Blood and Water
It should have been the most wonderful news.
It should have been the best news that she had heard in months, years maybe, better even than when Professor Ozpin told her that she could come to Beacon.
It should have been the best news … ever? In her whole life? That was hard to say, but it should have been wonderful news, all the same. It should have been incredible news, if only because it was erasing the very worst news.
Instead…
Instead…
Yang was alive. Yang was alive, and had been alive, and it was … it was wonderful. Her sister alive, her sister not dead, Yang, somewhere out there, breathing.
Down in the darkness, in Grogar’s tunnels, when she had been all alone and under attack by those monsters, Ruby had thought for a moment that she saw Yang there. She thought that she had seen her sister, wreathed in flames, coming to her aid. She had thought … she had thought that she must have imagined it because Yang was dead. But Yang was not dead. Yang was not dead, and … maybe she had come to Ruby’s aid. Maybe she had saved her little sister, one last time.
Or not. Ruby didn’t know, and she hadn’t asked Sunset because Sunset wouldn’t know that for a fact, one way or another.
That, and she had been too angry to think of it.
Because she was angry. She was angry at this wonderful news; she was angry to learn that Yang was alive. Yang was alive, and Ruby stood in her solar with her whole body trembling and her small, pale hands clenched into fists because this news that should have been so wonderful was terrible.
Yang was alive and in Raven’s care. Raven. Raven.
Ruby had possessed no ill thoughts towards Raven Branwen. Yes, she had left Dad and abandoned Yang, but if she hadn’t done that, then Ruby wouldn’t be here, so self-interest alone kept her from condemning what Raven had done too loudly. And besides, Yang had gotten another mom, a better mom, and a sister too.
In her heart of hearts, in the box of feelings that a good girl shouldn’t admit to and a true huntress should not possess, in the box where she kept her fear that her anger at Sunset had been as much performative as heartfelt, in the box where she kept her guilt at how miserable she had made Sunset in their journey eastward, in the box where every ugly feeling lurked, where every emotion she was not supposed to feel dwelt in darkness, Ruby was much more upset with Summer Rose for leaving her than she was with Raven Branwen for anything that she had done.
Or at least, that had been the case. After all, when she had met Raven before this, she had been … pleasant. Helpful. Wrong, but trying her best. Ruby wouldn’t go so far as to say that she liked her, but she had bore her no malice either.
That had changed now. Now, she bore Raven so much malice as to turn it all to water would flood the lands east of the mountains.
Raven had taken Yang. Raven had taken Yang and left Ruby and her father to think her dead.
Perhaps that was a selfish anger, to hate Raven for what she had done to Ruby and to Dad, to hate her for the grief that they had suffered that they need not have suffered, to hate her for the tears that that they had shed which they need not have shed, to loathe her for the way that Dad had sat at home a shell of a man.
To hate her for the months that she had spent trying to get him to eat, trying to work out how the washing machine worked because Yang or Dad had always taken care of that before, and all the while, trying to hide her own broken heart because she had to be strong now for her father, because a true huntress bore her losses and kept moving forward and a true huntress would never admit that she would trade Sunset’s life for Yang’s in a heartbeat so just shove it all away into the dark and never look at it again and keep moving no matter how much it hurts.
To hate her for the way in which each step had felt like walking on glass.
Maybe it was selfish to hate her for all those things, but then let her be selfish! Let her put herself above all others, let her think first and foremost of her own pain, let her be … let her be what other people were allowed to be as a matter of course.
I’m sorry, Sunset, but I … but I’m not sorry at all. No, I’m not. Not now. Not this time. I’m angry for a lot of selfish reasons, but so what? That doesn’t make them bad reasons; it doesn’t mean that I don’t have a right to be angry, does it? Everyone else is selfish, so why not me? Why shouldn’t I be angry for myself, why shouldn’t I think about how this affected me, why shouldn’t I feel this way?
Why do I have to be good all the time? Sunset stumbles, she falls flat on her face, she messes up, she does terrible things, but nobody blames her for it. Nobody judges her. It’s all ‘poor Sunset, having to feel bad about the things that you did.’ She’s a complete disaster, but she gets rewarded with love and friendship and trust and…
And I love her too. And I am her friend, although I haven’t always been a very good friend, and I trust her, but … but why? Why does she get to act this way, why does she get to make so many mistakes, why does she get to be angry and impulsive and selfish while I have to be the good girl? Why do I have to be pure Ruby, good Ruby, sweet Ruby, a huntress amongst huntresses Ruby? Why do I have to be a shining light to inspire other people? What do I get out of it? Everyone else's pain is healed but mine. I have to carry on, strong Ruby, like nothing has happened.
