"Dad where are we going?" I asked, sniffing my nose so it wouldn't get on dad's shoulder.

"We're going to see mom." The hand that wasn't holding me up, reached around to rub the back of my head.

"But Uncle Qrow said mom was dead!" Tears continued their fall from my eyes, following the trail that I had worn out from the past three days.

"Ruby... mom isn't dead, she's just... Lost." His voice on the edge of cracking as he tried to convince himself of his own words.

"Lost?" A spark of hope igniting within me.

"Yeah. She's just lost, that's all."

I only remembered us walking through the tunnels for a little bit, but it felt like forever. Finally he stopped at a dead end, and set me down.

"See? She's not dead Ruby." He said pointing at pile of rocks that blocked off the tunnel forward.

"What do you mean?" I placed my hand in his and he walked me over to the boulders.

He kneeled down and pointed at one of the rocks. Cut into it was the picture of a rose just like the one mom had on her belt. Looking around, I saw there were lots of other rocks with marks cut into them two, but only one was shaped like mom's.

"You see, she's still with us."

"When is she coming back?" The tears that had stopped temporarily threatened to resume themselves as I asked.

"I don't know sweetie. I wish I did." His own eyes starting to water as well.

"I miss her. I want her to come home now." I ordered, walking up to place my face in his chest.

He wrapped his arms around me, once more rubbing the back of my head, "She'll always be with us."

"What?"

"She'll always be with us, even if she just isn't here right now." He pulled me back into the hug, his words doing little to actually comfort me.

I don't know how long we stayed like that, but finally dad patted my back before breaking the embrace. He mentioned it was time to go, but I pulled away before he could pick me up. I ran over to the rock that had the rose on it and pressed my lips to it.

"Come home soon." I whispered to it before running back to dad.

My eyes lifted open. The dream was over, but for some reason I felt something was wrong. My aura was softly warning me of danger, but it didn't feel like I was under immediate threat, it was like a subtle irritation like when grimm are around, but don't know you're there.

Nightmares could cause my aura to flare at times, just as stronger dreams could make me use my semblance in my sleep, but this felt different; it didn't fade away after I've woken up.

I carefully pulled the covers off of me. Yang was snoring loudly from her bed, but I still didn't want to risk waking her up. I grabbed a small flashlight from my nightstand and flipped it on after blindly limping to the curtain leading to the hall.

I softly hopped along, using Uncle Qrow's mumbling to guide me along. He was a much softer sleeper then Yang so I had to keep the light away from him as I carefully went past. The irritation in the back of my head grew stronger as I drew closer to the front door.

I cracked it open very softly to keep from waking Qrow. For a moment I could hear the sound of moving dirt, like someone dragging themselves on the ground. I flashed the light outside, illuminating the darkness. The irritation immediately started to move away, but doing so let me know exactly where it was. I flashed my light in the right direction but didn't see anything, whatever it was having fled behind a building or something to escape sight.

Before I could even consider pursuing it, the feeling was completely gone. Looking around, I found the grave where we had buried the bones in a mess. The sword blade was on the ground, and the ground looked like someone had been dragging the dirt away, trying to get at the bones. I picked up the blade for some reason, and a sense of familiarity tingled at the back of my head again, but I couldn't figure out why.

I restored the grave back to it's original condition, sticking the sword in the ground. I would have headed to bed, but I couldn't. I sat down in front of the blade taking it in, every detail. Despite my best efforts I couldn't figure out who it belonged too. Yang used her gauntlets, I modeled my scythe of of Uncle's and dad used a heavy two-hand sword if he felt he needed to bring it.

"Ruby you should be in bed." I heard uncle behind me, yawning.

"Sorry for waking you." I apologized, but didn't try getting up.

"I've gotten use your dad and sister's snoring, but your whimpering is what has kept me up all night."

"Whose sword is this? I feel like I should know, but for some reason... I just don't."

Qrow didn't react right away. Finally, he let out a breath and sat down next to me, realizing I wasn't going to leave till figured it out.

"I'm not fully surprised you don't remember, you were very young, I think two, maybe just turned three; I don't remember exactly. I am surprised that Yang didn't remember though, since she was coming on five at the time."

I did the math in my head and realized what he was implying.

"What happened? I remember dad taking me to the tunnel to help me feel better, but nothing else."

"Haven't you ever wondered why your dad and Jaune's dad don't get along?" I shook his head not wanting to cut him off.

