A/N: Hello! First of all, if you're here for the first time, you should know this is a sequel to my oneshot 'Pinky Promise', and that this will be a mite confusing if you haven't read that. So do please go give it a view, and let me know what you think of it while you are there!

With that out of the way, hello all! This is a oneshot I always intended to write as a sequel to 'Pinky Promise'. Raven is my favorite character in the show (excluding Yang, of course) and her character is just so interesting, and I love exploring it. With that said, this story is meant to be a sort of test run for me for writing RWBY-esque combat, a difficult thing indeed for someone who has never been entirely comfortable with fight scenes (me). RWBY's action is so frenetic and blistering, and it can be difficult to translate that kind of momentum to the page. Please review and let me know how I did!

"Huntresses protect the innocent, Ruby. They do what's right, no matter what."

Ruby had been very young when her mother had died. Too young, really, to properly remember much about the woman. Most days, all she had to comfort her were vague impressions of who she had been. A warm, happy feeling in her chest that could only have been how she felt when she saw her, or the unmistakable knowledge of how her hair shined in the light. She knew that she had loved her mother, and she likewise knew that her mother had loved her. But insofar as actual memories were concerned, Ruby only had one she could reliably recall.

What seemed like a lifetime ago, Ruby had told Blake that she wanted to be a Huntress because of the old stories Yang used to read her before bed, and that was true. Yang had certainly done her part to foster that desire in her. But it was her mother, the protector of the innocent, the woman who did what was right, no matter what, that truly set the path for Ruby's life. When you can only recall the sound of your mother's voice in one way, what choice do you have but to follow where that memory leads?

Of course, neither Summer nor Ruby nor Yang could have probably ever guessed that 'protecting the innocent' and 'doing what's right' would ever be so damned difficult.

Ruby grunted softly as she landed on her latest rooftop, the speed of her semblance allowing her the momentum to roll into a slide with ease. She came to rest just behind the brick doorframe of the building's rooftop access. Allowing herself this small moment to rest, Ruby dislodged Crescent Rose's magazine, groping blindly at the belt along her back for a replacement. She strained her ears, sniffing lightly. Atlas had never ended up turning the heat in Mantle back on, and that made for cold nights and runny noses.

"Stop running, you little brat!"

If Ruby hadn't been as tired as she was, she might have smirked. Harriet Bree had never liked her, and her team's victory over the AceOps the night everything had gone to hell had not helped the woman's opinion of her. Never mind the fact that up here on the rooftops, she was practically useless. Ruby's unique speed semblance allowed her a maneuverability that Harriet's more basic one lacked.

Ruby locked her round into place with a single pull of Crescent Rose's bolt, grimacing lightly at the exertion. Three rooftops ago, Marrow had caught a lucky shot against her shoulder with Fetch as she had been deactivating her Semblance, a period of time she was always week as her Aura tried to compensate for the change in velocity. Her Aura had been strong enough to prevent the breaking of any skin, but it was horribly bruised. It would make for severe discomfort when it came time to shoot.

Ruby allowed herself two more heavy breaths before she stilled her diaphragm, listening. Up here on the rooftops, Vine was by far her biggest threat. His Semblance allowed him ample opportunity to sweep her off her feet or even throw her off the sides of the buildings themselves. Combined with Marrow's Semblance, the duo had already pulled off that very maneuver once, and it had only been her quick reflexes that had allowed her to regain her high ground. She suspected that the Faunus couple whose living room she had stabbed Crescent Rose through to halt her fall weren't nearly as happy as she was, but Ruby was prepared to chock that up as 'collateral damage'.

Ruby strained her ears.

Footprints to her right and left, one heavier than the other. A man, then – Marrow, she suspected, as Vine tended to float more than walk. She shook her head. Not a man. Elm.

Ruby narrowed her eyes. Vine, hit footfalls near silent, coming up on her left. Elm moving bluntly towards her on the right. A dangerous combination, more than capable of taking her out, but it wasn't what concerned her.