Do people think that just because I can put other people ahead of myself, it means that I don’t have feelings?
Feelings like sadness, or like anger.
She was angry. She was angry at Raven for what she had done to Ruby, to Dad, and for what she had done and was still doing to Yang. She had kidnapped her! Yang hadn’t wanted to go with her, Yang would never have chosen to go with her like that, not in those circumstances, but Raven had taken her anyway. She had taken Yang, and she wouldn’t let her go.
That was the deepest cut of all. That was the thing that Ruby found most infuriating. If Yang had been found alive, then she would have been overjoyed. If Yang had been in Mistral with Jaune and Pyrrha, if she had been unable to leave because she was needed there to help Jaune and Pyrrha, then … then Ruby would have been a little disappointed, but she would have accepted it. She would have accepted that Yang had her part to play, her path to walk, just as Ruby did here in Freeport. She would have been disappointed that it would have been some time before their paths crossed again, but she would have borne it like a good girl and waited patiently for the day they would be reunited — and in the meantime, she would have hoped that Yang was happy and asked Sunset to look out for her on Ruby’s behalf.
But Yang was not with Jaune and Pyrrha. She couldn’t join them, although they had offered her a place among them, offered to protect her. But she couldn’t join them because Raven wouldn’t let her go, and Raven’s reach was inescapable.
She might as well have stuck Yang in a cage for all the freedom she was giving her.
So why shouldn’t she ask Sunset to set her sister free, why shouldn’t she manipulate her, why shouldn’t she play on Sunset’s affections, why shouldn’t she stamp hard upon the button of Sunset’s lingering guilt, why shouldn’t she do everything and anything she had to do in order to set Yang free and teach Raven that her sister was off-limits if she valued her life?
Yes, it was manipulative, and exploitative, and cruel, and all other things that sweet Ruby, pure Ruby, good as gold Ruby shouldn’t be doing, but so what? So what, as long as it saved her sister; so what, as long as it got Yang back; so what, as long as she got what she wanted for a change? For the love of the gods, Cinder had done such things as the God of Darkness would revolt from, and yet, she got to mouth a few words and then ooze about their camp with all her smirks as if no harm done, so why, oh why, should Ruby have to have standards?
Why shouldn’t she get her way? Why should she be the better person? Why should she give up on her sister? Why shouldn’t she ask Sunset to rain down vengeance upon the Branwen tribe, free Yang, even set Anima alight as Sunset had said she would?
Because Pyrrha and Jaune may suffer if I do.
So what?
So they’re my friends.
My friends? My friends? They left me! I was broken, and they left me to go to Mistral and live in Pyrrha’s big fancy house and be happy together! They left me like Sunset left me, like Mom left!
Why should I have to put them above me? Why shouldn’t I get what I want for once? Why does everyone else get to be a hypocrite but me?
Because I’m Ruby Rose, and all my life, I’ve wanted to help other people.
I’m Ruby Rose, and I’m a hero just like in the books.
I’m Ruby Rose, and that’s a promise.
Ruby threw back her head and let out a scream of frustration, a scream that bounced off the stone walls and made the candles flicker and slipped out under the crack between the door and the floor and out into the corridor beyond.
The book, the magical journal, sat on the table where it had been when Ruby had stopped writing. A part of her wanted to grab it and throw it about, but she did not; she didn’t want to damage her only link to Sunset.
She wanted … she wanted … she didn’t know what she wanted.
No, that was a lie; she knew what she wanted; she just didn’t know if she should do it or not.
Yang was alive. That was the starting point. Yang was alive and in Raven Branwen’s custody. Yang was alive, and Raven had her, and it seemed that she was not willing to give her up. Perhaps Sunset could persuade her to release Yang, but why would Raven release her now when she had not done so before? Because Sunset was the Princess of Hope, and persuading people to do the right thing was her job now? Maybe, but it seemed a slender reed on which to place all Ruby’s hopes.
