A/N: Review Replies -

Rwby Arc: World building will happen later.

ignimortis: It's not a full Shadowrun crossover. Don't expect dragons and elves to appear.

A/N: Content Warning - The story earns its M rating here.


There's a certain amount of danger you expect when going on a run, especially when all you have is a light pistol that you, er, borrowed from your best faunus friend. No one hires someone of my skill for a simple job, and I don't expect it. But running is in my blood, since the only other option is to hurry up and wait on Weiss to show up, I decide to take on a solo job. In Atlas, there's never a shortage of work for someone like me, even without my scythe.

It starts when I get home from school. I send Blake my homework for her to mull over for about a minute while I toss my jacket onto my bed. There's a separate scroll that's encrypted I keep in my kitchen - the only people it'll activate for are me and Blake, which makes sense because she designed the encryption in the first place. This is the phone I use for my night life.

Heh, it sounds dirty when I say it like that.
Anyway, the first thing I do once I log into it is to see if anyone has heard or seen Pyrrha. Achilles is popular enough among those in the Barrens that any sighting of her would set off a minor celebration, and since she's also the SDC's Number One Most Wanted, if so much as a lock of her hair was spotted floating in the wind, they'd be all over that. Their sweep of the Barrens didn't uncover her, and none of my contacts have mentioned seeing her. This... doesn't bode well.

I call up Blake and see if she's found out anything. "Nothing here," she replies, her voice calm. "I've been searching for her the entire time you were at school, and there's not been so much as a whisper of Pyrrha or her team."

This is bad for a number of reasons. If Pyrrha still hasn't shown up, then she could be dead. That would not only be a huge blow to morale, but I like Pyrrha. She's a friendly person, and we get along great. She also taught me how to fight with more advanced tactics that Yang and Dad couldn't teach since their method of fighting is to make like those old martial artists you see in the movies and punch and kick everything to death. It's kinda awesome, but our fighting styles don't mesh well.

She could have been made and just be lying low. That's also a possibility, and it's probably the best one. If she's just hiding then she and her team will show up on their own terms.

The absolute worst possibility is that she's turned her back on us and is now working for the SDC. It happens more often then you think it does: famous and highly-skilled runners decide that either their cause isn't worth it, or it's just more profitable to work for Schnee, and throw their lot in with them. I've seen it happen. I don't know what hurts more - the betrayal itself or the way your former friend is perfectly willing to kill you for a few measly creds.

Yang and Dad have personal experience with it, but that's not my story to tell.

No, Pyrrha wouldn't do that. She's too invested.

Anyway. "Ugh, I hate sitting around waiting," I complain to Blake, who only shrugs in response. "I need to go out and DO something!"

"You're still injured, Ruby, even if you can't feel it."
"I know," and I can feel it, a little bit. "Is there ANYTHING I can do? Someone need a bodyguard? A package delivered? A date? I'm so bored!"

"You've been home like five minutes, how are you bored?"
"I just sat in school for eight hours, Blake. Do YOU remember school?"
Blake snorts. "Yeah. I dropped out. That was before the whole 'no truancy ever' thing."
See, she understands. "I need to do something, get this energy out."

"...well," Blake finally says. "There is ONE thing you can do."
"I'm listening."
"My, er, guardian said he needs to make a delivery to a White Fang element on the other side of the city, at the OTHER Barrens. You know, the one you don't like."

Ugh. The 'other' Barrens is Old Atlas. Mostly abandoned when the SDC built New Atlas from the ground up, the only things out there now are the truly desperate, the truly depraved... and Grimm. Sometimes. It's completely lawless, and whoever leads the area is the one with the most money and the biggest stick.

Torchwick lives out there with his little toy doll. There's a mutual hate between us.

In all fairness, he's a creep. And a jerk.
But... I can't just sit here and do nothing. If I do, I'll think about my classmate, thrown into the bullhead like so much trash.

"I'll do it," I decide finally. "I'll deliver whatever it is he needs me to."
Blake shrugs again. "I figured as much. Get changed, Red. I'll go with you."

"Sure thing- wait, you can fight?"
"Of course I can! You don't think I got this figure from sitting around eating tortilla chips all day?"

I blush only slightly. She DOES have a nice figure. Those tight pants and shorts she wears, showing off her butt-

Ahem.

"R-right," I nod. "See you soon."

Somehow I feel like I made a huge mistake.


RWBY: Digital Revolution
Chapter Two: (We Are) Bulletproof


More than just doing the job, you've got to dress the part of a runner. Every one has their own unique style, but there are a few rules to follow. First and foremost is that you need some sort of protection. An Aura can only protect you so much, and it's only as strong as its user. Armored clothing is important for deflecting those attacks you don't want to waste your Aura on, or just an added layer for when bad things happen, like explosions.

