Author's note:

One day early, and pretty early in that day too! The reason for this is that finals week is upon us, and things are going to get crazy pretty soon. After that comes winter break, and I haven't got a clue how things are going to go during that.

So you know, read, review, follow if you like. I'd really like to see some growth in numbers of people following (greed, insecurity, need for validation, whatever). Even you anons, who I know read, should lave reviews. So do that.

Otherwise, enjoy!

When Ruby awoke, she found herself barely able to move. She pushed her blankets off of her after some struggle, and pulled her eyes open to observe the room. Blake was looking sideways at her, Weiss was nowhere to be seen, and Yang was pacing from one side of the room to another. When she turned back to face her, Yang's face lit up, and she said "Ruby! You're awake!"

She nodded tiredly, wiping the blur from her eyes and sliding to the side of her bed. Yang quickly walked over to her sister's side, holding her arms out to catch her from her top bunk. Ruby hesitated for a moment before pushing herself off into her sister's arms. Yang caught her, and Ruby instantly gasped when she touched her sister's skin. It was cold as stone, and felt similarly as rigid. The metal one wasn't any better. She did her best to hide her discomfort, but she knew that Yang's faded lavender eyes saw her flinch.

Quickly, she set Ruby back down, not wanting to cause her sister any undue discomfort. Ruby wanted to say something, but Yang moved on too fast to stop. "Good morning Rubes! Are you ready to start getting back into shape?" Ruby looked first at Yang, than at Blake, a confused expression on her face. Blake looked over at her and said "Apparently she talked to Ozpin sometime in the morning. We have Professor Goodwitch's room all to ourselves for a few days."

"Oh" Ruby replied before looking over, crestfallen, at the corner in which Crescent Rose sat, folded up in its compacted form. She hadn't gotten a new blade for it yet. She had yet to even up in the order for one, and it could take weeks to get one custom made. Besides, she didn't have the money, and she wasn't entirely sure that she could even lift her beloved weapon anymore. As usual, Yang saw the trouble in her eye, and said "Hey, we don't have to start out big. Just a few simple exercises, alright? That sound good?" Ruby nodded, and Yang motioned to Blake, saying "Come on Blake! Message Weiss that we're going to be training." Blake nodded and pulled out her scroll as the three started to walk towards the door.

As they closed the door behind them and started walking, another door in the hall opened, and Naze stepped out, looking precisely as he did every other day; same clothes, same expression, same everything. Ruby wondered if he even changed clothes to sleep.

He looked towards them and raised a hand, greeting them before saying "Are you going to class? It's already pretty late. I don't imagine that you have time for breakfast if you are." At the mention of food, Ruby's stomach growled angrily as she became intensely aware of the fact that she felt like her stomach was devouring itself. She looked to her sister and said "Yang, I need breakfast." Yang didn't want to delay the training more than she had to, but Ruby getting food wasn't exactly optional. She nodded and said "Alright, let's go."

Naze started to follow them, not saying anything else. None of the three said anything to him, Yang not knowing what to say, Ruby not feeling the need to say anything, and Blake hesitant to say anything, given the revelation that Weiss had made last night. She wondered if Naze knew about that, or whether he was still under the impression that he was totally undercover. She looked from his blade to Yang's hand, silently confirming what Weiss had said. There could be no doubt about it, they were the same metal. She resolved to herself that she would try and find out whether or not he was alive. Somehow, she would find a way. As she thought about it, more and more proof seemed to surface. He never ate, he acted strangely all the time, and he even seemed to not breathe at times. The more she thought about it, the more obvious it seemed that something was not quite as it seemed.

And then there was the matter of his strange runes and powers. She had never seen powers like that, but Yang had talked about long forgotten knowledge. It seemed reasonable to assume that those runes were some kind of ancient power. Maybe he was more than he seemed. The longer that she stared at him, the deader he seemed. His skin was pale, without any of the flush of life, his movements were stone solid, without hesitation. Yang seemed to be the same way, at least a little bit. Her movements had always been sure, but now it seemed like some kind of weight had been lifted off of her.

Blake shook her head, trying to banish the thoughts. This suspicion and fear was the same thing that she faced as a Faunus, and she knew how hypocritical it would be of her to do that. She wouldn't do what she had spent her whole life struggling against.

The rest of the walk passed without any further conversation. Ruby walked at Yang's side, Yang's flesh hand around her shoulders while the metal one dangled at her side. Naze walked behind them, not looking at anything in particular, eyes unfocused and unmoving, and Blake bringing up the rear of the group, keeping a close watch on both the group itself and the reactions of those around them.

