Chapter 3: Rude Awakening pt 2

It has been awhile since she's found out about the mysterious giant box in their basement.

For the longest time she had avoided it after all…

Finding out that she was used as a tool to study an ancient magic stone coffin which probably has a corpse inside it, made her distrustful of people. Especially those from Beacon.

Being called a freak at school didn't help either.

It was disgusting and morbid. To think that for the majority of her life she had considered it her friend.

Maybe it was her friend. Afterall friends don't talk behind your back. Friends don't use you to just get close to her sister. Friends don't call you names or insult you when you mess up.

Mister box she called it. Back then it was her world. It would be an airship, a castle, a house. It would be anything she wanted it to be. Mister box would listen to her without judgement. Mister box would make her feel nice if she ever became sad. If she was angry, Mister box would calm her down. She felt safe around it. She even disliked going on vacations because that would mean leaving mister box behind. For the past 12 years of her life she never questioned why mister box was here. She grew up happy. Blissfully unaware of the truth. And as long as no one finds out about mister box them she can continue to be happy...

But it all changed.

One day Yang invited some of her friends. A bunch of older kids. Young Ruby instantly could tell that they were of the bad sort and avoided them. They were wearing weird spiky clothes and alot of makeup. They even smelled weird. One was smoking, the other was drinking beer. She hid in the basement where mister box was kept to avoid them. It was all in vain however when Yang personally guided them to the basement.

"What are you doing here?" She asked with her childish voice.

"Ruby! Gods don't scare me like that." Yang put a hand on her chest and sighed. A guy at her back approached the twelve year old. He had short black hair and wore sunglasses indoors as well as a black leather jacket and a lot of ear piercings.

"You must be Yang's sister. Hey you're pretty cute too." The guy tried to ruffle her head but she recoiled back.

"Yang, mom and dad said that the basement is forbidden to other people other than us!" Ruby looked at her sister with a pleading look.

"It's fine." She waved it off.

"There's nothing here but that weird stone box that you always talk to."

"Wait, she speaks to a stone box?" A girl behind Yang scoffed.

Ruby's eyes widened. It was supposed to be a secret….

"Yang! Do not let them in here! You'll get in trouble!"

"Ruby! Chill. I'm just going to show them something cool. Now get out of the way." Yang slightly shoved her aside and guided her friends inside the room.

Ruby followed them inside worried of what they might do.

"This is it?" One of the girls spoke.

"Yeah. This is it. Cool right?" Yang walked up beside her.

"It's just a stone box." Sunglasses guy began to inspect the sarcophagus.

"It kinda looks like one of those … what do you call them?... The ones in vacuo where mummies are kept?" Another girl spoke.

"Sam you're such a nerd!" The first girl teased her friend.

"Shut up! I'm just saying. Maybe there's a dead body in there."

Yang and Ruby looked surprised. To them it was just a stone box. Ruby was visibly shook.

"It's just a stone box guys. Look it even glows! Ruby, show them." Yang gestured at Ruby.

"Yang… stop this."

"Come on!" Yang pleaded but Ruby backpedaled as she saw the older teens looking at her. Intimidated, Ruby only shrank back.

Yang looked irritated. She put a hand on Ruby's shoulder and whispered.

"Look these guys are the coolest guys at school. And if I want to be one of them I gotta show them something cool. Don't mess this up for me okay Rubes?"

Reluctantly Ruby nodded as she looked at her sister's pleading face.

Nervously she walked towards the stone box.

"H-hey there …."

" ?" One of the girls snickered.

"Shhh, look something's happening." Sunglasses pointed at the sarcophagus.

The sarcophagus's runes began to beat once.

"Woah! What just happened?" The audience looked in awe.

"T-they're Yang's friends…"

The runes blinked twice.

"Yeah I know that they shouldn't be here."

The runes blinked twice again.

Ruby nodded and turned to the onlookers.

"There… now please leave."

"That's… not creepy at all." One of the girls commented.

"So? What do you guys think?" Yang grinned to the girl. It seems that she's the leader of this group.

"Is that all that it does? It glows when coffin girl here speaks to it?"

"Coffin… girl?..." Ruby looked at Yang.

"It's just a joke Ruby, loosen up. And yeah. Just that I guess…"

"It's kinda cool I guess. Alright you're in. Come let's get out of here. I hear that new smoothie shop is good." The leader walked up the stairs and the others followed.

