Chapter 17

Shadow of a Rose

(A/N: Hello again, friends. I just wanted to give a quick heads up that since Chapter 16 I've posted two new stories that you might enjoy. The first is a sequel to "The Prodigal Stray" called "The Twilight Dragon". It picks up shortly after where its predecessor left off with Blake comforting and caring for Yang as her health slowly deteriorates and they await the final doctor's visit that will determine whether Yang's arm can be repaired or if she'll need a cybernetic. The other is a collection of short stories (two at the moment) called "A Patchwork Rose", which encompasses the life of Summer Rose from her childhood in the badlands of Vacuo to her final days as Supermom. I hope you enjoy, and God bless)

*ratatatatata*

*click...*

Blake lowered her pistol and narrowed her eyes down the firing range at the cluster of bullet holes in the wooden Beowolf-shaped target. A smile tugged on her lips seeing how much faster and smoother Gambol Shroud fired, and quietly thanked its mechanic.

While her weapon was by far the most versatile on the team, even the highest grade of ammunition it was capable of firing was next to worthless against armored Grimm, and without an imbuing of dust like Myrtenaster her blade too often bounced harmlessly off their thick hides. Killing monsters however hadn't been the Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe's purpose when being meticulously crafted. Its purpose was to overwhelm and confound unsuspecting victims with a myriad of attacks each one more varied and deadly than the last, and it had only been recently that Blake stopped thinking like an ambush predator and began using Gambol Shroud for other reasons than it had originally been intended for.

The oversized cleaver was by far her most brutal form of attack, but it also acted as the sheath to her katana which she generally preferred wielding simultaneously for a stronger offense and more importantly, added defense. A black ribbon was clipped to the katana's hilt only a couple feet in length but the durable material could stretch several dozen more at her aura's discretion. And with the katana transforming into a more compact size the ribbon could be used as a whip or swung around like the chain scythe it was named for.

Gambol Shroud had also once been a reasonably powerful side-arm as well, able to use functionable recoil techniques like Crescent Rose and Ember Celica, but thankfully those days had long passed.

After using the ribbon as a slingshot to behead a giant Nevermore Ruby had been drooling over the exotic weapon pleading with its owner for weeks to let her take it apart, and now Blake could kick herself for every day she hadn't indulged the weapon crazed girl. Despite Blake's affection for the weapon that had gotten her out of too many dangerous situations to count, Gambol Shroud had never exactly been reliable as it jammed easily and malfunctioned often. Despite how often she disassembled it for maintenance she'd never had the proper cleaning equipment or replacement parts, and even if she had Blake doubted she had the ability to get it to work properly.

Ruby later told her that Gambol Shroud's creator had been more of an engineer than an actual weapon mechanic. Meaning they'd been a dreamer, someone who expected their creations to work just as fluidly as the blueprints did on paper, but had never actually accounted for obvious wear and tear, overheating, dirt and grime getting in between the moving parts, and the many other problems Ruby had long since found solutions for. It never even occurred to her that the weapon hadn't been intended for a huntsman's way of life...

Without Blake's permission or even knowledge she had completely removed all recoil from the weapon, including its green dust mechanism for creating functionable recoil. Being a pistol it had only weighed it down and made it more cumbersome to aim consistently. She had also either reshaped and replaced many of the inner workings on account of them either being broken or missing entirely, which for Blake explained why most of the transformations had needed to be done by hand the past year or two.

It had taken a little while to grow accustomed to the lighter weight of her katana and pistol, and she hadn't exactly been thankful of her mechanic's meddling initially, but now she couldn't imagine ever having to go back. With just a minuscule reduction in stopping power when there was little to none against armored Grimm to begin with, Ruby had modified the entire weapon so that it was much quieter even without a silencer and had almost zero recoil. As a faunus Blake had already been a deadly marksman even with terrible recoil and misaligned sights, but now she found it almost impossible to miss her target even when holding down the trigger thanks to its newly added fully automatic setting to go along with its semi-automatic and burst fire.

The magazines had also been greatly extended to make up for its much higher bullet consumption, and while it couldn't fire anything near the caliber of round that Crescent Rose or Ember Celica could being a sniper rifle and shotguns respectfully, Gambol Shroud could unload a barrage of explosive rounds in a Grimm before it even knew what hit it.

She turned her head at a nearby firing station still smiling. "Thanks, Ru-"

*KABLLOOOOM!*

Blake jumped and cradled the sides head despite wearing hearing protection for both sets of ears, and shielded her eyes just as a fireball consumed what had once been a pack of Beowolves crudely spray painted on the sides of concrete blocks before having been blown apart if not entirely incinerated.

She blinked away tears as the red dust in the air irritated her eyes despite also wearing eye protection, and absently rubbed her left bicep as she watched the flames die out. Like Weiss she had always been rather wary around fire, though being around Yang was helping with in that regard, and even if it wouldn't ruin her katana Blake couldn't imagine ever imbuing it with red dust as Weiss did her rapier. Nor could she understand how the heiress could even stand to be around red dust imbued anything for that matter.

After a few moments of staring at her own weapon with a sudden feeling of inadequacy, Blake turned and saw her leader swap magazines as she limped to another stall for a fresh target. Glancing down again Blake couldn't help feeling as though she were holding a straw and shooting spitballs compared to the High Caliber Sniper Scythe that was also a viable cannon.

As Ruby set her rifle down on the little counter and dialed in her scope, Blake's sharp eyes squinted looking far down the range at a concrete Beowolf with a red crayon dot on its forehead, and wasn't at all surprised when the caped-girl pulled the trigger and there was a hole where the dot had been.

She continued watching as the entire magazine was emptied into the target, and once the final bullet casing bounced onto the ground at her feet Blake covered her ears once more as a magazine with red arrows pointing away from the center was loaded.

*KABLLOOOOM!*

Once the inferno died out and her heart stopped pounding against her chest Blake squinted at the smoldering crater where the target had once been standing. She then glanced back seeing that Ruby been pushed backward several feet despite the adjustable recoil having been lowered, and bent down slightly trying to peek underneath the red hood.

Ruby's face was impassive as if unimpressed by the fireworks, and Blake knew something must be deeply troubling the childlike girl who was normally like a kid in a candy store at the firing range. Of course she preached and practiced gun safety as though they were sacred commandments brought down on stone tablets by her uncle, but she'd often make up games to amuse herself such as hanging upside down while shooting or make obscene bets to fund her next candy store visit.

When they first arrived earlier that day Ruby had done as she'd said and began testing her newest ammunition for Crescent Rose. They were explosive rounds made from light blue dust that formed large ice casings much like when Weiss used her semblance in tandem with her bullets to incapacitate foes, or as they called it 'Ice Flower'. It was no surprise to Blake that Ruby had hit her target perfectly on the very first try, and after emptying several magazines with the temperature gauge for the barrel not budging it had been even less of a surprise when she had decided to swap to something a little more impressive. Long days and nights spent laboring in the machine shop modifying Crescent Rose had been a success, and Ruby never shied away from a celebratory explosion, or explosions for that matter, but Blake could sense something was deeply wrong even if the other girl was keeping her dwindling aura to herself.

As awkward as her attempts may have been Blake had tried engaging her in conversation, but after a failed attempt at small talk, which she self-admittedly had never been very good at it, and asking if she was alright after pointing out her limping and favoring her left shoulder again, Ruby had answered with a curt 'I'm fine' before reloading her cannon and shooting the head off a Beowolf cut-out. She decided to give Ruby some space after that...

Blake knew all her teammates were hiding the worst of their injuries and were feeling the effects of their first training session together in weeks and with such low aura. They did it virtually every day of their lives, including herself, but times like these were of the few occasions she counted herself lucky being born a faunus. Her muscles and bones were stronger and could take more stress than the average wiry teenage girl, which also meant she didn't get nearly as sore and stiff as her teammates who were all likely to soak in the bathtub tonight.

Unlike the sisters she also didn't have to worry about her semblance tearing her body apart, and could even do most of her acrobatics naturally without the addition of aura, unlike Weiss who despite once being a champion gymnast now relied almost entirely on aura to complete her graceful routines due to a combination of age, lingering injuries, no longer training daily, and actually eating occasionally. Blake had injuries too of course, as well as a few thin scars scattered about her body just like everyone else who wasn't named Yang Xiao long, but she knew the day was soon coming when she'd no longer land on her feet with quite the same ease, and was hoping her faunus heritage would continue offsetting the enormous demands put on her body. And seeing Ruby limp to another station Blake couldn't help once again feeling guilty that all her friends were wearing scars from the mission when she wore so few and were so minor in comparison.

Blake was a support fighter of the utility variety, meaning her role on the team differed between each fight. She didn't have anywhere near the Grimm slaying prowess as the sisters to be on the front lines, meaning she didn't engage them nearly as often, and couldn't back her teammates up or defend their flanks the same way Weiss could with her glyphs and dust imbued rapier. Her speed complimented Yang's raw strength and mixed seamlessly with Weiss' nimbleness and skill with a blade as well as Ruby's speed and ability to kill weakened or preoccupied Grimm in a single blow. Blake was the team's jack of all trades in a sense, the 'utility player', but while her role was undefined she was the team's lead scout, and as she had just proven a little while earlier their saboteur...

