This is a one shot. Probably.

FAME

The town of Valence, which despite its name is not in Vale, was one of the many new towns that propped up in what was formerly the dangerous wilds between bastions of civilization between the kingdoms. Before the Grimm menace was ended a decade ago, Yang never would have imagined a town so undefended and so remote from the rest of humanity.

Now, for her, those times feel like they could have been centuries ago. So much has changed the world is almost unrecognizable.

Without the constant threat of Grimm looming over them, Hunters were almost completely unneeded. People once packed like sardines behind the high walls of cities began to spread out across the world. Almost overnight, the proud city of Vale began to feel almost like a ghost town as everyone who could leave, did, and found their new lives outside the walls that once protected them.

Yang thought it was strange to be so unneeded. A decade ago her and her team saved the world, Hunters were hero's that saved lives every day and now... not so much. She knew she should be happy that the world is peaceful enough she doesn't have to fight, but deep down she was disappointed. Like most hunters she fully expected to die on the job in some remote forest fighting the enemies of humanity. She never gave any thought as to what she would do afterwards. Barring some major injury that somehow couldn't be fixed with prosthetics there wasn't really much reason to even consider such a thing.

Yes, the world was most assuredly at peace.

Or at least it should have been.

Just a few hours ago, Yang received an alert sent from an emergency transponder in Valence. It didn't contain much information, just enough to know it was serious and they needed help immediately. Yang just so happened to be in the general area and was the obvious pick to send in.

It was the first time in months she actually felt useful.

The small town was practically a ruin by the time she came barreling in on the back of the most recent iteration of Bumblebee. At first glance it looked like half the town was leveled, and the other half was up in flames. All around, strewn across the hard-packed dirt roads and stacked like cordwood just inside the buildings lay dozens upon dozens of corpses.

Yang could recognize the damage done to the bodies as having been inflicted by guns and blades, not the harsh hooked claws you see on Grimm.

She wasn't sure if that was any better than the alternative.

Grimm were simple enough creatures. Terrifying, but simple. Humans on the other hand were unpredictable and had a habit of doing the most horrible things to each other.

A flick of her wrists brought her gauntlets over her hands and forearms. There was no point in going in quietly, anyone with half a brain would have heard the noisy engine of her bike from a ways out.

As Uncle Qrow always said, be prepared.

Yang slowly made her way through the ruined town. A few living villagers were sprinkled in amongst the dead, and whenever she would come across one, she would lend whatever assistance she could. Be it splinting broken bones, or punching through brittle fire damaged walls to gain access to trapped survivors among the flames, she ran to and fro trying to help what survivors she could.

The dead still vastly outnumbered the living, but every little bit helped.

Her path took her gradually through the ruins and deeper into the inferno. Here, there were far less bodies littering the streets, instead there were even more freshly wounded and burnt to rescue. It was hard, tiring work, and despite knowing that she must surely be getting closer to whoever is causing all this damage, she couldn't bring herself to just run past the people calling out to her for help. Each time she got even the slightest glimpse of someone in need she would rush over to help.

It is what heroes do after all.

Turning the corner onto what was once the main road through the village, she got her first view of whoever was behind this.

A bloodied, singed man was impaled on a massive blade. Blood poured from the hole in his chest like a fountain, spraying through the superheated air and hissing when it met the flames. His legs hung limp under his body and his entire weight was held by the blade.

In a flash of red the blade vanished and cleaved into his neck.

Yang stared in openmouthed shock as the headless corpse slumped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut revealing the woman behind it.

Mom?

She shook her head in disbelief and took in the figure just meters away.

The woman looked remarkably like the late Raven Branwen at first glance. Same pale mask, same feathers and dangerous aura, but the more Yang stared the more discrepancies she saw. For one, the height was completely wrong. Raven, while not an exceptionally tall woman, was at least a hand taller than this imposter. The clothing as well, while similar in color, was far more ragged than anything her neat-freak of a mother would ever wear.

