All I can hear is my breathing.

No... also my heartbeat. It's thumping in my ears like a drum. What happened?

Someone is talking to me. I can't quite understand them... sounds like I'm underwater. Wait...

An avalanche of computer code explodes in front of my eyes. Almost hurts to look at.

"-up... wake up..." I hear her now. She sounds so far away. I know that voice? Yes, I KNOW that voice! "Ruby! WAKE UP!"

I can smell the smoke, feel the heat of a fire I can't see. All I can hear is her voice. I focus on it.

"Yang? What-" I cough, smoke burning my lungs. "What happened?"
"It was a trap. They're on to us. We've got to move!"

I feel a pair of powerful arms grab me and pull me up.

I blink as my mask comes back to life, showing me a room ON FIRE.

It all comes back to me. I shake myself and my back HURTS. My cloak is torn, my clothes ripped at. Where's my scythe? Where'd-

"Here," Yang hands me a small red and black box about the size of my arm: Crescent Rose. I take it, still feeling of shock of getting exploded. "You good?"

"I think so," I shake my head again to clear the static in my head. "Yeah. I'm good. I think."

Somewhere distant I hear voices, shouting. "Well, the bad guys are coming, so we need to move," Yang looks like she's been through a fire herself - her clothes are ruined almost as bad as mine are and some of her hair is still smoking.

"This was supposed to be simple," I say.
"We'll talk about it later," Yang looks me over. "You sure you're okay?"
"Do I have a choice?" I ask. Yang just shakes her head.
"Come on, we've got to run."

I nod. The two of us break into a run, heading out of the server room that's still on fire. My muscles are very mad at me, but I shut the pain away for now. If we don't escape, we're dead anyway, so survival is paramount. The way out of the server room takes us around shattered glass windows, broken and bent doors, and several poor souls who got caught in the explosion. Typical - they wouldn't care about their own employees. I grit my teeth as waves of pain shoot through my body and follow Yang as we backtrack through the complex, heading towards the stairwell that will lead us to the roof for extraction.

"This is Goldilocks," Yang says into the air. On my HUD an image of her pops up to the top-right of my vision. "Red and I have been compromised. Our information was bad."

"Copy, Goldilocks," a second image of a pale girl with long black hair pops up on the top-left - Blake. "If you can make it to the roof, Cinderella has a bullhead prepared to come get you."

"We're banged up pretty bad," Yang says as we turn a corner. "Red was on fire."
"What?" I stare at Yang. I was WHAT?
"Not now," Yang shushes me. "We'll meet you on the WHOA!"

Yang grabs me and pulls the both of us back around a different corner as several men in riot gear pour out of the elevator, guns blazing. The wall gets lit up with bullet holes from automatics. "Shit, not good," Yang whispers. "We're gonna need to find a different way."

I pull up a map of the complex. "No good," I tell her. "They're blocking the only way up."
"Fine, then I'll make us a way up," Yang growls. I take a few steps back as Yang clenches a fist, holding it up. Staring at the ceiling, she coils her legs and shoots straight up, PUNCHING the ceiling all the way through the reinforced concrete to the floor above. Yes, Yang, very subtle.

"Are you going to argue or follow?" she shouts from above. I shrug. Facing the wall opposite of me, I run for it and jump, twist around, and bounce off of the wall to the Yang-made hole above. I pull myself up as the guys in riot gear turn the corner and start shooting at the hole. A bullet glances one of my legs, but my Aura has come back to life and causes it to barely graze me. The two of us start running again, but now our path is blocked by guys wearing company uniforms, shocked and confused that we even made it up here. "Get out of our way!" Yang shoves people aside as we run.

No good. We make it to the stairwell, but it's been magnetically sealed. Yang gets ready to punch the hell out of the door, but this isn't going to work - I grab her arm and stop her before she breaks it into pieces.

"There's another way," I tell her. "Gotta be."
"You have an idea?"

I look next to the stairwell at the giant window facing the city. Yang sucks in a sharp breath. "Ruby..." I pull Crescent Rose off of my back and issue a command; the box morphs into a semi-automatic rifle. "Surely you can't be serious."

"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley," I grin and fire into the window with three rapid shots. The window shatters, putting nothing between us and the night. "We can make it to the ground from here."

"There's no way you can use your Semblance in your state," Yang warns. I shrug. Not a good time to argue, Yang. "Ruby, if you hurt yourself, Dad will kill me."

"Didn't you say I was on fire earlier? No time!" I put my arms around Yang's waist. "Trust me."
"It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I don't want to DIIIIIIIEEEEE!"

It's too late. I channel my Semblance and the two of us vanish. Well, that's not entirely right. I cause the two of us to move so fast it looks like we vanish. The truth is I have mastery over speed, and across short distances I can twist and move so fast even cyborgs have trouble following me.

