Black Sun Kittens

by M.E. Grimm

The Cataclysm of Salem has ended, but the story continues with Blake, Sun, and their two children, Dawn and Dusk as they grow and flourish in this brave new world. Contains lightly implied sexual situations, but is mostly tame. Spiritual successor to "findyourownliberation"'s M-rated fanfic: "For the Rest of Our Lives." Reviews and critiques are much appreciated!

7. Her Beautiful Dawn (Part 2)

Author's Greetings:

RWBY ain't mine, but fuck if I wish it was.

Dat RWBY Vol. 4 character development, tho.

*takes in a big whiff*

GAH. GOOD SHIT.

As of right now two episodes are out, just so I let you guys know how much I'm taking into consideration about what's departing from canon in my story and what's not.

And yes. BSK Blake has been punt-kicked off-canon, and quite possibly all of BSK with her.

… (Fucking revealing Blake's parents are actually still alive how the fuck could I have not forseen that *mumble, grumble, mumble, grumble…*)

However, I will continue to stick close to canon regardless, and see how much more I can fit into these stories that comes directly from the show just for shits and giggles.

Because as for the rest of team RWBY, I've been rather spot on.

And from what I can see from having just watched episode 2 of Vol. 4, Weiss's character is going in exactly the direction I think she's going.

Which is good. For me.

And for this chapter in particular.

… Enjoy. ;)

(And happy Black Sun Week!)

xXx

Black Sun Kittens

Written by M.E. Grimm

(Chapter Seven: Her Beautiful Dawn)

(Part 2)

"Atarashii asa,

Atarashii kaze,

Anata no tame ni junbisareta no…

Atarashii asa,

Atarashii hikari,

Sekai wa anata no tame ni aru…"

-Masakatsu Takagi, "Mother's Song"

(Untranslated)

"A new morning,

A new wind,

Prepared just for you…

A new morning,

A new light,

A world just for you…"

-Masakatsu Takagi, "Mother's Song"

(English Translation)

xXx

In Vale, there was a boxing gym with a sign on the outside saying it was closed and would open sometime around six in the morning. It was, of course, locked by the owner, as any smart shopkeeper would do in the urban jungle of inner Vale.

This was so the owner wouldn't be disturbed during her usual early-morning workout. Yang assumed, rather correctly, most people don't bother going around to boxing gyms in the early morning hours before the dawn. In this time slot, she found a rather comfortable two-hour cushion of privacy in which she could go through her real exercising regimen. The one she didn't let customers see out of fear she'd either scare them, or accidentally hurt them.

It involved a massive, state-of-the-art Atlesian combat mech easily two to three times her size trying to do to her what it did to make all the holes in the concrete floor all around her. To be completely fair, Yang's handiwork was also quite visible in the very back of the gym as well. The place was a graveyard for all her partner's predecessors who'd failed before it. She really did need to clean up the place; sell all the spare parts to a scrapyard or something.

This model, to Yang's infinite delight, was actually giving her a pretty hard time. One of the fastest, most clever sparring mechs Weiss ever donated to her shop. Certainly it lasted a fair bit longer than all the others, but her daily wailing on it was barely noticeable. Whatever material made up its exterior, it could withstand Yang's abuse on a daily basis and even deal it back in kind.

"You'd best be glad I just use you for boxing practice, Mac," teased Yang breathlessly. "Otherwise, there'd be nothing else left of you to make an oven timer."

While she teased, "Mac" strode in and with perfect form drove his right fist into her skull in a lightning-fast jab. The blow was so fast, so hard, Yang spun in circles as she stumbled back, struggling to regain her footing. The mech strode in again, seeing his opponent clearly disoriented and open for another attack. It threw another punch towards Yang's head.

One moment, Mac's fist sailed past Yang's cheek, grazing the skin as it impacted the floor behind her. The next, the inertia of Yang's counterattack brought its head into the full, savage force of Yang's left fist, colliding dead in the middle of where its nose should have been.

Mac crashed into the far-off wall, blowing cracks into the side of Yang's gym.

Yang's left arm remained out and ramrod straight. Yang glared at Mac with red eyes, focused rage keeping her gaze trained on her opponent to make sure he didn't get back up. When it was clear she'd accidentally knocked out Mac again with her punch, Yang calmly curled her bloodied fist back to her chest and breathed out the last of her aggression. Her sigh rumbled deep through her entire being, trembling the concrete beneath her feet as her eyes opened bright and lavender once again.

Across the sparring space, Mac twitched like a fresh corpse. The internal mechanisms went to work repairing any damage Yang had done. Yang watched and chuckled to herself while she hopped out her adrenaline.

"Gave me quite the surprise there, Mac," quipped Yang. "Almost got me, too."

A powerful twitch rattled through the mech, then it lifted its head as if to give a smile. If, you know, if it had any discernable facial expressions. Or facial features, for that matter. All it gave in response was a series of cheerful, robotic chirps as it flexed its fingers in small, diagnostic pumps.

Yang laughed once, hearty and vibrant. She walked over to the mech and held out the only arm she had on at the time, the fingers beneath the boxing bandages stocky, hard, and riddled with callouses and scars.

"Well, you know what they say about a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, right?"

