Ruby ran back to the street as fast as her legs could carry her, fumbling to sheath Crescent Rose and pull her scroll from her pocket. Her back hit the wall leading into the alleyway hard as she got back to the street, dropping Crescent Rose on accident but simply leaving it there. She used both shaking hands to gain some control over her scroll, and brought up Yang's contact.

She could barely hold the phone to her face, but when she heard Yang pick up, she started stammering as best she could, trying to get across what had happened.

"Y-Yang! I t-think you n-need. . ." she took a long, shaking breath. As she did so, she heard Yang trying to respond.

"Ruby, what's going on? Do you need help? Where are you?"

Ruby started to answer, but the words caught in her throat, and she started to choke, Yang kept talking.

"Don't worry, I'll get everyone over to you as soon as possible! Just hang on, alright? Everything will be okay!"

Yang didn't hang up, though. Ruby heard her distantly tapping buttons before she saw a few more portraits appear in the call. She couldn't quite speak yet, she clutched the scroll close to her chest. Blake's portrait was the first to light up, followed by Blake's voice asking "Yang, what-" Yang cut her off, nearly shouting "Ruby called me, she's in trouble! Get back here, now! And don't hang up!"

"I'm on my way!" came Blake's response, and she could be heard rushing through the streets, pushing her way through crowds. Ruby closed her eyes, evening her breath and trying her best to calm down. It took several seconds, but she managed to pull herself together enough to take note of where she was.

She opened her mouth, but just before she spoke, Weiss's portrait lit up, and the girl's voice came through. "What's going on?"

"Ruby's in trouble, get back ASAP, got that?"

Weiss said "I'm almost there already, just a minute out."

Ruby managed to stand after a few minutes. Everyone would call out where they were periodically, their locations slowly converging on their leader. Ruby herself had recovered enough from the shock to start walking with slow but deliberate steps back towards the mouth of the alleyway. She wasn't going in there alone. Not again. In the distance she could hear a steady groaning echo off the walls into her ears. The churning in her stomach returned, and she took a step away to distance herself a little more from the sound.

It wasn't much longer before she could see Yang coming down the street, running as fast as she could. Ruby waved her arms, flagging Yang down, Weiss and Blake not far behind. As Yang approached, Ruby wiped her face of tears and sweat, reaching out for her. Yang embraced her sister, holding her tightly.

"Thank God you're alright! What happened? You sounded so upset, you think you're alright? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Ruby shook her head, pointing to the alleyway. "No, I'm fine. It's just that. . . down there. . ."

Yang looked down the alley, before holding Ruby at an arm's length and saying, "It's alright now, okay? We're here. We can handle anything together, right?" She picked Crescent Rose off the ground and handed it gently to Ruby. "Stay behind me, okay? Just cover me, and we'll go in there together."

Ruby nodded mutely, then hefted the scythe up. Yang looked to Weiss and Blake, motioning for them to form the sides of their formation. They did so, drawing their weapons, and Yang spoke again as they got ready at the mouth of the alley. "Alright, everybody ready?" She received nods all around, and turned back to the alley. "Good. Let's find out what spooked Ruby."

After the first step forward, a heavy wheezing started to emanate from deeper inside. The wheezing slowly became more distinguishable as rough laughter, and was accompanied by a heavy dragging sound. From around the corner, a hand slowly emerged, wiping a bloody smear along the ground. The man Ruby had shot dragged himself out into view, grimacing and spitting dirt and mucus as he laughed. Yang felt her eyes widen as he pulled himself into full view.

Yang couldn't help but gasp when she saw the remains of his lower left leg. It looked like it was being held on to his thigh with a few thick meaty strands, strained to their furthest keeping the leg trailing a few inches behind. Blood leaked slowly but steadily from the wound, leaving a trail behind him as he went. When he looked up and saw the team assembled before him, his laughter grew even harder for a moment, before he brushed a few tears out of his eyes and said, "Oh, good, she brought more. Wouldn't want to be jumped by a cripple, would you, girl?"

He looked at Ruby as he spoke, but each member of team RWBY felt like there was something intrusive about his gaze, giving each a feeling of being somehow violated. Ruby felt a flare of anger blaze up in her heart, and she stepped forward, saying, "What is wrong with you? Why are you just trying to mess with me? If you're trying to tell me something, I don't get it!"

He cocked his head, like he was confused. "Well of course you don't 'get it,' you haven't listened! Go back to my altar, and listen! Not just with your ears, but with every sense. Open yourself, and my master will fill you with new sound!"

Ruby clapped her hands over her ears, closed her eyes, and shouted, "Shut up! Whatever you mean, I don't care! Just stop talking!"

She only opened her eyes when Yang placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back behind her.

