Chapter Text
Evening hung over Vacuo like a heavy blanket.
The sun hadn’t finished setting, but the fractured moon was already gleaming above the rooftops.
Ruby Rose sat alone in a quiet corner of the city, perched on an old crate, staring at the wall opposite her without really seeing it.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out here. Long enough to lose track of time, even though she should be preparing for tomorrow’s mission with her team.
The last few days had been rough.
She just wanted a moment where the world wasn’t asking anything of her.
“So, this is where you’re hiding?”
Ruby blinked and glanced over her shoulder, as Qrow was making his way toward her.
“Hey, Uncle Qrow,” she gave him a small smile, “did something happen?”
“Nope. Crisis-free, for the moment.”
He eased down beside her with a groan, “Robyn said you were over here.”
He followed her gaze to the blank wall. “So… want to tell me what’s going on, kiddo?”
Ruby shrugged, “nothing really.”
“Ruby.” Qrow’s voice softened, “It’s okay to say when something’s bothering you.”
She didn’t answer. Just kept staring at the wall as if it might offer one.
Qrow didn’t push, “if you don't want to talk to me, that’s ok. Just remember you’ve got others too,” his hand on her shoulder.
Ruby let out a small sigh and leaned forward, legs folded on top of the crate.
“I just needed, a little space to breathe.”
“Yeah,” Qrow murmured, settling back against the wall, “can’t blame you for that.”
Ruby could feel his eyes on her, thoughtful but not invading.
“A lot has happened since you got back,” He gave her a faint smile, “but you’ve still been handling it, better than most.”
Ruby looked at him for half a second, then dropped her gaze again.
Qrow let out a slow sigh. “So, was what just happened getting to you?”
Ruby didn’t answer right away, just gave the smallest of nods.
“You can’t let it eat you up, kiddo,” Qrow said, trying to comfort her, “that whole situation wasn’t exactly simple to solve.”
“I know,” Ruby drew in a breath, letting it out shakily.
“It’s just, I really wanted to help.”
Her gaze drifted back to the wall, still not really see it.
Her mind was already slipping back to the last few days.
Ruby walked through the sandstone halls of Shade, hands clasped behind her back, trying not to look as nervous as she felt. It was the day after that Theodore had taken her down to the Vault and she’d asked him her question.
“Would it be possible for me to help train the Summer Maiden?”
Theodore stopped mid-step on the stairs, giving her a surprised look over his shoulder.
“You want to help?”
“Yes,” Ruby said, trying to keep her voice steady, “I want to help in any way I can.”
Theodore hummed, rubbing his chin as he turned and continued up the next zig-zagging stairway. “I’m not sure… it is my responsibility to train the Summer Maiden. Winter and Raven assist when they can, but ultimately, well.” He paused, Ruby couldn’t see his face, “it has to be handled carefully.”
“I understand, Headmaster Theodore. I do. I just… I’d really like to try.”
Ruby suddenly turned her head towards the Vault, did she just hear something? Like laughter?
Theodore glanced down at her, for a moment he was silent, expression thoughtful.
“Though a new face might be helpful,” he admitted, a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, “Very well. Let’s give it a go.”
“Thank you, Headmaster!” Ruby smiles as she leaps the next few stairs.
Ruby made her way further through Shade’s sandstone corridors reaching the teachers’ wing, where the Summer Maiden was staying. Theodore had already approved her request to meet the Summer Maiden before their first training session, and Ruby wanted to make a good impression.
There was some Atlas guards stood stationed throughout the halls, though not many, as she passed them. Ruby wondered, not for the first time, how Winter managed working with Theodore when the two of them seemed to clash on so many things. The guards’ presence made that tension obvious, as Vacuans walked past.
Finally, Ruby reached Room 95, it was her room.
Ruby stopped, smoothed down her cloak, and took a steadying breath.
Okay. You’ve got this. Friendly. Supportive. Not overwhelming. As she steps back after knocking on the plain wooden door.
As she waited, she let her eyes drift down the hallway. It was a lot quiet here, compared to the hustle of the training wings or the common areas. The guards were out of sight around the corner, and aside from them, the place now felt oddly empty.
Across from her, off-centre from the doors, several tall windows framed the sprawling view of the city with dunes in the distance.
Ruby takes a moment to admire the view as she waits for the door to open.
Ruby waited.
And waited.
She’d been standing in the hallway for a couple of minutes now, listening for footsteps, movement, anything behind the wooden door. But there had been no sound, not even a muffled “coming!” or shuffling of someone getting out of bed.