I pull out my red hooded cape from a locker I've got stashed away in the freezer (don't ask). It's lightweight, extremely fashionable, and it's made of "spidersilk" fibers. Spidersilk is as strong as steel and as flexible as cloth. It's also expensive like you wouldn't believe. This one is my backup since I left my other one with Dad so his people could fix it, along with my other clothes, so I have a backup here, too: a black long-sleeved shirt, tight black pants, and a dark red vest that kinda looks like a corset. The vest has ceramic-steel plates woven in that helps protect against things like gunshots.

I reach into one of the cabinets and pull out a satchel. I tie the strap around my waist and make sure it's pulled tight. Next to the satchel is a locked box that, like my scroll, only opens for me or Blake. Inside is a white helmet that covers the top half of my head - the front part contains the distinct design of the wolf's head, the White Fang's signature mask. It's an older model since the one I use now is busted up a bit, but it'll work. I flick a switch on the inside, put it on, and brace myself.

For a brief few seconds, all I see is static and bits of code that make no sense to me. Soon, however, the helmet registers my identity and comes to life. With the helmet, my vision is enhanced with a Heads-Up Display that monitors my health, gives me a map of the local area, and some other useful functions. The "ears" on the helmet give me enhanced directional hearing and also allow for wireless access to the internet.

With the helmet, I can't pull up my hood. Normally it isn't a problem since at night I can keep out of the light, but in the evening hours my brown-red gradient hair is pretty obvious. No, I don't know why my hair does that, either.

I leave my apartment, pausing only to grab an old-school collapsible weapon, and hide it underneath my hood.


Blake is waiting on me when I get there. Of course, she looks amazing - her black pants are almost painted on they're so tight, a white long sleeved shirt that's only zipped halfway, letting a black undershirt peak from underneath, exposed midriff... I'm so glad I have a helmet on. She's wrapping some sort of cords around her lower arms with quiet movements from gloved hands. "So, what's the package?" I ask. Blake looks to her side at a duffel bag. "That's it? What is it?"

"Some decker equipment," Blake replies, slipping on a White Fang mask. She grabs a separate cord from the bed and plugs one end into the mask, the other end vanishing into her long black hair. I hear a click as she plugs the mask directly into the datajack on the back of her head. The "eyes" of the mask flicker to life, glowing an ominous red. She picks up a sheathed sword with a pistol grip and ties it on. "Expensive stuff, but the pay will be worth it."

"Are you sure you're up for this?" I ask her. "I didn't know you were ever a runner, Blake."
"It's not my main job, no," Blake admits. "Not anymore. When I was younger, before I got into decking, I was Pyrrha's partner as a stealth specialist."

"So you really are a ninja," I reply, grinning. Blake just nods, one of her ears twitching. She grabs the duffel bag and I swear it vanishes onto her person somewhere. "How do you-"

"Shall we?" she gestures towards the door. Yeah, let's get out of here. "Follow my lead. Code names only, Red."

"Sure thing!" Wait, what's your code name, anyway? I follow Blake out of the apartment. Omygod is she blushing?

"It, um," she looks like of funny when her face starts turning a bit red. "It's Belle."
Ah, wait! That's part of her name, right? Belle... Belladonna! Yeah!

"No, like Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. You know, the movie?"
I don't really do movies much, but sure. I remember that one. Yang has that movie somewhere and ooohhhhh. "Yang gave you the codename, didn't she?"

"Yeah," Blake looks away as we walk to the roof. "She wants to be the Beast, of course."
Ha, sounds about right. Now that I think about it, Yang is the one who comes up with the names we use on channels. Little Red, Goldilocks, Belle... Cinderella, Achilles, Thor. Huh. "That does seem to be a hobby of hers."

The two of us look out towards the city of Atlas. From here, the main portion of the city looks massive, a heaping mix of steel, concrete, and glass, packed tightly together, especially compared to the comparatively small five to ten story sad looking buildings that make up the Barrens. In the center of the city, the SDC tower glows golden as the evening sun manages to poke through the clouds, nine hundred meters of pure oppression and hate. All SDC activity, from here to Vacuo to the furthest reaches of the planet, pass through that tower. The comm spire at the top that adds another hundred meters to the body sends and receives messages at enormous speed.

Basically, a symbol of everything I hate.

"Come on, Ruby," Blake says. Alright, let's go.
The two of us break into a run, hopping from rooftop to rooftop with practiced ease. The droids on the ground don't even notice as we pass by. I can't help but notice how easy it is for Blake to keep up with me, arms stretched behind her as she focuses her attention in front of her, ears occasionally twitching. While we run, she uploads a marker on a map on my HUD, pointing out not the fastest, but the safest way to our destination. It takes us the long way around the city, and it'll be some hours before we get there.

Unlike Yang, Blake is quiet. Yang will make comments about anything, but Blake keeps focused. It's something I've always admired about her, but it makes for poor conversation while on the job. Hold on, tall building.

I jump forwards and use my momentum to redirect upwards, essentially wall running straight up to the roof and landing on my feet. Blake is a little slower, using her hands to essentially climb up the side of the brick building with relative grace. "I didn't know you could climb."

