Where was she going? What was she doing? Were there boys involved? These questions and more were on the forefront of Ruby's mind as she hatched a daring plan of espionage to uncover her dear sister's secret.
Now, she could have saved herself the legwork by going straight to their dad with what little information she had. Taiyang Xiao Long was a firm father, so a stern lecture and considerable grounding would no doubt await his elder daughter if he were to learn of her late night adventures. But he was also a caring father, and his outrage would surely be tempered by his concern, so he probably wouldn't ground Yang for too long, right?
The problem with that course of action, however, was that it wouldn't be any fun for Ruby. She surely wouldn't take any pleasure in listening to Yang getting chewed out - the two sisters were thick as thieves, and though they did enjoy some playful ribbing from time to time, they had never been prone to the pettier side of sibling rivalries. And though Ruby was, admittedly, a little worried about what sort of mischief her free-wheeling older sister was getting herself into, she was more worried about missing a chance to have some fun for herself.
What if Yang and her friends had found a secret skate park that was only open in the dead of night? Or what if they were staging guerilla raids on the city's billboards and back alleys, adorning them with neon graffiti as monuments to free expression? Or maybe they were even going downtown to the late night bakery, famed purveyor of Ruby's favorite artisanal cookies?
No, this was definitely a mystery Ruby was determined to solve on her own, even if it meant doubling down on the rule breaking and skirting curfew herself. And it was that resolve that found her, for the umpteenth night in row, huddled beneath her bedroom window in the dark, waiting for the telltale signs of Yang slipping out the window of the adjacent bedroom.
Most nights would pass uneventfully, or so Ruby hoped - more than once, she had nodded off without officially calling it quits. And the ones where her sister was spurred to action seemed to reveal no patterns to her time of departure. One night could see the older girl making her move as soon as could be convenient, another might bear no signs of activity until two or three in the morning, or any time in between.
These stake-outs could get dreadfully dull, and so it was early on in her career as an international super spy that Ruby Rose made the executive decision to commandeer the lamp from her writing desk so she could have a bit of light in which to pass the time. Her post was far enough away from her bedroom door that, should her father or sister need to make a trip through the darkened upstairs hallway, it would still appear that the intrepid fifteen-year old had turned in for the night, but there was enough light so that Ruby herself could while away the hours rereading some of her favorite adventure novels. It could only be ones she had read before, you see, or else she was far too likely to be engrossed in tales of heroes slaying monsters, and wizards chasing relics, to pay attention to her mission.
On this particular night, Ruby found the time pushing past one in the morning with no signs of activity, and was considering packing up shop early. With a sigh, she set down her tattered old copy of The Man with Two Souls and lifted herself up to peer through her window, out on to the roof of the garage. There was no square of light cast from her sister's room, not that there ever had been on previous nights - as brazen as Yang was, clearly she also saw the reason in feigning compliance with their dad's nightly declaration of lights out.
Allowing her forehead to slump against the window pain, Ruby let her eyes fall shut as she silently declared defeat. It was hardly fair, Ruby thought, that she should have to treat this as a battle of attrition, when Yang was no doubt lying passed out on her bed, awaiting some beeping or buzzing from her scroll to rouse her from a restful slumber.
And so, it was with a heart already full of resignation that Ruby heard the faint scrapes of the neighboring window sliding open and shut.
Ruby's eyes flew open in an instant, and any trace of fatigue vanished from her small frame. Quickly, she ducked down below the window sill and strained her ears to track Yang's movement. She knew from experience that her sister's path would carry her away from Ruby's room, not past it, but she wasn't about to take chances.
Ever so slightly, Ruby could make out the now familiar sound of her sister's boots traveling over the shingles of their home. The footsteps stopped shortly thereafter, and were followed by a quick grunt as Yang made her way down into their backyard.
This was it - the game was afoot, and the clock was ticking.
Carefully, Ruby slid open her own window and made her way out on to the roof as well. As she closed the window nearly-shut behind her, she reviewed her known mission objectives, as per the short recon run she had made the last time Yang snuck out, about four or five days ago. She would need to stick to Yang closely enough to not lose track of her, but maintain enough distance that she would neither be seen nor heard.
It was just like one of her video games, Ruby thought with a smile. Although, Yang's range of vision was much wider than a narrow cone in front of her. And her hearing went much further than ten or twelve feet. And Ruby didn't have the luxury of disappearing into a cardboard box if she got spotted. So in the end, it was still like one of her video games, except for the fact that it would be much, much harder.
With stealth and speed on the forefront of her mind, Ruby made her way past Yang's window, and towards the edge of the roof, being sure to stay low and just a bit away from the edge, once again considering the possibility that her older sister had suddenly learned the meaning of the word caution, and would spare a moment to glance behind her.