What would make Raven let Yang go? Force. The threat of force, or the use of force, would be the only language Raven and the Branwen tribe would understand. Sunset could deliver that force; even if Raven had the Spring Maiden, Sunset was still … Sunset was Sunset; with her Equestrian magic, she should surely be a match for some bandit maiden who was probably sloppy and incompetent and only used her powers to threaten innocent people. They were bullies, these bandits, they picked on people who weren’t able to stand up to them, and they ran away when someone did stand up to them. If Sunset stood up to them on Yang’s behalf, they would let her go.
And then it seemed they would go crying to the Mistral Council that big, bad Sunset Shimmer had been mean to them and make her stop.
And the Mistral Council would come down on Pyrrha because Sunset was Pyrrha’s friend and because they hated Pyrrha and were looking for an excuse to come down on her, and that meant that…
Salem’s agents are already in Mistral.
Ruby sat down at the desk, and scrunched her eyes tight shut, and laid her head down on the desk as a groan of agony escaped her.
Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose. Team SAPR. Four students chosen by Professor Ozpin to join his circle, to fight against Salem, to defend the world and foil her plans. If Sunset brought down trouble upon Jaune and Pyrrha, then who would be left? Who would be left to defend Mistral against Salem’s schemes and her sinister followers?
This was not about Jaune and Pyrrha. Sunset might have phrased it as though it were, and Ruby knew that if it were Sunset making this decision, then it really would be all about Pyrrha and Jaune, but for Ruby … if it had come down to it, she would have chosen Yang over them. Not lightly, and not without guilt, and she certainly didn’t mean it in the sense that she didn’t care about them, but … but Yang was her sister, and Ruby wanted her back. She wanted her free. She would not have just left her in Raven’s care to spare Pyrrha and Jaune some trouble.
But this was not about Jaune or Pyrrha. It was about Mistral. It was about the city on the mountain and whether Ruby had the right to deprive it of its best defence just at the moment of greatest peril for her sister’s sake.
Mistral has other defenders besides Pyrrha. I don’t know what Salem’s plans are, or whether Pyrrha and Jaune would be able to stop them. Sunset said that Pyrrha had raised a company of warriors; maybe they can carry on the fight without her. And General Ironwood is sending help as well. Mistral might not fall.
I’m sure that Sunset was able to rationalise her decision as well.
She felt … she felt … she felt as though she were in a dark tunnel, with a choice ahead of her.
It was not as easy a choice as she had imagined when she had leapt to condemn Sunset.
Yang or Mistral? The one she loved or the many who were strangers to her? The one person who had signed up for the risk of death or the city of people who trusted people like Ruby to make the right decisions to protect them?
Her heart’s desire or her self-image?
Sunset’s path or her mother’s footsteps?
Perhaps Sunset would be able to find another way; perhaps she would be able to reject the cruel binary and find a happy path that would bring Yang safely home — or safely out of danger, anyway — and yet avoid the wrath of the Council falling upon Pyrrha’s head.
But if she did not, if she could not, if she had to choose … Ruby could not place all her faith in Sunset’s silver tongue. She had not that much hope, for her Princess of Hope had left her behind.
Yang or Mistral?
Why? Why do I have to choose? Why am I in this position? Haven’t I suffered enough already? Why can’t I do what makes me happy just this once?
If she chose Yang, then all of Mistral might suffer from the removal of its champions, but if she chose Mistral … Yang was her sister. Her sister! Yang had always been there for her, always, ever since she was a kid. She’d dried Ruby’s tears after Mom died, told her stories, read to her before she went to sleep, fed her, dressed her. Yang had always been there, a rock that she could rely on, even when she couldn’t rely on her father.
And if Ruby chose Mistral, then she would be abandoning Yang when Yang needed her for a change. Abandoning her to the mercy of Raven. How could she do that? How could she do that, even for Mistral, even for the whole of Remnant? How could she do that, no matter what Yang had signed up for?
How?
How could she do such a thing? How could she be so cruel, so uncaring? What kind of faithless sister would she be if she were to take that step, however noble her motives might be?
Would Yang ever have abandoned her like that? No. Never.
And yet … and yet, Mistral, and the great struggle?
Why did she have to choose? Why did she have to make this choice? Was this her punishment? Was she being punished because she had been too hard on Sunset, because she had been arrogantly self-assured, believing that the choice should have been an easy one, the answer obvious? Was this the nemesis that followed after such hubris, that she should have to make such a choice herself?