In a single motion Blake transformed her pistol back into a katana, briefly appreciating the smooth transition before sheathing over her shoulder it and stepping into the shadows which seemed to swallow her and where she always felt most at home. There she began to study the limping girl who reeked of wilting roses...

Ruby was only vaguely aware of the shadowy presence hovering over her as she silently dragged her feet from station to station. Crescent Rose had passed all the field tests flawlessly and vindicated all her hard work, but her real reason for coming to the firing range was still weighing heavily on her mind, and she had precious little time left being able to stand on her feet.

She considered wandering next door to the machine shop to work on Crescent Rose's shotgun attachment which she had never gotten to work quite right, but knew she would likely be shadowed and have to be on her best behavior there as well. Even so it was tempting.

The sniper-scythe had been modeled after her uncle's as much as possible, but having a penchant for accessories and both herself and Crescent Rose being a foot shorter than their respective counterparts meant some mechanisms just didn't scale down well. In rifle form both sniper-scythes also doubled as pump action shotguns, but her's was there mostly for novelty and because she liked the sound the pump made. However she would never admit this to her already suspicious teammates.

The fore-end attachment could feed a dozen shells into the rifle's barrel but they weren't anywhere near as powerful as her sniper ammunition, and reloading was next to impossible in the middle of a combat situation but was made even more impractical by having to rummage through an overfilled ammo belt for both magazines and shells. Even in breaching and clearing practice which she hated due to being nearly uselessness in corridor fights, her larger caliber rounds were still more practical as they were an almost guaranteed one-shot-kill at such close range and if necessary she could use her scythe for added protection. However even that was dangerous as it put her at risk of bumping into her teammates who were all much more suited to close quarters combat and who she was forced to rely on at such times, and made her jealous that her sniper-scythe didn't have a convenient sword transformation like her uncle's.

But despite all the ideas and excuses the insatiable weapon crazed girl could think of for going next door and improving Crescent Rose's already legendary mechanical performance, Ruby couldn't run away from or shake off her reason for coming to the firing range and having wanted to be left alone. Her clock ticking, and she couldn't focus on anything but her team's successful training exercise, and her failures...

Pride swelled within her bosom thinking of how her team had performed even after weeks of inactivity and still not physically being anywhere near a hundred percent. They had all grown and improved so much in their relatively short time together, and while Ruby liked to believe that she had played a minor role in their development she knew where the real credit lay.

One of the great expectations and heavy burdens on her as team leader was getting the most out of her teammates. She was to write bi-weekly reports detailing their progress to Professor Goodwitch would who in turn alter their classroom training exercises accordingly, as well as respond back with a report of what she was doing right or wrong or could be doing better, followed by a verbal discussion that was most often unnecessarily harsh but admittedly fair criticism of her team's flaws and deficiencies that as their leader she was ultimately responsible for.

Looking back at the very first reports she had written and received Ruby could see for herself just how much her teammates had improved, but it was also a reminder of just how much she was quickly falling behind. While their auras all continued developing, increasing, and growing stronger, her's seemed to move along at a snail's pace. And the impressive combat rating that she had always been able to fall back on since the first day of school had plateaued while theirs and the rest of the class' had been steadily inclining all these months. Whether any of them wanted to admit it or not, team RWBY's leader could no longer stand on equal ground with them, and in her mind would soon be holding them back if she wasn't already.

They would argue of course that she fought valiantly today in spite of her injuries, but in Ruby's mind injuries were just a harsh reality of the life she had chosen and knew they were all silently suffering even if they were too proud to admit them aloud. She had seen the bruises and bandages they'd all been hiding beneath their clothes when she walked into the dressing room earlier that day, and her eyes still welled up thinking of the blotches of discolored skin on the girl who was like a second mother to her...

Ruby knew what she was capable of, but she also knew what her teammates were capable of even better themselves. She tracked their auras daily if not hourly, had watched them overcome every obstacle she and Professor Goodwitch put in front of them, had reported on how they all performed on the mission, and had personally modified their weapons to be some of the finest the academy had ever seen.

'I wonder if this is how you felt, Mom, having such an amazing team...' Ruby paused briefly to admire a wooden Beowolves being engulfed by an inferno before moving to one of the few remaining stations with targets still standing.

It wouldn't be much longer before Weiss would no longer require dust to create her glyphs. She could already substitute dust with aura for her icy constructs, as well as create black gravity and white propulsion glyphs without the need of green dust. And while Weiss modestly argued she did so simply because she wasn't particularly skilled with air dust, Ruby knew it was because her own skill and precision with aura was just that much greater. What her partner lacked in raw power she more than made up with technique which was only getting better with experience, which had been the one thing she lacked when first arriving at Beacon. Creating her glyphs were no longer the great burden they once were and she was always finding better applications for them, and besides Professor Goodwitch she without question had the most knowledge of the ancient runes in the entire school.

The only thing Ruby liked to take a bit of credit for was helping her partner think more outside the box and less like a textbook or centuries old tome.

Her best friend was the finest swordsman in an academy full of expert swordsmen, and did in spite of her small stature and limited aura supply. Both were exploits every opponent took full advantage of by rushing her and making sure she didn't have the time or concentration to create her glyphs, forcing the undersized girl with the lowest constitution in the class to rely solely on her skill with a blade, of which there was no equal. Eventually her opponent would overextend or make the most minuet of mistakes that she would capitalize on and finally go on the offensive, but by then she might've already overexerted herself as her classmates knew the trick to defeating Weiss Schnee wasn't by actually winning the fight, but by being able to outlast her. Which earned her no small amount of grief from Yang.

For that reason Ruby had suggested she start wielding a dust imbued parrying dagger in her off hand, something that would bolster her already impressive offensive arsenal and defensive prowess, but despite occasionally creating a dagger made of ice when she had no other choice, Weiss vehemently dismissed the suggestion and refused to hear any more. Nothing in her opinion would ever be able to match the expert craftsmanship and class of Myrtenaster meaning the two would inevitably clash ascetically, and she would storm off before anything else could be said. Ruby thought her reactions strange, especially since Myrtenaster's hilt looked as though it'd been made to conceal a parrying dagger like most other Multi Action Dust Rapiers and Sabers, and couldn't wait to surprise her partner with her birthday present next month.

'I really wish you could've met her, Mom...'

Ruby wiped her eyes on a dirty sleeve and reminded herself that time wasn't a luxury she had at the moment, and that soon she'd have to go back upstairs and pretend everything was alright.

Her every muscle ached and it hurt to even breathe, but Ruby couldn't have been more proud of their source. Blake had preformed spectacularly even while holding back and in a combat situation she wasn't entirely comfortable with, and was likely more injured than she was letting on. Like Weiss she was becoming more aggressive and more sure of herself, and was now actively looking for opportunities to end a fight rather than just waiting for them to present themselves. Blake was now confidently controlling the pace of her fights, and if it hadn't been for her skill with a blade and sharp reflexes Ruby knew she would've been sent to the infirmary likely for another lengthy visit. Something Ruby felt she deserved for cheating...

Blake had come so far from having been the least refined fighter of the team, with Weiss going so far as to say her technique was sloppy and like an angry child lashing out, and often criticizing her stance due to not keeping her left shoulder and defensive cleaver pointed directly toward her opponent and her katana pulled back at shoulder height. But after months of sparing together Blake was now just as elegant with a blade as her tutor, if not more so due to being a faunus. The only things she still lacked was the ability to kill armored Grimm reliably without massive amounts of aura as well as the ability to protect a teammate's flank reliably, but if Ruby could just get the dust cartridges she'd been laboring on the past few months to work then that wouldn't be a problem anymore. Blake would be able to combine her shadows with dust just like she could with Weiss' glyphs, and finally Ruby would have her replacement on the front lines with Yang.

Yang...

There was nothing her big sis couldn't do...

Her friends were all incredible, the best even, and even if Ruby had understandable excuses as to why she couldn't perform better that day she refused to take anything away from them. She had always known where her true skill lay, and so Ruby thought the more she improved Crescent Rose and its support capabilities the more she could hide her own deficiencies. But weapons were an extension of their wielder, and Ruby had failed her dear Crescent Rose...

Ever since she was a little girl Ruby had been told stories of her uncle's legendary sniper-scythe Harbinger, how it was the most feared weapon in all of Remnant, and how it was her mother's go-to summon. Ruby knew the only reason she had seemingly been able to stand toe to toe that morning was because of Blake going easy on her and because of her sniper-scythe, making Ruby wondered how long would it be until she finally upgraded Crescent Rose to a point that she wouldn't be skilled enough to wield her baby properly. Losing hurt as competitive as she was, but falling behind and failing her friends and those who trained her hurt even worse...

As she stood there looking down the range Ruby began having the strong desire to activate her semblance and run as far away from Beacon Academy as quickly as possible and hide. It was after all what she had always done in the past, and her friends would be better off without her. They had all nearly died because of her mistakes, and the consolation for living was weeks of pain and suffering. She didn't deserve them, but especially not now.

