Red Ruin

[Dalek Ix]

Red Ruin​

Years ago...

Qrow Branwen took a sip from his flask. He glanced at the small girl seated next to him on some fallen log and felt deeply sorry for her; Yang had the everything of someone in desperate need of a sip herself, but Qrow wasn't about to offer.

"You've gone all quiet, Firecracker," he drawled.

The blonde said nothing. It wasn't like Yang to be quiet, and that worried Qrow more than he was going to admit. Hell, she was as quiet as...

Qrow looked in front of him.

Ruby stared back. It was a blank, emotionless stare that seemed focused on something somewhere inside your skull, and the deep, deep dark circles around those silver eyes only emphasized it.

Ruby stared at him some more, and then went back to staring at Yang.

The younger of Qrow's nieces looked bizarrely unperturbed by what had nearly happened. Sure, both of them looked like hell, but Ruby always looked like hell to some extent, depending on when she last slept. If anything, she looked a little better- at least she wasn't flinching or crying out at things only she could see. Or whispering.

Qrow had only seen Ruby this calm when Summer had been alive.

Yang, on the other hand... She'd blurted out everything to Qrow after he'd killed the Beowolves, and then fallen into a silence that he didn't like one bit.

"Yang..."

"Where is she?" Yang asked. Qrow didn't need to guess who "she" was.

"No idea, Firecracker," he admitted, "she talks to me, sometimes. Messages. Nothing to trace her by."

A long, long silence.

"... Does she ask about us?"

"No."

"... Could she come back?"

"She could, maybe." A sigh. "She won't. And trust me, I've tried to get her back enough times to know."

Small hands gripped the edge of her blouse, and Yang lowered her head.

A small part of Qrow wanted to slap some sense into Taiyang. The rest of him understood that the man had quite a few reasons to have taken Summer's death (and it had to be death; nothing else would've kept her away) as hard as he had, and that he was hardly a comforting sort of presence.

Ruby tilted her head, one way and then the other. She kept staring at Yang. The red cloak that Summer had gifted her shrouded her and pooled onto the floor. Qrow saw Yang look up at her sister, and then Ruby was suddenly half a meter further from them than she had been.

Yang winced. "Sorry," she whispered.

Ruby said nothing. Did nothing. Just stared and stared.

Then,

"Sorry?"​

The word had been like an apparition, coming from absolutely nowhere and then leaving so quickly you were almost sure you'd imagined it. Qrow couldn't even quite remember having heard it; it was just... there. Soft and harsh and a bit too much like the whispers that followed his niece around for Qrow's piece of mind.

"I'm sorry," Yang said, a little louder, "I shouldn't have come here. It's just..." A hiccup. "I promised mom I'd take care of you, but it's just so... So..."

Yang fell silent.

"... My fault."​

"It's not," Qrow snapped, "Don't ever think that. You didn't ask for any of this."

"Is."​

And boy did Ruby have a glare on her. Positively milk-curdling material. Qrow was almost impressed.

"Isn't," he drawled.

"My fault."​

Qrow snorted. "Kid, if you go around claiming everything bad that ever happens as something you're responsible for, you'll never stop trying to make up for it." A sip from his flask. "You'll always be running yourself ragged and feeling miserable. And that ain't any way to live. This was Yang's fu- mistake," he hastily corrected himself again; being around Harlan was contagious in all the worst ways, "and kids like you two make 'em all the time --heck, this isn't even half as stupid as some of the things I got up to when I was your age."

Yang sniffled.

Ruby didn't move. Which is why Yang was so startled when she glanced up and saw her little sister suddenly in arm's reach.

"... Promise."​

Yang blinked. "Wha?"

"Promise you won't burn."​

That phrase made no sense to Qrow, and it was about the most words Ruby had ever said in one go with him to hear. But Yang seemed to understand; she sat straight up and looked at Ruby in the eye.

"I promise."

Again, Ruby didn't move. Not immediately.

She shuffled closer to Yang, bit by bit. Stopping often. Retreating once. Advancing again.

Qrow watched the whole thing in fascination. Yang was being about as patient as Yang could be. Sometimes she looked about to urge Ruby to move faster, but bit her lip and visibly forced herself to settle down.

Ever so slowly, Ruby made it to the log, and crawled onto it, red cloak bunched up around herself. She trembled once and, with a cry, threw herself at Yang.

Yang froze. Wordlessly, she put her arms around her little sister and pulled her tight. Ruby squrimed, but then, almost immediately, went still.

"... Warm."​

"... Huh," Qrow said, "I thought she hates being touched."

"S-she does." Yang sounded and looked as shocked as Qrow felt, "she doesn't even let me get close..."

"She thinks I'm gonna burn her."

 

[Dalek Ix]

Red Ruin​

"Qrow, it's Harlan. I know the fucking system we made. I looked it over with you, compared it to the alternatives, and agreed to play my role, when the fist signs appeared. I'd run the tests. You'd keep her grounded. I don't need you to tell me what I already know, jackass."

"Which is why I'm asking you to sit your dusty ass down on a chair and listen very closely. Because you don't see what I do."

---

*Click*

The scroll made a noise, a vauge approximation of an antique film camera, and the image of Beacon Academy was preserved. The girl who took the photo turned away from the airship's window, and stared at the what she'd taken. Trying to burn it into her memory.

She felt her forest fire of a sister nearby, and Ruby Rose felt glad she was here. Things were better when Yang was around. Yang was safe.

In both interpretations of that sentence.

She adjusted the hood of her cloak, and the whispers quieted.

The roaring flame leaned closer. "Whatcha got there- oh," she started to say, before realising it on her own, "Pretty sweet, huh?"

"Yup!" Ruby said, nodding, "Our new home..." A beat. "Except for the holidays. And the times we're out on long missions. But other than that..."

She trailed off, focused on the screen. It flickered. Yang wanted to know what the view outside looked like to her.

Ruby didn't want Yang to know.

---

"You don't see the readings when she's under stress. You don't see what she does when she let's a tiny fraction of what's in her loose, Qrow. And that's by her own admission. A tiny... Insignificant part of what she can do."

"And that scares the shit out of me."

---

The cloak could muffle the whispers, but Ruby still needed to see.

Mostly.

She was having a good day, though! The sun was shining, the air was clear, and she was about to become a Hunter (well, Hunter-in-training) at her sister's side. She could even still see what is under what her mind was telling her was there.

Silver eyes scanned the crowd, a smile on her face. She found the knight in paper armor emptying his stomach into the nearest plant pot. An iceberg stood alone, cold and unassailable. And then there was the masked shadow, twitching and tense as if about to flee...

Ruby blinked, and what is flickered into view for an instant.

The knight in paper armor had a sword in a collapsible shield-shreath. The last time she'd seen one was in a museum! Either it was good enough to still keep up with modern stuff, or it was a hand-me-down.

It was definitely a hand-me-down. Still, can't go wrong with the classics!

The Iceberg had a Multi Action Dust Rapier (Eeeeeeeeee!). Another had a Collapsible Dust Staff (Ooooooooh!). The Shadow had-

"Is that a Variable Blade Chain Scythe?!"

The blush came, unbidden, and Yang laughed.

"Whoa sis, calm down," She said, a smile in her voice, "They're just weapons."

"Just weapons!?" Ruby couldn't believe her ears. Her own sister is saying this! "They're extensions of ourselves, what we choose put between us and the enemy..." She toned the passion in her voice down a little, adjusting her hood even though the conviction never left her eyes, "They say a lot about who we are."

Yang chuckled.

"With all those new weapons, won't Crescent Rose start to feel jealous?" She teased.

Ruby huffed and, unfolding her weapon from it's storage mode on the small of her back, brought the Super High Velocity Sniper Penetrator-Scythe in front of her and hugged it.

"Crescent Rose knows I love her," she shot back, grinning, "But I still like seeing new weapons. It's like meeting new people!"

Her grin faltered.

"Just... Better."

A shake of a head that sent hair swaying to and fro like the firestorm that Yang was. "Come on, Rubes," her sister said, gently, "Let's meet new weapons. Who knows, we might meet new people completely by accident."

And by "Completely by accident", Yang meant "Completely on purpose".

Ruby felt her sister recognise someone in the crowd, and she looked back at her.

Maybe it was the warmth in her chest from being here that gave her the confidence to do what she was about to do.

"You can go and say hi," Ruby told Yang.

There was hesitation.

"You sure?" It was a lifeline. A chance to back out.

Ruby nodded. "Yup!" A smile. "I can handle this."

She turned back, and her eyes fell on the iceberg and the MADR on her hip.

---

"I understand that keeping her caged will only lead to us having a fucking nightmare made manifest out for our blood. You told me that. I didn't believe you at first. I thought containment -physical containment- was possible, maybe even preferable. And I'm not shy about admitting I was wrong."

"But when she's with you, you see your honorary niece. Your little apprentice, swinging that scythe she made. You don't see just how tenuous the hold we have on her is. The hold she has on herself. Like a ribbon in a hurricane."

---

The Iceberg had been cold and aloof (iceberg, duh) and the shadow had been... Well, she'd been nice, after Ruby had been not-quite-shooed-away by the Iceberg (Schnee. Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the SDC, just her luck.) but she had her own aloofness.

Ruby didn't like aloof people. They made her want to blurt out things she shouldn't know about them.

Things like "Why are you hiding your ears?"

And "What are you so afraid of?"

... She hadn't actually said any of that to the shadow (Blake. Her name was Blake Baetica), Grimm and Dust. And the Ice- Weiss. Weiss was too closed off and (mercifully) quiet for her to get much. But it was a pretty close thing. The knight in paper armor (Jaune Arc) had been friendly with her even after she'd kinda sorta maybe accidentally scared him but...

Well.

She hoped his armour stopped being paper soon.

Professor Ozpin had made a rather paradoxically unmotivating speech before sending them to the dorms for their first night, and it was time for bed.

Ruby was ready for sleep. She had her favourite PJs, her mother's cloak, her medicine (the chalky tablets never went down easily and they made breakfast taste like sand, but it was better than the alternative) and Yang and Crescent Rose.

She bit her lip, her scroll extended to full in front of her, and a messaging app open.

She felt the flame sneak closer.

"So, what ch'u writing, sis?"

"A letter," she answered.

"Just the one?"

Ruby winced. She'd hoped her sister wouldn't notice that.

"Just the one," she answered. She began to type.

To: Harlan Wade

Dear Dr. Wade...

---

"I know what you're going to say, if you ever do the intelligent thing and pick up your fucking scroll to call me back. That we shouldn't cage her. That if she believes she's holding your niece back --because we know they'll follow the other no matter what we do-- things will only get worse. That we need to give Ruby agency so she wants to help us. That she has Yang with her to watch over her, and us to smooth things if they're needed. And those are all true.

"But just because this is the best choice doesn't mean it's a good one. There are too many "what if's" for me to sleep at night. What if she slips? What if she has a surge, like those she used to have? What if she tries to do something and doesn't hold enough back? What if Ozpin decides to ass-fuck us all for his own agenda?

"What if something happens to Yang?

"It's too late to go back. I'll keep monitoring her from here. And she'll be sending me messages every day. But I'm asking you to keep your own eyes open. And to brace yourself.

"Harlan Wade out."

 

[Dalek Ix]

Red Ruin​

---

Ruby hated sleep. Hated it. Hate hate hate.

It was better, now. A lot of things were better than they used to be. She still remembered when "sleep" meant restraints, a bed bolted to the floor in the middle of the room, and everything three meters (or four) around her being cleared away. And cheap sheets and a cheaper mattress, because when she slept, she dreamed.

And the only dreams Ruby ever had were nightmares. Of crimson moons, of claws that grasped, of voices that screamed on good nights and whispered in bad ones. Of blood and bone and things in shadow. She dreaded the nightmares so much that she'd try to stay awake as long as she could, until she finally slipped away from exhaustion, her rest done in fits and starts, in and out of dreams. And with a weary sister on watch.

And her dreams had a tendency to... Leak through.

Poor Zwei.

But that was then. Now, all she took were two chalky, powdery tablets immediately before bed. No more gouges on the ceiling, no more scorch marks on the floor, no more restraints!

The nightmares still came, but only sometimes.

Ruby looked around. She was on a train, this time.

"... This is new," she said, "this doesn't look like my dreams."

She knelt to check the corpses on the ground, and sagged in relief that they weren't anyone she knew.

"Yep, not one of mine." She frowned. "Someone else's...?"

It had happened before. She could count the times she'd been in someone else's bad dreams with one hand, and they'd all been Yang's.

Ruby Rose hated keeping secrets from her sister, because Yang had no choice in keeping any from her. But she never, ever told her about what she'd seen in her fierce, fiery sister's worst nightmares.

Oh Yang...

Ruby stepped over the corpses.

"Whose dream is this?" She wondered out loud, and entered the next carriage. She didn't bother trying to look outside; the windows had a healthy coat or red on them, and Ruby bet ten lien there wasn't anything worthwhile outside anyways. Everything that was important was on the train.

"Aha!"

A trail. Two footsteps, leaving wet prints on the ground. The lights on the train flickered as she jogged further deep- Along. Further along the train. And deeper into the dream. The corpses looked worse as she kept going. Like something clawed at them. She could see teeth marks too.

"Not Grimm..."

Which was just about the only thing ahe could note as she stepped over them and into the next car.

That next car was a mess.

... Scratch that. Yang's room was a mess. This was something else.

Something had torn up the car. Something savage and cruel like no Grimm could manage. The corpses on the way here had been mauled, but indistinct. Blurry in the way dreams were. These were much sharper.

Scraps of expensive suits. Bloody uniforms. Faces twisted in horror and pain --insomuch as she could recognise faces--. A limb here, another there... Lots of the stuff that's supposed to go between limbs stewn everywhere.

And glimpses of a painfully familiar twelve pointed snowflake.

"Schnee..." Ruby realized.

And whispers.

Traitor!

"N-no..."

In the middle of it all, Ruby saw Blake Belladonna (not Baetica, the name she'd given to her when awake), sat on the floor, knees drawn up to her chest and hands clutching at her head as she looked around, unable to not see.

Traitor!

Standing over Blake was herself. That Blake had bloody hands that looked more like claws. She stood tall. She was looking down at Blake. Her eyes shone cruelly from behind a white and red mask, fashioned after that of the Grimm.

Traitor!

To your race!

Your people!

Your brothers! Your sisters!

A different, more distinct voice.

To me!

"It's not... It's not like that!" Blake gasped, raising her head, "I'm not-!"

You are!

"I'm not a traitor!" She screamed, desperate, "It's not treason to leave when everyone is turning into monsters!"

The Blake with the mask laughed.

"Are we any better?" She hissed, and Ruby could hear the sneer.

Clawed hands shot down.

"Nope!"

Crescent Rose swung forwards. The blade went straight into the side of Other Blake's head and passed right through like a ghost.

Other Blake picked Blake up and slammed her against the bloody wall of the train car. The wind howled outside.

Crescent Rose swung again. And again. Ruby made the blade pass through Other Blake again and again, then spun her sweetheart around to run her target through with the spike.

Nothing.

Ruby wanted to scream.

When Other Blake began to tear into the real one, the nightmare barrelling down it's relentless track, she did.

She screamed, and cursed, and swung her scythe, but all she could really do was stay and watch. Just like before.

---

Blake woke up with a start, a strangled cry dying in her throat.

It had been a dream. A horrible dream, from what little she could remember. Her heart was still pounding and she could feel the cold sweat on her sheets.

Slowly, Blake forced herself to settle down. It was just a dream, she told herself, and no matter how bad it had been, it wouldn't be more than that. Carefully, she raised herself up, peering around the room she and the other students were sleeping in.

Thankfully, nobody else seemed to be awake. She was starting to relax further when she saw silver eyes staring right at her.

Ruby Rose stared at Blake, sitting up on her futon. Blake froze, staring back.

She couldn't quite describe the look on the young girl's face. A mixture of... Guilt? Sympathy? Weariness? It was far too solemn a look to belong to the girl who had greeted her with an excited stream of startlingly on-point questions about Gambol Shroud, babbled on about her own monstrous scythe, mumbled a few things about herself, and then awkwardly excused herself when she realized that Blake wasn't much of a talker.

Blake blinked. Because Ruby had rolled her eyes when she thought that. Then the younger girl froze and gave Blake a sheepish look.

The disguised Faunus felt ice begin to flow down her spine. A telepathic Semblance? She'd heard rumours of people who had them; they were especially prized as interrogators.

She opened her mouth to whisper and clicked it shut when Ruby put a finger to her own lips, and then drew a pinched thumb and index across her mouth.

...She wasn't going to tell?

Ruby beamed.

Why?

Silver eyes turned, and Blake's followed, ending up at a girl in white.

The Schnee.

There was a moment when Blake wondered why someone human wouldn't jump at the chance to curry favour (and money) from the Schnee family, and then she remembered that she was in Vale, now.

Armacham's turf, so to speak.

... This did raise the question of why the Schnee was here.

Blake glanced at Ruby, and the other girl gave her a flat look.

Blake felt a blush. Right. She supposed it would be the height of hypocrisy if she asked Ruby to spill secrets when she'd just promised to keep hers'.

Speaking of which...

Blake quietly stood up, grabbing a few things from a backpack. She needed a shower; she had been generous with the deodorant yesterday, but one could never be too careful.

She made a move to creep away, towards the showers, but then stopped to look at Ruby one last time.

Was the Schnee the only reason?

A shake of the head.

Why else?

Ruby frowned, probably trying to figure out how to tell her silently. She looked adorable.

Apparently giving up, she beckoned Blake closer. The Faunus did so (glancing at the girl sleeping next to Ruby, who could only be the older sister she'd mentioned) and bent down.

"Monsters don't feel guilty," Ruby whispered.

Blake froze. She could feel the hairs on the nape of her neck stick straight out and ice crawl down her spine for the second time in too few minutes. Those four words hit close. Very close. Too close.

Numbly, Blake stood straight, looking down at Ruby with wide eyes. The other girl's silver stare bored into her, and Ruby repeated the motions from before.

Quiet. I won't tell.

Blake turned away and slunk off as quickly as she dared. She felt those eyes follow her out the room.

She decided not to return until more people were awake.

---

"Rise and shiiiiiine~!"

Yang had the sneaking suspicion that Ruby secretly harboured a jealous streak about a mile wide.

Why, you ask?

Because, as far back as she could remember (admittedly, Yang preferred not to go too far down memory lane for any longer than she had to) she'd always been violently brought to full, heart hammering consciousness rather than be allowed to wake up on her own terms.

"Urgh," she growled, hands on her face to shield her eyes from what had to be the torch function of her sister's Scroll, "Ruby!"

Ruby said nothing but Yang could hear the smile on her face.

"Okay, I'm up! I'm up, dangit! Turn that thing off!"

The blinding light was switched off, mercifully, and Yang let her arms flop to the sides. She blinked, and then rubbed her eyes to get rid of the sleep.

Just as predicted, Ruby was standing over her to one side, fully dressed (she'd probably been awake since hours ago), smiling a perfectly innocent smile that would've melted the hearts of anyone who missed the gleam in her eyes.

"You know," Yang started, sitting up, "I once thought of buying an alarm clock. Then I remembered I have one already."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ruby shamelessly lied.

Yang rolled her eyes. She dragged herself onto her feet, and stretched, wincing as a few joints popped. People were waking up around them, a few still with the zombie-like daze of those who weren't completely awake yet.

Ice Queen in particular was muttering under her breath just loud enough to make out some of the words. Something about airship lag and a lack of coffee. Yang also spied Vomit Boy, looking more than a little pale and hopeless.

Yang snorted. "What's his deal?" She wondered.

Ruby was silent.

Suspiciously silent. Yang turned, crossed her arms, and fixed her suddenly nervous, shifty-eyed sister a look.

"Ruby..." She growled.

"Not saying!" The younger sister blurted out, her voice a hiss, "Not saying. He's not... Okay, he might be a problem." An immediate verbal backspace. "But only to himself." An amendment. "And to whoever ends up on his team." An addition. "He's just... Really, really lost."

Yang sighed. "Alright," she said, uncrossing her arms, "I won't ask, but if we end up on the same team as him, you're telling me immediately. 'kay?"

Ruby nodded. "'kay."

"Nice. Now..." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Landing strategy."

"We boost away from the others," Ruby said immediately, "Deeper into the forest, just a little. It'll take time for us to get back to where everyone else is, but I want to be sure I find you first."

That had been the one exception to the "don't smother" promise that Ruby had strongarmed Yang into making before setting foot on the airship off of Patch. They were going to be on the same team, no matter what, and that meant they had to be partners. Which meant they had to... arrange things a little.

It wasn't against the letter of the rules, as Qrow had explained them, but it was against the spirit of them. Hunters fought when they were called, and alongside whoever else answered the call. But Yang wasn't about to trust the safety of her little sister to anyone else just yet, and...

Well...

It had been years since Ruby had had an incident, and the medicaton she took was loads more effective, but Beacon and Vale were a far cry from Signal and Patch. And Yang knew that whatever the hell her sister was cursed with, it only got worse the more people she had around. They weren't taking any chances.

"Sounds good," Yang said, and Ruby gave a little smile, "Now, where did you hide my clothes while I was asleep?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ruby lied shamelessly.

---

Today was a good day. The sun was shining, the skies were clear, and the world looked exactly as it truly was. And there was the promise of dead Grimm in the future, which was always a plus with Ruby.

They deserved to die they ALL deserved to die.​

But as much as Ruby would like to enjoy it, she had work to do. Making sure she didn't splat on the ground, for starters.

"Sorry birdie!"

Birdie gave a startled squawk, but passed harmlessly right under her as Crescent Rose spoke, boosting her up. Ruby worked the bolt, and fired again, a blast of flame rushing out the muzzle brake to shove her back up.

She'd originally planned to base Crescent Rose around a high-impact sniper rifle. Then, during one of her sessions, she'd spied the Armacham guards sporting shiny new guns.

And... Well, she'd been inspired.

Another burst of flame to correct her flight. She listened and-

crackle fire embers waiting for fuel

"Aha!"

-There!

Two bursts of flame roar through the variable muzzle brake and she's on the right path, roughly. Another violently decelerates Ruby just above the treeline. And then she's unfolding the blade of the scythe and falling through the branches. Crescent Rose cuts through a dozen before it finds one thick enough to stop it and Ruby spins around it once, slipping the curved blade away to let herself drop onto the forest floor.

Ruby stood up from the crouch and... Basked in the atmosphere of the forest. The rustle of the wind through the leaves. The warmth of the sun. Raising a hand, she brushed the hood of her cloak off of her head, and smiled at the silence.

... Well, not quite silence. There was one sound she was looking for.

crackle sizzle warm

"Gotcha."