The soft clunk of old iron against damp oak betrayed Yang's current location, as she undid the latch of their yard's old wooden fence. From her vantage point upon the roof, Ruby could see the top of the gate swing open, then back into place - with a solid barrier between the drop zone and her target, Agent Ruby was now clear for descent. While Yang's landing strategy had no doubt incorporated the tall blonde's natural coordination and physical confidence into what had surely been an effortless three-point landing, Ruby was well aware she lacked any such grace.
Grabbing onto the end of the roof with both hands, she cautiously turned herself around and dangled her body over the edge, being sure not to move with enough speed that her momentum could force herself from her own grip. While a straight jump from the height of the roof would be scary and more than a little dangerous, lowered herself off the edge before letting go eliminated nearly half the actual elevation and made the drop much shorter and safer, a trick of sorts that Ruby had learned well, back on her grade school's jungle gym.
Upon her landing, Ruby's nose filled with the earthy scent of wet dirt and grass, courtesy of a late afternoon shower that had evidently outstayed its welcome. She was past the point of no return now - her previous dry run had only gone as far as scouting Yang's route of egress from atop the roof, as, frankly, Ruby had no idea how to sneak back into their house after dropping to ground level.
She was betting everything she had, now - either she would expose Yang's secret, and force her sister to sneak them both back in under threat of them both getting caught; or, should she lose track of her sisterly quarry, be forced to wait for Yang's return so she could sheepishly ask her to... sneak them both back in... under threat of them both getting caught.
Huh. In a twisted kind of way, Ruby could see that she was in an odd sort of win-win situation, but that second option still left open the possibility of Yang keeping her secret, and would make Ruby feel like a huge dork to boot.
Returning her mind to the mission, Ruby took a few extra steps to the side of the gate and pulled a tarp off a long, narrow form. There stood her prized cherry red road bike, with its sleek curved handles and ultralight carbon fiber frame. Her dad had helped her put it together last fall, and Ruby had seen it fit to bequeath the modern marvel with the name "Sonic Rose."
While she wasn't sure where her sister was going or how she was getting there, Ruby was sure that there was nothing worth sneaking out for within walking distance of their house. And so, she made the educated guess that some form of expedited mode of transportation was required, for both the tailed and the tail-er.
Placing her face up near the wooden planks of the fence, and glancing out obliquely between them, Ruby could just make out Yang's unruly mane of blonde hair as she made her way to the sidewalk, and then took a left down the west side of the street. Once Ruby was confident that Yang had entered the Goldilocks zone - not too close, not too far - she gently pushed open the gate and walked her bike into the front yard, with her head low and her shoulders hunched, as the gate swung shut behind her.
Doing her best to position herself mostly behind her neighbor's hedges - which, mercifully, were in need of a trimming - Ruby peered out down the street to see her sister lightly jogging to the end of the block. As Yang reached the bend in the sidewalk, she paused to look left and right, but thankfully not behind her, before following the path around the corner and nearly out of sight. Ruby immediately hopped on Sonic Rose and pedaled her heart out, reaching the corner in record time. Doing her best to take cover behind a large oak tree in the corner lot, Ruby stopped to pinpoint her target's location.
Yang was beneath a street lamp twenty or thirty yards dead ahead, now at the intersection of their current street and the neighborhood's main road, and before her... was a stylish white car Ruby had never seen before.
And Yang was getting in.
Ruby's heart leapt into her throat at the sight of her sister climbing into the back seat of this unknown and out-of-place vehicle, the pre-constructed scenarios she had been building in her head for the past few weeks rapidly falling apart. She had expending to see one of the beat-up or hand-me-down cars that were the norm for most of Vale's license-holding high school population, but this luxury road machine with flawlessly shiny bronze trimmings was a violent departure from what could be found in Yang's social circle. Even Coco Adel, the premiere trend setter and resident head turner of Beacon High's next senior class, only had a ride about half this flashy.
As the car's brake lights turned off and it began to roll away, Ruby forced her reeling mind back on track. Whatever the truth of the matter was, she wasn't going to find it standing here in the dark. Redoubling her efforts to push the pedals of her bike into a higher realm of space-time, Ruby set off after the quickly-retreating mystery mobile. This was the make-or-break point for the whole mission.
Could a high schooler on a bike really do this? If that high schooler was Ruby Rose, the answer was a definite "maybe." Ruby knew that, even with all her practice and chutzpah, she was ultimately at the mercy of traffic, and especially their route itself. If Yang's ride was taking the highway, Ruby's quest would end in an immediate game over. As the car made its way out of the housing development of Patch Hills, Ruby prepared herself for the grim reality that her journey might end here.
As luck would have it, her target's destination appeared to be at the far end of Vale's residential sector, and the lower speed limit of the area, as well as the occasional red light, worked in Ruby's favor. Though her lungs were burning, her legs were aching, and she had taken more than few cycling risks that would've been sure to make her father grimace, Ruby was able to keep her target in sight, thanks in no small part to the fact that its striking color scheme was probably visible from space.
