Chapter Text
Life, as Ruby knew it, was over.
And she couldn't have been more thrilled.
Beacon had been fun while it lasted, but the simple fact was that it stopped being fun the moment she learned enough about what was behind the curtain to call herself enlightened. If she stayed with that accursed school, she would either be a pariah or another one of Ozpin's cogs in the machine, enforcing his corrupt will and terrorizing innocent people like Jaune and Blake and Velvet.
But now! Now, Ruby got to do her own thing! She got to spread her wings and turn from tadpole into a beautiful, beautiful butterfly! She got to be the master of her own fate!
Oh, what's that I see? Injustice? Well, I'm Ruby Rose, and I've got no master who's going to tell me that I can't stop it! Anti-Faunus racism? Behold, the one ex-huntress who isn't…behold, one of four-ish ex-hunters who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty! Grimm? I eat Grimm for breakfast, and you better watch out, cuz I've been fasting at night for religion reasons!
It was even more liberating to be her own woman than it had been to be Jaune's intern, because Ruby didn't have to listen to him and Blake about capitulating to their clients about stupid stuff or being slow when it came to rescuing people like Penny or anything. They were good folks, but Ruby was free to be even better without them. As the mistress of her own fate, she answered to no one and could live life by her own morals.
That's what it's all about, in the end. I can't go back to Beacon because they're the bad guys, and I don't want to go back to Job Security because as a solo huntress-y thing, I don't have to get into arguments with my friends and come across as a whiny baby when things don't go my way. Self-employment means the boss of Ruby Rose is Ruby Rose. I'm going to be the best darn security constituent in the world, and I've even got the super best name for my company – Secu-Ruby!
It's like Security, but Ruby instead of Rity.
Man, sometimes even Ruby was surprised by the width of her own genius.
It was fine.
It was fine. Really.
I can't just expect them to quit their entire lives for me. That's too big a favor to ask – besides, Yang's still my sister, and I'll get to see her all the time. Neppy's cool with a long distance relationship, so I'm not losing anything there, and Ren can…uh…well, Ren's on the team with my sister and boyfriend, so it'll all work out.
Ruby's enthusiasm toward being alone against cruel world had waned when she remembered that she had a team, but now that they weren't quitting Beacon with her, it waxed right back up and was a full moon again. They weren't turning their backs on her or anything, as all three members of Team River, now Team Radioactive (RXV), had promised their unwavering moral support. Really, it was better this way.
If anything, being entirely independent means I'll just get a chance to prove that I can get there without help. Nothing's wrong with accepting a friendly hand up when you're down, but I'm not down – I'm on top of the world right now. I have savings from my allowance, I have a full year of Beacon training, and I've got Crescent on my back.
What more could I possibly need?
See, it was trial by trial and error. Ruby was a savvy businesswoman, a girlboss in the making, and it was all coming together now.
First on the list of what more I could possibly need: a business space. Jaune and his friends had their office, and unless I want to make a website, I'm going to need some way to discuss the terms with all of my future clients.
Ruby could see it now: desperate Valeans in need of a heroine, lining up outside of Secu-Ruby and asking for her to save them from the Grimm or the murderers or Beacon or whoever was the villain to them all.
Right now, she was kind of just homeless…not really, because at sixteen, Dad would take her back in in a heartbeat, but Ruby didn't really have any destination in mind as she wandered Vale in search of…well, in search of nothing. Maybe a vacant rental property to turn into Secu-Ruby ground zero?
Anyways, second on the list of what more I could possibly need is posters. Jaune advertised online – dang, maybe I ought to look into getting a website.
Posters were easy to make, though. Ruby had done plenty of art projects in Signal, and you could pay one lien for ten sheets if you went to the local library. All that was missing was a stapler and a telephone poll, and Ruby would be rolling in the dough.
Finally, I'm going to need to be a businesswoman as well as a security confidant. That means I need a suit to wear in addition to my combat threads.
One visit to the tailor, the library, and the office supply store (for the stapler), Ruby was ready for action. She had forsaken the office temporarily, as there would be no time to sit around when she got her first client.
This is gonna be so epic, Ruby thought to herself as she stapled her house-made posters to random walls around town. Jaune and Blake had to charge 35,000 lien to stay afloat when I worked with them, which means me charging only 20,000 lien means I'll get the customers who can't afford them. I'm like an even more helpful, even more affordable Job Security. They catch the crumbs who fall through Beacon's cracks, and I catch the crumbs who fall through the crack's cracks.
"I'm sure it's gonna be okay," Dad said, rubbing Ruby's hair as she moped on the couch.
A week of nothing had passed, and Ruby was starting to feel the adrenaline of being able to grasp her own future by the reigns fading.
I still want to do this, but it looked so easy when I saw Jaune and Blake going at it. They just had their website up, and clients came to them. What am I missing here?