"Comes from being a cat," Blake says without pause. She shows me one of her hands. "My nails are quite a bit stronger than yours are, so I can use them to dig into grooves in imperfections that you can't."

Makes sense. We continue our run. How much of you is cat, anyway?

"Other than the obvious?" Blake has stopped speaking, and her voice now echoes in my head. "Reflexes, vision, hearing, a few other little bits that put me above the average human. Yes, I do land on my feet. And yes, this isn't a belt."

I glance over. Blake doesn't even pause as what I thought was her belt comes undone on its own. A cat tail. She has a cat tail. Oh my god that's so adorable I just CAN'T how can someone so hot be this cute it's unfair-

"Don't tell Yang. She'll want to pet me. Again."

There's a smirk on her lips. I just shake my head and grin. I told you, Blake is pretty awesome. Not quite as awesome as me because ultimately she's a decker and they're still weird people, but she's fun.

The two of us continue our run. Blake flicks on some music for me. I wonder if she can play music only she can hear with that wired brain of hers.


It's after dark by the time we reach the other side of the city. The trip kept us away from the SDC patrols and drones that litter the more wealthy parts of Atlas, which makes things easy. Over here in Old Atlas, there isn't much in the way of tall buildings, so we take to the ground. I'm only a bit exhausted at this point - running that far is never the most fun, and it's been long enough for Blake that we had to take a couple of breaks, but we made it with pretty good time.

Old Atlas is kind of a haunting place, and I pull my cloak tighter around myself as the two of us walk its streets. No cars come here. Most of the streetlamps are broken. There are more bonfires then there are artificial lights in general. The buildings are mostly dark except for the occasional lamp. People - almost all faunus, I notice - openly brandish firearms. There's a busted up SDC droid hanging from a traffic light - its such an old model I don't even recognize it. I move closer to Blake. I don't think I'm welcome here.

"Just don't take off your helmet," her voices assures me in my head. "As long as they don't know you're a human, you should be alright," well that really doesn't help. "This is why I came with you, Ruby."

Okay. All right. I clutch the collapsed weapon under my cloak as Blake leads me to one of the only buildings with a light on. She knocks one and waits.

A huge, muscled faunus swings the door open. He looks at me and Blake, paying attention to our masks, and lets us in. "I know you," he says to Blake. "Adam's bitch."

I can almost hear Blake rolling her eyes. I stand next to the door as she calmly sits down at a bar. There are other faunus present here, some of them side-eyeing me, others noticing Blake more. "Isn't she a human?" one of them asks.

Blake doesn't turn to look as she produces the duffel bag and sets it on the bar counter. "You really think a human is capable of the things she is?" she asks. The big guy takes the duffel bag and opens it. "It's all there. The White Fang never forgets a promise."

"It's rare to see a decker outside of its natural habitat," the faunus pushes aside the bag after he seems satisfied with its contents. "What's with her?" he gestures towards me. "Is The Grim Reaper feeling a bit down? Need some help?"

"She's good in a fight, but not great with things like this," Blake responds smoothly. Hey now, wait-

"Don't."
Blake's voice rings in my head again. I shut my mouth and lean back against the wall. She never takes her eyes off of the brute in front of her as she raises her mask, letting it sit on top of her head. She leans forward and steeples her fingers. "Adam wanted me to check in on his... old friends, you understand?"

"Adam," the faunus huffs. "What a waste. Throwing the Fang in with humans. What is he thinking?"
"The survival of our species is more important to him than his... pride," Blake says with a bit of hesitation. "I don't like humans either, but I work with them."

"Yeah, their stench is all over you," the man reaches down and pulls out a shot glass and liquor bottle. He fills the glass and slides it to Blake. She gingerly picks it up and stares at it. "Some of the guys miss you, Belladonna."

"I'm not that kind of girl anymore," she downs the shot and sets the glass down on the counter. "Adam's an asshole but he takes care of me. No more sleeping around for a meal and bed."

What? Blake had to what?
"You used to be able to turn a good trick," laughs the big faunus. Blake doesn't react, her intense gaze only lingering long enough to look back at me, as the faunus fills the glass again. "I would know."

"That was a long time ago," she stares at the glass. "I wish I could say it was a worse time, but..."
"Old Atlas is dying, girl," he says. "You saw it coming in. They've been cutting power to some of the buildings now. It's only a matter of time before they shut it all down. And when they do..."

Blake downs another shot. She flips the glass onto its rim as she sets it down this time. "They'll come for you. Just like before. We're trying to stop them, but we're still too few. Even working with the humans."

"You are making a difference," despite my mind reeling, the big man gently takes Blake's hands in his. "They would have come for us a long time ago, Belladonna. But you, and your faction of the Fang... you're doing good out there. My kids, you inspire them. They might not know your name, but they do know Gambol Shroud, the decker rumored to be a faunus."

"...your kids..." Blake sighs. "It's the whole reason I'm still doing this, you know? For the future."
"It will always be the primary reason the White Fang fights," nods the big guy. He looks... somewhere distant. "Why don't you go see her?"