...I've never jumped out of the 60th story window of a skyscraper, though, so this might be fun. I run down the side of the building, jump, twist, and hold tightly onto my sister as we both land with a flourish onto a much shorter building that surrounds the tower. My cloak billows, I have a serious look on my face, it's very dramatic.

Please gasp in awe at my awesomeness.
I let go of Yang and feel like my skin is electric. There's no time to bask in my glory, however, so the two of us break into a run. "Change of plans," I say as Blake's image pops up in my vision again. "We're closer to the ground now, heading north-northwest."

"Alright, Cinderella has you two on infrared. Keep running."
"Copy," I nod. Yang and I leap across rooftops in silence. I really need to lie down and die a little, and from the looks of it so does Yang, but we can't stop running now. We put as much distance as we can between us and the tower. It's the only way to be safe.

We hear the bullhead before we see it - just a roar of engines above us. The bullhead decloaks several meters in front of us, and both Yang and I leap into its open side hatch. A young woman with fierce eyes and long black hair holds onto us as we regain our footing, the door shutting with a clank. "You two look like shit," Cinder says with a grin.

"Thanks, you too," I gasp in between breaths, putting my hands on my knees. "Try getting blown up sometime, see how you like it."

"I'll pass," laughs the fire mage. "Em, we got them. Reengage optic camo and lets get out of here."
"On it," says the pilot, tapping a few buttons and pulling back on the control yoke. I can't see it, but I know the bullhead vanishes, invisible to all but the most powerful sensors - military-grade ones, which fortunately our mark doesn't have. I think. Then again, they were always full of surprises. I walk to the back of the bullhead, staring "through" it with my mask at the towering skyscraper. The letters "SDC" hang on the side of it like a beacon. A very angry beacon.

"Our information was bad," Yang says for like the fifth time. "Almost got us killed. I can't afford to lose any more body parts."

"I think your cyberware is charming," I hear Cinder tease. "It makes you look so... heroic."
"Oh please," I can actually hear Yang rolling her eyes. "Look, no more jobs for White Fang."

"Aw," Blake's voice is pouting in my head. "It's not always this bad. Adam's information is usually good."
"Yeah, good at getting us killed," Yang replies. "Get some new friends, Blake."
"At least the White Fang is trying to do something about Schnee," Blake argues.
"A lot of people are, but MegaCorps are hard to dismantle. Did Pyrrha's team get anything good?"

Silence. "We... haven't heard back from them," I'm sorry, what? I turn around and look at Cinder. She looks like she's up to no good but that's Cinder's default face so it's hard to tell. "They didn't check in at the preplanned time, so..."

"God damnit," Yang sighs, crossing her arms. "We should go after them, shouldn't we?"
"No, you two are going back to HQ," Cinder shakes her head. "In your condition, the only thing you two are going to do is sleep and heal. We can't have two dead runners."

"Please, I'll be fine!" Yang grins, trying really hard not to wince.
"Mm, I'm sure," Cinder smiles brightly and walks behind Yang. "You look like you're in perfect health, actually! You're right!"

She claps Yang on the back. The shriek of pain is amplified by my mask's audio enhancers, and I have to grab my ears to keep them from bleeding out. I swear, she screams like a dolphin. "I thought as much. Back to base with both of you!"

Cinder is still smiling by the way. She's vindictive like that.

Digital Revolution
Chapter One: A Girl Like Me

So I realized that I haven't introduced myself. Since I'm currently stuck in a probably-not-sanitary bed in some back-alley "doctor's" office because Yang got us blown up, I might as well be polite.

My name is, depending on who you ask, Ruby Rose or Ruby Xiao Long. Rose is my birth name, Xiao Long is my adopted name. Yang and her dad adopted me when my mom was killed. Before then, I was a normal kid with a normal life. I had friends, a crush on this SUPER hot guy like oh my God, and, according to at least one of my teachers, "a bright shining future away from all of this abject poverty enforced on us" or whatever.

When Mom died and the Xiao Longs adopted me, I was in a pretty rough place. I don't like talking about it. But Yang and Dad helped me through it. They taught me how to live on the street, taught me things that no Schnee-sponsored curriculum could. Dad had plans for me, but he wanted to make sure I could survive before he enacted those plans.

I'll show you. After I get out of this bed.

Friendly reminder that Yang is the reason I'm laying here.

"Fuck you, Ruby."
I sit up on my arms and look across the bed at my adoptive sister. "I'm pretty sure that's both gross and illegal," I say.

"Oh, jeeze, you've gotta stop hanging out with Cinder," Yang sighs. She goes to sit up but can't because she's conveniently missing both of her arms. Long story. "You're just as bad as she is."

"Coming from the girl who keeps getting into the catgirl's pants, I'll take that as a compliment."