"See ya later coffin girl." Sunglasses snickered.

Yang flinched and looked at Ruby for a bit.

Ruby only stared at her sister with saddened eyes.

"Yang you comin'?"

"Y-yeah wait for me!"

Yang didn't say a word to her as she left with her new friends, leaving Ruby alone in the basement.

Yang got to join their little group for the rest of the school year and her parents were blissfully unaware of what transpired.

Though after that day a little bit of trust towards her sister was gone.

The 'incident'… It didn't happen instantly. Of course. A good year had passed.

It only happened when Yang got into a fight with the group's leader.

Apparently Sunglasses fell for Yang and leader girl did not like it. A fight ensued. Insults were thrown here and there. Yang didn't even like the guy. But the guy was just so obsessed with her.

Yang was somewhat of a headstrong girl. One of the top fighters in the huntsman curriculum so leader girl didn't really have a chance if she were to duke it out with Yang. So she attacked Ruby.

The girl had a high standing in their school. The queen bee if you will. She told her worker bees to spread a rumor.

'Ruby Rose speaks to corpses'

'Ruby Rose speaks to coffins'

So on…

And so forth…

It doesn't take a genius to know how much it affected her.

All the friends she's made turned on her. Bullied her without end. At that point that cheerful girl began to fade.

Some time later she just shut down and stopped going to school.

Summer and Tai found out and both were furious. The two of them stormed the school and demanded leader girl and her friends.

Yang was regretful and blamed herself for everything that happened but Ruby didn't trust her. Not anymore.

Then people from Beacon came asking why the reports stopped. She overheard them mentioning something about a sarcophagus. It was here where she realized that she was just being used to observe and study the thing as apparently it reacts to her.

Needless to say her trust towards her own family greatly lessened that day.

Summer and Tai were worried to death. There were many many times they tried to coax her and get her some mental help. Her Uncle, who has been busy and rarely visits, tried to help. The headmaster of Beacon even personally came by and tried to talk to her. Even her favourite babysitter, Glyndie, came back to talk to her… though...

All attempts were unsuccessful. She felt like she couldn't trust anyone anymore.

She still continued her training despite all this though. But a slight change to focus more on long range weaponry.

She excelled on it. Shooting a rifle she made at a droplet on a leaf far away from her bedroom window with such precision, one would think she was one of the kingdom's top sharpshooters.

Part of her thinks that it was in vain since she had practically dropped out of school so she won't be able to apply for any Huntsman Academies...

Her parents weren't bad people. Nor was her sister. But she couldn't just trust them anymore after everything that happened.

She vowed to herself that she'd ever step inside the basement.

Which is quite ironic as she now held her father and her sister, who were bleeding after fighting that lunatic, inside the only place that her childhood self deemed her sanctuary.

"Wake up… please wake up."

Her words were shaky. Her eyes were full of tears. She was a sobbing mess. Too weak to fight. Too powerless to do anything.

It all just happened too quickly. Today was supposed to be the day she was going to talk to her parents. Discuss things. She had decided that she couldn't exactly live in her room anymore. Might of have even suggested herself to go with her uncle to a training journey. Away from Patch.

They waited for her as they all sat on their dining room table to finally discuss things. She was still walking nervously down the stairs of their house when suddenly gunfire rang. Her dad managed to make Yang duck her head but got shot on the shoulder. He couldn't get his aura up fast enough as a hail of bullets bombarded their dining room. Her mother was safe, thankfully, and quickly went to fetch her weapon after her Dad told her that he was okay. Ruby managed to hide behind the stairs, confused at what was happening. She then saw her mom wielding her weapon and heading to the front door to face the assailants, both saw each other for a brief moment.

Summer gestured her daughter to stay down and Ruby complied. She then went outside weapon in-hand.

Suddenly she heard noise in the dining room. Her dad shouted for Yang to get her and get to the basement.

But Yang was as stubborn as their father.

The sounds fighting along with maddened cackling of someone reverberated the living room as Ruby froze.

Then the sound of an explosion in the living room caused Ruby to cover her ears.

Her dad, who was bleeding, walked into view with an unconscious Yang on his arms. He saw his youngest daughter huddled up behind the stairs and grabbed her hand as he hurried to the basement.

The basement was just as she remembered. It was lit with wall mounted lamps. Carpeted floor. Lightly painted walls. In all honesty it looked like a decorated funeral wake. She felt goosebumps as soon as they entered the room. Her father put down Yang and locked the door.

