Ch 56: Red Like Roses (3)

"Ray!" Summer called out to her son, and Ruby wordlessly reached up to turn his gaze back towards her, both worried about the hate they could hear in his voice and see on his face.

*Haaaaaaa… Hooooooooo…* "Sorry, I'm OK." Ray took a deep breath in and out and apologized, getting his emotions back under control. However, that brief eruption of bloodlust had caused several innocent passerbyers and ignorant citizens in their homes to suddenly faint in a cold sweat. Ray started walking a bit faster, an embarrassed blush coloring his cheeks as he tried to escape the scene.

"What can I do to help?" Ruby asked. Now that she knew her mother was alive, that someone wanted her dead, and that her brother intended to hunt them in turn, there was no way that she wasn't going to do something.

"Exactly what you have been doing." Ray answered. Ruby scowled at her brother, not liking his answer when he had just told her he had been running around behind the scenes to make preparations.

Ray squeezed his precious sister tighter and chuckled, but it was their mom that answered Ruby, "He is right, Ruby. What you need to do now is train as hard as you can to become the best Huntress you can be. We are going to need you and your friends' help once this war kicks off in earnest. Things are already moving towards a head on their own momentum, and there's little more any of us can do besides train right now. Before the end of the year?" Summer looked at Ray to confirm that events were still proceeding as predicted.

"This year's Vytal Festival is going to be the most exciting ever, to say the least." Ray nodded and tried to joke. Ruby and Summer rolled their eyes at him.

"I swear, who do you get your sense of humor from." Summer sighed and complained.

"It must be from you, Mom. Dad's and Yang's sense of humor are even worse." Ruby joked. Summer choked up a bit at hearing Ruby call her Mom.

"I remember." she eventually groaned, "I had hoped she would grow out of that."

"Sorry, Mom. Yang is incurable now." Ruby laughed. She was enjoying getting to call her mother 'Mom' and just chat with her. The mother and daughter pair continued to talk and laugh and cry with each other, trying to catch up on a lifetime of missed memories in this brief conversation. Ray stayed silent through most of it, just letting them talk and only occasionally interjecting, as he took the long way around to the bus stop while carrying his twin sister like a princess in his arms. However, all good things must come to an end, and eventually, they reached the bus station just in time to catch the last airbus back. After a flurry of 'goodbye's and 'I love you's, Ruby hung up the scroll and passed it back to Ray.

"Thanks, Ray." Ruby yawned on the ride back to Beacon as she fell asleep in his lap. And as she slept, she dreamed. Dreamed of the last time she had visited her mother's grave.

######

It was a cold, snowy night. Ruby had lost track of time and spent far too long at her mother's grave talking with her. Now the shattered moon hung high in the sky as she made her way back home through the forest of skeletal trees as the crisp winter wind blew, swirling her cloak around her.

A flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. The soft crunch of snow beneath bestial feet. A whisper in the wind. She wasn't alone. Ruby stepped into a clearing and looked around her. She finally got a good look at what had been stalking her since she left the cliff top where her mother's grave could watch over all of Patch. Beowolves. At least two dozen of them, though not a single Alpha among them despite the huge pack. Ruby wasn't surprised though. It was hard for any Grimm to grow very strong on the island of Patch with her father and siblings hunting them so liberally for training and stress relief.

As these mundane thoughts flitted through her head, three of the bloodthirsty Grimm lunged at her, their claws and fangs glistening with murderous intent. However, all they caught was a mouthful of petals as, without appearing to move, Ruby disappeared in a flurry of rose petals. As they looked around restlessly for their helpless prey, Ruby was above them and not helpless in the least.

With the full shattered moon behind her illuminating the snowy Grimm covered clearing below as bright as day, Ruby drew her beloved sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose, from where it slumbered on her hip. Extending it into its sniper form, she fired downward all in one swift, smooth motion. *Bang* The head of one of her hunters exploded in a cloud of misty red blood, and black Grimm smoke as the first predator fell to the ground.

Uncaring of their slain brother, the Beowolves now knew where the little girl was and charged towards where she was going to land. Ruby landed firmly on her feet with her knees slightly bent and one of the monsters just inches away from Crescent Rose, much to its miss fortune. Using the recoil of her landing, Ruby jumped up and forward, planting the muzzle of her gun against the top of the fiend's skull.

*Bang* Another shot, another dead Grimm. The recoil from her powerful sniper rifle lifting her light body further into the air. Ruby spun and twirled to control the direction of her descent.

*Bang* straightening out less than a foot from the ground, Ruby blew out the entire left abdomen of another Grimm. Dispersing the recoil into a forward flip instead of letting it push her back again, Ruby landed in a roll and came up as she cocked her rifle again right into the belly of another Grimm that was already swinging for her head.