Memories flashed in her mind of setting bombs aboard a passenger train, holding a blade to a quivering man's throat demanding his money, then sneaking into an SDC charity event intent on ending faunus suppression once and for all...

Ruby's body became rigid and her breath caught in the back of her throat. Cold sweat trickled down her neck and she shivered as more images flashed in her mind, each one more disturbing and guilt ridden than the last. Except it wasn't her guilt she was experiencing and being tormented by.

Unnoticed by her before the room had darkened casting shadows where there ought not be any. Guilt and self-loathing hovered over her like a stormy cloud and even with the knowledge that these memories and thoughts didn't belong to her she still struggled differentiating herself from the familiar presence that luckily in this instance she had never before been quite as intimate with as her sister and partner.

The sensations continued growing stronger and soon smoke filled the air, blood began spilling, and faraway screams echoed in her mind, some even sounding vaguely familiar. Ruby was trapped, strangled and held prisoner in a cage with a predator that loathed themself and wanted everyone else to feel the same way.

"Bla-" her voice cracked. "S-stop...please..."

Ruby gritted her teeth already regretting what she was about to do but wishing she had thought to do it sooner. She flared what little aura she had left against the repressive darkness, attempting to soothe it much like she did when her sister's grew too ravenous. At first the sensation was pleasant as their souls danced and became intertwined, but then the source of the brooding aura began to quickly retreat along with the darkness of the room. Ruby turned just in time to see bright amber colored eyes and a thin body appear out of the shadows as though previously hidden behind a veil.

"I-I," Blake stuttered, backing away toward the door. "I-I was just trying to help, b-but my aura's not, I mean...it doesn't-"

She turned to run but a cloud of rose petals appeared in front of her along with a panting pale faced caped-girl. Ruby grabbed ahold of her arm and smiled up at her, but closed her eyes grimacing as pain shot through her limbs and the burning in the bottoms of her feet worsened.

Blake gaped at her horrified and tried fleeing but Ruby didn't let go and pulled the would be runaway into an embrace, practically collapsing against her. Both were shaking, and Blake was keenly aware that if she ran now she'd be leaving Ruby laying on the floor possibly until someone came and found her.

Almost instinctively and without thinking she scooped the half-conscious girl into her arms and carried back to the counter where Crescent Rose had been abandoned. There she set Ruby down and propped her up letting her feet dangle, but as she turned to make a quick getaway Ruby managed to grab her by the arm again and flared just enough of her aura to soothe the maelstrom of emotions, as well as to make sure she couldn't easily shadow jump away.

Ruby looked up with a weak smile trying to make sense of all of the scenes that had passed in her mind, but her brain was sluggish and the memories quickly evaporating. She removed her eye-wear and ear protection attempting to shake the cobwebs out of her head.

"P-please don't go," she whimpered, knowing if Blake left now she might very well never come back. "I'm sorry for cheating in our match! You-were-going-easy-on-me-so-I-didn't-get-hurt-and-it-was-going-to-be-your-first-win-against-me-but-I-"

"I don't care about the match, Ruby," Blake snapped, perhaps more sharply than she had intended as her eyes moistened a moment later. "Weiss is right, you are a dolt..." she half-sobbed, removing her own eye and ear protection as well.

Ruby sighed in relief despite her words practically being sacrilegious having spent most of her life at a combat school. "Then t-tell me what happened. Please?"

The faunus pulled away slightly as if testing the younger girl's grip. "I-I saw you limping, a-and saw under your hood. I thought if I shared m-my aura it'd help, and I thought maybe I could see what you were thinking about..." As she trailed off Ruby could feel Blake's aura beginning to flare again, and worried that she might be left holding onto a shadow she took a deep breath and began doing the same, tickling Blake's sensitive nose with wilted roses.

"T-thank you," she said, surprising Blake who sniffled and shook her head.

"Please don't thank me, Ruby. I don't have any business sharing my aura or looking into yours without permission, and like usual I screwed everything up..."

"We're friends, Blake, and you were just trying to help. And I get the feeling I should probably be the one apologizing."

Blake's eyes fell to the ground and she suddenly stopped resisting, and after a moment of hesitation Ruby finally released her. "I guess there's no point pretending it didn't happen. W-what all did you see?" she asked, her high pitched voice rising.

"I-I didn't see much. Honest! B-but I felt. And I guess it just reminded me of a few things..." Blake cradled her left arm to her chest as if suddenly cold, and kicked at the ground scuffing up her boots. It reminded Ruby of herself whenever she'd get caught sneaking into the cookie jar back home.

"Alright, if you don't want to tell me what you saw or felt in my aura, can you tell me what I reminded you of?"

"Well I-" She took a half-step backward causing Ruby to lean forward and grimace as she prepared her semblance. "I-I know what it's like to feel lost, a-and like you don't belong..." She reached out again and surprised Ruby by grabbing her wrist and squeezing, and at last Blake met her gaze. "Ruby, if there's anyone who doesn't deserve to be at Beacon or on this team it's me."

"B-but, Blake, you-"

"No listen." She stooped down slightly so their foreheads nearly touched. "Ruby, I didn't come to Beacon because I have a noble heart like yours. Don't get me wrong, I've always dreamed of being a huntress, but when Ozpin invited me to his academy I didn't exactly have much of a choice. It beat sleeping in old barns and babysitting villagers' cows for food..."

"We always have a choice, and what about wanting to be the bridge between faunus and us boring humans?"

Blake was quiet with shame as her eyes drifted downward. "Ruby, I came to Beacon thinking I was going to teach all of you lesser humans a history lesson, and yes I said lesser." She made a pained face as though the words physically hurt. "I might've been fighting for faunus rights and equality for all those year, something I think now my kind might be taking for granted, but deep down I honestly believed we were better than humanity."

"Only because we hurt you..." Ruby whispered, squeezing her hand. "I might not have kitty ears, a monkey tail, or a puppy nose, but we're both the same, Blake. We're both human."

The girl in black nodded absently but didn't much react to her words. In Blake's mind there would always be a boundary between the two species, and perhaps reading her mind Ruby's face soured.

'Species.' She had never particularly liked that word.

"At the beginning of the school year-" Blake continued- "I trusted humans probably about as much as Weiss trusted faunus, if not less, and being the hypocrite that I am I thought she was despicable. Meanwhile I thought that just because I was a faunus and because I had to fight for my food and losing meant starving that I would be one of if not the best in combat practice, but then I barely scraped by with a draw against Weiss, lost handedly to you and Yang, and either lost or drew against all my other opponents. That's when I remembered that I ran from all the fights I didn't think I could win and I stole when no one was looking..."

Blake let out a frustrated growl and tried to back away but Ruby held onto her tightly. "Sometimes I can't help but think 'What am I doing here!?'" Her voice cracked and she shook her head, causing her long raven-colored hair to fall in her eyes. "A-after graduation I'll probably just go back to Menagerie, or maybe Anima. Four years of training for a career that barely averages two and a half. At first I could pretend that was good enough, but then the White Fang came back in my life and I remembered what's it's like to have purpose in my life again. I want to stop them, but more than that I want to save them..."

Ruby squeezed her hand and began kicking her legs, and when Blake finally glanced up the caped-girl was wearing a wide grin. "That's because you wanna help people, and you're making a difference now here at Beacon."

"I want to help faunus," Blake corrected carefully. "When the city was under attack my first instinct was to disobey my leader and abandon my friends to go help faunus on the bad side of town, who being cut off from the rest of the city were perfectly safe compared to all the people of the residential district which I could see burning with my own eyes."

"Somebody has to look after them, and that was your home for a short while before coming to Beacon. You've walked in a lot of those faunus' shoes, Blake, and if it makes you feel better y'all don't listen to me half the time anyway."

"But I always choose someone else over my friends, Ruby! And that someone is usually ME! I'm part of the reason every human looks at a faunus and wonders where they keep their Grimm mask, and don't tell me they don't because I see it in their eyes! And I can't blame them! This time last year I set a coffee shop on fire just because it had a 'No faunus' sign, and I didn't care if anyone inside made it out or not! How is that looking out for faunus?"

"B-Blake," Ruby choked "I-"

"I always leave the people who care about me, always, and it's just a matter of time before I do it again..."

Blake tugged feebly at Ruby's grip but the younger girl only squeezed tighter. Finally when she stopped struggling Ruby pulled her closer so they were almost face to face again.

"You'll make it up to them someday, Blake. I promise," she whispered. "You'll build that bridge between humans and faunus, and you'll be a great huntress. I know that because you already are, and I don't believe for a second when you didn't care if anyone inside that store made it out or not. If you didn't care you would've never left the White Fang in the first place."

When Blake didn't react Ruby poked her with a boot and arched her neck to see the face hidden beneath dark tangles. "And so what if you chose them over the people of the residential district? Or even us? My mom chose me over the villagers, and she left too, but I still forgave her, and I'd forgive you too, Blake, if you ever left..."

Hearing the high-pitched voice cracking was the last straw and Blake wrapped her arms tightly around the younger girl surprising her. It wasn't like all the uncomfortable embraces in the past where Blake was seemingly humoring her or like Weiss not-so-secretly wanting to get the experience over with as quickly as possible, or at least acting like she did. Instead she was squeezing Ruby who didn't at all seem to mind hardly being able to breath or her body protesting, and was pulling her closer so their damp hair stuck to each other's faces.