She ran, homing in on the familiar presence of her her older sister, a red and black blur among the trees. She'd gotten close in the landing, and she could vaguely feel the other students somewhere behind her, but she still wanted to get to Yang ASAP, because then they'd be partners no matter what team they ended up in.

I hope we get Jaune... sure, Yang won't like him all that much at first and he's kinda... kinda very lost, but he's nice! And friendly! And... Blake?

Ruby remembered the nightmare and resolved to make it up to Blake for not being able to do anything. Somehow.

Blake's okay too! I'd have to be extra careful not to just blurt out stuff... Actually, she's probably looking to be in the same team as me, which is even better! Even if it's just because she wants to keep an eye on me.

She briefly thought of the quiet shadow, but then remembered who he came with.

Yeah, no. She's loud. So loud. Too loud. Even when she's not talking she's LOUD.

And then there's Phrrha Nikos. Who... Should probably be on guard for Weiss trying to use her to take over the school or something- Found you!

"Yang!"

She found her sister leaning against a tree, arms crossed in a casual manner. When she heard Ruby, she pushed off the tree, turned to look, and raised her sunglasses to uncover lilac eyes. She grinned.

"Rubes!"

And there was no... no mirage hiding Yang from Ruby. No sights and sounds that only she could see and hear; whispers and flashes of things that only spoke about her sister's temper and rage and not all the other things that made Yang Yang. For the first time since leaving Patch, Ruby saw her sister as what she was, not what her conditon told her.

She slid to a halt just out of arm's reach, but Yang crossed the distance and pulled her into a one-armed embrace anyway. Which was nice but still made Ruby squirm in her grip.

"You promised not to smother me!" she... okay, she may have whined a little.

Yang cackled. "Well, you're still breathing, right?" she teased, "That means this doesn't count!"

"Yang!"

Eventually Yang let go of her, and Ruby tried to huff and glare, but her heart wasn't in it. It felt wonderful to be out here, and Yang could tell it made her happy, and she could feel that that made Yang happy, and-

Ruby was brought out of her reverie by her hood being tugged over her face.

"Easy there," Yang said, as Ruby pulled her hood up and off, "You were starting to look all spaced out."

"Sorry." A pause. "And yes, I'm fine. Beacon is..." She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, counting as she did. "Beacon is a lot more intense than I thought it would be and Vale is worse, and... and I guess I got a little too excited to be away from it all."

She felt Yang's rising concern and held up both hands before she could express it (By putting Ruby in a patented Yang Hug, for instance). "Again I'm fine," she insisted, "The medication works, and I have it under control. And-"

"And I did promise not to smother you," Yang finished with a sigh, "Okay. But the second you feel like you're gonna slip, you're telling me, right?"

"I promise."

"Good." And then Yang's face was split with a grin. "Now, let's go find the others!"

---

Weiss Schnee strived for nothing less than perfection in all things. Everything she did, from the clothes she wore, to the food she ate, to the weapon she wielded had been chosen with immense care. And her "flight of fancy", as Father called it, has been no exception. She hadn't come here on a lark; she'd investigated Beacon and Vale as well as she could without going to Winter, from the professors to the Hunters who had graduated.

That Vale was about as far as one could get from Father's influence without going through the impossible task of leaving Remnant altogether had been a rather significant reason for her to apply here.

But, even with all the information she'd compiled above Vale, there had been a few things she hadn't prepared for. The first was the presence of a boy who seemed incapable of understanding the concept of "not interested". The second was one Pyrrha Nikos, repeated tournament champion and the one person Weiss Schnee would consider a challenger (or ally) off the bat.

The third was that Weiss Schnee was many things, but an outdoorswoman wasn't one of them.

Aura or not, trudging through the undergrowth wasn't pleasant. Her skirt has caught three times, she'd nearly tripped twice on tree roots, and if she had to get more debris out of her shoes-

"Uh... little help?"

God of Darkness, no. No, no, no, and a thousand times no.

"I'm up the tree! Could you... Uh..."

Weiss spun around and trudged away from the voice she recognised as belonging to Jaune Arc. She hadn't seen him through the undergrowth, but like hell was she going to have him as a partner!

"O-or you could... Leave me here. Hanging from a tree. That's fine too."

Not a minute after she was out of earshot, Phyrra arrived. It was probably for the best that Weiss didn't know this until much later.

---

Blake ran a hand through her hair, and felt her ears begging to fold back to match her mood. Beacon was meant to be a lifeline. A second chance, to be something other than what the White Fang --what Adam-- had made her into.

But her cover was blown. Not one day in Beacon had passed and someone already knew.

Monsters don't feel guilty.

Blake knew about telepathic Semblances, even though she'd never actually seen one. They were supposed to be limited to detecting only surface thoughts. What Ruby had said to her last night spoke of her managing to look deeper than that. Much deeper.

That girl knew what she'd done. And what she felt about what she'd done. But Blake didn't know if Ruby knew the specifics. She didn't know if what Ruby had done had even been deliberate. God's Horns, she barely knew anything about Ruby Rose herself. The girl had promised not to tell, but the Faunus didn't know how much that promise was worth.

Twice, the obvious option had presented itself out of habit, and she ruthlessly crushed that idea. She wasn't- she wasn't supposed to do that. Not anymore. And Ruby hadn't even done anything to her to deserve Blake resorting to those measures; if the silver eyed girl wasn't even a little friendly to Faunus, Blake would've woken up surrounded by angry humans with guns.

No. No, she'd have to keep Ruby quiet a different way. And that meant being in a team with her.

Sadly, that plan had begun to fall apart when Ruby had used her scythe as a pulse rocket and boosted away from everyone, save the blonde girl Blake was sure was her sister.

... Of course she'd want to be in the same team as her sister.

Blake sighed. There was nothing she could do about that now. Except hide up among the branches (why was it that nobody ever thought to look up?), look for a decent partner, and pray that she ended up in a team with Ruby.

Blake reasoned that the students would be gravitating North, towards the ruins that were the end goal of the ceremony. So she moved northeast, giving herself the chance to come across the most amount of people. She'd passed over Cardin Winchester and not given him a second glance. Then there was a brief moment where she'd spotted Phyrra, and had been about to jump down... Before she'd seen that the tournament champion already had a partner.

She leapt to the next tree, and this time she couldn't stop one ear from twitching at a noise. Ursa. Two of them, and decently sized by the sound but not old enough to be Majors.

Blake pulled Gambol Shroud from the sheath and threw it up, hooking it to a branch higher up just long enough for her to swing towards the sound by the ribbon. A tug, and the gun jumped back into her hand.

She head the sound of Dust activating down below. Blake wondered who it could be; she hadn't seen the weapons of any of the other students closely (save for Crescent Rose, and that had been a side effect of Ruby introducing herself), but she didn't think there was one that used dust directly- Schnee.

The Schnee was fighting the Ursa, and Blake wondered which god she'd offended so that her class happened to have someone with a telepathic Semblance and Weiss fucking Schnee in it.

Blake felt a hiss in the back of her throat but she swallowed it. No. No, no and no. Not the Schnee. She'd rather be weighed down by Jaune Arc than share a room with her. Who knew, maybe Cardin Winchester only looked like a cocky ass and was secretly decent for a human. Besides, the Schnee hardly needed saving; she was driving one Ursa back and the other was busy hammering at the ice that held one paw down.

... She was taking her sweet time with it. She parried the blows and countered perfectly when she did, but she wasn't seeking any openings-

The Ursa stumbled, and the Schnee pounced, driving the rapier deep between where the Grimm's ribs would've been, and stepped back clear of the furious swipe. It had been textbook.

... Possibly literally, in this case. Actually, make that definitely. It would be foolish to say that the Schnee wasn't trained; she was, although one would need tweezers to get that out of Blake. What the Schnee seemed to lack was experience, and why wouldn't she? She'd lived in a fortress her entire life, surrounded by guards and employees. The only people who would've dawn a weapon on her were her instructors, and those wouldn't have lasted long if they actually hurt her.

Blake turned to leave and...

And...

Her grip tightened on Gambol Shroud.

She should leave the Schnee. The heiress wasn't likely to die against just two Ursai. She could find a better partner.

Possibly.

How much would Adam give to be here?

The thought crossed her mind, unbidden, and she nearly laughed. She'd been in the White Fang for what felt like forever. Before the masks. She'd bled and made others bleed for the cause. And now she found herself literally standing over an opportunity that the Blake Belladonna of five months ago would've gladly given an arm for... Just after she'd left the Fang.

God was real and he was a bastard.

Below, the Schnee punished an overextended swipe with a jab through the Grimm's eye. It howled with pain and rage and pushed, forcing the Schnee back.

Blake didn't move.

She didn't much like what Blake Belladonna of five months ago had been.

Monsters don't feel guilty.

This was a stupid idea. It was a devastatingly, immensely, unbelievably stupid idea.

So had falling from a train been. But it had been something that she had had to do, just like this.

Blake dropped.

The Schnee drove the point of the rapier through the other eye, deeper this time.

The Ursa dropped limp.

The other one shattered the ice and roared.

The Schnee turned, sword high and covered in quickly evaporating black fluid.

Blake dropped on top of the Grimm, driving the point of Gambol Shroud into the Grimm's neck. She jumped off as the Ursa died with a gurgle, and landed in front of Weiss Schnee, sheathing the blade as the Grimm began to evaporate.

The hidden Faunus and the heiress stared at each other. Then,

"Thank you," the Schnee said, her voice neutral, "But I had the situation perfectly under control."

"I know," Blake told her, "but I didn't want to wait an hour for you to kill that one."

The utterly indignant look on the Schnee's face, highlighted by how pale it normally was, was completely worth it.

---

"Wow, it's really booking it."

"Yep."

"How big is that thing?"

Ruby adjusted the scope on Crescent Rose until her target was in focus. She then read off the range numbers on the dials.

She wished she hadn't.

"Big," she told Yang, and resumed watching over the Nevermore, "Very big and very old."

Yang didn't have a telescopic scope, but she could still see the Grimm unaided. The only thing that had given it away as something that wasn't a bird high in the sky had been when they'd seen it go through a cloud. They'd immediately gotten off the path they'd found after that, hiding under the cover of the trees.

Ruby felt an idea come to Yang.

"No."

Yang sputtered. "I didn't even say anything!" She complained.

"Still no," Ruby shot back, "too high up for that, and it's not gonna pass near us."

Yang grumbled, her arms crossed under her chest. "Would've been pretty cool if we could pull it off," she said.

"... Yeah," Ruby agreed. It would have been pretty amazing to down the Grimm like that; after all, it deserved to die they ALL deserved to die.

"Wonder where it's going," Ruby thought out loud.

Yang snorted, "With how fast it's flying? Probably the worst partnership ever."

Ruby lowered her sweetheart, currently in rifle form, and looked in the direction the flying Grimm had been heading. In the distance she could just make out a-

cut deep cut once cut twicd cut many times how dare she say that to ME I'll show her what does she know she will eat her words and I will serve them to her-

She winced. "Ouch."

Yang raised an eyebrow. Then another. "Wait, you can actually see it from here?"

Ruby nodded, and now Yang winced as well.

"Wow."

"Yep."

"And they have a Giant Nevermore after their asses. Not to mention they're probably pulling a whole bunch of Grimm."

"Yep."

There was a pause. Yang and Ruby looked at each other, and then bolted, the scythe wielder leading the way.

---

"You shot me!"

"I called out the shot! You didn't move! And that's nothing; you were this close to skewering me!"

"And maybe I wouldn't have if you hadn't decided to get in my way!"

"What do you mean "maybe", Schnee?!"

Weiss Schnee was quite sure she was dead. Perhaps the airship had crashed, or the White Fang had finally gotten lucky with their bombs. Maybe Whitley had been even more of a worm than anyone could've believed and had poisoned her food.

"I said go left! That was not left!"

"And why should I listen to you, Schnee?"

"Because, unlike some people, I've actually taken formal courses in command and know what I'm talking about?"

"You mean you sat in a nice, comfortable classroom in your mansion and studied textbooks, because Gods forbid you get your dress dirty and take to the field, unlike some people, Schnee."

"And another thing! My name is Weiss! Weiss! If you're going to insist on bickering you could at least call me by my name!"

"Like you've called me by mine?"

"Indeed, Miss Baetica."

Yes, Weiss was pretty certain she was deceased. Because she was clearly in hell.

"If you could shut up-"

"And let you walk all over me? Besmirch my name? Question my integrity? Insult and belittle me? Have you ever considered that maybe I wouldn't have to follow through if you didn't start?"

"Maybe if you stopped sniping-"

This time, their argument was brought to a halt by Blake's eyes widening and the girl diving to one side. Weiss followed shortly after, and the Nevermore's talons passed through the space she'd occupied a second ago.

Lying on her back, Weiss looked on as a flying Grimm the size of an Airbus swooped over and then up, cawing out a monstrous cry that almost sounded like disappointment.

"Oh my." Was just about the only thing she could say after that.

She heard Blake laugh in a way that did not indicate amusement. "First time seeing a Giant Nevermore, Schnee?"

Weiss decided to pretend that Blake had preceded her last name with a "Miss". "Yes, Miss Baetica," she said, "They don't grow so..." She swallowed. "Large in Atlas. The blizzards kill them if they're too big to seek shelter."

A pause. They pulled themselves to their feet.

"... Blizzards." Blake said flatly.

"We have them in the winter," Weiss explained, pretending to have heard some scholarly interest, "Bad enough that even the Grimm seek shelter, else they freeze. Of course, if you happen to be outside during one..." She trailed off. Everyone in Atlas grew up with tales of people who had forgotten that the cold and snow that protected them from the Grimm was indiscriminate.

Blake nodded. And said nothing else.

Weiss felt her jaw clench, and her dominant hand twitch. Sure, she hadn't been nice to Blake, but how could she when every word she'd heard from the girl had been designed to cut and wound from the start? Blake wouldn't hear one word of apology until she got one first.

And if she insisted on calling her by her family name-

Weiss knew the sort of response her father would've wanted from her. A false smile. Sweet, meaningless words of apology. Mild, calculated flattery. A smokescreen for the knife.

Except Father isn't a Schnee. No matter how much he wishes he was.

Weiss straightened herself, hands clasped behind her back. "I don't like you, Miss Baetica," She said, about as bluntly as she could while still being polite about it, "And you don't like me."

"Obviously," Blake said. Weiss ignored the sarcasm.

"However," Weiss continued, "We're in a forest full of Grimm and" she glanced up, partly to check, and partly for emphasis "being hunted by a Giant Nevermore. And neither of us are interested in failing admission into Beacon by dying." A pause, to let that sink in. "I'm not asking to be friends; just that we agree to not draw every Grimm in the forest to us."

Blake seemed to look conflicted. Weiss could see why; It was a perfectly sensible plan from a source she didn't like much at all.

And Weiss wanted to know why.

"Fine," Blake ground out, pragmatism having won out, "But you stay out of my way."

"And you out of mine," Weiss smoothly replied. Blake's eyes narrowed and-

Her head turned left and her hands drew the rather exotic combination weapon on her back. Weiss turned right, facing the same way, Myrtenaster in a middle guard position, and felt the tension in her body go straight back up again because she'd just (maybe, temporarily) dealt with one problem, damnit.

There was a red and black blur that zigzagged around the trees, red petals in it's wake. It came to a halt right in front of them, and it revealed itself to be a rather young-looking girl in a black and red combat dress, black and red corset, a red, hooded cloak, and who had dark crimson hair.

She looked vaguely familiar to Weiss. Then she saw the giant warscythe she was carrying and she remembered the rather excitable young girl who had nearly tripped over her luggage in her hurry to barrage Weiss with questions about Myrtenaster.

What was her name again? Did she even tell it to me?

Silver eyes blinked, and went from Weiss, to Blake, and then back again.

"Oh, good!" She said, grinning, "You're not dead!"

There was a long, awkward silence. The smile on the girl's face became a little brittle.

"I mean, we saw the Nevermore swoop in," the girl --seriously, what was her name? Weiss had it right on the tip of her tongue-- explained, miming the flying Grimm with the hand not holding the scythe, "like whooosh, and I got worried it hurt someone so I ran ahead to help and," a laugh, "and it looks like you're both fine, right Blake?"

Weiss shot Blake a look. Did Blake know this person? How?

Blake pointedly ignored Weiss and instead spoke to the girl. "We're fine Ruby," she told the scythe wielder, and finally Weiss remembered the name she'd gotten immediately before being grilled on her weapon's cylinder mechanism, "but... Who's "we"?"

"Oh, it's Yang and me-- Yang's my sister," Ruby explained, "and my partner." The smile grew warmer.

A beat.

"... Aaaaand I just ran off without her," she realised, shoulders slumping. Ruby smiled awkwardly at Weiss and Blake. "Um... Mind if we wait a little for her to catch up?"

---

Any further awkwardness from Ruby Rose was halted by Blake's ears hearing the faint ruffle of feathers. The hidden Faunus popped behind herself, leaving a clone to be torn apart by talons where she'd been.

The Schnee didn't have Faunus hearing, but she'd learned to watch for when Blake reached for her weapons and had almost daintily hopped back, a fiery line coming out of her sword as she swung up. It just barely missed Blake -again!- and she heard it impact something behind her. More importantly, the fire hit the Grimm.

Ruby should've been far enough away from the two of them to be safe from the Nevermore. Should've, because she was suddenly in the air, a red and black blur trailing petals (!?) and spinning gleaming steel around herself. The blade of the scythe swung around, bit into the Grimm's flesh-

-and stopped dead with a thunk.

Blake couldn't see Ruby's face when that happened, but she imagined it couldn't have been a very happy one.

The Nevermore cawed in rage and pain, and flapped its great wings to gain altitude, Ruby's scythe (and Ruby) still attached to its leg. Blake was winding up to throw Gambol Shroud, planning to wrap the ribbon around the scythe wielder so she could pull her off, but then the scythe unstuck itself with a roar and a burst of flame, sending Ruby back, down and spinning. She landed hard, but looked mostly okay.

She leveled the scythe at the Nevermore and worked the bolt, did something with the controls over the magazine well, and then squeezed the trigger. The scythe boomed, the muzzle brake shooting long tongues of flame as what had to be a bullet of impressive calibre hit the Nevermore

... At least, Blake thought it was a bullet; she could've sworn she saw something sticking out of the Grimm as it flew up, Ruby firing at it until a flap of its wings sent a sharp feather her way, forcing the girl in red to dodge.

"I think we're just pissing it off!" Blake called out. Gambol Shroud could be thrown and the cleaver sheath could certainly do some damage, but in her experience the best way to protect against a Giant Nevermore (besides not attracting one in the first place) was to have heavy ordinance on-hand. And if you didn't have that...

"We need to get out of the open!"

Blake and the Schnee took two steps towards the treeline before they realised that Ruby wasn't moving from where she was. She stood there, cloak around her and her scythe (Crescent Rose, Blake remembered) still trained on the circling Nevermore.

"Ruby!"

Blake was going to pretend they hadn't shouted that out at the same time.

Ruby said nothing. Her back was towards them, so Blake couldn't tell what her face was like, but her body language was strangely still, even when she was turning to track the Grimm.

"Ruby!"

"Come on you dolt!" The Schnee cried out in frustration, glancing up at the Nevermore, her sword in hand, "We can't kill that thing!"

Ruby still said nothing. She didn't move, except to keep turning. That's roughly when her face came into view.

Her face was slack, blank of anything that could be called emotion. But her eyes burned in a way that Blake had only seen once before.

Before the faunus could think more on that, Yang arrived.

Ruby's sister crashed through the undergrowth into view, on the other side of the path from Blake and the Schnee. She look a look at her sister, the other two girls with her, the Nevermore circling above, and immediately homed in on Ruby. Without even breaking stride, she picked the smaller girl up with one arm to throw her over her shoulder.

"You're out of my sight for five seconds-!" Blake just about caught from Yang, the rest of it too quiet for even her to hear.

Ruby didn't so much as squeak. That was somehow worse.

Yang powered right past Blake and the Schnee, and they hurried after, disappearing into the treeline.

---

The Nevermore cawed horribly, and rose high into the sky to wait.

---

They were still being shadowed by the Nevermore. Blake couldn't see it through the canopy, but she knew it was there. It was what that kind of Grimm did.

But, they were safe. Or close enough to count. They'd finally slowed to a stop, and Yang had put Ruby down. The smaller girl had, at some point that Blake couldn't recall, suddenly switched back to what she hoped was her normal self and now seemed to be trying to vanish into her cloak.

"Ruby," Yang told her, staring down at the smaller girl with her arms crossed under her chest, "what's the one thing I ask you not to do?"

"That I not run off by myself?" Ruby asked, tapping her fingers together. A nervous smile fluttered onto her face, and vanished when Yang's scowl deepened.

The Schnee stared at Yang for a second, took another look at Ruby, and then shot Blake a look that she guessed was meant to be something along the lines of "How!?".

Blake shrugged; she didn't exactly blame the Schnee for being confused. Ruby was small, slightly built (not quite as much as the Atlasesian, amusingly enough), pale in a way that didn't exactly indicate health, with shadows under her eyes and wearing black and red and a heavy cloak to hide in.

Yang wasn't. She was tall, with a brawler's build and a body that could turn heads inside an outfit that indicated that she knew it and wasn't the least bit shy about it, all crowned by a head of long, golden hair.

Blake wondered how that had happened. Half-siblings? Was one of them adopted?

"And what did you just do?"

"There was a Giant Nevermore!" Ruby suddenly rallied, silver eyes shining, "A-and it was doing that swooping thing they do when they pick someone up to murder them and-and-and-!" She waved her arms about.

"Okay!" Yang interjected, raising her arms in a calming gesture, "Okay. I get it, and it's not like I didn't know where you vanished to."

"And you promised-!"

"-not to smother you," Yang finished, sighing, "I know, it's just... Old habits, ya know?" Her eyes narrowed. "But you still should've bailed when..."

Yang stopped, and turned to look at the Schnee and Blake.

"Whoops! Sorry about that," she said, grinning amicably at the two girls she'd finally realised she'd been ignoring, "Older sibling duties, ya know?"

"... I do, actually," the white haired girl said with a sigh, "I... Have an older sister." There was something warm in her voice when she said this.

Yang nodded in understanding. Ruby shot a brief kindred look at the Schnee. Blake remembered that Weiss was supposed to have an older sister in the Atlasesian Armed Forces. Specialist Winter Schnee.

Blake didn't know much about Winter Schnee. The White Fang had marked her as extremely dangerous, but of low priority given how publicly she'd cut ties to her family.

And yet, Weiss was fond of her. Enough that the ice she'd had in her voice since Blake met her had melted at the memory.

"Anyways," Yang said, striding closer, "I'm Yang Xiao Long, and you already met my sister Ruby. We saw our feathery friend-" she pointed up. "booking it over here and wondered what it was in a hurry about."