Her sister or her conscience, what an evil choice was this!
Ruby leapt off the chair and began to pace up and down the room.
How? How can I choose? How can I condemn one or the other? How can I make this choice?
In one thing, Sunset and I are different: I’m not there. It isn’t my head on the block. I’m not the one who will die depending on what I decide.
Sunset said that it wasn’t about saving her life, and I believe her, but all the same … it’s different if you’re there. If Sunset had made … if Sunset had chosen not to detonate the mine, then she would have died alongside us. Her regret would only have lasted a few moments.
My regrets will last a lifetime.
I suppose it’s too much to hope that Cinder will just do the thing that I really want without me having to sacrifice for it, the way that she would have blown the mine if Sunset had refrained.
No, that’s not likely, not anymore. She won’t do anything except what Sunset asks of her.
And Sunset won’t ask anything except what I ask of her in this.
If I tell her to leave Yang, worry about Professor Ozpin, worry about Mistral, then she will do that. If I tell her to rescue Yang, then she will do that. This is my choice, and mine alone.
But what a choice.
There was a knock at the door. “Your Majesty?” Laurel called from the other side of the door. “Is anything amiss?”
“No, I’m fine,” Ruby growled. “Go away.”
Laurel did not go away. She opened the door and looked inside. “You were heard screaming from out in the corridor.”
“Well, as you can see, I’m fine,” Ruby snapped. Except that she wasn’t. And she could use someone to talk to about this, even if that someone was one of the Sun Queen’s counsellors.
She couldn’t talk to Dad about this. He would … he’d be in just the same position she was in.
But she needed to talk to someone.
“Come in,” she said, her voice softening. “And I’m sorry for yelling at you.”
Laurel smiled. “That’s quite alright, Your Majesty. The crown can be a heavy burden, and heavy burdens can make one cranky.”
Ruby did not smile. Rather, as Laurel stepped inside, closed the door behind her, and sat down upon a stool hard by the door, Ruby studied her. She was tall, about as tall as Pyrrha — maybe taller with her shoes off; Ruby thought her heels might be a little smaller — but she did not have Pyrrha’s beauty. Laurel’s complexion was pasty, pale without being fair, and her blue eyes were watery and pale. Her hair was iron grey, as though she had grown old before her time, and worn in a severe bun at the nape of her neck that made her look like a librarian. She was dressed in black, in an old-fashioned black gown with a train that dragged behind her when she walked. She was dressed that way in mourning for her queen. Perhaps that ought to have made her suspect in Ruby’s eyes, but she needed people around her who understood how Freeport worked; Ember and Prince Rutherford could teach her about the clans, but Ruby needed Laurel and Cherry to understand the city that was at the heart of her kingdom.
And she did not want to be the sort of queen who began her reign by banishing everyone connected with the old regime.
Not when she needed all the help she could get.
Laurel pushed the pince-nez up her nose, then folded her hands together on her lap. “Now, what can I do for Your Majesty?”
“You don’t have to call me that,” Ruby said. “Not in private.”
“What else should I call you?” Laurel asked. “Not Miss Rose, that would be most improper.”
“You could call me Ruby?” Ruby suggested.
Laurel glanced away. “I … apart from anything, it would feel strange to be less formal with you than I was with my own friend. Would you mind if we maintained the formalities, for now?”
“If you prefer, sure,” Ruby murmured. She approached the chair but did not sit on it, instead leaning upon the wooden back with both hands. “Can I ask you something?”
“I am at Her Majesty’s service,” Laurel said. “Is this about the village dispute?”
“No, this is … this is something else,” Ruby replied. “This is … if you had to choose between the greater good of the many or one person you loved, what would you choose?”
Laurel pushed her pince-nez back up her nose again. “Are you asking me what I would do or what a queen should do?”
“Would the answers be any different?” Ruby asked.
“Yes, I think they would,” Laurel said. “I, after all, chose love. I followed Sunset — my Sunset, Queen Sunset — here from Atlas in what could only be described as a quixotic venture. The Girl Who Would Be Queen.” She chuckled. “But I would have followed her anywhere she asked. Absolutely anywhere, and done anything too.”
“Because you loved her,” Ruby murmured.
