The Forgotten Rose

Book II

The Ones We Choose To Love

The smells and sounds of cooking stirred Weiss from her comfortable slumber with a deep breath. She opened her eyes slowly and smiled lightly, even though the spot next to her was void of her wife, she knew that she was downstairs in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. With a deep breath, she stretched her arms out and groaned lightly, the white and red gold ring on her left hand caught her eye and smiled a little bit more. It had been two weeks since she had been married to Ruby Rose but it still felt like a dream, one she never wanted to wake from.

Not wanting to keep Ruby waiting, she pulled herself from the large bed, wrapped a fluffy white robe around her body and slipped her feet into slippers before making her way downstairs to the kitchen. She would have to find a way to thank Taiyang for letting them have his house during their honeymoon while he was out on a mission. While the original plan was to visit a different place in a high-class hotel, Ruby managed to convince her to stay in Patch, and she did not regret it.

Stifling another yawn, Weiss stumbled into the kitchen where Ruby was busy making a third stack of waffles. She was wearing a pair of deep red shorts that hugged her hips and showed off her long legs and a black tank top that exposed muscular arms and shoulders. Her red-tipped hair was pulled back into a ponytail as she hummed lightly to a song she was playing in her own little head. Walking up to her, she leant into her and placed her forehead on her shoulder so she did not have to stand on her own anymore. She barely grew since Beacon and now Ruby was taller than she was.

Her wife giggled lightly as she leant back against Weiss. "Morning," Ruby said, far too cheerfully to be up this early. All the white-haired woman did, was mumble into her shoulder as she lazily wrapped her arms around her. She giggled again and turned around in her arms to give her a quick kiss. "Sorry, did I wake you?" She asked gently. Weiss looked up into her silver eyes and sighed lightly, the scar over her left eye was fully healed before their wedding, and while she appreciated the sentiment, she still worried about the dolt.

"No, just wondering where you went off to," Weiss said with another lazy kiss before moving away from her and pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"I'm never too far away from you." She replied softly as she placed plates of waffles, bacon and eggs on the table for the two of them. While they ate, they discussed what they would do once they got back to Vale, Weiss wanted to calmly unpack and call her sister while Ruby wanted to dive right into a mission, of course. Half way through negotiations, however, someone had rung the doorbell. The two woman looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and went to answer it.

On the other side of the front door, stood a small girl, no older than seven. She had messy, pale blue hair and bright green eyes, freckles sprinkled across her nose. She was wearing worn jeans and a shirt and was probably playing in the forest nearby, what startled Weiss was how afraid the girl was. She was breathing hard and had a wild look in her eyes. Immediately, Ruby crouched down to her level to talk to her, her voice was light and concerned. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"My mum told me that a Huntsmen lives here, is he here?" She asked quickly.

"He's my dad, I'm a Huntress, what happened?"

The little girl just pointed to the woods and spoke quickly. "I saw a monster in the woods!" Ruby stood up and peered into the trees, trying to find out where it was.

"The woods should have been cleared out weeks ago..." Weiss said lightly, now alert and awake with the threat of Grimm.

"Probably just stragglers trying to reclaim territory..." Her wife said lightly.

"We should call Signal and get them to send someone out," Weiss was already pulling her scroll out and was dialling the number when Ruby placed a hand on hers, blocking the screen.

"I can handle his, Weiss." She said with a smile. Weiss shook her head lightly.

"Ruby, we're on our honeymoon,"

"We're going back tomorrow morning..." Gently, Ruby took both of Weiss's hands in her own and looked into her eyes. "It's probably just a few of them. I can do it in a day instead of a Huntsmen from the school taking a week to track them down and get them. Trust me, these last two weeks have been nothing but the best time of my life. But I haven't been on a mission for over a month and I've been slowly losing my mind..." Weiss was about to reply when she looked into Ruby's eyes, and the trap was sprung.

The silver eyed woman was using her puppy dog stare at her. Over the years, Weiss had begun to build a resistance to it, unfortunately, the resistance only offered about ten seconds before giving in completely. With a heavy sigh, she shook her head. "Fine..." Ruby grinned and quickly pecked her lips before disappearing in a flurry of rose petals. She looked at the little girl who just stood by the door, worried about what's going to happen when Ruby appeared just as quickly as she left.

She had taken her hair out of the ponytail and it flowed past her shoulders like silk. With the length of her hair, it was mostly red with a black base at her scalp. She had on a dark grey shirt that covered her arms, and a black corset to finish it off with that was detailed with small red roses. Black leather bracers and tight black pants with a number of red belts for pouches with knee high black boots trimmed with red, Weiss had convinced Ruby to ditch the oversized combat boots and went with more fashionable ones with thick heels and her signature red cloak to finish the outfit off.