Blake very deliberately didn't look at her... her Partner. She focused on the sisters. When Yang had approached, Ruby had slipped behind her, and had let her more visible sibling take the spotlight. And they'd done this with a smoothness that trained teams would envy.

"Yes," the Schnee said, dryly, "I wonder what."

Blake winced. She hadn't planned on making an enemy of the Schnee. Not at first. Then she'd needled the heiress, expecting nothing but the cold dismissal she'd used in every press conference the Schnee Dust Company had held after every mining accident and major scandal.

Except that hadn't been what the heiress had done.

There was a pause from Blake's... Partner. "Well, I'm Weiss. Weiss Schnee." A sigh. "Although you probably know that already."

Ruby nodded, and Blake was almost relieved to see a smile on her face. "Yeah," she said, "I've seen you on the news!"

The girl Blake now had as a partner, the same girl who she'd seen stand before reporters and cameras and speak reassurances, falsehoods, and dismissals with cold indifference, had instead struck back. Hard.

Much harder than Blake thought was warranted. So she'd tried to even the score. And then things went downhill.

Blake had thought that making the Schnee her partner would be a test of her resolve. That if she could work and live with the person whom Jacques Schnee had chosen to be the face of the SDC, then it meant-!

Ruby's smile dropped with a squeak and she seemed to retreat into her cloak. Blake briefly wondered why, then she remembered that the girl had a... Telepathic... Semblance.

Wait.

She flashed back to Ruby Rose's burst of speed when she'd thrown herself at the Nevermore.

She remembered last night, when the girl had demonstratively read her thoughts and then said words that had chilled Blake to the bone because of what they meant.

She tried to see how one Semblance could do both and failed because it couldn't.

"And you are?"

Blake almost missed the question.

"Blake Baetica," she answered, a little too quickly, "I'm..." She sighed. "I'm Weiss's partner."

"So she can call me by my name," the Schnee muttered under her breath. Blake very carefully pretended not to hear.

"Cool," Yang drawled. When it became clear that neither was going to say more about that, the blonde spoke up again, a hand on her hip. "Okay. Even I can tell that you two aren't exactly happy with each other. But... Well, we've got bigger problems."

"The Nevermore," Ruby said, softly, "It knows where we are. It's waiting for us."

Blake briefly wondered what Ruby would be getting from a Grimm. Briefly.

"We need to lose it," Blake spoke up, banishing that though from her head, "Otherwise that Grimm will wear us down."

"It's also not part of our mission," the Schnee added, "And something that will be slowing us down. I don't recall Headmaster Ozpin telling us there was a time limit for getting the relics, but I don't think he'll let us make him wait all day."

Ruby had the unhappy look of someone who really wanted to argue but couldn't muster an argument. It was a very pouty look.

Yang grinned. "All right. So now we need to figure out how to get that big bastard bird off our backs. Any ideas?"

They had a few, it turned out.

---

When Yang had asked for a plan, she'd expected... Well, ideas. Plans.

And she did get 'em. She totally got a couple of plans.

And that was the problem. They had two.

"It's simple," Weiss said, as if speaking to a small child, "The Nevermore can't track all of us. It's one Grim. It can't be in two places at once. If we split up-"

"- It'll pick us off one by one," Blake interrupted, making the heiress' face pink, "It's a Nevermore. It can fly. And even if it couldn't, the team it decides to track will have half the chances of surviving against it when it attacks! If we stick together, we can use a smokescreen to cover ourselves while we escape."

"Ah, but what on Remnant are we supposed to use as a smokescreen that a Grimm can't see through?"

The discussion was civil on the surface, but Yang didn't need Ruby to know that both of them were mentally adding less-than-polite things to the end of their sentences.

"You wanna know what's really sad?" Yang whispered to her sister.

"Hmmm?"

"This is them trying to get along."

And... Well, both were good plans. Or, more importantly, they were about as good as the other one.

Weiss and Blake turned to look at her and Ruby. At the same time, which was kinda hilarious.

Yang shrugged. "Don't look at me," she told them, "if I knew how to get that thing off our backs I wouldn't be asking."

"I don't like either," Ruby whined. She was still grumpy and pouty in a way that made Yang really want to pinch her cheeks. In fact it was the same sort of face she got when she was denied cookies.

Weiss gave a very un-princess-y snort. "The one thing we can all agree on is that we can't kill that thing," she told Ruby, pointing up, "The only weapon that can reach that high is, maybe, that rifle-"

"Super High Velocity Penetrator," Ruby corrected.

Weiss's frown was sharp enough to cut something. "What's the-?"

"Tons! The barrel and feed system are-"

Yang cleared her throat, and Ruby backed down from the lecture she was about to lay on the heiress.

"Sorry."

"Easy there, Rubes."

"... As I was saying," Weiss continued, "we have one weapon that can possibly hit that Nevermore when it's in the air, while it can wear us down as it pleases. We can't kill it."

"We should." Ruby ground out, stepping out of Yang's shadow.

"Why?" Blake asked, to Yang's horror, "They asked us to get the relics, not "Kill that Giant Nevermore that sneaked in"."

"It deserves to die."

Yang suppressed a shiver. The other two took a step back.

90% of the time, Ruby was a kind, gentle girl. Very shy around strangers. Ridiculously forgiving of people's faults. Wouldn't hurt a fly. Part of that was that that was just who she was, and the rest because she suffered from a very literal case of feeling the pain of others.

That other 10% of the time, on the other hand...

The blank face. The blazing hatred in those silver eyes. That whispering voice that you could still somehow hear from clear across the room...

It reminded Yang of the bad old days. She didn't like being reminded of the bad old days.

Ruby blinked and, like a switch had been thrown, she was back to being herself.

"A-anyways," she stammered, "I..." Yang's sister made a face like she'd bit an entire lemon, and the next words sounded a little like pulling teeth. "I... know. That we can't kill the Nevermore right now. We should. But we can't."

"Right now?" Yang parroted, eyebrow raised.

"Yes." Ruby made a frustrated growl-y noise, fists clenched. "If we could get it on the ground... Or find some way to get someone up there to hit it really, really hard, then we could. Maybe. But..." She blew a sharp, frustrated breath of air from her nose. "We can't."

Yang saw Weiss and Blake give her sister looks. There was some pity there, and a whole lot of "What's wrong with you?". Yang didn't much like those kind of looks. She narrowed her eyes at the two girls, and they hastily looked elsewhere.

"It's..." The heiress visibly struggled to find a good word. "Good, that you've realized that."

"Both of those plans suck, though," Ruby blurted out. And then she shrank at what had to be the other girl's internal reactions. "Sorry."

Weiss huffed. She still wasn't meeting Ruby's eyes. "And I suppose you have a better idea?" She asked.

"Uh..."

Ruby fidgeted inside her cloak.

"I... I think..."

"Come on, Rubes..." Yang put a hand on her sister's shoulder.

Ruby took a deep breath. Steadied herself.

"The plans suck because they won't work on their own." A pause. "But if we combine them, we'll get a better one that works. So... Um..." She shrank, and then rallied. "First! First, we need a distraction. Maybe a... A big fire that throws up a lot of smoke! You guys have Fire Dust, right?"

"Naturally," Weiss deadpanned. She was still looking at Ruby a little oddly in Yang's mind, but she was listening.

"Never pack anything else," Yang drawled.

Ruby smiled. "Okay! So, we make a big fire and smoke everything up and then we split... Except I take Weiss and Yang takes Blake. That should keep the Nevermore from following us."

Yang was suddenly feeling less optimistic about this plan.

"Ruby?" She said, her voice low, "can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ruby looked at her nervously, and then back at Weiss and Blake. She gave them the least convincing grin Yang had ever seen, and then followed her sister a few steps back.

"Ruby-"

"I know!" Yang's sister snapped, whispering, "I know. I..." She deflated. "I did get a bit... Angry, but!" She rallied. "I'm okay now. Mostly."

Yang crossed her arms. Mostly?

"Yes." She sighed. "I'm not gonna do something stupid."

"Yeah..." Yang drawled, "Except that Nevermore won't be fooled by switching partners."

Ruby winced. She already knew what Yang was going to ask, but she was choosing not to answer.

"What are you planning?"

"Uhm..."

Yang felt the scowl vanish from her face as she realised what Ruby planned to do.

"No."

"Yang-!"

"No!" Yang hissed, "No way. You-" She glanced back at Blake and Weiss, who were pretending to be disinterested, and pulled Ruby further away from them. "You know what happens!" She whispered urgently, "Think of another plan. Literally anything else-."

There was a horrible cawing noise above them. Yang and Ruby (and, she guessed, Weiss and Blake) looked up, expecting the flying Grimm to crash through the branches.

The Nevermore did none of that. With hesitation, they all tore their eyes from the canopy.

"Yang, we don't have time to come up with another plan!" The exclamation from Ruby had been a harsh whisper, and she'd stepped up to her to get in her face, or about as much as she could. Yang opened her mouth to say something, but Ruby plowed on. "I'll be careful; Dr. Wade's been helping me with... With control, and I have medicine with me." She opened her cloak and Yang saw pale fingers holding the flap of one of her ammunition pouches open, revealing a small collection of screw-cap pill bottles, and a the glint of a metallic case.

She recognised the stuff. Ruby needed a small pharmacy's worth of medication to function, and Yang had administered them all at one point or the other. Absently, she touched the leather bag hanging from her belt, to confirm it was full.

"It's only gonna be a little," Ruby told her, snapping the pouch shut and letting her cloak cover her again, "A tiny little bit. As little as I can give. I'll... m-make an excuse. Go someplace out of the way." She hugged herself under her cloak. "So nobody is around when it happens."

"Yeah... I've seen you use a little before," Yang whispered back, "In Harlan's lab. You're planning on doing this in a forest full of Grimm, with people who don't know. What if something goes wrong? Or you have a flare-up?"

"I can... I can handle it," Ruby whispered, faltering for a moment before rallying, "I know what to take. Even the..." She squirmed. "The strong stuff. The last few times I went to Armacham, I... I asked the nurses to show me how. Practiced on some oranges. And I... I Also asked if I could start doing it myself. The dose for the return trip. For practice."

Yang stared at her sister. She remembered one day, when they'd taken too long to bring her Ruby out of the "Safe".

"... I thought you hated needles."

Ruby didn't meet her eyes.

"I do. I... I didn't think I'd be here with you, and... I wanted you and dad not to have to worry about me so much. I was gonna tell you before but..." She fidgeted in her cloak.

Yang sighed. She remembered that stunt, and everything that had come after. Lots of shouting. Lots of crying. There was a part of the garden that probably wouldn't grow anything ever again.

"I'm-."

"It's okay, Rubes," Yang interrupted, gently. She stroked her hair to calm herself. "I... It's just..."

There was a horrible caw from overhead.

"Girls!" Weiss called out, "Whatever we're going to do, we have to do it now!"

Yang ground her teeth.

"That fucking bird is starting to get on my nerves," she muttered, "Okay. I..." She swallowed, and grabbed Ruby's shoulder, squeezing it. "I want you to promise you won't do anything you don't know you can handle, okay Rubes?"

Ruby nodded. "I swear it."

Which was about as good as Yang was gonna get.

"Okay. I'm holding you to that!"

Ruby smiled. Yang ruffled her hair, making her little sister squeak, and turned towards the other two girls.

"Well, I vote for Ruby's plan," she said, in as light a tone as she could, "Who else is with me?"

"Me," Blake said at once. Weiss sighed, half relieved and half resigned.

"And me," the heiress added.

Yang made her way towards Blake, and Weiss towards her sister. When they crossed, Yang halted for a second, and put her hand on Weiss's shoulder.

"You're bringing her back," She told Weiss, "you hear me?"

Weiss's eyes briefly widened, but then she shot Yang a sharp look.

"You have nothing to worry about," she said.

"Yang!" Ruby called out, "Stop with the Dad speeches!"

Yang felt her cheeks flush, and she let go of Weiss. They exchanged partners, for the moment, without anything else happening.

"Okay," Ruby said, not looking at anyone in particular, "Okay. So. First, we need to set a few fires. Not the trees, just all this stuff here close to the ground; that should make a lot of smoke. Yang and Weiss, can you do that?"

Weiss had her rapier raised straight up, and she was cycling through the chambers. "Should be simple enough," she said, "but I have to warn you that I only carry so much Dust with me."

Yang shrugged. "I've got plenty of shells," she said, Ember Celica unfolding to full extent, "and Fire Dust is just about the only thing I pack in them. Anything you don't light on the first swing, just leave it to me." Weiss didn't say anything against that, so Yang decided that the heiress had no problems with her helping.

Ruby smiled. "Right! While you two do that, I'll... Uh..."

Ruby squirmed.

"... Go... Scout ahead?" She suggested, "Make sure there's no... Stuff."

Yang felt something on her face twitch. There was some wierd irony in someone who could effortlessly sniff out a lie being a horrible liar herself.

Weiss narrowed her eyes at Yang's sister. The other girl squirmed under her gaze.

"Ruby, just how stupid do you think I-!"

And then Ruby vanished in a cloud of rose petals, leaving in a red and black blur. The heiress slowly turned to look at Yang, her expression icy.

Yang pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ruby's... Not good with people," she told them, "she'll be back, just... Let's get some smoke going, okay?"

---

Ruby Rose slid to a halt. Weiss Schnee, she decided, was a scary person to have angry at you. The iceberg she usually was turned sharp and pointy and... Like Yang said, Ruby hated needles. She felt like they were pushing deeper and deeper into her flesh, even before they touched her. Growing thorns and branches that would cut and tear when pulled out-

She slapped her cheeks. Nope! Nu-huh! Not gonna go there! No sir!

She took a few deep breaths. In, hold, out. In, hold, out...

"Okay," she told herself, "okay. You're okay Ruby. You're... You're gonna do this." She breathed out. "You're gonna do this. Minimum safe release. Just like you practiced."

She touched the storage pouch on her belt, and popped it open. Then she took Crescent Rose from her place on the small of her back and unfolded her to full length. The spike of the shaft she put on the ground, and she held her sweetheart with both hands.

"H-here goes..."

She nudged. Gently.

There was a flicker of Red.​

It caressed the grass around her feet. The blades turned yellow, then brown, and then they crumpled into ash in a slowly expanding circle around her feet.

Everything green began to die around her. Plants withered, leaves falling and turning to white ash above the ground. Branches turned dry and hard. A tree that was near groaned as the bottom half of it was caught, dead roots pushing up through the ground, looking like thorns. The ground cracked, dry and powdery.

She felt a burrow of... Of somethings scream and then fall into twitching silence.

Ruby breathed. Red flickered at the corner of her vision.

Voices whispered in her ear. They told her things she knew were lies.

She didn't listen.

She mustn't listen.

She couldn't listen.

If she did, she'd be lost.

She had to focus. Focus on what she had to do. Her hands gripped her sweetheart hard enough to hurt.

The Nevermore.

It deserved to die. It deserved to die.​

The ring of wasteland around her inched bigger. The Red pulsed-

Ruby pressed her forehead against the shaft of Crescent Rose and breathed.

It was hard. Hard to hold on to reason, to the little light she'd discovered when she dipped into the well of Red deep, deep inside her.

The Red in her vision flickered, coming in and out of existence.

The tree collapsed, half of it dust before it hit the ground.

But the ring of wasteland around her didn't grow further.

She reached out. She felt Yang, Weiss and Blake. She felt Jaune and Pyrrha. Nora. Nearly missed Ren.

So many Grimm, with their naked, cruel pointless hatred. They all deserved to die.

And they would- no. No, no.

She felt Crescent Rose. That was her weapon. Her sweetheart. Not this. This blind and deaf thing that only left ashen wasteland and red ruin in its wake, not caring who or what it killed. Not this curse.

She breathed.

She looked up.

The Nevermore circled overhead. Impatient. Cruel. Sadistic. Ruby looked and saw the many helpless souls that had perished in its nest. Slowly. Oh-so-slowly.

It deserved to die.

But not yet. And not like this

She took a cup from the well of Red in her mind, and tossed it up.

She smiled when the Grimm screamed, and flew high and away.

---

The plan worked. Largely, Blake suspected, because of the part of the plan that Ruby hadn't told them about.

The fires had been mostly underbush, and had taken two swings from the Schnee and a handful of rounds from Yang to set. Now a curtain of smoke rose up and then east, blown by the wind. They had no way of communicating with each other after splitting, but Yang had assured them (or, rather, the Schnee) that that wouldn't be a problem.

Blake could guess why.

They moved in silence (relatively speaking), Blake's mind processing what she'd heard. She'd thought that Ruby was "just" a Hunter-in-training with a telepathic semblance. Which was... Dangerous, yes, but at least something that the hidden Faunus knew where she stood with.

Now, however...

"Lien for your thoughts?"

Blake started. Her eyes shot to Yang, who was keeping pace with her.

"... It's nothing," Blake said, dismissively. Yang chuckled.

"Yeah, I don't need Ruby around to know that's bull," the blonde shoot back, a cheeky note in her voice, "And something tells me it's not because you're in awe of your temporary partner. But I could be wrong!"

Blake rolled her eyes at that. "No," she deadpanned, "You're not."

"Shame. What is it?"

They slid to a stop.

Just like that, the light atmosphere was cut. Blake wondered if creating massive mood whiplash was something learned or genetic.

Blake took a deep breath. This... Wasn't quite something she'd never done before. But still, she had to handle this carefully.

"Your sister," Blake started, "she's read my mind. Actually read my mind."

Yang nodded. There was a brief second when Blake expected the blonde to laugh off what she claimed, but instead Yang said, almost to herself:

"Yeah. She told me you found that out."

Blake kept talking, even as she began to sketch out potential escape routes; there was something about Yang that was reminding her of a mother bear with cubs.

"I thought it was a Telepathic Semblance," the hidden Faunus continued, "But I know that those can only really reach the surface and she..."

Monsters don't feel guilty.

"...She said something," Blake continued, "something that she couldn't have known about without looking deeper. Deeper than any semblance could've looked."

Yang said nothing. She just kept looking at Blake, face neutral.

"And now..." Blake swallowed. "There's no possible way that a semblance could let someone move that fast and read minds. Not even the Schnees'. It's just not how they work."

There was a long pause.

"What is it?" Blake asked at last.

"It's not a semblance."

There was a... Tightness to Yang's voice. An old, old rage. She wasn't looking at Blake anymore but past her, fists clenched hard enough to shake.

"I wish it was," Yang said, "We all wish it was. As for what it is? Doctor Wade says Ruby's a Telepath, hardwired to be sensitive to negative emotions. Ruby says she has a "condition". I say my sister has a fucking curse."

There was a crunch as her first connected with the trunk of a nearby tree. The wood exploded, everything above where she'd hit tossed up and away, landing with a resounding crash.

Instinct had pushed Blake a step away from Yang. She watched as embers flickered along the other girl's hair.

The blonde lowered her arm and, deliberately, unclenched her hands. Breathed out.

"Ever since she was little... Nightmares so bad she wouldn't sleep for weeks... So bad they'd spill out and rip everything around her apart... hallucinations... hysteria..." Yang shook her head. "She didn't get more than two hours of sleep at a time until she was eight, didn't smile until she was ten, and I didn't hear her laugh until she was thirteen. She's never even tried to make a friend outside of our family and Doctor Wade." Yang brushed her hair. "She's... Okay now. Functional. But every now and then..."

It deserves to die.

Blake nodded. Yang looked... Older. Like some of the Brothers and Sisters in the White Fang who had been there for the longest.

Then her gaze focused on Blake, and she got that "mother-bear-with-cubs" impression again.

"I won't tell," Blake told Yang preemptively, maybe a bit too hastily as she saw the blonde's eyes narrow subtly.

"Ruby promised to keep what... What she knows about me secret," Blake explained, "Even assuming anyone believed me..." Blake shook her head. "It wouldn't be fair."

Yang still looked skeptical. "Fair, huh?" She drawled, arms crossed, "What's she keeping a lid on that makes you think this is fair?"

Blake bit her lip. She'd hoped that would've been enough to satisfy Yang, but it looked like the older sister was a lot more suspicious than the younger...

There was one thing Blake could do. An older infiltrator had once told that the best way to get humans to stop looking was to make them think they'd found what they're looking for.

It was still going to be a gamble. But Blake believed she could handle the fallout if she lost.

Before Yang could say anything else, Blake reached up, and tugged. The bow came off.

Whatever Yang was about to say died in her mouth.

---

"Where is she?!"

Weiss fumed. It had been a terrible, terrible idea to follow Ruby Rose's plan, she realized. She'd just traded the imminent deadly danger of being killed by the Giant Nevermore with the inconvenient, possibly-initiation-failing-plan-ruining problem of being lost and separated from Ruby.

"'Don't worry, she'll find you'," Weiss mocked, trudging through the underbrush, "how is she even supposed to find me, you blonde bimbo?" She snapped, "Is your sister a bloodhound?"

The forest didn't answer. Even the usual sounds of animals were absent. Weiss stopped, crossing her arms. She felt the scowl on her face change into something more… pensive. Now that she'd voiced that thought out loud…

No, no. That's ridiculous, she told herself. Ruby Rose wasn't a Faunus. The girl was strange (and, if Weiss was being honest with herself, concerning) on several different levels, but one would think that that would be obvious. Besides, Yang was obviously human.

Yang was also as different from Ruby as day was from night. Weiss wondered how on Remnant that happened. Half-siblings? Was one of them adopted? That would certainly explain it…

Weiss let out a sharp, frustrated exhalation of breath as she derailed her paranoia before it chased that avenue of thought. She was being ridiculous. Even if Ruby was a Faunus, so what? Weiss didn't care.

At all.

She rubbed her temples. Naive little girl...She could almost hear the cruel curve of the lips… So quick to trust and so poor in judgement…

"Stop that."​

The whisper-quiet voice just barely reached Weiss Schnee's ears, and it made her jump about half a meter into the air.

"EEEEEEEEEEEK!"

The heiress whirled around, hand on Myrtenaster's pommel, heart pounding like a snare drum in her chest.

Ruby stared impassively at Weiss. Her hood was up, shadowing her eyes, and her red cloak enveloped her completely, pooling a little on the ground. The white-haired girl felt one eyelid twitch violently.

"You-!" she made some vague, frustrated, strangled sounds, clenching and unclenching her hands. "You-!"

"Me?"

"You nearly gave me a heart attack you massive dolt!" Weiss seethed, "Don't just… sneak up on people like that!"

"Okay."

"I was this close to taking a swing at you!" Weiss continued, holding a thumb and index finger a tiny distance apart.

"You didn't."

"I nearly did!" Weiss snapped, "Just…" She sighed. "Are you even listening to what I'm saying?"

"I nearly gave you a heart attack. You nearly put Myrtensaster through me. I shouldn't sneak up on you. You think I am irresponsible and creepy."

A pause.

