Chapter Text
Eight years ago, a ten-year-old Ruby Rose lost her mother when the Sith defector sacrificed herself while fleeing from Imperial space with her daughter and teammates. Though separated from her two remaining family members for a time, Ruby managed to survive on her own, before being discovered by her Uncle Qrow and taken in by the Jedi Order. Now, as she watched the Order's homeworld of Beacon grow ever larger in the starship viewports, she found herself excited to finally start the last step of her training and become a knight in full.
On that same ship, Weiss Schnee was feeling both anxious and optimistic. Despite the ever-present reminder of the trials she had undergone to get here, with the trials awaiting her planetside no doubt being just as difficult, completing them meant that she would finally be free from the clutches of her father for good. Though her sister had previously offered another way out with the Republic military, Weiss knew that this path she had chosen was the correct one for her, and the reason was simple: the Republic's armed forces were still beholden to the corporations that held the nation in their clutches, but even the domineering influence of the Schnee Dust Company held little sway with the Jedi.
Meanwhile, in a distant corner of the galaxy, Blake Belladonna couldn't believe her luck. Not long after being captured by the SDC when a White Fang sabotage operation went wrong several weeks ago, the prison ship transporting her was intercepted by not just an Imperial strike force, but the personal flagship of Darth Corax herself. After freeing all the prisoners—who were no doubt being shipped off to serve as labour for the corporation's myriad crystal mines across the galaxy—the Sith lord discovered that Blake was Force-sensitive, and presented her with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Yang Branwen couldn't help but smile as the shuttle passed over the Valley of the Dark Lords on its final approach to Evernight Academy. This was it: one last set of deadly trials before she was ready to venture out into the galaxy. She looked over at the other acolytes on the shuttle with her to see if any of them were worth watching out for, but all she saw was some smug-looking Sith pureblood, a black-haired cat faunus, and about a dozen other initiates looking like they were scared out of their pants. Having trained under her mother for most of her life, Yang was confident these trials would be nothing for her, and once completed, she could finally start working towards her life goals: tracking down her long-lost little sister, and getting revenge on the Jedi who stole her family from her.
Ruby let out a sigh of relief as the last flesh raider collapsed through the ground, having been sliced across the torso with Crescent Rose. Although she was more than a little impatient that she still wasn't allowed to make the modifications that would turn the transforming vibro-scythe into a weapon worthy of a true Jedi, it had served her well during the few years she spent as a drifter in her childhood, and it was more than enough to deal with the flesh raiders that had been attacking the training grounds.
Huh, she thought as she kicked at the blaster her assailant had been holding. Well, that sure is a blaster, alright. It was a crude and horrendously maintained blaster—hardly what she would consider "advanced weaponry"—but it was still a blaster, which was apparently strange for the raiders to have. So, she called the Jedi that had greeted her when she arrived on Beacon, and was given the additional task to seal the tunnels that the flesh raiders were apparently coming from. Piece of cake.
Ruby quickly made her way over to the caves, only occasionally stopping to free the odd padawan or two that had managed to get captured by the flesh raiders (or, as was the case with one padawan, who introduced himself as Jaune, got themselves captured after tossing their weapon into a tree by accident). When she arrived, though, she was relieved at first to see another human instead of the flesh raiders she expected, at least until she noticed the faunus lying on the ground—the same one who sent out the emergency signal when she arrived on Beacon—and holding their hands out in fear. Frowning, Ruby called upon the Force to boost her speed as she rushed to intervene.
"Hey, what's going on here?" she yelled as she placed herself protectively in front of the faunus. "Why are you threatening another padawan?"
"So, you're the one who killed my soldiers," the human sneered. "If you must know, I am cleansing the weak filth from the Jedi Order. This pathetic whelp would have only held the Order back, so really, you should be thanking me."
Hearing the words coming out of his mouth, Ruby kept a hand on Crescent Rose, but held off on drawing the weapon for now. Flesh raiders were one thing, and Ruby did have to resort to some pretty desperate measures sometimes to survive in the past, but she still didn't like killing other people unless it was necessary, and she was pretty sure a bunch of her teachers had said a Jedi wasn't supposed to strike first, either.
"Ooo-kay, so you're kinda creepy," Ruby mumbled to herself. "Alright, how about we just all take a step back here, I can seal off that tunnel behind you to stop more flesh raiders from coming through, and then we all walk away without anybody getting hurt, yeah?"
Just then, however, a pair of flesh raiders came running out of the tunnel and stopped beside the lightsaber-wielding jerk, who was now grinning. "Let me think..." he began, putting on an exaggerated thinking face. "No."
Right as his lightsaber ignited, Ruby drew and activated her own weapon, leaping into the fray with a flip to deliver an arcing slash with Crescent Rose. The two flesh raiders collapsed to the ground immediately, but the rogue padawan saw the attack coming, and backflipped out of the way to avoid it. He tried to counter with an overhead swing, but Ruby easily sidestepped it to elbow him in the gut, following it up by bringing the blunt end of her scythe down on her attacker's head and knocking him unconscious.