The door to the dingy room opens up and said catgirl walks through. Blake - I forgot her last name, so just Blake - is a faunus, half-human and half-animal. She's really tall and got these sexy golden eyes and a really slim frame and I just sometimes get these urges to lick her but I think Yang would get like SUPER jealous so I don't. "She'll keep trying, but she'll keep failing," she quips, pulling up a chair and sitting between us, crossing her legs in such a way I'm pretty sure is intentionally hot especially with those thigh-highs but I'm going to ignore it for now. "So, Adam's information wasn't bad, but apparently it was intercepted by a third party."

"Got any leads?" Yang asks. "I've got to punch something to death when I get my arms back."
"Unfortunately not, but chances are it's Torchwick and his nasty little spore," Blake pulls up something on her scroll and "tosses" it; holographic screens pop up in front of our eyes, showing an orange-haired jerk and a little heterochromatic demon that would be really cute if she wasn't as much of a jerk as he was. "He was spotted going in and out of the SDC on some stolen security footage."

"Well, you know what they say about money," Yang sighs. "Is he working for them or trying to play the Schnee family?"
"Knowing him, probably both," I scan the data collected and "push" the image back to Blake; it sinks back into her scroll. "We're running some security checks now, but we're a long way from anything conclusive. Also, the botched job got us noticed by the family, so we're abandoning HQ and are setting up somewhere outside the city limits. It's not perfect, but it'll do until we get something more... er, solid."

"Winter again?" I ask, thinking of the Schnee family's primary enforcer.
"Nope, looks like they're sending the other one this time," Blake pulls up another file and tosses it, showing a girl that could pass as Winter a few years younger: pale skin, icy blue eyes, platinum white hair, a very serious case of RBF.

She's kinda cute, actually.
"Weiss Schnee, seventeen years old," Blake explains. "She just graduated - yes, graduated - from Atlas's Military Academy. Intercepted data packets suggest she's just as ruthless as the rest of her family."

"Semblance?" Despite having a lack of arms, Yang could easily be rubbing her chin in thoguht.
"Glyphs, just like the rest of them," Blake responds. "Her primary weapon is a NanoTech rapier called... Myrtenaster?" she blinks. "Odd name for a weapon. Dust empowered, of course. She's basically all of the annoying parts of Cinder with the fight capability of you, Ruby," she flicks over some recorded footage of her fighting some training droids, showing this girl speeding around an arena, using rapidfire thrusts and magic attacks to bring them down in mere seconds. Oof, that looks like fun. "Yeah, she's going to be a tough one."

"When does she arrive?"
"She was last seen on her graduation mission in Vacuo. She's supposed to be on the next flight back to Atlas," Blake flicks up a map showing a flight plan. "Since the record suggests she's more driven than even Winter is, we'll probably have to take her down, preferably permanently."

"Ugh, I hate killing people," I whine. "I signed on this to fight against injustice, not commit murder."

"Your impressive kill count suggests otherwise," Blake says simply. Got me there.
"They do call you The Grim Reaper," Yang cuts in with a laugh. "Imagine what your classmates would think."

"Considering that they see her as a hero, I doubt they'd believe I could do anything like what I do," I shrug. "Speaking of, tomorrow's Monday, so if I don't get back to school after that botched job, people are going to ask questions. I'm guessing our attempt has hit all the news reels by now?"

"Yup," Blake flicks another screen showing some news footage. It looks really dramatic, with the smoke billowing out of the SDC tower, my sexy red cape blowing behind me as I run down the side of the building, and so on. God I'm awesome. "I was able to scramble more of the clear shots security had on you so they can't pin you on your Aura or Semblance, but speedsters are pretty uncommon up here."

"Well, no one knows what exactly my Semblance is, so," I shrug again. "I just tell them I have the FANTASTIC Semblance of being super hot."

"Okay, maybe you've been hanging out with me too much," Yang jokes.
"Nah, I still have both of my arms," I tease.
"Ouch, harsh," Yang wiggles a bit in bed. "By the way, if Mercury could hurry the hell up and fix my shit, I could go home, too."

"No, you're not going anywhere," Blake replies. All of the holo images vanish as she pockets her scroll. "You got hit by most of the blast, so you've got a lot of pain going on. We can give Ruby enough painkillers to function in public, but you're out of commission for a day or three."

"Oh, great," I roll my eyes. "Everyone at school already thinks I'm on drugs so this is fine. And by fine I mean not fine."

"It's either that or live with excessive pain until you heal. Also I have it on good authority that these aren't addictive like the opioids we gave you last time. I had to use them when Yang got me half-stuck in that garbage truck."