Ruby tried to tend to Yang's unconscious body but in reality she didn't know what to do.

"We should be safe here…" Her father grunted in pain as she sat beside the unconscious Yang. There was a weird purple stain along with his blood on his shirt.

"D-dad what's happening?"

Her dad looked at her with weak eyes.

"Oh… hey sweetie… glad you could...ugh… finally join us." Her father smiled weakly.

"D-dad…" Her tears began to flow from her eyes. She didn't know how long she kept her tears.

"Hey hey… don't cry. I'll be fine. You should… *cough* take care of your big sister for now. Can you do that?..."

Ruby nodded.

Loud knocking came from the door which startled her.

"Knock Knock! Who's there you ask?" A maddened voice spoke from behind the door.

The door was suddenly kicked open as a man grinning entered the room.

"Why, it's just your favorite neighborhood murderer of course! Hahahahah!"

Her eyes went wide with horror.

"G-go away!"

"Oh please. heheh does that actually work?" The man cackled.

The man kept giggling ominously as he walked towards them.

Why is this happening?

"D-dont… you dare… touch them." Tai glared at the man. He stood up grunting painfully. He stood in front of his daughters in an attempt to shield them.

The man frowned.

"Hmm… boring." Something whipped from behind the man.

"DAD!" Ruby screamed in horror. "NO!"

Tai's eyes widened. He looked down to his chest to see a tail of a scorpion planted directly on his chest. Blood began to pool in his mouth. The red stain on his shirt began to become wider and wider.

The man grinned as Tai fell beside Yang. He looked at Ruby to see two silver orbs glowing on the girl's eyes.

Ruby scrambled to her father crying and clutching his face. She tried to put her hand on his chest in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Dad?..."

What to do?

"Dad...please wake up…"

What to DO?!

"DAD!"

WHAT TO DO?!

"You can do nothing silver spawn. It's only a matter of time." The man spoke with a sickly smile as he smugly leaned on the door frame and looked on enjoying the scene.

Ruby cried and cried as she embraced her father.

No...

Her mind went back to her childhood. To the memories of her time with her father. The times she had played with him. The times he had taken care of her. The times they had spent together. Riding on his shoulders as they ran around the backyard.

No!

Her father watched proudly on her first school play when she was just a grade schooler.

NO!

"MOM! HELP!"

A blinding light illuminated the room. The man covered his face to shield himself from the light.

Ruby did not know what just happened. Though something caught her attention.

A sound of something big slamming to the ceiling was heard.

She turned to the thing that she regarded as her friend during her childhood. The thing she dreaded in her early teens.

It has opened.

Like a vampire from those late night cheesy horror movies, something suddenly sat up. Gasping for air. Looking around confused. It looked like a medieval knight. Helmet and all.

"Well well well… what do we have here."

The murderer caught it's attention. The knight stiffened and gripped the edges of the sarcophagus as soon as it saw the murderer.

"Mister… box?..." She whimpered involuntarily.

This caught the knight's attention which made her flinch. The knight looked at her then to Yang and her Dad… and slowly turned to the murderer.

The murderer said something as he cackled. She saw the knight come out of the sarcophagus and walked up to the murderer. With an unknown language the knight spoke.

"[The weak and innocent above all….]"

The knight suddenly lunged at the man. Using his armored shoulder to ram the murderer. The basement stairway was narrow so the murderer couldn't dodge the shoulder bash. It must've been powerful since the murderer was suddenly thrown hard to the stairs which must've been painful.

The knight pinned the murderer. The murderer managed to nick his helmet as the arm blades swiped. Annoyed the knight caught his arm and forcefully ripped the blades off. The other arm punched and slashed him time after time but the knight seemed to just shrug it off. The knight then brought down a fist to his head. A sound of breaking glass was heard as the murderer's punch broke the murderer's aura. Which surprised the knight.

"[An Iron Ward spell?]" The knight commented.

The momentary pause seemed to be a lucky break when the knight noticed something attached to the man.

A scorpion's tail.

"[What?...]"

The knight suddenly dodged by putting his back to the wall. The scorpion tail missed his neck.

The murderer smiled as he pushed the knight off causing the knight to fall back down the stairs.

The knight sat up and momentarily made eye contact with Ruby.

Once again he looked at both Yang and her father.