"Don't listen to him, Yang! Whatever he says, don't listen to it!"

Yang set her jaw, and took her hand off her sister, saying, "Don't worry, I won't."

She walked over to the man, balling her fists as she went. When she stood over him, towering, he traced her figure with his eyes until he reached her face. He didn't say anything, but his gaze held an air of smug supremacy. Yang felt her eye twitch.

"What did you do to my sister?"

The man's only response was an awkward shrug, before he raised an eyebrow, saying, "Sisters, you say? I think I might like-"

Yang bent over, grabbing two handfuls of the man's shirt and lifting him off the ground. The air was knocked out of his lungs as Yang slammed him against the wall, and pressing her arm against his throat. "Don't even think about finishing that sentence." She hissed through her teeth at him, putting a little bit more pressure on his windpipe. "Now, start talking."

Choked laughter was especially grating coming from someone like this. Just as Yang was about to put more weight on his throat, he started to speak again, the corners of his mouth still twisted in a manic grin.

"One as brutish as you wouldn't understand. You couldn't. It isn't your fault, I suppose, but you should know when you're outdone. You're like a bull, charging down a bullfighter. It doesn't know why it charges, and it can't possibly know the bliss the bullfighter feels as he captivates his audience. It doesn't even realize it's a mere plaything."

Yang glanced down at Ember Celica, making sure that its ammo count was full. It was, and she pulled a fist back, her eyes practically burning a hole in the man's face. "Then why don't you give me a good reason not to splatter you all over the wall?"

He leaned his head back, hitting it against the wall behind him as he giggled to himself, before leaning forward again, and whispering directly into her ear, "Because you know I'll enjoy it."

His nose cracked as her knuckles smacked his head back into the wall, and his body went limp. Weiss was quick to move forward, trying to pull Yang off the man.

"Yang, stop! You might do some serious damage to him!"

Yang resisted for a moment, before letting herself be pulled away. The man fell to the ground, limp and seemingly lifeless. He was still breathing, though, despite how much she wanted to make it otherwise. What kind of sick freak took so much pleasure from screwing with someone like Ruby; someone small and relatively harmless, someone who didn't have a fiber of malicious intent in their being? Ruby had been kind enough to not put him down, but he more than deserved it.

Yang was snapped back to reality when Weiss said "Come on, we need to get this guy to a hospital too. Maybe you think we shouldn't, but that's not what a Hunter does. We don't do the choosing, leave that to the police, or whoever he winds up with."

Yang looked back at Ruby, who was still glaring down at the man cautiously, watching to make sure he didn't move. She looked up at Yang, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"He didn't. . . like. . . do anything to you, right? I mean, some creep like this, it seems like he might, you know. . ." her voice trailed off awkwardly as she looked her sister over carefully for any signs of abuse.

Ruby shook her head, some of the color draining from her face. "No, he didn't try anything like that. He just kept going on about his 'master' and how he could share the feeling he had." Her eyes drifted to his leg, and she flinched, turning away. "He was attacking me, but I don't know what for. There was an altar, and a symbol." She thought for a moment about what she'd seen, and how she'd felt. The more she thought about it, it hadn't been unpleasant, but the intensity of the situation had buried that. "Just don't go back there. He'd probably try to get you back there anyways, to look at his little display. Don't give him that success."

She faced towards the mouth of the alleyway, looking away, and despite her level voice, Weiss and Blake could see how unsettled she was. Blake was the first one to step forward, saying, "Are you sure you're alright?"

Ruby nodded, saying, "Yes, I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

Blake took Ruby aside, back out onto the street and just out of earshot of the others. "Ruby, you're shaken up from shooting that man. Believe me, if there's anyone who understands that, it's me. You can open up about it."

Ruby swallowed hard, then shook her head. "I've never really hurt a person like that before, you know? I mean, Grimm are one thing, and fighting people like Torchwick or Tyrian is another, but this time something was different. There wasn't anything else going on. It was just me and him. And I know that I did what I had to, but it was awful! His aura didn't protect him at all, and he knew it, but I shot him anyways!" Her voice gained some volume as she exclaimed the last part, and she quieted back down, blushing slightly. "I just wish I had done something different, you know? What if there was a way to calm him down, or get out of there without hurting him, or-"

She stopped when Blake put a hand on her shoulder. "You want my advice?" the older girl asked. Ruby nodded, and Blake continued. "I know I don't talk about it much, but when I was in the White Fang, I did some bad stuff too. I was really beating myself up over it, but I had to realize that what's done is done. There's nothing I could do to change that. You did what anyone in your position would have done, and you're both still alive, aren't you? This probably turned out better than you think. I don't know that I would have kept things together as well as you did if I was in your shoes."

