Ten Years Ago

In the forest of Patch, a small shadow worked its way through the woods. A young blonde in twin-tails carried her little sister down the path in a red toy cart. Yang Xiao Long was a girl on a quest. She packed everything she would need on an adventure, sandwiches, snacks, and a few blankets. And then she realized she shouldn't leave little Ruby at home and took her with. It can't be too much longer now…

Yang found a picture in her dad's room, a picture of a black-haired woman she didn't recognize. The woman was holding an infant, and writing on the back of the polaroid said it was her. Summer wasn't Yang's mom, this woman was. And some clue about her was nearby, on the very island they lived. Her father refused to talk about it, so she had to find out on her own.

"Any minute now, Rubes." Yang assured her sleeping sister. "We'll be there soon."

But they weren't. Yang started to think that maybe she didn't think this through. She pushed on through her fatigue, breathing heavily as the woods got thicker. She would get there. She had to get there. "Maybe… a little rest…" The little blonde told herself, stopping for a moment. She looked up at the treetops and saw… it. The cabin from the picture.

A large smile broke across her face. She was here. She found it! She took off through the rest of the trees and came to a stop at the doors. Her smile faltered. The cabin was worn out and falling apart. The doors were gone and the inside was too dark to be visible. Yang fell to her knees, too exhausted to do anything else. It had all be been for nothing.

Grrowwl

Lilac eyes shot open in fear. "That noise…" Red eyes glowed through the darkness of the old house. Yang could only stare at them in fear. She had never seen them herself before, but she knew what they were. Creatures of darkness. Creatures of chaos. The creatures of Grimm. She was dead. She wasn't even ten years old yet, but there was no way she could do this. A tear fell as the Grimm pounced…

… and a flash of silver cut the monster down before the tear hit the ground. Yang stared in amazement as a flurry of crescent strikes cut the Grimm down one by end. In moments, they were all gone. All that was left was a sad little girl and a grizzled man with a scythe.

"How you doing, firecracker?" Qrow asked with a smile.

"Uncle Qrow…" Yang's tears resumed. "I'm so sorry!" She wailed, "I shouldn't have come on my own!"

"Shhh, it's okay, Yang." Qrow assured. "I don't think I need to teach you a lesson you haven't already learned, you hear?" The blondie slowly nodded. The scythe master looked around. "Where's Ruby?"

Cawing and screaming from behind Yang caught their attention. Qrow bolted into the next field to see Ruby behind the red cart cowering before a Nevermore that was nearly the size of her. The Grimm bird let out a flow of fatal feathers before Qrow's scythe split it in half. Yang rushed to her sister's side while Qrow scanned for more threats. Then Yang's cry of "Qrow!" broke his vigilance as he rushed to his niece's side.

"Oh no…" He stared at the single black feather sticking out of Ruby's chest, the small child breathing fast. It looked as though it should have pierced the girl's heart. It was a wonder she was still alive. Qrow carefully picked her up, not wanted to hurt her any more than she already was. "We have to get her to a hospital. Fast."

Present Day

Roman Torchwick stalked down the streets of Vale. He had an agenda tonight. Dust, and lots of it. Of course, finding a Dust shop open so late was no small task, but he managed one quickly enough. 'From Dust Till Dawn' was an ironic name just waiting to be heisted. His borrowed lackeys from Junior's club trailed behind him and people side-stepped on the street to avoid him. It was good to be the king.

Torchwick let himself in the door and walked right up to the counter, wasting no time. "Do you know how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?" One of Junior's men raised his weapon at the elderly shopkeeper.

"Please, take my lien and leave…" The old man pleaded.

"Don't worry, we're not here for your money." He turned to his borrowed boys. "Grab the Dust."

While most of the men went straight to work draining the shop of its precious commodity, a few went to look for witnesses. One man came across a short figure, either a small woman or a teenager. She was dressed in mostly leather, a dark red that while plainly red on sight, one could still lose her in shadows. A smarter man may see that the tight torso piece and Bolero style jacket allowed for both protection and maneuverability. Despite the loose black skirt, she wore tight leather bottoms tucked into knee-high boots that were laced as opposed to the current fashion of buckles.