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
"You didn't even call to see if I was okay."
"We had to go into deep cover to get the SDC off our trail!"
"And just think, if you had shown up I probably would have let you sleep with me."
"YOU- wait, what?"
Blake snorts. "I'm kidding. Mostly. Maybe."
"I hate you."
"Mm, hate sex. Tasty."

They do this all the time. I think they'd already be sleeping together if Blake's boyfriend Adam wasn't the super possessive type. "Anyway, Ruby, you've been cleared, so you're free to go. The pain will subside in a day or two, so take these," she hands be a small plastic bag with six pills in it. "Three times a day, however you want. Don't take them all at once or you'll get a migraine. Trust me on that one."

"Right," I swing my legs off the bed and stand up, feeling only slightly dizzy.
"Don't trip," Yang teases.
"Oh, hush," I stick my tongue out at Yang. "You can't make fun of me while you're... disarmed."

Blake tries and fails to keep from giggling. Yang just rolls her eyes. Ha, got em. "Go away, you're ruining my flirtatious advances."

"Yeah, yeah," Blake produces my civilian clothes from some space on her person and hands them over. I walk behind a curtain to get dressed.

"Oh, and Ruby, your Dad wanted to see you before you left. He's in the next room over."

I toss the hospital gown over the curtain and get the white shirt - ugh, I have no underwear. Classic Blake forgetting things like propriety. "I'm gonna get in trouble, can I just go home? You know how Dad gets when we use Semblance in public."

"I don't think it's that," Blake types something on her scroll as I put my jeans on. "Well, knowing the Boss, probably, but I think he wants you to do something."

"'kay."

I step from behind the curtain and grab the shoes that spontaneously appeared on my bed. "How do you just hide things like this?"

"Trade secret. Very sneaky. Very ninja."
"You're a decker, not a ninja."
"Why not both?"

Not far from the definitely-not-a-street-surgeon's office is what we, until tonight, had affectionately been referring to as HQ; Not quite "next door" as Blake put it, but close enough that I felt safe the whole way. On the outside it looks like one of the many abandoned buildings out here in the Barrens, but once you get inside and go through at least one door that's watched by a few hidden cameras, you enter an elevator that goes down a bit of a ways to what used to be the maintenance tunnels for this area. Down here is HQ - cramped, tiny, cold, a home away from home.

There's a bunch of packing going on when the doors open. A lot of our guys working with White Fang faunus are boxing up everything that can be moved and destroying everything that can't. Blake's cherished computer system - Gambol Shroud, she calls it - is being broken down to its component parts, watched over by a guy with a perpetually angry look on his face. That's Adam. He's always angry. He never has anything nice to say and I wonder what Blake sees in him. The only thing I can think of is that the sword he carries must be an accurate representation of how manly he is if you catch my drift.

Anyway.

Dad is easy enough to find. He's taller than just about everyone here, and he always looks serious when he's in work mode. He has a scroll in one hand and he's pointing with the other. "Get those weapons boxed up!" he's shouting. "Crescent Rose gets placed in the NanoTech cases along with the other specials! All standard weapons get put in the portable lockers! Decker equipment needs to be taken off of the grid!"

I walk up next to Dad and watch him yell for a bit, waiting for a chance. He doesn't even notice me at first, only coming around when I do the adorable daughter act and glomp him. "Dad~"

"Ruby," he tenses when I tackle him, but he puts the scroll away and pats my head. "You're safe."
"Of course I am!" he puts me down. I look up at him with a smile. "A little explosion isn't enough to put me down! Yang, on the other hand," I sigh dramatically. "Anyway, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes," Dad nods. "We're going under for a while, so you'll have to make do on your own for a week or so. Once Yang is back on her feet I'll send her after you, and Blake is going to be hanging around in the Barrens doing some information gathering. She'll be your primary contact to us. You also have a mission of sorts."

I nod, listening.
"Pyrrha's team still hasn't reported back," he says, a look of worry on his face. "She never forgets to check in, so I need you to keep both eyes open. Some members of the White Fang are going to scout around the city to see what they can find, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. If you hear anything, report to Blake immediately. As always, she's your team leader."

"Yes, Dad."
"Also, I'm taking Crescent Rose with me to make sure you don't do anything reckless."

Of course he is. "I understand. Are... are you guys going to be safe?"
"We will," he pats my head reassuringly. "I know you hate being left on your own, Ruby."
"I have Blake," I reply. "So I got that going for me. She doesn't let me cuddle, though."

Dad laughs. "I'm pretty sure that Adam would get very upset."
"I can just pull the innocent girl act, right?"
"You fool no one down here, Ruby."
"Aw."

I give Dad another hug and leave him to work. He's got a lot riding on this gang he's created, so as much as I want to just hang out with him, I can't. It sucks, but I understand. Mostly. No, I don't wanna talk about it.