The embrace lasted for several minutes, with tears rolling down both their cheeks as their auras intertwined again. Eventually they released one another before either could suffocate, and besides a few sniffles they were silent as they stared at the other's bright eyes.

Blake giggled as it felt like she was floating and brushed the hair out of her eyes smiling downward. "Ruby-" The lump in her throat swelled and she paused to wipe her eyes before graciously accepting a tissue from the younger girl who began blowing her nose as though it were a trumpet. "Ruby, I'm sorry about earlier. I wanted to see what you were thinking about without you knowing, and I shouldn't have done that."

"Blake, I already told you it's alr-"

She held up her hand silencing her and letting her know it wasn't alright. "The second our auras touched and I felt what you were going through all I could do was think of and feel sorry for myself, and I'm sorry for dragging you through that..."

"Well-" Ruby smiled brightly and began kicking her legs again- "We are supposed to be a fourth of each other's souls, so really when you're thinking about you you're still thinking about me."

Blake couldn't help but grin at how she somehow always able to see the best in people even when they were at their worst, and not for the first time appreciated how that peculiar brain worked. "Are you sure Yang and Weiss would let me have that much? Seems like they're always playing tug-of-war over you, and honestly sometimes I don't think they leave enough me for me. And just a fair warning, but if your sister ever surprises me in the shower again you're gonna be an only child."

They both giggled and snorted until both their chests hurt, but once the unfortunate truths began settling in the laughter ended prematurely. To say Blake and Ruby shared a fourth of their souls together was being generous, and with both their auras still active and entwined they couldn't help sensing regret and awkwardness in the other. This was the longest their auras had ever overlapped each other, and without a doubt was the most of her soul Blake had ever shared with her leader.

Blake cleared her throat and rubbed the back of her neck unsure what to say. She didn't want to continue talking about what had transpired, but she had also never been one for small talk, and generally found talking to Ruby more difficult than the rest of her team. Yang was her other half, the one she shared the largest portion of her soul with, and the only one she ever really opened up to. Plus Yang did most of the talking anyway. She felt an unusual and unexpected bond with Weiss due to their connections with the White Fang and Schnee Dust Company, and talking about their crazy partners was a favorite past time of theirs, but talking to Ruby always seemed different somehow.

Perhaps it was simply because their ages were all roughly the same while Ruby was two and a half years younger, or because so much of their time together had been spent bonding over their mutual worrying of her, but Blake just never felt entirely comfortable alone with her.

'It's because deep down you don't trust her...' Blake thought bitterly, and quickly panicking she released the caped-girl and backed away. Ruby looked up at her shocked and more than a little hurt, but thankfully she didn't seem to have heard her thoughts.

Ruby's aura might smell like wilting rose petals, and sometimes they might even feel a tad similar, but it wasn't his aura...

"S-so what have you been reading?" Blake stuttered, nearly slapping herself for how forced and admittedly lame she sounded. Luckily Ruby didn't seem to notice, or perhaps was just glad she hadn't done anything wrong. She seemed initially pleased at the turn of conversation, but her enthusiasm seemed to deflate after a moment of thought.

"Oh, um, just the usual," she said, looking down at her shoe laces. "Weapon magazines and comics. You?"

"Same..." Blake replied before shaking her head. "I mean, not the magazines or comics part. Just-" She sighed and shook her head. "Just the usual I guess..."

Mentally she was banging her head against the counter. They shared a room together and she knew how little Ruby had been reading lately. Unless it was Saturday morning she generally spent her time watching her sister and partner's antics with half-interest or stared out the window with a blank expression.

While Blake wrestled for something to talk about Ruby continued staring at the floor. Although reading was a passion they shared it was sometimes difficult for her to hold a conversation with the older girl. Their tastes couldn't be any more different with Ruby favoring lighthearted adventures or epic tales of huntsmen, and Blake gravitating more toward darker stories and romance novels that interested Ruby about as much as weapon magazines seemed to for everyone else.

"Oh!" Ruby snapped her fingers. "I did finally finish that one book! The one about a thief and a butcher."

"'The Thief and The Butcher'..." Blake deadpanned. "What did you think? Did you like it?"

"Well..." Now it was Ruby's turn to smile and rub the back of her neck awkwardly. "It was good, really it was, but also kinda dark..."

"I warned you." From the faintest inflection in her normally monotone voice Ruby got the impression she was trying to be funny, but with Blake it was sometimes difficult to tell.

"I didn't like the ending," she continued. "I really liked all the characters, and having so many of them impaled, dismembered, and incinerated at the end just seemed really mean and unfair."

"Well life isn't fair," Blake chided, "and it isn't a fairy tale."

Twinkling silver eyes glanced up and the faunus shifted her weight uncomfortably, and she resisted the strong urge to slap herself. "But I guess you already knew that..."

Ruby slowly nodded. Fairy tales and happily-ever-afters had been a source of contention between them ever since they first met. Ruby knew well enough that not everyone's story had a happy ending, but that didn't mean she believed they didn't existed, and was also why she often skipped the final chapters of the books Blake loaned to her. It seemed to Ruby that nobody walked away happy in Blake's stories, and if at least one of the heroes didn't die or wasn't horribly maimed by the end she seemed consider it childish and borderline offensive.

Unbeknownst to her roommates however Blake had been reading those kinds of stories less and less. She still didn't particularly believe in happily-ever-afters, but if her life came to an end tomorrow she would've been lying if she said the ending to her story wasn't better than she could've ever hoped for. Thinking of her untimely demise was something Blake thought of often, but with Ruby's inexplicable copy of 'The Thief and The Butcher' fresh in her mind she also couldn't help feeling especially anxious and resisted the urge to look over her shoulder.

"Ruby," she asked, "do you remember a bookstore we visited called 'Tukson's Book Trade'?"

The caped-girl bit her lip in thought. There weren't very many bookstores left in Vale, but she had never been very good with matching names to faces or places.

"Remember, the bookstore your sister got all those awful joke books half-price because she flirted with the owner?" Ruby blinked. "The place where your partner complained nonstop about dusty old books and started cleaning the place until she found a couple about glyphs?"

"You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that. Yang flirting and Weiss cleaning kinda happens a lot. And why'd you say 'your sister' and 'your partner' like that?"

The faunus sighed and suppressed her inner-Weiss. "You were eating chocolate chip ice cream with white sprinkles and there were books around you..."

"Oh yeah!" Ruby smiled, remembering it fondly as it were yesterday. "Weiss yelled at me for getting fingerprints on one of her books, and that's where Yang got that 'Hot Stuff' fireman's calendar. Oh, and you were acting kinda weird when she started talking to the guy behind the counter."

Blake grunted in response. The only good thing to come out of her teammates secretly following her that day was the calendar above the desk.

"Are you getting Yang another naughty calendar for her birthday? If so I don't think Weiss will like that..."

Blake shook her head remembering why talking to Ruby, as well as Yang and Weiss, was so difficult sometimes. "Trust me Weiss wouldn't mind, but that's beside the point. I can't buy anything from Tukson. Not anymore..."

"That's the bookstore that closed isn't it? The one we were gonna stop by when we were buying supplies for the mission."

"Yes, and no..." Blake hung her head. "Tukson and I knew each other from our time in the White Fang together."

Ruby's eyes widened but she didn't seem entirely surprised, and Blake couldn't help feeling disheartened that a seemingly normal, everyday faunus being a part of a terrorist group wasn't even all that surprising to her anymore.

"Cat faunus are a dime a dozen in the poorer districts of Kuo Kuana, but when we're not fighting or stealing each other's food we tend to look out for each other, and Tukson always looked out for me..." Blake cradled her arm to her chest again and shifted her weight. "He was a lieutenant and all us younger faunus looked up to him, but he was disillusioned with the White Fang long before I was. I hated him for leaving, but deep down I was wishing I could be half as brave. We used to stay up late talking about stories and how what we were doing would be written in books someday, and when I found out he'd opened his own bookstore I nearly cried. That'd been his dream since I can remember."

"So then why did he close it?"

Blake shook her head. "Tukson knew a lot about the inner workings of the White Fang and still had connections even after he left, and he started getting scared that they'd come for him someday. I told him that he was just being paranoid, that no matter how extreme the White Fang might get they'd never come after their own kind, but I was wrong. He wouldn't have just closed his shop like that, especially not without saying goodbye. Tukson's dead, Ruby. I know it..."

The misty eyed caped-girl covered her mouth and promptly embraced her. Blake welcomed the sudden warmth and comforting aura, and tears rolled down her cheek as if mourning her friend and partner in crime for the very first time.

"He's gone, Ruby, and they'll come after me too..." It made her sick to once again think only of herself. Tukson was dead, probably murdered by someone she once counted as a close friend, and all she could think of was when her time might come. A part of Blake wanted to believe it was only natural, that it was just her survival instincts telling her to worry about the living not the dead, but she knew she was worse than that. And perhaps reading her mind Ruby glanced up and wiped her cheek.