"Well it goes back to their last year at Signal Academy. So they were just a year older than you, but it carried over to their time at Beacon. During that time they had always been rivals. Tai was the cool guy at school, and I'm not going to sugar coat it, he was also a bit of a bully. Ardere was one of many people he picked on."

"Like father like daughter?" I stated, hoping I said the joke right.

He gave a quick laugh, repeating the words to himself.

"One day Ardere was talking to my sister, trying desperately to ask her out. I might have been the protective brother, but he was doing such a terrible job talking to her, I didn't feel the need to intervene. But your dad was jealous, because he didn't like the idea of someone like him getting a girl as, 'hot' as my sister when he himself couldn't.

That day Ardere finally snapped, and the two got in a fight. Your dad won easily, and since then they had been rivals. At first it was very hostile rivalry, but a year at Beacon cooled off their egos, and was no doubt deflated with a few stern talks with Ozpin.

Me, him, Summer and Yang's mom were all on a team together while he got his own. Tai might not have been our leader, but he sure acted that way during training, trying to make sure we were better than Ardere's team; while he did the same for his.

Over the years it developed into a friendly rivalry. Tai and Yang's mom started dating, and Ardere continued trying hint to Summer that he was interested, but if she wasn't already going out with some guy or another, she was completely oblivious to his advances. I actually felt bad for him a couple times when something would go over her head.

After graduation our teams kind of fell apart. We didn't see each other except when we bumped into one another in town. Your dad and Yang's mom got married, and a year later Yang was born. At that same time, Ardere met Mrs. Arc and the two had Jaune not even a week after Yang was born."

He paused for a moment taking another deep yawn before continuing.

"Six months later Yang's mom disappeared during the night. Within the week, Tai entered a very deep depression. Me and Summer practically moved into his house as we took care of him and Yang. Over time he started to come out of it, and he and Summer started falling for each other. Half a year later, 'The Great Retreat' was called, and we fled into the metros. You were born a year later.

What caused their rivalry to become hostile agan was how your mother died. When we first fled into the metros, we used to control all the tunnels. There were occasional grimm that would find there way inside somehow, but for the most part there were only two ways they could get in.

The southern sector and the subway to Mountain Glenn were it. Those two areas were constant battlefields. The trenches are a sign of just how much fighting there was. One day a massive hoard of grimm, probably the same group that breached the city when the wall went down, breached the tunnels with overwhelming numbers. If you weren't in the trenches fighting, you were in the southern sector.

Summer who had been promoted to commander, was leading the defences in the southern tunnels while Ardere was one of three that was commanding the trenches. We received word that the southern sector was being over run. Summer had called a full retreat and they planned to set up a defence behind the trench line to concentrate their forces.

The other two leaders told the council that if we lose the southern sector we would completely lose the metro, so they called for the tunnel to be collapsed.

After the battle Ardere said to me; he had been told they had already pulling out and were on their way. He wanted to wait till he was sure everyone was safe, but the council ordered him to detonate them immediately. So he was the one that pushed the button to detonate the charges that collapsed the tunnel.

Two people made it out alive, only because they were already past the charges when they went off. It was heart wrenching to everyone to know that if they had delayed just a few more seconds they would have saved more lives. Another minute and Summer and her entire command would be..."

He stopped talking, his soft sobbing finishing his meaning. I reached over and wrapped an arm around his side, to which he did the same; pulling me into a hug. We held together for a minute or two, before finally he pat my back to break the hug.

"We should head to bed, it's late."

After a bit of effort he helped me to my feet and we went back to bed. Whoever or whatever was messing with the grave didn't come back for the rest of the night.

:::::

"Are you sure you're good to work?"

"Yes, I just can't do any heavy lifting."

"Alright, but do let me know if something is too much." I nodded in response and walked behind the counter, taking the seat behind the register.

I threw on a white apron like the one the store owner had and went about my standard duties; check bullets in the register, take a quick stock. Just getting into the regular routine of things. After finishing that I went about wiping down the already clean counter.

"Ruby, since you're here I'm going to be leaving the store for a bit."

"I won't let you down sir." I saluted to him. He chuckled, and left to do whatever it was he needed to do.

My first customer was an older gentleman. He walked inside and looked about for a little before asking if I had any nails. I gave him directions to what he needed. He paid for quite a few boxes and a hammer with a single .50 cal.

Knowing it was in the register annoyed me. I had forgotten to bring my own money, and I remembered that I had used a bit of ammunition yesterday. Mr. Torchwick always had ammo for people to buy, but I would rather just trade for an equal price rather than pay him his "finders fee."

