Ruby Hale

"Hey, mom. Are you a good guy? Well, you're off to a strategy meeting, right? How to stop S.H.I.E.L.D.? But, up until recently, everyone rooted for them and thought that they were the good guys. So, are you sure that you're not a bad guy?"

- Ruby coldly questioning her mother about her morality.

Ruby Hale is one of the main antagonists in the second half of Season 5 of the ABC TV series, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

She is the highly intelligent but deeply psychotic daughter of General Hale who was genetically designed by Daniel Whitehall to be the perfect leader of HYDRA who also has a mysterious obsession with Daisy Johnson/Quake. She is trained in the arts of assassinations and is tasked with hunting down the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

She is portrayed by Dove Cameron, who is best known for her portrayal as Mal in the Descendants franchise.

Origins and Childhood
Ruby was born to HYDRA agent General Hale, although she never knew her father. In fact, unbeknownst to her, she was the result of Daniel Whitehall's work to create enhanced humans in order to create the organizations future perfect leader, as he then had her mother inseminated with a genetically altered seed he created in order to give birth to her. During her childhood, Ruby was regularly taken to the home of fellow HYDRA leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and was sent to play with his son, Werner. One day, Ruby struck her head on the kitchen counter, resulting with a scar on her forehead. Werner was blamed for the accident and was beaten in front of Ruby and her mother.

Like her mother, Ruby had studied in a secret academy which dealt in training students into becoming HYDRA agents, with Ruby being at top of her class and with skills of a dangerous assassin. While she still questioned where she would be assigned, with Whitehall dead, however, her capabilities that would place her into HYDRA's leadership was put into question. During the organization's downfall, Ruby refused to complete the final test: executing her dog to confirm her loyalty. After arguing with her professor, she witnessed her mother execute him, making the two of them the last of HYDRA's leaders. After HYDRA's downfall, Ruby's relationship with her mother grew to become strained as she was then forced to live in the academy. At some point, Ruby became obsessed with the Inhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson/Quake for mysterious reasons that appear to go far beyond being a "number 1 fan".

Destroyer of Worlds
When Hale came into contact with a group called The Confederacy, which warned them about an oncoming alien invasion and that they will offer their protection in exchange for Gravitonium and a large number of Inhumans, Hale intended to reignite the Destroyer of Worlds project to merge the contender with the Gravitionium to wipe out the Confederacy and any threat to humanity, with Ruby believing she is destined for it. However, unbeknownst to her, Hale considered Daisy Johnson to be a more worthy participant due to Ruby's lack of impulse. After S.H.I.E.L.D. was declared terrorists after Glenn Talbot was shot in the head by Daisy's L.M.D., Ruby's mother took up Talbot's position and the two of them worked to locate and capture the remaining agents.

Months later, Talbot woke up from his coma and placed into the HYDRA academy where Ruby coldly ignored when meeting him. When Talbot angrily confronted her, Ruby coldly twisted his arm and held him defenseless. After Hale arrives, she explains to Talbot about the Confederacy and her plan. However, after he refused to work with the likes of HYDRA, Ruby tied him up and dragged him off for torture, where he was confident that S.H.I.E.L.D. would come for him. After an unknown amount of time, Ruby successfully broke him and extracted every information they needed.

Maiming Yo-Yo's Arms
After Ruby missed class, Hale showed up in her room and confronted her about it. Ruby, after apologizing about it, later questioned her if she was a good guy in regards to S.H.I.E.L.D. and how they were praised as good guys until recently, and that if she wasn't sure that hunting made her the bad guy. Hale defended her actions and that her actions were for her. Ruby accepted this just as her mother leaves.

When the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents turn up again, Hale sends Ruby to spring the trap laid by one of the other agents who believed it was a peaceful negotiation. Although Hale sends Ruby and her robot soldiers to capture them, Ruby planned on killing them if necessary. Upon arriving, disappointed that Daisy wasn't accounted for, Ruby orders her men to kill them to grab the former's attention. After a fight ensues, Ruby, desiring Daisy more, decided to use her chakram to injure Yo-Yo Rodriguez to provoke the agents into retaliating. This was successful and resulted in Yo-Yo's arms being dismembered, forcing the agents to fall back with the beacon (which was intended on blowing up).

Returning to Ruby's bedroom, Hale states her disappointment in her (especially as a daughter). Ruby angrily defended her failure by declaring it an opportunity to find Quake, but a unperturbed Hale locks Ruby in her bedroom for an unknown period of time before hiring Carl Creel as her new right-hand.

Seducing Werner von Strucker
As instructed by her mother, Ruby went to the lobby to see Werner von Strucker, ignore him and leave so that he can later follow. After so, Werner finds her training in the gym. They meet and Werner recounts the two of them meeting before, how they used to play together and one day, she hit her head which resulted in a scar, his father blamed him for it and beat him in front of her and her mother for it. Werner then uses a knife to take Ruby hostage and demanded to speak with her mother. Conveniently, Hale showed up and demanded to him to release Ruby. Werner did so and Ruby then stood by as Hale and Werner exchanged words about his new powers, HYDRA, and his father Wolfgang. After Hale sent him to his room so he can leave in the morning for refusing to be any part of her plans, Hale told Ruby to have a go at convincing him whatever it takes.