"You shouldn't keep this kind of stuff from your friends, Blake. We've stopped the White Fang before and we'll do it again, but next time with your help, we'll save them."

She nodded and tried getting control of her frantic aura, but the more her leader prodded the less control she seemed to have.

"We won't let anything happen to you, and you and I both know Yang won't let them lay even a finger on you. She...She really cares about you, you know."

Blake sniffed and nodded, but almost subconsciously began pulling herself away and toward the door. 'And I couldn't live with myself if any of you were hurt because of me.'

She knew her thoughts had been heard before she had time to realize her mistake, and before she could turn around and run out the door Ruby grabbed her hand again and pulled her back. "You running would hurt us more, Blake. So please stay and let us help you."

Pain stabbed her in the chest as the words manifested in her aura. All of Ruby's grief from the time she ran away to all the times she hid in the library avoiding her washed over Blake, as well as the heartbreak Ruby would endure should she ever leave for good. The sensation wasn't entirely unpleasant however as Ruby's soul wrapped around her's making her feel as though she were wrapped in her warm blanket. Wilted roses once again tickled her nose causing warm feelings to rise in her chest, the kind she sometimes felt while reading her novels or when around Sun, but had once been her sole reason for living.

She felt embarrassed that even after all this time she still thought about him this way, but her embarrassment grew tenfold when she realized her thoughts and some of her happiest, most private memories weren't so private anymore...

Ruby's aura had been fading and had almost entirely died out when she finally released her, both wearing sheepish faces and bright pink cheeks.

"So, um, that was a thing," Ruby laughed nervously, her face nearly the same shade as her cape.

"If you ever tell Yang about this then she'll be an only child," Blake warned, only slightly kidding. Once her threat was acknowledged she began adjusting her attire self-consciously. "I-I don't know how much you saw or felt, Ruby, but I'm really sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but-"

"You know who my sister is right?" she chuckled nervously, looking up at her expectantly for an explanation.

Blake shifted her weight not really seeing an out other than the truth. "I-I had a friend who was more than just a friend, you know?"

Ruby nodded but quickly shook her head, causing Blake to sigh.

"I'm just teasing." She smiled. "Yang's had lots of friends before, and I can tell you cared about him, a lot..."

"I loved him," Blake said as though remembering. "Without him I would've died on the streets, or worse. He saved my life more times than I can count, and every day with him was the happiest of my life. I still remember teaching him how to steal and not get caught, and him teaching me how to fight." She paused to chuckle. "You should've seen us, Ruby. We were both so clumsy around each other that I'd nearly stab myself every time I picked up a sword and he'd get us chased off every market we went."

"He sounds really nice."

"He was a monster," Blake whispered, catching the caped-girl off-guard. "At least that's what he became..."

Ruby kept silent but her questions hung in the air, and with her aura still lingering in Blake's she could practically hear them.

"We joined the White Fang together, but I was the one who pushed us into it. I wanted to make the world a better place, make the humans respect us, but when that wasn't good enough I wanted them to fear us. I think he would've probably followed me anywhere, but I chose the place that turned him into the monster he wore on his face..."

She glanced down at Ruby but quickly looked away again. "For the longest time I tried blaming you humans for him turning him. His human mother abandoned him when he was just a baby, and the family that raised him was killed by human bandits in Anima. It's kinda funny how many faunus come to Menagerie looking for somewhere when so many of us there are trying to leave..."

Blake appeared thoughtful for a moment and Ruby patted the counter beside her, and after a moment Blake took a seat beside her and accepted her hand. "After we joined the White Fang we'd go looking for the worst kinds of humans to try and make their lives miserable, and then they'd try to do the same. If you look for hate you'll always find it, I can see that now, but back then all I could think about was what the Atlesians did to us before the monarchies fell and how the last two faunus revolutions ended. When we finally joined the White Fang a woman took us under her wing, and we practically worshiped her, Ruby. She's a folk hero to our people, and was the firebrand that started the White Fang when she...when she murdered Nicolas Schnee's eldest daughter..."

Ruby's face paled and she covered her mouth. "T-that's Weiss'-"

"-aunt," Blake finished, swallowing the bitter taste in her mouth. "Her name's Sienna Khan. She's the current high chief of the White Fang, a-and the closest thing I have to a mother..."

Ruby squeezed her hand and tried flaring her aura but nothing would come. Instead she scooted closer and rested her head atop her shoulder.

"Ruby," Blake sniffled, "they might be monsters, but I still love them. I don't know if Adam will ever come for me, if I hurt him that badly, but if he ever does please promise me that you won't-"

"That's why you've been reading so many books about Menagerie and its Grimm!" Ruby shouted, interrupting and catching her off guard. "I thought maybe you were just trying to learn about where you come from, that maybe you were homesick like me, but you're looking for Sienna Khan aren't you? You're looking for places where she could be hiding safely from the Grimm?"

Blake remained silent as the girl looked up at her earnestly with something resembling admiration. Of course Ruby would think the best of her...

Last she heard Sienna was far from Menagerie, hiding instead somewhere in the vast territory of Anima, an ungoverned and disputed province of Mistral and one of the oldest refuges for faunus. Like Menagerie it was also one of the most dangerous territories on Remnant due to its heavy and dangerous Grimm population, but so long as the faunus left them alone the monsters generally kept their distance.

"No-" Blake shook her head- "stopping Sienna wouldn't stop the White Fang, there's just too many chapters now, and even if I knew where she was hiding I wouldn't tell Ozpin. I wouldn't even tell you..."

From the corner of her eye she saw Ruby nod as if understanding. "She's like your mom..."

"And she'd be executed by the Atlesian military for her crimes after they were done torturing her for information and after the Schnees made an example out of her. She might be a monster, but I still love her, and I don't want that to happen to her..."

Ruby snaked an arm around her pulling her close, and this time Blake rested her head against the younger's. She was glad Ruby could no longer hear her thoughts or read her feelings, or at least wasn't able to make sense of them because all she could think about were raging crimson eyes staring back at her, however with Ruby's aura still lingering in her's a part of Blake couldn't tell whose monster they belonged to.

Her cat ears perked up still sensitive after all the gunfire that day, and began using her predator-like eyes to study the younger girl. Everyone spoke with unique inflections and facial mannerisms, but there was always a tell whenever that person lied that a well-trained faunus could catch. The trouble was this didn't always do her any good when the person honestly believed the lie or were as practiced as her teammates.

Weiss spoke in the same calm yet demanding manner no matter whether she was ordering pizza or relaying important information on the battlefield, which Blake supposed came from being around politicians and businessmen her entire life. Yang was a different sort however as it was difficult to take anything that passed between her lips seriously, and unless she was excited or on the battlefield her sister generally sounded unsure of herself through no fault of her own. On the other hand however, Blake's monotone voice and sometimes dramatic way of speaking as though she had learned by reading could be just as puzzling to her leader.

"Ruby-" She swallowed, afraid to speak- "a moment ago you asked about the books I'd been reading, the ones about Grimm?" Ruby nodded. "H-have you ever heard of a Geist before?"

She nodded again, albeit more nervously. "I've read about them, and my Uncle Qrow's killed a couple. He told me things they don't mention in the books, and sometimes they give me nightmares..."

"Trust me, they're scarier in person, a-and I'm trying to find a way to exorcise one without killing the host. Would you happen to know anything like that?" When Ruby didn't give an immediate answer Blake's entire body became rigid and she began scolding herself with every unpleasant name she knew, knowing she had spoken without thinking to the wrong person when it came to quick thinking.

Finally Ruby glanced up biting her lip and looking thoughtful. "OH NO! DON'T TELL ME GEISTS ARE GONNA BE ON PROFESSOR PORT'S TEST! I HAVEN'T EVEN STUDIED!"

Blake breathed a sigh of relief thanking every deity she had ever heard of and kept to herself that there wasn't supposed to be anymore tests before the Vytal Festival. "Yep, so you and Yang better study, cause I take it you don't know how to exorcise one either."

While Ruby moaned Blake sighed knowing it had always been a long shot, and asking Yang's little sister about Geists and how to exorcise them from a host had been cruel and borderline backstabbing. However, she wanted answers, needed answers...

"Say, Ruby, your uncle's from Menagerie isn't he?" she asked wistfully.

"Yeah but I swear he's not hunting Sienna!" She began waving her arms as if blowing the thoughts away. "Just because I don't know where he is doesn't mean he's hunting Sienna or anyone from the White Fang, but if he did my Uncle Qrow would find her and-"

Ruby promptly closed her mouth and Blake couldn't help smiling at her. She regretted tuning out the motor-mouthed sisters as much as she did, but now watched the caped-girl expectantly as she twiddled her thumbs nervously. Blake found if she just stared at people long enough they eventually said what she wanted them to. With the sisters it just sometimes took a bit more patience.

"Uncle Qrow doesn't talk about Menagerie very much," she said quietly. "He and his sister, Yang's mom, they left when they were about my age. They tried applying to Sanctum Academy in Mistral and Oasis in Vacuo, but nobody wanted them..."

"Because they were from Menagerie," Blake couldn't help saying aloud. "Because they were humans from Menagerie, which is a lot worse than faunus..."