I walk past some people packing to find Mercury standing over a work table. He's got his goggles on and his arms are covered in what looks like motor oil but probably "way more complicated than that" as he'd put it. I walk up to his table and watch as he quickly takes apart Yang's arms to discard the broken pieces. The explosion really did a number on them, and her punching the ceiling did more. They look pretty banged up.

"Hey Rubes," Mercury doesn't bother looking up from his work. He's kind of a jerk but when he's not working he can be pretty nice. "Tell your sister next time she wants to be exploded to not let her arms get wrecked in the process. Some of these parts are expensive, you know?"

"Only cause you insist on the best," I say with a smile. Mercury is a hardcore perfectionist when it comes to cyberware, probably cause he's wired himself - he made the legs he's standing on. "You know Yang - you could probably make one of her fists a club and she'd get all excited."

Mercury doesn't laugh at that, but he does smile. He pulls out what looks like a tiny cylinder and chucks it in a trashcan. "I'm not going to be able to finish Ember Celica here, but I can at least get them good and started. Yang's gonna have to do with the backups," I cringe a bit - "the backups" are the super robotic looking arms that Mercury fashioned to be as ugly as possible as punishment for when Yang breaks her real cyberware. She absolutely hates them, but that's kinda the point. I think Merc just gets a kick out of making her wear them. "Also," he looks at me and pokes me in the chest. "Put a bra on, those are distracting."

Thank you for reminding me that you have zero social skills. "I'm not paid to be friendly, I'm paid to do work, Rubes."

Tch, whatever. Since I'm distracting, I'll just leave. Mercury doesn't even wave as I walk away. I consider heading down one of the tunnels to the hole where Cinder hides her bullhead, but decide against it. She's probably already about to head out, anyway, which means it's probably a good time for me to go home as well. I give Dad another goodbye hug and walk out of the hidden base. It'll be sad to see it go; this one was really good, being underground and all. But when a Schnee has your scent, it's best to just skip town until she loses it.

This new one could be a challenge. Winter is already a pain in the ass, but this Weiss chick is supposed to be even worse. I think about how I'm probably going to have to kill her to keep my family and friends safe. It kinda sucks - she's barely older than I am and our paths in life are going to cross one day, and it's going to end poorly for her. Like Yang said, I'm the Grim Reaper. Just ask Winter what I did to her brother. Ah, I don't like thinking about it.

Blake is waiting on me when I exit the base, nose buried in another scroll. "You said your goodbyes for now," she says, and I nod. "Alright, let's get you home."

"You're not staying with me?"
"No, I have a place set up - one of Adam's contacts is going to be keeping me," Aw. "Don't pout, Ruby, it would look inappropriate anyway."

"You think everything looks inappropriate," the two of us walk out onto the street and pretend like we're not terrorists. "I'm not a child anymore, Blake, no one is going to think you're a pedo because we hang out."

"Maybe not," one of her ears twitch as we pass by an SDC droid on patrol. "But why take that chance?"
"This is the Barrens, there are way worse things going on around here," I'm not lying. You haven't been angry until you bust a child trafficking ring. Those faces can haunt you if you let them. That's what it did to Pyrrha, why she sometimes doesn't get sleep. "Besides, it's not like you're gonna pull anything, Blake. Unless..." I bat my eyes at her. "I mean, if you want to..."

"Nice try," she says calmly. Damnit, take my bait! I'm hormonal! "Which is another reason why I'm not staying with you: You're too much like your sister. I'm not going to jump you, but you might jump me."

"Hey! I'd at least take you to dinner first!"
Blake rolls her eyes. "That's enough," she says more sternly. Phooey. "...hit me up when you're older."

Bwuh. The way she looks at you with those eyes, I'm telling you. I have to look away or I'm going to start matching Crescent Rose. Blake laughs at me.

So, I live alone.

I mean, I'm adopted, but with Yang and Dad out doing things like punching SDC goons in the face and the general danger that comes from a family of criminals living together, he got me set up in a small studio apartment in the seediest part of the Barrens. I know, it sounds like neglect, right? It's really not. It's actually safer for people like me to live out here. I'm more than capable of handling myself from a few lowlifes, but I can't take on a platoon of SDC cyborgs in public. They might not know who I am, but there's always that chance they'll find out, and surveillance by the All Seeing Schnee is pretty weak out here.

My apartment is pretty sparsely decorated. I've got some neat little gizmos here and there, but I keep it light. Most of the money I earn goes to supporting the gang, so what I earn from side jobs is all I really have. Since I'm not much of a decker - er, a hacker, basically, just way cooler - most of the gigs I get are either muscle work or con jobs because by all appearances I look like an innocent pure teenage girl. It really helps.

My bedroom is also my living room is also the kitchen. The walls are a pale off-white with the only decorations being pictures of me and Mom. I'd like to have pictures of Yang and Dad, but I already get enough heat for sharing their last name, so I keep my relationship "distant". The windows have reinforced iron bars across them, so if I ever need to escape I'm not getting out that way. Other than that, the apartment is pretty bland.