Ruby dashed upwards, showering the roof top in rose petals as she activated her Semblance to aid her in the jump. There, as expected, was Marrow, crouched on top of the building's rooftop access in preparation for her mad dash. He just hadn't anticipated her dashing upwards instead of outwards. He had time enough to widen his eyes before Crescent Rose's barrel brushed against the fabric of his shirt, and Ruby fired.

The momentum of the shot propelled her backwards, but the stab of pain that lanced through her chest and down her arm from the pulling of her shoulder muscles robbed her of the ability to engage her Semblance. She landed in a heap on the adjacent room, barely capable of rolling into a crouch as she did.

Ruby rose, grimacing in pain and huffing lightly as she leaned on Crescent Rose like a cane. Across the alleyway, Elm and Vine were already moving, charging directly at her with dichotomous expressions on their face. Elm was fury, her face contorted into a mask of rage and spite. Vine was calm, firm dedication arrayed around his eyes and lips in an expressionless, emotionless visage. She could make out the heap of groaning limbs that was Marrow as he slowly pushed his way onto his knees. He was out of the fight for the time being, but not for good.

Ruby's eyes widened suddenly. Where was–?

"Angh!" Ruby cried out in shocked pain as something hard, fast and brutal connected viciously with her waist. She crumpled, folding in on herself as she skidded along the length of the roof, losing her grip on Crescent Rose in the process.

"Little bitch!" Harriet spat at her, fists raised.

Ruby sucked in a series of small breaths, crying against the sharp, pointed pain each one sent through her body. She cradled her stomach with a trembling hand as the other held her up. Another cry of pain split the air as Harriet's boot connected unexpectedly with Ruby's face, flinging her onto her back. The pain in her side momentarily forgotten, Ruby reached up with both hands to cradle her now swimming head.

Through blurred, hazy vision, Ruby saw her hands come away red.

Heh, Ruby thought deliriously. Ruby red.

Ruby's ears roared, but through the haze she made out four words. "–me the cuffs, Elm –"

Ruby lowered her head to the floor and groaned as the vibrations sent a sledgehammer parading through her mind. Elm to her left the vibrations told her. Ruby narrowed her eyes lightly. That wouldn't work. Too surefooted, and that wasn't even counting her Semblance. But Harriet would want to be the one to cuff her…

That would work.

More vibrations. More sledgehammers. Light footfalls coming up on her right. Someone was saying something. Harriet, probably. Ruby didn't try to hear. She felt something brush against her foot, and she pivoted, hooking her feet around speedster's ankles as she spun. The woman cried out in furious shock but was unable to catch herself as she went sprawling.

Elm could, though, and instinctively reached out to catch her comrade. Ruby smiled, no doubt looking quite vicious as the blood leaked from her temple down onto her teeth to create a macabre impersonation of a grin. Standing back up to her full – unimpressive height – Ruby dashed forward, blurring into a cloud of rose petals that scattered across the roof, compelled by the wind of her movements. The red blur that had previously been Ruby Rose angled immediately for the discarded form of Crescent Rose on the ground.

Vine's glowing, golden arm lanced out, colliding brutally with Ruby in mid-air. "Agh!" she cried out in shocked pain as painful vibrations reverberated up her back. She collided heavily with the stone surface of the roof, scraping her face and hands in a variety of places, but still she managed to grab a quick hold on her weapon.

"Stay!" Marrow commanded with a snap of his fingers.

Ruby hissed as her muscles locked, contracting all at once into a limited paralysis. It was a remarkably uncomfortable and disconcerting feeling, being largely unable to move. She could feel the strain of her muscles trying to respond to her commands, the heat of their exertion in every joint of her body slowly building to a crescendo of muscle failures she knew would put her out of the fight for much too long. It was exceptionally lucky for her, then, that Marrow's semblance still allowed for slight, almost imperceptible movements.

Like the pulling of a trigger.

BANG! The bullet collided noisily with the concrete rooftop, pinging off of it and flying off in some random direction, hitting no one. It did, however, provide the shock she needed, and Marrow, no doubt already very gun-shy from his previous interaction with Ruby's sniper rifle, jumped, releasing her from her paralyzing prison.