Ruby then approached Werner during the night while he was waking up to a nightmare. While discussing his enhanced memory powers also make him feel every pain he's ever felt, Ruby then told Werner that her mother told her that she wanted Ruby to do exactly everything that happened and that she wanted her to seduce him in order to convince him to join them. Ruby then told him that he didn't have to join Hale's team but that it could actually both of their team, suggesting that Ruby may have plans of her own.

The next morning, Ruby went to see if Werner stayed, to which he did. She then brought Werner to introduce him to Carl Creel in the gym. While overseeing the two men, Hale arrived to congratulate her and then asked her how she did it. Ruby then replied that she told him "the truth".

Growing Suspicious
A few weeks later, after Phil Coulson wakes up in the facility and heads into the lobby, Ruby once again does the same thing and ignores him, who doesn't fall for it before leaving. This impresses Ruby. A while later, Ruby visits Coulson in his room after being dragged and locked there. She asks him if he indeed went to the future, in which he didn't deny it. After asking how she failed at being the "Destroyer of Worlds", he reveals that it was actually Daisy. Ruby threatens Coulson to tell her where Quake was, but he is unmoved by this. Ruby then brought in a tormented Glenn Talbot to show him what happened when he declared that he wouldn't talk, before leaving with him.

After a week, Ruby is with Hale overseeing Creel testing the Gravitonium where they witness him nearly being absorbed into the element. Ruby, beginning to grow suspicious of her mother's motives, visits Werner to see if he is making progress on redrawing the Element Fuser blueprints. She opens up about her suspicions towards her mother, where Werner states that she is the true Destroyer of Worlds and that her mother knows that.

Later, after Carl Creel learns of Talbot's current status and breaks him and Coulson out, Ruby along with her Sleeper Mechs pursue them. After the Mechs are beaten, Ruby begins fighting Creel with the two of them both evenly matched. However, just before she could kill him, Hale storms in to break it up and demands to know what she was doing. Ruby, caring less for her mother's opinion, threw her chakram at Creel who turned to wood in the nick of time. Hale confronts her daughter and asked who she was, with the latter declaring that she was the [true] "Destroyer of Worlds". Intrigued by her answer, Hale then command her to get Talbot and Coulson.

Personality
Initially, Ruby is shown to be like any typical teenage woman: anti-social, rude and unappreciative, especially towards her mother regarding her job of capturing S.H.I.E.L.D. However, it is later shown that Ruby is in truth far worse than any other teenager, as being an highly-trained HYDRA assassin to her mother, she is cold, sadistic, cruel, ruthless, cunning, sociopathic, emotionless, unpredictable and highly intelligent in planning her tactics. Her cruelty is demonstrated is demonstrated when she shows completely no remorse when she dismembered Yo-Yo's arms and simply used it to provide an opportunity.

Ruby shows an obsession towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Daisy Johnson. While the reason for it is unknown, her willingness to capture her is far greater than following her mother's orders and capturing the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. She also had no second thought in trying to kill the agents or using Daisy's friend Yo-Yo's suffering to grab her attention. Ruby also shows no interest in impressing her mother (who was disappointed in her failures), and possibly views her as a means to an end. Ruby is also highly intelligent as she knows injuring Yo-Yo and allowing them to take the detonating beacon in order to send a sort of message.

However, it is also shown that Ruby does have some remorseful traits as she was unwilling to kill her dog to show her loyalty to HYDRA, and that at some time before, she and Hale did indeed have a loving relationship.

Abilities

 * High-Level Intellect: Ruby has shown to be highly intelligent as she easily deducted her mother's questionable morality in regards to finding S.H.I.E.L.D. She also used the exploding beacon and injuring Yo-Yo in order to provoke the agents.
 * Chakram Mastery: Ruby is able to wield her chakram blade with skill, predicting where Yo-Yo would be while using her speed, effectively cutting off only her arms and nothing else, showing precision.
 * Expert Marksmanship: While her exact full skill of marksmanship isn't fully shown yet, Ruby has so far demonstrated that she was able to dismember Yo-Yo's arms with her chakram whilst at super-speed.
 * Skilled combatant: Being a highly trained HYDRA assassin, Ruby has become skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Although her full capabilities are currently undisclosed, she has shown to to easily overpower to HYDRA students at once.

Family

 * General Hale - Mother

Allies

 * HYDRA
 * Daniel Whitehall † - Creator
 * Wolfgang von Strucker †
 * Werner von Strucker
 * Carl Creel/Absorbing Man
 * Sleeper Mechs

Enemies

 * Professor Steger - Mentor
 * Glenn Talbot - Captive and Torture Victim
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Phil Coulson - Captive
 * Melinda May
 * Leo Fitz
 * Jemma Simmons
 * Alphonso Mackenzie - Attempted Victim
 * Yo-Yo Rodriguez
 * Daisy Johnson/Quake - Obsession
 * Piper - Situational Ally turned Enemy

Trivia

 * While it was widely assumed that the name "Destroyer of Worlds" was a nickname given to Daisy Johnson due to belief that she destroyed Earth in the future, it is later revealed that it is the name of the project that created Ruby.