"I'll be back tonight," Ruby said as she kissed her wife one more time before walking up to the girl and had her lead the way to the area she saw the monster. Weiss watched Ruby do one last weapon check before they left. Weiss simply sighed and shook her head with a smile. At least now she could pack up without any distractions.

"Yang. It's time to wake up,"

The blonde woman groaned as she was forced out of a good dream and back into reality, opening lilac eyes, she saw the sleepy eyes of Blake looking at her. Yang could not help but to smile as she wrapped her arms around the faunus woman and pulled her in close for some post morning cuddling. The woman simply groaned and rubbed her head in the crook of her neck as she wrapped her arms around the brawler. "Seriously, we need to get up if we want to be on time for this mission..." Blake muttered against her skin.

"Five more minutes..."

"You said that ten minutes ago, and you need to take Zwei out..." Yang just groaned as she released her girlfriend and flopped onto her back lightly.

"You can't do that?" She smirked as she looked over.

"He's not my dog and I don't like him..." She said simply.

"You don't seem to be complaining now," Yang smirked. Blake was about to say something when they both felt something brushed up against their legs. With a worried look, Blake threw the blanket off their bodies and looked down to see the dog in question laying between the two of them, somehow sneaking between them at some point during the night and not disturbing them. Before Blake could throw the dog off the bed, Yang quickly wrapped her arms around her and held her close as Zwei barked happily.

"NO!" Blake cried out as she tried to fight back. "These are unauthorised snuggles!" Yang just laughed as the dog began to roll around between them, happy as could be. Eventually, Yang released her and she jumped out of the bed. "Take him out now! I'm taking a shower!" She said as she brushed the dog hair off her body and stalked to the bathroom.

"I could join you, you know," Yang said with a raised eyebrow and a flirtatious smirk.

"Then we'd never be on time..." She smirked back.

Eventually arriving at their contact location, Yang sipping on a cup of coffee as she, Blake and a few members of Vale's police department were standing around an opened manhole in a back alley in the city centre. The mission was a simple one, search and destroy. While the sewers and old foundations of Vale had been cleared out for decades, but since the Grimm overran the city during the Vytal festival disaster ten years ago, the underground was not as safe as it once was. With so many hiding spots, it would take years to completely clear it out. That's why they were here now.

They were to go in and clear out a few of the walkways since some city worker said they saw Grimm down there. Yang tossed the empty coffee container in a trash bin and pulled her hair into a ponytail quickly. She was wearing a duster coat with black pants and long brown boots on her legs. An exposed midriff showed off her toned stomach and a bright yellow shirt coming out from where she left her jacket unbuttoned. Along her left arm was metal plating, since her right arm was metal, she decided to balance it out a bit.

Her partner was wearing short, black vest and a tight fitting white shirt. Black jeans with the knees torn slightly and black heeled boots to match. Her weapon across her shoulder on a metal plate that protected her shoulder and twin ribbons that were trailing up her arms. "Who's on recall?" Yang asked as she pulled the hair band out from her mouth and finished her ponytail.

"Team CFVY," The officer replied after looking at his scroll. While Yang had never needed to use the Emergency Huntsmen Recall before, she did have to be a part of it while she was still on the roster. The EHR was a team of Huntsmen who's sole mission was to get to Huntsmen and Huntresses and extract them if the situation gets too dangerous or something goes wrong. A system perfected during the battle to take back the city. Satisfied with who would pull them out if shit hits the fan, Yang smirked at Blake. "Ready, babe?"

The woman simply rolled her beautiful golden eyes and jumped into the hole, followed closely by Yang. As soon as her boots hit the water in the darkened tunnel, she immediately regretted her choice of mission. The tunnels were dripping with something and she was standing in something else she really did not want to know what, while she would be upset if she stained her clothing, she'd be more upset if something happened to her hair. "Why are we down here again?" Yang asked as she turned on a flashlight that was clipped to her chest.

"Because it's our job?" Blake replied dryly as she peered down one side of the tunnel while Yang was looking down the other path. "Make sure you keep your radio on, we need to finish up and clean the house before Ruby and Weiss get back."

"Yes, mom," Yang groaned out. Blake glared at her while she smiled. With a final wink, they walked down the separate paths that led deeper into the underbelly of Vale. Looking down each pathway she came across, Yang sighed lightly as she continued to wade through sewage, trying to stay on the walkways on the side the best she could. The smell was horrible, she could feel her hair becoming more greasy by the second and had not seen anything bigger than a rat for over an hour. Suddenly, she heard something and turned around quickly, her weapons expanding up her arms as she looked around quickly.

In the brief moments her light shined on what made the noise, she saw it, a Grimm. It looked like a rat the size of a medium sized dog, it had long spines along its back and a pointed face, the signature white bone mask with red markings and glowing eyes all Grimm had. Long claws and even longer teeth and a thin tail, it screeched when it saw Yang and fled deeper into the tunnels. Taking a breath, Yang pressed a finger to her ear, activating the chat on her scroll.

