Archive of Our Own ^beta

The acrid tang of smoke and death clung to Ruby, the hollow ruins of Vale’s warehouse district looming around her. Though for the first time that day the sting in her eyes was entirely of her own making. It had taken a few days before Tai had thought her fit enough to walk around after she had collapsed on Beacon tower, if he knew that she’d snuck back into the city, well he was probably already worried sick.

She wasn’t sure why she’d come back, closure perhaps, the need to see it for herself, maybe just the desperate desire to pretend it hadn’t happened, that that terrible night had just been a dream. Or maybe it was the old faded letter she had found in the attic the other day. The hollow and broken buildings seemed to sneer almost mockingly at her hopes as she had walked down the buckled street from the docks, following the darkened paths past her old haunts. The old arcade she’d spent so many hours in when they used to visit the city was trampled, the giant footprints of a goliath a stark sign of what had befallen it. The small café on the corner of a side street where she had spent so many lunches, both with her family and her team, was gone completely, a crater and the burned wreck of a bullhead all that remained in its place.

Seeing the ruined airship had stirred up memories of that night, flashes of howling wind, swooping Griffons, and of Roman and her facing off on top the Atlas Warship. She’d wandered after that, not really knowing where she was going, and hardly noticing the grimm that still stalked the streets. It was fitting she supposed, that she had eventually found herself in the warehouse district, standing in the shell of one of the smaller buildings. They had searched for Roman’s headquarters for months, following every single lead that Blake could dredge up, they’d found it in the end but by then the world was collapsing around them, and it’d hardly mattered.

Ruby likely wouldn’t have wandered there either, had it not been for the letter she’d found tucked away in the bottom of one of the chests in the attic, under a pile of books that had once belonged to her mother. It hadn’t been a long letter by any means, barely a paragraph and extremely cryptic at that. But what it did say, and the name scrawled along the bottom, had left a twisting pain in her gut. She had wandered around the warehouse for a time, imagining the crates of dust and weapons that would have been piled high less than a month ago, before her eyes had wandered to the stairs along the back wall.

They were wrent and twisted, having evidently born an impact of some kind during the fighting, but she had easily been able to navigate the warped and burnt metal up to the catwalk above. It was there, in the office area above, that she’d found the suitcase, it was old certainly, worn around the edges and faded from time, but compared to the ruins around it, it seemed almost pristine, untouched by the fires or grimm.

She had stared at the stylised R. B on the front of the case for a time, almost afraid to touch it lest it crumble in her hands. Desire won over caution in the end though, and with a resounding click of the latch, she had opened the case. In retrospect, she wasn’t sure what she was expecting to find inside, a box of cigars maybe, or perhaps a list of nefarious plans. Instead, the stack of photo’s, old scarf, and pile of worn faded letters seemed more like the bang of a judge’s gavel than a cry of success to Ruby.  She had brushed aside the scarf and photo’s for now, gingerly picking up the letter that lay on top of the stack. The yellowed paper felt brittle in her hands as she drew it from the envelope, darker patches showing where someone had cried, which of the writer or reader she did not know. It unfolded easily, a sign of how many times the one who had come before her had read it. Her eyes had begun to sting as she read the beautifully flowing words, tears forming at the corners before drifting down her face.

          Dear Roman

I know you said to stay away, but I fear that warning may have come too little too late. I understand why you think it’s dangerous, the life of a criminal is hardly a peaceful one, but you know damn well that were it not for Yang it wouldn’t matter. That aside, there’s something you should know. It turns out that I was a little careless when we said goodbye, and I forgot to take a few important pills.

 My mind was on other things after all. 

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I’m pregnant Roman, and there’s only one man who could be the father. I won’t tell you what to do, but if you ever want to be a part of your child’s life, you are always welcome in our home. 

          Love

          Summer

Ruby had picked up the next letter almost immediately, the cold ache that had begun to fill her back on Patch seeming to flood her now. This one seemed slightly newer than the first, the flowing script seemed slightly shaky as well, though it bore the same tear stains.

          Dear Roman

Here she is. Meet your beautiful daughter. She’s a little tired right now, we both are, but she’s got a good set of lungs on her. She seems to take more after me in the looks department, but I’ll be damned if she hasn’t got her dad’s smile. 

          Love

          Summer

Ruby’s blurry eyes had drifted to the stack of photo’s barely able to pick out the image of a woman lying in a hospital bed, a sleeping child in her arms. It took a several attempts before she was able to pick up the stack, funny, she hadn’t noticed her hands shaking until then. Every photo was the same, Summer Rose and a baby version of her, at the kitchen table, in the forest, in the bath.

A hitched laugh had echoed throughout the room at that one, and it had taken Ruby a moment to realise that it had been her. The photo’s fell back into the case as her hands balled into fists, her body shaking as the tears that had filled her eyes now blinding her as she wept. Tomorrow she would go back to Yang and Tai, they would always be her family. But for tonight, in the ruined husk of the dead city, Ruby mourned what had never been.