Maybe she’s asleep or in the shower?
Theodore had said the Maiden would be here, but now Ruby wasn’t so sure. Should she knock again? Should she leave and come back later?
After a moment of indecision, Ruby opted for one more gentle knock. Just in case.
It was only then she realised something else.
I never actually learned her name, Ruby winced.
What great way to make a first impression, Ruby! She chastises herself.
After waiting a few more seconds, Ruby sighed and turned to head back down the hallway, then...
A soft creaking.
Ruby spun around, to see the door was open just a sliver, barely enough for a single hazel eye to peer out at her.
“Oh, hi!” Ruby smiled and waved, caught off guard by the sudden movement, “sorry! were you sleeping? I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
A quiet, barely-there “…no,” drifted through the gap.
“Oh. Um…okay.” Ruby offered an awkward nod. Up close, she could tell the girl was roughly her height, maybe a little shorter, with dark brown hair. She felt familiar somehow, though Ruby couldn’t place why.
That single eye didn’t blink. Didn’t look away. Just stared at her.
Ruby felt her nerves tingle under the intensity of it.
“Uh…so!” Ruby cleared her throat and mustered her most friendly smile, “I’m Ruby. Ruby Rose.” She thumbed awkwardly at her chest. “And yes, I’m that Ruby, apparently.” She gave a little jazz-hands gesture, “but I promise I’m just a regular girl. With regular knees. Totally normal.”
She laughed softly, hoping to break the tension, or at least coax the girl into opening the door a little wider.
But the eye just kept watching her, without even a twitch of recognition
Ruby really didn’t expect this from the Summer Maiden.
“Uh,so… hmm… I…” Ruby’s smile faltered, a bit, as her brain frantically searched for something, anything, to say, “We’ll be training together!” she blurted out, far too loudly.
The Maiden’s eye narrowed, not in anger, but in something closer to annoyance or dread, hard to tell.
Still no words.
Ruby felt her shoulders slump slightly, Okay. Breathe. Get it together, Ruby and talked to her.
She tried again, steadier this time.
“Headmaster Theodore gave his permission,” Ruby explained with her best encouraging smile, “so, I’ll be helping with your huntress training!”
No reaction.
She hadn’t expected cheering or confetti, but she had expected something.
A nod. A ‘ok.’ Even a “please leave.” Would be better than nothing.
Instead, the girl stood behind the half-closed door staring at her but not seeing Ruby.
Ruby swallowed and pushed forward anyway.
“Um… so,” she tried again, “I thought it might be good for us to talk before training starts.” She stepped slightly closer, keeping her movements small. “Just to reassure you! You know that we’ll figure things out together.” She gave a determined thumb-up. “By the time we’re done, you’ll be out there fighting Grimm with everyone else in no time!”
The Maiden didn’t even blink.
Ruby’s thumb slowly lowered.
Silence.
Not the calm kind.
Not the shy kind.
It was suffocating silence, that was pushing Ruby away.
Ruby let her arm drop, her earlier confidence collapsing.
“Um…,” she tried, voice small. “Why don’t we talk?”
The girl shifted back from the door.
It opened a little bit more for Ruby to see a little of the dimly lit room beyond.
Ruby took it as an invitation.
She stepped forward carefully, heart lifting just a little. Okay, progress. We can do this. Just be gentle. Just be…
SLAM!
The door snapped shut inches from Ruby’s nose.
She froze mid-step.
Her hand hung awkwardly in the air.
Her brain stalled.
Her heart dropped straight through her boots.
“…oh.”
The sound of the lock clicking echoed in the empty hall.
Ruby stared at the wood grain in stunned silence, her earlier optimism crumbling.
Ruby’s face was in her hands, elbows on her knees as she sat beside Qrow. The memory still stung. She’d been stunned when the door was slammed on her, but she’d convinced herself it would be fine, there would be other chances. Plenty of time to talk. Plenty of time to help.
“Did you hear how badly things went?” Ruby murmured.
Qrow nodded grimly, “Yeah, I did.”
Ruby let out a long breath and leaned back against the wall, “I tried talking to her again. Before and after training. During breaks. She just… didn’t want anything to do with me. And every time I tried to give her encouragement, it only made things worse.”
“Winter told me,” Qrow said gently, “but she also said you had good instincts. Solid ideas. Theodore said the same, they were impressed by you.”