Ruby wiped a sleeve a cross her face, and said, "You really think so? I mean, he stopped, he was challenging me, he was saying that I didn't have it in me to shoot him. Would it be better if he was right?"

Blake's grip on Ruby's shoulder tightened, and she shook Ruby a bit as she leaned forward, saying, "No, don't doubt yourself! If you do that, you're letting him win. He's was just trying to get in your head. Don't let him have that."

A small, unsteady smile came across Ruby's face, and she nodded again. "Yeah, alright. I'll try. We should get him to a hospital or something, then."

Blake nodded, and both turned back to the alleyway, finding Yang and Weiss already in the process of pulling together another makeshift stretcher for the man. Still, Ruby tried not to look at his leg, but she didn't feel quite as sick now. Picking him up and carrying him back towards the the middle of the city was a quick affair, all the while the others seemed to be treating Ruby with special care, keeping her ahead of the stretcher and from looking back at it. She could appreciate the effort, but she tried to keep looking back at him every now and again, half to make sure he was still unconscious, and half to try and show the others that she wasn't going out of her way to avoid it.

By the time they got back to their hotel, Weiss was ready to collapse into her bed and fall asleep. She resisted the urge, however, and began her ritual for winding down the evening. She took a shower, brushed her teeth, the whole time going over the events of the day in her head. Spending the day in the upper-class areas of Mistral had seemed like the natural option for her. She had the most understanding of the neurosis and idiosyncrasies of the upper class, and it was somewhat amusing to find out just how many were shared between those classes in Atlas and those in Mistral. Assuring those people was surprisingly tiring, yet she couldn't complain about her day. Ruby's had evidently been far worse.

She had been hesitant to give exact details, but after some prodding, the team had been able to get a rough idea of what she'd been doing when she found her second maniac for the day. Ruby insisted that she was fine, but Weiss wasn't so sure. She was just a bit quieter than usual as they had settled back into their rooms, ever so slightly less obnoxious. She couldn't help but worry.

At least she hadn't been injured. With as much trouble as Ruby could get into while on her own, the fact that she managed to end the day without much more than some scrapes was nothing short of a miracle. Still, she wasn't so sure Ruby was as well as she was making it seem.

It wasn't just Ruby who was acting somewhat strangely, either. Yang had been on-edge all day, something that was probably more excusable, considering the circumstances, but it wasn't like Yang to keep balled up about it. Normally she would have talked, asked if the others felt similarly. Of course, Weiss's answer would be yes. How could someone not be a little worried after what'd happened?

She found herself staring into her mirror, hoping the girl on the other side would have some sort of useful input, but she just stared back, like she was asking for answers too.

"Well don't look at me, I don't know either." She glared at the reflection for a few more seconds before realizing how ridiculous she was acting, and rolling her eyes as she moved to keep brushing her hair.

A voice from the door made her jump.

"Careful, I think Ruby might be rubbing off on you."

Blake leaned against the doorframe, grinning as Weiss started to blush and stood. "Talking to yourself is perfectly normal! Everyone does it, when they think there's no one eavesdropping." The second half of the sentence sounded more accusatory than she'd meant it to be, and after a short second of silence between them, she shook her head. "I'm sorry, you just startled me."

Blake waved the concern off, walking into the room and taking a seat on her bed. "No need to apologize, I should've said something. But I think there is something else we should be talking about, don't you?"

"Ruby? Yes, I think she's hiding how much those freaks got to her. I can understand trying to appear strong to keep the team together, but if she's under too much stress, she could snap. I know it's only been a day, but if she keeps doing what she did today, I think we might have to intervene."

Blake nodded, saying, "Not just Ruby, but Yang too. You saw how aggressive she was today. Though, I think that was warranted, considering that we didn't know what was going on. Just, like you said with Ruby, something I think we need to keep an eye on in the future."

Weiss nodded, and the two sat in silence for a few more seconds, thinking to themselves. Neither one wanted to contemplate Ruby or Yang winding up like the two insane people they'd found, but neither could see the sisters turning out like that in any way. They were sound minded, and while both could get carried away with things in their own ways, neither of the sisters had ever shown a tendency to lose control.

They looked at each other again, and Blake asked, "You haven't been feeling strange, have you? You haven't been acting any differently than you usually do, or at least that I've noticed."

Weiss shook her head, then said, "No, I've been feeling. . . well, not 'normal,' I suppose, but I don't think anyone does. I haven't felt like not myself, if you know what I mean. I don't think that I've been affected like Yang, and I can't see any other way I might have been."

Blake said, "Like I said, you haven't been acting any different than usual. What about me? Have you noticed anything off about my behavior?"

