A Wanted Rose: Chapter 1

The darkness held back by the light. This was how it should be, and as the street was illuminated by numerous and otherwise uncountable streetlights that scattered the area, the night looked almost perfect; that is, perfect if not for the numerous patrolling officers of the Vale Police Department- VPD for short- and the uncountable wanted posters of a little girl in a red hood and cloak.

Thrown out at birth, Ruby Rose- or Reaper, as the officials and civilians alike had take to calling her, as they didn't know her real name because there were no records of her- had it harder than any Faunus. Having to defend herself from humans and even other Faunus alike, she grew from her sunny disposition to people to having seen the world in grey, not black and white.

Currently, she was wanted for crimes that would make Roman Torchwick himself feel sick at what they accused her of. She was accused of numerous accounts of murder, assault, burglary, pick pocketing, stealing from Schnee Dust Company trains and more.

All of these, of course, were false allegations. But people either didn't care to look into it or never bothered, seeing as she was a wolf Faunus, after all. She never knew why Faunus hated her as well, though she had heard one Faunus while they beat her until she started to bleed out from her injuries at the age of seven that wolf Faunus were the lowest of them all. Ruby then began to hate the world and everyone in it, and so went to the White fang, hearing of their involvement in some Faunus Rights protests, claiming they were seeking equality for all Faunus. Of course, she was naive back then and figured they meant her kind as well, and so went to them to try and help any way she could.

She was battered, stabbed, slashed, burnt, had her ribs broken and thrown out of the place until she almost died; again.

When she was nine she made her sniper scythe, Crescent Rose. The name wasn't just a name, it had a meaning to it; it meant that she felt like a Crescent Rose, just a shade of what she was now.

Ruby was still innocent and childish, no matter what got in her way, but she could be serious and cold. Nervousness was what she would usually feel though, as she had a hard time making friends or even talking to humans. She had a small success rate with talking to other Faunus, but she would never reveal her nature or real name, using aliases like Scarlet and Jade.

She stood away from the edge of a cliff and stepped away from the altar that lay there, walking down into the pit of beowolves she knew she would have to fight. Walking through the trees was not a problem, neither was her upcoming fight with the creatures of Grimm; it was the fact that these creatures would usually howl and growl really loud and it would surely attract Hunter attention if she were not careful to dispatch them quickly.

She arrived, and as usually and silently given, they were there. It would start off as just three of them, and then there would be five, seven, and ten. It would then multiply to the twenties, then the fifties, and finally into the two hundred range. She never had a problem with dealing with them, and never took a hit while she did so.

She did her usual waiting. She would do this every time; lure the Grimm into her and disappear at the last possible second, arrive above them and shoot them dead before the even spotted her. After this she would land in a roll and shoot off three more, switching her scythe into its full glory and sniping off eleven more, before slicing two into ribbons and another three into shreds. After this she would use her recoil from the gun to shoot herself up into the air, kill three Grimm that would pursue her into the air, block a forth one and then come to a screeching halt, using her scythe to slow her backwards sliding from the blow.

After this, she would go into a full on death dance of murder, slicing full beowolves into two and four, quartering some and even turning some to sludge. After it all, she would continue to the small temple of which she made her new home.

She did do all of this, and on the way to returning to her 'home' she caught an unfamiliar whiff of an unmistakeable scent of human. That was later proven to be true as she hid in the forest brush that surrounded her 'home' and waited for the human to pass. That was when she caught the unmistakeable scent of Grimm as well, and immediately went into full on protective mode. Even though humans hated her, and she only saw the grey of the world, she would still protect those that needed it. It was this childish naivety that had gotten her in this mess in the first place; she was wanted throughout Vale, and possibly Atlas as well.

That was when she saw a mass of platinum blond and what seemed to be a riding crop run away from three Ursa. If Ruby didn't help this auspiciously clothed woman then she would find the blood of an innocent on her hands; metaphorically, of course. without a second thought, when the woman ran out of breath and fell flat on her face, raising a glyph above her head to stop one of the Ursa's attacks, Ruby jumped in without thinking for her own safety and sliced the beast in two as she expertly spun the scythe around her and pirouetted to the side of an attack from the second Ursa, only to slice its legs in two and turn to the third one, only to see it gone from her vision.

'It couldn't be her... Red cloak, wolf ears...scythe.' the woman on the floor had gotten up, only to see the fugitive who had saved her slice the second beast in two, but not before slicing its legs off. There was something behind the girl though, and she shouted for her to look out behind her.

"Behind you!" she screamed, but it was too late. That is, if it were anyone else. Reaper just turned into a cloud of rose petals and appeared behind the beast. Without a second thought, she raised her hands that grasped the scythe and spun it in front of her, catching the beasts arms first, then head and finally the rest of its body, pulverizing it.