Ruby's thumbs began moving as though she were playing a video game and her life depended on beating it. "B-but Signal accepted them, and that's where they met my mom and dad."

"They were a part of a tribe weren't they." It wasn't a question. "They wore Nevermore masks and that's where they got their names, Qrow and Raven."

"Huh?" She glanced up but quickly looked away. "Maybe... Please don't tell any-"

"Ruby, I'm the last person who'd go tattle on someone being from Menagerie, and in case you've forgotten there's a Grimm mask hiding on my side of the closet. Plus-" She tapped the girl on the nose- "Your uncle is a registered huntsman and tournament winner. That's kinda a big deal and why you're one of the coolest kids in class."

The caped-girl began to blush and pulled at her cloak wanting to hide, and while her flattery might've had an anterior motive Blake was glad to see the sheepish smile and pride on her face, and kept to herself what she thought of humans who wore Grimm masks as part of their religion.

She had experiences with the nomadic tribes of Menagerie, the humans that were called outcasts even by other outcasts, and none of them had ever been remotely pleasant. Blake had never given too much though to her partner's name before, but now not a day went by that she didn't wonder about its origin. To say Yang was proud of her surname and kinship to the Lionheart dynasty of Mistral would've been an understatement, but Blake couldn't help thinking back to her Grimm Ecology class and learning how the ivory head of a King Taijitu was more commonly known as a yang...

Taiyang Xiao Long, the man who married a woman named after a Grimm and wore the face of her namesake, and whose crimson eyes and rage still burned today matching that of any Grimm...

'Yang Xiao Long, the little sun dragon...'

'Adam Tarsus...' Just the name made her want to curl up in a ball and cry.

"You okay, Blake?" Ruby reached out and rubbed her back.

"Yeah, fine." She wiped her face and quickly spouted the first thing that came to mind. "Anything else you've been reading!? You're always welcome to read anything of mine!"

It took all of Blake's strength not to slap herself...

'Bad time for cat to get your tongue, eh?' said an annoyingly cheerful voice in her head.

Ruby opened her mouth possibly to reiterate what she had said earlier, but a little white lie was weighing on her conscience. Her books and video games buried in the closet had seemed so far away when she had still been mostly bedridden, and the ones underneath Blake's bed so close. And the cover depicting a bare chested pirate carrying a woman in a tattered red dress back to his ship had sounded so cool...

"NOPE-NADA-NOTHING!" she shouted, her puffed out cheeks turning scarlet.

While she continued whistling nonchalantly Blake smiled politely but was busily regaining her composure thinking over her next words carefully. Along with Geists, she had also been searching online and Beacon's expansive library for answers to another one of her questions but there were hundreds if not thousands of contradicting stories each with different interpretations that only got more ridiculous as she continued searching. She doubted now would be any different, most likely Ruby would only add to the confusion, but she still had to try.

"Say, Ruby?" she asked, sounding uncharacteristically hopeful, "You wouldn't happen to have ever heard of a fairy tale called 'The Four Maidens' would you?"

Silver eyes lit up and a grin engulfed her face. "Of course! Mom told it to me every night before bedtime! Well, okay maybe not every night but at least three times a week! Five tops! Sometimes I'd even make Dad or Uncle Qrow tell it too, but they never told it right, and Yang hated and would just start making stuff up."

Blake almost couldn't believe her luck but had to quickly calm herself. "I never heard many fairy tales as a kid," she said sounding disappointed and the least bit wistful. "Could you tell me more about it? I got the gist of it, four girls save an old man from being eaten by Grimm and afterwards rewards them with magical pow-"

"-Dad could never remember if they were queens, princesses, huntresses, sisters, friends, or complete strangers," Ruby continued excitedly.

"Then which-"

"They were sisters and princesses," Ruby said proudly. "Mom told it the right way. No one else ever does."

"Uh-huh..." Blake quickly made up her mind that either this was the one true recount and the answer to all her questions, or Summer Rose had been just as quirky and stubborn as her daughter when it came to matters bordering on religious experiences, and fairy tales definitely fit that criteria alongside Saturday morning cartoons.

"They were the Northern Kingdom's four princesses! Long before Atlas or even Mantle!"

"I've heard of it..." Blake grumbled.

"Anyway, the other kingdoms had just been conquered for the first time and the king and queen were dividing them up for their daughters. The eldest, Winter, she inherited her parents' kingdom and all its dust mines. Autumn, the second oldest, she inherited the fertile valley of the Southern Kingdom. Spring, the third, she inherited the eastern wetlands and all the best sea trade routes. Then there's the youngest, me and Mom's favorite, Summer..."

Ruby's pitiful remaining aura began to glow but her smile had shrunken slightly. "Summer inherited the Great Desert and its master stonemasons, and-"

"Because nobody else wanted to go there and she didn't have a choice," Blake added.

"A-and she married a tribal leader to keep a civil war from happening, but-"

"-but it happened anyway and all of her husband's followers got banished to Menagerie, including their children together that were faunus born." Blake had tried keeping her voice down but she knew this part of history all too well. Vacuo, the Western Kingdom or more commonly referred to as the Summer Kingdom, had once been an oasis in the middle of the desert and its inhabitants peaceful, relatively, that was until war ships belonging to the Northern Kingdom landed on its shores. "I can see why this fairy tale wasn't too popular back home."

Ruby flinched and was too nervous to speak again, and had to be gestured by Blake to continue. "N-none of that was Summer's fault though!" she insisted, tears springing up in her eyes. "She was a good queen! A good mom! Vacuo was the first kingdom to free faunus and break away from Mantle!"

"It's just a fairy tale, and your mom's interpretation of it," Blake grumbled, biting her tongue and no longer able to remember why she'd been so keen on hearing the interpretation in the first place. There were grains of truth to Ruby's story, such as there having once been four sisters ruling over the kingdoms with the eldest as their sovereign, but they hadn't been named after the seasons and the youngest daughter certainly wasn't the woman Ruby and her mother believed her to be.

While the other girl fumed internally Ruby remained silent, occasionally sniffling or wiping her face.

Blake hated herself for reacting as she had, but it was almost instinctual by now. "I'm sorry," she finally said. "It is just a fairy tale, a-and I'm sure your mother told it well. It's just that cat faunus originally ruled Vacuo, were practically worshiped actually, and you could say it's still a bit of a sore spot for some of us born in Menagerie."

The caped-girl's spirits seemed to rise slightly and smiled as though nothing had happened. Blake couldn't help but wonder perhaps if she had gotten used to her sister's temper, Weiss' sharp tongue, as well as her own scathing retorts when something didn't sit well.

"Please keep going. What about the old man? Some of the stories call him a wizard but he couldn't have been, could he?" Blake didn't exactly believe in magic per say, but she didn't consider it out of the realm of possibility either, not when she'd seen so many people practice it back home.

"Well-" Ruby swallowed, perhaps cautious of another outburst- "Mom told me he was a huntsman of old, that he was the best to have ever lived, besides my Uncle Qrow of course, but he was old and dying. On his deathbed the king's daughters came to pay their respects, and he was so grateful he gave them a gift. He gave them each a portion of his soul."

"He could do that?"

Ruby shrugged. "Like you said it's just a story, but we do it, don't we? If he was the expert at aura manipulation like my mom told me then he could've done it. She told me so, and besides him she was the best ever."

Blake opened her mouth about to speak but thought better of it. With how bad of shape the girl was currently she didn't need to be reminded that her one and only aura match was dead.

"He split his soul into fourths," she continued, "giving them each a portion of his semblance. They could create fire, ice, lightning, wind, and water glyphs just as easily as Weiss can, but these were the real elements, not just dust or aura synthetics. Overnight they were masters of all the elemental glyphs, including ones like summoning, telekinesis, and transference." Ruby paused to smile causing Blake to raise her brow. "This way he could protect Remnant forever, and being the aura master that he was should any of the sisters die he'd just find a new host for his powers."

"He used them," Blake thought aloud. "D-did he at least give the sisters a choice?"

Ruby bit her lip. "He was a hero, and it gave the girls all the power they needed to keep their future kingdoms safe."

Blake nodded. 'So then he didn't give them a choice...'

"How did your mom's version end? Everything I found just says the maidens traveled to the four kingdoms teaching what they had learned and living happily-ever-after."

"Well, this part of the story always used to scare me, but it has a happy ending I swear! We both know what happened to Winter's descendants after the Great Civil War. They gave up their crowns in exchange for an old dust mine everyone thought was empty."

"Shame it wasn't..." Blake muttered to herself. "And they didn't exactly do it out of the goodness in their hearts, you know."

"Spring's descendants were always closer to Winter's than their other sisters', but once they saw that the war might not end well they surrendered and gave up their crowns in exchange for training and coordinating the first generation of huntsmen at the soon to be built Haven Academy. Autumn's descendants were the only ones to have kept fighting even after their armies laid down their weapons, and when they refused to give up their power...well, Vale's newly freed people stepped in. With help from Mantle and Mistral..."