Other then that man, the store was very quiet. I guess the owner went to the agriculture terminal to get some food or something. I eventually resorted to making small doodles on some loose paper lying around.

First they were simple stick figures, then once I warmed up started drawing weapon schematics. A simple switchblade with an ejectable blade at first, then a gauntlet with a blowtorch mounted on top of the user's arm.

I started making a short sword that transformed into a heavy caliber pistol. I kept working on this one, inspiration seeming to come from nowhere to keep fueling more ideas.

"An engineer knows they have achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

These words didn't apply to me though as I continued to add more and more. I made the blade have a dagger and sword form, and made the handle and pommel smaller to help keep it light weight. I changed a couple details so that the handle would fire a heavy dust blank to propel it forward if thrown. At the rate I was going, by the end of the day the blade probably could have transformed into a ten meter energy blade and still been able to make a good cup of coffee.

I was stopped fortunately by the bell ringing from a customer. I looked up to see Yang, and immediately went back to my drawing.

Walks around pretending to be browsing.

Yang walked through the different aisles looking at everything, like she was looking for something to look for.

Walks by the food section.

After seeming to give up on whatever she was looking for initially she walked over to the far corner with purpose, knowing exactly what she's looking for.

Tries to butter me up.

Yang grabbed what she was looking for then made for the counter. Before she came out from behind one of the shelves showing what she, she shouted "Hey! How's my favorite sister doing?"

Cue alcohol.

The bottle of liquor she wanted was pulled from behind her back and placed on the counter for me to ring up.

I looked up at her with the same jaded look I always gave her when she did this. Sure enough she had the same, oversized grin on her face she always did.

"Yang, you know you're still three months too young."

"I can still drink it with dad's permission."

"He doesn't want you drinking, except on special occasions."

"They don't know what though. "

"No Yang." Forcing my point by grabbing the bottle and placing it behind the counter.

"Come on! Make an exception." She placed some bullets on the counter, but after a moment's inspection I counted far more than what the bottle was worth.

Half of the bullets we're .50 cal. Each alone being able to buy the bottle of liquor, but before me were three. I knew her game, but it was still tempting. How bad could letting her have one bottle be?

"No." I might not have thought it, but I was still trusted to uphold the rules.

"Come on." She produced half of a chocolate bar, and I felt my tongue roll along the back of my teeth.

"No, stop it Yang."

"That's how you want to play it hm?" She reached into her bag and pulling out a small container.

She slowly lifted the lid, and though there probably wasn't a glow, to me it looked like the sun was shining through. Inside were two strawberries, no rot or mold to be seen. It looked they they had just been cut and immediately delivered just for me.

My eyes widened at the sight. I wanted them so badly. Yang smiled in encouragement for me to take the offer. I looked to her then back to the berrys.

"How do you plan to get past the stamp check?" Before I could finish she produced a small booklet that marked how much everyone had bought of everything.

Things like food were in a very limited supply, so though they hand out enough to make sure everyone is fed; they don't give out a lot. The stamps were meant to keep track of how much people were buying so someone couldn't buy more than the metro could support. It was worth just as much as the bullets you used to pay for things, as without it you couldn't buy anything that required it.

She handed me the booklet. It took me a second glance to realize that it wasn't hers. Opening it up revealed it to belong to 'Huron Blue.' He had a number of marks on the front page signaling his licenses: Raw dust handling, the common blue mark showing he had right to carry firearms in public view, over 18, forge rights; it looked like this guy was a hunter or at the least a guard of some sort.

He wasn't marked as an alcoholic so he didn't have any restrictions on how much he could buy. Flipping the page proved this more. Each column represents a week and each row a particular item that needed to booklet to buy. The grid was filled with stamps, each a ring of one color or another with a small line to represent how many times it was bought that week. The clock like faces filled the grid, but finding the one for liquor was easy. I flipped through the weeks, racking my brain to figure out what week we were currently on; I think it was the 3rd of the 16th. I came to the box to see three marks on the ring showing this was the last time he could buy any till the 1st of the 17th.

I looked at Yang one more time, but her knowing grin had it solved. I made a fourth mark in the booklet then handed it back to her.

"Only this once."

"This is why you're my favorite sister." Jumping over the counter to pull me into a hug.

Her hand reached back behind the counter and grabbed the bottle before returning to her original position. She placed the bottle in a bag to hide it from open sight while I collected my payment. the money for the bottle went in the register where it belonged, and the .50 cal and treats in my pouch where they now belonged.

