When she was eight years old, Ruby Rose dreamed of plunging into a watery abyss, where she was forced to choose between picking up a sword, a shield, and a magic staff. She made her decision, and her life hasn't been the same since.
Fast forward seven years. Ruby's Mentor Master Eraqus has just died, and her good friends and fellow Keyblade apprentices Ventus and Terra are much the worse for wear in the aftermath of a climactic battle at the Keyblade Graveyard. Before Aqua goes off to find Terra, she acclaims Ruby Keyblade Master, hands her Master Keeper, and charges her to train Riku as her (Ruby's) apprentice if she doesn't return. Before she goes to Destiny Islands to meet her new charge, however, Ruby takes a short trip back at her homeworld, looking for her sister Yang to give her the news. Ruby finds her, but not before getting entangled in breaking up a dust store robbery lead by a dapper redhead in a bowler hat. This gains her the attention of Beacon Academy's Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress...
Fears and Lies Melt Away is a crossover between RWBY and Kingdom Hearts by That One Psycho, with elements of Tales of Vesperia and My Hero Academia thrown in, too. You can find it at Space Battles
, Fanfiction.net, and Archive of Our Own.
Needs Wiki Magic Love.
Fears and Lies Melt Away contains the following tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: The Master tends to abbreviate "Luxu II" into "Lux" when talking to Ruby.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Oh, so averted:
- During the battle in the Keyblade Graveyard at the climax of Birth By Sleep, Ruby is the recipient of back injuries that leave scars vivid enough to enrage Yang and Taiyang and make them swear vengeance against Xehanort.
- An expedition to the Nier world leaves Ruby with temporary eye scarring.
- Among the injuries sustained when Team RNBY squares off against Sephiroth include severe burn marks on the left side of Yang's face.
- BFS: Crescent Rose is almost as long as Ruby is tall and wide enough to act as an impromptu shield if the need arises.
- Bullying a Dragon: Ruby and Yang gang up on Raven to let off steam when the latter visits Beacon Academy. If Raven hadn't been trying to keep her powers as Spring Maiden under wraps, not even Ruby's powers could have insured hers and her sister's survival.
- Entertainingly Wrong:
- Ozpin mistakenly believes that Ruby has inherited a Seasonal Mantle, until Qrow sets him straight.
- Cinder and Raven are operating under similar misconceptions about Ruby's power.
- Blake, Pyrrha, Weiss, and several among Beacon's Faculty keep guessing as to the nature of Ruby's "Semblance."
- For Want Of A Nail:
- The teams that form from the Initiation include RNBY (Ruby, Pyrrha, Blake, and Yang), and WRNJ (Weiss, Ren, Nora and Jaune). Later, Jaune is kicked out of Beacon because Pyrrha wasn't there to unlock his Aura and Weiss was much more of a stickler for the rules.
- Ruby and Weiss have a much less rocky start to their acquaintance at Beacon because it was Jaune who ran into Weiss when the group debarked from the airship rather than Ruby.
- Blake returns to Menagerie almost a year earlier than canon, and mends fences with her parents and Ilia much earlier and more thoroughly.
- When the aborted Dust Robbery leaves Torchwick paralyzed, Cinder kills him to cover her tracks.
- Mountain Glenn is taken care of at least a month early by Atlas' Ace Ops alongside Qrow and Taiyang
- As of immediately prior to the Vytal Dance, Penny has yet to interact with anyone from Beacon Academy in any meaningful way.
- The Glomp: Ruby loves giving these to Aqua, and Yang and Blake love giving them to Ruby.
- In addition, Blake is on the receiving end of one by her parents when she returns to Menagerie.
- Godzilla Threshold: That Hades would hire outsiders with the offer to return someone to life in exchange for evicting an unwelcome intruder becomes much more understandable when the intruder in question is Sephiroth.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Ozpin and Glynda over the nature of Keyblades and the existence of other worlds.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: It wouldn't be a RWBY story without them, but special mention goes to Skuld's keyblade, which in Kingdom Hearts χ lore is in fact a Gunblade a-la- Final Fantasy VIII.
- Share Phrase: The Luxus share "As if".
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Blake is already this at the beginning of the story as per Canon, but Ruby shares this status long before Volume Four due to having experienced the battle of the Keyblade Graveyard.
- Trauma Button: Seeing friends or teammates in apparent dire peril is Ruby's. Understandable, as she experienced the climax of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
- Triple Shifter: Between being Riku's and Skuld's Keyblade Instructor, attending Beacon Academy and Leading Team RNBY, and tending to Ventus at Castle Oblivion, it's a wonder Ruby can get any rest