Ruby became a blur of movement in the more traditional sense, shifting Crescent Rose into its scythe form as she twisted in a wide arc that carried the blade through the air. Marrow yelped, and his reflexive duck saved him from what could very well have been a decapitation depending on his Aura levels.

Not too long ago, that thought would have turned Ruby's stomach. In the deep, dark of the night when it was just her and none of her team could see her, it still did.

Ruby allowed Crescent Rose's momentum to carry her, spinning in another full arc as she stepped back before bringing the blade down harshly. It sank into the concrete rooftop like butter, sinking halfway up the blade. With a careful, precise motion, she pulled back on Crescent Rose's bolt, slotting a round.

And then…there was silence. The five combatants stared across at each other with varying expressions. Marrow and Ruby both desperately tried to hide their heavy, pain-induced breathing. Vine looking as calm as ever. Elm and Harriet looking even angrier than normal.

Ruby gulped, sticking her tongue out to lick at dry, cracked lips. "We don't have to do this," she tried defeatedly, her voice barely above a whisper. It wasn't the first time she said it. It wouldn't be the last.

Elm cracked her knuckles. "Yeah," she replied definitively. "We do."

If she'd had the time to spare for it, Ruby would have hung her head, but she knew that the Ace Ops had begun to move before Elm had even finished her declaration. Harriet made the first move, dashing into a blur. But Ruby had been expecting that, and she was familiar enough with the woman's speed to successfully judge her timing. Ruby lifted herself up on her arms, using Crescent Rose as an anchor as she spun herself around, catching Harriet in the side of the head and sending the woman sprawling with a pained cry of outrage.

Ruby's feet reconnected with the ground and she heaved her weapon out of the ground just in time to catch Marrow's bullet with the flat of her blade before twisting it to catch the shaft of Elm's Warhammer. Ruby grunted weakly as her arms protested the sudden strain of the woman's monstrous strength. She shifted her grip, forcing Elm's momentum to send her sliding off the edge of Crescent Rose's grip, but the slash she aimed the woman's back was halted by Vine's suddenly vicelike grip on the top edge of her weapon.

A single pull of a trigger sent a round tearing through the man's ghostly appendages and he released her, screaming in pain as he did. Ruby didn't know how psychosomatic that pain was, but she would take full advantage of it nonetheless. Ruby turned, preparing to angle another sharp swipe at Vine's still active Semblance.

Wait, Harriet! Ruby remembered too late.

Something sharp, vicious and angry connected roughly with the small of her back, sending painful reverberations up the length of Ruby's spine. She cried out, but rallied as quickly as she could, rolling into a flip as she landed on her knees…

Only for Vine's closed fist to contact roughly with her chin and send her sprawling. Ruby groaned. She loved Crescent Rose, she truly did, but there were times it was simply impractical. Her scythe was just so huge, and did not, unfortunately, have an alternative blade form like her Uncle's. She wished she had Gambol Shroud with her. The versatility it would offer would be wonderfully helpful here.

Actually, when she thought further on it, what Ruby really wished for right now was to have Blake here with Gambol Shroud. Or Yang with Ember Celica. Or Weiss with Myrtenaster. Or…well, you get the idea. Ruby coughed once in bitter humor, her body seemingly unwilling to laugh right now.

Then she was back in it, an explosion of movement and instinct as she swiped Crescent Rose across the ground at ankle height. A swipe that, if Vine's cry of shock was anything to go by, had caught at least one of them off guard. Crescent Rose continued to sweep through the air in a wide continuous arc as Ruby – she smirked to herself at the Yang level pun – rose. Her weapon came to rest, laying across the arc of her shoulders as she finally stood back up to her full height. A height that put her suddenly leveled weapon exactly level with Harriet's face.

"Boop," she whispered, more for herself than anything else as she pulled the trigger.

Harriet may have screamed, but Ruby could hardly hear it over the cacophonous BANG! that echoed across the rooftops. What she did know was that Harriet dropped like a sack of potatoes, collapsing to the ground in a heap of sparking Aura and still, silent limbs.