"And the same thing happened to Summer's," Blake remembered. "They were wolf faunus, which meant half the kingdom always hated them, and Atlas and Mistral always looked down their noses at them. I know what I said about Vacuo's first queen, but her descendants were good to us, usually, and so were Vale's. After the faunus were free we actually supported keeping them as rulers, but the royal families and their palaces burned while Mantle and Mistral's laughed. Sounds like a fairy tale if I've ever heard one..."

While Blake's dark thoughts twisted inside of her Ruby's eyes sparkled. "Nope," she said, popping the 'p'. "I told you this one has a happy ending. Mom told me that a little girl escaped the fire in Vacuo, the queen's youngest daughter, and that her descendants are alive today! And so are Autumn's!"

"'The Transient Princess' and 'The Fallen Queen'," she murmured, causing Ruby to nod.

"You've heard those stories too!?"

"They're DSNY movies. I had to listen to you three sing the soundtrack for nearly a month, and of course the Vacuo's princess was made a human and her faunus uncle was the villain..." Blake didn't voice just how unlikely she thought the ending to the cartoons were, and secretly wondered if Ruby's mother had changed the story to make it better for bedtime, if she changed it because they had seen the movies together, or if it could be as simple as her name being Summer and them living in Vale made the story more personal between them. A combination of all three also seemed likely.

"I know the kings and queens were always fighting," Ruby said, "and that the academies were built as a sign of trust between the kingdoms afterward, but sometimes I wish I could meet them and be a huntress of old just like Mom's stories."

'Good riddance...' Blake kept to herself, sad to think such thoughts. She felt more confused than ever before, which she supposed she should've come to expect when talking to Ruby. There were contradictions keeping her story from being even half-true along with outlandish ideas like an old man splitting his soul apart and giving teenage girls impossible powers, but there was some truth at least. Was it actually possible Vacuo and/or Vale's royal family's could've survived the massacres? Could they have really survived two hundred years without anyone discovering their identities?

Yang certainly seemed to have thought the fairy tale was important and somehow related to her friend Amber. Was it possible she was the descendant of the long lost princesses of Vacuo or Vale? The vagrant princess of the west or the queen who never was of the south that the movies portrayed?

Blake thought back to the photo Yang had showed her and Weiss. Amber's dark skin might've meant she had some Vacuo blood in her, but she couldn't be sure. Yang's suntan wasn't much lighter and when her eyes turned red she could've easily been mistaken for native Vacuon. Perhaps then Vale's royal family? The Isle of Patch was in the Kingdom of Vale after all, and it would make sense that the kingdom would offer her protection, but Blake suspected that would be the case no matter which family she was a descendant of. There was after all a certain heiress upstairs that often joked about Beacon giving her asylum.

She shook her head frustrated that nothing could ever be simple, especially not with her teammates. Her plan had seemed simple enough back in the training room. She'd keep an eye on Ruby and make sure she was alright, but she'd also try to get answers either directly or indirectly. Blake felt she had botched both the first and second about as well as she could, and felt the third hadn't exactly answered any of her questions, but the way Ruby spoke seemingly believe every word despite saying the contrary almost made Blake believe her as well.

"Ruby, your mom wouldn't happened to have told you where she thought the princesses descendants could be did she? Or who they might be?"

When there wasn't an immediate response she glanced at the caped-girl who was staring down at her feet and holding her stomach as though she were hungry.

"Ruby?"

"Huh?" Her head shot up. "Oh, sorry. No, I don't think so. It's just a story..."

"You alright?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "I just...I was just thinking about Mom. I've been thinking about her a lot lately." She paused then in a whisper even Blake had trouble hearing said, "I really miss her..."

Blake scooted closer which was almost impossible due to how close they were already, and while cursing herself once again for troubling the younger girl she wrapped an arm around her which was quickly reciprocated.

"Ruby, have I ever told you what my happiest memory is? Was, I mean, before coming to Beacon and meeting you three..." Blake knew for a certainty she hadn't, and Ruby shook her head curiously. "As crowded as Kuo Kuana was and how horrible its southern district could be, sometimes I can't help feeling a bit homesick." She swallowed the lump in her throat as what she was about to say hadn't passed from her lips or been shared in her aura since him, not even with Yang.

"T-there was a young woman, a girl really, probably just a year or two younger than you. My earliest memories are of her. She'd bring me food, water, and even stray kittens to play with, and every night I'd crawl in her lap and she'd tell me bedtime stories." Blake brought her legs up onto the counter and hugged her knees tightly to her chest. "Every morning I'd wake up and she'd be gone, but I'd wait for her in the little nest she made for me. It was in the rafters of an old run down building, a church maybe, and I think you two must have went to the same engineering classes because it was made entirely of books, ropes, and blankets. And I loved it just the same."

Ruby blushed and leaned against her as though she were telling a bedtime story herself. "What did she look like?"

The faunus frowned and closed her eyes for a moment as if trying to picture the face. "She had cat ears and black hair like mine, and gold eyes that are still the most beautiful I've ever seen..."

As she trailed off Ruby held her breath and gazed up at the sparkling amber colored orbs just a shade or two off from gold, and reading her thoughts Blake regrettably shook her head. "No, I don't think she was my mother, b-but that doesn't mean I don't...I mean didn't pretend she was." She glanced down with a lopsided smile that Ruby swore she had stolen from her sister. "Cat faunus look out for each other, or at least we're supposed to, and I think she was probably just a sweet girl who was too nice for her own good looking after someone whose parents didn't want her."

"Blake, I-" Ruby choked, struggling so say something, anything, before squeezing her tightly. "I want you, Weiss wants you, Yang wants you, and we wouldn't know what to do without you!"

The faunus sniffled and squeezed her back. "Thank you," she whispered. "As much as I want to hate my parents, if you can call them that, I can't exactly blame them. Food can be hard to come by in the poorer districts, and I hate thinking about what that girl might've done just to get me bread. I saw plenty of other girls do it over the years..."

Ruby looked puzzled for a moment before her cheeks pinked and she began coughing, filling the awkward silence. "Oh..."

"Not every child born in Menagerie is wanted, and-"

"Well we want you," Ruby repeated sternly in case she didn't believe her or in case she forgot.

Blake sniffled again but continued speaking in her usual monotone voice, resting her head atop Ruby's and curling up into a ball. "And then one day even she didn't come for me. She didn't come the next day or the day after that, or even the day after that. I waited and I kept waiting, but she never came back for me. And by then all the kittens were gone..."

Ruby lowered her head and closed her eyes, imagining a little girl waiting for someone who left and never came back, and didn't have to imagine very hard. "I'm sorry."

"Then the very next morning I woke up barely able to turn my head too weak from hunger and thirst, and saw a gold plate stacked with all my favorite kinds of fish." She couldn't help but smile but it quickly faded from her face. "I knew it was goodbye, I just did somehow, but I still stayed there waiting. For a long time I hated her and couldn't understand how she could just abandon me like that, until one day I finally understood how much easier it is leaving all of your problems behind you..."

"You're not running away," Ruby stated simply, reading her mind and speaking as leader again. "You always run where you need to be and where people need you. And we needed you. I need you..."

A smile briefly flicked across her face but Blake's demeanor changed, suddenly becoming more serious, almost disgusted even. "I don't know if you know this, Ruby, but there's still slavery in Menagerie. We just have nicer names for it, kinda like the SDC does with its faunus employees." She flinched slightly as that wasn't entirely true but forces of habit were hard to break. "Wearing a gold studded earring means someone bought you, and the girl had a gold stud in her left ear and two in the other, meaning someone very rich paid a lot for her. I joined the White Fang hoping someday humans would treat us as equals, but how are they supposed to do that when we treat each other like property?"

Ruby didn't have an answer and so remained silent.

"Kuo Kuana has a new chieftain who's supposedly trying to make changes, but for years I thought the White Fang and I were going to free them. Someday either after or during my huntress tour I'm going back to Menagerie, and if she's still alive I'm going to find her and thank her, and if she's willing, ask her to come run away with me..."

"And we'll help you find her!" Ruby shouted, sitting up and about to rise when her shoulders began to sag. "It's just a shame you never learned her name..."

Blake's eyes twinkled down at her. "Who said she never told me her name?" Like Ruby her heart skipped a beat before pounding against her chest. "Her name's Kali. It's a pretty common name back home, and another name for the Deadly Nightshade. It's a poisonous flower that grows practically everywhere in Menagerie, and it has another name too. The Belladonna flower..."

"I've always thought your name was pretty," Ruby said, blushing and unable to sit still as she kicked her legs. Blake sat quietly with her face also turning pink, but even without the younger girl's aura active she could feel the question that had been hanging in the air burning a hole through her that Ruby just couldn't stand any longer. "Alright-so-tell-me-how-you-got-down-from-the-rafters-if-you-were-so-high-up!"

Even though she'd been expecting the question it still took Blake a moment to translate what exactly had been said, and after a couple of chuckles she gave her a playful wink. "I'd seen how some of the kittens had gotten down, but when I broke through one of the rotting floorboards I learned my first lesson about life."

"Life isn't a fairy tale?" Ruby guessed dishearteningly.

"Nope." Blake grinned as it was her turn to pop the 'p'. "That no matter how far the fall, we cat faunus always land on their feet, and thank you for reminding me of that, Ruby."