"You want me to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Weiss stared at Ruby. Ruby Rose, her pale face impassive, blank and as close to unmoving as one could get without turning to stone, stared back.

"Yes, that's… that's the gist of it," Weiss muttered, more than a little… shaken. "Thank you."

Ruby said nothing. Weiss suppressed a shiver; the look on her face wasn't the raw hatred of before, but that was a small blessing. It was like looking at a doll's face; there was a stillness about it that was only broken when Ruby blinked. And she didn't seem to do so as much as she should've...

What is with this girl...?

"... How did you even find me anyways?" Weiss asked instead, averting her eyes and crossing her arms, "And how on Remnant are we supposed to find your sister?"

"You're loud."

Weiss froze.

"L-loud?" she stammered, "What do… What do you mean I'm loud!?"

"I mean that you're loud." A pause. "Pointy too."

"That doesn't answer- Hey!" How Ruby had managed to get ten paces away from Weiss without so much as a sound was a mystery that, Weiss decided, she'd have to figure out later. "Where are you going?" she called out, running after the other girl.

"Yang."

"How do you know where she is!?"

"She's Yang."

Weiss growled. "That doesn't make any sen- Eep!" She nearly tripped over a root. When she looked up again, Ruby was fifteen paces ahead and the heiress had to jog to catch up. "Could you at least wait a little!?"

"Yes." Ruby stopped, just long enough for Weiss to catch up, and then resumed her implacable march, leaving the heiress right on her heels.

"Thank you," Weiss hissed, injecting as much sarcasm as she possibly could into two words, "Do you even know where you're going?"

"Yes."

Usually, Weiss was an expert in picking people apart. An… inherited skill, so to speak. In this case, she really didn't have much room to work with, as she very quickly found out.

"How do you know? Did your sister and you agree on a meeting place?"

"No."

"Does she have some sort of tracking device that you're somehow following without having to even look at a scroll?"

"No."

Weiss' eyes darted to the top of Ruby's head, and then her lower back, but the only thing the reaper's cloak betrayed was the boxy form of her folded-up combat scythe. "... Are you..?"

"No." A pause. "I don't have the ears." Another pause. "Or the tail."

Weiss felt her face go a little bit pink as her eyes jerked away from the increasingly strange girl. "I wasn't-!" She shook her head. "Ugh! Whatever. So, you have no way of tracking your sister?"

"I do."

Weiss growled. "Which would be... what, then?" she hissed.

Ruby stopped, quickly enough that Weiss nearly bumped into the other girl, and then turned and stared.

Weiss crossed her arms, and was about to launch into… into…

"Don't."

The silver eyes bore into Weiss Schnee. They didn't shine, or glow, or do anything that anyone would consider abnormal.

They simply made it very, very hard for Weiss to breathe. To move. To feel anything other than an inexplicable terror. Distantly, she heard her heart hammering in her chest… Faintly, she heard a scream...

And then, it was over.​

Weiss found herself with her back pressed against a tree, hand clutching her hammering chest, feeling… numb. She gasped, and her burning lungs filled with a breath she didn't know she needed.

"Wh- What just…" She raised a hand to her face, and it came back wet.

"... I'm sorry."

She was startled by the quiet voice beside her. Ruby Rose, hunched over and turned away so that the hood of her cloak shielded her face.

Weiss blinked once, twice, and then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. What had she been doing? What had happened? She remembered…

She groaned, and rubbed her temples. This was… This had to be stress. Yes, she was still feeling the airship lag from the trip from Atlas, and that last… conversation with Father hadn't been really conducive to peace of mind… that had to be it.

"... We should go."

Weiss sighed, glancing at the red shape of Ruby Rose beside her. The girl was all wrapped up in that cloak and she could still see her shivering. "Yes," she said at last, clearing her throat, "We should."

Ruby Rose led the way. This time, whenever Weiss thought to ask how the girl knew where to go, she found it inexplicably difficult to get the question past her lips.

---

"... Okay… now, take the ribbon off."

Blake rolled her eyes in what Yang thought was a rather melodramatic fashion, and did so. Once again, the black ribbon she was wearing was undone and, once again, a pair of black cat ears were revealed, flicking back in annoyance. At least, it looked like annoyance to Yang. She'd never had a cat so-…

… Wow, that sounded incredibly racist. Speciesist? Whatever.

"Are you done?" Blake asked, crossing her arms and speaking in a tone of voice that suggested that she was very much done. Yang guessed that dramatic reveals lost a lot of impact when the one you revealed them to asked that you do it again a few times.

"Yes! I am," Yang told the gi- the faun- the faunus girl, "It's just…" Yang made a few vague gestures, and finally understood how Ruby felt whenever her social skills failed her, "You're hiding your ears with a bow. You're hiding the fact that you're a faunus with a bow. A bow that makes it look like you have cat ears."

"Yes," Blake snarked, something of a smirk creeping into her lips. "I know." She sounded more than a little proud of that.

Yang glanced briefly at the ears, noting how they twitched and swiveled. She took a guess.

"... Just how uncomfortable is that thing?" she asked Blake. The faunus cooly stared back and then, deliberately, reached up to massage both of her newly freed ears.

Blake closed her eyes, sighing, and then dropped her arms to her side. "Very," she told Yang, emphatically, "I have to keep them still when I'm wearing it, which is a lot harder than… than you'd think. Gives me cramps."

"Right," Yang drawled, nodding. As if she totally got that. Which she didn't.

She could almost feel the look Ruby would be giving her right about now.

"... Okay, this is probably getting into "mind your own business" territory, but I gotta ask..."

""Why hide them?"" Blake finished for her. The brunette crossed her arms, closing her eyes. "Vale isn't Atlas, but there's still no shortage of people who wouldn't look past the ears." She sighed. "And… I decided I didn't want to deal with them anymore. There's more to it, but…"

"Yeah, I know," Yang said, and this time she did get what Blake was getting at, "And don't worry, I'm not gonna go grilling Ruby about it either."

Blake looked relieved by this, but there was still a tension about her, like a coiled spring. Or some other metaphor which would be even more fitting.

"Thank you," the faunus said.

"And your secret's safe with us," Yang added, preempting Blake asking, "Ruby takes keeping them very, very seriously."

And you and me have all we need to make the other's life pretty miserable if they tell, the blonde didn't say. Although she suspected that Ruby being a telepath would be a lot harder to prove than Blake being a faunus. All it would take was a tug…

Yang shuddered inwardly. "And… Well… Yeah." She rubbed the back of her head, stroking her hair. "Same goes for me."

Blake took a moment, but then then the tension in her finally slackened, and Yang watched her breathe out in relief…

… Only for her ears to twitch and her posture to stiffen. Her head snapped to one side, and Yang watched in fascination as Blake listened intently.

Yang slowly raised Ember Celica to a ready stance. "Grimm?" she asked.

"Worse," Blake hissed, and she hurried to tie her bow back on.

Before Yang could ask on Remnant that was supposed to mean, she heard it too: footsteps. Someone, or something was moving through the undergrowth. Two somethings, by the sound of things.

Ruby stepped out of the undergrowth and stared at Yang. No cheerful wave. No sudden blur of rose petals colliding with Yang's chest. She just stared. Weiss stumbled out next to her, and froze when she saw Ruby's sister.

The blonde sighed, and calmly stepped closer.

"... Okay, listen, she ran off on her own and I swear she was like this when she found me-" Weiss began to rattle off, before being silenced by the girl next to her.

"Stop."

Yang gave Weiss a worried glance. Then another look, back at Blake (who had managed to get her bow back on in time). Then back at Weiss, who seemed to be trying to inch away from Ruby without anyone noticing.

Yep, this is gonna be one of those days.

"Ruby," Yang started, crouching down slightly to look at Ruby in the eyes, "Did you take your medication?"

"Yes."

"... Medication?" Weiss asked, edging closer. Yang heard Blake come closer as well.

Shit.

"Rude."

Weiss flinched back at Ruby's voice-- Yeah, that was definitely the reaction of someone who'd had a close shave with Ruby Rose. Yang would've mentally sworn at this but… well… Yeah.

"And yes. Medication." A pause. "I have a condition."

"Yes," Yang drawled, ruffling her sister's hair (Ruby twitched),"You do. And you get all weird after taking your medication, remember?"

A nod.

"And did you tell Ice Queen here?" Yang continued, tactically ignoring Weiss' indignant mutterings, "You know, so she wouldn't freak out when you suddenly showed up all…" Yang made a vague gesture that she hoped would indicate Ruby's current state of un-Ruby-ness.

"No." Another pause. Ruby turned towards Weiss. "I took medication. That's why I'm all weird." Another pause. "I'm sorry if I made you freak out."

"It's… fine…" Weiss ground out, giving Yang the look of a woman with a rather serious list of questions on her mind.

"Good!" Yang chirped, ruthlessly ignoring the glare Weiss sent her way (she'd grown up around Ruby, after all), "Okay, that big bird bastard is gone, and we've done enough standing around. The ruins should be close."

---

The Roaring Fire takes charge. The Roaring Fire likes to think she lights the way. The Roaring Fire pulls The Icy Blade with her, and Lies about how CQC people should go in front. The Bloody Shadow approaches, but says nothing ears can hear.

She does not need ears to Hear.

She does not need eyes to See.

The Bloody Shadow has been speaking to The Roaring Fire. She knows this. She can hear what The Bloody Shadow told The Roaring Fire. The half-truths that come close to Lies.

She does not like Lies. They make Her head Hurt. She wishes people would stop Lying, Forever. She remembers wanting to make Liars Hurt, but The Roaring Fire told Her that doing that would be Bad. And She trusts The Roaring Fire with these things, because The Roaring Fire is Her sister.

She hears The Bloody Shadow ask if she is okay. She Hears her wonder what is wrong with Her.

"I don't know," She tells her. She is​

Pleased​

to answer both questions at once.​

…?​

She Hears The Bloody Shadow ask what that is supposed to mean.

"It means what I said," She tells her. The Bloody Shadow is startled. The Bloody Shadow Remembers what she is talking to. The Bloody Shadow is afraid, again, but she is afraid of many things, and many things are afraid of Her, so She doesn't mind.​

...​

She looks ahead, past the Grasping Hands (which aren't there), to The Roaring Fire and The Ice Blade. The Roaring Fire is trying to melt the Ice Blade, so she can smooth over the cracks. She feels sad that She Nearly Hurt The Ice Blade. She will have to tell The Roaring Fire, at some point, and The Roaring Fire will be disappointed in Her, even though She told The Ice Blade that She was sorry, but She suspects that it doesn't work if one doesn't feel Guilty.

She knows that soon She will feel Guilty about Nearly Hurting The Ice Blade. Saying sorry will work then, She knows.​

...​

She follows The Roaring Fire and The Icy Blade. The Bloody Shadow doesn't talk, but She Hears a lot from her. The Bloody Shadow thinks a lot; angles, and ambushes, and escape routes, and What If This and What If That and What Have I Gotten Into. But at least The Bloody Shadow is quiet when she thinks and doesn't make Her want to Silence her.​

…!​

She remembers the last time She made someone Silent. The relief was brief, and not worth it.

...​

Wait...​

Wait!

Ruby shook her head violently, as if she could physically dislodge what had been running through her head. She shuddered, and pulled her cloak tighter around herself. Ruby hated that suppression medication. Hate, hate, hate. So much hate. She'd toss the whole pack of it down the toilet and smile as it went spiraling down if the ampoules weren't so good at snapping her out of all but the worst episodes.

"...Ruby?"

Ruby made a squeaking noise and turned to The Bloody- to Blake! Yes. Blake. Blake Belladonna, but she was using a different surname (what was it again?). That's her name, not the other thing. Blake, Blake, Blake-

"Ruby?"

"Blake!" Ruby blurted out. She blushed. "Uh, um, I-I mean, yes, Blake?"

Blake was worried about her. She wanted to know if Ruby Rose was back to normal.

"Are you-?"

"Yes! I-I mean, uh…" Ruby squirmed. "Sorry. I'll let you finish."

Blake gave her an odd look. The faunus was mentally rolling her eyes, but she still did as Ruby asked. Mostly.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked.

Are you back to normal? Blake didn't ask.

"About as much as I can get," Ruby answered, mentally pumping her fist at answering both questions at once, "I, uh... " She glanced forwards, towards Weiss, and winced when she felt the new brittleness there.

"... I need to apologize to Weiss." Ruby said, her voice whisper-soft, "I nearly hurt her. And she doesn't even know..." She sighed.

"What did you do?" Blake asked.

What did you do? What did you do to her? Why were you so fucking creepy? Blake wanted to know.

"I bit off a little more than I could chew," Ruby explained, still whispering, but keeping her eyes forward, "I had to take something for it, but… uh…" She felt her face go red with embarrassment.

Blake cocked her head, eyebrow raised. "But…?" she prompted.

"... There's two meds," Ruby said, "And… actually they're the same stuff, but one's diluted with something and the other isn't. So… I take the first one when things go a little wrong and it… kinda levels me off really, really smoothly, but also very slowly? And I take the other when things go very wrong but not completely wrong, and it works fast, but it makes me all... creepy."

Ruby paused. Then she sighed, and finished.

"They look really similar if you forget to label the box. Please don't tell Yang."

---

Interval 01: Initiation
Complete​

 

[Dalek Ix]

I present Red Ruin, the RWBY/F.E.A.R. crossover fic I started writing back during that time I got banned from this site without any appeal, back in 2019 (I think, because I don't know why else I didn't port ot over here as well).

Intervals 00, 01 and 02 have been posted on Spacebattles in parts and are currently Complete, and will be posted here in due time. Interval 03 is currently In Progress, and I'll have a poll over whever I should only post completed Intervals here or not.

I hope you all enjoy this; it's taken me way too long to get where it is now.

 

[Dalek Ix]

Red Ruin​

---

Jaune Arc was way, way over his head.

He'd realized it now. Knew it, now that it was too late for him to do anything about it except grit his teeth and keep going; Jaune didn't know what the punishment for cheating (he suppressed an internal wince at that word but there really wasn't any other way to put it) your way into a Hunter Academy was, but if this was the entrance exam, he didn't want to know.

"Everyone alright?" he called out. Well, it was more of a stage whisper, really.

"Yep!" Nora chirped, dusting off her clothes, "Ren's fine too!" Nora provided.

Ren sighed, but nodded in agreement.

"I'm fine as well," Pyrrha said reassuringly. Which was a lie, because whatever she'd done to unlock Jaune's Aura had seriously exhausted the redhead's own, judging from how she'd sagged immediately afterwards. Sure, she'd kept up her, frankly, amazing performance afterwards, but how long could she do that?

Aura's the thing taking the hits for us and the thing that's making us strong enough to hurt these things. In videogame terms, it's AP and a shield bar all rolled into one thing.

Jaune wondered if there was a way to track someone's aura. Because that would be incredibly useful right about now.

"Right," Jaune said. "The Giant Deathstalker isn't dead yet, but it'll take some time to for it to get out of that."

"That" was a pile of rubble. It had been one of the stone towers of the ruins, until a hammerblow from Nora had collapsed it on top of the scorpion-like Grimm. Jaune had come up with the idea in a panic, and had been almost struck speechless when it worked.

A murderous cawing noise, followed by a ruinous crash as another stone ruin was torn down, reminding Jaune of the other problem his quickly-growing list.

"Now, all we need to do is knock that bird monster-"

"Giant Nevermore," Pyrrha corrected.

"-that Giant Nevermore," Jaune continued, "out of the sky."

Which definitely sounded simple enough. It was a big bird. It used wings to fly. No wings, no flying. No flying? Big bird is doomed. Easy peasy.

Except… well, it was a really big bird. A really big, really angry bird that wanted them for lunch. That also flew fast enough to make an Air Bus feel inadequate.

Jaune glanced at the others and- yep, they were looking at him. They didn't look even slightly worried; hell, Nora looked like she was enjoying this, bouncing on her heels. And they were all looking at him as if they'd collectively decided that Jaune Arc was going to be their Plan Guy.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha prodded.

"I'm thinking," he said, trying to sound reassuring and confident and all those things he really wasn't right now. Almost against his will, his mind turned to yesterday. To those silver eyes that looked like they were staring right at his soul, and that creepy, whispering voice.

"You're not supposed to be here."

Jaune's grip tightened on the hilt of Crocea Mors.

"I'm going to bait that thing."

He blinked. Had he actually just said that? Really?

"And when Mister Nevermore comes down, we all move in and wham!" Nora finished for him, miming a hammerblow with the hand not holding her hammer/grenade launcher. The orange-haired girl grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me~!"

Lie Ren just shrugged.

Pyrrha looked at Jaune in concern. "Giant Nevermores can use their feathers as weapons," she told him, "And they're not stupid; if it sees you out in the open on your own, it'll get suspicious. Why risk an ambush if it can pummel you from the air?"

"That's what this is for," Jaune shot back, raising his collapsible shield, "That thing isn't stupid, but…" He licked his lips, mouth suddenly feeling dry as the desert. "... it can get angry. And if I can get it angry enough to get down here…" He suppressed the urge to swallow.

"... Then we can spring an ambush," Pyrrha finished. She closed her eyes for a moment, and sighed. "Fine," she said, "But I'm coming with you."

Jaune nodded. "Right," he said, trying to hide his relief, "Okay. Thank you."

Pyrrha's mouth quirked, but she said nothing as she followed Jaune out of their hiding spot. He heard Nora cheerfully bid them good luck, and then they were alone. They moved carefully; the bridge wasn't all that wide, and the Nevermore's rampage couldn't be doing any favors to the ancient ruin.

Jaune, in some remote part of his mind, knew that the ruins around him were objectively pretty impressive. The stone towers, though ancient, were still intact, rising up from the canyon and linked with stone bridges. Jaune could see the thinking that had gone into building them; The bridges only connected the whole complex to the cliff itself on a few spots, and the tops of the towers were high, high above the floor.

This place is all chokepoints. Good for defense, Jaune guessed, if the towers can hold. Or, maybe if… wait. No. Not important right now. Survive first.

---

Yang occasionally remembered the first time she met Harlan Wade. It had been shortly after Summer died; Dad had completely collapsed, Yang herself barely struggled to hold on, and Ruby had gone from an almost normal little sister to something else. In fact, it had been immediately after... Well, the incident with the beowolves.

Being that she was ten at the time, Yang hadn't been told exactly how Harlan Wade had come into their lives; only that Harlan Wade, Dad's and Qrow's and Summer's and Her old teacher from Beacon could help them. That he knew what was... What was happening to Ruby.

The former professor of Beacon Academy had invited them to his home. He first spoke to Dad, and whatever was said behind those closed doors had shaken Tai Xiao Long enough that he still didn't want to speak about it, although Yang could take a few guesses.

Then Harlan spoke with Yang.

Harlan Wade had stared down at her from across his desk, looked Yang in the eye, and, not caring that she was ten at the time, spoke of the things that had begun to happen since Summer died. The hysteria and terror at invisible monsters. The nightmares which would make Ruby scream in a way that made Yang's blood turn into ice. The whispering that seemed to follow her little sister, speaking terrible things to those around her. The sense of something being horribly, horribly wrong…

Then, his voice cold and hard, he began to talk of everything that was yet to come. He spoke of nightmares being set loose in the waking world, of red-rimmed shadows tearing at wood, stone, concrete and metal as if it were nothing. He told her of Ruby looking at her as she would a monster, a thing born of her darkest thoughts and deepest fears and most hidden secrets. He told her that Tai and her would find their minds pulled in certain ways, that rage would come at them without warning, fear would sink it's fangs harder, grief would drag them deeper and deeper…

He spoke to them like a prophet of legend, speaking with such an apocalyptic certainty that it was almost like he was remembering the future.

(Or, in this case, as if he were simply remembering. Again, Yang had a few theories.)

Harlan had asked Yang a question when he was done. Maybe it would've been a complicated question for other people, but for Yang it had been very simple.

"Are you going to take care of your sister?"

After all, there was only one answer.

And so, Harlan had told Yang how to best take care of her sister. She wouldn't lie and say that some part of her hadn't resented the man for telling her how to do what she was already doing, but she grew to appreciate the tools and advice he'd given her.

(It would be another lie to say that Yang didn't like Dr. Wade himself, in a way. Oh, the man was an asshole through and through, but there was an honesty to dealing with him. He didn't bullshit you, or coddle you, or try to convince you that everything would be fine. And yes, he kept more than his fair share of secrets, and Yang wasn't stupid enough to believe that him coming into their lives had been a coincidence, but when it came to the things that Yang actually cared about, he'd been straight with her since day one.)

One of the things Harlan had taught her early was how to treat a close brush with Ruby Rose.

Step one: Distraction.

"You know," she drawled, "You look a lot taller on television, Ice Queen."

Weiss, who had been staring at the middle distance for a moment, blinked.

"... I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah," Yang continued, gleefully ignoring the tone of voice, "I kinda figured you'd be somewhere around here," she gestured somewhere a couple centimeters over Weiss's head, "and that's with the heels, mind you."

Weiss blinked again, and Yang could almost see the heiress' train of thought being sent off a cliff. She counted down in her head. Five, four, three, two-

"I'm not- I'm not short!" Weiss snapped, "I am of perfectly average- where did that even come from?!"

"Just an observation, Ice Queen," Yang drawled, in a tone of voice older sisters had perfected over generations to be the most annoying.

"And don't call me Ice Queen."

"Right, my mistake, Princess."

Weiss straight-up glared at Yang for that one. Yang just smiled back; she was pretty sure Weiss could scatter people with a look, but she'd grown up around Ruby Rose.

Weiss kept up the intimidation for a little longer, and then slumped in defeat, turning away.

She muttered something under her breath.

"Hm?" Yang went, "You said something?"

Weiss gave a sharp exhale of breath; a noise equal parts frustration and exasperation. "I said, at least it's not "Schnee"," she told Yang, voice flat, "I've had enough of that for today, thank you."

"Oh." Oh, right, Weiss and Blake's little partner spa-

Wait.

Oh.

Oh.

Yang ruthlessly suppressed that from reaching her face, along with the urge to facepalm for not realizing that the moment Blake showed her her ears.

"Yes, 'Oh'," Weiss said, with more than a little bitterness in her voice, "I imagined I'd managed to outrun my name in Vale, but, apparently, I was wrong."

The heiress sighed. "What bothers me is that I can't seem to figure out why she'd be so angry with me," she said, with such earnestness that Yang was shocked it didn't cause her physical pain. Some of that must've shown, because then Weiss added, "And yes, I know my family has made more than its fair share of enemies along the way, but most of those are in Atlas."

And the Faunus Quarter, Yang added, and Menagerie.

She wondered if this is what Ruby felt like when she had to keep one of her psychically-acquired secrets.

"Well, did you ask her?" Yang found herself asking, desperately hoping she didn't die from sheer irony.

Is it really irony? Dramatic Irony? Situational Irony?