Ruby coughed again. Just once. "Who's next?"

Elm's furious roar met Ruby's ears at the exact same time that her hammer met Ruby's stomach. Ruby folded like a playing-card house, collapsing in on herself as she twisted around the head of Elm's hammer until the momentum of the woman's strike sent her flying, sailing, arcing through the air. It would have been almost pleasant were it not for the brief, second-long blackouts that were plaguing her alongside the radiating, all-consuming pain.

And then there was the impact.

The building they'd been fighting on top of had been at least three stories tall, but judging by the feel of her bones, Ruby wouldn't feel too much risk in betting on five. She'd left the smallest of craters in Mantle's road, but it was nothing overly impressive. Tomorrow, a passerby would likely mistake it for a newly developed pothole that the city officials weren't going to care enough to fix.

Ruby groaned, trying desperately to push herself back up, only for her arm to give out underneath her weight. Her face pressed uncomfortably into the wet grit of the pavement. All across her body, her red aura was flickering warningly. She knew what it meant. Another hit and it would break. She'd be defenseless, easy pickings for capture and imprisonment. It was, frankly, miraculous that it had not broken already.

Three heavy impacts sounded behind her, and splatters of dirty water leapt up into the air, landing all across her face and body. The AceOps. Well, three of them. She doubted Harriet would be up and moving anytime soon. Ruby allowed herself a small smile. In a four-on-one fight, she had still managed to incapacitate one of the four most skilled Huntsmen in Atlas. And that wasn't even counting how close she'd come to putting Marrow down as well. You had to enjoy the small victories.

One of the AceOps was behind her now – she didn't know which one. Her head was swimming. She couldn't find the strength to raise it. This was her defeat? All but passed out in the middle of a deserted Mantle street? Yang would be ashamed.

The AceOp shifted. Raising their weapon, Ruby realized. She scrunched up her eyes, tensing in preparation. Any second now.

Clang!

Ruby's eyes widened in an instant. 'Clang'? Humans didn't go 'clang'. Metal went 'clang'! She grunted, lifting her head with more exertion that she thought possible to turn and see. There was a figure in front of her, but that wasn't surprising. The AceOps were all but trying to kill her – if Harriet had her way – whenever she woke up – they probably would kill her. But…this figure's feet were facing away from her. And they were wearing red. AceOps didn't wear red.

Seized by a sudden fit of strength, Ruby hoisted herself up until she was weakly leaning her torso against a single arm, the other cradling her stomach. She gawked.

There, in all her glory, was Raven Branwen, hands gripped tightly to the pommel of her distinctive red blade which was currently engaged in a struggle of strength with Marrow and his weapon. As she watched, Raven tensed her back and legs, heaving the dog Faunus off of her. Marrow stumbled backwards, tripping momentarily before he was caught by Elm.

"Raven?" Ruby asked stupidly. Raven didn't take her eyes off her opponents, but Ruby thought she could see the slightest tilt of a smirk on the corner of her lips.

"Raven?" Elm repeated, no small amount of anger in her voice. "Raven Branwen? What are you doing here?"

"What's it look like?" Raven snarked sardonically. She drew her sword up, scraping it gratingly across the metal of her bracer, seemingly relishing in the pained expressions that alighted on the AceOps faces at the noise. "Three on one, huh? Not very fair."

Elm sneered. "Feel free to call for help."

"I wasn't talking about me," Raven smirked.

Behind Elm, Vine and Marrow traded suddenly nervous glances. Team STRQ was well renowned for being one of, if not the best Huntsmen Team Remnant had ever produced. Individually, the four of them had been amongst the most skilled combatants in the world, and together, they'd been nigh invincible. The story of their rise was infamous, but the story of their fall was legendary. Detailed accounts of how this very woman fought the other three members of her team to a brutal standstill were still passed around the Huntsmen community to this day. The AceOps had lost track of the amount of times they'd heard the tale.

If she'd had the energy, Ruby might have laughed at how overpoweringly expressive the look of panic looked on Vine's normally monotonous face.