When they walked past, jaws dropped and people stared. She knew that they were looking at Yang, but some part of her mind couldn't help but scream at her to ensure that the bow atop her head was on correctly, covering her second ears sufficiently. No one approached them, though. None were particularly eager to talk to Yang. Ozpin himself had confirmed that he had no issue with a dead person attending his school, so none of the bullies were willing to be immediately aggressive (not they would've touched Yang anyways), and none felt confident enough to ask her about what her experience was like. In spite of the warm and friendly nature that she had projected throughout her entire life, people were still afraid of her.

Blake looked around for Weiss. She didn't know when she would be back, and she had not yet responded to her massage. She was having some kind of communication with her father, but what kind she didn't know. Blake tried her best not to think of the Schnee family. Doing so tended to make Weiss seem much less understanding that Blake knew her to be.

The meeting likely had something to do with the even that was rather well-known by now across the world, even by villages with no access to media. The dead were coming back, and there was nothing that would stop them. An opinion that ignored a fairly large piece of what Yang had said, but one that seemed to be growing in popularity none the less. It upset her that people were so blatantly picking and choosing what to hear, but it was the same source of stress that had dogged her for years already. People would be people, and people would find threats in anything. Though, as if it were any consolation, the Faunus seemed to be just as fearful as the humans. New programs were split down the middle, at least from the fifteen or so minutes that she had spent flicking through channels, one side welcoming the aid of these eldritch scholars and the other side fearing some kind of trick.

No further communication had come from the leader of the dead, and Yang appeared to have the wellbeing of her sister in her foremost concerns. Blake couldn't help but wonder just how often she communicated with him, and how they did so. Two days ago she would've said that telepathy was impossible, but if he had been able to bring someone back from the dead…

Her thoughts were interrupted when an object passed inches in front of her face, causing her to jerk back and make a strangled-sounding noise of surprise. Yang's voice seemed almost to fade in, as if she had been unable to hear it before, saying "…Earth to Blake, come in please."

Yes, at least her mildly annoying sense of humor had been left intact. Blake shook her head and said "I… sorry. I was thinking." She was in the cafeteria, when exactly she had entered it she wasn't sure. Yang gave a small grunt and gestured towards the food laid out on a table nearby. The group took seats, Yang next to Ruby and on the other side Blake next to Naze. She scooted away from him incrementally, hoping that he wouldn't notice.

"About what?" Yang asked, sliding a few items of food towards Ruby. Blake gave her an incredulous look and said "About what? Really? I should thing you would know!" Yang gave her a small smile, and she felt her cheeks redden slightly, knowing that Yang successfully provoked her. She didn't let that dim the intensity of her accusing gaze, though. Yang rolled her eyes and said "Alright, fine. Yeah, I guess I did make a little bit of a splash yesterday." Blake's response was automatic. She started to say "A little sp-" but cut herself off, not wanting Yang to get the same satisfaction she had gotten before. Instead she looked back down at her food and continued eating. Yang said "Aww, come on Blake! I was just joking around!" Blake knew that, but that didn't make it any less annoying.

She looked up again not at Yang, but at Ruby. She knew that it would be very bad if through coming back from the dead Yang were to completely overshadow her sister. She was guzzling food down faster than Blake had seen her do in a long time. It was forkful after forkful, almost no pause in-between. She wanted to say something about Ruby getting sick during her training, but figured that it would be a lesson better learned via experience.

She let her eyes wander over to the boy seated next to her, and again Weiss's words came to her head. "He's a spy, or a double agent, or something! We can't just let this go on right under everyone's nose! We have to do something!"

The call to action wasn't just being used by her friend, many news personalities had said similar things. Blake tried desperately, but she couldn't escape the fear that the general public seemed to have. What if they were lying? And on another note, who was that man who had tried to attack that man? Could it be possible that upon leaving, the leader of the dead had killed him, or perhaps otherwise disposed of him? No trace of him had been seen since he was blasted through the doors. Many were looking, but none had any luck.

But what was Naze? As she peered at him, she could clearly see that he was not breathing. He didn't seem to look at the food with any feeling of want or need, instead showing absolutely no interest. When she looked over at Yang, she saw the same thing. And the names; it seemed far too big a coincidence that the two could possibly share a name by accident. On the other hand, adopting a pseudonym would have been the easiest thing in the world to do. Was there some reason that they didn't? If so, what was it? She could already tell that today was going to be a migraine-filled day. If Yang didn't do it with her sarcasm and puns, than she would do it to herself by trying to puzzle out the mysteries that only time would be able to unravel.

One thing was undeniable, at least to her. Yang, Naze, and Naze the Eternal all were connected. It was all simply too close to be denied. But she resolved to be as open-minded as she could regarding the matter. She owed Yang at least that much.

She went back to her food, figuring that if there was any threat to her or her teammates, she would be warned. She couldn't believe that Yang would ever let anything bad happen to them. Yang might be acting slightly strange, but that man who had insisted that she would no longer be Yang had been dead wrong. She was very much Yang, without the shadow of a doubt.

