Written as of; Volume 1 Chapter 16

Author's Note; Ok everybody, I apologise for the wait, but my recent discovery of Sword Art Online has blown a considerable hole in my writing schedule, and also the sheer length of this Chapter took me by surprise so sorry. Also, it has come to my attention that due to the exponential increase in Chapter length, my weekly schedule will slip somewhat, as I have no desire to rush and cram the story as I want it to be at least halfway decent for you!

The icy blue pools of Weiss' eyes gazed drowsily into Ruby's, stripping the huntress of her rational thought. All of her worries melted away to be replaced by the same feeling of peace and warmth that she had experienced last time, funny that ice could instil such warmth in her heart.

All of this took place over the span of just a second, and Ruby saw something begin to seep back into Weiss' eyes. The heiress was becoming coherent.

Finally realising the nature of her situation, Ruby threw herself backwards out of the window, pulling her cloak around her as she fell. She landed softly and pressed the hem of her cloak to the bush next to her, feeling leaves spread across the material. Ruby slowed her breathing, trying to remain as still as possible, so as to keep up her disguise. When she remained still for a few minutes and heard no noises from above, she risked a peek up at the windowsill. Weiss was not staring down at her, so Ruby relaxed and stood up, letting out a deep breath of relief. Leaping up into a tree, she resolved to stay near her sister's room, even if she could not see her, she would still be within sight.

Pausing at this thought, Ruby wrapped her cloak around herself and pulled her knees up into her chest, bark spreading up to replace the red material. When this was accomplished, Ruby took out her scroll and opened it, lowering the brightness once she recovered from her temporary blindness.

Without the presence of others to comfort her, Ruby pulled up the files that held all of the school's information on her sister and her friends as possible. Also, the mole programme that had been installed had granted her with the personal logs of all four of the girls, and those of team JNPR, who had become quite close to Yang and the others throughout their time at Beacon.

'Well,' Ruby mused to herself as she started flipping through the folders; 'being a secret agent of sorts does have its perks after all.'

During the early morning hours as Ruby examined her scroll, her sister's life, and that of her friends had been any thing but normal, or whatever passed for normal at a training academy such as Beacon anyway.

First up was the eight's fight against both the Nevermore and the Deathstalker, with the two teams pairing up on opposing sides of the destroyed bridge to fight the Grimm. She watched the surveillance footage of the fight from an aerial perspective, whilst still being able to hear the combatants as though she was still on the ground.

This surprised her, but she didn't decide to worry about it, for the fight it displayed was breathtaking. She was impressed by Jaune's quick thinking and communication with his teammates, taking down a Grimm as large and dangerous as a Deathstalker was no easy feat, to say the least.

But if she was impressed when she saw Jaune, her jaw threatened to divorce her face when she saw Yang. Jumping into the open mouth of the Nevermore was a stupid, stupid idea, something that Yang would totally do.

Surprisingly, it worked, her distraction giving Weiss enough time to freeze the avian Grimm's tail to the rocks at the base of the cliff.

Now came the interesting part, with the team reassembled, Blake and Yang stretched Gambol Shroud between two columns, and Velvet jumped back on it, using it as a slingshot. Weiss manifested a glyph behind Velvet, storing her kinetic energy. Weiss then jumped up onto Velvet's staff and released the energy, sending the pair skyward. During their ascent, Velvet fired the rifle to maintain their speed, then gave Weiss a final boost, dropping back and using her Aura to accelerate the heiress toward the trapped bird. Weiss' blade glowed a brilliant white, the runes along Myrtenaster responding to the energy being poured into it.

With a single thrust, Weiss speared straight through the Nevermore's neck, causing it to choke for a second before finally becoming still, the smoke already beginning to rise from the fatal wound.

Ruby skipped ahead after that to one of the more recent posts; a journal by Pyrrha.

It detailed her concerns for her team leader and not-so-subtle crush, Jaune Arc. Ruby hadn't been surprised at his position, or the amazon's feelings toward him after reading some of the other journals and the psych profile. It turned out that during a trip to Forever Fall, Jaune had been bullied into smashing a jar of sap over Pyrrha by another team, CRDL. The leader, Cardin, had then proceeded to let loose an entire swarm of rapier wasps on her.

At that point, Jaune had come to his senses, putting himself in between Pyrrha and the swarm. Jaune had then proceeded to nearly exhaust his Aura protecting his teammate. Unfortunately, the sap that had been spilled on Pyrrha attracted one of the more dangerous Grimm; a Major Ursa.