"Thanks for the save," the faunus padawan said after being helped up off the ground. "I thought we were goners there."
"Aw, don't mention it," Ruby smiled, before turning around at the sound of someone running over.
"Woah, there," the new familiar voice said as he took in the sight of dead flesh raiders and an unconscious human. "You two alright?"
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby greeted the stubbly Jedi Master by rushing over with a hug, which managed to knock the wind out of him.
"Easy there, kiddo," Qrow rasped, doing his best to pry his niece off of himself. "I swear you're going to be the death of me one day," he chuckled. "So what happened here?"
The faunus was the one who answered. "This Jedi attacked us, Master Branwen. He was saying strange things about 'cleansing the Order', and threatened to kill me before..." they trailed off and looked at Ruby then, realizing they never got her name.
"Ruby Rose," she said with an embarrassed smile. "There wasn't exactly time to introduce myself."
"Before Ruby showed up and saved me," the faunus finished.
"Well, I'm glad you're both safe at least." Qrow examined the unconscious body on the ground. "You said he was a Jedi, huh? 'Cause I can say for certain that this guy ain't one of us."
"Well, before he picked a fight with the wrong padawan and got his butt whooped, I think he might have said something about leading the flesh raiders?" Ruby offered.
Qrow harrumphed. "Told Ozpin these flesh raiders weren't just mindless beasts." After giving a strange look to the lightsaber he found on unconscious human, Qrow stood up and examined the tunnel. Raising his hand out to the mouth of the opening, he reached out with the Force, and with a single downwards gesture, collapsed the tunnel.
"Well, that should keep the raiders away for now," Qrow said, dusting off his hands. "Alright pipsqueak, I'll deal with this guy here," gesturing with his head towards the unconscious human, "and drop off our friend at a medcenter along the way. In the meantime, why don't you report to the Council over at the main temple, let 'em know what's happening here?"
"I won't let you down, old man!" Ruby asserted, giving a mock salute before speeding off on her way. So far, her first day on Beacon was looking good; she had already saved the training grounds from a flesh raider attack, and saved a bunch of padawans in the process.
And then she ran into a bossy white-haired padawan on the way to the temple.
"Watch where you're going, you dolt!" Weiss exclaimed, standing up after a speeding red blur crashed into her on the way to the Jedi Temple. "You are exceptionally lucky you didn't damage any of the holograms I was carrying; for all we know, these could hold the future of the Jedi Order!"
"I'm really sorry," the black-haired girl squeaked, seemingly trying her best to appear small and apologetic.
Weiss took a deep breath in, attempting to calm herself after seeing the display. Just keep it together and remember the Code, Weiss. You can't start backsliding now after everything it took to get here.
"That's alright," she said finally, after exhaling. "I should apologize as well; regardless of how urgent my task is, that's no excuse to lash out at a fellow padawan." Then, she examined the girl who ran into her more closely, and narrowed her eyes. "You should really consider changing that outfit, though; red and black on their own might not be suspicious, but combined with that oversized scythe, you almost look like a Sith..."
"Pfft, yeah right," the girl laughed with a dismissive wave. "The name's Ruby Rose; I'm going to be the best Jedi in history, and look really cool while I'm at it!"
Despite herself, Weiss couldn't help but smile along; Ruby's lightheartedness and optimism were almost infections. "If you say so. I suppose there's no reason why the Sith should be the only ones who are allowed to dress up nicely, after all."
"Right?" Ruby added. "It's like every single fashion designer in all of Remnant went over to the Dark Side or something."
"Mhm," Weiss agreed. "Anyway, you were heading to the temple, right? I think I saw some flesh raiders in the pass up ahead, so why don't we travel together for now? Safety in numbers and whatnot," she offered, holding her hand out in greeting. "I'm Weiss, by the way."
"Nice to meet 'ya, new friend," Ruby said, shaking Weiss' hand. "You know, we might have just met, but I already tell."
"Tell what?" Weiss asked.
"We're gonna be," Ruby trailed off, grabbing Weiss' shoulder and gesturing out at the world, "besties."
What a strange day this is turning out to be, Weiss thought to herself. As she started walking down the path with Ruby, she kept her training saber at the ready just in case the flesh raiders had any funny ideas. Once she reached the temple, she would deliver the holograms to Master Fria, and see if the elderly Jedi had any updates on the one that had been stolen.
Meanwhile, in the Empire...
Blake watched from the shadows as a blonde-haired acolyte went through the tomb ahead of her like a fireball, slashing apart k'lor'slugs with her practice blade while pummeling any looters who tried to sneak up using her fists. Deciding it would be best to not get in the way of whoever that was, Blake followed the path cleared by the other acolyte at a safe distance, only emerging from hiding to surprise any stragglers as she slowly made her way to wherever this "Spindrall" person was.
