Draconic Funhouse: Ruby Rose (ch. 7)

The plan had been simplicity given form. Really, painfully simple. Raven Branwen, for all her bluster and stoicism, is a rather predictable woman at heart. With Ozpin and Qrow Branwen on my side, and Yang Xiao Long by my side, fighting me, making Raven believe she had to open a portal to intervene and save her daughter should have been a cakewalk. From there, getting her to unlock that damn vault so I could ask Jinn my question would have been a mere formality.

It should have been easy. All I had to do was drag the fight out.

Except—

"You're not giving it your all."

It was the way she'd looked while she fought.

I had punched her—hit her with enough force to shatter bones and pulverize organs of an Auraless human—and she’d been thrown back, slamming into a tree with enough force to split it in half. Even after that, she had not been giving it her all.

It was just so similar, so damn similar—

She had smiled—a cruel, sad smile that sent a disgusted shiver down my spine. "It's instinct," she had said, sounding almost apologetic. "Because if I do… when I do… it's over."

It was disgustingly similar to the way I used to look before this.

I had transformed then, my body shifting into my full draconic form. Scales shimmering like a thousand sunsets, wings blotting out the sun, legs thicker than her entire body. I’d simply smirked cockily down at the girl, savoring the look on her face.

And that’s how I ended up pinned beneath a gravity field amplified tenfold by Weiss Schnee’s bullshit Semblance, my mouth bound shut by Blake's Gambol Shroud (and god, the Bellabooty was real), with Yang, Nora, and another dozen shitass kids holding me down with chains they got from God knows where—chains that had to be coupled with Semblances to make them stronger and more durable—while every other little shit in the vicinity pelted me with Dust rounds boosted by Coco's Semblance. All the while, I stared up at some three tons of metal suspended directly above my head, ready to drop at any moment.

Could I get out of there if I wanted while remaining in my full Dragon form? Of course. It wouldn't be that difficult. I’d probably end up either killing or at least seriously injuring some of the brats, though. Which I had promised Ozpin I would do my best not to let happen.

Me and my big, fucking mouth. I swear to go—

*CRACKOOM!*

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Pyrrha Nikos was smiling. She was drenched in sweat, huffing and puffing as if she had just finished running a marathon, but—right until she passed out—she had been smiling. Smiling like she had probably never smiled before in those sterile tournaments of hers. Smiling, like someone who had tasted freedom, who had found fun in a life that had, until now, felt strangely hollow.

And I felt… happy for her. Happy that I’d given someone a taste of what I’d been chasing all this time—a taste of Fun, after so many years starved of it.

Being good… is fun. It’s supposed to be fun. Going on adventures, making friends, fighting the bad guys, crying, laughing—the whole shebang. A storybook kind of fun, bright and uncomplicated.

Being evil can be fun too, of course. Yet, more often than not, doing so comes at the annoying cost of interfering with the fun of multiple other people. There are levels to it all, obviously. My Fun matters more, the Fun of people I care about matters more. Yet, it is hard for me to believe that you can not have Fun while being good. That for one to have fun, one must inevitably interfere with the fun of another.

No, it was not hard, I just did not want to believe it. No one wants to believe such a thing. I just want it to be like that.

And every time I look at her, I’m reminded why.

"You think he’s okay down there?" Ruby’s voice is small, laced with concern.

Weiss Schnee’s reply is crisp and dismissive. "Don’t be an idiot, Rose. If he could be taken down that easily, he’d have been defeated long ago."

She doesn't say it outright, but it is easy to guess what she is referencing. My fight with Salem had been broadcast across the globe and I had only grown stronger since then.

Despite that though, despite the fact that there is no doubt in their minds that I, despite standing with Headmaster Ozpin, despite having just sparred with then—Auburn the Dragon is still a dangerous entity. It is obvious. And yet, Ruby Rose wears a worried look as she approaches the pile of scrap metal that Pyrrha Nikos had dropped on top of me using all that remained of her Aura in a desperate last stand. Her smile had been so bright, so pure in that moment, that I almost became envious of it.

Unlike the smile of that girl. One cannot be envious of such a smile, knowing what's to come for it.

Ruby Rose is young. She is young in a way a 3D model could never capture. Young in the way her silver eyes shone with wonder at every little thing, in the way she smiled awkwardly when Nora Valkyrie embraced her and congratulated her on the nice shots and guidance. Young in the way a blush crept across her cheeks when Lie Ren offered her a fist bump, and spread to her entire face when Nora narrowed her eyes and told her to go get her own Ren, as this one was already taken.

Young. Young, innocent, naive, and beautiful.

She didn’t deserve it. Any of it. Didn't deserve the hate, the mockery, the jeers, the suicidal thoughts, the relentless pressure that had driven her to such a low point that she acted on them.

Ruby Rose is fifteen years old. She is far, far too young for this shit.

I am no longer under the rubble. I had thought it would be hilarious to sneak out while they were all distracted and surprise them by appearing unscathed, maybe sneaking a peek below some skirts while I was at it. So I had, and now I stand among them, completely invisible, waiting for the perfect moment to appear. The moment that would be the most fun.

Except, I no longer find it funny. None of it is funny anymore.

"Ah!" "Son of a—!" "Holy shit!"

The exclamations erupt the moment I inadvertently become visible once more. Ruby Rose spins around, startled, her silver eyes widening as they lock in with mine. They are beautiful, her silver eyes. Big, round, and so utterly without sin.

"Why are you here, Ruby Rose?" I ask, my voice low.

She appears taken aback by the question, but only for a moment.

"I want to be a hero," she says, her voice firm.

I must have given her a strange look, because her expression immediately shifts, becoming defensive. She didn't like it one bit.

"Why… must it be you?"

It isn't fun. Not fun at all. The way everyone is staring, awkwardly, making Ruby feel uncomfortable. The way I know it is my fault this is happening. And so—

I pull us away.

"What… is this?" Ruby asks, her voice barely a whisper as she takes in the sudden gray expanse surrounding us.

"Hell if I know," I answered honestly, looking around too. "Some sort of isolated dimension, if I had to guess." A place where no one can stare, no one can judge, no one can laugh at whatever Ruby Rose says. "So. Why must it be you?"

It is amazing how quickly she adapts, how she doesn’t panic, doesn’t demand answers or asks a million questions. Ruby simply sprawls herself out on the ground, her limbs loose and relaxed, and closes her eyes. "I want to be like my mother," she says softly.

"Hm."

"I want to follow my sister."

"Hm."

"They're both amazing people. While I… well, I'm just Ruby Rose."

I raise an eyebrow. "Not amazing?"

She bites her lip, her expression thoughtful. "Not as amazing. Not yet, anyway. When… when I die, I want to be able to look at my mom in the eye and tell her, proudly, how I lived." Her voice hitches slightly and her breaths being coming out uneven. "I want her to be proud of me."

"…Is that so," I murmur, my voice low.

Ruby chuckles, a small, shaky sound. "That is so."

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and open a device I hadn't touched in what felt like forever—

"Go back to Patch, Ruby Rose," I say, my voice firm. "Go back and make friends, and laugh, and bake cookies with your mom, and have fun. Leave the rest for the grown-ups, and don't think about dying—or what comes after—until you're at least eighty."

Her face contorts, as if she had just bitten into the sourest lemon in existence. "My mother is not—"

"…Ruby?"

It is not fair.

"Ah… Eh…? Uh—m-mom?"

Not fair, that the recompense of those innocent enough to fight for a better world with all their will—

"Go back to Patch."

Be only the loss of said innocence.

"Go have a childhood, Ruby Rose."