The only bright thing on the girl was the fabric trim of her hooded cape. The cape itself was mostly the same red leather, and the trained eye may even notice that the leather was an addition. An afterthought layered over the original, bright red fabric piece. A smarter man may even note that the cape may be hiding a weapon from view, especially with the sight of the feathered fetching of arrows poking out her left side.

All in all however, this goon was not a smart man. He saw a young girl as easy prey.

At the moment, Ruby was deaf to the world around her. A combination of weapon magazine and her own headphones denying her the presence of Junior's goon behind her. The only thing that broke her from her reverie was her bracelet lighting up. The device was an alarm of sorts, and she was always aware of when it went off. She set the magazine down and reached for a pouch at her belt, but was interrupted when a hand on her shoulder turned her around.

She looked him up and down curiously and noted his pantomime of removing headphones. Taking this as a cue to remove her own, she did so while never breaking eye contact. "Yes?"

"I said hands in the air!" He told her, as though he was exhausted from repeating himself.

"Are you… robbing me?" The young girl asked.

"Yes!"

"Hm."

Roman was at the counter when he saw one of the men fly through the shop window, followed by a streak of red and the scent of worn leather. He looked outside to see a girl who was probably fifteen, maybe sixteen, standing over the now unconscious man. She stood and turned slowly, drawing her elegant blade that was either a slightly short katana or a slightly long ninjato. She held onto the sheath as well, unclasping from her belt. The blade she held forward in her left hand while she held the sheath near the top, the shaft pointing backward, in her right.

Roman stared on. He didn't like where this was going. He looked to the other men. "Well? Get her."

The men ran out the door and charged Ruby. This only made the girl smirk. The first that got to her swung overhead, a strike she blocked easily with a swing of her own sword. Utilizing the light materials within used to build the blade, her experience with it, and a tad bit of her semblance, Ruby struck the man three times in rapid succession off the one counter.

The first man backed up while two more came from each side of him. Both swinging at once, Ruby calmly blocked one blade with her sword and the other blade with her sheath. She disconnected her sheath first, bringing it around the legs on the man sword-side. Tripping him easily, a back swing at his shoulders slammed him face-first into the ground.

The second man attempted another swing at his opponent, but Ruby jumped backward over his blade and hand-sprung back into position. He turned to face her, only to receive her next combo before he had a chance to do anything. She brought her sheath left across his gut, then back right across his chest. With her sword she swung similarly, right and then back left, biting away at his aura. One last swing of the sheath up his chin sent him flying backwards into the nearly recovered man on the ground, taking them both out.

Another goon charged, swinging his blade horizontally. Ruby jumped, cartwheeling in the air over his blade. In the same moment she was upside-down above the goon's weapon, she swiped the blade from his hands with her sheath. With her sword she tripped his legs, then swung up to keep him airborne. With her sheath, she slammed the man into the ground, cracking the pavement a little and removing him from the battle.

One last man ran at her, and Ruby quickly slid her sheath over her sword. In the same motion, she used her now free right hand to reach around grab an arrow from the quiver that stuck out the left side of her back. This motion also served as her windup, and allowed her to throw the arrow straight out of its quiver. Not the most conventional or easy way to use an arrow, but she didn't need precision at the moment. The Burn Dust in the arrowhead exploded on the ground in front of the man, rocketing him back through the shop window.

"You were worth every penny, truly you were." Roman chided the unconscious form. He looked to Ruby. "It's been fun Red, but I'm afraid this is where we part ways." His cane opened on the bottom and fired a large blast at the young girl.

She jumped away from it quickly, using her semblance and a few flips to gain distance from the blast. Ruby raced back down the street looking for the robber, but saw no sign of him until she looked at a ladder halfway up a building.

She cocked her head to the shopkeeper. "You okay if I go after him?" He nodded, and her path was set.