Once again, she shook her head, trying to get rid of the suspicion and fear that plagued her mind. It would do no one any good. Instead, she tried to think of what Weiss was doing right now. She found the subject much less painful to her brain than matters concerning the dead.

Weiss sat in front of one of the video screens of the CCT, waiting for the system to connect to the network of her home. Her father had summoned her to speak, and that never bode well. She recalled many instances from her past when her father had done so, fuming mad, and had delivered many speeches regarding the impossible to work with and totally irrational. Weiss felt ashamed that over the years she had even come to believe these rants. Blake was the embodiment of the exact opposite of what her father had always spoke of. She had made a few attempts to talk her father out of his bias, but her attempts had been fruitless.

Adopting an air of reticence, she connected to her family's mansion. The screen was dark for several seconds before the face of the family secretary appeared on the screen. She looked at Weiss for a second before saying "Ah, Ms. Schnee. Your father and sister are waiting on another line. Please hold, I'll connect you." Weiss nodded, smiling and saying "Thank you!" before the screen went black and her call transferred lines.

She took the small moment to collect her thoughts. What would she say? She supposed that that depended on what he wanted to hear. He never was very willing to hear anything else. And then there was her sister to think about. Winter, oh yes, Winter. A few years younger than Weiss, the two weren't very close. She had always had better things to do than spend time with her baby sister. She was always practicing her singing, or her fighting, and Winter had always been much more interested in the business side of the family. That was why Winter had chosen to stay with her father after completing her basic education. She learned everything she needed to about business from her father. That was not to say that Weiss had somehow avoided that same training, her father had practically forced her into it. As the oldest child, and therefore the heiress, it was imperative that she be just as able to handle the business as her father. She had gotten the lessons, whether she had wanted them or not.

The screen burst to life again, and both her father's and her sister's faces appeared on the screen, split down the middle, indicating that they were at different locations in the manor. Both looked back at the screen, Winter's face lighting up and her father's face darkening. In one instant, her father and her sister started speaking at once. She was only able to catch fragments of eithers greeting. "Weiss! How have you-" "-need to talk."

Her sister always had at least tried to stay in touch with her, even if she hadn't been very successful since Weiss came to Beacon. Her father, on the other hand, was straight to the point, as usual. There was a certain value in his terse method that Weiss appreciated, but it still made the man seem cold and distant. Winter was at least trying to make her feel somewhat welcome.

She nodded and said "Yes, I think we do need to talk. First of all, I'm fine. Nothing happened to me after the news broadcasts or anything." Both family members nodded, and she continued. "I'm worried about something else, though. That…Naze… thing that was their leader said that Yang was supposed to act as the liaison between his people and us, right? Well there is another kid in my grade who showed up about a month ago with the same name. He said it was a family name, but I don't believe him. On top of that, he had a weapon made out of the same kind of metal that Yang's new hand is made of. I've never seen metal like that before, and so far it's only appeared in connection to Naze."

Her father leaned forward, placing his elbows on his desk and knitting his hands together. She knew that face, it was the same face that he got when he started to plan how to cut a new dust manufacturer out of the market. "Interesting" he said in an even tone. "What about this boy? Does he act strangely? Can you prove that he is with these dead?"

Weiss bit her lip before shaking her head, defeated. "No, I don't think I could prove it. At least not now. Maybe I could do something to get proof…" Her father spoke up, saying "Do I need to intervene? I'm sure that Ozpin would listen to me if I said that he needs to be examined, and if he doesn't, there are other ways of finding answers. I'll come down and talk to him myself if I have to."

Weiss didn't know if he had purposely done it, but his comment seemed to implicate kidnaping. She knew that her father wasn't that kind of a businessman, the cutthroat kind, willing to pay for brutal illegal things to happen to allow him to gain an edge in the industry. There was the matter of the underpaid Faunus labor, but that was unrelated. It wasn't illegal per se, just immoral. She couldn't say that it was terribly out of character for her father, he didn't respect Faunus the same way he did humans. She wondered if he would show the same bias towards the dead. For his own sake, she hoped not. She got the distinct impression that standing against them was not the brightest of ideas.

Her sister spoke up again, breaking her focus, saying "Is Yang planning any more conferences? She mentioned it last night, do you know when the next one is?" Weiss shook her head, wishing that she would have asked the blond about her plans. She was a bit too preoccupied with thoughts about Naze, though, and about what he could be doing at a school for Hunters. Certainly there were more important organizations to infiltrate?

Her father spoke, saying "Actually, I received a press message about another planned event later this afternoon. I was under the impression you two knew about it." They both shook their heads, and he waved a hand dismissively. "No matter. Weiss, I want you to be present at the event. You will represent the Schnee Dust Company. I want you to pose questions regarding the effects on manufacturing dust. Is this understood?"

She couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. Her father was just as dedicated to his business as ever. She didn't know why she expected anything different. She nodded again, and said "Yes, I understand."

Her father nodded and said "Good. I'll be watching the feeds, as well as looking into this Naze fellow." Almost as an afterthought, he said "It's good to see that you're alright." before disconnecting. His half of the screen was replaced by the feed of her sister, now taking up the whole of the screen. Both of them looked at each other briefly before Winter said "I'm sorry about him. He's..." she sighed "He's been under a lot of stress lately. White Fang and whatnot. You know how it goes."

Weiss nodded. "Thanks Winter." She said. Her sister gave a small smile and an awkward wave before her signal cut out as well. Weiss was left alone again, the dull buzz of conversations from other stations around her providing a constant background noise. She sighed to herself and sat, simply staring at the blank screen for several moments. She had her job, and she intended to do it, but there were so many other people who could do it better. With sluggish movements, she picked herself up from the seat and started to make her way back to the elevator. As she walked, she pulled her scroll out of her pocket and glanced at the screen. A single message from Blake, reading "When you're done go to Mrs. Goodwitch's room"

She sighed, figuring that Ruby was knee deep in therapy by now, courtesy of Yang. She wasn't envious at all of the girl. Yang would probably push her too hard. It was what she always did. She pushed people to the edge of what they could take, and then gave them a hearty shove. She supposed that she should hurry over to make sure that Ruby didn't die. The elevator started descending, and she sighed again. Why was so much happening all of the sudden? Why couldn't it just be like the earlier days of the year, when all they had to worry about were classes?

Ruby panted, desperate for breath as Blake faced off across from her. The bow she always wore was slightly off center, still resolutely tied in place. She had tried her best to get it off, but the Faunus had proved far too quick to catch. Ruby might've been able to do it if she were in better shape, but as it stood her reflexes were far too slow, and she got tired too fast. She hadn't really considered exactly how much damage she had been doing to herself by not eating or moving. It was freighting, now that she did.

Blake looked worried, but Yang shouted from the seats lining the upper level of the room "Come on Blake, don't just let her get it! Make her work for it!"

Ruby was too tired to respond, so Blake did it for her. "Aren't you supposed to be on her side?" She asked sarcastically. Maybe some of her humor had rubbed off on her after the many hours that they spent together. She liked to think otherwise. Ruby straightened back up, holding her hands against her back, rubbing the sore muscles gently. Blake didn't want to tell her to come at her again, but there was no other way to make her better.

She beckoned, saying "Come on Ruby, it's still on." Pointing to the bow on her head. Ruby opened her eyes again, and fixed Blake with a focused look. She was about to ask Ruby if she was alright when she took a few staggering steps towards her before breaking into a tired run. Seeing the hard, slow steps of the normally boisterous girl didn't make Blake feel any better about having to deprave her of her goal.

Ruby made a lunge at the girl, but Blake moved nimbly out of the way. It turned out that Ruby's grab would've been nowhere close to her anyways, but she still felt the need to do it. An angered look came across Ruby's face, and there was an obvious change in her visage. Her movements became heavier, her fists balled, and though the pain was obvious on her face, she pushed through it.

Ruby's semblance blazed, and faster that the eye could see, she rocketed towards Blake. Her fingers wrapped around the little black bow with alarming speed, and she continued to rocket past. Blake didn't have time to tell Ruby that she had also snagged one of her ears, but she wasn't entirely sure that Ruby would have stopped anyways. The bow came loose, and the skin stretched and tore. She cried out in pain as Ruby flew past, the bow trailing behind her.

Blake's vision blurred with tears, and her hands went to the top of her head. She crouched down, trying to keep from reacting too much to the incredibly focused pain. She heard Yang cry out from somewhere off to the side, and a heavy thud as something seemed to hit the ground. She also could've sworn that she heard something crack rather loudly, but it could've easily been her imagination, or an effect of the injury to her ear. She cracked one eye open and looked in the direction of the noise, and saw Yang running towards her. She could've sworn that she saw one of Yang legs bowed out at an odd angle, but another sharp jolt of pain refocused her attention forcefully on herself.

She pulled a hand away from her head, and examined it with a bleary gaze. There was blood, but there wasn't enough to startle her. It seemed like there wasn't enough, at least in comparison to how much it hurt. The hand still pressed up against the ear slowly lifted, and her fingers slowly probed the injury. It isn't seem that her ear was totally gone, but there did seem to be significantly less of it than she was used to.

It was about this time that Yang reached her, and she found herself being smothered beneath Yang's attention. She was having hair pushed aside, and felt Yang roughly inspecting the wound. She wanted to speak out, to tell Yang to watch how hard she was pushing her head, but she supposed that she couldn't help it. The flesh of Yang's hand felt cold and hard, but nowhere near as such as her metal one. It was slightly comforting, though. There was serious concern in Yang's movements. It was good to know that her teammate still had those feelings.