Mac's accepted Yang's offered hand by crushing it entirely in its metal digits. Yang paid hardly any mind as she hauled it to its feet with mundane ease and returned to her bench to wipe sweat from her face. When she was finished drinking her water, the mech was standing beside the bench.

"You're like a puppy, you know?" said Yang.

Mac gave a series of appreciative robotic beeps. Without any order from Yang, the machine then crouched and rolled onto its back before its master, arms and legs spread out spread eagle style. Its chirps were long and ragged, its imitation of a dog's panting.

Yang placed her water bottle on the bench beside her and reached down to pat Mac sweetly on its metal cheek. "Yeah, yeah, you're the only man for me, bud. Truly a gal's best friend."

Mac leaned its head into Yang's hand as though appreciating the attention she gave, and gave a robotic whine when she stood and walked to the showers.

"I'm not going anywhere, you big baby! I'm just taking a shower!"

And so she did, after removing her clothes in the locker room and stepping into the warm water. She reached behind herself and unleashed her waves of sun-gold hair from the small band keeping it up in a ponytail.

Showers in the morning, Yang thought to herself with a smile. Something about them was just divine.

As soon as Yang entered she was out again, fully dressed in a generic orange tank-top and a fresh pair of black jogging pants. It was a ritual she went through most every day of her life, and she loved every bit of it. First, the morning exercise. Then sparring with Mac. A shower.

And after, for the rest of her time before the gym's opening, her office. She walked inside with a quaint jingle of the overhanging bell and immediately smelled the coffee brewing in the corner of the small, cluttered office.

"The elixir of life," said Yang with a moan.

She went over and poured herself a glass, drinking it in a single gulp in spite of it being freshly brewed. After, she glanced at her desk filled with papers and other things regarding her gym. Its appearance gave the impression of hard, managerial work going on at basically all times of the day. And some of it was important, yes.

But most of the papers, had ordinary people tried picking one or two of the clusters up, would have likely assumed many of them to be manuscripts for some big action blockbuster that hadn't ever been greenlighted. And in a way, they would have been right. In a way, they all were, technically, manuscripts.

They were not, however, fiction.

Yang reached down to one of the drawers of her desk with a number lock and tapped out the password as though second nature. Inside was her scroll, which she took out and activated a secret app which made something in the room whirr and click. A hidden mechanism unfurling itself from wherever it rested in the room. A secret in the walls.

Yang walked through the section of what appeared to be drywall behind her desk chair that had suddenly swung open, and shut it behind her. Small lights flickered along the floor of the dark hallway as she held the mug in her teeth and snapped her fingers into the air.

A low, robotic hum sighed to life in the room beyond. A plethora of monitors pulsed to life. By the time Yang reached the seat in front of a digital keyboard, the room systems were all online, and her coffee mug was completely empty. This she looked upon with a slightly disappointed pout, then went over to the table beside the computer. The glass screen was also activating, though a long patch of black laid on the surface obstructing some of the lightshow.

A patch of black that, when illuminated by the eerie blue-green light beneath it, revealed an arm forged of a strange gold and black metal. As if left there from someone either too lazy to take it off once she was in her room or who had wanted to purposefully leave it out of her morning regiment to motivate her to stick to her schedule.

Yang convinced herself of the latter, as she often did, ignoring the former.

She exchanged the mug for the prosthetic, aligning the opening with the long-severed joint of her right arm. Her Aura activated with a rush of exhilaration, flooding the material with her raw, innate will. A will that made the ornate dragon scales etched into the strange metal growl with solar-gold energy. Her arm brimmed with power, then receded to its normal appearance as a prosthetic arm. She scooped up her mug with it.

"Daily status report," Yang called out with a soft sigh. She reached the coffee machine on this end of her office and poured herself a fresh cup of scalding black focus. "Tell me how our birdies are doin' out there."

Behind Yang, the table interface bloomed to life with a hologram of Remnant. Small, multicolored markers like dots peppered the blue-green orb before a smooth, electronic voice announced: "All registered Huntresses and Huntsmen have made no declarations of emergency since you last checked, Miss Xiao Long. Status: Nominal."

Yang smiled into her coffee as she drank. Miss Xiao Long. "How's my little sister doing?"

The holograph of Remnant zoomed in on a red marker some distance out of Vale far beyond Mountain Glenn, and displayed a profile of Ruby. A little icon of a Bullhead was making its way towards her, and seemed to be making good speed.

"Huntress Ruby Rose reported her mission completed just a few hours ago and is primed for extraction. Bullhead ETA: Three minutes."

Yang lifted a brow. "A bit of a hasty extraction, don't you think? No rush. I mean, she probably refused pay." Yang's lips flattened and she shook her head, lifting the mug to her lips humorlessly. "Again."

"Yeah, well, she's the only one of you three I can't immediately get a hold of, so I'm picking her up ASAP," said Penny.

Yang sputtered into her mug in surprise, coughed to clear her throat. "Penny?"

Atop the table, Penny's upper half beamed a smile, politely waving beside the display of Remnant. "Morning, Yang!"

"Why're you here?" asked Yang through a rasp. She walked over to the table, and the map of Remnant changed with a wave of Penny's digital hand. "Woah, Penny, what's going on? An attack? An invasion? What?"