“Your Majesty, I could use many words to describe your appearance,” Laurel said. “Words which, though flattering, would also be to demeaning to your royal dignity for me to give them voice; nevertheless, I am sure you have heard them and will know what I mean.” She paused. “It may surprise you, the recipient of so many compliments I’m sure, to learn that the world can be a very harsh place for an ugly duckling like myself. But Sunset never cared about that. She valued me, in spite of this wretched complexion and this appalling hair. She saw that there was something I could bring regardless. That being so, how could I not repay her kindness with my loyalty?” Again, she fell silent for a moment, before she said, “But I am not the queen of Freeport and Estmorland.”
“No,” Ruby murmured. “No, that’s me.”
“And a queen, a true queen, a good queen, a perfect queen, must always put the greater good of her subjects first,” Laurel declared. “Sunset, the Sun Queen, always did that. From the moment that we arrived, from the moment that the clans and settlements acclaimed her, the Sun Queen always dedicated herself wholly and solely to the wellbeing of the kingdom and of her people. I don’t expect you to like it, but even her decision to hand you and your friends over to your enemies … even that decision was made with the best interests of the kingdom in mind.”
“Really?” Ruby muttered.
“I told you you wouldn’t like it,” Laurel said, unabashed. “But consider the grimm attack that fell on Freeport after … well, you know. Yes, you saved the city and reaped the rewards for your extraordinary actions, Your Majesty, but there would have been no attack, and many who are dead would have lived if you had simply been delivered to your foes. It was not the honourable choice, I admit, it was not even a kind choice, but it was the right choice for the whole kingdom.”
“Even though it cost Sunsprite her life?” Ruby demanded.
“One life,” Laurel said. “Against an entire kingdom.”
Ruby took a moment before she asked, “Did she find it easy?”
“No,” Laurel said at once. “Not at all. She thought long and hard, she deliberated, she consulted, she did not want to take that step. But in her heart, she knew what she had to do. She was the perfect queen: utterly selfless.”
“I see,” Ruby muttered. “Thank you, Laurel.”
It was a dismissal, and Laurel understood it as such. She rose from her seat. “Very well, Your Majesty, I wish you a good night. Will you retire to bed soon?”
“I don’t know,” Ruby replied. “Not yet.”
“I see,” Laurel murmured. “Well, goodnight regardless, Your Majesty.”
“Goodnight,” Ruby said softly, looking away from her and down at the closed book, her link to Sunset waiting on the other side.
Laurel opened the door. “If I may say, Your Majesty, I believe that you, too, have the makings of the perfect queen this realm required, just as Sunset did.”
Ruby glanced at her. “You think so?”
Laurel nodded. “I see so much of her in you, Your Majesty: courage, kindness … a willingness to make the hard decisions, without flinching from them.”
Ruby felt a little sick to hear it. Because that’s the comparison I wanted. “Thank you,” she said through gritted teeth. Even though Laurel meant it as praise, it was difficult to feel flattered.
Laurel nodded. “Your Majesty,” she murmured, then closed the door behind her.
Ruby frowned. A perfect queen. A perfect queen like the Sun Queen. A perfect queen like the one who had me locked up and would have thrown me to Tyrian and had my cousin killed. A perfect queen like the one who stole Sunset’s body and took away our memories of her.
Thanks, Laurel, I really wanted to hear that.
That was … unfair, perhaps. Laurel hadn’t meant any harm by her words; she had been devoted to her queen and friend, and if that had caused her to imagine a person who did not quite match the reality … Ruby could hardly begrudge her that.
And besides, she had a point: handing everyone over to Tyrian would have spared the town an assault by the grimm and saved the lives of its defenders. That was why Ruby had refused to defend herself in the arena.
Because sometimes sacrifices had to be made, even if that meant sacrificing yourself.
Or your sister?
Ruby scowled. No. No, it was not so … she could not … it was not the same thing! It was one thing to give your life, that she could without hesitation, but this? To abandon Yang? If that was the action of a perfect queen, then did it follow that that was the queen she had to be? Had she not spent long enough being perfect? Was she not allowed to be a flawed queen, a human queen, a queen of hearts as well as roses?
No. No, she was not. Because this burden had not been appointed to her; she had chosen it, with her eyes open. And that meant … and that meant that she didn’t have the luxury of human weakness.