What happened next made Ruby's eyes widen.

The knight suddenly pulled something out of thin air.

A bottle of blue liquid. He then tossed it to her.

"[Put this on their wounds]" The knight gestured a pouring action.

Ruby didn't understand what the knight was saying but she understood the gesture and nodded and the knight nodded in return.

The knight stood up and looked up the stairs. The murderer was gone.

Ruby watched the knight ascend up the stairs.

Snapping out of her trance she quickly uncorked the bottle and poured the liquid on her father's chest.

Instantly the purple ooze that came out of his wound fizzled. She checked his breath and sighed in relief as she felt his soft breaths. The wound did not close however. She took off the black tank top that she was wearing and pressed it on his chest. She used her father's shirt to fasten her rolled up tank top onto the wound. She then turned to check on Yang. Fortunately it seems that she was just unconscious. She wasn't wounded after all.

She then heard scuffling upstairs. Grunts and sounds of impact could be heard.

She felt helpless. She felt useless.

She looked at her dad. He was like this because he wanted to protect them.

Guilt began to rise inside her. She had to help. She then remembered the rifle in her room.

She quickly ran up to the 1st floor of their house.

Just as soon as she stepped out of the basement stairway the wall far beside her exploded and she saw the murderer fly to the dining room.

The knight ran out of the demolished wall.

Then their eyes met once again. Then his head trailed down and then quickly whipped his head to the other side.

She then turned red when she realized that she used her tank top to dress her father's wound and she was now wearing just her bra and her pajama pants.

The knight awkwardly walked towards the dining room.

She froze for a moment.

She then squeaked and hid her chest with her arms and ran upstairs to her room.

Her room was… quite a mess. Her bed was strewn all over. Several articles of clothing were scattered on the floor. Magazines of weapons were also messily stacked and her PC was still on with an anime show playing on the screen.

She then spotted her weapon. It looked like an AWM rifle but colored black and red. Simple. Efficient. And powerful. Beside it was an unfinished project… a collapsable crescent blade.

She shook her head and grabbed the sniper rifle along with some clips.

A loud crash was heard from her bedroom. It sounded like the front door.

She ran to her window and saw the knight walking out into the rain. Then her eyes went to some figures where the knight was looking.

"Mom!" She gasped as she saw her mother being pinned down by a guy.

With practiced ease, she loaded the sniper rifle and aimed it at the person pinning her mom. She didn't fire though. It would be dangerous so she waited for the knight to do something.

"Please save my mom…" She pleaded in a hushed tone as her eye looked through the scope and finger on the trigger.

'Mister box…'

/0/

Jaune walked towards the bandits, his body itching for a fight. These bastards dared to attack this family. He wished he had his sword as it would make things quicker. Though he really did not mind using his fists.

The man with the scorpion tail was very predictable all things considered. A lithe fighter using arm blades, agile and deadly yet lacking in terms of defense. Rogues like him were pretty common outside towns. His time as a guard taught him that the only way to fight an enemy more agile than you was to restrict their movement. Best way to stop a lone rogue in his opinion was to pin them down and pummel their face. The enclosed space helped. The scorpion tail was annoying so when the chance presented itself, he ripped the thing out. What he lacked in magic he excelled in physical strength. After all you'd have to be physically strong to face dangers like hobgoblins and giant rat matriarchs that live in sewers. Especially when all he knows were what was considered very, very basic.

"[Hah! And who the fuck are you?]" The man spoke in the same language he has been hearing for quite a long time. He still has no idea what the words meant though.

Jaune stopped a few meters away from the man and the woman. Jaune began to analyze.

Lean. Average build. The man was holding something. It looked like a bowless crossbow with a second handle on the body of the...bowless crossbow.

"[Hey! Did you hear what I just said!?]" The man became angry and pointed the thing at him.

Just as he suspected. It really was a weapon. A hole could be seen at the end of what looked like a tube.

It doesn't take a genius to know that something comes out of that hole. Most likely a steel bolt.

Caution arose in him. Maybe this was the armor piercing type. It might go through his armor.

"[Hey! Big guy! I thought you said there were only four people here!]" The man spoke.

Jaune never left his gaze on the man.

This intimidated the man.

"[Hey!... Damn it where the fu-]" the man turned around to see that his companions were no longer behind him.

Just as he turned back to the armored soldier an armor fist met his face.

The man was thrown to the back due to the force of the punch.