"Oh, nothing like that!" laughed Penny with a chipper sound. The globe of Remnant stopped spinning and zoomed into Umbra Valley where two markers, one glowing violet and the other a smoldering orange-gold, appeared at Umbra General Hospital. Yang knew those two markers instantly. Blake's and Sun's.

And they were in a hospital.

"Blake's in labor, Yang! She's having the baby right now!" said Penny.

"Now?" asked Yang.

"Now! In Umbra Valley General! She was just admitted!"

Yang was robbed of thought for a bit, then came back with a jolt and a cry. "She's… Blake's having… Oh shit!"

Penny brimmed with glee, her smile of blue-green light glowing with excitement.

"Okay. Okay, okay, ah…" Yang paced back and forth, her hands flailing as she tried to think of what to do next. Something hit her and she pointed at Penny's hologram. "You contacted everyone."

"Yeah," answered Penny.

"You're getting my sister…" Yang's fingers tried to do the math while she thought, but conceded and turned to Penny to ask, "How long do you think she's gonna take?"

"Longest out of all of you, but I think she'll be able to make it within two hours or so. Maybe one if the both of us really haul it."

"Okay…" Yang's pacing became increasingly less frantic as the list of things to worry about fell from her mind. "What else… What else…?"

Penny giggled. "Yang."

Yang's head shot up. "What?"

"I've got it all taken care of, don't worry! I even got a Bullhead heading your way right now and it should pick you up within about ten minutes at the latest!" Penny displayed this by waving her hand, scrambling the hologram of Remnant back into Vale. Between Yang's gym and Umbra Valley, another icon of a Bullhead was making considerable speed to close the distance. It was definitely going to reach Yang in just a few minutes, like Penny had said.

"Oh… Okay…" Yang breathed again, each breath slowly relaxing her shoulders until the panic and worry escaped her entirely. "Good."

"Are you alright, Yang?" asked Penny.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just…" Another sigh, then Yang smiled. "Thanks, Penny."

"Not a problem! Are you nervous?"

Yang breathed a soft laugh like a snort as she ran both hands through her golden bangs. "Probably. A little anxious, excited. How about you?"

Penny's hologram wiggled her shoulders playfully. "Yeah. Super excited. Her baby's gonna be the first newborn I've ever touched with my own two hands! I've been going over all the maternity websites on the web to make sure I know the proper way to hold it when I get there!"

Yang's eyes grew wide. "Wait, you're going? In your Vessel?"

"Absolutely!" answered Penny, "I wouldn't want to miss this for the whole wide world!"

Yang's heart softened. With Penny's excitement, she was beginning to grasp the full brevity of what was happening. Blake was having her baby. After so long and after so much, it was all coming to this morning.

"Neither would I," said Yang, murmuring a soft chuckle as she turned her head back up to the beaming AI. "I'm sure she'll appreciate that, Penny."

Even from deep inside her secret room, Yang could hear the distant hum of engines beyond her gym grow ever-so gradually. The Bullhead was almost here.

Penny perked up to announce what Yang already knew. "Oh, Yang, the Bullhead-!"

"Yep, yep, I can hear it!" Yang wasted no time and started jogging back towards the hall, calling over her shoulder to Penny, "Last one out turn out the lights, okay?"

"I got it!" Penny called out after Yang, waving to the computer monitors as she willed them to sleep.

"See you there!" Yang added, though no reply came back from the now dark room. She weaved out from the secret door then kicked it shut, listening to the locking mechanisms whirr into place with a satisfying series of buzzes, as she sprinted across the gym to her locker in the back. As she did, Mac's featureless metal head followed her with an almost sad slowness.

"Blake's going into labor, Mac! She's having the baby!" cried Yang as she bolted into her private locker room and took out everything she needed from inside in a frenzy of grasping and shoving into pockets. "Today's the day!"

Mac hummed and beeped excitedly from outside.

"Ah…" Yang glanced down at herself, evaluating her own appearance and wondering if it was suitable to show up like this for Blake's first baby. She hadn't even put on a bra underneath her tank-top. As far as she'd known waking up, she was going to have the morning to herself as usual.

But outside, the sound of the Bullhead's engines grew ever-louder. In fact, it sounded like it was going to be in front of the shop at any moment.

Her head shot down to evaluate herself again, but then quickly shook her head and just grabbed one of her gym's sweaters from the many strewn across the room.

"Well, the sprout's definitely gonna get an accurate first impression of her auntie Yang," she whispered to herself, shoving the hoodie down over her head. "Or his auntie Yang. Whatever."

She sprinted out from the room quickly afterwards. As she went, Yang shouted to Mac, "I'm out! Make sure to watch the place for me while I'm gone, alright?"

Mac gave a series of hard beeps and saluted in perfect form.

Yang burst through the front entrance of her gym to the whirring roar of the Bullhead's engines as it descended to the floor of the concrete jungle. Her golden-blonde hair billowed out in a storm behind her as she lept into the open cargo hold without it having properly descended yet. When Yang grabbed a tight hold of one of the rungs, she saw the pilot glance back at her with wide eyed amazement at her incredible jump.