But who would know? This was no business of Freeport; she had spoken to Laurel only in hypotheticals, and in the vaguest terms at that. Laurel said that, as a queen, she should put her subjects first, saying nothing of other people in other kingdoms, and no one in Freeport would be affected by her choice. If Ruby told Sunset to leave Yang be, or if she told Sunset to wage war until Yang was freed like the old heroes in Pyrrha’s Mistralian myths fighting to free the princess from her captors, either way, life in Freeport would go on, ignorant and uncaring of Yang Xiao Long, whatever state she was in.
No one would know.
No one would know, save her, who was not only queen but huntress too, and was not pledged to Freeport alone but to all mankind.
Which pledge would come before the other, if it came to it? The queen or the huntress, Freeport or the world, my subjects or humanity?
Let it not come to that. This choice I face at present is agony enough.
Ruby turned away from the chair and desk and book and wandered to the window. The moonlight fell in through the casement, and it bathed her as she stepped into its silvery beams, the light turning her skin even paler than it normally appeared and making her eyes shine like little moons in miniature.
Could she abandon morality and reason her way into an outcome that would please her?
Reason? No. She could rationalise her way into doing what she wanted, but that way lay Sunset’s path.
No, she could not judge this coldly. Others, she knew, thought her cold, even heartless; Cinder thought she had no compassion in her, even Sunset found her chilly at times, but it was not so. Ruby did not consider it so. She had a heart; it simply did not beat the same as theirs, was moved by things that moved not them, was not moved by those things that excited them. If Sunset loved not wisely but too well, then Ruby loved in moderation, but spread her love more widely for it.
A hero saves not only those they love but those they do not care for, even those they hate.
She did not hate the people of Mistral. She would not even say she did not care for them, save that she did not know them.
And yet, Yang … Yang pulled upon her heart with mighty chains of iron that threatened to drag her from her tower and over the ocean to the Branwen camp.
To abandon Yang would be … evil. Ruby knew no other way to say it. To leave her sister in the clutches of her kidnapper, to cast her to the Raven to devour, to leave her, knowingly, in such a place … her own sister. Her sister who had taken care of her, how would Ruby leaving her when Yang needed a saviour, how would that be anything else but evil?
How could that be right, for all the talk of the needs of the many and the duties of a huntress and the risks which Yang might or might not have accepted, no, you could not justify this, not even the perfect queen could justify this!
And yet, how much better could it be to deprive Mistral of its greatest defender on the eve of battle, with Salem’s agents already in the city?
Yang or Mistral. Ruby felt as though she was sailing between a monster and a whirlpool.
She felt as though she were trapped in this room, with the air growing ever stuffier and more stultified; she felt as though she were suffocating under the weight of her decision; she had to get out!
Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose, flung open the door, and began to race down the corridors of her fortress palace. She ran, trailing rose petals, and as she ran faster and faster, as she dodged the patrolling guards and attendants servants, as she ignored all cries and calls and did not stop, she ceased to run and instead became a shower of rose petals, a moving mass without a single fixed point, a sensation without a body, a thought without a vessel to hold that thought.
She was aware of where she was, but she did not feel it. She knew that she was flying out of the Tower of the Sun and through the streets of Freeport, but she did not feel the chill of the night air around her, she did not feel the smoke from the cooking fires or the grills of the street vendors, she did not feel anything.
And for a brief moment, that relief was glorious.
Ruby flew through the streets and over the wall and the closed gates, and she flew out beyond Freeport, passing the outer defences where the sentries kept watch and disappearing into the darkness.
Only there, beyond the town, where there was no one to see her, no one to speak to her, no one to get in her way, only there did Ruby reform herself. Only there, standing in the grass, with the moon shining down upon her, did Ruby wait.
It did not take them long to come to her.
The grimm, beowolves all, their long-limbed, lithe bodies began as deeper patches of shadow in the darkness, then gradually seemed to form out of that same darkness, their spikes of bone, their masks, their gleaming red eyes like embers amongst cold coals, all coming slowly into view as they came closer.
And as they came closer, they began to growl, the sounds of their snarling and their growling growing louder and louder.
They were all around her.
The breeze of night ruffled Ruby’s tattered cloak. The moonlight glinted off her armour. And as Crescent Rose extended in her hands, unfolding with a series of clicks and clanks and hisses, Ruby smiled.