The density of housing thinned as the close-knit suburbs gave way to further-apart designer homes, and then to the kind of ritzy mansions with sweeping front lawns that practically demanding to be described as "estates." The corresponding scarcity of traffic lights meant that her target was pulling further and away from her, but seeing as the traffic itself had similarly thinned to near zero, Ruby was still able to keep track of her quarry, if only by the glow of its tail lights.
Just as Ruby was sure she was about to collapse, be it from boredom or exhaustion, the over-waxed pile of mobile metal she called her prey did the first interesting thing Ruby had seen in the last twenty minutes - it made a turn. Not onto the main drive of one of the surrounding house-strosities, but down one of the side streets between them, framed on either side by the differing security walls of two neighboring estates. For the umpteenth time, Ruby pushed herself past her limits, her own ragged breathes echoing in her ears as she struggled to reach the bend and make her way into what was hopefully the home stretch.
Whatever she had expected to find around the corner, it sure hadn't been the sight of her target barely fifteen yards away, stopped before a small security gate for the estate on her right. Thinking fast, Ruby converted her turn into a tight circle; doing a quick two-seventy and steering herself back behind the corner.
Hopping off Sonic Rose and propping her up against the wall, Ruby hurried back to the edge of the stone fence and curiously peered around it. The iron gates before the car began to smoothly slide open, and once again taking the disappearance of the car's brake lights as her starting signal, Ruby took off in a low scamper along the wall.
Though she'd barely had a minute to catch her breath, and even less to plan her next course of action, Ruby found her options to be clear. If that gate shut with Ruby on the outside, there was no way she was getting in.
By now, the car had passed through the gate, and with there no longer being any immediate risk of its occupants seeing her, Ruby broke into a flat out run. She surely had only seconds before the gate would slide back shut, and did her best to eyeball the window of opportunity between her rate of approach and the speed of the gate's heavy iron bars.
It was going to be close.
Clenching her fists and putting on the after burners, Ruby reached deep within her fading energy reserves and did her best to will away the fatigue from the miles of biking she had just endured. Still, with the iron gates creeping ever forward, and her odds looking slimmer and slimmer, Ruby decided she was going to need a clutch maneuver to seal the deal.
With a few feet left, Ruby leapt forward, arms outstretched. She sailed through the open gate, and as her arc of not-quite-flight reached its end and her fingertips met the hard pavement, Ruby bent her elbows, tucked her head, and converted her momentum into a buttery smooth combat roll that she totally hadn't been practicing on her living room couch.
Digging her palms into the concrete and bringing herself to a rough stop, Ruby glanced behind to her find that the gates were still a good two or so feet apart, and their speed didn't seem to be as threatening as she had initially thought.
Perhaps the impromptu tumbling routine hadn't been strictly necessary.
Doing her best not to dwell on the ordeal that was figuratively and literally behind her, Ruby - still staying low - looked around and evaluated her new surroundings. In front of her, there was a sweeping green lawn, dotted with expertly spaced bushes and fir trees, and which the road she was on lazily cut through. In the distance, she could make out the faintly lit form of an ostentatious three-story mansion, with white walls and a deep blue roof.
If the homes Ruby had seen so far were lavishly designed to instill any observers with a sense of their magnificence, this one could be said to have done away with any haughty airs and sat in composed and noble repose, utterly confident in its sense of superiority, its estate so vast and its walls so high that it's owners needn't even bother themselves with the inconvenience of having to show off.
Hopefully they also didn't bother with attack dogs. Or defense turrets. Or attack dogs with defense turrets. Wait, would the turrets make the dogs too top-heavy, or-
Ruby shook her head, and returned her focus to the white-and-gold vehicle that was still moving away from her and towards... not the mansion. Rather, its current road seemed to be taking it towards a large cluster of trees that were grouped much closer together than any of their neighbors, though judging from the spacing of their somber silhouettes, these trees didn't seem to be a full grove so much as they were an encirclement.
As Ruby drew closer, it became apparent as to why this was the case - within the squarish circle of trees was a large metal building with a curved roof, not unlike an aircraft hangar. In fact, it was exactly like an aircraft hangar. It was an aircraft hangar.
Taking advantage of the many available tree trunks, Ruby found herself a hiding spot that offered a favorable vantage point. The car pulled to a stop, and both of the back doors opened. From one side emerged Yang, her long, wavy blonde hair almost seemed to glow in the night air. Out of the other side came a girl Ruby had never seen before, with straight, raven-black hair that reached down to her waist and seemed to grow in volume as it got there. In contrast to Yang's rugged, brown biking leathers, the stranger's black-and-white outfit seemed far more lightweight and casual.
The unknown girl seemed to say something to the driver as she and Yang shut their doors, and the car pulled around to make its exit from this far away hide away. As it passed Ruby's carefully selected fir of choice, she trained her eyes on its retreating bumper, for the first time finding herself close enough to read the license plate. She mentally prepared herself to memorize a string of nonsense characters, but what she saw on the personalized plate was both much simpler and more confusing than she could have expected.
SCHNEE2
...What in the gods' names was a "Schnee?"