Still not taking her eyes off the three AceOps, Raven asked, "You okay?"

The muscles that strained all across her body to allow Ruby the ability to turn her head gave her all the answer she needed as she hissed in horrid pain. "Am I allowed to say no?" she coughed. Which was unfortunate, as the single cough turned into a prolonged fit, each of which sent lance after lance of biting pain all across her body.

Ruby couldn't see Raven's face, but it was comforting to the girl to imagine a look of concern or pity on the older woman's face. So, she did.

Whether the concern was there or not, Raven nonetheless spoke with a calm, collected reassurance. "Rest up, kid. I've got this."

And, despite everything that Ruby had been through tonight, she miraculously believed her.

In the days to come, Ruby would regret few things as much as she would regret missing the Raven Branwen fight. Oh, she saw some things, of course. Enough to get the bullet-points of the proceedings. But it was through a haze of semi-conscious delirium. Hardly the state she would have chosen to be in to watch a legend in action.

Raven sheathed her sword in a single, easy movement, a smirk playing across her lips. She stood as casually and as calm as could be, waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Elm broke first, of course, unable as always to take the taunting expression on the older woman's face. She rushed forward, warhammer raised, but Raven only ducked under the hefty weapon, rising back to full height behind her and twisting to deliver a vicious kick to Elm's knees that sent the woman to the ground. Across from Raven, Marrow's hand was already moving, rising up to snap its imperious command. Raven pressed the trigger on Omen's sheath, rocketing the pommel of her sword into Marrow's face at a speed that no doubt broke the Faunus' nose. Deftly, she caught her sword, twisting in a full arc that saw its gleaming red blade slash across Elm's back and Vine's glowing hands in a single, uninterrupted movement that elicited cries of pain from the both of them.

Ruby was out of it, barely cognizant of her immediate surroundings as her pain tried desperately to drag her into unconsciousness despite her protests. She was, however, aware enough to know this: She didn't have anything on Raven. Really, she wasn't sure there were many people who did. It was clear to Ruby as she watched the older woman advance on the still reeling Marrow, only to shift immediately into vicious kick at Vine's side that transitioned swiftly into a painfully accurate throw of her sword into Elm's shoulder exactly what she had been doing wrong. Ruby was a skilled fighter, but she had been playing the game wrong, engaging the AceOps individually even in a four-on-one battle when she was already injured. Raven made no such mistake. She engaged all of them all at once, focusing on the team as a whole instead of its individual members.

And it was working.

Predictably, Marrow fell first, and Ruby allowed herself to smugly think that it was because she had loosened him up for her.

It was unceremonious and, frankly, a bit embarrassing. Unperturbed by her lack of a genuine weapon even as the two standing AceOps began to press their 'advantage', Raven raised Omen's bulky sheath, intercepting Vine's attempt at a grab. His hands latched onto the sheath, but he held tight, trying desperately to pull her off her feet. In the same vein, Marrow tried to take advantage of her 'split' attention, swinging Fetch down in a vicious arc towards her head. Raven caught the blade between the slits of her bracers almost lazily, and all it took was a slight jerk of her wrist to lock the blade in place.

Seemingly caught between the two men – Vine latched tightly to her sheath on her left and Marrow locked to her wrist on her right – Raven only grinned viciously and leapt into the air, twisting as she connected a vicious kick with Marrow's unprotected temple. Marrow's blue Aura flickered twice, vainly attempting to protect him from the blow, but he dropped in much the same way that Harriet had.

Raven wrist moved, freeing Fetch from its locked position. She caught it as it fell and swiped it in a wide arc, burying it deep into Vine's glowing arms. The man screamed, releasing his hold on Omen's sheath in an instant and dissipating his arms immediately after. He stumbled back, cradling his genuine physical arms as if they had been the ones to take the hit. Still gripping tight to Marrow's weapon, Raven spun herself in a tight circle, slashing the boomerang shaped blade against Vine's chest one two three times! And on the third time, the man's Aura shattered, and he fell to the ground in a heap of bleeding tangled limbs as Raven's fourth slash cut deep into his chest.