"Why should I? She barely knows me," There's an edge of bitterness in her voice.
"She's still out here, you know," he ignores her protest. "Go say hi."

"...we should go. Grimm are bad this time of year. Red," she sits up from the bar, shocking me out of my reverie. Wait, does Blake have a kid?!

The two of us leave the bar. Blake looks towards the city, then leads me away from it. Where are we going?

"Some old friends," she quips. I didn't even know you were from Old Atlas. "You never asked, Red," ...fair enough.

She leads me down another few roads to a... remarkably well kept building, considering the circumstances of this area. In the distance, I hear Beowolves howling. Blake stops at the door. "You don't have to follow me in."

"I want to," I reply. "If that's okay."
"It might change how you think about me, Red," but she opens the door anyway, and I follow her in.

It's a house of some sort. A duplex might be a better description for it. The first room is a wide area. There's a TV picking up a bootleg signal in a corner. Five or six children, the oldest one barely younger than me, are sitting around it, watching some fantasy cartoon.

An older faunus with tiger stripes on his face greets us. Blake says little, and I say less, instead watching my companion as she zeroes in on one of the children. She's young, and shares a lot of Blake's features. Same colored hair, ears... only the eyes are different, being a deep green instead of Blake's gold. Is that really-

"No, I've never had a kid," Blake says. "She's my sister. Mom died giving birth to her because we don't have access to the tech out here to make childbirth easier. Her name's Kali, after Mom."

"Blake!"
The little girl jumps up and runs over, leaping up into her arms. "I missed you!" she cries happily. "Can you stay? You can watch TV with us! We jacked the signal from an old line. We get ALL the channels!"

Blake opens her mouth but I cut in. "Sure!" I reply. "Blake was just telling me she'd love to stay the night with you!" The look on her face could melt steel, but I just smile back. I'm a piece of drek, I know. Can it.

Kali squeals with delight and hugs Blake more tightly. Resigned to her fate, Blake finally smiles one of the only genuine smiles I've ever seen her have, holding her sister tight. The girl looks at me with bright green eyes and gives me the purest grin you could possibly imagine. I stare up at her as she smiles, but the look on her face changes, slowly. She wriggles out of Blake's hug to hop down and look up at me.

"Whoa..."
"What?"
"Sis... are you friends with the Grim Reaper?"

Oh. Of course.
I pull off my helmet, despite Blake's earlier warnings. "And she's human?!"

I kneel down. "Hi, Kali, my name's Ruby. Nice to meet you," I stick my hand out. Kali stares at me like she's seen either her superhero or a ghost, I'm not sure which. In a blur of movement, instead of either running from me or taking my hand, she glomps me.

"You are my HERO!"
Blake looks down at me. "Looks like you have a fan, Ruby."

The other faunus children have noticed us by now. In seconds, we're surrounded, bombarded by questions and childish laughter. Only the one my about age stays back, and he's... oh, I think he's admiring me. At least I think he is, the way his wolf ears are wiggling.

"Just remember, you asked for this," Blake teases. I look up at her.
"Seriously? You're leaving me to this."

"I'm going to see if I can help with dinner or something. Goodbye, Ruby," she walks away to another room. Kali gives chase, leaving me with a bunch of elementary-aged faunus children.

I'll get you back for this, Blake.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~~


So I don't really do the whole "family dinner" thing. I don't even do the "sit down and eat" thing when I can help it. You often have to eat on the move, so I kinda forgot my table manners. I stand at the door frame with some weird bagel-esque thing, eating it silently as I watch a bunch of children pull up to a long table. The tiger faunus sits at the head, Blake at the opposite end. There's little exchange of words as the kids eat.

"How do you guys have this much food, anyway?"
Blake looks at me with a wry smile. "What do you think I spend all my money on?"

Oh.
You know, the more I learn about Blake, the more I wonder why she keeps everyone at a distance. Watching her listen to the kids, answer questions about her, uh, day job, and be generally the opposite of her normal persona, I'm almost struck dumb. She's showing me a side of herself I don't even think Yang knows, maybe not even a side Adam's seen. Instead of the intense, sexy feline, here I'm seeing a warm, friendly, almost motherly figure.

This is what she's fighting for. She said it herself earlier. These kids are the future of the faunus, and she wants to give them a bright future, out from under the thumb of the SDC, and I guess humans in general. I've heard the story before, you know. Even back in the day when the Grimm were a constant threat and schools were churning out Grimm hunters like computer chips, the faunus were considered second class. They were treated barely better than slaves - hell, apparently even back then the SDC was treating them even more like garbage.

They've been fighting for generations now, just to be seen as something more than animals. Even now, if you look at what makes up the SDC, less than one percent of their executive staff are faunus. Most places won't hire them, so they're always poor. Security and police always assume a nearby faunus is the culprit of any crime committed in the area, so they're always targeted first. Even the SDC droids have been proven to shoot faunus on the scene, even if they had nothing to do with the crime they're supposed to be stopping.