I know, it looks like the perfect opportunity to start angsting about being poor and my lot in life, right? But... not really. I'm not the brooding type. I'm more of an action-oriented person. I like to get my hands dirty. Nothing has ever been gained from being an angst-ridden mess. Well, there's some good fiction out there, but I'm not going to win any awards. "The happy go lucky hero who saves the day" fell out of fashion years ago. Anyway, I don't have a couch, so I sit on my bed and turn on the TV, set it to the SDC-sponsored news channel, and begin to change into my nightwear.

"Police are still uncertain who sabotaged the SDC data center," the reporter was saying. "Security footage reveals that both agents were members of the White Fang terrorist organization, who simultaneously committed an armed robbery of a train. This train, on route to Vacuo from Vale, was loaded with support staff and supplies for the relief efforts that the rapid desertification of the nation is undergoing. Although unfortunately the terrorists escaped, they were able to destroy several of the train cars."

Ah, so that's the angle. You remember Yang mentioning Pyrrha earlier? She's our Ace, our best agent. Known as Achilles, she leads a team of hand-picked agents on the more dangerous jobs that take us far outside our normal reaches. The train was loaded down with weapons and Dust for the SDC's continued extramilitary occupation of the desert nation. There is a crisis, that much is true, but what the SDC doesn't want you to know is that they're the cause of it - they've been harvesting Dust, lumber, and all of Vacuo's natural resources for about fifty years now, with reckless abandon. Several members of the gang are from Vacuo, and they all have their own bones to pick with the SDC.

The reporter shuffles some papers and puts on the best fake smile I've ever seen. "The Schnee Dust Company, our proud sponsors, would like to report that the youngest daughter of the family, Weiss Schnee, will be returning home after graduating from the Atlas Military Academy. Weiss, only 17 years old, is a child prodigy, able to sing, fight, and lead in all situations. She is due to come home to Atlas in two days, and the family has set in motion a special parade in her honor. The Schnee family made a statement."

The screen flickers as a rather andro.. andry... a guy who kinda doesn't look like a guy or a girl stood in front of a podium with a fantastic smile that was also so evil you could almost taste it if you were into evil-flavored popsicles. "Our favored baby, Weiss, is returning home to us. On behalf of the family, we are proud of her accomplishments and are ready to welcome her back with open arms and loving hearts."

Bleh. I have no idea who he's fooling. Maybe everyone who doesn't live in the shitty parts of the city. I dunno.

Having successfully changed into my clothes, I pull back the covers to my bed and get in. It's one in the morning so I'm not getting a lot of sleep, so that sucks. The life of a terrorist doesn't really give you the opportunity for a good night's rest. I guess, sorta thankfully, since Yang is stuck with her arms being repaired for a while, I probably won't get much work, so I'll get to enjoy the normal teenage life. Woo. Hoo.

My morning routine is fairly basic. I get up at about five thirty, take a shower that never lasts long enough because the hot water heater doesn't work half the time, put on some super light makeup because if I do anything heavy Yang gets mad, and rummage around for some clothes. The school I go to can't afford uniforms like the ones in the wealthier areas, but that's fine with me because I've seen how stuffy those things look and it's awful. How can you fight in such a restricting jacket? Makes no sense.

It's never hot in Atlas. It's always cold, and if it's not raining, it's snowing, or sleeting, or sometimes we get thundersnow because Atlas is literally the worst. Anyway, I tend to wear long sleeves and a jacket with a hood because I'm not being caught dead out in the cold if I can help it. I also tend to wear jeans because, unlike Blake, I can't just walk around in shorts with thigh-highs and be comfortable because logic isn't really her strong suit sometimes. No, I mean it.

Deckers can be SUPER WEIRD.

So you might be asking "Ruby, why are you going to school anyway?"

Two reasons.
One, Dad wants me to, and I can't say no to Dad. He wants me to keep learning things like "life skills" or whatever and likes it when I make friends, except I don't have any friends because people are weird. Also he says school is good for me. I don't think he remembers going to school because this drek is stupid.

Two, it's great cover. The SDC, as part of its anti-criminal initiative, tracks truants, among other things, so it actually hurts me in the long run if I don't go. Since I'm at school, obviously, I can't be up to no good, right? The piles of homework they saddle me with gets handled by Blake because she can do it in about ten seconds - don't tell Dad that - which allows me free time to do my side work.

It's kind of dumb, but it makes sense, I guess.