"What're you lookin' at?! Get us outta here! I've gotta friend to see and a kid I need to meet! Chop chop!" Yang screamed above the roar of the engines. The pilot nodded immediately and turned back as the Bullhead ascended high above the city.

Yang didn't sit down once for the entire ride. She was way too excited for that.

xXx

Waking up in unfamiliar places on a regular basis was something supposed to be reserved for her big sister, Ruby thought to herself.

Lots had changed about them both, then, since this was the hundredth time in her most recent memory she could remember waking to her alarm in a place she didn't recognize.

The bed sheets were soft, but the bed itself was low to the ground. Not really a bed, actually. Just a mattress her host had offered her along with the room. It wouldn't have been fair to call this place poor. No, just simple. The walls were made of simple material. The window shades, made from haphazardly strung-together pieces of wood attatched to a string by which one manipulated them. She hadn't expected them to afford her many luxuries, anyways.

Ruby recalled her not minding their offer to let her stay in what amounted to a glorified cleaning supplies room with a spare mattress. She recalled this as her silver eyes skirted across the tall shapes of brooms and mops and buckets towering all around her.

Ruby smiled. It was all they could afford. She took it and thanked them profusely, treating it like one of Weiss's luxury condos.

The alarm, Ruby reminded herself.

With a groan, she flipped over and pressed the snooze button on her scroll. She laid there for a few seconds post-awakening. Broom closet, simple home, alarm…

Oh yeah. I finished my mission.

Ruby chuckled into her pillow, grasping the scroll as she pushed herself to her knees. The blanket gently slid down the slope of her elegant, toned figure underneath. She shook the hair from her eyes with a sleepy smile.

I get to go back home now.

Stripes of lighter darkness trickled into the complete black of the small room. The dying night striated itself along her bare arms, brighter shades of the sunless morning revealing the scarred flesh of her powerful, sinewy arms. Her arm moved through them to grab her scroll from where it laid beside her pillow. She lifted it and activated the flashlight, wincing from the sudden flood of illumination.

Ruby took a moment to remember the stark simplicity of the room in the cold, advanced light of her phone. Then, after committing it to her memory, dragged the light across the floor until she found her clothes at the other end of her bed.

Ruby clothed herself in the quaint darkness as though performing a ritual. Certainly, she considered re-applying the velvet bandages to her arms as something akin to a ritual. This home has children, Ruby remembered. If they walked in on her naked, that was something she didn't really care about.

If they walked in and saw her scars… well…

Ruby would have regretted to make them worry so much on the morning of her departure.

After her arms were fully concealed in the blood-red fabric, she clenched and relaxed her fists. Her Aura pulsed along the fabric, allowing it to respond to her will to harden, to soften, to make herself as comfortable as she could be allowed. Sure enough, it still seemed to work just fine, and Ruby dismissed her Aura from the bandages with a relaxed breath.

The rest of her clothes were promptly applied to her person in the minutes that followed. Her Huntress uniform fit her like an old glove, and Ruby loved it. Especially when, after she reapplied her cape, she pressed it to her nose and smelled the gentle lilac scent it carried.

"Thanks for washing my clothes," whispered Ruby to the door.

She stood and made sure to clean up after herself as best she could. Fold the blankets, hoist the mattress against the wall, used one of the brooms to sweep the small space she'd occupied during her mission, and other small, menial tasks.

All was said and done after only a few minutes. It was as though she'd never even been there. Ruby placed her hands on her hips, giving a small victorious huff.

"Good job, me."

Her eyes traveled to the last evidence she had left to clean up. Her backpack and Crescent Rose both rested in the corner closest to her bed.

Picking both of these up, Ruby exited from the room through the window, completing her vanishing act for good.

Outside, Ruby looked out and around at the sleeping world before her. Her departure from the small village she'd protected from a roaming band of raiders was soon to be had. Now was the perfect time to leave if ever there was one.

But… just one more thing…

Ruby crept along the outside of the house and arrived at another window near hers. She carefully lifted the rack of wooden strips covering the opening and peered inside. She whispered a name into it. Nothing. Ruby tried again and heard some soft rustling from deep beneath the covers of the bed. A moment later, a head of wild black hair rose from the blankets as the young girl it belonged to looked up at the window groggily.

Ruby waved cheerfully at the child, and could see the realization bloom on her little face. Her seeing that it was Ruby, her excitement, then her soft faltering as she remembered it was the dead of night, and Ruby was on the other side of the window. In her village's language, Ruby told the little girl she was leaving now, and for her to take care of herself and her family while she was out.

The girl in the bed nodded, then stood and shuffled over to the window. Her arms opened to Ruby, tears pouring down her soft cheeks in tiny rivers of dim starlight. Ruby accepted the child into her bandaged arms without a second thought, hugging her through the window while she waited for the girl to finish her weeping. The child finished, as they always did, and managed to wipe away her own tears without Ruby's help.

Ruby pressed a finger to her lips, winked, then turned to let the blinds fall in a soft rattle.

Immediately the girl flew to the shudders and pulled them open as fast as she could, hoping she'd be able to see the wonderful stranger who'd saved her life one last time.

But out her window, there was nothing but the wide open wilderness she'd always seen throughout her life. The harsh, incredible, dangerous, free world beyond the walls of the kingdoms.