Yang cried out to Ruby, who cried back in a worried tone. She couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but it was clear that they were worried. Her eyes drifted around the room, and she spied a door that had been closed before. It opened out into a hallway, and in the door, Weiss was standing. She stood still only a moment before dashing inside the room and running towards the stairs to one side of the seats. She practically flew down the stairs, and ran towards them as fast as she could.

Her audio senses started to return to what she could process as the pain subsided, and she quickly tried to calm the situation down. "Guys, please, calm down. It doesn't hurt as much anymore. I'm alright." It was trued, too. The pain had faded quickly, and now she only felt a sharp sting of the air against her wound. The three looked down at her, and Ruby practically threw herself to the floor in front of her, wailing "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I swear!"

Blake noted the bow still clutched in her hand, and what looked to be a small piece of furry material. Blake recognized it immediately, and knew that Ruby realizing she was holding it would do no good for anyone. With an odd kind of rushed gentleness, she reached out to the bow and took hold of it, gently pulling it out of Ruby's fingers so that she couldn't see it. Her eyes were locked on Blake's face anyways, so this was probably not necessary. She looked like she was on the verge of another breakdown.

She gave Yang a worried and desperate look. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what would calm Ruby down. Yang's only advice was to gesture towards Ruby as if to suggest that she engage her somehow. Blake would've looked to Weiss as well, but she knew that the girl wouldn't have any useful help.

Somewhat hesitantly, Blake reached her arms out, intending to put them around Ruby slowly and gently. What ended up happening was that Ruby practically tackled her from her kneeling position, wrapping her arms around her and throwing almost her entire weight into Blake. She struggled briefly to keep her balance, then returned the hug, feeling Ruby dig her face into her shoulder. She could just barely make out distinct words in the beginnings of the blubbering that was coming.

"B-Blake, I'm s-so s-sorry! Please, d-don't…" Her voice faded as Blake returned her hug as best she could. Blake felt her hands brush against Ruby's cloak as she did so, and she noticed something that she hadn't before. It seemed to almost give off its own heat. It didn't feel artificial, like it was being blown. Instead, it felt like it was simply being radiated, as if the cloak held some semblance of life. The black and red flow of what seemed like fluid pulsing through the fiber seemed somewhat creepy to Blake, but she also felt a strange comforting sensation from it. She wondered what Naze the Eternal had really done to it, and if there might be side effects. If she had to make an immediate guess as to what it did, she would've said that it was meant to comfort the now very unstable and distressed Ruby. Maybe Naze the Eternal had more compassion than it had firs seemed.

Ruby loosened her grip around Blake, and she carefully extracted herself from the girl's arms. "Ruby, I don't want you worrying about this. You've had more than enough to deal with recently. It was an accident, I understand. I don't blame you. I promise, I don't blame you, and I don't want you to blame yourself either."

Tears hadn't started to spill from Ruby's eyes like they had done frequently thus far throughout the days, but they were leaking out, slowly. Her eyes were full of a hurt that was becoming concerning common recently. She looked back at Blake, her lip quivering, as she slowly tried to look for the words. Blake took her bow again, and tied it on top of her head, giving Ruby a small smile. "See? No harm done."

Ruby didn't look too assured. She looked about as hurt as she had before. Blake tried to think of something else to say, but couldn't. Weiss put a hand on her shoulder and started to help her up off the ground. Yang pulled her sister to her feet, looking her in the face and saying "Ruby, this wasn't your fault. Do you understand that? It was an accident."

Weiss pulled on Blake's arm and said "Come on, we need to get you to the nurse." The Faunus was about to voice some objection, but she felt another small trail of blood start to roll its way through the forest of hair that sat atop her head and thought better of letting it continue. She nodded, and allowed herself to be led away by the heiress. Ruby wanted to follow, but her sister held her tight, not letting her move. "Ruby, we need to keep working at this. She's fine, Weiss can take her, but you really need to keep working at this."

Ruby stuttered for a second, trying to think of something to say, but couldn't. There was so much that had gone badly, so much that she never could've dreamed of happening, how could she be expected to simply move on from that? She looked to the doors to the room, and saw Blake and Weiss making their ways up the stairs towards them. Blake was walking mostly under her own power, but Weiss did have a precautionary hand on her back. It didn't seem like she was in danger of falling, but Ruby knew that it was better to be safe than sorry. Her eyes started to tear up again as she thought of the pain that had shot across Blake's face as she had ripped part of her ear off. She shook her head in disbelief. How could she have done that? She should have realized, and stopped somehow. She should've seen her mistake. The duo bound for the nurse exited Goodwitch's classroom, leaving her and her sister alone again. She opened her mouth, about to say something, when her sister's head jerked to the side sharply as if her name had been called.

