images of Ruby’s scuffle with the henchmen make show up on the screen.
“Look, look,” Yang whispers to Ruby. “It’s you!”
The broadcast continues: “A local hunters’ academy student attempted to stop the perpetrators at the scene of the crime but was ultimately unsuccessful according to authorities.”
“Oof,” Yang says to herself before the broadcast continues.
“The five accomplices, now arrested, identified themselves as part of the controversial Faunus organization known as the White Fang. Upon receiving word of the incident, flocks of Faunus supporters and protestors took to the streets this morning along Mantic Avenue near Vale’s parliament building. In other news—”
The public broadcast is interrupted by an incoming transmission from Beacon Academy. The screen goes blank before the face of one of the professors at the academy appears. The woman that appears on the screen is physically fit despite being middle-aged, blonde, and somehow manages to successfully mesh an athletic-office aesthetic with her attire.
“Greetings to you all,” says the woman. “Welcome to the Hunters’ Academy of the Kingdom of Vale, better known simply as Beacon Academy.”
“Who’s she?” Ruby asks Yang.
“I am the head of self-defense, Glynda Burkowitz,” says the woman on screen. “Congratulations on becoming the privileged few to receive the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious institution. Even in a time of peace and prosperity, the future continues to yearn for security and stability to uphold balance and order for years to come. All of you have demonstrated the courage, the heart, and the will needed for such a grand task. And soon it will be your turn to protect our world and life as we know it. For both freshmen and returning students, do enjoy your first day at Beacon.
End transmission. Yang taps Ruby on the shoulder and points at one of the airship windows.
“Hey. Check it out,” Yang says pointing to towering spires of ivory—Beacon Academy in its glory.
And just like that, the sun begins to rise over the horizon and shines a light behind the spires of the greatest hunters’ academy in Remnant.
All of the students on the airship look out in awe alongside Ruby. Some show hopeful, naïve young faces, others are more determined and ready for excitement to slay monsters—or to finally graduate.
“I guess Beacon’s our home now, huh?” Ruby asks Yang.
“Yeah. Try to enjoy the view while you still can. Some can’t even imagine what it looks like from here.”
A moment of zen between the two as they quietly await for their ship to land.
“It’s nice,” Ruby says to her sister.
“Sure is. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way,” Yang replies. “Right?”
“Right.”
End of Show.
Holy fuck, that was a lot of rewriting. I did not realize how scuffed my original script was but, man, am I glad that I could take the opportunity to go ahead and polish it up here. I’m sure that it still isn’t close to perfect but I think that I’m somewhat proud of my work here—and I hope that some of y’all were entertained by this little experiment of mine. I did it. And now I’m gonna take off, touch some grass (hopefully), and celebrate this post.
Don’t forget to like and share this post if you enjoyed, I’d actually like to bug Rooster Teeth Productions about this so expect to see that sometime soon over Twitter. It probably won’t get much traction since RWBY’s fanbase is pretty much dead but imagine how funny it would be if it did.
To read the epilogue of this essay series, click here.
Thank you for reading this edition of The Morning Owl. If you liked what you saw here, it would be please share this degenerate’s blog to other sentient folk with internet access, subscribe, and leave a comment. Until we meet again, drink plenty of water and take care.