After all was said and done, Ruby turned on her heels and began to walk, before a commanding voice stopped her dead in her tracks. She couldn't hear well, due to the euphoria of killing having not worn off yet, but she knew well to stand at attention and turn to face the woman. She expected some sort of berating or beating; possibly both.

"Don't move!" the woman said, and before Ruby could actually think of moving, she felt a needle pierce her arm. Thankfully, due to her being sedated and dragged off plenty of times, her body adapted to most forms of sedative.

Ruby yanked the needle out of her arm and threw it to the ground, the effects of her body fighting the drug setting to action fast. She would always feel drowsy, but it would wear off in about an hour or so, and all she had to do was avoid the seemingly inevitable fight with this woman.

That was when another one pierced her neck, causing her to black out instantly. Before though, as the woman approached, she croaked out one word; one word that made the woman with platinum blond hair regret sedating the girl instead of asking her to come with her, which she most likely would have.

"Why...?" and then, for Ruby, everything blacked out.

But it had to be done; Ozpin wanted to see why this criminal would help someone who was unknown to her, a complete stranger.

And so, she called in the massive ship to pick her and the girl in red up.

(^^^^^^)

Ruby P.O.V...

Waking up has never felt so painful. Usually, I would wake up after being hit or drugged, and this was one of those times. Being a wolf Faunus, you know, is apparently bad, but I find it to be quite cool. I always wondered what a Rabbit Faunus' abilities are or a hawk Faunus, like if they can fly or not; I've never seen one though.

After I got my vision back, the room I was in was small, grey walled and dusty. Usually, this would give me a sense of ease, as most of my 'hideouts' had these qualities, but this was something else... none of them ever had a mirror or a table dead centre in the room, with me sat in a chair.

Giving off a groan, I raised my left hand to wipe the sleep from my eyes, but I found it chained. Now I was panicking. What if I was caught by the police? What if that strange woman from earlier had turned me in? Wait, that strange woman...her scent was in here, and now I grew even more panicked.

(^^^^^^)

Glynda P.O.V...

I watched as the girl form earlier, the one who saved my life from those Grimm, woke up. Sure, I could have taken them out easily, but this girl did it without breaking a sweat. She looked around, and started to panic when she found herself chained. It was like she had been chained up before, but from what I hear from the police and other agencies dedicated to capturing her, they all said that they had caught her, and for whatever reason, or how she managed it, she escaped.

It just made me wonder what this girl has gone through, she looks so scared. Maybe I should talk to her, to clam her down? I watched as she tried to desperately claw her way out of the chains, but to no avail, and eventually resided her fighting and gave in to the clasps around her wrists. It was purely pitiful, absolutely saddening as her wolf ears tilted downwards and her head slumped, as if she had been in this situation before, and it must have been bad.

To alleviate the girl's clear sadness and futile attempt at escape, I spoke up.

"You really shouldn't slouch. It's bad for the back."

Instead of the girl's expected anger, or even surprise, she just sunk in on her self and started to whine, as a dog would do if it were in trouble, but this whining was not of that kind; it was of fear.

That was when Ozpin entered, one hand n his cane and the other on his coffee.

(^^^^^^)

3rd person...

Ruby just slouched and began to whine as Ozpin entered, and as she noticed his cane, she instantly tried to back away from the man, only to earn her a pain shooting up her wrists; it was apparent that Ruby didn't care about that though; she just wanted to get away from the inevitable beating she would have to endure.

Ozpin seemed to notice this, and immediately stopped walking, facing the girl and waiting for her to stop backing away. Ruby did, but she remained edged on her seat, as if he would try something.

"I'm not here to hurt you, so please calm down." Ozpin said with a calm, collective voice, one that Ruby had heard many times before. She just whimpered and hung her head low, to avert her eyes from the elderly man in front of her. Glynda just watched on in what seemed to be pity, but maybe it was just because of what would probably be coming next.

Noticing the girl was still on edge, he moved to the chair on the opposite side of the table and sat down, resting his cane on the side of the table, away from both his and Ruby's reach, as if to show he was no threat to her.

Ruby didn't even notice that he had laid down his cane, or the fact that he was sat just opposite her.

Ozpin spoke up to destroy the uneasy silence that hung in the air. "So...care to tell me where you learnt this?" as he said this, Glynda brought out a scroll and showed it to the girl; it was a video of her fighting the Grimm earlier.

Ruby didn't say anything.

Ozpin sighed in some sort of knowing way; he knew why she was so untrusting and shy, and maybe he had overseen some of her 'interrogations'. He wanted to stop what they were doing to her, but had no power over the police, and so had to leave them to their rather questionable interrogation techniques.

Glynda spoke up rather harshly, earning a glare from Ozpin and a whimper from Ruby. "Where did you learn this?"

"I-I-I Taught M-My self. Pleasedon'thurtme!" Ruby started to cower away from them, backing up in her chair away from them with genuine fear in her eyes. Glynda looked almost heartbroken at the girl's begging. She must have been through a lot to be like this.