She looked in the direction, and found Naze now standing in the doorway. His hands were behind his back casually, and he looked at her like he was judging her. He only held this pose for a moment though, before stepping into the room and calling out "What's going on in here?" as he walked down the stairs that the twos' other teammates had rushed up moments before.

Yang seemed to change slightly as he drew closer, she let her arms fall slowly away from Ruby, and her focus seemed to shift away from her. This made Ruby feel more puzzled than anything. Why was Naze so important?

Yang looked from Ruby to Naze, and Ruby thought that she recognized the expression on her face. It was the face that she got when thinking of a way to say something very important. It wasn't often that she ever hesitated to say anything, so Ruby felt her interest peak in anticipation. "Yang, is something going on?" she asked, trying to encourage her sister to say what was on her mind. It was strange, almost like they had switched roles.

Yang didn't respond at first, so Ruby looked to Naze, hoping for some explanation. Naze's only response was to raise an eyebrow and ask "Yes Yang, is something going on?"

The expression of stress that came across Yang's face put Ruby into a state of worry instantly. She put an arm out and onto Yang's arm, saying "Yang, you can tell me anything. You know that." Her sister looked at her for a moment, thinking hard, before smiling and saying "Yeah, I guess I do." She put an arm around Ruby's shoulders and started guiding her away from Naze, saying "Alright, there's something I've been meaning to tell you…"

Naze watched the two walk off, considering if it was an entirely good idea to let Yang tell her sister about him. It would gain loyalty from the older of the two, but Ruby was already in an unstable state. The chances of some kind of unforeseen consequence only went up because of that. It wasn't too late to stop her. But Ruby seemed like she deserved it. She had been on the unfortunate end of much recently, so perhaps it was fair that she receive the more sensitive information.

Naze thought he felt some twinkle of feeling in his chest, and quickly smothered it beneath his immense logic. He had no room for feelings in his plans, at least not from himself. His goal was as it had always been; the growth of knowledge and understanding. He would allow nothing to obstruct his path, not even himself. This did bring up the question of why he was feeling any emotion at all, however. It had been thousands of years since the last time.

He realized what was happening, and let out a hiss of annoyance from both his puppet body and his real form. It seemed that it was that time again. The time when his ripped and twisted soul aligned into the most similar to what it had been in his life, and he would succumb to some of the same deficiencies he had then. He had learned way to combat this change, of course, but there was no way of stopping it completely.

It came at possibly the worst time as well. Just as he tried to establish relations between his own and the living, he would also slip into the same age-old paranoia that had so crippled him when blood had pumped through his body, and air filled his chest. Preparations would have to be made, as they always had to be, and he would have to ensure that his mind did not waver in the slightest in the time to come. How long it would last, he did not know. It could be weeks, months, years, as much as he had studied the phenomena, he could not find any rhyme or reason for what started it. All he could do was whether it, and try to keep his mental faculties at full-function.

But this time was not upon him yet, and there was still time to secure the situation with the living. There was still plenty to do, and he wanted to be in as right of a mind as possible. He turned his attention away from the issue, resuming his focus on the two girls.

It seemed that he did so just as Ruby received the information about his true identity. She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes wide, than looked back at her sister, whispering in a very hushed voice. What she was saying Naze couldn't quite make out, but whatever it was made her sister smile. She put a arm around her shoulders again and started to walk her over to Naze, Ruby struggling lightly against her sister's arm the whole way. When she came to be standing in front of Naze again, her struggles stopped, and she just pressed against her sister like a cornered animal. Yang held her in place, giving Naze a worried look, as if to say "Please tell her you aren't a monster".

He looked to Ruby, seeing the fear in her eyes, and smiled. "So, Yang told you, right?" Ruby nodded, and squeaked out "Please don't hurt me." In a voice that reminded him of a mouse squeaking as it fled from a predator. He spread his arm wide and said "Have I hurt you before? I assure you Ruby, I've no intention to harm anyone. Your sister was brought back for expressly the opposite."

Ruby narrowed her eyes and said "Is… is it really you?" Naze nodded, saying "Well, now that the secret is out, I may as well tell you. Yes, I am the leader of the undead. Now, as might be expected of information like this, I need you to not tell anyone. Can you do that for me?" She nodded, looking more shell-shocked than anything. Naze looked back to Yang with a raised eyebrow, saying "Perhaps she needs time to fully come to grips."