"No, nothing big, anyways. Maybe telling Ruby about your past was a little bit strange, you've never opened up about it, and you always got sort of hostile when we tried to pry, but I think it was entirely justified in this case."

Blake sighed, shaking her head. "I don't know if I should have brought that stuff up. I mean, I know that it helped her, but it's been stirring up some bad memories. Stuff I've been trying to forget for a long time. Now I just feel like I can't get that stuff out of my head. Do you think I should have just kept it to myself? It's not messing with my behavior, I know, but still, maybe it would be best to just let bygones be bygones."

She leaned back on the bed, putting her hands over her face. Weiss looked at the faunus for a few seconds, trying to think of what she could say to try and comfort her friend.

"Well, maybe it's good that things like this are coming back up. Having skeletons in your closet is never good. Are these the kinds of things that you think we could help you settle? You know all of us would be willing to help you. We could even call JNPR if need be. As long as they're not busy already, that is."

Blake hesitated before sitting back up and closing her eyes. "I don't know. The White Fang is better than it was when Beacon fell all those years ago, but the divide between the radicals and the moderates is still a strong one. My father is still doing everything he can to get people to stop following Adam, but he already had such high numbers, and he still keeps getting recruits. He's been worried that Adam might splinter off and form a new group entirely! Not that it'd be much different than what he's got going now. He's twisted the spirit of what the White Fang was supposed to be so much, I can't even recognize it anymore!"

Her breath came sharply as she looked back at Weiss, expecting to find her looking back. Instead, she had turned back to her mirror, tugging on her ponytail with a distant look in her eyes. "Weiss? Are you alright?"

With a jerk, Weiss shook her head, and came out of her daze. "Sorry, I was just thinking. . ."

Blake raised an eyebrow, and moved over to the side of the bed. "About what?"

Weiss's eyes flicked over to Blake's reflection, and suddenly she seemed on edge. "Blake, can you promise to not tell anyone about this? And I mean anyone, not even Ruby or Yang."

Blake nodded, and Weiss took a deep breath. "I've been thinking about that kind of stuff too. My father stole the Schnee name right out from under me, and cut all my ties. I don't mind losing the things, don't get me wrong, the belongings weren't important, but the fact that my own father would be willing to go so far to try and ruin my life just boils my blood to this day! He just wants me to be an obedient little-" she cut herself off, taking another deep breath before refocusing. "Anyways, my point is, I think we could both use a little help in dealing with our problems. My father might be using the Schnee name to make a profit, but I've got no intention of letting him run the family name into the dirt any more than he already has. It used to mean something important, and I'm going to make it mean something again. But I know he'd never give me an inch without some kind of reason. So I'm thinking. . ." her voice trailed off again, and she shook her head. "Nevermind. I shouldn't be talking about this. We shouldn't be talking about this."

She stood up abruptly, knocking her chair down, then turned back to Blake. "I'm sorry, I think you should leave!"

Blake stood and started to reach out to Weiss, but she recoiled, then opened the door. "Blake, please, just get out!"

Blake tried to ask what was the matter, but before she was even able to get a word out, Weiss was shutting the door behind her. She stared at the door for a moment, stunned, before she felt a slow dread starting to sink in. Weiss clearly wasn't as unaffected as she'd seemed. Still, it did seem that she had at least been going somewhere with her thoughts before she stopped.

Blake wished she could've heard the rest of what she was going to say. It sounded almost like Weiss was already making a plan to try and get back at her father. If she could help with that, she wanted to. There were few people deserving of whatever the two of them could cook up than Jacques Schnee.

But the door was closed, and Blake doubted that Weiss would let her back in. As she turned to return to her own room, a hand grabbed a hold of her wrist. Weiss was leaning out of the door, open just enough to let her shoulder through. For what felt like an unnaturally long second, the two stared mutely at each other, trying to read the other's expression. Weiss looked anxious and more jittery than only a few moments ago.

Blake had to lean forward to hear her next words, hanging onto every syllable.

"We can talk more about this tomorrow. I think I'll need you, but don't let on to anybody."

From closeby the sound of a doorknob turning made Weiss flinch, and she pulled Blake closer, whispering directly in her ear:

"I think I have a plan."

The door shut again, and Weiss put her back to the door, sliding down it quietly. Her heart was pounding, her palms were clammy with sweat, but the night wasn't over yet.

Mustering as much of herself as she could, she took a seat at the mirror again.

"This is insane. I must be going crazy."

She put her head in her hands, trying to calm the storm of thoughts twisting around her head. When she looked back up, she found her reflection giving her a coy smile.

"It's hardly the craziest thing you've ever thought up. I think I could help with that . . ."

Author's Note:

As with most things, thanks to Leivve for helping with this.

If you like what you're reading, remember to leave a review and tell me what you think!