...Don't answer that Ruby.

"... Obviously not," Weiss ground out, frustrated, "Ugh… Maybe a relative owned a Dust shop that was bought out by the SDC?" She frowned. "It's… It wouldn't be entirely out of the question, but it would be a little too convenient…"

Yang gave Weiss a Look.

"You're going about it the wrong way," she told Weiss, clasping her arms behind her head, "I mean, I get what you're trying to do, but this isn't something you can just solve on your own; it takes two." A thought came to her. "And yeah, you could find out what the problem is on your own --hire some PI's to go digging into Blake's past, or do the work yourself. That sort of thing. But… well, I imagine she wouldn't appreciate you going behind her back like that," Yang warned her, "Doing that would definitely just make more problems in the long run."

Weiss seemed unsure. "What if she doesn't want to tell me?"

Yang shrugged. "Then that's just a risk you'll have to take," she drawled, "And it'll just mean you have to try again later."

"Hmmm…"

Weiss… well, she didn't look completely convinced, but Yang got the distinct impression that the heiress was thinking about what she'd told her.

"Fine, I'll ask her," she grumbled, "Later. Assuming we're still alive."

Yang allowed herself a pat on the back. Heiress successfully distracted and bull-headed move avoided; chalk up another win for Auntie Yang.

If she listened carefully, she could almost hear the faint sound of Ruby burying her face in her hands.

And now for Step Two-

There was a horrific cawing noise up ahead, followed by the tell-tale sounds of combat. Yang and Weiss paused for half a step, and then broke into a run, Blake not far behind. This time, thankfully, Ruby didn't run ahead on her own.

---

They deserve to die.

Yang had asked Ruby about that, long ago. Ruby had tried to explain it to her, but… well, she'd never been all that good at putting words to her thoughts, so to speak.

They ALL deserve to die.

Yang thought it was a reflex; the natural result of Ruby's condition interacting with the Grimm, and Ruby was happy to let her sister believe that. After all, it was kinda true; the hateful, soulless creatures… well, they weren't the sort of thing Ruby was happy to have within range of her condition if she could help it.

Kill them. Kill them all!

That being said, there were other things that could grind at Ruby in a similar way. Her condition opened her up to things most people wouldn't even imagine; the disconnect that lies caused could be enough to drive her up the wall, some people were just loud in their minds, and others… Well, others should be thankful that Ruby knew that hurting people for what they thought of in the privacy of their minds was wrong.

(Really, they should be thanking Yang and Dad for teaching her that. Ruby had thought of telling her family this at some point, because she thought they deserved to know how amazing they were, but she hadn't found a way to say "If not for you I'd have killed a lot of people by now" in a way that wasn't horrible.)

But the Grimm… Ruby could stand to be in the same room as some truly terrible, awful people and hold back on the urge to cut them in half lengthwise, but the moment her mind caught a hint of Grimm, she just…

Ruby had to kill them. All of them. Everywhere. Something about the Grimm made the well inside her mind fill her with a murderous hatred. Something that made her feel like every moment not spent hunting them down to slaughter them all was a waste so great as to be agonizing.

For Ruby, the "why" was never in question. The Grimm deserve to die. They ALL deserve to die. She just... knew this, with a certainty that shocked everyone she told it to. And as especially horrible as the Grimm were to Look at and Feel, Ruby knew enough about her condition to know that it had nothing to do with this… inherent knowledge. It came from elsewhere, possibly someplace… closer? Deeper?

(In her fantasies, Ruby could sometimes --barely-- imagine a world where she was normal. She couldn't imagine a world where the thought of Grimm didn't fill her with hate.)

Ruby looked down into the chasm. She was vaguely aware of the ruins there; a network of tall, stone towers linked together with bridges. The presence of Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora (loud loud loud loud) and Lie Ren was just barely on the edge of her consciousness.

The Giant Nevermore and Death Stalker the other four students-to-be were fighting were the focus of her attention.

They Deserve to Die.

They All Deserve to Die.​

-warm crackling fire blazing bright-

Ruby was brought back by Yang putting a hand to her shoulder, her presence a blazing flame.

"You cool, Rubes?"

Ruby nodded, and leaned a little towards Yang. The inferno that was her sister should've turned Ruby to an ashen husk, but she found it comforting instead of terrifying; Yang had promised, after all, and even after all these years that promise still held.

"I'm good," Ruby told her. She reached up, towards the hood of her cloak, and pulled it back, exposing shoulder-length red hair. "I'll be better in a bit," she added, unclipping Crescent Rose from the small of her back and making it unfurl; first into her rifle form, and then into her scythe form.

"Looks like they managed to ground it," Blake said, crouched at the edge, "Might've worked out if the Death Stalker hadn't joined in."

Wess said nothing. Ruby felt her annoyance at the sight of Jaune, along with some bemusement at him leading the other three down below.

"Well, that's good!"

Blake and Weiss looked at her.

"It means we get to kill it," she chirped. "Let's get down there; Blake and Weiss can help Nora and Lie with the Death Stalker."

"How do you know their na-?"

"And Yang and me can help Jaune and Pyrrha with the Nevermore," Ruby continued, "The Grimm have them surrounded, but if we split up, we can help surround them instead."

Ruby smiled.

"Ready?"

---

The girls didn't immediately spring into action; Blake and Weiss needed a few more details than just "jump down and help the two fighting the Death Stalker", and it wasn't like Ruby could just… put her plan into their heads.

"Uh, Nora's the with the revolver grenade launcher-hammer. Really loud."

Well, not without things going horribly wrong. She could give a... nudge, sort of, if she was gentle and careful and calm, but that had its own problems.

"Ren's her partner. Green outfit and machine-pistol hook-blades. He's trying to distract the Death Stalker long enough for Nora to get a hit in, but that bridge they're on doesn't give him much room."

And as unused as Ruby was at putting her plans to words, it was… surprisingly easy once she got going.

"Which is where you come in!"

"Let me guess: get behind the Death Stalker, keep it occupied, and then let… Nora crack that thing?"

"Uh, yep! Death Stalker armour can get really tough at that size. You need explosives, AP or high impact melee to get through. Freezing the joints is also a good idea."

She could get used to this, actually.

"You have a sniper ri-"

"Crescent Rose is a Super High Velocity Penetrator."

"… that thing. Whatever. Can't you crack that thing's skull from here?"

"Crescent Rose's stakes can go through, but they don't do enough damage on the other end."

"…Doesn't Armacham make a version of those things with a fire dust charge and a delayed fuse?"

"…Yes. They do. I, uh… I didn't bring any."

"I'm afraid to ask, but, why?"

"Because her Fire Dust privileges are suspended."

"That was two months ago, Yang!"

"Still suspended, Ruby."

Maybe. So long as she learned not to put her entire foot in her mouth. Or leave openings for certain older sisters to exploit.

"As fascinating as this is to watch as a single child, could we focus?"

"Y-yes. Anyways…"

---

When in high-stress situations, the natural response is to tunnel vision. Focus on the threat directly ahead, or the task that needs to be done, blocking out every other distraction around you. This is to be expected; people who are distracted from the rampaging boarbatusk in front of them tend not to live very long, after all.

But there are situations where the noise behind you is what kills you, not the growling predator (or the angry foreigner with a sword) in front, and laser-like focus becomes your doom. Hence why, with training and experience, one can widen the 'tunnel', so to speak. Regain some more awareness of your surroundings; enough that one can react and be aware of what's going on, but not so much that you lose focus.

Pyrrha Nikos was the first to realize they're getting help, spotting two figures leap off the edge of the cliff, and onto one of the taller ruins. Lie Ren was the next one to do so, seeing Blake and Weiss hoping their way down the ruins. Nora saw what Ren was seeing and grinned as Team Monochrome (as Ruby rather insistently called them) got into position behind the Death Stalker.

---

"Yang, fastball!"

---

The first sign that Jaune got that he was getting reinforcements was when a red and black blur slammed into the back of the Giant Nevermore he was facing.

---

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an… interesting year."

Ozpin could feel Glynda rolling her eyes. "The 'Invincible Girl', the Schnee heiress, a boy who acts like he's never even held his own sword before…" A scoff. "Interesting is certainly one way put it. And that's before you get to… her."

Ozpin didn't miss the shudder from Glynda. "You can't say she didn't make an impression," he said, almost to himself, "even if it wasn't as positive as we might've wished."

"Ruby Rose and her sister brawled up and down the length of Patch for half an hour," Glynda deadpanned. "And don't even get me started on how much of her luggage is medication." Glynda's tone softened and became all the harsher for it. "This is not the right place for her."

Ozpin's own voice didn't falter, although even he couldn't keep his emotions from tinting it. "I'm not sure if there is a right place for Miss Rose," he countered, "But if there is…"

On the screens Glynda and he were watching, the fight began to turn…

---

"No plan survives contact with the enemy."

Ruby struggled to remember things beyond a certain point; the red haze of her condition had made true consciousness a long and difficult journey, and the few memories of her childhood she did have were all the more precious for her. One of those was a lesson from Qrow; he'd quoted that, and then told Yang and her that people would usually quip it whenever any plan went wrong, as if mocking the idea of having one at all.

Those people, Qrow had told her, didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

Don't remember what the full quote was --some old Atlaesian General said it way before the Great War, and he said it in Atlaesian anyways-- but the best way to understand what he meant was like this; imagine you're trying to win a fight in a single swing, or with only one bullet. Unless you're absolutely, completely, positively swear-on-your-soul certain that that's all you're gonna need, you'd be crazy to think that. So, you need more; multiple swings, multiple bullets, different kinds of both.

And the real trick; knowing where to use which.

The initial part of the plan went off exactly as Ruby expected. Blake and Weiss dropped right behind the Death Stalker. A slash from Gambol Shroud got the beast's attention, and a wave from Myrtenaster covered the leg joints in ice just as it turned to face them. It roared with Hate, and a volley of grenades from Nora (Ruby wished she'd gotten to know what her weapon's name was) sent it stumbling as it tried to react to the new threat.

Before the Nevermore could intervene, Yang threw her.

Ruby became a blur of crimson petals. The world seemed to be too slow and too fast at once; stretched by her own speed into a smear of colours. It was difficult to focus on anything besides what was directly in front of her, and even then, Ruby's vision was distorted.

So Ruby Rose closed her eyes.

After all, she'd never needed eyes to See.​

Crimson unreality fills her mind's eye. She Sees the Quiet Vengeance and the Roaring Thunder, the Icy Blade and Bloody Shadow, frozen as they clash with the mass of ENEMY between them.​

(Idly, Ruby noted that The Things which were and weren't Weiss and Blake didn't have nearly as many barbs and blades pointed at each other as before. Improvement!)

She Sees the Untouchable Idol standing like a breakwater against the larger ENEMY, and the Paper? Knight quivering and fluttering beside her.​

(Ruby caught the difference. The Thing which was and wasn't Jaune Arc had to cling to The Thing that was and wasn't Pyrrha Nikos to stand, but it was standing. Hm. Hm.)

She Sees it all, feels the Roaring Fire's familiar warmth behind her (and also always, always with her) and focuses on the ENEMY she'd chosen to DIE.​

Ruby willed herself forwards.

Faster.

Faster!

Faster!

(She wondered if she'd ever moved this fast.)

Faster!!

The faster she goes the deeper Crescent Rose's blade will tear into her Enemy. The deeper the wound she makes is the faster it will Die. The faster it Dies the sooner she can Kill more- tooclose!

The mass of petals and speed she'd become coalesces into a single point and suddenly Ruby's a lance of red and black, of flesh and steel and bone and Wrath. She'd miscalculated and turned back too early, or she'd flinched and slowed herself down out of reflex when the collision loomed too large, and even though Crescent Rose bites deep and the Nevermore's scream of pain is like music to her ears, the wound is that tiny bit too shallow or too small to be the killing blow she wants.

"Holy-!"

Ruby's faintly aware of Jaune almost stumbling back as she squeezes the trigger. Oxygen and aerosolized fuel ignite in the chamber and Crescent Rose roars her wrath, a 10mm spike driving deep into the Nevermore. Ruby's hands fly across the bolt, a touch of semblance and more making it move faster than any other action could've done, and Crescent Rose fires again.

But the blade's not deep enough, or the variable muzzle break's not set up right, or both, and the recoil pulls Crescent Rose out of the wound she made enough that the Nevermore's thrashing tosses Ruby and her weapon away.

Enormous black wings spread, and the Grimm screeched with hatred and pain as it took off; still too injured to truly fly, so instead the hop just brought it up to perch the roof of the tower.

Ruby falls. The world flashes crimson, and then she's not; now she was standing on the bridge, Crescent Rose in hand, glaring up at the Nevermore with just as much hated as the Grimm's own glowering gaze.

Ruby took a deep breath and planted Crescent Rose's bottom spike on the ground, letting the familiar presence of her sweetheart ground her as she Felt the world around her. Blake and Weiss were still getting in each other's way, the Death Stalker hadn't been cracked open...

What went wrong, what went right, what can we do from here, what more do we need, what more can we try?

Ruby steadied herself, closed her eyes, and then her mind reached upwards to give the roaring flame that was and wasn't her sister a well-practiced nudge. Tiny, faint, not even the thought of a thought. You'd have to know what to feel beforehand to even know it was there, and only the most basic of ideas could be transmitted, one at a time; closer, away, me, you, yes, no. The mental equivalent of monosyllables.

Ruby felt her sister go from concern and impatience to shock, then confusion, and then a hearth-warm surge of pride that made Ruby smile; two months of practice had paid off.

That's my little sister.

Yang dropped from above, and Ruby Rose pushed forwards.

---

"Holy-!"

Jaune didn't know why the creepy girl in red had decided to drop in and help him. Or, well, save him, if he was honest. Him, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora.

(Later, the idea that Ruby did save them, and that they all could've died if she hadn't arrived when she did would keep him up at night.)

She slammed down on the Nevermore like a lightning bolt, and then shot a bolt-action rifle into the monster as quickly as Pyrrha had worked her own gun-spear-thing. The Nevermore's screech (Grimm and Dust it was loud) sounded like it had been in genuine, real pain as it thrashed, throwing the girl in red off of its back before doing the one thing Jaune hadn't seen it do before: retreat. It spread its wings and jumped, clambering back up the tower to glare at the girl in red, who seemed to be quite happy to glare right back, long cape (or was it a cloak?) draped around her while she held a massive scythe-rifle-thing in her hands.

Wait, when did she get back on the bridge-?

Someone else was hurtling down the cliff. The Nevermore spotted them, reared up to-

Two shots rang out, close enough that it was hard to tell them apart. The first sent that person away from the Nevermore's beak, and the second sent a bullet right through it, nailing the monster's mouth shut.

Nailing it shu-… those aren't bullets. Nails? Gun that shoots giant nails? That's a thing?

The newcomer twisted in midair for a three-point landing, smoothly rising to her full height. "Hope you've got a new plan, Rubes!" she called out, punctuating her words with a short punch that made the gauntlets she wore shoot at the glowering Nevermore, which only succeeded in making it glare harder at them.

"I'm working on it!" Creepy Red called back, flashing backwards to dodge a torrent of feathers before raising her scythe-nail gun-thing to shoot at the Nevermore again. Beside Jaune, Pyrrha switched her spear into rife and added her own shots into the mix, briefly making the monster back off with a muffled noise of rage.

Jaune just kept himself behind his shield and wondered if he should've brought something besides Crocea Mors with him. Probably yes.

What the hell am I doing here?

"Hey!"

Jaune blinked. The creepy girl in red was talking to him. "Y-yeah?"

She opened her mouth, closed it, screwed her eyes shut and shook her head furiously.

"I-…" A pause, and then her scythe-nail gun-thing was spinning to block, and Pyrrha and him were hiding behind their shields, feathers falling around them like rain. The blonde newcomer simply put her hands up to cover her face and let the feathers break against her aura, her lilac eyes now glowing bright red.

"You and In-" the girl in red made a strangled noise, "You two, switch with Weiss and Blake!" A pause. "Tell them I have a new plan! Please?"

Pyrrha shot him a glance, and then leaned in to whisper, "They were the ones who dropped down behind the Death Stalker before they did."

Jaune blinked, again. Suddenly, the mental image he'd had of the battle had changed completely. Oh, and Weiss was helping…?

… Pyrrha was looking at him expectantly, and Jaune turned away to hide a blush. Right.

… Well, it's not like I can do much against something that flies with just a sword and shield. But against that scorpion- er, Death Stalker…

"Uh- Sure!" he called back towards Creepy Red Gi-.

"And I'm Ruby!" She snapped, "Ruby Rose!" She flailed in his direction. "Go!"

Jaune didn't need to be told twice.

---

Now she wants us to switch?

The plan had gone off… pretty well, if Blake was being honest. Nora and Ren (mostly Nora) had been happy to have them, Weiss had frozen some of the Death Stalker's legs, Ren and she had kept it distracted, and Nora had gotten a few hits in with her hammer.

… Weiss had also almost frozen her a few times, and Blake had felt the heiress trip on Gambol shroud's ribbon at least once. And no matter how many times Nora hit the Death Stalker on the head, they just couldn't get past the armour.

Blake glanced towards Weiss. "We're going…?"

The heiress paused after casting another ice dust infused glyph at the Death Stalker, her rapier in a middle stance. She scowled, clearly wanting to find a reason not to, but either unable to find one.

"Fine," she forced out. And, too softly for anyone other than herself (and one hidden Faunus) to hear, she muttered, "Why are we following her?"

Blake pursed her lips and followed after Weiss, sliding underneath the Death Stalker where Weiss used her glyphs to propel herself over it, beyond the reach of its flailing, ice-covered stinger tail. Pyrrha Nikos tossed her own partner over the beast (much to Jaune Arc's surprise), vaulting after him with an ease that Blake had to put conscious effort not to stare at.

All the while, Blake couldn't help but wonder what Ruby was thinking. Irony of ironies…

---

"Byeeee~! See ya soon!"

More quietly, Nora quipped at Ren, "Talk about a rough pairing…"

The boy shrugged. "Could be worse. Imagine Weiss Schnee with a Faunus."

Nora shuddered. "Oh, yeah. Brrrr!"

---

The Nevermore's scream was muffled from its beak being nailed shut, but that only made it sound even angrier. Streams of huge, razor-sharp feathers rained all around them, forcing Yang to roll out of the way and her sister to dodge; sometimes in a blur of crimson petals, and sometimes just appearing somewhere else. Even with all the fire-dust buckshot and armour-piercing darts Yang and Ruby were firing at it, Yang could still see that the monster was healing itself.

Yang tried to keep herself calm whenever something went wrong –the last thing she wanted was for Ruby to panic– but she couldn't help but start feeling a little bit concerned right now.

"Any moment now, Ruby!"

"I've got it!" Yang could hear the vicious smile in Ruby's voice.

Footsteps. Weiss and Blake were running towards them, and a glance in their direction let Yang catch a glimpse of the running battle the other four would-be students were having with the Death Stalker.

"Blake, Weiss!" Ruby spun out of the way of an especially big feather, the Nevermore taking flight, rising up and into a slow orbit around the valley. "Slingshot!"

Weiss was the one to answer. "… What!?" she screeched, and Ruby briefly looked like she was about to scream.

Yang breathed.

You got this.

You got this.

Tell them what you mean.

You can do this, Ruby.

Ruby breathed.

"Blake," she spoke, eyes glowing with an excitement that was almost feverish, "Can you string Gambol Shroud between those pillars?" Another breath. "Weiss, how much Gravity Dust can you put into a glyph?"

The hidden Faunus blinked at the request. Weiss looked about to ask what that was meant to do. To Yang's eternal amusement, it clicked for both at the exact same time.

"… I can do that," Blake told them.

"If you intend to do what I think you are…?" Weiss bit her lip. "Enough. Hitting that Nevermore, though…"

Yang grinned. "Guess that's where I come in, huh?"

Ruby nodded, her grin widening as things began to click into place. "Yep! If you can get it close to that cliff over there-" she pointed, "I'll take care of the rest!"

"Got it. Catapult?"

"Catapult?" Weiss asked.

Ruby turned Crescent Rose's bolt's handle, closing the muzzle break's vents on one side, and opening them wide on the other. She swung the scythe behind herself as far as she could reach, the blade's tip pointed down and the shaft up at an angle.

Yang got into position, a few steps behind Ruby, walking as she turned to track the circling Nevermore. It struggled to open its beak, finally un-nailing it with an utterly furious screech before it rolled and turned towards them.

One heartbeat.

Another.

The Nevermore was committed to the dive. Claws reached out, wings spread, beak opening for a screa-

A pulse.​

Yang moved. Her legs pushed her forwards; running by the first step, and then jumping by the second. Her next landed right on the hook of Crescent Rose.

Ruby squeezed the trigger and swung forwards as hard as she could; the acceleration was violent and Yang briefly wondered how Ruby could handle it when she was the one throwing her around. Briefly, because then the Nevermore was filling her vision.

A blast from Ember Celica sent Yang a handsbreadth away from its open beak, and another sent her crashing into the thing's skull. Her left hand caught the bony protrusion of the Grimm's bone mask, her feet swung around to plant themselves on the back of its neck, and Yang cocked her right arm back, fist clench and two shells of Fire Dust enhanced buckshot loaded in both chambers.

"Missed me again!" Yang crowed, before punching the Nevermore in its right eye.

---

The Nevermore's scream brought joy to Ruby's heart.

The reaper ran towards the pillars, her soul singing as things began to click into place. She had to swallow the laugh that threatened to burst out of her throat, but no amount of self-control could hide the grin that cut across her face from ear to ear.

They deserve to die. They ALL deserve to die.​

She pulled ahead, terribly aware that it was Yang who was literally riding the Nevermore for her. Some part of her wanted to scream at Blake and Weiss to be faster, but she clamped down on those impulses; the plan, she reminded herself, depended on timing, not speed.

"Come on!"

… That didn't mean a little encouragement wouldn't hurt.

---

Ruby, Blake realized, was fast, even without her semblance, and even with the weight of her monstrously oversized weapon weighing her down.

How much does that thing weigh? How can she move this fast with it?

She didn't look as strong as her sister did, but-

… she can hear everything I'm thinking, can she?

Blake shook herself. Focus. Move.

She heard Weiss call out. "Casting haste!"

Blake almost asked what her partner had meant, but then the ground underneath her next step glowed, and time

slowed

down, and she understood what Weiss had meant.

Sounds became distorted. The world seemed strange and dreamlike, and Blake felt as if she were running through syrup and she found, to her surprise, that she was catching up to Ruby.

(The predatory, almost wolfish smile she glanced on Ruby Rose's face made her shudder.)

She scrambled up the stone pillar. The Haste Glyph wore off halfway up, but Blake's semblance brought her up the rest of the way with a single moment of discontinuity. Her fingers dug into cracks in the rock, and she hurled Gambol at the pillar on the opposite side of the stone bridge, propelling it forwards with a burst from the gun component.