Foolishly, or bravely, depending on how you look at it, Jaune threw himself in the beast's path, taking the hit intended for Pyrrha. The rest of team JNPR managed to drive the Ursa off, but Jaune had suffered grievous injuries, leading him to be hospitalised for weeks.

After the event, CRDL had been officially expelled from Beacon for almost causing the death of a student in a non-combat situation. After Jaune had been released from the hospital, he had been inseparable from Pyrrha and their relationship had … deepened since the accident.

Ruby flicked back to one of Yang's recent posts, detailing how Weiss had started to come around, or as she called it, 'thawing'. Ruby felt herself fortunate that she had the good fortune to run into Weiss after she had become more hospitable, their first interaction could have gone very differently.

Ruby looked up from the scroll, seeing the first signs of dawn begin to creep over the horizon, Ruby dropped from the tree, moving back to her own room, to get some sleep before her lessons started in the afternoon.

An insistent buzzing awoke Ruby from her slumber. Ruby rolled over to intercept the noise and rolled out of bed onto the floor.

"Oomph!"

Ruby sat up and retrieved her scroll from her bedside table, opening it to silence the annoying sound. She sat up a little straighter when the impassive face of Glynda Goodwitch appeared on the screen.

"Good afternoon Mrs Rose, I trust you slept well?"

"Yes Miss."

"Good" she replied stiffly,

"I have been informed of sightings of Roman Torchwick in the docks, as this may be related to your objective I wish for you to investigate this, I know that this may be difficult for you, but I have the utmost faith that you can pull this off."

Ruby's face drained of all colour as the scroll went dark, the flashing red burst cascading through her mind once more. The thought of facing Torchwick again solo scared her like nothing else ever had before. She couldn't even ask her sister for assistance, despite being closer to her than she had been in months.

Her panic began to overwhelm her, she began hyperventilating, taking short sharp breaths, her palms becoming clammy, with her body beginning to shake visibly, a single thought crossed her mind;

Ice.

Ruby capitalised on that image, the comforting sensation easing the sheer, unbridled panic that had been coursing through her, but not expelling it. The physical image worked best, and as she did not have the originals, she opted for the next best thing.

Ruby opened her scroll and accessed the internet, quickly finding the image she was looking for. Shakily rising from her place on the floor, she scrambled over to the small printer in the corner of the room. Printing off the image, she folded it carefully into one of the pouches on her belt.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself, she picked up Crescent Rose from beside the doorway and stepped out into the corridor.

Ruby walked the streets of downtown Vale, following the GPS on her scroll to the point where Goodwitch said Torchwick had been seen.

Ruby wished she had been here to see the festival, but she still had been too traumatised to even watch the proceedings, for she knew Weiss used dust based attacks, she was unable to even watch her sister's team in the tournament. The faint vestiges of the celebrations hung in the air, the odd streamer off a lamppost, some bunting still strung up along shops, at least she could imagine what it must have been like, but it left a dull ache, something that should have been.

Ruby strode through the crowds, hand clasped around the picture in her pouch, straight toward the site where, Roman Torchwick was said to have been. Ruby blinked as a bead of sweat rolled off her forehead and dropped onto the hard cobble ground with a tinkle.

She stiffened, clutching the paper tighter in her hand, trying to calm her nerves. The sun beat down on her back, adding to the drops of … wait.

Ruby looked at the sky, then laughed out loud; the sun was high in the sky and bright, the perspiration was not due to her frayed nerves of heat and fire and pain, just that which came naturally, due to the temperature of a warm summer's day.

Ruby skipped off down the street, arms spread wide, with a wider grin on her face, as ice surrounded her heart, quenching the fires of a time gone by.

"Weiss!"

Weiss blinked, then frantically rolled to the side, the silver weapon embedding itself in the ground beside her. The heiress looked up to see her partner gracefully land on her weapon, her brunette hair settling around her shoulders.

The pair were sparring as part of Professor Goodwitch's class, the pairs having been split and told to only stop when their Aura reached critical. Blake was just toying with Yang, the Faunus using her semblance to all but teleport round their part of the ground, dodging shots with ease as Yang got more and more frustrated. Jaune and Pyrrha were having a more traditional fight, the blonde-haired boy not being so much of a pushover as Weiss first thought, finally being able to give as good as he got. Just as her thoughts turned to Nora and Ren, a question from her own partner jolted her thoughts back to the present.

"Is there anything wrong Weiss?" asked Velvet,

"Normally you're up before the rest of us, but Yang had to physically get you out of bed this morning, and you know you're in trouble if you have to be woken up by Yang." She continued, amusement curving her mouth into a small smile.