*Bang* her fourth shot, her fourth kill. This one, splitting the Beowolf clean in half as Ruby used the kickback to roll backward and away from the charging pack of nightmares. Springing to her feet with a backward handspring, Ruby changed Crescent Rose from its sniper to scythe mode, spinning the lethal weapon around her frail-looking body.

Her rapid takedown of four of their members caused the rest of the pack to pause for a moment. This was not the easy kill they had been expecting. *Aow Wooooo* Soon, however, instinct won out over fear and reason, and with a howl, one of the Grimm led its brethren in a renewed assault.

As the first of the charging Beowolves reached her, Ruby slammed the long handle of her scythe against its left shoulder, forcing it to kneel before her. The nightmarish wolf growled in anger at the arrogant little red riding hood, its dripping maw and razor-sharp teeth inches from her tender throat.

Ruby smirked. Its display of bravado in its final moments amusing the young huntress for a moment. Then her face hardened again into the determined look of a warrior.

*Bang* her fifth shot, her fifth and sixth kill. For as her bullet tore through the skull of one of the charging Grimm, the recoil of the shot pushed the blade of her scythe back. Added with her own strength and control, it sliced the kneeling Beowolf clean in two, from left shoulder to right hip.

Following through with the momentum generated by the swing, Ruby spun around and twirled Crescent Rose in a circle beside her before planting it, blade first, into the cold hard ground creating an impromptu monopod to steady her aim as she faced the charging hoard.

*Bang Bang Bang Bang* One shot. Two shots. Three. Four. The monsters fell like autumn leaves with every shot from her high-caliber sniper rifle. Then they were upon her. A Beowolf swung for her head. Ruby jumped over the swing and fired again.

*Bang* The Grimm tried to move its head out of the way, but it wasn't fast enough, and the right side of its skull disappeared as it was knocked to the ground and Ruby jumped backward using the recoil to gain even more distance. Stabbing the blade of Crescent Rose into the ground, Ruby instantly stopped her backward flight and flipped herself up into the air to land with the grace of a gymnast on the handle of her weapon.

Using her elevated position, Ruby quickly assessed the situation. It wasn't good. While she had already taken down almost half of the initial group, she could see even more of the nightmarish creatures charging out of the surrounding woods. No doubt drawn by the sounds of their battle and her heightened emotions.

But that quick scan was all the time she had before another Beowolf reached her and tried to tear her in two. Dropping to lay flat on the handle of her scythe and spinning atop it on her back to dodge the deadly claws, Ruby planted her booted feet against the inside of the reverse side of her blade and pulled the trigger.

*Bang* Her shot took out another Grimm that was moments away from ripping her to shreds and kicked her scythe out of the ground and up into the air and her along with it. Flipping backward through the air, Ruby controlled the generated momentum and directed all of it through her legs into a double kick at the monster whose claws she had just avoided, breaking its jaw and knocking it to the ground with a cracked skull. Landing on her feet, Ruby was immediately besieged by several Beowolves.

*Shnik Bang Shnik Bang Shnik* Crescent Rose spun around Ruby in a blur. Every swing severing a limb or splitting a torso of one close to her. Each shot blasting a hole out of one charging towards her. Not a single wasted movement as even the recoil of her shots were fed into the momentum of her ever moving scythe, ensuring it never slowed its deadly dance. No Grimm was safe, neither near nor far, from the lethal little red. But sufficient quantity could always wear down even the finest quality.

Ruby knew this, and as the seemingly endless waves of nightmarish wolves sought to overwhelm her from every direction, she latched the blade of her scythe around the neck of one of the beasts. Spun around its neck and landed on its shoulders. Before it could even think of bucking her off, she fired straight down and jumped in the same instance, severing the Beowolf's head from its body and propelling herself high into the air.

But even high above the ground, she could not catch a breather. The ravenous beasts, intent on flaying her tender skin from her bones, threw themselves into the air towards her. Unwilling to be dragged back down into that mob, Ruby fired her rifle behind her without aiming, pushing herself both towards a lunging Grimm and the edge of the mass of black fur, white bone, and red eyes below her.

*Sweee* Spinning like a top, Ruby sliced the Beowolf she had shot herself towards in two and then used its still solid corpse to jump off of, prolonging her air time.

*Bang* With another shot, she flipped over another Grimm and jumped off its back. She was almost there. The densely packed throng of murder below her unable to move on the ground as quickly as she could through the air due to how closely they had pressed together while trying to reach her before.

*Shniii Bang* twirling in the air to dodge another set of gleaming claws by a margin so narrow they tore the edge of her signature red hood. Ruby avoided the last of the leaping doggies and shot it in the back at point-blank range, blasting a huge hole in its chest and severing the leg of another one on the ground while finally propelling her well clear of the beasts. For now.