As it turned out, he was easy enough to find, and after learning the teachings he had to offer, Blake found herself thinking back on the words Darth Corax had said to her, when she was freed and sent to Evernight to be trained as a Sith.
"The weak die, the strong survive. Those are the rules. But unlike most people, you actually have a choice. Which will it be?" the masked Sith Lord had said to her.
In response, Blake had said that she would become strong, no matter what it takes. Remembering the moment, she quietly chuckled to herself as she realized what she must have reminded Corax of in the moment. "Through power I gain victory, and through victory my chains are broken, hmm?" Blake muttered.
It almost certainly wasn't that simple in practice, but she supposed it was appealing enough as a philosophy. And some parts of it did seem at least a little accurate: the Republic had offered the faunus "peace" by banning slavery and granting nominal equal rights after the Faunus Rights Revolution, but even now, humans still discriminated against the faunus while authorities turned a blind eye, and exploitative megacorporations like the Schnee Dust Company still found loopholes through which to force faunus to serve as labour while providing little to no compensation for their often-dangerous working conditions. In fact, from her time in the White Fang, Blake learned that, at least in some ways, the Empire actually treated the faunus better than the Republic, especially after Darth Alosydni's ascension to the Dark Council and the reforms she enacted.
Granted, that was almost certainly just another attempt at making the Empire look better than the Republic, but after seeing what Ad—what he was turning into before their botched sabotage operation got them both captured, Blake found herself soured on the mindset of "the ends justify the means", and a little more accepting of "the means justify the ends".
Blake shook her head as she walked down the hall leading to the tomb's exit. At the end of the day, though, she doubted that either the Republic or the Empire truly cared about the faunus, and she wasn't about to dedicate her whole life to vengeance against the former; that life was what she had wanted to escape from, after all. Even if it didn't end up happening quite the way she had initially planned.
Huh. That other acolyte really did a number on this place, Blake observed, seeing dead and unconscious bodies scattered all across the ground as she made her way through the stone passages and across metal platforms towards the exit. Sure glad I didn't get in her way.
That being said, the other acolyte certainly made things convenient for Blake; since the path out of the tomb had already been cleared for her, all she had to do now was walk outside, and go see the overseer in the Academy for her next trial.
She realized she might have celebrated her good luck just a bit too soon, however, when she exited the Tomb of Osmodeus and entered the Academy itself, only to find the blonde acolyte from earlier headed in her direction, staring right at her.
Even with the advantage of having heard her mother's stories about it while growing up, Evernight Academy was still nothing like Yang expected. On the one hand, her first trial was even more of a pushover than she thought it'd be: all she had to do was walk into a tomb, beat up a bunch of chumps, oversized slugs, and rusty tin cans, pick up an equally-rusty sword, and walk out.
On the other hand, it was clear that she was being singled out: some douchebag acolyte already had it out for her and was building up a posse of some sort, and it didn't help that the overseer in charge of her was pulling strings to get her special treatment, probably in some misguided attempt at getting on her mother's good side. So, after interrogating and delivering judgement upon a trio of prisoners for her second trial—minus the chameleon faunus who was locked up in the same room for some reason—Yang figured she could use an ally of her own. Luckily, Yang had great people skills.
"Hey," she said, looking at the black-haired cat faunus she saw from the tomb. "You're Blake, right?"
The young faunus woman gave a single cautious nod.
"Hey, lighten up!" Yang said, offering a friendly smile. "It's not like you're in trouble. Well, not from me, anyway."
"...How do you know my name?" Blake asked.
"I'm Yang. My mom mentioned you once or twice before I came here," Yang explained. "She's the big scary Sith lady with the mask and red lightsaber."
"I'm pretty sure that describes at least a thousand different people, but alright," Blake deadpanned. "Assuming it was a corvid mask, though, are you saying your mother is Darth Corax?"
"The one and only," Yang boasted. "Oh! But I'm not trying to say you owe my family a favour or anything for busting you out of jail. I was just wondering if you knew who you were competing to apprentice under yet?"
Blake raised an eyebrow. "Lord Lamproca, why?"
"Great! I'm going for Darth Scoria, so we won't be competing for the same one," Yang explained. "Which means you and I," she gestured back and forth between them a few times, "might be able to help each other not die horrible deaths."
"Tempting, I'll admit," Blake acknowledged. "But your offer sounds a little too good, wouldn't you say?"
"Fair enough," Yang conceded. "Tell you what; I'm sure both of us have places to be, so why don't you think about it, and let me know what you decide the next time we see each other."
"...Alright," Blake agreed. "I'll think about it."
"I'll catch you later then," Yang said with a wave, and turned to make her exit.
"Hey, Yang?" Blake said hesitantly. Seeing the other acolyte pause, she continued. "May the Force be with you."
Yang held back an instinctive scowl, and let out a half-chuckle in response instead. "What are you, a Jedi?" She turned around briefly, and with a wink, added, "It's 'May the Force serve you well.'"