"Well ..." Weiss sighed, and began to explain;

"I woke up in the middle of the night last night." She began.

Velvet hopped down off of her weapon, wrenching it from the ground and placing it across her back. The Faunus' eyes widened, but she knew better than to question the white haired girl. Weiss had only recently thawed to the rest of her team, and Velvet did not want her to throw up her ice wall once more by delving too deep into the girl's past.

"I had just woken up, so naturally I was not … fully awake." She continued, seeming frustrated at herself.

"But I know what I saw. I only saw a shadow, as the moonlight streaming in through the window prevented me from discerning any other features. It was a figure, although I could only see the head and shoulders clearly, and their legs when they fell."

"Fell?" echoed Velvet, brow furrowing in confusion.

"Just as I was able to get things into focus, they jumped out of the window." Weiss elaborated,

"But when I went to check there was no-one there, just the plants and trees that are normally on the ground outside, and there was no-one hanging above either.

"Speed …" mused Velvet.

"Just like yesterday, no-one in sight!" realised Weiss.

Velvet took up a defensive stance as Goodwitch started back toward the pair,

"We should report this to Ozpin at the end of the day." Velvet declared, snapping her staff out and twirling it before her.

"Agreed," responded Weiss,

"We have to tell him we have a potentially unauthorised student in the school."

Weiss took up her stance as Velvet separated her staff, twirling the Nunchucks before her, propelling her at her partner.

What the pair failed to notice was Goodwitch pulling out her scroll and tapping at the screen, a look of concern spreading across her face, as the pair whirled and danced around each other in a flurry of blows.

The building was semi-derelict, just as she predicted, the windows of the dwelling were green with mould, those that were not broken were too covered by the green fur to see through. It emanated an aura of sickness at odds with the bright day.

Ruby looked down at her scroll, confirming the co-ordinates on her GPS. Yep, this was the place Torchwick was last seen. Ruby looked back up and stepped onto the porch, tensing as the step under her creaked ominously.

"Come back here you!"

"Oh come on, you'll have to be faster than that to catch me old man!"

Ruby was interrupted from her examination of the house by a commotion around the corner. Pausing with her hand on the doorknob, she looked back over her shoulder, just in time to see a figure with scraggly blonde hair come screeching round the corner. He wore a white shirt, unbuttoned so it billowed behind him. Around his hands and wrists, he wore red gauntlets, although much simpler than Yang's weapons.

All of this Ruby took in at a glance, but it was the tail that caught her attention. This, coupled with the basket of apples clutched in his arms ignited a small spark of fury in Ruby. Reaching out to the Faunus, she hissed;

"In here!"

"What?"

"Do you want to get caught?"

"Fair point."

Ruby wrenched the door open, ducking inside as the Faunus leaped into the hallway beside her. Ruby softly closed the door and put up a hand to her lips for silence as she heard the sounds of a pair of footsteps round the corner and continue off into the distance.

With the immediate threat gone, she quickly scanned the rooms for any other occupants before turning to the Faunus in front of her, who already had his hand raised toward her.

"Well, I think thanks is in order." He said, taking Ruby's hand in her own and shaking it.

"O-oh, well …" Ruby stuttered, taken aback at the ease at which he had taken to her.

"But why did you help me?" came the question.

Ruby sighed, it was a question that had been asked many times, and she still had to keep giving the answer;

"The fact that you have a tail or an extra set of ears doesn't change who you are. People can be so stubborn sometimes, besides, you were only trying to get something to eat."

"Or maybe I just fancied apples on my way past the shop?"

Ruby fixed him with a hard stare.

"No, you got me, yes, I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday, happy? By the way, the name's Sun Wukong."

"Ruby Rose, nice to meet you."

As the pair shook hands once more, Sun seemed to remember something;

"You're not with those criminals, are you?" he asked, his hands raised in a fighting stance.

"No, no!" cried Ruby, waving her hands in front of her face, eyes tightly shut. Opening them, she enquired;

"But why would you think that?"

Sun visibly relaxed, dropping his hands to his sides before gesturing to the front door.

"I've seen them coming here for a few weeks now, and they-"

"Do you see what they bring here?"

"They bought that crate of Dust here that one time after the hit on the Port."

"Really?" Ruby asked, suddenly scooting forwards and looking Sun straight in the eye, making him stumble back against the door.

"Take me."