In the corners of her vision, small flashes of red fluttered ever-gently down from the air. Like rose petals falling from a downturned hand. She knew the stranger was returning home, and smiled, and waved once more before returning to bed.

On a hill in the distance, Ruby took one final glance at the small hamlet she'd come here to protect, smiled when she picked out the tiny house she'd stayed in, then turned and continued on her way through the morning night.

It didn't take her very long to reach the point of extraction previously discussed with Yang, nor did it take very long for her to see the Bullhead in the distance grow from a speck into an identifiable shape complete with the sounds of engines. As soon as it reached her, it didn't descend to her level.

This was hardly a problem.

One moment, Ruby was kneeling on the ground. Then, the flowing cloth of her cape pulsed with growing Aura, tossed in a non-existent wind as it changed from a cape into the long tail of a red scarf.

The next moment, Ruby blurred and reappeared in the passenger hold. She stood and took hold of one of the overhead rungs without a moment's hesitation. The pilot reached behind himself to offer a small headset to Ruby. She took it and attached it to her ear, activated it.

"Alrighty. Job done," said Ruby with a sigh. She tossed her backpack and Crescent Rose into the netted holsters above the seats then sat herself down with an exhausted groan, strapping herself in for the ride. "Time to head back home."

"There's been a change of plans, ma'am. Orders from the top," said the pilot. "Plotting course to Umbra Valley General Hospital. And I was told to step on it."

Ruby furrowed her brow and sat upright immediately. "Why Umbra Valley?"

"Well, now that you've finally gotten into my range of communications, I can finally tell you!" said Penny's chipper voice through the headset. "It's Blake, Ruby! She's gone into labor!"

Ruby's eyes grew wide. She hesitated for a moment, then pressed the headset closer against her ear. "I'm sorry, it sounded like you said Blake was in labor?"

"Yes Ruby, she's been admitted into the maternity ward of Umbra Valley General! The baby's coming!"

Ruby's heart skipped a beat. "Penny."

"Hmm?" asked Penny. "What is it, Ruby?"

"How soon can this Bullhead get me to the border of Umbra Valley?"

xXx

A long day didn't even begin to describe the kind of day Weiss was thankful had ended the night before.

The choice was always there, even since before The Cataclysm. Hers to stress over. Hers to think about and worry about all the time.

Her inheritance? Or her life as a Huntress?

Going through The Cataclysm hadn't made the choice any easier, especially when the true depth of her family's actions to further the disarray of the entire world revealed themselves to her. So many lives crushed underneath her family's legacy. So much destruction and chaos from one company's relentless pursuit of complete and total energy dominance. Her entire upbringing, a sham. The lies and bottomless bigotry of one man passed down like a plague from father to daughter. How it had poisoned her. Poisoned the entire world that existed beyond the prison bars of her family mansion's alabaster pillars. And what was left? Tarnished honor and blood money.

If she could have it, Weiss would have found the decision remarkably easy to make once she found out. She would want absolutely nothing to do with her family legacy after learning what she had once been a part of.

But alas, it was so much more than she had bargained for. While still a disgraced name, the Schnee Dust Company had one thing under its title that the entire planet still needed: Dust. Assets upon assets upon assets that her father had spent a fortune in lobbying to ensure no matter what happened, the quarries of the SDC would remain the property of the SDC. Even after so much loss, even after so much hate, her father had managed one final knot for her to untangle that he knew would be the one most difficult. The last and greatest thorn to remove.

And it would not budge easily. Not one little bit.

If she had been looking forward to uncovering those among the inner workings of the SDC who were still seeking the same dominance as her father, her sentiment had dwindled quite fast. The better portion of the staff responsible for holding the entire company together had been summarily tried and found guilty of crimes that had advanced the initiation of The Cataclysm, leaving whatever remained of the company a husk of its former self. Not nearly as functional with someone who'd spent the better part of her teenage life training to fight and used to always having money on hand.

Part of it had been her father's fault, yes. But there was some blame yet to be held on her for not being ready for this when the time came.

That was when Penny came back into the picture. It was incredible enough that Dr. Polendina was willing to bestow such a powerful system to the discretion of team RWBY, but Weiss never imagined Penny would offer aid in keeping the company afloat while its involvement in The Cataclysm dealt blow after blow. She supposed it was a job meant for a machine. It had certainly seemed that way all her life, especially concerning everyone around her lived only for the pursuit of the lien by any means necessary.

Her father always had said it was a game of numbers, and it took numbers to make more numbers.

God, Weiss was glad Penny was here to help her run everything. Without the help of the AI, she most certainly wouldn't have made the progress she'd been making in relinquishing the deeds of some of her quarries. Weiss had even made it a point of honor to lowball the prices for the governments to pay, but somehow Penny always managed to pick up just a little more than her request. A small part of Weiss was glad she did. If for no other reason than to appease the rich girl she knew would always live inside of her, always asking for nothing but the best.

It was a daily concern of Weiss's to deal with. Every night, she was thankful to collide into the bed and immediately black out into dreamless sleep, liberating her for at least a few more hours until she had to wake up and deal with it all over again. There would come a day when it all ended, she supposed. When the last of her family's quarries had been handed back over to more responsible souls and her company would then simply be delegated to an advisory firm paid to oversee the handling of Dust mining. She couldn't wait for that time. It would be so much simpler than everything else she'd ever known regarding her family's company.