I make it to school with time to spare. It's a nasty, squat little building, surrounded by concrete fences with razor wire at the top, for "security", although I"m pretty sure it's to keep us from escaping because we totally would if it wasn't there. Since this school is at the edge of the Barrens, most of us here are poor, and what you see here reflects that. A lot of us are kind of lowlifes with no futures because even if we graduate, we lack that thing that lets you get work, which in Atlas means connections. Sure, sometimes a sports star might get picked up by a university, or someone with some fight in them gets drafted into either Atlas's Military Academy or the SDC's personal army of anti-runners, but that doesn't happen very much.

It's raining outside again, so I walk in. I have literally no friends here, so I'm usually left alone to do whatever until class starts. Everyone is talking about the botched job from last night, and it does please me a bit to hear people talk about me even if they don't know it's me. Clearly the Reaper is a super hot babe with a massive chest with a dark brooding nature that's all like "I'm full of angst and woe" and whatnot. You know, because she uses a scythe.

If you must know, I use scythes because they're totally awesome.

Have I mentioned that I'm tired? Because I'm still tired. This is why I have a reputation of sorts - one of being a pillhead, because I'm always sleepy and not prone to actually paying attention. I don't actually do anything because 1. Dad and 2. It reduces your effectiveness when its most important, but I let people talk because I really don't care to correct them. It's better that they disassociate Ruby Xiao Long as far as possible from Little Red the Grim Reaper.

Some dork with glasses sits next to me all excited. "Hey, didya see it?"
"It's all over the news, of course I saw it," I reply. I have a window seat because staring at the rain is supposed to be dramatic - actually it's so I can make a quick escape if I ever get made and have to run. "They said its sabotage."

"It's not," the boy who's name I can't remember drops his voice low. "They were datastealing some details about the SDC's moves in Vale. They're muscling in on Emerald territory they say," Emerald Tech is an electronics company that makes most of the devices that most countries use. The SDC stole some tech a while back and so that's what most of us use. Our masks are made with Atlas hardware but its base is still Emerald Tech. Corporate Wars are weird like that. "If that happens, we might end up going to war with Vale!"

I roll my eyes. "So? What's that got to do with us?"
"They'll start a draft," Are you actually stupid do you want to fight. "If they do, they'll start pulling people from the Barrens. We might be able to get outta this place."

"Pretty sure minimum age of draft is 17," I say. "I think ninth graders are a bit too young for that."

"They won't check!" he urges. "Half of us are SINless anyway, we can say whatever we want! I'll even volunteer!"

SINless means people like us. Every child born in Atlas, and most of the world, is given a System Identification Number that you're supposed to have throughout your life. It's basically a set of numbers that allows most important things to notice you. Out here, most things don't require SIN because a lot of kids around here are born outside of real hospitals. I was born in the apartment we lived in, for example.

If you don't have a SIN, you may as well not exist. However, the SINless have a special talent: since we aren't noticed, we can basically lie about whatever and people have to believe us because there's no evidence to the contrary. It limits us, though - most people poor in the Barrens will grow up, grow old, and die here, too. Out of my class of some hundred students, most of us won't live to see thirty, and fewer still to forty. Case in point, we used to have a hundred and twenty at the beginning of the year. But gang wars, idiots fighting over drugs or money or women or whatever, are a regular fact of life here. Also, SDC Droids have a policy of shooting criminals on sight regardless of the severity of the crime, so put two and two together.

I let the conversation go, letting my mind wander, looking around the class. There are good kids here, stuck in a bad situation. A lot of them are worse off than I am, and that sucks. We all have our own battles, you know? The pale girl in front of me has a garbage dad who drinks a lot and beats her, the redhead over there has anger management issues because someone forced heroin into her system when she was like ten, her boyfriend next to her is an orphan who lives with some ex-military nutjob who thinks that we're one bad day away from the Grimm making a comeback, and so on.

All of this started long before I was born, back when the SDC and several other corporations became the big power players, becoming bigger than and in some cases overriding governments and taking control for themselves. It's a long story, but the short version is that the corps promised a vision and everyone fell for it. Now that it's obvious that vision was a lie, the people are too poor or too lazy or too doped up to care. That's part of why I became a runner, because I do care. Because Dad cares. We might all be trying to make our way in this world, but some of us are trying to make it better for everyone.

That's my dream, anyway. Can you tell I don't do well in school?

It's about lunchtime when Blake contacts me. She's never overt about it, and at first I didn't even notice. Across from the school and above the outer walls, a light has been blinking for a few minutes. It takes me a while to realize it's a pattern. I disconnect from the school's WiFi and search for a signal that only exists because my scroll has been modified to find it. I connect and put on my earphones.

"Heatwave coming in," she says. "SDC conducting a sweep, probably looking for White Fang members, especially after last night. I'm gonna lay low - don't do anything out of the ordinary."