The first beowolf lunged for her. Ruby leapt and, for a moment, hung suspended in the night sky, silhouetted against the moon.
And then she blew its head off.
This, this she knew how to do.
She shot, she sliced, she zipped from place to place so fast that they could never catch her, she made the night resound to the bangs of her sniper rifle, she tore through their black masses, she sliced through their bone armour, she ended them one by one, in twos and threes and fours besides, she slaughtered them all, every last one of them. She didn’t have to think about it. She didn’t have to weigh the options in her mind, she didn’t have to think about what was best and who she owed for what and where the right choice lay. She could just fight, and kill, and vanquish evil as she had trained to do, as she had always wanted to do.
As she fired and spun and cut them to ribbons, she could put aside the queen and be the huntress once again.
And she could kill. She could vent her anger. She could do to all these beowolves what she wanted to do to Raven; in her mind, the bone masks that the monsters wore transformed to the helm that Raven wore upon her head, their black bodies became as red as crimson, their spurs of bone became lamellar armour, and as she fought, she struck down Raven Branwen over and over again.
But it was over all too soon. The last of the beowolves turned to ash, the growling ceased, and there was no sound left all but Ruby’s breathing.
And the sound of someone clapping behind her.
Ruby turned around to see Neopolitan standing behind her, applauding in a genteel fashion, her wrists together, her palms and fingers moving. She was watching Ruby with one raised eyebrow above her pink eye.
She signed, Did that make you feel better?
Crescent Rose compacted in Ruby’s hand, folding up into a more portal size and shape; she put it on her back and signed, Not really.
I’m shocked, signed Neo.
How did you get out here? Ruby asked. How did you manage to find me, or catch up with me?
I have my ways, replied Neo, with a slight smirk on her face. The real question is, what are you doing out here. None of us should wander alone, and the Queen of Roses least of all.
“I can take care of myself!” Ruby replied indignantly. Then she remembered to sign it. I can take care of myself.
Sure you can, Neo signed. But what are you doing out here? Did you have a sudden urge to hunt some beowolves?
Ruby hesitated for a moment. I found out that my sister’s alive.
Neo’s eyebrow rose even higher. I can see why that would upset you.
“Ha ha ha,” Ruby said, because sign language wasn’t so good for conveying tone. I don’t know what to do, she admitted.
Neo frowned. How do you mean?
Ruby closed her eyes for a moment. Yang … she’s been kidnapped. She was always kidnapped; she was never dead. Her … someone has taken her and is holding her against her will.
Someone tough, I presume? Neo asked. Someone your sister can’t just get away from.
Right, Ruby replied. Some friends of mine offered to let her stay with them, to shelter and protect her, but she refused. She said that they wouldn’t be able to help her, that the person who took her would always be able to get her again.
That tough, huh?
It’s her semblance, Ruby explained. She can open portals, and I suppose she could use them to snatch Yang from wherever she was.
Neo nodded thoughtfully. Well, it might not fit with your morals, but there is an answer to that. She drew one finger across her throat, and stuck out her tongue.
Ruby scowled. It has occurred to me, she signed.
Neo cocked her head to one side. Really? I didn’t think you had it in you?
“You thought that I—” Ruby stopped. You thought that I’d just … what? That I wouldn’t be able to do whatever it took to help my sister?
If you were willing to do whatever it took, you wouldn’t be out here taking your anger out on the beowolves, Neo pointed out.
Ruby pouted, but could hardly dispute her point. It’s complicated.
How? Neo asked. How do you know about your sister, anyway?
Sunset told me.
And how does she know? Neo asked.
From friends in Mistral; this is where it gets complicated, Ruby said.
Doesn’t seem that complicated to me, Neo said. Even if you can’t go get your sister personally, why don’t you just ask Sunset to go and get her for you? You know she’ll do it, right? She’ll do anything you ask her to.
I know, Ruby signed, half feeling as though the very fact that Sunset would do anything she asked her to was a good reason to be responsible about the things that she asked Sunset for. But the person who took Yang is … they have friends in Mistral.
Friends in high places, you mean? Neo asked.
Ruby nodded. That’s right.
That’s unfortunate, Neo said. I’ve never been to Mistral, but Roman’s told me stories. The way he tells it, if you have the right friends, you can pretty much do whatever you want.
