Queen Ruby

Chapter 1

"Ruby! Ruby! Wake up!"

"Five more minutes..."

"Sis it's you birthday! Wake up! Common! Ren made pancakes for you!"

"It's my birthday!" How did I forget! Internally I was screaming, well maybe less internally than I had intended, I jumped out of bed. The clock already read 8am. I was about to ask them why they didn't wake me up earlier when I remembered it was Saturday.

Using my semblance to be faster I get dressed and storm into the kitchen of the dormitory. The others are all waiting for me. I sit down between Weiss and Yang. Both already have a plate of pancakes in front of them. Ren hands me a plate and sits down next to his team. We all eat our breakfast and thank Ren. Then they all singHappy Birthday and hand me a big box, with a bow on it.

'' Happy Birthday Ruby. This is from all of us. It was quite expensive so we all pitched in to get it for you. Hope you like it.'' Blake says before I rip off the Ribbon .

I open the box carefully,  after all it could be fragile. As soon as I see what it is, I drop the box, forgetting the whole being careful thing and run to hug them one by one.

'' How did you know? ''

'' Yang told us! '' Pyrrha smiles.

'' Thanks! I really wanted that. I was cut off by the sound of an incoming message on my scrole, from an unknown number. Since I don't recognize the number I ignore it and go back to thanking my friends.

It isfour in the afternoon when I finally remember the message I have received earlier that morning. Everyone is busy doing their homework at the library, but since it is my birthday I decide to have a lazy day instead. I unlock my scrole and open the message. I had hoped it to be one of my old friends from Signal who might have gotten a new number, but this was just weird. The message reads:

/Meet me today at the temple in emerald forrest. Come alone and don't tell anyone. To prove that I can be trusted I added a file to this message. It contains information about Salem and the underground crime network in Vale.

Happy birthday

Your loyal guard /

I open the files and find background information about Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Junior and many others. I don't read them straight away but I am shocked to find Emerald and Mercury on the list, as they seem so nice. Maybe they just got into trouble once and this could be just a misunderstanding. Then I find the file about Mom. Birthdate, full name, education, all that stuff and more, and at the very bottom, is written: Title: Rose Queen / The Bloody Queen.

Now that sparks my interest. I give in Rose Queen into the search engine, but I can't find anything other than an old myth of the Rose Queen, a warrior who could slay millions with the blink of an eye. So I guess that it could be one of the weird nicknames  she might have had. It is common knowledge that she was a badass, so she had to have at least some badass nicknames. I go back to the files and start reading them one by one, memorizing  them all, trying to make sense of the,. The only thing written in this so called Salem's file was a remark about her not being human and a picture of a weird looking lady. At the bottom of the list I find Torchwick's files. They are by far the most interesting ones. He originally came from a little village in the middle of Forever Fall Forest. He is now 21 years old, I would have guessed he was older, and he was apparently in some sort of fighting academy before he vanished at the age of 9. He reappeared two years later in Vale, they tried putting him in an orphanage but he ran away and by the age of 15, he had become quite a player in crime. He had connections everywhere. He has committed many felonies but never hurt or killed anyone while committing them, which seems strange since he did try to kill me several times.

I am so caught up in my research, I don't notice that the rest of my team is back.

"Hey Ruby what are you doing? You look so serious."

"Wha.." I jump up and hide my scrole. "Nothing! I'm just... I need to go." Thank Oum I am already wearing shoes. I take my scrole, put on my cape and I am about to flee the scene when Yang grabs my hood. I fall to the ground.

"Where do you think you're going? It's almost dinner time and since it's your birthday, we are going out together. Remember?"

"I'm sorry guys but I need to go. It's an emergency. A friend from patch needs help. I'll be back in a few hours. I promise we can go out tomorrow."

I free myself from Yang's grip and use my semblance to storm off. I feel terrible about lying like that and storming off. I know that I should have shown them the message and files, but I panick and run. I can't go back now, so I decide to do something stupid and find this mystery guard and find out why he wants to talk. 

How can I know that my world is about to turn upside down and my life change forever.