“I wasn’t trying to impress anyone,” Ruby said quietly. Her eyes drifted toward the little candles placed along the opposite wall, “I just wanted to do what I can to help.”
Qrow dismissed her doubt with a wave, “and you are helping. You and your whole team.”
Ruby’s fingers twisted around each other, “but are we doing enough?”
“Yes,” Qrow answered without hesitation, “everyone is doing what they can. A little at a time, in little ways.”
Ruby offered a small smile, “the Blacksmith said something like that.”
But the smile faded almost instantly.
“They also said they were sending us where we were needed most,” she whispered. “And other than,” she looks around, searching for the right words, “being extra hands-on deck, I don’t really feel like we’ve made any real difference.”
“You brought hope,” Qrow said softly, a faint smile tugging at his mouth as he nodded toward the far wall.
Ruby followed his gaze to the mural, her mural. Her silhouette painted in sweeping reds, the words REMEMBER HER MESSAGE glowing faintly beneath it. She still wasn’t used to seeing it. She wasn’t sure she ever would be.
“Your message started bringing the world together,” Qrow continued, “and you coming back, you and your friends, that gave people the hope they needed to keep going.” He rested a hand on her shoulder, “Don’t doubt the good you’ve done.”
Ruby inhaled slowly, “I just…” Her fingers curled against her knees, “I feel like we should be doing something to actually defeat Salem. So that the people of Remnant can start rebuilding their lives.”
“You’ll get no argument from me or the others,” Qrow said, crossing his arms with a sigh. “Theodore for one, wants to take the fight to her more than anything.”
Ruby looked up at him.
“But” Qrow pinched the bridge of his nose, “we’ve got thousands of people here to protect. We can’t afford to be reckless. Not now.”
Ruby nodded, though frustrated with the situation, “but we can’t just wait for Salem to show up, either.”
Qrow tilted his head. “Okay… then what would you want to do?”
Ruby opened her mouth and froze. “…I, ah… don’t really know,” she admitted, rubbing the back of her neck.
Qrow smiled “That’s okay, Ruby. You don’t have to have all the answers.”
He nudged her shoulder lightly, “Good thing we’ve got other people helping us figure them out.”
Ruby didn’t respond right away. She fiddled with the edge of her cape, eyes drifting toward the mural again.
“…That can be hard to remember sometimes,” she said softly.
“It can be,” Qrow agreed with a quiet chuckle.
Ruby looked down at her hands, “…Did Mom ever feel like that?
Qrow hummed, leaning his head back against the wall as he gazed up at the darkening sky. “Hard to say. I’m sure she had her moments.”
Ruby shifted closer, curious “What kind of huntress was she before?”
Qrow gave a sad, fond smile. “As you know, Summer was the leader of Team STRQ. And she wasn’t exactly amazing at it when we started out. None of us were. But she grew into it and we trusted wholeheartedly.” He ran a hand through his hair. “We got into a lot of trouble back in Beacon. More than our fair share. And Summer was usually the one stuck answering for it to Ozpin or the deputy who was before Glynda.”
Ruby laughed at that, she remembered all the trouble that Team RWBY had caused in Beacon, especially that after the whole Roman Torchwick and White Fang incident.
“How’d Mom handle all that?” Ruby asked eagerly.
Qrow shrugged. “Depended on how deep we were in it,” he pulled out his old photo of Team STRQ, looking it over with a wistful smirk. “Oz let us off the hook a lot more than he should have. So, most of the time we’d end up laughing about whatever mess we’d just caused.”
He sighed. “Other times, Summer would tear into us after she was lectured by the teachers. And trust me…” Qrow looked at Ruby with raised brows, “your mom could be scary when she wanted to be.”
Ruby couldn’t help smiling, looking at her mom in Qrow’s picture of Team STRQ, Qrow was smiling too.
“Though the real hard lesson for us, not just your mum, came after we graduated from Beacon.”
Ruby perked up, “What happened?”
“Well,” Qrow said, leaning back with a smirk, “after finishing Beacon, at the top of our year, we headed out into the world as a huntsman team. And we were good.”
He looked down at the photo in his hand, expression softening.
“We travelled all over Remnant. No mission too big, too strange, too dangerous, we took everything that caught our attention and wrapped them up with ease.” He shot her a sideways grin. “We were getting quite the reputation,” Ruby had heard that part before, when Qrow visited them at Beacon.
“A couple years after we had left Beacon, Ozpin summoned us back,” Qrow continued.
Ruby tilted her head, “Why?”