But she didn't think she'd ever remove the stain on her hands, the shadow over her name, when it came to-

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Weiss awoke with a scowl already on her face. Another night of troubled sleep. Certainly her alarm wasn't helping. Especially since, when she crawled over to glance at the time on her scroll, she knew the alarm was hours too early for her.

"Really? I thought I set up the alarm last night, what the hell?"

Weiss reached over with a groan and slapped groggily at her bedside counter until one of her strikes managed to land on the snooze button. Immediately upon hearing the alarm stop, Weiss buried her face into her pillow and curled deeper into the plush darkness.

"Stupid alarm…"

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Her hand flew out from beneath the covers and swiped the scroll from its wireless charging home, held the home button to shut it off, then threw it across the room where it slid to a stop in a nearby corner. Weiss didn't like to lose her composure, but today she truly was in no mood. She just wanted to return to the peaceful tranquility of a dreamless sleep. Was that really too much to ask? No, she told herself. No it was not. Now go back to sleep. Screw it if anyone needs you to do anything.

Again, Weiss buried herself beneath her waves of snow-white hair as she let the softness of her bed carry her mind off into the precursor of sleep.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Weiss lifted herself from her bed.

With a cold, focused rage, she turned and glared at the scroll as it buzzed with obnoxious repetition, and lifted a hand in its direction. A white glyph pivoted in her palm as another rotated beneath her phone. In a rush of motion, the phone flew into her grasp, which she held in a furious fist. Beneath her fingers, she willed a glyph to appear inside the phone. She could feel the white symbol turn gently within, then slow and darken as she locked all the functions of the phone shut. Nothing going in. Nothing going out.

When she knew for a fact the phone would be silent, Weiss breathed low and tired. She opened one of the drawers, tossed the dead scroll inside, and then fell back into her bed without making another peep. It was way, way too early to be dealing with this kind of shit, and Weiss finally managed to go back to sleep.

"Weiss!"

She didn't know how long she'd been asleep at that point, but she knew some time had passed before this new bother slipped into her drowsy mind to prod her slowly but surely back to the surface.

"Weiss!"

It sounded awfully familiar, actually. Weiss wondered if it was just more of some half-dream. Some strange thoughts she had been having the day before about-

"WEISS!"

Weiss flew back in her bed with a strangled cry as Penny's voice exploded beside her ear. She scrambled back from the sound until one of her arms reached back into open air and she tumbled backwards off the bed.

"Weiss? Are you up now?" asked Penny from Weiss's wireless scroll charger, using its speakers to project her voice throughout the room.

Weiss blinked in the darkness of her upside-down room, then sighed. "Yes, Penny. I'm up."

"I tried reaching you on your phone."

"Yeah," groaned Weiss, flopping herself sideways to lay on the floor as it corrected her perception of the room. "I know."

"More trouble sleeping?" asked Penny. Had it been anyone else, Weiss might have brushed off the question or lied. But with Penny, especially after all she'd done for her, the query was touching, if nothing else.

"Yeah." Weiss stood with the help of the bed and rubbed at the bags under her eyes. At least I'm smiling, Weiss thought. "I'm fine, though. Thanks for asking, Penny."

"Not a problem!"

Weiss emoted an appreciative grunt. Not very ladylike, but what did she care? She lifted her elegant arms high over her head as she coiled her lithe figure in a graceful stretch. "So what were you trying to reach me about? More legal shit?"

"Oh, no! Blake's in labor right now!"

Weiss's eyes shot open. Slowly, she uncoiled herself from her stretch and stared at her phone charger in disbelief. "What?"

Weiss could hear the smile in Penny's voice as she said, "Yep! Sun just admitted her into the maternity ward of Umbra Valley General! She's having the baby right now!"

She's having the baby. Weiss's heart beat with an excitement she hadn't felt in a long time. The baby's coming right now…

"You said she's in the hospital right now?" asked Weiss.

"Mmhm!"

"Make sure you put the medical bills on my tab. All of them." Weiss strode over to the bedside drawer and pulled her scroll back out, willing her hex to unlock itself as the phone came back to life.

"Done, but you know Blake's gonna insist," warned Penny.

"But you just did it," said Weiss, grinning as she made her way over to her closet to find something acceptable to wear. "I assume you're sending over a Bullhead of some kind to come pick me up?"

"Already on its way. Should reach you in a couple of minutes," replied Penny from the bedroom.

Weiss held one of her favorite outfits before herself in the mirror. Would this be appropriate for visiting her teammate's first child? Did she need to be so formal? The question ate away at her as she filed through most of the clothes in her walk-in closet and judged each one in split-second fashion. Who was she to not look her best for a newborn child's big debut?

"You've already gotten some kind of transportation for everyone, I assume," Weiss called as she held up another outfit before the mirror. This one seemed a bit more promising. Not so damn formal.

"Of course! I don't think any of us would want to miss this! I know I won't!" Penny's voice said.

Weiss was putting on her bra when Penny had spoken, and it surprised her to hear. "Wait, you're going in your Vessel?"

"Of course! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!" answered Penny.