She hugged the younger girl who embraced her back, but before they could separate she gave her a kiss on the cheek just as she'd seen Yang do countless times in the past. The act initially surprised Ruby as Blake's hugs alone were few and far between, but she quickly beamed and gave her a gentle kiss back.

"You're a great leader, Ruby," she said at last, and wrapping an arm around her again as both their auras activated and began to hum in unison. "You really are. Just like your mom I'm sure."

Ruby's body stiffened, and Blake glanced down at the face suddenly hiding itself. It had only been in passing that herself and Weiss learned she was in fact an almost unheard of second generation leader, something they thought Ruby would've boasted about but was strangely a topic she almost seemed to avoid.

"Mom wasn't always the leader of her team," Ruby said quietly, looking ashamed and as if making a confession. Blake stared at her puzzled and only after noticing did she continue. "After initiation the headmaster chose Uncle Qrow as the leader of team quartz. Q-R-T-S," she spelled out. "But he and Dad didn't get along very well, especially back then, and so for a little while they went by team turquoise, T-R-Q-S, and team bubbles, B-B-L-S, but those didn't exactly work out too well either. Finally they voted for Mom to be the leader of team stark, S-T-R-Q. She was basically the leader by default..."

"If the headmaster thought she wasn't capable she wouldn't have been made leader," Blake said simply, smiling at the caped-girl. "And obviously he and her teammates made a good choice."

Pride twinkled in Ruby's eyes but so did a touch of sadness. "I don't think she ever really wanted to be team leader though. A week before graduation she named my uncle their leader again, and he didn't find out until a little while later."

"What? Why?" Even Blake knew that upon graduation team leaders were the most sought after by employers, meaning they generally had the first pick of jobs and the highest paying as well. To willingly give all that up and the pride associated with being a huntsman leader after four years at the world's most prestigious academy even for your partner sounded ludicrous.

Ruby however merely shrugged. "Because Mom knew he was the best. Uncle Qrow was their real leader, the one who made the tough decisions she couldn't make, and she was right. He's the only one who's still on full time active duty after all..."

Blake was reminded of their own team's situation, particularly in regards to their leader's age. Summer had been the youngest member of her team as well but had also been a year older when she'd been accepted into Beacon. It was hard sometimes not to look at Ruby and see her age and caring nature, and at times Blake and Weiss couldn't help but defer to her older, more experienced sister who let it be known that her orders superseded that of their leader's and that her word was the ultimate authority on team RWBY. After all, she had the authority to ground their leader and send her to bed without dessert, as well as the physical ability to make good on any threat and punish anyone who challenged her, got in her way, or put her baby sister in harm's way.

"Four tours of duty and in the middle of his fifth," Ruby said as if finishing her thought and interrupting Blake's.

Blake couldn't help but shake her head a the idea of being a huntsman for twenty years, surviving to live that long. She could only think of a handful of professors at the school who had finished their second, and annoyingly she found Professor Port of all people might've had the longest tenure with six before finally retiring. And although it wasn't intentional, thinking about how much the sisters worshiped their uncle, Blake was reminded that Ruby wasn't actually genetically related to him. Something Yang would only bring up in the harshest of sisterly arguments and fights, which she'd put to an end to shortly thereafter.

"They were the best," Ruby gushed, almost overwhelmed just thinking of them. "They're the only team to have won the Vytal Festival tournament three years in a row, and the only ones to have won as freshmen at Beacon..."

Her wondrous smile was contagious but Blake's was mostly out of politeness. The tournament while an exciting prospect had even been a source of anxiety for her thinking of all the television screens around the world watching. Everyone she had ever cheated, threatened, harmed, and abandoned would know exactly where she was and who her teammates were, but the thought of standing with them on the victors' podium and removing her bow for the world to see filled her dreams at least once a week. The secret she had tried so desperately to keep would finally be revealed to the world, and everyone around Remnant would see a faunus standing as a champion alongside a Schnee and two other humans...

This fantasy never lasted long however, especially not when she smelled Ruby's feet. Just the thought made her want to gag.

"You know, Ruby," Blake said, sliding down off the counter, "if Ozpin had named anyone but you as our leader we would've probably died or killed each other by now. And besides, nobody but you is crazy enough to want to lead this team, or be Weiss' partner for that matter."

The red cape billowed but Ruby remained silent. Blake glanced down at the way she was holding her stomach, the way she'd been holding her stomach and pointed. "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, no I'm fine!" She waved her hands in front of her as proof. "See? Just hungry and a little sore is all!"

"Well-" Blake rubbed the back of her neck. "-if you're not, please take it from me and don't hold secrets from your friends."

"I won't. Promise."

Blake studied the younger girl looking for any hint of deception, noting her hiding a hand behind her back when her vision became blurry and her mouth fell open with a wide yawn. She'd already been mildly sore and stiff after their first training session in nearly a month, but it was also her first day off since classes started back again and had been feeling lethargic since waking up that morning. By following Ruby she had already made her peace with missing her routine afternoon catnap, which on a weekend for a light sleeper like herself who normally didn't get much sleep at night was making the day drag longer than it should've. Her aura reserves were also dwindling, causing her to discover newfound pains in new places, and if it hadn't been for the smell of wilted roses being stuck up her nose she might've considered skipping the relaxing soak in the tub and subsequent shower and dealt with the consequences of waking up in a sweat stained bed and having to listen to Weiss' complaints when she woke up.

Ruby covered her mouth to hide an infectious yawn as well. She was an early riser by nature while Blake had always been one out of necessity, but while everyone on the team could get a little cranky when they didn't get enough beauty sleep it never seemed to affect her. She easily got the least amount of sleep on the team, and lately had been getting even less. Her nightmares which used to only visit her once every week or two were now plaguing her several times a week waking her roommates.

"I guess we should get dressed and go make sure your sister hasn't killed your partner yet. If we're all that's left of team RWBY it's going to be a quiet four years together."

She smiled and helped Ruby down before pulling her into an embrace. Wilted roses again tickled Blake's nose but she ignored the unpleasant scent and held the younger girl's hand, leading her to the door when she felt Ruby's feet begin to drag.

"You coming?" she asked, surprised to see Ruby looking down.

"I'll be there in a minute," she answered, leaning against her rifle. "I'm just gonna readjust Crescent Rose's scope and refill my magazines."

Blake lingered for a moment watching the caped-girl shift her weight every few seconds. She nodded and walking toward the door lingered there for a moment, and only after receiving a reassuring smile and wave did she slowly retreat out the door, never taking her eyes off her leader.

The heavy door slammed shut and with the faunus' suspicious eyes finally gone Ruby doubled over clutching her stomach, whimpering. Using the last remains of her aura to soothe an already exhausted Blake had done the trick but not without a price.

After looking around the firing range making sure she was in fact alone Ruby reached into her ammo belt and retrieved a white pill bottle. She then reached for the water bottle attached to her belt but let out another soft whimper as she realized it was empty. It hadn't been that long ago Yang had to cut her pills in half in order for her to swallow them, and as tempted and in as much pain as she was she wasn't about to try swallowing them dry.

From memory she knew the nearest water fountain was down the hall in the opposite direction of her team's dressing room, but Blake would be counting the seconds until she followed. Glancing back at the door she carefully and quietly stashed the pills back into their hiding place in case Blake's cat hearing was better than she gave her credit for, and in case her shadow was still lingering in the room with her listening.

Refilling Crescent Rose's magazines took but a second for her practiced hands as she leaned against the counter, and after readjusting the scope she unfolded the sniper-scythe and leaned on her while stumbling toward the door...

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I'm terribly sorry for the long delay, friends. As you can see this was a rather long, intensive chapter that took me about two months to write and edit, but also in between this and the previous chapter I've written four chapters for two new stories "A Patchwork Rose" and "The Twilight Dragon", and I also took my first real break from writing in nearly six months. Again I'm terribly sorry, but thank you for your incredible patience and support. You don't know how much you all mean to me.

As for the chapter itself, I always enjoy giving time to the characters' weapons and seeing how they reflect their wielder, and exploring how Gambol Shroud has evolved with Ruby's help was a lot of fun to write. I really like the idea that Blake goes into this chapter with good intentions (mostly) of helping Ruby, but due to her guilt and self-loathing she inadvertently becomes the center of attention, and it's by helping Blake that Ruby helps herself. I promise however that we'll be addressing some of Ruby's problems very soon in Chapter 18.

I also wanted to give Adam a bit of backstory in this chapter, and perhaps make him a bit more likable/sympathetic if that's possible. I really wanted to give a reason why Blake might've loved him once upon a time, but also perhaps explain why he's become the monster that he is with a part of Blake possibly believing he can be saved. And tying him thematically to Ruby and Yang is something I've enjoyed doing since the trailers. I also hope you enjoyed a peek into Blake's backstory with Sienna Khan, Kali, as well as Tukson, and I hope I was able to keep Ruby/Summer's interpretation of the Four Maidens interesting while still keeping it open enough for your own interpretations.

As always thank you so very much everyone for all your support and incredible patience, friends. All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has made this story possible and blessed me with all of you. God bless)