“He had a mission for us.” Qrow said, still looking at the photo, “getting a job directly from a headmaster is a big deal, even if the mission itself was kinda underwhelming.”
“What was the mission?” Ruby asked.
“We were told to track down a huntsman and huntress spotted north of Vale and deliver a message to them from Oz.” Qrow shrugs, “that’s it.”
Ruby blinked, “that’s honestly way less dramatic than I was expecting.”
Qrow laughed under his breath, “yeah, we thought the same thing. But, uh… all our successes had gone to our heads by that time.”
Ruby nods thoughtfully, “but still, delivering a message doesn’t sound that hard.”
“In most cases, yeah,” Qrow agreed, “but you’d think we would’ve remembered who we were dealing with. Nothing from Ozpin was ever simple.”
He tapped the edge of the photograph against his knee.
“We went into the forest where the pair had last been seen, acting like we could handle anything. Before we knew it, we were neck-deep in Grimm, way more than we could handle.”
Ruby’s eyes went wide. She’d fought countless Grimm with Qrow, it was strange imagining him overwhelmed.
“And Summer…” Qrow’s voice softened, “back then, she didn’t have a good handle on her silver eyes.”
Ruby’s breath caught. She wondered, not for the first time, how her mother had learned to control them.
She was still having trouble with hers.
Qrow continued, “Luckily for us, the pair we were looking for, found us first, saving our hides too,” he shook his head at the memory.
“Well, that’s good, right?” Ruby asked, always looking for the bright side.
“Yes, it was good,” Qrow admitted, “but at the time? We didn’t see it that way.” His cheeks reddened slightly, “it was the first real mistake we had made since leaving Beacon and to make it worse, the huntsman and huntress refused to take the letter from Oz.”
“Ah, that’s not good,” Ruby commented.
“Yeah.” Qrow sighed. “We failed a mission we really wanted to succeed at and ended up needing to be save too. As you can imagine, we didn’t take that well.”
“How badly?” Ruby asked, half afraid, half curious.
Qrow chuckled, “Well… Tai and Raven tried to force the pair to take the message.”
“Dad did?!” Ruby was surprised.
Qrow burst out laughing, “Oh, your dad was a real hothead back in the day. He’s mellowed out a lot since.”
Ruby nodded.
“So, what happened next?” she asked eagerly.
“The huntress,” Qrow said, smile widening, “promptly made both Tai and Raven eat dirt.”
Ruby’s jaw dropped, “WHAT?!”
“Oh yeah. Surprised Summer and me too.”
He grimaced at the memory, “of course, we didn't hesitate to jump in to help and didn’t fare much better.”
“Ouch,” Ruby muttered.
“You can say that again,” Qrow nodded, “didn’t stop us from trying again, though. Over and over,” he rubbed his forehead, “and she just let us. Until we couldn’t get up anymore.”
Ruby frowned, “So… how did it end?”
“Well,” Qrow said, pushing himself to his feet, “after we were all lying there in a heap, she gave us a full lecture. Pointed out exactly where we went wrong and how to improve.”
Ruby smiled “and then you made friends with them?”
Qrow shrugged. “More like… we gained mentors. Joyeuse and Tarasque would help us whenever they could,” Qrow sighed sadly, “could use their help now, haven’t seen them in years.”
“Is that really their names?” Ruby asked, unsure of the weird names.
Qrow shakes his head, “Aliases, never did find out their real names.”
Qrow tucked the photo away, “We still failed the mission, but Oz didn’t care. He gave us a new one right away. And in time, he brought us into his inner circle.”
His expression softened but grew serious.
“Even when you fail, still keep moving forward.”
Qrow glanced sideways, and Ruby followed his gaze, right as Yang rounded the corner.
“Ruby!” Yang called out, “she’s over here!” she calls as Weiss and Blake join her.
Qrow smiled, “and don’t forget, you can lean on those around you.”
Ruby nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good. If we all do, we’ll get through this.”
“Ruby,” Weiss yells, “come on, we have a mission to get ready for.”
“Sorry! Coming!” Ruby called as she hopped off the crate and went to join her team before stopping, she hadn’t told anyone about what she had leant about her mother.
“Uncle Qrow, do you know when dad will be joining us?” Ruby asked.
Qrow sighs, “nothing for sure yet but it could be in the next few months,” he looks at Ruby, “if you want to talk to him, we might be able to sort something out?”
Ruby shakes her head, “it can wait,” she said, before turning to go join her team.