Weiss smiled, continuing to dress herself for the occasion. "Neither would I…"

It didn't take long for Weiss to get herself at least moderately presentable in the short amount of time she'd been given. By the time she applied the last of her foundation to hide the bags under her eyes, she could hear the growing hum of propulsion engines growing closer.

"Thank you, by the way, for being the closest out of everyone else. Ruby's out on a mission and will probably be here a little later than you and Yang," said Penny.

"Well, it was on us to be there for her when the day came," said Weiss, looking over herself one last time in the mirror and being moderately pleased with her work. "That's the least we owe her. And I'll do it again for any other kids she wants to push out later on."

"Hopefully by then, all this business with the company will be done. Make it less stressful to get ready when the time comes," noted Penny.

A cold pulse shivered through Weiss's heart, but she forced herself to ignore it. Now wasn't the time to stress about that, not today. "Yeah," whispered Weiss, turning off the lights and shutting the bathroom door behind her.

"Bullhead's here!" announced Penny.

"Alright, thanks," said Weiss. She grabbed her purse from the mahogany table where she'd left it last night, thrown it there as she made a beeline for the shower to get ready for bed. Another look in another mirror told her even in a rush, she could still put together a decent outfit.

"You're checking your outfit one more time, aren't you?"

"You know me," Weiss answered absently, turning herself back and forth in the mirror. "If I use the phone, do you think you could give it a look and let me know what you think?"

"How about you go up to the Bullhead and let me see for myself?"

Weiss was about to ask what she meant when she heard the transport land with a gentle thump at the very top of her high-end apartment complex.

"Just landed! If you're done, I'm waiting in the Bullhead!" said Penny's voice. There was a soft click, and the scroll home went quiet for the last time.

Weiss's mouth was open to say something, but slowly shut with a grin. For the last time, Weiss examined herself in the mirror and, upon seeing herself as acceptable, exited her condo and took the stairs.

She could hear the roar of the engines even before she opened the door to the helipad at the top of the complex. She made sure to keep her head low as she made her way to the passenger side of the Bullhead. Her snowy hair, in spite of being done in her usual ponytail, still flipped around her head even as she stepped into the closing hatch.

"You look amazing!"

Weiss was strapping herself in when she glanced to her side and saw her friend's bloom of cinnamon-orange curls descending to a bob just beneath her shoulders. Her light jade eyes flashed with a happiness Weiss still couldn't believe was at least partially artificial.

But Penny's joy, the joy Weiss could so clearly see in her business partner's synthetic eyes… nothing about that was artificial.

"Thanks, Penny," said Weiss.

"Ready to go?" asked Penny.

"Ready as I think we can be." Weiss glanced out at the blooming red beyond the horizon of the Umbra Valley mountain range. At the still-sleeping world Blake's firstborn was awakening into.

"Let's punch it," said Weiss.

Without further comment, Penny remotely guided the transport and carried both herself and Weiss into the brightening morning sky.

xXx

Ruby was anxious the entire ride. Itching for when the pilot told her they'd entered the border of the fledgling settlement so she could get out and make her own pace.

Oh, they were making speed, alright. The wilderness of Remnant blurred by beneath her in a rush of motion. Life of all different kinds thrived down there. So many creatures going on throughout their own respective existences. All of them reduced to a quick smear of motion and haste.

Beyond, she could see the mountains growing in the distance. The sky had been purple when she'd entered the Bullhead, but now it was beginning to bleed in the eastern horizon. Ruby fidgeted and bounced in her seat, giving small prayers for her teammate to deliver the baby safely.

"How much longer?" asked Ruby to the pilot.

"A little bit. You can get yourself ready if you want, but it'll be a few minutes still until we reach the border."

Ruby rolled her entire head when she rolled her eyes. She wanted so badly to be there. In a heartbeat, she would have refused the Bullhead entirely and just used her Semblance to get back to Umbra Valley. But her endurance was surely not enough to sustain that long of a trip, nor could she safely navigate through all the forests winding through the world beyond the walls. Who knew what laid out there. And not just the remaining Grimm still wandering in aimless packs after Salem's demise; worse things. Secrets she could stumble across more ancient, more terrible than any Grimm she could likely encounter.

Thinking about it in that way, Ruby was willing to wait until she was within the sanctuary of Umbra Valley's Null Zone for making the rest of the way on foot. At least there, all she was likely to run into were trees, buildings, and/or cars.

"Are we almost there?" Ruby asked again, unbuckling herself and standing to hold one of the overhead rungs.

"Nope. Still a few minutes, ma'am. Sorry."

Ruby groaned softly to herself. She removed her backpack and her weapon from the netted holders, returning them to her person and hopping in place anxiously as Remnant continued to blur beyond the window. The mountains were closer now.

But not close enough…!

"Anxious?" asked the pilot.

"Yeah, big day for a friend," replied Ruby.

"Mind if I ask about it?"

"Ah…" Ruby thought about it for a moment, then decided to go with, "One of my friends is having her first baby today."

"Oh! Well, let her know I said congratulations! Does she live in Umbra Valley, if you don't mind me asking?"

"She does, why do you ask?"

"Oh, no real reason. She's lucky. It's a good place for kids from what I've heard. Lots of open space, what with the Null Zone keeping out all the Grimm and everything."