Yang started to leave, but stopped when something caught her eye. Before I realize it, she had snatched the paper I was doodling on.

"Give it back!" I shouted reaching for the paper while she held me away with her free hand.

"What's this? A present for Jaune?" She asked with a joking tone.

"No! It's just a doodle, so give it back!"

"Why would you care so much if it was just a doodle?"

"I-I… Because!"

Yang continued to examine paper for a moment longer before smiling and handing it back to me.

"Have a nice day at work." she called as she walked out the door.

I scowled at her as she walked out, before looking back at the doodle. She was partly right. Jaune's birthday was the 5th of the 17th and I hadn't gotten him a present. I've always been bad at presents,and normally had to slap my name on Yang or Dad's gift. I decided to change that this year. I'm going to make Jaune the sword as my own personal gift this year.

The rest of the day was quiet, only a man coming in and buying the rest of the food he could for the week, and another doing the same a little later. The owner didn't get back till just before closing, but he came back with a huge crate of random stock; mostly food.

"Alright Ruby, if you can just help me put everything away I think that'll be all."

I limped over from behind the counter while he started lifting everything out. It took a little longer than usual, since I couldn't use my semblance to bolt around the store putting everything away, but we finished up before, 'Lights Out' fortunately as I didn't bring my light with me.

"Ruby before you go, here."

I turned to see a cute beowolf plushy in my face. I took it then looked up at the shopkeep, confused as to why he was giving it to me.

"You've been such a hand in the shop, and without pay! I'll be honest before your first day I thought you were going to be lazy and unreliable, but you've proven me wrong on that day, and everyday since."

I looked down at the plush, guilt about earlier filling me up. He took notice and asked why I was sad.

"Actually that's not true. Earlier today I sold my sister a bottle of alcohol, despite knowing she was underage." Handing the plushy back to the owner, staring at the ground, not wanting to see his scorning face.

"Your sister is Yang right?" I nodded in admittance.

"What she do? Blackmail?"

"B-bribery."

"What you get?"

"Some .50 cal bullets, half a chocolate bar, and two strawberries."

"Good deal, eh?"

"What?" Looking up confused as to why his voice wasn't angry.

"Ruby, you are a little too good you know that?" A smirk on his face instead

"W-what do you mean?"

"I'm not telling you it's ok to break the rules, but after what? Fifty'ish days of work, and you've broken a single rule I don't honestly care about; and you're worried about being a horrible person? I think your dad raised you a little too well."

"But what about our deal? You said I could have this-"

"Just take it. Consider it a get well gift, if you need some kind of justification."

"But-"

"Have a nice night Ruby." He said, closing the door in my face to stop any further argument.

I looked down to the beowolf. I stared into it's eyes, for some reason having it in my hands brought a smile to my face. I ran a finger over it's mask and down its spine like I was petting it, taking in the feel of the texture. The cloth was very thick and durable, and the stitching looked to match its quality.

"LIGHTS OUT IN THIRTY MINUTES!" Someone called from down the metro.

Me and the few others that were still out quickly made for our homes.

Dad was waiting for me in a chair in the kitchen. He had gotten his cast off while I was at work and explained he would be leaving on a mission tomorrow with Yang and Uncle in the morning. Uncle wasn't snoring yet, so I rubbed the top of his head still exposed from under his blanket. His own hand came up and gave mine a soft squeeze, before going slack as he went back to trying to sleep.

Dad performed the ritual of turning off the lights as he always did, while I retreated to my room. Yang was passed out already in her bed, her covers already starting to become a mess. My bed was how I left it save a wrap of cloth that didn't belong to me.

I opened it up to find a number of metal ingots and a pair of leather work gloves inside, with a rose pattern along the trim and wrist. There was also a note inside too.

"Don't worry about putting my name on it, I already got a gift for him."

I looked over to Yang, guessing she was the one that got me the materials. Dad came in a moment later, and helped put the metal under my bed while I crawled under the covers to be tucked in.

"Have a nice night." planting a kiss on my forehead.

"I'll have dinner ready when you guys get back." I whispered as he reached for the light over head.

I know I said I would post this yesterday, but for some reason wouldn't cooperate, I also want to apologize for not uploading last week. I finished the chapter on Thursday, but going over it, I resolved it was shit. So I spent this week trying to fix it. I still don't like it very much, but I guess it's passable.

Review+Follow; usual end of chapter pandering here.