---

The wind screamed. Her heart was beating like a drum. Her body burned, aura flaring around her and tongues of flame licking at her wild mane.

Kr-shnk.

"Still hungry?! How about a knuckle sandwich!!"

Boom.

In other words: Yang was having the time of her life.

Kr-shnk.

Boom.

Yang was also possibly in the most danger she'd ever been in in her entire life, barring a couple prominent incidents she was not going to think about.

When people talk about "Riding the Nevermore", they're not usually being literal.

Despite never taking any lessons in Nevermore Wrangling –not that any existed, she suspected–, in Yang's humble opinion she was doing pretty well for herself. She'd managed to hold on to the bony mask in spite of the monster doing its best to shake her off, and she'd also discovered that she could kinda force it to go in one direction or another by punching and kicking it in its face.

Bumblebee this guy ain't.

A

pulse​

in the back of her head told her Ruby was ready, and her grin turned feral.

Well, time to ditch this ride! Your turn, Ruby!

Grabbing hold of the Nevermore's mask's bony horn with both hands, she pushed off with her feet, and then kicked the monster's uppermost eyes, making it screech with pain and go into a dive

---

Weiss knew that, had she presented this plan to any of her tutors, Father would've called her to his office before the day was out. Even beyond that… it had far too many moving parts, too much risk; it relied on Yang not being thrown off and crashing the Nevermore into a cliff, on the ribbon that unspooled from Blake's weapon being long enough and not snapping under the stress, on Ruby –that strange, strange girl who had done

something​

in the forest (why couldn't she remember?) timing everything right…

(Weiss refused to entertain the thought that she wouldn't play her part in this correctly. Failure on her part was not an option.)

And yet…

The gun-sickle spun through the air, black ribbon trailing behind. For one brief second, Weiss was afraid that it would fall short, but then the gun part fired a burst at just the right moment to send it across, and then around the pillar on the far side, wrapping the ribbon around it several times over before embedding itself into the stone. Blake pulled the ribbon taut, and then spun herself around the pillar she'd climbed, anchoring the slingshot on her end.

The Giant Nevermore which had given them so much grief crashed into the cliffs in front of them, Yang jumping away with only a moment to spare, carried by blazing buckshot from her gauntlets.

Not a moment later, Ruby swung her scythe behind herself, blade down, and leapt at the same time as the –to Weiss's eye– monstrously oversized not-a-rifle component fired, propelling the odd girl up into the air. She sailed under the ribbon and the scythe's hook caught on it. The slingshot stretched one way, and then came back, Ruby flipping herself and her scythe around it and then firing it to propel herself further back.

Myrtenaster's cylinder spun.

Left foot forwards, right back, swing up and squeeze…!

A gravity glyph burst into being right underneath Ruby's feet. Her cloaked dropped as if it were made of lead, and Ruby's knees briefly buckled under her own weight before her aura flared and she stood back up, scythe held tight in both hands.

Forwards, swing down, up and squeeze…!

Myrtenaster fired again, creating an array of haste glyphs in front of Ruby. Again, and ice pinned the Nevermore's tail as it tried to lift up again.

And then Weiss was standing at Ruby's side.

When she first met her, Weiss had gotten the impression of someone… excitable, but awkward and painfully shy. When they'd met again, she'd learned more. Ruby had a sister. Ruby had a hatred for the Creatures of Grimm so absolute it verged on the fanatical.

Ruby had a condition.

Now, Weiss got to learn more about Ruby Rose. The grin on red-cloaked girl's face was wolfish enough to give Weiss pause and send a trail of ice water down her spine, but her eyes… Ruby's eyes had a light to them that Weiss hadn't seen on the girl before.

Those silver eyes looked at her. "Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked, almost playfully.

Weiss almost rolled her eyes on impulse. "Can I?" she scoffed, "Of course I can."

Foot forwards, breathe in…

---

Crescent Rose's bolt cycled.

Myrtenaster's cylinder clicked into place.

Gambol Shroud's ribbon strained, it's owner's Aura holding it together.

Ember and Celica roared, buckshot making the Nevermore flinch as the pellets skid across its mask.​

---

Myrtenaster's blade weaved a pattern into the air.

The gravity glyph inverted, and Ruby flew. Crescent Rose sung in her hands as she passed through the haste glyphs, muzzle break shifting to direct her forwards even as she swung it back and rotated the blade to be almost in line with the barrel. Her semblance flickered, and Ruby flew even faster. Faster!

The Nevermore had broken free. It was trying to fly, trying to get away, trying to escape.

Red flickered around Ruby Rose.

It would not. There was no escape. There was only death.

Ruby flew. A comet of steel, fire, flesh and hate that tore across the air, curving up towards her prey.

OH, WHAT A BIG SCYTHE I HAVE!​

Crescent Rose's blade sank into the Grimm's flesh

ALL THE BETTER TO CUT YOU WITH!​

and this time, Ruby's pride and joy cut through.

It was generally accepted that the Creatures of Grimm were incapable of feeling fear. Ruby had discovered (or, maybe, she'd always known) otherwise; they could feel fear. You just had to force them to.

And as red-wreathed Ruby Rose propelled herself up the Nevermore's body, and as Crescent Rose kept cutting and cutting, splitting the beast in two from tail to head, she made sure that the Nevermore felt nothing else, right up until the moment Crescent Rose cut through the last if its flesh, and it finally, finally died, its bisected body falling down, trailing black smoke as it began to vanish.

Ruby fell, flipping onto the edge of the cliff, landing with a crouch with Crescent Rose laid across her shoulders.

She stood back up and turned to face everyone else with a little wobble to her knees, and for the first time in a long, long while, it was quiet inside her mind.

It hurt to smile this much. Ruby didn't mind; this pain, she'd be happy to take. She took the deepest breath her burning lungs could take and let out a cheer loud enough to echo.

---

"Wow…"

Cree- er, Ruby Rose was screaming as if she'd scored the last goal in the tournament. Jaune couldn't blame her –she'd cut that giant monster in two!– but frankly he was too exhausted to celebrate his own victory, let alone someone else's.

(Naturally, Nora still had plenty of energy for that. Hence why she was spinning an almost-comatose Ren around and around.)

"That was pretty impressive," Pyrrha agreed, sitting next to where Jaune had chosen to lay down, left knee bent up so she could rest her arms on it. "Same goes for you, Jaune." The smile on her face was faint. "Thank you."

Jaune almost choked. "M-me!?" he spluttered, "I should be thanking you! And Ren! And Nora! I just-"

"-kept all four of us alive until the others came," Pyrrha gently corrected him, "by realizing we could take advantage of the ruins to keep the Grimm from working together."

"… It didn't work," Jaune mumbled, remembering the sheer panic at the end.

Pyrrha shrugged. "It worked long enough, and that's what matters," she told him. "And then you got the Deathstalker to sting itself."

"Nora had to hammer that stinger in for that to work," Jaune shot back, although without much heat.

"Which she couldn't've done without everyone else keeping it in place," Pyrrha added. "It might not have been as showy as… well." She gestured at the other four –Ruby had gotten down from the cliff and was in danger of being hugged to death by the blonde whose name Jaune hadn't learned yet–, "But a victory is a victory. Besides…"

She glanced away. "… this was hardly my best performance."

Jaune stared. What.

"… What?"

Pyrrha looked genuinely embarrassed. "Fighting Grimm isn't my… strongest point. I'm more used to fighting… well, humans." A blink. "And faunus, I guess…? Comes with being a tournament fighter."

Jaune stared some more. That was… er…

Green eyes looked at him in concern. "… Jaune?"

He raised one hand. "Sorry, I'm… trying to process that this isn't your best," he said. "Also there's parts of me that are sore that I didn't know could get sore."

"Ah…"

A slightly awkward silence fell upon them. Jaune began to wonder how they'd be getting back to Beacon. And when they'd be getting back to Beacon.

I mean, we beat the big bad monsters! Shouldn't they have sent… something? A Bullhead?

… wait.

He sat up.

"We forgot to get the relics."

---

Another year.

Another initiation.

Another group of students. Another generation of heroes.

… and another set of teams to make. After doing this for as long as he had, Ozpin had found himself becoming… fond of this part of the process. Seeing where the pieces laid at the end of the day: which partnerships formed, and what nature they had. Who showed promise, who rose, who… didn't, and would require more work be done.

Ozpin believed that it was possible to teach someone to be a hero; to find and nurture the best parts of the human soul and create Huntsmen who would put themselves on the line and hold back the darkness that preyed upon mankind. It was, perhaps-

He sighed.

… It was, perhaps, one of a few things in which Stachys Vera and he could agree on.

"Something wrong?"

Trust Glynda to read his mood like a book. "No, my mind merely went to… unpleasant places," he told his closest friend. "Ones unfortunately close to home; the Vale Defence Forces."

He glanced up from the scroll laying flat on his desk. Glynda was sat across from him. The mention of the VDF made her raise an eyebrow.

"Really?" she asked, curious, "What made you think of them?"

Ozpin leaned back in his seat. "The Academies were founded under the principle that it was possible to teach people to be heroes; be they the ones who came to it naturally… or those who needed some tutoring to get there. In a way, the VDF works under the same principle; to turn ordinary people into a sword and shield against the darkness. And yet…"

He trailed off, but Glynda knew him well enough to know what he meant. And even if she didn't… the friction between both of Vale's most prestigious institutions was common knowledge.

"And yet," Glynda repeated, setting down her own tablet-sized scroll for a moment. She frowned. "It wouldn't be nearly so bad if not for the glory-hog they've put in charge."

"If only things were so simple…"

Ozpin paused. Above, the gears dutifully continued to turn.

"I fear General Stachys Vera's motivations are far less selfish, but all the worse for it," he spoke, "The VDF was as much her grandfather's child as her own father was; it was Zeleno Vera who fought for its creation and moulded it into what it is now. And the VDF has not –and might never– forget what he did for them, especially considering the way he passed away. Were we in Mistral, there would be a shrine dedicated to him in every barracks room."

He paused again. "No, Stachys Vera does not seek glory for the sake of glory. She seeks to prove to her grandfather's living legacy that she's worthy of it."

Glynda scoffed. "That woman is hardly a worthy successor to Zeleno," she pointed out, "a man you trusted enough to bring into to your inner circle. Twice."

Ozpin felt a smile creep in. "Zeleno was hardly the soldier he became when I first met him," he told Glynda, making the woman blink. His expression grew somber. "I can only hope his granddaughter follows his footsteps."

He shook his head. "Anyways… before we lose ourselves in the past, what do you think of the teams, Glynda?"

Glynda's eyes went back to the scroll she'd been working on. "Team Cardinal are perfect for one another," she noted dryly, "for all the worst reasons. Juniper has potential if they work on their… weakness and take advantage of their strengths. Ruby…"

Glynda sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "On one hand, the sisters get along fine and are clearly used to working together, even if Ruby Rose is… herself. On the other, Weiss Schnee and a disguised Blake Belladona."

"A most interesting partnership if there ever was one," Ozpin quipped. More seriously, he added, "And one with the potential to cross bridges that sorely need to be crossed."

"And with just as much potential to crash and burn," Glynda shot back, "How long can Blake keep her identity hidden? What will happen if Weiss discovers who and what she is before they can build trust?"

"We can hardly out Miss Belladona –or Beatica, as she's chosen to be known– to her own teammates," Ozpin pointed out, "we'll intervene if things get too out of hand, and help where we can, but… ultimately, this is a problem they'll have to resolve themselves."

Glynda huffed. "Which brings me to the other problem… your choice of leaders."

Ah. Yes, Ozpin imagined that Glynda would have… questions about that.

Best to push forwards. "Go on."

Glynda crossed her arms. "Cardin Winchester."

"Successfully led his team through the Emerald Forest and recovered their relics." At Glynda's raised eyebrow, Ozpin added, "More through luck and stubbornness than skill, I'll admit, and his leadership style can certainly use some work. Dove Bronzewing might've been a better choice, but…" A sigh. "Unfortunately, Mister Winchester's main weakness is that he'll never follow a plan not his own."

Ozpin sat back, looking up at the moving clockwork. "It was a choice between making a weak but functional team that we can hopefully teach to be better, or a dysfunctional team that might end up stronger."

"We'll have to focus on breaking them out of their bad habits, then," Glynda grumbled. She seemed to accept Ozpin's reasoning, however, as she then moved on to the next leader.

"Jaune Arc. He of the suspicious grades."

Ozpin suppressed a wince at Glynda's tone, his eyes still watching the clockwork move overhead. "Ah. Yes. Him."

Glynda's glare bored into Ozpin's skull. "I hope you don't expect me to believe that his papers are legitimate."

"…No." His lips quirked up into a smile. "That being said, Mister Arc's hardly the first student of dubious origin we have; Miss Baetica is here under a false identity, and Miss Valkyrie's and Mister Ren's skills are, as far as I can tell, entirely self-taught and their examination certificates come from a Huntsman in Mistral I've been unable to contact."

"And even disregarding our current class…" The smile widened minutely, and he shrugged. "The Branwens came to us from outside the Kingdoms, and for all his faults, even you can't call Qrow a bad Huntsman."

"Unlike his sister," Glynda pointed out.

Ozpin nodded, "Indeed. My point, however, remains: despite the laws, despite procedures, despite my own attempts at formalizing and organizing the process… we must accept the fact that the heroes we seek –that the people meant to become Huntsmen and Huntresses– can come from anywhere; from official schools, from the untamed wilds, from the Tournament arena, or from the meanest street in their Kingdom."

"The paperwork," he told Glynda, waving his hand over his desk as if to swipe something off, "is, and always has been, more for the sake of formality. Initiation is the true test, and Mister Arc kept his team intact and alive, despite being surrounded, and despite his own inexperience."

Glynda frowned; clearly unhappy at how Ozpin's reasoning clashed with her own idea of how the Academy should work. Thankfully, she kept her opinions quiet… for now, at least.

"Ruby Rose."

Quiet fell over the room.

Ozpin closed his eyes, and a familiar weight settled on his soul.

"Ruby Rose," he said, his voice almost a whisper, "the girl with silver eyes."

"'Silver eyes'," Glynda repeated, "You mentioned that before, when you convinced me that she could skip two years ahead to be here." Her tone lowered. "I tried looking it up on the CCTSNet. I tried looking for it in our own archives. Gods, I looked it up in Port's collection."

Ozpin's voice would've barely reached her ears. "And what did you find?"

"Nothing." Glynda's frustration was audible; Ozpin imagined a pout on her face. "Nothing at all. Not one record, not one story, not one myth… not even a rumour. Nothing." She paused. Uncertainty entered her voice. "Why?"

The weight that had settled over Ozpin's soul came crashing down upon him with a vengeance. Memory came with it; a host of people cloaked in every colour of the rainbow, unbound by the borders of kingdoms. Wielding powers not born from the soul, but from their blood and their minds.

A power which could heal the most damaged mind, bring the most disparate bands together, guide caravans across even the most inhospitable of wastelands, and spark hope within the bleakest, blackest pit of despair. A power which could even forge the darkness within mankind's heart into a weapon.

A power which was also a curse.

A people, secretive and insular, who were all too easy to blame when things went wrong.

Ozpin remembered more. Smoke towering into the sky. Flames that almost seemed to hunger for flesh. Mobs brought to hysterical fury.

He remembered the screams.

He remembered a host of people, cloaked in every colour of the rainbow, fleeing from those who had once been their friends and their neighbours, never to meet again.

"Because all that there once was, was destroyed," he told Glynda. "Some of it by others… and some by me."

Guilt came, and he greeted it like the old friend it was.

After a moment, he opened his eyes once more.

"Miss Rose took charge of her team during Initiation, despite her youth," he began, the change of subject so abrupt he saw Glynda blink. "She was able to capitalize on their abilities to save Juniper, and then devised a plan that killed a Giant Nevermore." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Furthermore… Putting either Miss Schnee or Miss Baetica in charge would only cause the friction between them to escalate at this point –their enmity might've been buried, but it's still there."

A sigh. "And while Miss Xiao-Long certainly has the maturity to lead, I suspect that most of her focus is on her sister's well-being, and I've seen that path play out before. She might neglect the other half of her team. She might coddle or dote on her sister enough to stifle her growth." Ozpin shook his head. "Miss Rose isn't without faults –I fully expect her to struggle the most with her responsibility, to make the most mistakes, and to bemoan the burden of leadership hardest of them all–… but Miss Schnee and Miss Baetica will listen to what she has to say without thinking it's some barb against them, and Miss Xiao-Long can support her without there being any fear of preventing her growth –and Ruby Rose might have the greatest potential for growth amongst our students."

Growth which, Ozpin feared, young Ruby Rose would need.

Glynda's silence was pointed. After a few moments, Ozpin accepted that his most loyal friend wasn't going to let him off that easily.

"A few words of advice, when teaching Miss Rose," Opzin began, now turning to look at Glynda. His words were almost mournful. "Against Grimm, she'll be unmatched. During combat practice against her peers, she'll excel, or flounder, or more likely both, from one moment to the next. Crowds of people will overwhelm her." Another sigh, and this time Ozpin let the regret enter his voice. "I'm sorry Glynda, but as much as I wish I could tell you more… I'm afraid I cannot. Some secrets only become more dangerous when you learn of them at the wrong time, and the story of the Silver Eyed is one of them."

Unsaid was that there were also some practical reasons against telling Glynda more… And another, less practical, but still important reason to do so. Ozpin's true curse was that, sometimes, the only thing he could do was keep a promise to people long, long dead.

Glynda Goodwitch held his gaze for a moment. Then another.

Her eyes closed. "This is not the first time you've had me work in the dark," she noted, not quite an accusation, "And it won't be the last."

"Unfortunately." Ozpin agreed, regretfully.

"Now, where were we…?"

---

Ruby huddled underneath her cloak.

She hated crowds. Hate. Hate hate hate. So much hate. It wouldn't've been nearly as bad with medication, but the greasy, gummy tablets that deadened her sensitivity and made her feel like her brain had been stuffed with cotton took a little longer to take effect than all the rest of her medication and… and they'd been tired after a whole day in the Emerald Forest. That there'd be a ceremony after coming back to Beacon had entirely skipped Yang's mind and hers.

She tugged the hood around her ears to quiet the whispers and pretended not to notice the abstract nightmare bathed in crimson around her; deformed homunculi that spoke of insecurity, chained wrath looking to escape, grinning mouths with far too many teeth.

Blood-stained shadows that seethed at the mass of humanity around them with barely concealed disdain.

Icy blades that sprouted needles that threatened to skewer all around her.

A huddled, trembling knight, paper armour covered in hollow fantasies and dreams, bound by lies that were already frayed.

A towering idol of bronze. Invincible. Untouchable. Unreachable. Yearning. Yearning. Yearning.

A quiet. A silence. A calm. A stillness, waiting for the right moment. A vengeance long, long overdue.

A loud, sparking, thunderous storm, roaring and laughing as loud as she can to drown out the screams.​

Ruby shuddered. She squeezed her eyes shut; breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…

Ruby opened her eyes again, and the nightmare receded… in all places but one.

The man behind the curtain spoke.

Don'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlook.​

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie… The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forwards, you will work together as… Team Juniper."

Applause. Nora whooped and embraced Lie.

"Led by… Jaune Arc!"

Jaune gawked and stammered. Pyrrha tried to give her partner an encouraging punch on the shoulder… and knocked him over.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha hissed, the smile on her face painful as she shuffled over to pull Jaune back onto his feet.

The man behind the curtain cleared his throat. "And finally…"

Don'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlook.​

The screen changed, and Ruby's heart began beating like a drum in her chest as she walked onto the stage with Yang, Weiss and Blake, pulling her cloak around her. Crimson flickered in and out of her vision, but the roaring fire of her sister was right beside her, and Ruby leaned into that presence, letting the flames lick at her. She was safe with Yang, always.

Yang had promised, Ruby trusted her, and that made it true.

"Blake Belladona, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao-Long… The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forwards, you'll work together as… Team Ruby."

Ruby kept her gaze fixed forwards. The man behind the curtain was right there.

Don'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlook!​

"Led by… Ruby Rose."

The world stopped. Ruby was dimly aware of Yang pulling her in against her side. In her head, a single thought emerged.

Fuck me.

---

The clock ticked, and Velvet Scarlatina smoothed her skirt, fussed over her blouse, and tried her best not to fidget in her seat.

It's just an internship, she told herself, for the third time in an hour.

She made the mistake of glancing up. The lobby was large, but also intensely plain and generic in a way that could only be a deliberate statement. White, beige and silver dominated everything from the walls to the ceiling, to the minimalist decor, to the benches built around the four pillars that held up the floors above. The only splashes of colour were posters advertising military hardware; a Bullhead soaring over downtown vale, automated turrets standing sentinel on a fortified wall, and another –the biggest of them all– showing a Raptor fighter flying across beautiful blue sky.

The three linked diamonds of the Armacham Technology Corporation dominated the wall to Velvet's left, their slogan emblazed just below, Working for the future.

Velvet swallowed.

An internship with the biggest company in Vale. God's horns…

"Miss Scarlatina?"

Velvet straightened. The secretary at the desk –a young and pretty woman whose green hair had been tied into a bun– gestured at another human. Also young, wearing clothes that he must've thought made him look approachable –a creamy blue polo and slacks– but made him look like a civilian college student. The ID card he wore on a lanyard said he was from the HR department.

Velvet was suddenly very glad that she'd stopped Coco from accompanying her.

He smiled, but the expression lacked any real warmth. "If you could follow me, I'll get you to your interview."

---

The clock ticked relentlessly, and Velvet Scarlatina tried her best not to squirm in the plush wing chair.

She'd been led by the polite and pleasant, but professionally distant man into the headquarters of the Armacham technology corporation. Past offices, down corridors, and through an atrium that had a replica of a big… device hanging from the ceiling. An octagonal prism with what looked like square glass wings extending from opposite sides, and a parabolic antenna on one end.

"Hannibal One," the HR man had told her when he caught her staring at it, and her eyes widened in recognition of the name, "Or, well, a model. The real one's probably still floating out there."

He didn't mention that the device –the artificial satellite– had also completely failed after leaving atmosphere. He'd led her to another waiting room deeper in the facility and just as bland as the first, assured her that her interviewer would arrive soon, and just… left her there.

It's just an internship, Velvet reminded herself, staring at the carpet, And ATC is the biggest company in Vale.

"Miss?"

Velvet looked up to see who had spoken. She'd expected the HR guy again, or maybe the person who would be the doing the actual interview.

Instead, she found herself gazing up at the mirrored surface of a pair of aviator sunglasses, and the security guard who wore them. He wore a flat-topped cap, a blue shirt with rolled up sleeves and the ATC logo on the shoulder, a heavy ballistics vest over that with some extra bits of armour, black pants tucked into shin-length boots, and knee pads.