"Blake, I just saw a rodent of unusual size..."

"Colocolos?"

"Yeah, just one though..."

"Well, there's never just one of those things, probably a nest somewhere down here..."

"I'll keep looking. Keep me posted."

"Same to you,"

With that, Yang took her finger off the device in her year and began to follow the creature down the same tunnel it ran down. While Colocolos were relatively easy, too many of them could overwhelm a trained Huntsmen, she continued to walk down the ways until she came into a large antechamber she figured was once part of the keep that Vale was built on top of back in the days of castles and royalty. A light was coming down from somewhere up above her, lighting the room and revealing old pillars and decayed sculptures of ancient gods that no one prayed to anymore. Standing before an altar, was a woman in a red cloak.

"Ruby?"

The woman turned around and smiled. It was her younger sister. "What are you doing here?" Yang laughed as a grin formed on her lips.

"We got back a bit early, thought we'd come and give you guys a hand." She said with a smile. Yang just laughed as she walked past the pillars and up to Ruby. It may have only been two weeks, but she missed her half sister dearly. They were together for almost their entire lives, side by side. Even with their careers, they often went on missions together. Yang just grinned as she went to wrap her arms around the smaller woman.

"It's good to see you again, how was-"

A frozen chill shot through Yang's stomach and she stopped. Her breath hitched in her throat and her mind went blank. Something was wrong, so, so wrong. Forcing a breath into her lungs, she slowly looked into the face of her sister. The warmth and love she always had were now gone, replaced with a cold hatred she had never seen before on her sister's face. Looking down at the source of the sudden discomfort, A knife was sticking out of her stomach, the handle in Ruby's hand.

"Ruby?" Yang whispered out. Her Aura did not protect her from this, why would it? It was Ruby, her sister! Why would she have to protect herself from Ruby? But with her Aura now fully concentrated on keeping her alive, none was being used to defend against outside attack as Ruby placed her other hand on Yang's shoulder to hold her still as she pulled the knife out and thrust it back in. Yang began to taste bile and blood creeping up in the back of her mouth as a beeping began to echo in her ear, a warning that her Aura was dropping quickly.

"Yang? What's happening, are you okay?" She could hear Blake's voice in her ear, but she could speak, she could not even move. Shock froze her body as the chill began to spread outward. The knife was thrust back into her again and again and again, each time with more force. The beeping and yelling in her ear drowning any thought she might have as she stared into Ruby's eyes, trying to question why she would do such a thing. All that answered was a cold, angry stare.

The knife was pulled from her stomach one last time and her hand released her shoulder. She collapsed to the ground like a puppet who had her strings cut suddenly. Her life blood spilling down her body as she looked up at her sister, begging for an answer. The younger woman just threw the knife down, turned and left her to die on the cold stone floor. She watched her leave through a passageway as her body tried to stay alive. After Ruby was long gone, Blake slide next to her suddenly, shouting something at her as she began to tap buttons on her scroll, but she could not hear her, she could not move. then there was darkness.

Then there was darkness.

With a water-filled fun day with her family, Pyrrha was waiting for Jaune and her son outside of the change rooms. They had just spent a few hours at the swimming pool in Vale, deciding to take a small vacation since they were in Vale before returning home. With it being just after noon on a weekday, there was almost no one in the pool so the lines for the slides were short and they had their choice of floaties for Anemone. Sitting on a bench looking over articles on her scroll, she heard a set of doors open.

Instead of seeing her family, Pyrrha saw Ruby Rose standing before her. She was about to greet her when alarms went off in her head, something was telling her to get her family and run away. Confused, Pyrrha stared at the red-cloaked woman for a few moments until she saw her reach behind her back and pulled out Crescent Rose and it opened up into a scythe. Pyrrha only had a moment to register what happened before Ruby charged right at her.

Jumping off the bench, she flipped over the hooded woman and ducked under another large swing of the weapon. While she would want nothing more than to ask why Ruby had suddenly attacked her, she was more preoccupied with just surviving. While Pyrrha was more concentrated on raising a family rather than being a Huntress, she had never missed a daily workout. Using her semblance to narrowly avoid the more dangerous attacks from the scythe, and blocking hits from her feet. But no matter how fit she was, she was unarmed, unprepared and out of practice when it came to fighting other people.

Blocking one attack had left her open for a large kick to her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her against a wall. She felt her head bounce off the concrete and her vision blur for just a second before ducking under a massive slice from the weapon, gouging the material where her neck was just moments ago. As the fight continued, she was slowly being whittled down by kicks and punches she could not use her semblance to avoid and no weapons to properly block with. Pyrrha did not know where Ruby had gotten this much skill from, but she knew her move set from all their times sparring.