Weiss and Velvet stood smartly before Ozpin's desk, the man himself sitting sipping his ever-present coffee mug. The office itself was not like Weiss expected, yes it was by far the largest teacher's office, but the architecture was more in line with the classrooms, as if Ozpin did not want to have something that was refused to the rest of his staff; the columns on the side of the room were basic and smooth, the windows simple panes of glass, the only difference being that everything was larger, Ozpin's desk was at least twice the size of any other teacher's desk, just one sign of the authority of the man before her.

Ozpin set his mug down and crossed his fingers, looking at the pair in front of him.

"This is very troubling." He finally spoke, his brow furrowing.

"When did you first catch sight of this figure?"

"Well … sight wouldn't be the word I would use, we first caught the intruder yesterday in the kitchens; we gave chase, but they vanished before we could catch them." Weiss elaborated, glancing at Velvet, who nodded in affirmation.

"It is unfortunate that you failed to apprehend this figure, the last thing we need right now is some unknown running around the school." He rubbed his temples tiredly before looking up once more;

"But what I am most concerned about is the events of last night, you said that you were unable to make out their face?"

"No sir."

"And you, miss Scarlatina, you were unable to make out anything?"

"No, sorry sir." Velvet paused, "although I was able to identify traces of Nature dust, I believe that may have covered the other traces."

Ozpin smiled, carefully hiding the expression from the two girls in front of him. Looking at Weiss, he continued;

"And again, as you looked out the window, there was no-one there, correct?"

"Yes sir." Weiss responded.

"So I can only assume that we are dealing with someone with whom the semblance of speed has presented itself, correct?"

"That's the conclusion that we came to sir."

"Right, I will caution all the staff to be on the lookout."

Dismissing the pair, he waited until they had left the room and then bought up the monitor on his desk. Pulling up a window to full size, the concerned face of Glynda Goodwitch appeared on the screen.

"Did you hear all of that?" he enquired.

"Yes, it seems the situation is not as grave as we feared."

"Indeed, the cloak seems to be working just as planned, and Miss Rose seems to have had the foresight not to use her semblance to reveal herself."

"Yes." She replied curtly,

"Do you really think it was wise to reveal her semblance, this narrows down the possibilities you know."

"As they had already come to the conclusion themselves, I thought it would be suspicious to contradict them."

"Fair enough." Came the reply,

"I would contact Miss Rose, but she appears to be at the co-ordinates, so I shall inform her of this development as she returns, I would not like to distract her in a combat situation."

"You said it would be a good idea to go in the back way!"

"It was! They just thought of it first!"

Sun blocked a slash with his staff, sending the Faunus sprawling. He had led Ruby round the back way, not expecting them to be discovered, but, as their current predicament was testament to their failure.

They had stealthily run in the back, but had been discovered almost immediately, members of the White Fang packing up dust into crates and loading it onto an airship. Upon seeing the intruders, one of the leaders had taken a gun to some poor unfortunate girl that had happened to stumble upon the group, after following Ruby and Sun in after they surprised her on the street, using her as a hostage.

The battle had gone in Ruby and Sun's favour, unsurprisingly, the Faunus being completely outmatched.

Sun split his staff, twirling his nunchaku around himself as he fired, sending a group reeling. Ruby swept in from behind him, using her semblance to increase the strike. The group went flying into several crates, granting Ruby and Sun a brief respite as their adversaries picked themselves up.

"Well, I should have expected no less from you." The man holding the girl spat, throwing his hostage to one of the recovering men;

"Hold her."

He then proceeded to take his weapon out of his scabbard; a Dust rapier not unlike Weiss' Myrtenaster.

"Your little friend beat me good and proper last time, but as she's not here, I guess I'll just have to take it out on you." He decided.

"Or," he realised, his eyes flashing, he turned to the hostage, pointing his rapier at her throat,

"Or, I'll take it out on her."

Ruby and Sun looked at each other for a moment; the man was too close, even Ruby would not be able to block the strike in time. Reluctantly, Sun recombined his staff and set it down next to Crescent Rose,

"It's ok friend." Ruby spoke calmly;

"We won't let-"

Ruby was cut off by a snort of derision from the rapier-wielding Faunus before turning her attention back to the girl who, was not terrified, in fact her green eyes shone with joy.

"You consider me a friend?" she breathlessly whispered.

Ruby looked at Sun in sheer confusion, an emotion that was mirrored perfectly on his own face, before responding.

"Well, yes, but-"

Once again, Ruby was cut off as the girl threw the Faunus restraining her into his companion before turning to Ruby with a smile;

"Don't worry friend, I'm combat ready!"

Author's Note; 3,000 words, yay, anyhoo, I'll hope to have the next chapter up before too long, but until then, good luck with the withdrawal symptoms!