Jaune knelt down helped the woman on the ground.

"[M-my family… my daughters…]" The woman weakly spoke.

"[Die!]" The man screamed as he pointed the weapon on his hand at them.

Instinctively Jaune swung the woman in his arms to shield her with his back.

It was like the sound of cracking thunder. Like small cannonballs hitting a ship's hull.

"Argh!" He screamed in pain.

Projectiles. Steel bolts. Just as he thought. He could feel the impact on his armor. A few went through the segments on his chest plate but the armor withstood.

"[HAHAHAH die die die!]" The man laughed.

Then a loud crack, this time louder and more powerful sounding was heard from inside the house.

"[Argh son of a bitch!]"

The weapon on the man's hand shattered.

Jaune looked through his visor and saw the young girl holding a longer, larger version of the man's weapon.

The girl nodded. The armored soldier nodded in response.

"[Mom! Over here! Get inside the house! Dad's hurt and Yang is unconscious!]"

The girl waved at them.

"[R-Ruby?...RUBY!]"

The woman hurriedly ran inside the house.

Jaune cracked his neck and turned around.

"[Shit… alright tough guy. You wanna do this the hard way? Let's do this the hard way.]" The man pulled out a machete.

"[See this beauty? Yeah, it's beautiful isn't it. This thing can cut through aura like butter. Illegal and hard to find. Guess how many huntsmen I killed with this?... I sure as hell don't know. I lost count. Hahahah]"

Jaune began to pace back and forth while keeping his focused gaze upon the man like a tiger eyeing it's prey. He began to crack his knuckles.

"[Come on. Come one come on come on.]"

Jaune was cautious of the machete. He could feel magic on it. Faint yes, but it was there.

"[COME ON YOU ASSHOLE!]"

Jaune could see it in his eyes. Impatience. Anxiety. Fear. Good. An unfocused enemy is a predictable enemy.

"[Rrrraaaaagh!]"

The man charged with his machete held up in the air.

Big mistake.

Jaune grabbed his wrist mid swing and twisted it making the man drop the machete with a pained wail. And what followed was a continuous barrage of left hooks to the face while being held in place. The last hook caused the man to get blown back. Once again Jaune saw something break.

Another iron ward spell?

The man groaned on the ground. His face was bloody and bruised. Some of his teeth were either chipped or broken.

Jaune then looked to his side and saw the machete-like weapon. It was short like a shortsword. He was more of a longsword kind of guy but this will do, he supposed.

He picked it up and inspected it for a bit before turning his attention once again to the man on the ground… and walked towards him.

"[Wait! Wait! W-w-wait!]" The man had a pleading look. It seems that he was begging for his life.

How foolish. A mere bandit who preys upon the innocent begging for mercy that they themselves do not give?

Jaune kicked the man's head causing him to lose his consciousness.

He took a deep breath. That was quite the debacle…

It also seems that the rain had stopped and the sun was now rising.

He then heard footsteps behind him to which he turned his head to.

It was the girl. She was now wearing something at least. Jaune blushed in his helmet but shook it off.

The both of them looked at each other.

The Ancient soldier tilted his head.

The girl sighed and smiled at him endearingly. The light of the rising sun illuminated her face.

"[Thank you]" a single tear came out of the girl's eye. Even if he didn't understand their language he could guess what she was saying right at this moment.

"You're welcome."

A/N:

-Finally the prologue is done! we can finally get to the main story!

-ehem... so uhh yeah... that just happened.

-Ruby hates Beacon and choooses to focus on long range attacks

-Yang's a bit of an attention seeker (next chapter will explain why)

-Jaune pulls out a cure ailment potion?! explanation in the next chapter!

-You guys may notice Zwei isn't here. Don't worry he's in the story.

-Jaune's age? find out next chapter.

I'm really glad that people like my fic! Oddly enough I'm more comfortable writing this than my other fics for some reason.

Thank you for reading this chapter! as always leave a review if you can, I love reading reviews.

on a side note, I was wondering whether to make Pyrrha, Ren and Nora characters from the past with connections to Jaune. As in they were wiped out along with the other ancient humans. Or to add them to the present timeline with maybe Joan as the J of JNPR. I plan to add a modern Arc family which is DISTANTLY related to the ancient D'Arcs though in this AU they don't have a son. What do you guys think?

Oh yeah one last thing... what is Summer's weapon?