In front of Ruby, Elm grunted suddenly, rising up to stand at her full – very impressive – height. She was breathing heavily, and Ruby could just see the edge of Omen from where it was still sticking out of the back of the woman's shoulder. If Elm was at all disturbed by this, her face didn't show it as she instead chose to wear a delightfully vicious mask of pure, unadulterated fury. She raised her warhammer high above her head, pausing long enough to smile viciously down at the helpless Ruby.

It was a pause too long. Fetch flew into view, breezing just over Ruby's head until seemed to come to an almost cartoonish stop before it began its backwards arc, acting like the boomerang it was. It flew past Elm, brushing up against her chest and arm just enough to leave a deep, bloody gouge that rocked the woman back a full step.

Elm, her attention completely on Raven again, screamed gutterally in inarticulate rage. Raven only smirked, knowing full well what the expression would do for the other woman's temper. Then she charged, dashing forward with that same satisfied smirk on her face despite the fact that her weapon was still embedded in Elm's shoulder and the weapon that she had borrowed from Marrow was now discarded somewhere on the ground farther up the street.

And then, because apparently Raven felt that she had not yet shown off enough, she leapt into the air, vanishing into a portal that had not been there a moment ago. Elm had just enough time to stumble confusedly as she looked at the blank air where her opponent had been only moment ago before another portal opened above her, dropping Raven directly on top of her. Planting her feet firmly in the small of the woman's back, Raven grinned ferally, gripped tightly to Omen's hilt and sunk it all the way through Elm's shoulder right up to the hilt.

Elm screamed and Raven laughed, and a single strike to the temple from Omen's sheath sent the larger woman to the ground where she would remain for quite some time yet.

Silence persisted for the following moments, broken only by the wet schlick of Raven pulling her blade free from Elm's shoulder. On another day, the wet, vulgar sound might very well have made Ruby queasy, but she was preoccupied with the queasiness her all-consuming sense of pain was causing her and decided that she would let it go this time.

Ruby's head lay flat against the pavement. To her right – or maybe her left, she thought deliriously – there were footprints. Vibrations. The vibrations weren't pleasant, reverberating throughout her pained, strained head at a million miles an hour, but the footsteps were more than comfortable. Raven wouldn't hurt her. Sure, she'd helped to fling a fireball at her the last time they'd met, but that had been three months ago. She was sure her…Aunt? She was sure her Aunt was feeling far more pleasant today. She had saved her live, after all.

A noise. The rustling of cloth and armor. Raven had crouched down beside her. Pleasantly cool fingers gripped lightly at her chin, prodding her to turn her head this way and that, which Ruby really didn't appreciate. Her head swam with the slightest of movements.

"You didn't…" Ruby slurred. "You didn't…kill…any of them, did you?"

She heard Raven snort from someplace that sounded – but probably wasn't, she decided – very far away. Her words, however, came in crystal clear. "You really are just like your mother."

Hands grabbed onto her, hauling her upwards, and Ruby fought valiantly against the urge to vomit. Raven had been very kind to her today, what with the saving her life thing and all, but she was quite certain that her…Aunt? She was quite certain that her Aunt would kill her if she threw up down the length of her back.

There was a sound – a familiar sound, although Ruby couldn't really place it – and then a rapid and very uncomfortable change of temperature, followed by the altogether pleasant sensation of her body being laid across something very soft. The sound again – so familiar, Ruby mused distantly – and then…nothing.

Until, of course, she heard…

"Ruby!" That was Jaune's voice, as frantically worried as ever. He'd been getting worse since they'd been separated from Oscar. She probably needed to talk to him about that.

"What happened to her!?" Weissy! Ruby giggled hysterically. She does care!

"She's badly hurt. Badly. Jaune!" Ren's voice. Calm. Always calm.

"How did she get here?" That was Yang, sounding very suspicious as she asked a very good question. Ruby would need to think of a very good answer to give her.

Don't worry, Aunt Raven, she thought in a vague, far away sort of way. Her voice, to her own self, sounded almost childlike. I won't tell her. I promised.