He ran to the other end of the rooftop, and heard footsteps behind him. "Persistent…"

Ruby watched as an airship came to the burglar's aid. Curious, but not enough to deter her. This was hardly the first time she dealt with a skilled thief. Ruby stepped forward, confident. But that confidence was shattered in an instant by a stinging tightness in her chest. My alarm… that man… I forgot… my alarm… Ruby dropped her weapon and fell to her knees, hunched over and gripping her chest for dear life.

Roman didn't wonder why such a strong young girl suddenly fell. He instead thanked whatever gods necessary for his good fortune as he began his getaway. The arrival of a bona-fide huntress made him curse those same gods. Ruby watched in awe through fading vison as the huntress attacked the vessel. Stupid! Don't watch the huntress! Deal with this! You've done it before…

Ruby strained to pull an injector and a thin vial out of a pouch on her belt. She loaded the vial into the injector before reaching for a section of her outfit. Just under her left breast was a flap she hastily opened. With only thin cloth under the leather, the injector broke through and gave the young girl what she desperately needed. Her chest loosened, the stinging went away, and she lay back to catch her breath.

She opened her eyes after catching her breath to see the huntress who saved her standing over her. Ruby first instinct was to offer thanks for the woman's help. But the expression the woman wore made Ruby gulp away the tension building in her throat instead.

"You're coming with me." The woman told her. "We need to talk."

Ruby gulped again.

Seven Years Ago

Ruby Xiao Long was walking home from school. Her father was there to pick her up of course, but she walked home before. She could do it again. She could prove to him that she could live her own life. Then, maybe, finally, she could live the life she always wanted. Because as it was, god forbid the girl even picked up the fire poker without her family fearing she would take it out back and play 'huntress'. And it made her angry.

Her father's car was in the drive already, as Ruby should have expected. He wouldn't be happy with her going home on her own. He never was. She had heard the same speech a hundred times before, about how she of all people needed to be more careful. Ruby never wanted to be 'she of all people'. She just wanted to be people. She wanted her family to stop treating her as some fragile doll that was already dropped once.

The bracelet on her wrist started to flash and buzz and beep. The thing was annoying, but at least she knew when it went off. She hit a few buttons on it before pulling the long, thin metal cylinder out of her pocket, along with a few tubes of liquid. She remembered the day the doctors told her family she could never be without this device. After the Nevermore pierced her heart, she would have died if not for a risky Dust treatment. It worked like an aura-steroid on her heart, keeping it stitched together. That, of course, meant she did have an unlocked aura, not that anyone will let me train it.

But the treatment didn't work on its own. Not even a day later, the Dust surrounding her heart began to fail. The doctors took out this same cylinder, and told Ruby to try and stay calm. The little redhead was frightened of the device. It was strange and new and she didn't know what it was. They put a vial of some liquid in it and stuck the thing in her chest. Ruby felt the needle, then the flow of liquid freezing her heart. Then it was warm, and all the pain went away. The doctors sighed in relief when Ruby resumed breathing.

The drug was some kind of Dust enhancer, renewing the energy of the Dust in her body. And by now it was clear that she would need the medicine for life. But that wasn't the worst part… the worst part was when the doctors told her father that stress would only weaken her heart faster. In that moment, her life-long dream of being a huntress, of being a hero like her mother, was effectively shattered. Seemingly overnight, her father stopped telling her stories about her mother or his hunts, and Yang stopped reading her fairy tales before bed. Worst of all, Uncle Qrow, who had promised to tutor Ruby when she was old enough, stopped coming around as much.

Ruby stared at the injector in her hands. She was afraid of it for a long time, but now… now she simply hated it. Every time she held it, it was a reminder of why she couldn't live her dreams. But maybe, if she got stronger, she could one day. But her family didn't want to let her try. They'd rather she lived a shielded life, safe in their little bubble. Ruby didn't inject the medicine until she felt her heart begin to seize. I will get stronger. Whether they like it or not.

Hello readers! Welcome to the latest Adventure! In case you didn't already know, this story exists largely thanks to username TheShadow977, who graciously allowed me to adopt his story idea and make this tale for all of you! I hope you enjoy!