She'd advertised, so it couldn't be that. Her cute little posters had drawings of pink Beowolves and blue Ursai, meaning that both male and female clients would be drawn in.
Her scroll hadn't rung once in the entire week aside from personal calls from friends and one saucy one from Neppy (he was wearing a two-piece bathing suit), so it couldn't be that her number had gotten disconnected by the network due to some system error. Ruby had also double-checked that she didn't put any typos into the scroll number she'd printed out, as that might explain the failure to attract business.
Maybe Jaune and Blake lowered their prices when I left, and we're overlapping on clients or something. Ah, but it can't be that – Blake's a money whore and would never turn down a lien chip.
Perhaps everyone was dead. The Grimm could have killed them before they could make it to their scrolls.
A plastic-wrapped sandwich landed on Ruby's chest, and she inspected the meal, then looked up to see where it had come from.
"Cheer up, kiddo," Dad said to her, holding his own meal in one hand and a glass of lemonade in the other. "Remember, as a huntsman, I only went on missions once every –"
"But I'm not a huntsman!" Ruby proclaimed hastily. "Or a huntress either! I'm not a hunter, cuz hunters are dangerous, and I'm trying to do better!"
Dad was nice about Ruby's recent opinions on Beacon, but he still didn't understand the change. Ruby was a little worried that he would secretly turn out to be a bad guy in disguise like Uncle Qrow, so she didn't delve too deep into what Ozpin had done to Team Job with her father.
Still, he promised to have her back even without understanding, so Ruby mumbled out an apology for yelling.
"I just don't get what I'm doing wrong. Posters, office, suit…minus the office, that is, but I shouldn't need the office."
"Have you considered that you may need to advertise more than just the posters?" Dad suggested, tearing a hunk of sandwich off and shredding it in his mouth. He too was unable to solve this conundrum, as he was typically used to clients coming to him via the mission boards. That, or this was some kind of secret dad-lesson about learning to do it yourself.
And I'm not entirely sure about that anymore. I wanna do things on my own, but more importantly, I wanna do things. If I'm not getting any business and I can't think of why, then maybe I have to pick some new brains.
Team River…well, they would be like Dad, unversed in the ways of business. Ruby needed someone who had experience outside of the hunting industry.
Team Job, obviously, but they won't help me. Well, they might, but they shouldn't. I'm literally competition.
Besides, Ruby felt like the two worst things she could do would be to get help from Team Job or Beacon Academy. The whole 'sacrificing independence for business' was one thing, but running back into the arms of the two groups she'd promised to escape would be a severe backsliding. The whole point of this was freedom, not just servitude in a different name.
If I go back to Beacon, I'm complicit in everything they did. If I go back to Jaune and Blake, I'm still just an intern who they'd look at like she doesn't get it, like it's the most obvious thing in the world and I'm stupid for not already knowing what they somehow knew.
Memories of that day when the big kids had sat Ruby down and explained to her that Team Job Security was all a trick, how Jaune was the face and Blake was the real person, invaded Ruby's brain yet again. It had been a horrible reveal, and Ruby had felt so stupid.
As for the future and not the past, Ruby's last resort was hiring someone to advertise Secu-Ruby for her. There had to be those types of businesses, and it would be different if Ruby paid for it with her own money that she'd gotten from her dad for her birthday rather than just begging for help from others.
I could pay some advertiser to make Secu-Ruby a household name, the go-to in the business of security consolidators.
Better yet, why not just cut out the middleman? If Ruby took on a new employee, and they worked underneath her in the chain of command, she would be the boss, not the intern. She could put the newbie in charge of coming up with marketing while Ruby dealt with the Grimm and the clients and the other stuff.
It's like hiring an advertising company with fewer steps. They'll work for me and me alone, and I can talk to them about not accepting meanies like that racist woman Jaune had to deal with in the monkey Grimm village, Talon-whatsit.
And the best part about hiring her own subordinate was that all she had to do was print more posters.
Ruby dropped the heavy stack of help wanted posters when her scroll rang from an unidentified number. A lot of the posters blew away in the wind, but she'd already put up half of them around town anyways, and this was more important.
"Hello?" Ruby said. "This…This is Ruby Rose, security consultant and leader of Team Secu-Ruby…er, just Secu-Ruby. No team."
"Yes, hello? I saw the poster and was wondering if you take requests."
"We do!" Ruby said. This was it!
Sitting her butt down on the rest of the posters so they didn't all escape, Ruby tried her best to sound professional and not too jubilant as she spoke with the client.
Grimm had been plaguing villages near theirs, and they wanted someone to come out and destroy the pests before they got too close. Ruby was smart about it and made sure to get the client's name, scroll number, and address (village name, but same thing) before hanging up.
My first client! This is awesome! Oh, I can't wait!
"M'back," Ruby wheezed, "and m'done."