And it gets even worse, Ruby said. Because their friends hate my friends, Jaune and Pyrrha, and if I ask Sunset to do something to help Yang, then I’m afraid that Pyrrha and Jaune will get blamed for it, and Mistral needs them. It needs them badly, from what I’ve been told, because trouble is headed their way. So that’s why I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to choose. I don’t know how I can just abandon my sister, but I don’t know how I can put a whole city in peril either.
Neo was silent for a moment. You want to know what I think?
I think I can probably guess, Ruby signed back.
Oh, really?
You’re going to tell me to screw everyone else and get my sister back, right? Ruby demanded.
What do you take me for, a brute? Neo asked, her eyes widening in feigned shock. A grin flitted across her face for a moment. She paused, half turning away from Ruby and looking up at the shattered moon that hovered above them. The breeze ruffled her pink and brown hair, even as she ran one hand through the brown side of it.
She returned her attention to Ruby, and began to sign again, You know, before I met Roman and embarked upon a life of crime, I was a graduate of Lady Browning’s Preparatory Academy for Girls.
Ruby’s eyebrows rose. “Seriously?”
Neo’s smirk returned as she mimed holding a cup and saucer. Oh, yes, indeed. I was a lady, I was. You don’t think I learned how to fight with a parasol at the School of Hard Knocks, do you?
I hadn’t really given it much thought, Ruby confessed.
Well, it wasn’t just etiquette lessons, Neo explained. Yes, I know which knife and fork to use, which wine to order with which meal, how to smile prettily and play the piano. I know everything I need to know in order to land a rich husband. She grinned. And I know how to kick his ass the moment he oversteps his bounds.
I think a lot of guys appreciate that these days, Ruby said.
I was also trained in spycraft and assassination, Neo added, in what probably would have been a very matter-of-fact way if she had been speaking, not signing.
Ruby’s jaw dropped. Spycraft and assassination?
Uh-huh.
Because that’s something every modern girl needs to know? Ruby asked.
They do if your school is being bankrolled by organised crime, Neo replied.
Come again?
It’s a long story; I’ll tell you later, Neo signed. The point is, Lady Beat — that was the headmistress – taught me one lesson even more important than how to fence, steal secrets, manipulate, or murder people.
Really? Ruby asked. And what’s that?
Girls are expected to obey the rules, Neo signed. But we only get punished when we break them.
Ruby’s brow furrowed. Everyone is expected to obey the rules, and everyone gets punished when they break them.
Then why can’t you get your sister back, you poor, naïve child?
That’s a good point, Ruby acknowledged. But I still don’t see—
The point is that you don’t have to follow the rules, Neo said. You just have to know how far they’ll bend before they snap. That’s what you should tell Sunset to do: push the rules as far as they will go without breaking them. That way, you get your sister back, and you don’t get your other friends into trouble.
You make it sound so simple, Ruby signed back.
It would be very tempting to accept that fact, just as it would have been very tempting to believe Sunset when she said that she was going to ensure that she could always win without having to make hard choices any more. It was very tempting to believe that that was possible, that you could move through the world avoiding all tough decisions, taking convenient alternative approaches to solve all your problems and get you everything you wanted.
It would be wonderful to believe that, but Ruby wasn’t sure she could.
I’m not sure it can be that easy.
Neo shrugged. You can believe it or not; it doesn’t make that much difference to me. I’ve said — signed — my piece. Now are you going to come back to Freeport with me?
Ruby nodded. Yeah. Yeah, I’m coming. After all, the perfect queen probably didn’t run away from her city in the middle of the night.
As she and Neo walked back to Freeport, Ruby feeling the distance that she had travelled, she felt herself turning Neo’s words over and over again in her mind.
She didn’t understand what it was about girls, specifically, that meant they were expected to obey the rules but only punished for breaking them, but the rest?
It seemed as though she had only two choices, Yang and Mistral, but then, it had seemed as though Professor Ozpin only had one choice, to put Pyrrha — or someone else — into that machine and turn her into the Fall Maiden, but Sunset had found another way, to save Amber and spare Pyrrha the ordeal. Okay, that hadn’t worked out great in the end, but it was something no one else had thought of until she came up with it.
Ruby could only see two choices ahead of her. But maybe, just maybe, Sunset could see more, and she wouldn’t have to choose at all.