Ruby jumped back and quickly jumped to the left. The red headed woman knew this move, this was one of Ruby's staples for one on one combat. Using her semblance, she would run around to the side and try to get her scythe around her. But Pyrrha knew this. She waited just as Ruby sprinted off to the left, Pyrrha spun to the right to get her with a backhanded fist, the same attack calls for the same counter attack. Only this time, Ruby was not there. She stared out at nothing as her fist connected with the air, she saw the scythe appear around her chest a moment later.

How did Ruby appear to the right when she ran to the left? That was impossible. Because of this, Pyrrha's back was to Ruby and was now defenceless as the steel rested against her stomach all the way up to her left shoulder. Ruby suddenly turned and pressed her back against Pyrrha's and pushed off, causing the red head to bend over and Ruby to roll over it. As she did this, the razor sharpness of the weapon sliced through the last bit of Aura she had and tear into her flesh.

With a jerk of her body, Ruby landed on her feet while Pyrrha landed face down on the cold flooring, blood pooling around her. She felt her strength fail her as she tried to push herself up, only to fall in the pool of blood that was getting bigger by the second. Emerald green eyes looked up and saw the cold stare of Ruby's silver eyes look down at her from under her hood. Gasping for breath as her vision darkened, she watched Ruby fold her weapon, place it back on her body, and walk through Pyrrha's blood as she left the woman to die, waiting for her family.

In the evening, Ren was holding Lily in his arms as Nora pushed the grocery cart that held their food for the week. Nora was wearing another loose, pink dress since she could not fit into any more of her pants because of the size of her pregnant stomach. Of course, that did not stop her from demanding pancakes whenever she could, and since Ren hardly said no, most of the cart was for her and her alone. "I'm thinking it'll probably be pretty soon, Ren," Nora said with a smile as she rubbed her stomach, feeling the life inside of her stir.

"Probably, you look like you're ready to pop any day now." He said with a small smile as he turned to face her, Lily doing her best to not fall asleep in her father's arms.

Nora just giggled as she walked next to him and parked the cart next to their car. She walked next to Ren and kissed his cheek. "Well, Yang is thinking it's twins, I've got fifty lien on triplets."

"You're betting on your children?" He asked with a small smile.

"Of course, I had twenty that Lily was going to be a boy." Ren just sighed and shook his head lightly with an affection smile.

"So, what do you want for dinner?"

Both Lily and Nora threw their fists into the air calling out for pancakes. He hung his head in defeat and shook his head lightly. He was about to set Lily in the cart to start loading up the bags of groceries into their car when a gust of wind pushed his hair into his face and he stopped, she had seen him do this before a lot since they were kids. He stared out, almost reading the wind as expressions passed through his face. First, he was trying to find out what it was, then confusion, then she scared him with a look of horror and shock.

Suddenly, he turned and pushed Lily into her arms in a flash and placed both of his hands out in him. His aura barriers flashing in his hands between them as a loud crack echoed through the air of the store parking lot. The next thing she felt was something hit Lily, causing them both to fall to the ground. Getting up, she looked down at Lily in her arms as she cried out in pain. The next thing she saw was blood, a lot of it. She quickly checked over her crying daughter and saw bruises forming all over her arms, chest and up her neck from the impact of whatever hit them, but was not cut anywhere. Looking up, she screamed out in horror.

"REN!" She crawled over to the man and turned him onto his back. His green shirt was soaked all the way through with blood from a massive hole in his chest. He had forced all of his Aura into the barriers to protect Lily and herself, leaving him vulnerable. His eyes were open but he was not responding to her screams or her shaking his limp body. Looking around in a panic, she saw people either running away or running towards her to help. Dozens were on their scrolls, calling for emergency services.

"Ren! Don't leave me! Please! Don't leave us!" She cried out to the man who was bleeding out. She looked up, tears falling from her eyes as she tried to find out what had happened. Across the street, she saw someone standing on the roof of a building. It was hard to see who it was through her tears, but she could almost make out the form of someone with a rifle and a red cloak fluttering in the wind. Before she could say do anything, the figure turned and walked away from view.

With her hand pressed to the hole in Ren, she prayed to anyone or anything that would listen to save Ren, instead of just letting him die in front of his family.

Night had fallen on the island of Patch. Weiss had spent the whole day packing up their things and cleaning up so her father in law would have a nice, clean home to come back to. She was preparing some dinner since Ruby had made breakfast this morning. She had gone into town and picked up a few things during the day after she had packed everything, setting a few pans to heat up, she was about to pull some ingredients from the fridge when she heard the front door open.

Looking out, she smiled as her wife walked in and began to remove her boots. "How did it go?" She asked, glad to see she was unharmed.

The red-clad Huntress simply smiled back and walked up to her. "Good," She said as she saw what Weiss was doing and quickly moved to help. She pulled a knife out of the stand and looked into her eyes. "There were only three."