You can't see that here. These kids don't know how terribly their kind has it. God, listen to me; "their kind".

"Ruby, don't you want to sit with us?" Blake looks at me quizzically. I guess I am being rude, but... I kinda feel like I don't belong. "Nonsense. I brought you here, didn't I? Come, sit," she gestures towards an empty seat next to Kali. The little girl beams at me. Uh... sure, I guess. I unclasp my cloak and set it on the back of the chair, sitting down in front of a plate that is laid out before me.

"Never seen a human that didn't look down on us," the tiger faunus says.
"Well... I've never had a reason to?" I grab one of the forks. "I grew up in the Barrens on the other side of the city. I've had faunus friends before, and my Mom taught at a mixed school before the SDC took her from me, so..." I shrug. It's behind me, now.

"Sounds like a lot of stories around here."
"Yeah..." I feel a stab of something and ignore it, opting to drop the conversation and eat slowly instead. No one pushes it, and for that I'm... pretty glad. I guess when everyone has a story that sucks, no one is going to push it. They just empathize instead. This is really good, by the way. I didn't even know Blake could cook.

I look over at her as she talks with her little sister. They could have been twins. The way Blake's face lights up whenever she looks at the little girl, it's... actually it's almost sickeningly sweet. Yang and I are close but we've never been THAT close. It's not like I can talk to her about my life problems. Not that there's often time for those.

...yeah, I know. You're thinking, "Ruby, where's your humor and snark?" You have to understand, I'm... er, "socially deficient" according to Yang. I get nervous around strangers. I've known Blake for half a year but I only just really became friends with her recently, and that's only because we worked together a lot in the meantime. But this, I don't know what to do with this. Everyone at this table is so happy and vibrant, even Blake, and it's... I dunno it's... so nice here...

I steal a glance at Blake. She notices me, and smiles back. Ugh, she's still so cute I can't do this.


I offer to help wash dishes. Blake insists I don't, but I'm the guest here, so I do it anyway, and Blake helps me. The two of us wash quietly as we listen to all the kids get shuffled off to bed. The boy with the wolf ears lingers for a moment, staring holes into me, before wandering off himself. "He's got a crush on you," Blake teases. I don't think I'm his type, honestly. "I'm sure it's harmless. He also sees you as a hero, so to know you're also a cute girl, well..." I look away, sputtering. Stop, you're embarrassing me!

Silence falls between us. There are things I want to ask her, things that I don't think I have any right to know, but I do now. I look at her for a moment, taking in how at peace she looks. I don't want to ruin that, but the curiosity... man, it might not kill the cat, but it might make the cat kill me. Fortunately, for whatever reason, Blake assuages my thoughts.

"Dad died when I was fourteen," she begins. "The SDC killed him when he was protesting for faunus rights. He was a maintenance worker for the SDC's water division... he was a big guy but he could pass as human, so he could work, at least. When he died, we didn't have a lot of money. Mom did what she could, waiting tables at a bar up in one of the wealthier areas because she could pass as human if she tied her ears back. She was pregnant with Kali when Dad died, so I did what I could to help out."

"So you..." I let the question hang in the air.
"Yeah. I sold myself," she's so casual about it that it takes me off guard. "It's pretty common around here, Ruby; it's not like we had other skills to sell, so I did what I could."

"I... I'm sorry," Wow, weak. You're not very good at this, Ruby.
"I'm not ashamed of it, and I don't feel guilty," Blake says to me. "I mean, I'm not proud of it, but I don't hold regrets. It helped me survive. After mom died, it was the only way I could make enough money to feed myself and Kali. I dropped out of school to support us... even got popular enough I started snagging clients from the wealthier areas, too."

"How did you go from that to being Gambol Shroud?"
"Well, one of my clients was a decker himself," she looks almost wistful. "He didn't have actual creds at the time, so he gave me a cyberdeck. As it turned out, I was really good at it, even back then. After I realized I had a talent for it, I started offering favors to him in exchange for learning everything he could teach me."

"That's how you joined the White Fang."
"Yeah," Blake pulls the stopper on the drain. "At first it was for what I could offer physically - that's how I met Adam - but after it became apparent that I knew what I was doing when it came to decking, one of the leaders sprung the money to get me jacked and some other cyberware in my head, and after that, Gambol Shroud - myself and the computer - was born."

"...when did you, uh, quit, uh..."
"I think you're more embarrassed about it than I ever was," Blake says with a light laugh. "When did I quit selling myself? After I met you."

Bwuh. W-why then?
"I don't know, it just felt like..." Blake loses herself for a moment, absently drying a plate. "It felt like the right thing to do. Seeing you made me realize how different my life could have been. I could have been a runner, a real one, but I chose a different path. No, that's not right. I chose the path I thought was right."

"Well..." I'm so bad at this, I'm sorry. "If you hadn't done that, you may not have met me, and... I dunno, I'm pretty happy to have you around, Blake."

"Mm," she puts the plate away and pats me on the head. "I'm glad to be around for you, Ruby. I didn't tell you all that because you're a stranger to me. I just... I wanted you to see why I do this, what I'm fighting for," she looks back. "I've got family to take care of - all of the money I make except what I think I need, I send here. Sometimes when you're out there, you forget who you are. Every runner does. I don't want that to happen to you. You've got to find what you're fighting for. Who you're fighting for."

Yeah, that makes sense. I just don't like thinking about it. I love the job. I love sticking it to the SDC. Do I need more than that? But seeing the way Blake was earlier... maybe I do. "Thank you, Blake... for sharing all of this with me."

I'm so stupid. What the hell do you do here? Oh, frag it.
I walk forward and hug Blake. She makes a sound, but slowly puts her arms around me. I feel closer to her now than I have before, but... I also feel closer with her than I do with Yang and Dad. This feels more real somehow. Most of the past few years of my life have been devoted to training and practice, doing runs and jobs for Dad and various clients that all have a bone to pick against the Corps.

"You're a good kid, Ruby," she whispers. "Don't lose that, okay?"
"I... I won't," I mumble. She's so warm, what is this?

Our moment is broken when Blake lets go. Her entire demeanor has changed. Her ears are twitching, and she has a serious look on her face. Her nose twitches.

The tiger faunus comes from upstairs. He's holding a large sword of some sort. "You smell it too."

Blake nods.
"Grimm."


(A/N: Plug this into your Youtube after the v= : gqhWHy0rrtM
Failing that, the song is "We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2" By Bangtan Sonyeodan)

There are four of them. Beowolves, standing in the street surrounding some poor soul. There's pieces of him everywhere. Blake unsheathes the sword on her back. "Ruby, have you ever fought Grimm before?"

"N-no," I reply. I pull the collapsed weapon from my cloak and pull the trigger. A short sword springs to life in my hands. "Have you?"

"Yes, just follow my lead," Blake says. She begins to inch forward. I do the same, just slightly back. They haven't noticed us yet. I pull out the light pistol and flick the safety off. "Go for the body. That skull you see is too thick for our weapons. I hate to say it, but if you had Crescent Rose we'd make short work of them." Damn. Thanks, Dad. "They're scary looking, but they aren't bulletproof."

Okay, I got this.
Blake shoots forward, charging headlong into one of the Beowolves and sliding under it, thrusting upward. She catches the Grimm in the chest and pulls the blade down its length, slicing it almost in half. The creature falls and explodes into black smoke. Well, alright then. I can do this!

I run forward, pistol raised and firing. The shots go deep into the back of one facing Blake. It turns to face me and lunges. Before it can reach me, I activate my Semblance and rush between its claws, stabbing upward into its meaty neck. I use its body as a pivot, jumping into the air and dragging the blade with me. I yank the blade out and jump off the creature's back. It hits the ground with a thud.

Oh man, this is fun.
I look up, and my grin turns into one of horror. "Blake!" I get up to run towards her as the remaining two Beowolves jump on her, but just as they bear down, she vanishes. What? How? Huh?

Blake falls from above, sword held out as it morphs into a machine pistol. She unloads a torrent of bullets into a Grimm's back, then does what I can only call jumping out of herself, turning the pistol back into a sword and decapitating the one behind her in one swift move. She then jumps out of herself AGAIN, using the backwards momentum to catch the Beowolf in its armored head. "Ruby!"

Her shout snaps me out of my shock. I run forward, activate my Semblance, and dash through the creature, slashing upwards as Blake drops down. Between us, he bisect it neatly.

The remaining two bodies vanish into black smoke.

Surprisingly, there's no blood on the sword. Weird. I collapse the blade and run up to Blake. "That was... was that your Semblance?!"

"Yeah," she nods. "I have the ability to leave shadow clones of myself behind. They're semi-solid, and I can... sort of teleport using them."

"That's... THAT'S AWESOME!"
Blake is so cool, everyone. You don't even know. She blushes a bit. "Th-thanks?"

We start heading back to the duplex thingy as Blake explains to me just what the Grimm are, since they're mostly way before my time. She pauses only as we both hear the roar of an airship far overhead. We both look up at it. "Late arrival," she says quietly. I narrow my eyes.

"She's on that airship," I say.
"Who? The Schnee girl?"
"Yeah," I nod. "Say, Blake... you think you can get Crescent Rose back for me?"

"Hmm. Probably. I can put in a request to your dad. What do you have planned?" I just grin. You know what I have in mind. "...alright. Well, if you don't have your weapon, then you'll just find some other way to do what you have in mind. I'll let him know. Besides, you've already killed one Schnee, so..." she breaks her eyes from the airship.

Yeah. One Schnee down, three to go.
The two of us walk back in together. Now I'm giddy for an entirely different reason.


So I'm going to spare you the details of mine and Blake's late night tryst where we slept together.

No, I'm kidding. We did sleep in the same bed because Atlas at night is COLD and yeah.

I mean I'm not saying she held me in my sleep but she's really warm and I'm going to just let that go now.

Anyway.

Blake is waiting for me at the front door. "You're missing school today," she says.
"I think it's understandable, given the circumstances," I shrug. "I'll write myself a parents' excuse for tomorrow."

Blake makes a sound and tosses a very familiar box at me. "Dropped off before dawn," she says. I catch the box easily and grin. Crescent Rose has been returned to me probably much earlier than intended, but that's fine. "Taiyang wasn't happy about it, but he'd rather you be armed if you're going to 'do something stupid'," she makes the fingerquotes in the air. "I did some digging; they're going to hold a parade in one of the upper districts to herald the return of the lost Schnee," an ear twitches towards the SDC tower. "The itinerary says that she's going to be alone for about fifteen minutes in the lobby. Well, it doesn't SAY that, but she's bound to be there for a while there, since that's where the parade begins."

"Security?"
"About what you expect," Blake replies. "There's a view to do the lobby from the southwest of the tower. It's a long shot, but..."

But I hold the record for longest killshot. Over two kilometers from a bullhead, right into Whitley Schnee's smug face. Not only can I do it, but I was made for this kind of work. Blake hands me a case containing the White Fang helmet I had yesterday. "There's a change of clothes I, er, got you. Change into them and you'll look like your standard high-class teenager."

I nod and walk back upstairs, shutting the door behind me. Rich kid clothes are always so... weird. Not at all functional. This year's fashion trend for girls seems to be a jacket plus a hoodie plus long sleeves, all of which extend to my knees. The pants flare out at the bottom, and the shoes have raised heels. Blake forgot to take the price tag off of them, so I get to marvel at how stupid these costs are. For the jacket alone I could have fed half of the Barrens I swear.

Whatever. Clothes are dumb.
"This is ridiculous," I say, heading back downstairs. Blake has tied her ears together with a bow. "You're not changing?"
"I couldn't steal that much at once," she replies. I tie a strap to Crescent Rose and toss it on my back and hold the case with the helmet by its long handle. "Let's go."

Sneaking into the upper districts is easy enough when you know what you're doing. Even with all the drones and droids, there are simply too many entrances to a trained eye. The security is still tight enough that we have to take the long way around to where I plan on getting to, as anything that scans us for long enough will realize that for one, Blake is a faunus and therefore a menace to society, and two, we're both SINless as well. That's bad for most obvious reasons.

It's almost noon by the time we reach the office building. Blake breaks the lock with an electronic tool, and the two of us sneak inside. The ninth floor is a placeholder and mostly abandoned except for pipes and maintenance access, so that's our location. Blake locks the door behind us as she puts on her mask and wirelessly connects to my helmet while I put it on. I draw Crescent Rose and press a button on it; the box expands and narrows, quickly transforming into a sniper rifle configuration. I set it down facing the SDC tower, over one kilometer away from here.

By now the parade is in full swing on the opposite side of the tower, so the streets below are mostly abandoned. I lay down next to Crescent Rose and pull it close, staring down the scope. "You see her?"

"Not yet- wait a second," I whisper. There she is, coming out of the elevator. She's not alone, but her escort is sparse. I blink once, twice, then zoom in on her. She's wearing a white skirt and blouse with a flared collar of some sort. That's... odd. I see a rapier hanging from her hip as well.

She turns to look at someone and smiles at them. She's... she's cute. Damnit. That's a tragedy. I readjust my aim as my helmet is updated with things like wind speed, bullet drop, and the like. I load a cartridge into the chamber and push the bolt shut. "This almost feels too easy," I say absently.

"Indeed, but she's ultimately not as important as Winter," Blake replies, her voice in my head. "She's actually got more security than normal, so they're expecting her to be attacked. There's a screening element of drones about five hundred meters from the tower in a holding pattern. They don't expect you to be able to make a shot from this distance."

"You'd think from before, they'd learn," I say. "The Impossible Shot" made the news reels for a good few weeks. "Damnit, these people need to move, I can't get a clear shot on her."

I adjust my aim again as she sits at a couch, flanked by several men with one sitting across from her, obscuring all but her arms from this angle. I zoom in; maybe I can use the bullet drop to shoot over his head? The shot might have lost enough velocity by then. I could use a Dust round and kill the both of them, but I only have two, and I'm saving those for Winter and Jacques. Ah, well. Normal rounds will have to do.

God, why is she being so difficult! Just stand up or something! If you were anyone else, you'd already be de-

Weiss tilts her head to the side, past her security, and looking up-

"Blake... does Weiss have enhanced vision?"
"I don't believe so, why?"
"Because I think she's looking at me."

She's smiling. The Schnee girl is SMILING at me. I swear she is! It's ruining my concentration! What the hell is this?!

The girl puts both her hands up to cover her mouth so only I can see. "What in the hell..." I hear Blake say out loud.

Weiss mouths some words. 'Are you going to shoot me or not?'

"We... we should go."
"You don't say," Blake has already disconnected. "Is this a trap or is she just that good?"
"I don't know," I stare at Weiss as she stares at me. By now her security has turned to look in the direction she is, but they obviously can't see me.

'Not even going to try?' she mouths the words. 'I am almost disappointed. Oh, well. If you run, I will catch you.'

Oh, forget this. I pull the trigger.
A bullet travelling eleven hundred meters a second erupts from the end of Crescent Rose, shatters the window, and screams down towards the SDC tower. I watch the window shatter, and Weiss flies back over the couch in a tumble. "Did you get her?"

"I don't know, she fell back, I can't-"
Weiss stands up, twirling something between the fingers in her left hand. It's at this moment I realize with startling clarity that she CAUGHT THE BULLET. "We should run very fast."

There's a crackle of electricity in my ears. "Aw, leaving so soon?"
Her voice is irritating. I don't reply. "But we were just getting to know each other, Grim Reaper! Yeah, I've heard about you. Who hasn't? The best assassin the White Fang has? The one who murdered my brother? I've done my research, and I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the opportunity."

I fold up Crescent Rose as Blake unlocks the door. We run downstairs. "If it makes you feel better, I'm not going to kill you, not yet. If you hadn't shot me, I would have, though, because you'd be a coward. I just wanted to see if the stories were everything they were cracked to be. Now that I have, well... I'm looking forward to meeting you very soon!"

Ugh. Is she this annoying all the time? Blake kicks open the door and the two of us run between the alleyways. "I set all of this up for you, Grim Reaper. I had my schedule for the day buried so your decker friends would find it. I prepared a special glyph that would let me catch your shot. I even posed for you. All I want to know is why it took you so long to shoot at me? Did you know? Or..." she snickers. "Did you find me as impossibly attractive as others have before?"

Do you hear that? I look at Blake as she slows down, ears twitching. It's a sharp sound, like glass shards on ice. Blake shrugs, and we continue running.

"It's okay if you did," she continues. "I'm not mad. Flattered, actually," her voice distorts, like I'm hearing it in two places. "It's rare for a faunus to be attracted to a human isn't it?"

Wait. I look to my right and Weiss is RIGHT THERE. I go to draw Crescent Rose and-
Weiss grabs me by the wrists and pushes me backwards into a wall. Blake stops and turns around, drawing her sword. "Let go of-" she's interrupted by Weiss's intense stare.

"I'm not going to kill you. You're both much more valuable to me alive," she says. She turns back to me, her smile turning more vicious. "I need runners, you see, runners for a job I have planned."

I still refuse to speak to this crazy person. "What is it you want?" Blake asks for us.
"Not now. Not here," Weiss replies. She leans in close to me, staring at my mask. "Hmm. I'll contact you when I have a use for you."

I really have no idea what to do here but drek she's close. Blake, kill her! Why are you standing there?! Kill her!

I feel something poke me in the stomach. I glance down and see that Weiss's rapier is FLOATING and poking me none too gently. Oh, that's why.

"..." why is she staring at me so much?
"You don't talk, do you?" she asks me. "Sad. I'd like to get to know my employees," then she leans closer and- wait, is she going to kiss me?! What the hell is wrong with you?! I'm trying to kill you! Are you INSANE?! "Hmm. You're a girl, aren't you? Why does this embarrass you?"

I bare my teeth, doing my best faunus impression. "Let go of me, human," I growl.
"Ah, there we go," Weiss smiles again. "Yes, exactly what I need from you."

Weiss lets go of me. A path of blue, circling glyphs appears before us, and she grabs the rapier. "I'll contact you when I need you," she says with finality. Before I can draw Crescent Rose, she takes one step... and she's gone.

I lean against the wall more willingly, catching my breath. "What... what just happened?"
"I have no idea," Blake replies.

She and I stare at each other. I can't see her eyes, but I know she shares the same look I've got right now.

We've both just made a huge mistake.


A/N: So, originally, Kali was named Ilia, and... she was Blake's daughter.

I dropped that plot thread for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, abandoning a child, especially her own, just doesn't seem like something Blake would do. Quite contrary in fact, I think she would drop everything she could.

Secondly, Blake's backstory in this AU is already probably going to be too much for people to handle since people maintain that everyone not named Yang is at least, ugh, I can't believe I'm saying this... but "unsullied". If I added her having a child into the mix, I think people would run the hell away from it.

Thirdly, I don't want Blake to regret the choices she made when she was younger before she fell in with the White Fang and later with Taiyang's gang. Having a child would change that dramatically. It might give her further drive to do what's right, but ultimately I think it would be worse for her character in the long run.

I want the Blake in my head to be able to look back at her past and go "Yes, I did that. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not ashamed."

Having a little sister as motivation to fight against the SDC to me is more than enough for her. Sure, there's the larger picture as well, but it's the small stories, the little relationships people have with others, that truly motivates the characters here, more than a cause or a sense of justice or whatever.