Fanfic / Nora's Life

Nora’s Life is a RWBY fanfic written by BurningCinders. After Qrow and Team RNJR make it to Haven, Nora comes across the man who let her village be destroyed and ruined her life years ago, an Atlas general named Hayden White. After telling the rest of her team about what he did, they attempt to catch him in the act and bring him to justice for his crimes. Meanwhile, Dr. Watts plans to “deal with the problem” of Ruby, Qrow and Atlas getting in the way of his plans.

It's part of the Ruby and Nora series, though it's non-canon to the rest of the series.

Nora’s Life Tropes

• Attempted Rape: Hayden tries to rape Nora’s mother, but is thankfully stopped before he could. He later tries to do the same to Ruby in an alley when the Grimm attack begins, but is once again stopped when a beowulf pounces on him. (Not that it keeps him down for long.)
• Bad Boss: Hayden has shot his own soldiers for little to no reason and generally mistreats them. It's one thing that inspires them to turn against him.
• Big Bad Ensemble: General Hayden White serves as the main threat the heroes are dealing with in this story, but Watts and Lionheart also cause damage by being the ones to release the Grimm beasts in the climax.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When Nora states that she wants justice for what he did to Nora’s mother, Hayden literally states that he has no idea who she is and says he’s killed plenty of mothers before.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: After being left to die at the hands of the Grimm, Hayden manages to push it off with brute strength alone.
• Color Failure: This happens to Nora as she has a breakdown just before the plan to catch Hayden starts going about what happens if Ruby gets attacked by him on the way to Qrow’s room.
• Dirty Coward: Hayden in spades. Jaune specifically mentions this about him just before his defeat.
• Engineered Public Confession: What Team RNJR and Qrow plan to do by luring Hayden in with Ruby and catch him in the act of being up to his usual creepy self. Ruby manages to get a straightforward confession when she’s hiding from Hayden.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Watts does not hide his disgust for General White after learning of his crimes.
• Evil Versus Evil: Watts attempts to have Hayden killed along with Ruby and Qrow. However, he doesn’t know it’s this until learning about Hayden’s crimes over the news.
• Forced to Watch: Hayden intended to have young Nora watch as he raped her mother before being interrupted.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Dr. Watts is this for this story. He has less direct influence on the plot than Hayden, but he is serving Salem, which makes him more important to the setting.
• Hate Sink: General White was not made to be likable. Even his own soldiers hate him and turn on him in the climax. Watts was even planning to kill him as well, though only because he thought Atlas would screw with his plans. He does, however, refer to Hayden as a pig after hearing about his crimes.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Atlas leadership seems to be rather oblivious to the more egregious offenses committed by Hayden. Qrow lampshades it when he meets Hayden. Ruby even lampshades this in her inner monologue by wondering how they couldn’t realize how much of a creep he was.
  "Hayden White. Handpicked by Jimmy himself." Qrow looked the man up and down, then scoffed. "He never did have good taste."
• Implied Death Threat: Watts gives one to Lionheart when he chickens out before releasing the Grimm beasts.
  Watts: [grabbing Lionheart's throat] Don't. Ever. Touch. Me. I value your cooperation, Leo. Don't make me regret it!
• Incompatible Orientation: Ruby has a crush on Nora, but Nora is “together-together” with Ren. Something that hurts Nora as much as it does Ruby because she knows how much it breaks her heart.
• It's All About Me: Hayden’s philosophy in a nutshell. He only cares about things that benefit himself and his reputation no matter who gets hurt in the crossfire. He even admits this sort of philosophy with to Ruby as his number one rule.
  "Never let anyone tell you you can't do anything."
• Kick the Dog: Hayden's appearances in the flashbacks are basically one long string of dog-kicking moments. In the present, he attempts to rape Ruby before going off to stop a Grimm attack and forces his subordinates not to do anything until he got there, risking more damage.
• Light Is Not Good: General Hayden White. He’s an Atlas general, so his uniform is obviously white. There’s also the fact that his last name is “White.” Suffice to say, he’s a total scumbag.
• Love at First Sight: Ruby says this is how her love for Nora began. After watching Nora smash the deathstalker’s stinger into its head during their initiation in the Emerald Forest.
• Malicious Misnaming: Jaune (due to the incident with Pyrrha) is quite bitter with Qrow and uses many alcoholism-related nicknames to spite him.
• Papa Wolf: Qrow makes a remark about Tai going into this mode if he hears that Qrow let his daughter be used for bait to catch Hayden. In this fic, he fills the role despite being an Uncle and goes after Hayden when he finds out that Ruby is missing after the aforementioned plan goes awry.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Hayden is noted to have been raping and killing women from small tribes he was supposed to be protecting. And he also attempts to rape Ruby.
• The Resenter: Jaune to Qrow thanks to the incident with Pyrrha. And he is openly bitter about it.
• Serial Killer/Rapist: Some of Hayden’s subordinates note a woman from every tribe he was supposed to be protecting had disappeared during his "walks." As the incident with Ruby shows, he was also raping them.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Nora and Ren are a downplayed example. Jaune makes a remark about it when he catches Nora being affectionate with Ren.
• The Sociopath: General Hayden White. He only cares about his own image, reputation, and general pleasure. He displays an enormous need to dominate others by the way he treats his subordinates and how he treats other people in general. White also shows a blatant disregard for the lives of other people as he will shamelessly admit. He even admits that he doesn’t even remember Nora and her mother because he has brutalized and killed so many mothers before like it’s the most casual thing in the world.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Hayden White is an Atlas general and he fits Type 2 perfectly as you can see in The Sociopath above.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Team RNJR and Qrow detail their plan to catch Hayden in the act. Naturally, things start going wrong thanks to not accounting for Watts being in the mix. It seems that Qrow and Nora are aware of this trope since they worry that something might happen on the way to the room.
• Would Hurt a Child: It is implied that Hayden would've killed Nora and any other children in her village without much remorse had the Grimm not already been on the way to do it for them.
• You Killed My Father: Nora wants to bring Hayden to justice because he attempted to rape her mother and ended up letting her village get slaughtered by Grimm (her mother included) to save his own reputation. Much to her frustration, he doesn't even remember her, her mother, or the incident.