For a brief moment, a pit opened up in Velvet's stomach, while the corner of her mind she tried the hardest to ignore began to protest at the unfairness of it all; wasn't ATC supposed to be the nice corporate giant? Had they also brought her all the way in her just so they could-?

"I'm here to escort you further inside."

The moment passed. Velvet tried her best not to sag with relief.

"S-sure," she said, standing up and hating how her voice stammered. Why couldn't she be as confident as she was around her team?

It was only after she'd begun following the security guard that she wondered why she'd need an escort.

---

The clock ticked forwards mercilessly, and Velvet Scarlatina tried her best not to disappear into the sofa.

She'd been led deeper and deeper still into Armacham HQ. First, she'd gone through a security checkpoint –a metal detector and then something which looked disturbingly like an armoured box meant to contain an explosion. The guards manning it had made a brief show of inspecting Anesidora before the one escorting her had rolled his eyes and told them to give it back to her.

"There's enough automated turrets past here to hold a battalion off," he'd explained, when he'd given him a questioning look. More quietly, he'd added, "Plus, the doc might want to give it a look. Every little bit helps."

After that, an elevator that went down for a lot longer than Velvet was comfortable. Then there was a long, winding corridor through what Velvet suspected was where the real work of ATC was done; mostly closed offices hosting quiet conversations she dared not listen too hard to, but she also heard the distant sounds of machine shops and firing ranges. The decor was still aggressively bland, but there was a change in the atmosphere that sent ice down her spine.

I-it's an internship, she'd told herself, an internship with the biggest weapons manufacturer in Remnant. God's Horns where am I even going!?

Past the corridor, another checkpoint. This one had several armed and armoured guards protecting it on top of a metal detector and another of those armoured bomb-proof boxes (which was when the guards cheerfully told her that they were meant to detonate any explosives she might have hidden on her through inductive current) and beyond that, a thick, vault-like door made of dull matte steel. Hydraulics hissed as it opened, and Velvet was led through, and down another elevator, headed even deeper underground.

And now, here she was, Gods knew how many feet underground, sitting at a waiting area while someone was being verbally torn apart within the office she was presumably going to enter next.

The first voice spoke with such seething disdain Velvet wondered how Grimm didn't spontaneously manifest. "You fucking toad."

The second voice simpered. "N-now now, Harlan-."

"Quiet. I'm going to use small words so that you can understand. Terry found that our monitoring equipment was getting pretty chatty strange times. Kept trying to connect to places it couldn't reach. Wasn't even hard to catch and put a stop to it. Then we traced them back to one computer, and one login. Oh, you wiped the logs, but you didn't get rid of the greasy fingerprints you left all over the place when you did."

The other voice was trembling. "P-Please, Doctor Wade, you're mistaken. After all, you know that monitoring systems are required at all ATC-."

"Don't you dare come to me with that bullshit. I know the regs –I wrote them you dumb fucking bastard– and they say that nothing that happens here is to ever, ever, see daylight. If and when this building ever shuts down, we're to seal every room below ground level in fucking concrete. Do you understand that, Norton, or do I need to get the crayons and hand puppets?"

A defensive tone entered the second voice. "… You have no proof. Nothing about what you said points to me. Are you sure you don't have a leak in your department?"

"I am. I'm talking to that lard-brained whale right now. And if you want proof…"

The first voice lowered to a growl.

"Ruby's coming this weekend. Want me to ask her to get proof? You know she'd be happy to."

The silence was deafening. Then, a snort fill with more derision than Velvet had ever experienced, which was… something.

"Thought so. Get out of my sight."

The door flew open, and the single fattest man, human or faunus, that Velvet had ever seen came stumbling out; flabby, with red hair and too much chin under his mouth, wearing jeans and an incredibly loud shirt. He paused when seeing Velvet and seemed almost about to say something when the owner of the over voice roared from inside the office.

"Maple, why can I still see your obese ass outside my door!? Out. Of. My. Sight!"

Norton Maple scurried away a lot faster than Velvet would've expected for someone so corpulent. For a moment, she just sat there, uncertainty gnawing at her chest. What had just happened? Was she supposed to hear all that?

Her ears twitched. She heard a chair being wheeled back inside the office. Footsteps on worn carpet. Grumbling. A human man stepped into the doorway; old enough that his hair was snow white. A faded blue sweater –worn over a long-sleeved white shirt– and a pair of black slacks hung from his thin frame. A moustache emphasized the downwards curl of his lips, and his eyes hid behind thick-framed, square glasses that glinted in the cold blue light.

Velvet recognized him, to her shock; the Harlan Wade who'd smiled in her parents wedding photos was almost unrecognizable.

He stared at Velvet, as if expecting her to bolt as well. Her pointed behind himself.

"In," he ground out.

Velvet hurried into his office, brushing past the man as she did. It was a big office, with enough room to have a pair of armchairs and coffee table to one side. A large, square scroll with a black, square frame was propped up on his desk, screen blanked out, and the walls were lined with bookshelves, filing cabinets and lockers. A long, tan trench coat and a gun belt with a massive handgun in its holster hung from a coat hanger, placed just close enough to be reached without moving from behind the desk

Velvet sat herself on one of the two chairs in front of the desk. Something about the room struck her as odd.

Harlan Wade shut the door, and slowly walked behind the desk to take the high-backed office chair there. He moved slowly and took a moment to get himself comfortable, leaning back in the office chair with his elbows on the armrests, fingers clasped together. All the while, he stared at her with an utterly blank expression.

Velvet swallowed. She did her best to smile.

"H-hello, my name is Velvet Scarlatina," she managed to force out, "I-It's…" Terrifying. "… Good to see you, Doctor Wade."

Harlan said nothing. The clock ticked forwards implacably. Velvet tried not to squirm.

She'd practiced interviews with the rest of CFVY all night yesterday, and even the most uncomfortable scenarios her team had thrown at her had nothing on this.

"Do you know why you're here, Velvet?"

The question came after what felt like an eternity. It almost seemed to come from nowhere; Harlan's blank expression didn't change a millimetre when he made it.

"I'm here for an interview," Velvet answered, "With… you." Apparently? "I'm a student at Beacon, so I've been looking for something part-time to-."

"Stop."

Velvet bit her lip. She felt a brief flash of anger at the interruption before she buried it.

Harlan took his time to speak again. His eyes left her for the first time since she'd arrived, focusing on the open scroll. Reaching out with his right hand, he pressed his thumb on the edge, and the screen lit up again. Velvet couldn't see what he was doing –the screen was opaque– but he seemed to be browsing something. He moved slowly and deliberately.

"Velvet Scarlatina," he began, "You sent an application for part-time work to ATC's CCTSNet address two weeks ago. The mail server caught it, scanned it, took it apart, ignored everything it was programmed to ignore, and then built a file for processing. A sorting algorithm picked up your file, read 'internship', 'part-time', and 'faunus', and kicked it over to the Company Inclusivity Program's server. That server looked at the file, stored it, set a timer to delete it in about a month, and went back to doing…" He shrugged. "Whatever else it was doing."

Harlan Wade paused. His fingers tapped a few keys in the holographic keyboard.

"At no point did anyone read your application," he noted, "It would've stayed buried until the timer ran out, or the CIP manager was told that we need to score some moral brownie points. Maybe someone on the board got drunk and called you lot a pack of animals."

The words were delivered with all the casualness of someone discussing the weather. "She'd dig around the files for a while and come up with yours. Photogenic, she'd think. Your file gets passed on to HR. They call you and offer you a part time job doing almost nothing in one of the offices." He leaned back. "Fetching documents and coffee for puffed-up pencil pushers, who may or may not try their luck with the faunus intern, unlocked aura or not. Just enough to say you're employed, but never enough for you to move up; heaven forbid you get a chance to do anything actually important here. At most… maybe they'd pick you out to put your face on a poster about how fucking inclusive this place is."

Harlan stopped. The flash of anger from before had come back, and Velvet had to work to push it down.

What was that!? Why are you telling me this you…!

Velvet stopped that line of thought. Why was Harlan Wade telling her this?

Is this some… some sort of test, to see if I'll blow up? But that doesn't make any sense; he wasn't explicitly racist, at worst he implied that others would've been in that scenario he laid out, but why…?

Velvet's ears twitched. She was going about this the wrong way.

If what he said is true…

"Then why am I here, Doctor Wade?" she asked.

A flicker of what might've been grudging approval crossed Harlan's face. "Because I stole your application from the server, and decided you might…" A pause. "Be useful, for something I have in mind. First reason: You're a Huntress," he said, bluntly, "in training, sure, but…"

His lips twitched. "Four Huntsmen in the world have any experience with what we're dealing with. One's a dusty bird-brained drunkard who's too fucking busy to pick up his scroll, the second is dead, the third's already had enough bullshit thrown at him for two lifetimes, and the fourth…" Harlan growled. "If she ever shows her face, she is only leaving this building as a corpse." He straightened out. "And none of them can go where you'll be headed."

Velvet swallowed. That had been… Um. Illuminating…?

"Aren't you a Huntsman?" she then blurted out; maybe she was pushing her luck, but… what if Harlan wanted her to ask questions?

"I'm old, my aura's shit, and after not discovering my Semblance over the past fifty years, I can say it's because I won't," Harlan shot back. "And, again, I can't go where I need someone to go. Which brings me to the second reason… that you're a Huntress in training."

Another twitch from Velvet's ears. Huh…?

Harlan stared into her eyes. "Beacon had their initiation today, and one of their new students is…"

A strange look came across the man.

"… Of interest." His hands flew across the keyboard, and he turned his scroll around, showing the very first frame of video. A steel room, with a metal table in the middle. A figure cloaked in red sat in front of it, a hood covering their face.

Sat opposite, was a woman in a lab coat.

"It's simpler to just show you."

The video played.

---

Velvet would be getting no sleep that night.

In the morning, she'd be headed to ATC HQ once more.

---

Interval 02: First Encounter
Complete​

 

[Dalek Ix]

And with that, all completed intervals have been posted. The links are in the thread banner, but for the sake of redundancy, here's the Ao3 version, the TvTropes page (which can always use some more love) and the original story thread on SB.

As with everything I write, comments, suggestions and so on are greatly appreciated. If you want to give me financial support (as opposed to emotional support ) my Ko-fi is right here.

 

[Dalek Ix]

Red Ruin​

Night had fallen, and Beacon slept.

Ruby did not.

The bed was unfamiliar. The room felt strange…

And her mind was restless.

Ruby did not sleep. She could not. Instead, she waited –laying on "her" bed, eyes closed, breathing slow and steady– for sleep to claim everyone else.

Yang wasn't fooled. Ruby's sister seemed to have a sixth sense for these sorts of things, and the concern and worry flickering from her like tongues of flame sent a wave of guilt through Ruby, which only got worse when understanding followed.

Ruby swallowed the guilt and waited until sleep claimed everyone on her… on her team. And then she waited a little more, just to be sure, before moving.

Moving as quietly as she could, Ruby crept out of bed. She'd thrown her cloak over her as a blanket –as usual–, and now she clutched it around herself as she padded towards the window, the folded form of Crescent Rose tucked under her left arm.

She paused there and Felt. Yang was just glowing embers, her dreams mercifully peaceful. Blake was still, although Ruby could feel a tension underneath the shadows, as if she were ready to leap at the slightest sound, and her own dreams felt restless. Weiss…

Underneath the ice of sleep, the too-sharp, too pointed blade swung at things only she could see, and which nobody could hope to save her from. Weiss was having a nightmare.

My fault.

Ruby's hands trembled, and she closed her eyes.

Deep, deep breaths… And let go.

There was nothing she could do. As always…

Ruby's right hand let go of her cloak and reached out. The glass felt cool underneath her palm.

Careful now…

Ruby's condition came with more pain than she'd wish on anyone else, but even she had to admit that it was useful sometimes. Especially the trick she was about to pull; one she'd learned to do early, and one of very few she could trust herself to do even in this state.

First, focus on Somewhere Else. Then imagine yourself already there.

And then will it to be true.

The glass vanished. Ruby opened her eyes to find herself standing on the roof of the dorms, right above where her… her team's room was.

"My team," Ruby found herself whispering. "My team…"

Suppressing a shudder, Ruby walked towards the furthest end of the dorm block from there, careful to keep her balance. Reaching the edge, she sat down, cross-legged, Crescent Rose on her lap and her cloak wrapped around her, the hood up to cover her head.

Shrouded in the crimson fabric, Ruby got herself as comfortable as she could and deliberately put both hands on Crescent Rose. She closed her eyes and

pulled.​

Red flickered around the edge of her vision. Her world spun and seemed to collapse inwards, driving the breath out of her lungs; she felt as if she were about to burst, or fold into herself, or crumple into nothing, her heart beat faster and faster and–

"Aah!"

Ruby collapsed onto the ground, clutching Crescent Rose against her and gasping for breath. Her heartbeat felt like a snare drum in her chest, and her lungs burned. It took a few seconds of her to recover enough to pull herself up onto her feet.

She was still sat on the dorm's roof, wearing socks and pyjamas and her cloak wrapped around her like a shroud. But at the same time, she was garbed in the Dust alloy steel-backed cloth of her combat outfit, and standing…

Here.

It was a clearing; a crimson field growing on stark white soil, spreading beneath a black, starless sky and a red-tinged moon.

It was a plateau, rising high into what might be air, sheer cliffs plunging down on every side.

It was an island, surrounded by a sea of blood and nightmares.

It was a fortress ringed with walls of hope and love, forever besieged by whispers of doubt and loathing and the impulse to scream and rage and turn all to ash wasteland and red ruin so she could finally have peace.

It was the tiny slice of light and sanity she'd slowly, slowly carved out within herself.

Ruby had tried to explain This Place to Yang, to Harlan, to Qrow and even Dad. Her uncle understood what it meant. Her dad understood what it was. Doctor Wade understood what it did. Her sister understood what it held.

Ruby looked around, Seeing everything This Place had at once. Feeling everything it had at once. Being everywhere This Place was. The House, The Walls, The Field, The Well, and Her Grave.

(This Place should've given her headaches. Instead, Ruby Rose never felt more in control than when she was Here.)

The House was fine; its doors unlocked and open, beckoning with the nostalgia of memory. Ruby touched the doorframe, tempted, but pulled away with regret. For now.

The Walls had hairline cracks between the blocks, and some places had been worn down by erosion. Ruby traced her fingers over the blocks, smiling as she remembered what they were made from. Yang pummelling a boy who'd tried to take her cloak away. Yang's first (successful) attempt at a birthday cake. Qrow patiently guiding her through her first kata. Qrow smiling at her blueprint for Crescent Rose. Dad carrying Yang and her on his shoulders. Dad sat down on the sofa, telling his enraptured daughters how his last mission had gone. Harlan Wade, radiating utter fury as he snarled at the people who would've had her be locked away. Harlan Wade, tracing his fingers over Crescent Rose, a glint to his eyes.

Yang, her heart shattered by the realization that That Woman had never loved her, eyes still red with tears, swears to Ruby that she'll never burn her.

Qrow sits down on her bed, looks around at the wreck her powers have turned her room into, and softly tells her about his Semblance.

Dad on his knees, his hands on his daughter's shoulders. The admission of how broken he is hurts them all. He swears to get better.

Harlan Wade stands beside Ruby Rose, leading her towards the imposing sphere of exotic alloys and esoteric technology he has made again. As he watches her climb through the hatch, his soul becomes awash with pain as he remembers.

Ruby pulled away, wiping off tears. The Wall stood strong once more.

The Well was… like always. Filled to the brim. Beckoning. Ruby left it alone.

The Field was looking… worse than usual, but that was why she was Here, after all. Crescent Rose unfolded, and Ruby walked down the paths that cut through the crimson grass and thought.

"So…"

Ruby sighed. "… I'm inside my head, why is this so awkward?" A huff. "Guess you can't not think out loud when you're inside your own head…"

She looked down. She'd been walking, but she hadn't moved.

"Fiiiiiiiine," she whined, before starting again, "Okay, let's start from the beginning. I am training to be a Huntress at Beacon. I skipped two years ahead to train to be a Huntress at Beacon. I…"

Her hands gripped Crescent Rose tightly.

"… I don't like that," Ruby said, voice soft, "I… I know there's zero chance of me ever being normal, but I still don't like having… stuff like that piled on."

She winced. "Especially because it happened after Yang and me had a huge fight. A… really, really huge fight. A fight neither of us really…"

She groaned. "I said I was sorry, Yang said she was sorry, but neither of us meant it," she admitted, "I mean, we were sorry about the mess and scaring people and having the cops show up and then Miss Goodwitch and The- and Ozpin got involved, but she still thinks that waiting two years for me to catch up would've been a good idea, and I still think that…"

Ruby paused.

"… I still think Yang deserves… better," she whispered. "Better than being stuck… taking care of me. This is her dream too. She shouldn't have to put everything on pause for me. She shouldn't have to go to some Mob Bar to ask if they've got something for her to do that's not 'too illegal'. She shouldn't have to stand watch over me when I sleep to make sure my nightmares don't hurt me! She shouldn't have to…!"

Ruby's words choked in her throat. She planted Crescent rose's shaft into the ground and pressed her forehead against the barrel's surface.

"… This is my curse. Why does Yang have to suffer for it too?"

The path ended.

"I hate this," she whispered. "I hate this so much."

All Ruby could do was switch to another and begin to walk again.

"A-anyways… I'm at Beacon now. I passed Initiation. I split a Giant Nevemore in two." Ruby smiled and let herself enjoy the memory. "Yang is my partner. My other teammates are Weiss and Blake."

She gulped. "Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladona. The singer and heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, and the daughter of Ghira Belladona, founder of the White Fang. And… um. Blake's also a former member of the White Fang. The hijack trains and blow offices up sort of former member of the White Fang."

Ruby's pace quickened. "Weiss doesn't know –Blake's using a fake surname and she's hiding her ears– but they already… Not Hate, I know what that feels like, but they really don't like each other. But Blake can't… Maybe she can hide the White Fang bit, but she can't hide her ears forever –she hates having to hide them– but when that comes out it's gonna be such a mess and… and…"

Ruby whimpered. "And I'm their leader. I'm… Responsible for them. For Yang. I'm… going to have to deal with that. It's gonna be my problem."

Her voice lowered into a snarl. "As if I didn't have enough! Why me!? Why not…!?"

She stopped, struck Crescent Rose's shaft into the ground, and held onto it.

"Hate," she panted, "Hate, hate, hate, hate. So much hate."

She closed her eyes. "In, out, in, out… Calm down Ruby… Calm down… Happy thoughts…" She glanced down at the path and groaned. "I'm literally going in circles. Ugh…"

Ruby looked up at the starless sky. "… What can I do…?" She wondered, "I'm their leader, but it's not like I can force them to be friends…"

She began to walk again.

"I mean… if I got into the Safe and set the shielding just right, I could…"

She skidded to a stop. Ruby's eyes widened, pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and she shook her head as hard as she could. "Nope! No, no no! Bad thought! Bad idea! Do not mess around with people's heads, Ruby, that is not okay!"

She shuddered, and very deliberately pushed the path in a different direction.

"Let's try again," she forged ahead, "Think Ruby… Blake doesn't like Weiss because she's secretly a faunus and Weiss is a Schnee." She groaned. "And Weiss doesn't like Blake because… Why?"

Ruby blinked. "I haven't… Felt Weiss. I mean I have but…" She shuddered. "Oh, why does The Thing that is and isn't Weiss have to Look so sharp and pointy and… Needles. Hate needles."

She shook herself. "Brrrr! A-anyways, The Thing that is and isn't Weiss kept aiming pointy things at everyone and everything around her. I didn't Look very closely but… were some of those pointed towards herself?" A pause, and then she felt herself advanced faster. "She wasn't happy about the plan I made but… I only Looked a little, but I think Weiss was even less happy that she didn't have a plan."

"But she did follow my plan," Ruby countered herself, "And she corrected it a little –I only wanted the gravity glyph for the slingshot, but she added those haste glyphs to make me go really fast. She was worried that someone else would mess up, but she didn't think she would, because she'd work as hard as she could to make sure she didn't…" She hummed. "She's… proud of herself."

She idly swung Crescent Rose in a practice kata as she walked. "Blake's also really proud of herself. Not of what she's done –well, not anymore– but she's a very… 'Ah, you guys learned stuff in schools, but I learned it in the real world' sort of person. So, Blake rubs Weiss the wrong way, and Weiss rubs Blake the wrong way, neither wants to back down, add some secret faunus with a Schnee, and that's how you get a Giant Nevermore thinking you smell tasty." She swung a little harder and faster. "And then Yang and I had to split them up."

Ruby felt herself brighten. "They were working together at the end, though…! And they've also basically said nothing to one another since then… But they've only known each other for a couple hours at most! There's lots of room for improvement!"

Her smile quivered. "Also, lots of room for it to get worse…! Happy thoughts Ruby. Happy thoughts. I have Yang to help me. I've got teachers to ask for advice. Also, the other tea-." Ruby palmed her forehead. "Jaune's even more lost than me, Cardin Feels like he kicks puppies as a hobby, and I can't even remember anyone else's names." Her tone turned sheepish. "Also, I should apologize to Jaune tomorrow. I… ehehe. I wasn't very nice to him…"

A swing that cut the air in front of her and ended with Crescent Rose resting across her shoulders.

"Point is that… yeah, things aren't great, but I think I can do something about it." Her smile grew stronger. "Tomorrow's gonna be about watching Weiss and Blake to know them better –oh Grimm and Dust I'm not gonna enjoy staring at Weiss when she gets angry at something!– and looking for things that they'd both like! And since I'm their leader, they'll have to listen to what I say! And my condition can help for once!"

Her steps gained a skip to them. "And once they start being friends to one another, Blake will get comfortable enough to stop wearing her bow around us, and then-." She stumbled a little. "-And then Weiss will be a little mad at Blake, because faunus, but by then they'll be friends and we'd have gone on missions and stuff together and … And maybe it won't be as bad as I'm imagining it!"

She nodded to herself. "And if they go back to fighting, I'll sit them down and yell at them for being dumb. Or ask Yang to sit them down so I can yell at them dumb."

"So, Operation Get Weiss and Blake To Be Nicer To Each Other is go!" Ruby chirped, pumping her right fist into the air. "Also Operation Apologize to Jaune Because You Creeped Him Out Ruby, That Was Not Necessary, What Is Wrong With You."

Ruby sighed. "What isn't…" She screwed her eyes shut and lightly slapped her cheeks. "Nope, no moping tonight, Ruby. I can do this, I can do this…!"

Ruby stopped. Her Grave lay before her; a pale white square stone, a Rose carved upon it, and beneath it the words,

Summer Rose

THUS KINDLY I SCATTER​

"I always end up here, don't I?" Ruby mused, kneeling to touch Her Grave, "I just remembered… Dad said you were team leader back when you, Uncle Qrow, That Woman and he went to Beacon…"

Her fingers rubbed the carved rose.