Ruby was panting for breath when the Grimm were all killed. Sopping with sweat, she was probably a horrid sight to see or smell, but it was all worth it, because Ruby took out the entire pack of Grimm in under a half-hour – record time!
"Very impressive," said the client, a Mr. Peabody of the village known as Crabhide. He was a middle-aged man who was dressed in a suit not half as nice as the one Ruby had bought, but still good. "Very, very impressive."
Her effort had paid off, as there was genuine awe in his voice. Ruby grinned like a fox as he nodded in approval.
Even on Team River, this would have been considered quite the accomplishment. Ruby had pushed herself to the max in order to show off a little bit, but one part of business that she did know was that clients left reviews, and that led to more business. She herself had been in the client's seat way back when, having written a glowing review for Team Job.
Impress the first guy, and he'll give my name to the second guy or gal. From there, it's a cascade. Maybe I won't even need to want the help from the help wanted posters.
"I've seen professional hunters, and not even they work so tirelessly and efficiently."
Having a speed semblance with which to comb the forest as well as extreme motivation tended to do that. Ruby didn't answer, though, as she needed to get air into her suffering lungs.
"And for such a low price – 20,000 lien? That's astoundingly cheap." Mr. Peabody gave her a friendly smile. "If this is the quality of work, you'll probably have a long and prosperous career ahead of you in Team Job Security, ma'am."
Ruby blinked. "Uh…u-uh…uh, I'm Secu-Ruby."
Mr. Peabody's expression changed. "Oh, I was under the impression I was hiring…ah, but no matter. The name of the company matters little, and you outdid my wildest expectations regardless."
Fair enough, then. It was an honest mistake.
T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶R̶u̶b̶y̶'̶s̶ ̶s̶u̶c̶c̶e̶s̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶c̶a̶s̶c̶a̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶'̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶t̶a̶k̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶–̶
Ruby gave her first client a nod. She'd done well, and that counted.
"Now, then – for payment…that excessively low payment of yours." The man smiled. "Now, I'm no Atlesian, but would you consider accepting a tip? I'm more than happy to, as I feel like the quality of the work you did merits some recognition, especially when it's otherwise dirt cheap."
"It's not necessary," Ruby said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'd rather get a positive review."
"Certainly!" said Mr. Peabody. "How may I submit it?"
Ruby stared at him for a second.
No website –
"Should I use Roogle-Maps Reviews?" offered the man, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a scroll. "It's easier, and I'd prefer to do it that way, but if you have some independent survey site, I can complete that as well."
No website, no office –
Ruby might not have planned her business out that well, but even she was business-smart enough to know that shaky breath and keeling over was bad form in front of a client.
How…How did…
Uuunngggghhh…it hurt.
How did Jaune do it again? That fake smile?
"Maybe we'll skip the review for now," Ruby said, impersonating her old friend as best she could. "Or the tip. Just regular payment is enough."
The client seemed surprised at her backtracking, and Ruby briefly felt that sensation of being the stupid one flare up, but he quickly shrugged it off, sparing the adrenaline in Ruby's brain from pouring out of her eyes.
"If that's what you wish," Mr. Peabody declared. He was doing his best to be accommodating, and Ruby felt a twinge of guilt for putting him out. "Now, do you take direct deposit, or would you prefer Scrollopay?"
"Direct what?" Ruby blinked. "Huh?"
"For payment," Mr. Peabody reiterated, as though that alone held the answer.
Maybe…Maybe a little shaky breath wouldn't be too embarrassing for a client to see, because Ruby was starting to lose it right now.
"Deb-Mo?" offered Mr. Peabody, apparently able to interpret Ruby's crushing silence correctly. "Paysistance? Uh…business check? I don't exactly have twenty, heh, smackarinos on my person in chips, you see."
"I can take a check," Ruby said, feeling dead inside. She'd been so happy when she'd taken this job, so very happy…
"Excellent," said the man, taking out a notepad…no, a checkbook. "Now, to what IAR should I make out the check?"
Ruby felt herself begin to hyperventilate. She was dead lucky she already had been hyperventilating from exhaustion before the panic caused a new batch of respiratory system failures to crop up in her chest.
Mr. Peabody looked up at Ruby from his check and smiled. "Oh, if you're unfamiliar, it's on the back of your business license."
Ruby threw open the rear door and hurled herself into the backseat of dad's station wagon.
"Start the car!" she demanded.
"What?" Dad asked, reading his magazine in the front. "Come again?"
He'd said when they got there that he would wait patiently in the car for her to finish his mission, and he had done just that, but right now Ruby needed less patience and more hurry.
"Start the car!" Ruby screamed, kicking the back of the driver's seat multiple times with both legs. "We need to get out of here!"
"Why? What happened?" Dad's voice turned panicky as his aura flared up around his body. "Did something go wrong?"
"No, the opposite!" Ruby looked towards the rear view mirror and saw a confused Mr. Peabody approaching, checkbook still in hand. "Now, please, drive!"