As a teen, during the few times Yang and Raven managed to act civil around each other, she always found it incredibly comical how obsessed with cleanliness the old bird was. She would never allow a single article of her clothing to have so much as a scratch.

The strong have to keep up their image. It wouldn't do for some weak pissant to think them as vulnerable, so she kept herself and her gear at 120% at all times.

Of course, as her eyes fell on the woman's weapon, she knew this couldn't possibly be her mother.

After all, her mother did not use a scythe.

"R-Rubes!?" Yang fell to her knees.

The woman's gaze lifted from the gruesome remains and, though the silver orbs were hidden in the shadows of the mask, locked eyes with Yang.

"Hello Yang. Strange meeting you here." murmured the red clad woman. Her voice was light and echoed eerily in the mask.

"Wha-wha-what are you doing!? Why are you, what, I don't..." she trailed off as she took in completely what her little sister was doing. Her dearest little Ruby had just murdered someone! Cut off their fucking head in front of her like it was nothing!

The red reaper reached up to the side of her mask and popped a hidden clasp. The front of her mask fell forwards against her chest, revealing the familiar visage of Ruby Branwen.

"Unlike you, dearest sister, I learned a lot from Mothers lessons." Ruby twirled her scythe lazily and slowly circled Yang. "Her annoying rambling about strength and weakness. I know you never cared for her philosophies Yang, and I am the first to admit I found them utterly repulsive."

Crescent Rose jerked to a stop, stock pressed tight against her shoulder. A gunshot rang out and one of the escaping villagers' heads halfway across town exploded into a pink mist.

""The strong live and the weak die" isn't that what she always said?" she squinted through the scope and calmly fired off shot after shot, each one ending the life of another fleeing villager.

"It wasn't until after we got rid of the Grimm that we started seeing eye to eye." the ever-present smirk on her face widened into a harsh predatory leer as she put down the last human and lowered her scythe. Turning back to her sister, she looked into her eyes as if searching for something, "You see it too, don't you? These pathetic little creatures, acting like they matter? Take away the one threat in life and they act like they have merit. Complaining and whining day after day about their worthless little problems! As if they have any right to demand anything of us!? Thinking they can guilt us into bowing to their pathetic whims and dancing to their tune!?"

Yang's eyes, somehow, widened even further in shock as her sister continued to ramble crazily.

"What happened to you?"

Ruby's mouth snapped shut with an audible click, crazed eyes focusing back on her sister's face. "Nothing happened to me Yang. I simply found..." she tilted her head in thought, "perspective."

Her smirk returned full force, she stalked over to Yang and crouched to get on the same level. She reached out almost tentatively and grabbed ahold of Yang's ash covered golden hair, forcing her to look into her eyes. Four colored flames burst from inside and tumbled down her face, backed by an otherworldly silver glow.

Ruby smiled happily, it could almost pass for the childish cheer she held as a kid, and leaned into her sisters' ear.

"In this world," she whispered, "the strong do what they want, and the weak are their slaves, their playthings, and no one is stronger than me."

Welcome to the bottom.

The idea for this is basically a world where Raven raises Ruby to some degree, and she later takes on a form of her philosophy after the defeat of the Grimm. As said on the top, this is currently a one shot. I do enjoy myself some murderous Ruby, though recently i have been reading some more... fluffy nonsense. I was on the verge of writing a entire "Raven Raises Ruby" story from the begining, but one of the ones i have been waiting on an update for, was actually updated! HUZZAH!

The title, and a lot of this one shot, come from the game inFAMOUS and the final line of this is almost verbatim from the Evil Karma ending to inFAMOUS one.

Haven't written fanfiction in a while. Got tied up with my new job and my own writings and ended up blowing it off for a few months. Should be some updates for my other stories soon. Probably.

In other news, i managed to watch season 5 and 6 of ruby in February. I probably would have written more fanfiction in Feb, but those seasons are so fucking horrible it actually killed my enjoyment and i ended up watching Avatar: The last Airbender instead.

So knowing me, expect a random A:TLA fanfic in the next few days if i randomly decide to bust one out.

Not much else to say. Thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed.