And here we are, Chapter 2! Let's see what Faunus Ruby's story is, shall we?"

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"W-whatever you p-plan on doing with me, j-j-just g-get it over with," the Faunus Ruby pleaded as Yang set her on the floor, "d-don't m-make me s-s-suffer..."

Team RWBY balked at this.

"Why would you think we'd want to make you suffer?" Blake asked, kneeling down next to the girl, who scooted back into the bookcase, wrapping herself in her cloak.

She's so scared..., Blake thought, like I was... This girl's behavior was reminding her of her life before she joined up with the White Fang: lonely, frightened, and scared of humans so much that she would rather starve than go to them for food. It was...disconcerting and heartbreaking that this girl had to live through whatever caused her to be like this for so long...

"Look...," Weiss said gently, inching closer to the girl, "we know you're scared, but we're really not going to hurt you."

"W-w-why should I b-believe you?" the girl asked, glancing up at the heiress, "All you d-d-dirty humans d-do is lie t-to us and k-kill Faunus, even when th-they s-say they're s-sorry!" She hugged her knees to her chest, "I m-mean, i-it wasn't her f-f-fault that she was t-tired from working in th-th-the mines all d-day, a-a-and that apple was on the ground a-anyways, and she s-said that she'd give it b-back...b-b-but they j-just kept hitting her, a-and hitting her, and hitting her, and hitting her, and hitting her!..." Finally, she burst into tears, burying her face in her knees. "And then Yang- *sniff!* ...Yang tried to get them to st-stop, *hic!*, and sh-she punched them, and th-then one of them hit her, a-and then he pulled out a gun, and he...he...!" Her words became unintelligible as she devolved into wretched sobs.

None of the girls knew what to say.

Eventually, Blake reached up and undid her bow, exposing her Faunus ears. "Hey," she said, "I know what it's like."

"N-no you d-don't!" she spat, not looking up, "Y-you're the w-worst one *hic!* of them all!"

Blake continued, "I'm a Faunus, just like you."

The girl obviously didn't believe her, because she lunged for her weapon, screaming wordlessly. Yang was having none of this and tackled the Faunus version of her sister before she could reach it, struggling to keep her held in check with how much and how furiously she fought back.

"Calm down already, will ya?" the blond strained, the Faunus Ruby wriggling violently, "Geez, you're worse than Ruby when we try to get her to eat vegetables!"

"Not my fault they're so gross-" she tried to protest as Weiss laid a hand on her shoulder, slowly shaking her head.

"Not the time," she said.

Ruby nodded, the message clear, and turned her attention back to the struggle.

"Yang," Blake said, "can you hold on to her for a minute?"

"Yeah! ...Why?"

"Good. Let one of her arms go."

Yang raised an eyebrow but complied with the odd sounding request, trusting her partner. As soon as the Faunus Ruby had an arm free she lashed out at her captor.

"Whatever you have planned, make it quick!" She grunted as the Faunus got in a lucky shot on her face, "This isn't as fun as it looks!"

Blake nodded and tried to grab hold of the girl's arm, succeeding after a couple failed attempts. Once the arm was in her grasp, she quickly positioned the girl's hand over her cat ears.

The reaction was immediate; the instant her hand touched, the Faunus Ruby stopped thrashing and stared at Blake, rubbing her ears experimentally. Then she tugged on them, causing Blake to wince briefly.

"See? It's just like I said; I'm a Faunus." She nodded to Yang, who let the girl go. "No one's going to hurt you."

"You- ...you're r-really a Faunus?" the girl asked, astonished.

"Yes, I am." Blake drew the girl into a hug, petting her on the head.

The effect of this was that the girl finally breaking down and collapsed into Blake, embracing her in a tight hug.

"That was...impressive," Weiss said, a touch of admiration in her voice. "What was that thing you did?"

"She was panicking, so I showed her something that was impossible to disprove," Blake explained, "It's something Faunus can do for other Fauus to help them calm down if they're distraught or upset."

"How'd you know that would work?" Yang asked, to which Blake shrugged.

"I had a hunch because of what she said before about humans. Besides, I've seen it work before, when I was younger."

Ruby, who'd been mostly silent for the past couple minutes, tried to shake hands with the identical girl now that she'd calmed down, but the Faunus Ruby merely shrank behind Blake, staring at Ruby with wary and untrusting eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said, still holding out her hand, "honest!" No change. "...I'll share my cookies with you?" the crimsonette attempted, much to the same result.

"I don't think she trusts the rest of us yet," Weiss said, "Maybe we should let Blake handle this, seeing as the girl only seems comfortable around her."

Ruby drooped. "Aw, but I wanted to talk with myself!..."

"She's not actually- ...never mind, it's too complicated."

"You mean multiverse theory?" Ruby asked, much to the surprise of Weiss's raised eyebrows. Sensing the rest of her team's confusion, she explained, "Back on Patch, when I got bored, sometimes I would pretend to build a machine that could travel to different worlds." She bopped her pointer fingers together sheepishly, "I...may have gone a little overboard on the research..."

"Well, that explains why you always brought home text books from the library," Yang realized.

"You- ...y-you have l-lib-b-braries here?" the girl asked eagerly, peeking over Blake's shoulder, "And you g-get to use th-them?"

"Well, yeah!" Ruby said, cocking her head to the side, "Why, do you not have them where you're from?"

"N-no...I mean, th-there are, but F-f-faunus aren't allowed i-in them..."

"...are you serious?" Weiss asked, not quite able to comprehend what she was hearing. She wasn't blind to the bigotry and discrimination against the Faunus, she'd even been part of it until recently, but even her own father, infamous for his abuse of the Faunus as a workforce, wouldn't suggest something so utterly abhorrent as to keep an entire people group from having access to literature.

She must have come of more harsh than she intended, because the Faunus Ruby cowered further behind her makeshift shield, whimpering.

"Weiss...!" Blake glared.

"Sorry!" she quickly apologized, "I was just asking!"

"Well, ask nicer." She turned back to the scared Faunus, "Ignore Weiss, she's insensitive."

"Hey!"

"Anyway, things aren't like that here-"

Suddenly there was a loud knock on the girls' door. The Faunus Ruby squeaked and dove under Blake bed, briefly popping back out to grab her Crescent Rose.

"Girls," said Glynda Goodwitch's voice from the other side, "is everything all right in there?"

"Uh, y-yeah! Everything's fine!" Ruby called back instinctively, "We're all fine, here...thank you! ...how are you?"

Weiss, Blake and Yang all sweatdropped.

"You dunce...," Weiss sighed, shaking her head.

"I'm doing fine, Miss Rose," Glynda said, "Could you please open the door?"

"Uh...sure! Give me a minute!" she replied, despite the numerous and explicit signals her team was giving to the contrary. "Is something wrong?" she asked as she opened the door.

"I've just received reports of someone's weapon discharging in this part of the building," the teacher explained, forgoing pleasantries in lieu of business, "I've already visited Team JNPR's room, Miss Valkyrie being the most likely culprit for something like this...but she wasn't responsible, so I have to ask if any of you girls know anything."

"Um, well..." Ruby sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, unsure how to answer giving what had just transpired. Plus, Glynda's impassive, penetrating stare wasn't really helping matters.

Fortunately Blake came to her rescue, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Yang and Ruby were roughhousing earlier," she explained, "things nearly got out of hand, and Ruby accidentally dropped Crescent Rose." She gently nudged Ruby, "You're usually really about weapon maintenance."

"Uh...yeah," Ruby nodded, "I guess...I didn't have any time after the Tournament." This was technically true, since they pretty much gone straight from the stadium to the bar with Qrow. She wasn't quite sure why Blake was keeping the Faunus version of her a secret, but in for a Lien and all that... "Sorry about that," she said to Glynda, "I'll be more careful in the future!"

"...very well, then," Glynda said, making a note on her Scroll, "given that is was an accident I won't formally reprimand you. However, I will expect your four to repair the hole your shot made on your own."

Ruby silver eyes drifted to the wall next to the door, where a newly made hole now resided.

"I'll have the custodians bring the necessary supplies here later," she said, turning to leave, "Have a pleasant afternoon, girls."

"You too!" Ruby called down the hall as Glynda disappeared around a corner.

"Holt crap, it's afternoon?!" Yang exclaimed, "I thought it was morning; when did it get so late?"

"What was all that?" Weiss demanded, walking up to Blake, "Why didn't you tell her about the Faunus girl hiding under your bed?"

"Have you seen her?" Blake pointed to her bed. "She's a nervous wreck! Besides, in her world, Ms. Goodwitch could have been head of the Secret Police or something like that!"

"But you don't know that for sure, do you?"

"I know that she doesn't trust humans, and that she probably only trusts us as much as she does because of me, and even then only barely!"

"Sh-sh-she has a n-name, y-you know?"

Team RWBY all turned towards Blake's bunk, where the Faunus girl's head poked out from underneath.

"I have a n-name," she repeated, crawling out in the open. "I-i-it's Ruby..."

"That figures," Yang drawled.

"So Ruby," Ruby said, extending her hand once again, "I'm Ruby too! As in, 'also'! Pleasure to meet you!"

The Faunus girl regarded the proffered hand cautiously before reaching out with her own, gingerly taking Ruby's.

"P-pleasure t-to meet you...," she said.

"So, I hate to interrupt the beginning of this beautiful friendship," Yang interrupted, "but I'm just gonna nip this in the bud and say that we need a something else Little Miss Faunus here, or else this is gonna get confusing."

"We can worry about that later," Weiss said. She'd since picked up Zwei and was scratching behind his ears, "Right now, I think our biggest problem is figuring out what to with Ruby now that she's here."

"Huh?" both Ruby's said in unison.

"...OK, I see your point," Weiss admitted, "we can toss out whatever we can think of. Still, is it really feasible for her to stay here, or would she be better off living somewhere else?"

"So you're saying we should kick her out?" Blake asked, causing the Faunus Ruby to squeak in fright.

"No, I'm not saying that! She can stay here until something better comes along; I'm just thinking long term."

"You know," Ruby suggested, "if you want, I don't think our dad would mind if you wanted to stay with him on Patch; it's a little out of the way, but there's still stuff to do."

The Faunus girl regarded Ruby warily.

"Y-y-you don't have to make a decision right now!" she backpedaled, "Like Weiss said, you can stay here for a while, so take some time and think about it!"

"O-OK," she said, giving a small nod, "th-thanks..."

"...Well, 'Ruby 2' doesn't really have a ring to it," Yang mused, sitting down on Weiss's bunk, "How about...'Rose'?"

Weiss shook her head, "No, that doesn't feel right... Maybe something like 'Byzantium' or 'Robin' or something like that."

"What about 'Garnet'?" suggested Ruby, "That's sorta like Ruby, right?"

"Here's an idea," Blake interjected, "why don't we let her choose her own name?"

Ruby, Yang, and Weiss all looked at their feet, embarrassed.

"I guess that works too..." Ruby pouted, twiddling her fingers.

Blake turned to the Faunus girl. "Is there anything you wouldn't mind being called?" she asked.

"U-um...?" She thought for a moment. "Well...my m-m-mom used t-to call me Roseb-b-bud-" Then she shook her head violently, steeling her face. "C-call me Rosey." She nodded, looking pleased with her choice. "Y-yeah, 'Rosey'..."

"Rrrrrosey...," Ruby said, trying the name out. "Yeah, that's good!"

"That sounds a lot like my suggestion-" Yang humphed, to which Blake punched her arm. "Hey!"

As the girls all expressed their affirmation at Rosey's choice the door to the room's tiny bathroom swung open, a towel clad girl (who also bore more than a passing resemblance to Ruby) walking out while drying her hair off.

"Hey, Barb, have you seen my clothes?" the new girl asked, "I know I put them next to the tub! I swear, if Samantha hid them on me again, I'm gonna-"

As she wrapped the second towel around her head, she suddenly noticed that she wasn't alone in the room.

"...," she said, frozen in place.

"...," the other girls said, surprised that another Ruby had appeared.

"...EEEEEEEEEEKKKK!" the new girl screamed, leaping back into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.

Weiss just let her head fall into her palm, shaking it sadly.

to be continued...

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So, y'all see that letter at the top of the page, just under the author pseudonym? Yeah, that's the Rating, and it's staying right the [censor] where it is, and it's not changing for nothing!

Now that we got that out of the way, we can add another tick to the Ruby Tally! (Yes, that's a thing I'm doing. Deal with it.) So far, we're at 3/8 Ruby's, and there's still more to come!

Also, I thought about leaving the naming of Faunus Ruby up to the readers, but eventually I decided that I just wanted it over and done with so I could concentrate on actually working on the story. No offense to you guys reading this, I'm just impatient. Regardless, 'Rosey' just sounds like the name of a Ruby-like, canine Faunus hailing from a world where humans impose a totalitarian rule over the Faunus, effectives turning them into Third Class citizens, right?

And yes, cliffhangers at the end of a chapter are going to be the norm, thanks for asking.

Next time, we deal with the Goliath in the room. (Which is obviously why Zwei doesn't have a larger presence here.)