Yang shrugged, and Naze turned to leave. He had no other business to attend to concerning the girls. Just as he started to walk away, he felt a tug on his hood. He turned again to find Ruby giving him a very hard to place look. Her hand fell away from his hood and went to her cloak, tugging at it nervously. "I-I don't think I ever really thanked you for this…" Her voice trailed off and she pulled the cloak around herself protectively. "…or… or for…"

With sudden speed, she embraced him, wrapping her arms around his waist and blurting out "Or for my sister!" She broke down again, in what seemed to Naze to be a growingly common occurrence, simply stating over and over "Thank you…thank you…" Naze gave Yang a puzzled look before looking back down to the girl. "Indeed…" he started to pry Ruby's arms off of him "Well, I'm afraid that I have other matters that require my attention. If you wish to know anything about us, I'm sure that your sister would be happy to tell you."

He removed himself from her grip and again started to walk away. He heard Yang start speaking to Ruby again, but didn't pay enough attention to their conversation to know what they were saying. His mind was occupied with other things. He had to speak with Ozpin concerning the demon that seemed intent on taking up permanent refuge in Nora's soul. After that, he didn't have much to do. He would study, and plan, and prepare for the coming emotions that would devastate his reason otherwise.

As he neared the door, several pairs of footsteps outside made themselves known. He stepped out of the door, and found himself facing team JNPR, who were walking the opposite direction as he was going. Jaune was the first to recognize him, putting a hand up and saying "Hey, Naze! Have you seen any of RWBY today? They weren't at class, which isn't all that surprising I guess, but we were staring to get worried."

Naze indicated the door that he had just left and said "Ruby and Yang are in there. Apparently there was an accident, so Weiss and Blake have gone to the nurse. I don't believe that Weiss is injured, and I don't think that the damage to Blake is serious." Concerned looks fell over all the faces, except for Nora's. She was staring at Naze with an expression that seemed to be slowly turning to anger. He knew that this was the work of the demon within her, but he found it difficult to care about the matters of such a weak parasite. Jaune's eyes widened, and he stepped forward, saying "Oh man! We should probably get in there, huh?" Naze shrugged his shoulders and said "It couldn't hurt. Unfortunately, I have other matters to attend to. It does seem that Ruby needs a little comforting, though."

Jaune nodded and walked in without a moment's hesitation. Pyrrha followed, saying "Talk to you later, I suppose." as she passed. Ren was the next in line, and only nodded as he walked by. Nora was the last to pass, but she did so slowly, eyes locked suspiciously on his. He didn't know what the demon was whispering to her, but he knew that it was nothing good.

He shook his head at the girl and said "Whatever it's saying isn't true." In a matter-of-fact, almost casual tone. Nora's eyes widened, and her mouth opened as if to say something, but Naze simply walked past her. He had no particular interest in anything she had to say.

He continued walking until he came to the large tower that served as the central offices of Beacon. It was early in the day, and all staff were likely all there. He walked in through the doors and headed immediately to the elevator. Pushing the button, he waited for the lift to arrive. As he did so, the secretary behind the desk asked "Um, can I help you? Do you have an appointmen-" with a ding, the doors slid open and Naze walked in, hitting the button for the top floor. As the doors slid shut again, he answered the question. "No, thank you, I'll see myself up."

The elevator slid smoothly up the shaft, and Naze quickly found the doors opening again out into Ozpin's office. It seemed that there was a scene in progress, and that he was intruding on it. A tall man in a white suit was leaning on Ozpin's desk, both hands palm down on the metallic surface. Ozpin was sitting behind his desk, and though he was now looking at the elevator, Naze would've guessed that he was looking up at the man in front of him. He also noticed Penny standing in the middle of the room, her arms up around herself like she was afraid. She was just starting to turn to look at him as well.

A heavy second of silence passed as he stepped out of the elevator and started to walk towards Ozpin's desk. As he did so, the uniformed man said "Ah, why don't we just ask him?"

Naze raised an eyebrow while saying "I've come to discuss a private matter with the Headmaster. I'm afraid I really have no interest in sharing with you." The man made a deep grunt and said "Really? We've quite an interest in discussing with you. Penny, do you mind repeating what you said earlier?"

Penny seemed almost to shrink under the attention that was suddenly set upon her. She started to shake, and her hands worked incessantly. "What? Oh, um, no." She gave a small hiccup "Not at all, Mr. Ironwood, Sir." Naze didn't recognize the name. The way he was dressed and the use of the title seemed to suggest that he was of a military background, though.

Penny gave Naze one last hesitant look before turning her gaze blankly ahead of her, as if the was reciting something that she had memorized. "I met Naze in an alleyway. He didn't give off any life signs, so I thought that he was dead. When I went to see if there was anything I could do for him, he got up. We spent most of the evening walking around Vale." Ironwood took a step towards her and said "Were there any notable incidents?"

Penny nodded, again hesitantly, and said "Naze broke into the local cemetery, and discovered that I am an artificial person." Ironwood took another step closer, and said coaxingly "Anything else? Did he say anything particularly interesting or out of the ordinary?"