"How did you do it?" Ruby wondered. "Who was your partner? Did you ever feel like…" She bit her lip. "Like this?"

A pause.

"You never told them about our curse, didn't you?" Ruby whispered. "Everyone tells me all sorts of things about you, but…" The smile is small and sad. "It's funny how often people forget that I hear what they don't want to say about you."

She sighed. "Why didn't you?" Softer. "Why couldn't you?"

Ruby's fingers traced the letters of her mother's name.

"… I should tell them."

Her heart skipped a beat.

"I need to tell them," she said, with as much determination as she could muster. "It's… fuck me it's terrifying to even think about it but…!" Ruby swallowed. "Yang already knows. Blake kinda knows, but she's smart enough to see where the gaps are and that terrifies her. Weiss… Weiss deserves to know what I almost did. I need to tell them."

Ruby Rose stood up, her cloak falling around her like a shroud. "So I will tell them." She gulped. "Tomorrow," she added, sending cold dread down her spine. "The sooner I do it, the easier it's supposed to be, right?"

"Yang won't be happy but… well, it's my secret to hold, hm?" She found a smile on her face. "And, hey, maybe having everything out there will help me deal with the big problem in the team!"

"It's gonna be okay," she told herself.

She felt the doubts start to gnaw at the walls. Taking Crescent Rose in both hands, she repeated herself, "It's going to be okay."

"Even if I have to make it so with my own bare hands."

Ruby closed her eyes and pushed-

The world swam, and she came to, gasping. She was on the roof of the Beacon dorms, shielded from the cool night air by her cloak. Above her the stars twinkled past a scattered clouds.

"Right-"

Ruby blushed. Inner thoughts now, Ruby.

She got up and began to carefully walk her way back towards her team's dorm room. Right, now, where did I leave the whistle Yang thinks she got rid of…?

 

[Dalek Ix]

Cue the music!​

In the hallways of Beacon, Chibi Weiss frowned adorably.

"Blake Belladona," she mumbled to herself. "Belladonna," she repeated. "Ghira Belladona. White Fang. Faunus. Bombs."

She paused. Her eyes went wide.

"HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!"

---

In their dorm, Chibi R_BY was doing nothing at all. Chibi Yang was laying in her bed, playing a game on her scroll. Chibi Ruby stood in a dark corner, cleaning Crescent Rose and whispering sweet nothings to her beloved sweetheart. Chibi Bake was reading smut.

The door blew open, and Chibi Weiss marched in, murder in her eyes. "BELLADONNA!" She screeched, pointing an accusatory finger at Blake. "FAUNUS!"

Chibi Blake stared back. Inside, her mind was complete pandemonium as Mini Chibi Blakes scrambled to find an answer, meowing in panic. Meanwhile, the sisters shared a thought.

"Nah," drawled Chibi Yang.

Chibi Weiss's eyes almost bulged out. "What do you MEAN, 'NAH'?!" She screeched, "BLAKE BELLADONNA! AS IN GHIRA BELLADONNA! AS IN FAUNUS! AS IN WHITE FANG! SHE'S PROBABLY FILLED ALL OUR LOCKERS WITH BOMBS!"

"I haven't," Chibi Blake weakly defended herself.

A smiling Chibi Ruby's eyes gleamed, and she forcefully made Chibi Blake remember her last shopping trip.

"... Yet." She whispered, trembling.

"Still nah," Chibi Yang drawled.

"Nope!" Chibi Ruby added, suddenly besides Chibi Weiss, weapon resting on her shoulder.

"B-but-!"

"But nothing!" Chibi Yang corrected, on the other side of Chibi Weiss. The sisters picked the struggling Chibi Weiss up, and began to drag her into the bathroom.

"I know I'm right! I KNOW I'M RIGHT!" Chibi Weiss protested, "BLAKE BELLADONNA IS A FAUNUS! THERE'S BOMBS EVERYWHERE!"

"No she's not!" The sisters chorused, "No there's not!"

(A glare from Chibi Ruby told Blake that there'd better not be any bombs anywhere.)

"STOP GASLIGHTING MEEEE!" Chibi Weiss wailed, as she was dragged into the bathroom.

The horrified screams brought a pang of nostalgia to Chibi Blake. Her bow twitched, and she went back to reading smut.

"I thought I'd left terrorism..."

---

Chibi __BY were walking through Beacon grounds.

"So..." Chibi Blake began, "Ruby and you are half sisters."

Chibi Yang beamed. "Yep!"

"Raven's your mom," Chibi Blake continued, "and Summer is Ruby's mom."

"Raven gave birth to me. Summer is my mom." Chibi Yang corrected, without much heat, "But yep!"

Chibi Blake wondered what Chibi Ruby thought of her sister's mom.

---

Meanwhile, Chibi RW__ were having their own discussion.

"... and what about Raven?"

Chibi Ruby grinned. "Oh, she's way easier to talk about!"

Silver eyes filled Chibi Weiss's world.

"She deserves to die."
​

---

Chibi Blake decided it was best not to think about that.

"So that means that your dad first married a bandit queen," Chibi Blake forged on, "and then he married a terrifying telepath woman."

Chibi Yang scoffed. "Mom wasn't... that terrifying. But yeah."

"... I think your dad has a type."

Chibi Yang blinked. "Now that you mention it..."

---

Chibi Cinder sat at the bar, slumped over the countertop, wondering when the author would finally get to the part where she showed up.

"Fucking daleks," she grumbled, reaching for her glass only to find it empty. Then another one was set down right next to it.

Chibi Taiyang gave her his winningest smile.

"Hey~."

 

[Dalek Ix]

Red Ruin​

---

The CIC of the VS Aqueronte was carefully choreographed chaos. Officers wearing the dark greens and blacks of the VDF called out targets, armaments and incoming communications, only occasionally talking over one another as they did so.

"Wardog Squadron reports hits on all targets."

"… Winchester on cluster munitions, RTB…"

"… fire mission complete and are asking for new coordinates…"

"Ribbon Squadron has reached their next marker; no contacts."

"… down to forty percent on their thirty-mills…"

"First Air-mobile Brigade Combat Team is reporting-"

"Wowen reports clean hits with long-range missiles, they're moving in to mop up!"

Again. Only occasionally.

The faunus woman who stood at the centre of the flurry that accompanied the execution of any large-scale military operation –even an exercise like this one– shot a glare at the over-eager officer, who shrunk at the attention. Her uniform –green trousers, black shirt, green tie and jacket– shared the colours of everyone else, but had the embellishments only rank could grant; silver along the edges and seams, and black laurels embroidered onto the jacket's shoulders.

A green peaked cap with the crossed axes and laurel wreath that symbolized the Kingdom of Vale embroidered in silver, with green leaves on the black peak, sat atop her head, forcing her long rabbit ears to fold down to accommodate it. Her green hair flowed out the back, tightly constrained in a braid.

The officer who'd been interrupted continued more tersely, "First BCT is reporting successful evacuation and are leaving the AO."

General Stachys Vera of the Vale Defence Force spared a glance towards the mission clock, and nodded, hands clasped behind her back.

First BCT, Third division… That's Colonel Stannum. Forty years old, father fought in the FRR. Married to a dancer, I think?

Heh. Trying to come back home in time for dinner, Conye?

Nothing in Stachys' bearing betrayed the thoughts in her head. "Good," was all she said.

A glance towards the holotable that dominated the middle of the room and the constellation of icons it displayed –missile tracks, unit markers, and amorphous masses of red marking out the presence of Grimm both real and simulated as best as sensors and reports make it so– made her pause for a moment as her eyes took it all in.

The urge to pinch the bridge of her nose almost overcame her.

And that's Pequod's Wowen overextending again.

… Hm. Against actual Grimm, this time. Looks like a Nevermore flock…

The mixed blessing of any military exercise, Stachys had discovered, was that the Creatures of Grimm very often invited themselves into whatever you'd planned. On the one hand, actual Grimm could be very useful in gauging how well new tactics and weapons worked against them, and it was good to have a little unpredictability in any exercise. Plus, the more soldiers fought the monsters, the less they'd fear them later.

On the other hand, it also meant that any military exercise past a certain size called for live ordinance and involved actual danger, with all that that entailed. Non-simulated casualties, blessedly, had been absent this time.

"Detach Guerrehet to cover Wowen," Stachys snapped, her hands squeezing together behind her back. A thought occurred, and she hazarded a quip, "And remind Captain Pequod that training exercises don't have high scores."

There's scattered laughter, and Stachys pretends not to notice how much of it is forced.

---

Hours later, the sun had long dipped below the horizon, the First Carrier Taskforce was cruising back to harbour, and Stachys Vera was at her desk, in her office, elbow-deep in notes and reports. Her jacket was unbuttoned, and her cap is was her desk, finally freeing her rabbit ears.

They twitched at some distant noise, and the last third of their length flopped. Stachys' lips pursed.

Stupid things…

While Stachys would never try to hide her ears, she sometimes envied faunus with less… frustrating traits. It was difficult to project the image she wanted when she was stuck with long, floppy rabbit ears.

Shaking her head, she focused back on her scroll, and the reports that had been streaming in as the rest of the leaders compiled them, as well as the notes she'd written.

Pequod kept overextending with Wowen; have to address that sooner than later. First BCT performed very well, give or take a few close encounters with Grimm. Simulated evacuation was smooth, air cover was spotless, even if Wizard Squadron got a little too trigger-happy, and our bombardment went without a hitch… Aqueronte's crew needs seasoning, but that's a given with how new this ship is…

The VS Aqueronte was the newest addition to the VDF Air Fleet; the product of years of planning, development, legal wrangling, contracts, lobbying and political manoeuvring that had dominated Vale's military industry like a sun. Even the (in)famous Raptor project had been pulled into the ordeal –adding carrier capable to the laundry list of requirements for the stealth fighter had caused a few hospital-worthy headaches at Armacham's aircraft division.

Against all odds, though, Aqueronte had been completed. The first airship of her kind in Remnant, larger than an Atlaesian air battleship, and the most advanced and expensive ship Vale had ever produced. Now, though, the airship had to prove herself.

(Stachys recalled that some cultures in Mistral believed that ships possessed something that approached a soul. Sometimes, she wanted to believe they were right…)

Stachys shook herself. Teething issues and inexperience aside, Aqueronte and her crew had performed very well during the exercise, and the simulated defence of a cluster of settlements had been handled with ease.

And that's the problem. Stachys bit her lip. This was too easy. Most of the carrier squadrons didn't get to launch, the air-assault op was overkill even with all the simulated Grimm we added in, and even the evacuation went like clockwork and those never go as planned!

The faunus tapped her desk. I'll have to completely rethink our next exercise. We need a stress-test, not a milk run.

Grumbling, she opened a new document on her scroll and began to type up an outline she could hand over to the scenario planners. More and larger Grimm, obviously, but also more settlements to defend or evacuate, longer and larger waves…

Which also means a larger AO to set aside, more units to bring in, more ammunition to expend, more supplies and more fuel… and the Lien to pay for everything and everyone. A quick look at the budget we've got for training…

A few keystrokes, and the number came up. The general did some mental math on how much the much larger exercise she had planned would take from it, and she winced.

"Fuck."

We need an intense, large-scale exercise to make sure all our new expensive toys all work together as they should. And large-scale exercises are bloody expensive.

Too expensive for the budget I have left. That means getting a special budget approved by the rest of the council, and the whole circus that'll bring.

"I can see it already," she muttered, half-heartedly imitating the accent of a certain newsreader. "'General Tryhard Rabbit, not content with spending all of our tax money on a flying eyesore, has decided to spend even more of it setting the Emerald Forest on fire',"

Stachys scoffed. She wasn't particularly worried that the council would shoot her down; for one, for all that they disagreed in every other thing, Headmaster Ozpin was also a sensible man, thank the Horned God, and for another she had enough support amongst her other peers to get the ball rolling. She might not even have to push particularly hard for it –ATC and all the other members of the military-industrial club would do it for her the moment they caught wind of those two magical words: "procurement contracts".

Her worry lay in that, the moment it happened, the people who had nothing to do with keeping the monsters outside the walls at bay would start to openly complain why all that money had gone there instead of someplace else.

Like building more housing there's no fucking room for, or faunus inclusivity programs.

(To this day, Stachys Vera still didn't understand how Lisa Lavender's team had thought that those were good things to try and hit her with. Everyone in Vale knew that the housing crisis was rooted in the fact that there is no room inside the walls to build more housing, and complaining about a lack of faunus inclusivity to her was its own joke.)

Stachys sighed. "I bet Ironwood doesn't have this problem," she grumbled under her breath.

Focus, Stachys.

Her eyes went back to the outline.

"...We're hosting Vytal, right?"

Just like that, the seed of an idea took root. The writing cursor snapped to the start of the outline, and Stachys began writing again.

Speaking of Ironwood, word in spook country is that Atlas has new toys they want to show off. Why not give them a chance?

Stachys' fingers flew over the keyboard. Joint exercise between Remnant's strongest armies. Unity and friendship. Fits perfectly with the Spirit of Vytal. People will still complain, but they'll have Vytal to distract them.

Stachys grinned, and it was all teeth. And as a bonus, the talking heads who keep yammering on and on about international tensions get to shut the fuck u-.

Her tablet scroll chimed with an incoming call; it was her secretary and chief of security.

Stachys sighed and tapped the button to accept the call. "Yes?"

"Sorry Ma'am," came the clipped, baritone voice, "It's Captain Pequod; he says he has important information that he urgently needs to tell you."

Stachys drummed her fingers on her desk. "Has he said what kind of information he has that's so urgent he took a Bullhead from his ship to here to tell me, rather than use our comms channels?"

A pause from the soldier on the other end. Stachys' ears twitched as she heard a sigh.

"No ma'am."

This time, Stachys did pinch the bridge of her nose. Tilting her head up to look at the ceiling, she mentally weighed the idea of letting Pequod in.

Captain Saunerie Pequod. Lost his right leg to Grimm in the Air-Assault branch and switched to the air fleet. Very aggressive, very focused, and popular with his crew.

Her ears twitched.

This isn't like him.

"... Send him in," she decided at last, adjusting her posture and straightening out her uniform. Her fingers brush against the cap on her desk, and she quickly puts it on, her rabbit ears folding down once more.

The door slid open, and Captain Pequod limped through to stand at parade rest. He was young for the rank but had some early streaks of salt in his sable hair. There was a stiffness to the way he moved, disregarding the prosthetic leg.

The door slid shut behind him, and something about Pequod's face made the hair on the back of Stachys's neck stand on end. Had they not been pinned down by her cap, her rabbit ears would've perked up, alert.

"You asked to see me, Captain," Stachys drawled, injecting as much confidence as she could into her voice. "Well, here I am. Out with it."

The junior officer swallowed. "Ma'am... we have a problem."

Obviously.

"What sort of problem?" the general asked.

Pequod paused for a moment, as if collecting his breath. "After the exercise, I checked our ammunition levels," the man began, "and felt that they were too low for a safe transit back to Vale, so I ordered Wowen to stop by a supply depot --one of the automated ones we keep out here in the wilds-- to restock."

At her raised eyebrow, the man flushed with a little embarrassment, no doubt remembering the enthusiastic expenditure of ordinance Wowen had displayed. "Only shells for our forty-mills and the one-twenty sevens," he added, "Enough to get us back home if we run into a Nevermore flock."

"Captain Pequod, topping off stores while we're out in the wilds is the entire point of those depots," the faunus woman reminded him, "Hells, Huntsmen use them. So long as you write down what you took, this is hardly worth-."

"The depot's stores were empty, ma'am."

For half a minute, even human hearing could've heard a pin drop in that room.

"... Sit," Stachys ground out, gesturing at the seat opposite hers and trying to ignore the cold chill she felt going down her spine. "And tell me exactly what you found."

The captain practically collapsed onto the chair. He swiped off his cap and began to speak.

 

[Dalek Ix]

Hello!

So, the plan I had for 02.03 involved two scenes: one with Ghira and Kali discussing going ons in Menagerie, and one with Sienna Khan dealing with her own problems in the White Fang. Halfway through writing the segment with the Belladonnas, I decided that it didn't really flow well with the previous ones; combined with Stachys' segment it felt like I was making the chapter something of a lore dump. Furthermore, the whole thing felt rather... forced, in some way, and something about it --the timing, the presentation, the circumstances-- just didn't sit right with me. So, I've decided to scrap the segment and change track.

Rather than leave you waiting for another week, I've decided to post the incomplete segment anyways; the gist of what follows is canon to this fic, but the "real" scene will be different when it actually happens, so to speak.

---

[APOCRYPHA]​

---

One of the benefits of knowing someone for a long time, was that you learned their rhythms. Once, this had helped her better guard her charge; anticipating his motions before they happened so she could be in the best place to protect him at all times.

Now, it let Kali know in advance when her husband would slink away from their bed to brood. And, sure enough, when she slid open the balcony door, there she found him; sat on the old couch, hands folded on his lap, gazing out into the night.

She cleared her throat. Ghira jumped minutely, and he had the self-awareness to look sheepish when he looked towards her. Kali just shook her head and, wordlessly, brushed past her husband to sit down beside him, at his right.

Kali broke the silence.

"I wonder," she spoke, affectionately leaning against Ghira, "when you'll learn that you can't give me the slip."

"A stubborn old tom like me?" Ghira gave a rumbling chuckle, reaching out with his right arm to embrace his wife. "Next time, if the Horned God wills it."

Kali chuffed. For a long minute, the two of them just… sat there, looking out into the night. Despite only wearing robes, neither was particularly uncomfortable, Menagerie's night not being cold in the slightest.

Eventually, Ghira spoke again.

"Tell me, Kali," he began, gesturing out into the distance, "What do you see?"

Kali turned her eyes to look. Kuo Kuana didn't have many lights still on during the night, but it wasn't as if its inhabitants really needed the extra illumination. "I see Kuo Kuana," she told her husband, "I see the place you helped make for us, where no faunus fears being scorned or hated for what they are, where we can forge our own destiny. A place to call home." She paused. "What do you see, Ghira?"

Ghira's eyes closed.

"I see what you do… and I wish that was all I saw," he told her, "I see wooden houses that creak in the wind. I see dirt roads that turn to mud in the rain. I see a coast that floods us every summer. I see hospitals and schools where our doctors and teachers must work miracles every day, just to do their job. I see a village burdened with the population of a city."

He sighed, and Kali couldn't help but press closer to Ghira.

"Not like you to be so…" Kali searched for the right word. "Pessimistic."

Ghira shook his head. "A pessimist would look at that and say it is all that can be hoped to be achieved, or that we should consider ourselves fortunate to have even this much," he shot back.

There was an intensity in his eyes as he looked out into the night. "I know we can do better," he told Kali, "And yet…"

His fists clenched. The panther faunus breathed in deeply, and then blew out the air slowly. Kali merely sighed; she had a suspicion over what had sent Ghira down this train of thought.

"What happened today at the Congress?" she asked wearily.

Now it was Ghira who sighed. Powerful fingers combed back his hair.

"Old Bhalu presented a plan to send a mission abroad," he started, "Menagerie doesn't produce much, but we do have things the other kingdoms would want. Exotic fruits, mostly, but I know for a fact that carpenters in Vale and Mistral would fistfight one another for the wood that grows naturally here, considering the sort of prices Atlas would be willing to pay for anything they made with it."

"So, the plan was to load a few cargo ships with wood and fruit and send them to whichever ports would let them dock, along with representatives," Kali continued in his stead, rather easily deducing the gist of what had been proposed. "Sell off what they have in their cargo holds, and use that to buy things we need, plus pay the crews."

She paused, mulling it over. "Not the worst plan in the world, but it would depend on humans being willing to trade with faunus," she pointed out. "Not to mention the journey those ships would have to make, especially since we don't have any airships."

"The others had those same objections," Ghira confirmed, nodding. "Bhalu knew they'd come and had answers to that."

Ghira gestured broadly. "Mistral is closest, unfortunately, but the southernmost settlements are much friendlier to us than Mistral proper, and it wouldn't take much to obscure where those goods come from. Vale is further away, but they'd be under the protective umbrella of their army during most of it, and at the end they'd be docking at Vale City itself; Bhalu suggested that the faunus who live in Vale would be open to help, if we sent word ahead, and I was inclined to agree."

"And as for Atlas…" He gave a huff. "Bhalu's a perpetual optimist, and even he admitted that simply getting to the continent would be an ordeal, let alone finding someplace a ship could dock at and sell their cargo. He was wise enough not to mention trying to reach Vacuo."

"Still not the most solid of plans," Kali noted. "Particularly the part where we'd be relying on Mistral's Syndicates."

"Oh, I agree," Ghira told her, "It's far from perfect, but..."

Again, there was a gleam in his eyes. "It's a start. And sometimes one must take the risk of failure in order to succeed."

Again, his eyes closed.

"Bhalu's plan caused an uproar," he told Kali, "Bandar and his clique stopped just short of accusing Bhalu of treason. 'You'd have us sell ourselves out for a few Lien? Have you no pride in what we've built?', they asked him." Ghira shook his head, still in disbelief. "Others were a little more sensible; if humans realized that Menagerie had things of worth, then they'd come here, and soon we'd be like Vacuo; a wasteland stripped bare of wealth."

"On the other side, Bhalu's allies rallied in support of his plan, only for them to be accused of everything from corruption to being pets." Ghira sighed deeply. "Unfortunately for everyone, there were just enough people in favour to stop it from being thrown out, and now the whole mess will join all the other things that haunt Congress; brought up over and over again to be fought over until one side or the other gives in."

"And what did you do?" Kali prodded.

Ghira's face twisted. His left hand balled up into a fist and struck his knee with a thump.

"Nothing," he admitted, shame and frustration colouring his voice.

---

The following is from an earlier draft:

Spoiler: APOCRYPHA II

"Oh, I agree," Ghira told her, "It would've been better to skip Mistral entirely and focus on trading with Vale-."

Kali's amused snort interrupted him. "With how often you mention that kingdom, you'd think it wasn't just me you fell in love with while we were there," she quipped, voice teasing.

Ghira grinned, his own voice a rumbling chuckle. "Alas, this old tom can only handle so much beauty at a time," he answered with faux regret, and then deftly parried his wife's playful swipe at him.

"Just for the record, I will admit to having some admiration for Vale," Ghira forged on, once Kali and he had sobered a little, "Atlas and Mistral were forced to acknowledge out right to live within their borders at sword point. Vale defeated the revolution on their soil and then gave us what we asked for anyways."

"You mean The Old Rabbit defeated the revolution in Vale, after their council begged him to come out of retirement," Kali noted, "and they only gave us what they had no right to take after he forced them to."