A heatwave is when the cops, or in this case the SDC, show up to the Barrens to look for characters of questionable morality. Usually this means shooting the homeless who don't hide fast enough, performing random drug tests on faunus, and adding drones and more droids in sweep patterns. Truants are arrested and forced into "Schnee Processing Facilities" which are basically glorified brainwashing centers. On the extremely rare occasion they find an actual terrorist like a White Fang member, they parade that drek around on TV for a week or so.

I would love to go out there and give them a nice taste of scythe, but Dad took Crescent Rose from me precisely so I couldn't do that.

Ugh, this sucks.

I hang up on Blake and put the scroll away. I start formulating a plan just in case they figure out who I am. It's always a long shot, but you can never be too certain. The bells ring, and I watch as all of the other students get up and make their way out to the cafeteria for lunch. For many of us, it's the one chance for a meal that's not garbage, and normally I'd be happy to follow. But not now. Not while there's danger lurking. I begin to scan the sky, waiting for the bullheads to show up.

I don't have to wait long. Ten minutes after lunch begins, they're here. Since the school is at the "edge" of the Barrens, it's usually their first stop. Several men and women wearing riot gear walk out of the bullheads while others that haven't landed drop SDC droids and deploy drones. The group is led by an SDC enforcer, usually a former runner or someone trained like us to sniff us out. Fortunately, I'm too normal to notice when I'm not wearing my gear, so I'm able to slip by. I pretend to be completely shocked by this sudden turn of events.

The droids let themselves in and spread throughout the school, and the drones follow. The only thing I can get in trouble for is for being SINless, but it's enough for me to get put away if a particular goon doesn't like me. The droids can detect Semblance use and Aura activation, so I can't run and hide, nor can I fight back without getting shot. I keep my headphones on and pretend like I'm surprised I'm found and told to head for the cafeteria with all the other students.

The entire student body and some teachers are in here. They'll start by searching for anyone that might be of use to them - usually people who look particularly strong and smart. All of our grades are on file, and mine blow, so I don't have to worry about that, and I don't look like I can punch a goon out. I mean, I can't, but I've gotten into fights without Crescent Rose before. Those aren't very fun.

A drone scans me, a dude in riot gear pats me down and lingers way too long on my butt, but he passes on. Gross. At least he didn't make me take my shirt off like they do to some of the bigger girls. I'm pretty sure they mostly get their rocks off by forcing people to do what they want them to do. It's a power thing. Dad explained it once, but I don't really get how having power over someone's will is enjoyable.

As they clear up, a warning siren goes off. I turn to look - the redhead with the heroin addiction has been flagged for exactly that. That's unfortunate. They cuff and begin to lead her away. She's kicking and screaming but there's not really a lot that she can do.

There's a clunk as she kicks one of the droids. No, don't do that.
The droid is programmed to respond to any violence done to it with lethal force. One of its arms turns into a sword and it lifts it, ready to strike. There's an eruption of protest because no one wants to see a kid die in school, and one of the officers halts the droid with a command. The goons lift their guns and point them at us. The girl is still screaming profanities at them. They make some idle threats but they usually don't act on it, at least not with kids. Easier to brainwash the adults if you don't off their spawn, you know?

Cooler heads prevail. No one dies, and the droid is called off. They still drag her away, though, because she's a drug addict and therefore a menace to society. No one is fooled, of course - if she's not brainwashed, she'll be dead in the next week, anyway. The SDC will send a letter to the grieving parents claiming that they did what they could. The boyfriend will be miserable, but maybe he'll move on. He used to have eyes for the pale girl who sits in front of me.

Maybe.

Everyone heads back to class, much quieter this time. Lunch is forgotten. Watching a student get dragged off kinda ruins the appetite a bit. I sit at the window again and stare out of it. I watch as she's thrown into one of the bullheads. Damn. The way her head rolled, she's probably already dead, or at least paralyzed. If she was from a rich family, it would take a simple cybernetic surgery to fix a broken neck. But she's not. Unless they have a use for her, she's going to be gone... forever.

This is how the SDC rules.
Through fear.

Do you understand now? At least a little bit? Why I'm fighting? Why the name Schnee is a curse?
My thoughts drift to that girl coming. Weiss.

The youngest.
She's due to show up in another day and a half.

She'll do.

Girls like me hate injustice and love vengeance.
A part of me boils over. The SDC has taken my Mom from me. Mom wasn't a runner, she was a schoolteacher. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time and they cut her down. I remember watching it with my own eyes.

Now they're taking someone's precious daughter away from them. Yeah, she had problems. Those problems weren't her fault, and they weren't worth dying over.

I feel one of my hands clench into a fist as I scan the room. The boy is sullen; even the pale girl looks sad.

I told you.
I'm not the brooding type. That's not me. I'm a person of action.

I open my scroll and begin to enact a plan of action that will end with me scythe deep in Weiss Schnee.