Penny seemed to be very uncomfortable now, fidgeting and shuffling away from Ironwood. "He said… that he was… dead." She tried to phrase it as unassumingly as possible, but that didn't seem to blunt the impact of her words. Ironwood looked back to Ozpin as if to say "I told you so" before casting his gaze to Naze himself. "Well? Do you have any explanation for this? Why would you say something like that? Are you in league with these risen dead from last night? Are you some kind of infiltrator, a spy, or perhaps an assassin?" Ozpin stood from his seat, coffee mug clinking against the desk loudly, saying "Damn it James! You cannot honestly assume such things with such little information! He may be dead, but he is still one of my students! I will not allow you to label him as some kind of terrorist without reason. Now, please, if you could take your paranoid delusions elsewhere, or at least save them for tonight where you can ask about them, I would greatly appreciate it."

He walked past Ironwood than stopped a few steps from him, arm out towards the elevator. "Now if you'll excuse me, one of my students has need of me."

James Ironwood simply looked at Ozpin blankly for a moment before something in his eyes softened. He took a few steps towards the man and said "Oz, I'm sorry if I offended you, but-" Ozpin's only response was to point again at the elevators, now looking away from the man. Ironwood looked down and said "I see. I'll… contact you later. I hope we can work this out." Ozpin didn't react, and Ironwood gestured at Penny, saying "Come along. We've places to be."

The pair got in the elevator and hit the button to go down. As the doors slid shut, Naze caught Penny mothing the words "I'm sorry" to him silently. Perhaps she thought he would be offended. It was clear enough to him that she was under duress to say what she had.

Ozpin walked back to his desk slowly, breathing heavily as he did so. He sat in his seat and put a hand to his forehead. "Believe it or not, we were great friends once. I suppose that time has a rather unique way of testing our bonds, though."

Naze nodded and smiled, saying "I know the tests well, Sir." Ozpin let his hand fall back to the desk tiredly and gazed at Naze. "Ah, of course you do. It's difficult to think of you as any older than a teenage boy. Anyways, enough of that bitter matter. What is it that you came to discuss?" Naze shook his head, his expressionless face going from side to side. "I'm afraid the problem I come with is more bitter than dissolving friendships. It's about our demon friend. I'm afraid that it's somehow found its way back to Nora Valkyrie. I believe that it is starting to speak to her, influencing her behavior and thoughts. If left unopposed, the situation could become much more…dire."

Ozpin knit his fingers together and said questioningly "Dire? What can be done to stop that?" Naze looked out the window over the sprawl of the city below for a moment before saying "I'm afraid that there is very little. You could kill the girl, or by some course of action, get her killed. That would deprive the demon of a host. Other than that, there aren't many other courses. You might be able to deal with the demon, but such deals are never good. I might recommend an exorcism of some kind, but with no gods to fight them, demons are more or less on a plane all their own."

Ozpin put his arms flat on the desk and said "That's it? Certainly there must be more that we could do. Perhaps you could try what you did the first time, and simply remove it?" Another shake of the head "I'm afraid not. Short of destroying the girl's soul, you're out of luck. That demon has its claws dug into her now. To pull it out would shred her completely." Ozpin sighed and, after a moment to reserved silence, said "It's difficult to believe that creatures as dangerous as this were ever able to be overcome." Naze nodded in an equally reserved way. "Yes. It has been, quite literally, a miracle, in every instance. Divine intervention is not something to be underestimated. I don't know what you'll do in lieu of a god this time, though. I don't doubt that I'll find it very interesting."

Ozpin let out a troubled sigh and said "You speak like this is going to become an issue. I think I'd much rather believe that these creatures have taken a permanent leave of our world, and that this one is the last echo of a bad memory." Naze shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Believe what you like. It won't be my soul in danger should they decide to come back. It never has been." He turned from the window and looked at Ozpin, shrugging. "But it will likely not be my fight when it comes. I've always attempted to maintain a certain amount of neutrality with demons. It's never been much of an issue, there have always been those they hated more than me to distract them."

Naze turned away from Ozpin and started walking towards the door again. "Anyways, I've things to do. You've been made aware of the situation, and what you do is your choice; I wouldn't seek to make it for you. Have fun coming to a decision." He walked to the elevator and hit the button. Instantly one of the pairs of doors slid open and gave a small ding.

Ozpin nodded and said "Very well, don't let me keep you. And, I hope to see you at the event this evening." Naze nodded as the doors started to slide shut. "Indeed, I'll be there, whether you see me or not. Thank you for your time; it was a pleasure, as always." The doors shut, and the elevator slid back down to earth.

Tell me what you thought, specifically about the characters of Ozpin, Ironwood, Penny, and Weiss's family.

Also about the demon stuff. I want to be sure its all making sense.