Ozpin just huffed, and at that, Glynda shot him a glare. Glynda walked over to the panicky Ruby and untied her chains, then walked back over to Ozpin.

"Now why would we hurt you?" he knew why; she was a wolf Faunus. It wasn't a secret why she was constantly called a criminal and abused, and it was all because she was the last of the wolf Faunus and being the last of something showed weakness. Weakness in the Faunus community was something they would not allow, under any circumstances; be it even working with the humans to eradicate her or bring her to 'justice', but the crimes she had apparently committed were nothing but speculation of what she could do.

"Be-Because t-That's what h-h-humans do." Ruby had a look of confusion on her face, no longer fear, though it was still evident she was scared of them both.

Ozpin looked as if forgotten in thought for a moment, and snapped out of it was an idea came to him. He had contemplated doing it before, but she either got away too quickly, or he had to leave to do some important headmaster stuff...with which he just dumped on Glynda to do instead.

"What do you think of hunters and huntresses?"

"I-I guess they have the right idea. Fight for what you believe in and save the I-Innocent."

"Have you ever considered becoming one?" Ozpin just sipped at his coffee again as Ruby grew even more cautious and confused as to where this was going.

"U-Umm, yeah...W-Why?" Ruby was very scared of these two, no matter the subject brought at hand, or the type of subject. She had been through these scenarios before, and it still scared her to even think about it.

"Just the way you jumped in to save poor Glynda here from being eaten by three Ursa Majors was rather heroic of you...for a wanted person." 'So that was her name...Glynda'. Ruby thought as she looked between them to see if there was any sign of them lying. There was not.

"Well, what would you say if I brought you to Beacon academy and taught you to be a huntress in training?"

"I just f-Fight to survive, n-Not save others... but I did do that today."

Is that a yes or a no?"Ozpin had a look of urgency in his eyes, as if he actually wanted the most wanted girl in all of Vale and possibly Atlas in his school, which Ruby found crazy.

"I suppose I don't have a choice, do I?" Ruby looked like she was defeated, as if she didn't want to go, though it was rather understandable. She was wanted for crimes she had not committed, and this would create uproar in Beacon. It was far from it that Ruby had no choice, though Ozpin could see why she would think that. He took this as an answer and left, leaving Glynda to sit down and fill out her application form.

"So, where are you from?" Glynda said as she opened up the application app on her scroll and started to fill in the blanks that Ruby gave her.

"Don't r-really know. I was abandoned at birth." Ruby said it without as much as a blink, meaning she had gotten over it long ago.

"I'll just put it as CLASSIFIED. Birthday, or when you were born?"

"Somewhere in July, I don't really know."

"You don't know that either? Have you never celebrated your birthday?" Ruby just shook her head and left Glynda feeling terrible for being the one to go through her history and clearly horrific childhood.

"CLASSIFIED it is. Full name?" she didn't expect Ruby to give her full name, and if she were lucky, she would at least give her something to fill in the form.

"Ruby...I don't have a second name...well, not one that anyone would remember." Ruby looked sad for a moment, before becoming wary of the person in front of her filling in the form.

"Ruby, second name CLASSIFIED. What is your weapon of choice and its name?"

"My sweetheart, Crescent Rose. Where is she by the way?"

"You mean the scythe? It's on the table as we leave. How exactly did you come into claiming of such a weapon?"

"I made her." Ruby said it rather proudly and not once thought of the consequences of admittance to creating such a monstrosity of a weapon. Of course, this caused an eyebrow to be rose form Glynda, but lowered just as fast as it was raised.

"So, what are your skills?"

"Sneaking, silent and stealth attacks, engineering and weapon design, unarmed combat, throwing weapons, guns, sniping, Iado, free running and usual Faunus traits."

"You said engineering. What have you made so far of note?" Glynda gave her a sceptical look, as if in disbelief at the amount of skills she had.

Ruby just pointed to her right arm and gave a small but uneasy and clearly nervous smile.

"O...kay. Do you have any relatives?" Glynda asked as she filled in the form of her skills. Apparently this girl was practically a one woman army against Grimm.

"No."

"I see. What's your semblance?" Ruby paled at this. She reverted back to her shy self in a matter of silent seconds.

"C-Classified, please." She looked like she was about to have some sort of heart attack, and at this Glynda was worried. This girl was treated so badly throughout her life that it only made sense that she wanted to keep her personal life a secret, though why she conceded all of that to her was a mystery.

"I see...CLASSIFIED it is. That is all Miss Ruby. Now come with me and you can retrieve your weapon and head to Beacon."

"B-But...won't people notice me?" Ruby said it rather urgently, tugging at the hood of her cloak and looking frantic.

"I have an idea of how we can sort that out. Now come along, we're going to be late." And at that, Ruby took her first hectic steps to being a powerful huntress...though there will be some challenges and she will have to face pain...

...more than she has ever felt before...