Skidding to a halt with snow flying around her, Ruby rested her heavy weapon against the ground. Taking deep, controlled breaths and eyeing the foes untangling themselves to charge towards her again, Ruby considered her options. She hadn't taken a hit yet, and her Aura was still full, but she was still walking on a razor's edge. One good hit could knock her off her feet, and in this crowd, once she went down, she wouldn't be getting back up.

[I made a mistake trying to hold my ground against these Grimm.] Ruby ejected the now spent magazine of standard rounds from her rifle and loaded a new magazine of piercing rounds.

[I need to keep moving.] Ruby brandished her scythe behind her and cocked it.

[I need speed.]

*Bang* Ruby dashed forward at the same time as she fired behind her, launching herself with seemingly reckless abandon into the hoard. Her red cloak billowing behind her as she dived in. A streak of red into a sea of black on a white canvas of snow. It was as beautiful as any painting.

*Shnik Sweee Shnik Bang Shniii Bang Swee Shnik* Ruby spun and twirled on the tips of her toes, reaping heads like they were stalks of wheat instead of monsters. Never stopping, never slowing, constantly building momentum as she danced the deadliest of dances. Then she exploded.

She had broken through the first wave and was running, racing towards the second. Her speed seemed to have reached its peak. Surely, no one could remain in control if they went any faster. When she fired behind her again.

*Bang* The shot lifted her off her feet. The wind tore at her cloak, hair, and skirt. Streaming them out in a long trail of red behind her as the blade of her scythe clicked back parallel to its handle, becoming a war scythe. Moving too fast now for her foe's eyes to see, she spun through the air. Her body almost parallel to the ground, and Crescent Rose held perpendicular to her behind her back. She tore through the Grimm like a hurricane. Never touching the ground but for the briefest of instances with the tip of her war scythe to adjust her direction.

When the majority of her momentum was spent, Ruby slid across the snowy ground like a skater, Crescent Rose still spinning around her. Its blade slicing through every foe. Its gun blowing chunks out of every target. Its recoil propelling itself and Ruby ever onward. Never stopping. Always moving. If before she had been the eye of the storm, now she was the storm itself. Severed limbs and spent casing flew up into air turned cloudy with red blood mist, black Grimm smoke, grey gunsmoke, and white snow kicked up by their deadly dance. Till finally, only one remained.

Ruby stood there, breathing heavily but steadily, as the last remains of the Grimm that had hunted her turned to black smoke around her, and the countless spent sniper casings fell like rain around her. The stillness that followed the storm was oppressive, and Ruby couldn't help but strike a pose with the moon hanging low in the sky behind her and her trusted partner resting over her shoulder behind her as she reveled in her victory.

The sound broke the spell of slow clapping behind her. Ruby turned around to greet the shadowed figure leaning against the trunk of a tree at the edge of the clearing. The flush on her cheeks from the cold and her recent exertion hiding her embarrassed blush.

######

After the emotional day they had both had, Ray wasn't willing to let her go, even to sit next to him, and Ruby hadn't been that eager to separate either. So, Ruby remained in his lap, sleeping and dreaming as the airbus flew them across the starry night sky back to Beacon. Thankfully, the airbus this late was almost devoid of other people, and the few who were there didn't care about how the two similar-looking kids acted. He considered taking her back to sleep with him that night, but at the last moment, he decided to let her sleep in her own bed instead. As he used Ruby's scroll to unlock Team RWBY's dorm room and quietly opened the door, he found that the other members of Team RWBY were already fast asleep. Except Yang. The dutiful big sister she was, Yang had been waiting up for Ruby and Ray to return.

"What happened?" Yang whispered as she quietly jumped down from her bunk to land silently on the floor after seeing Ray carrying a sleeping Ruby in his arms.

Ray shook his head, "I'll tell you later. Ruby is fine. She is just tired. It was an emotional day." Yang searched her little brother's eyes for a moment, wondering how their monthly trip to read a weapon magazine had gotten so emotional. After a while, she nodded and decided to accept Ray's evasion. For now. Taking Ruby into her arms from Ray, Ray and Yang whispered goodnight to each other, and Yang closed the door to change Ruby into her sleepwear and put the adorable girl to bed.

The next morning, Ray decided to skip practice and sleep in a bit for once. He was far too comfortable at the moment. Both Yang and Ruby had snuck into his room for the first time since they had come to Beacon and were now sleeping on either side of him with smiles on their sleeping faces, even if Ruby's cheeks did still show signs of the tears she had shed last night. As Ray held his beloved sisters closer to him, he felt his heart overflowing with love. He renewed his vow once again to always protect their beautiful smiles.