Ruby hadn't thought about that. The idea tossed around in her head as she took another glance out the window of the Bullhead to see the mountain range growing ever closer. Umbra Valley. It had been a boon to stumble across in the years following The Cataclysm; a piece of good news the world needed after so much darkness had taken so much from everyone and everything. Maybe it was meant to be.

Maybe.

Certainly, it warmed Ruby's heart to imagine Blake and however many more babies she would bear running around in the shade of the wide-open forests and the towering mountain range. Each of them smiling, happy, safe, and most importantly, free.

Free to live in this world Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang had fought to save.

"Yeah," muttered Ruby. "I think she chose well, too."

"Mmhm," replied the pilot.

Nothing was spoken between the two for a few moments, Ruby simply staring out at the world stretching out beyond her.

"Drop point's almost here," said the pilot finally, "You ready, ma'am?"

Ruby snapped out from her thoughts immediately. Quickly she took out her scroll and checked the GPS system within for the route to the hospital, memorizing it in a flash of her eyes across the screen. "Yep!"

The motion of the Bullhead began to slow itself to a crawl. The side of the passanger slid open with a hiss of hydraulics as the wind whipped Ruby's cape behind her from the sudden onset of wind. Ruby went over to the pilot and handed her headpiece back as the man gave a nod and a smile.

"Let her know I said congratulations, ma'am!" yelled the pilot over the roar of the wind.

"I will, thanks!" Ruby yelled back. With a wave, she stepped backwards out into the open air and fell with a casual nonchalance. Her cape billowed in the air while she fell, but slowly glowed with a red luminescence as it straightened and elongated into a deep velvet scarf.

The pilot didn't even see Ruby hit the ground. One moment she was there, the next she blurred like a crimson scratch in the canvas of reality and was gone. Far off into the distance, the trees were disturbed by the force streaking beneath the canopy in a beeline towards the heart of the settlement.

On the horizon, the sun was beginning to breach the night.

xXx

Weiss and Penny were the first to touch down atop Umbra Valley General, and they were quick to exit the Bullhead as soon as they had done so.

"She delivered?!" shouted Weiss above the ascending roar of the departing Bullhead, dismissed by Penny's mental orders.

Penny was holding a finger in front of Weiss while she bowed in concentration. "I can see the doctor beginning to put down some of the reports into the database, but… she did deliver her baby!"

Warmth bloomed bright and beautiful in Weiss's heart from the news, her hands pressing against her mouth then her chest. "Oh my God…"

Penny lifted her head and beamed a smile brighter than any Weiss had ever seen on the AI's vibrant face. She took a few steps to the side and ran a hand through her ginger curls. "Blake's a mother…"

Another sound of engines grew ever-closer towards the two women, growing until it was directly overhead. Before both could look up-

"Heads up!"

There was a solid sound akin to metal colliding against concrete. Weiss flew back in surprise. Penny did not.

Yang rolled, stumbled to regain her footing, but managed to correct herself and lifted her arms in a victorious shrug. "Nailed it."

"That was fast," quipped Penny, rubbing her chin. "I suppose no one in your team takes too kindly to the concept of letting the transport land before exiting."

"Pfft. Landing." Yang waved a dismissive hand at Penny. "Only sissies can't handle an unassisted drop."

"For the record," interjected Weiss, "I exit vehicles like a normal person."

Again, Yang waved a hand, this time at Weiss. "You put on make-up, Weiss, you've got an excuse to not woman up and jump."

Weiss lifted a slim, regal brow. "You say that as though it's a bad thing."

Yang smiled and shrugged. "I'll leave the interpretation up to you, snow angel."

Weiss narrowed her ice-blue eyes, but said nothing else.

"So, any updates on our girl?" Yang asked Penny. "How's she holding out in there?"

"She's done! She's just delivered the baby and I think… the doctor's just letting her rest a little bit," said Penny.

"She's done?" Yang's eyes grew wide with amazement. Her cybernetic hand pressed against her head and chuckled softly to herself. "Holy shit, Blake's a mama now…"

"Mmhm!" Penny nodded adamantly. Clearly, she was enjoying this.

"Do we know if it's, you know, a boy or a girl?" asked Yang.

"Well, I do, but I don't really want to spoil the surprise," replied Penny. She smirked and shrugged, glancing over Yang's shoulder to say, "Isn't that right, Ruby?"

Everyone whipped around in shock at the figure in the crimson cloak which had suddenly appeared behind Yang in the blink of an eye. As the rose petals dissipated from the air around her, Ruby's bandaged arms lifted from her robes, and she removed her hood.

"I think we should let Blake be the one to tell us," said Ruby. She grinned like a child.

"You know I hate it when you do that," said Weiss, clutching her heart as she tried to reclaim the elegance she'd lost with Ruby's sudden appearance. "But… you're here, at least, with the rest of us."

Yang punched her fists together in her excitement. "Aw yeah, team RWBY's back together again."

"I take it everyone's ready to go see her now?" asked Penny.

Everyone glanced around, seeing only confirming nods from all the women gathered.

"Let's go see the little one, then."

With Ruby taking the lead, team RWBY walked into the hospital.

xXx

It had been a few hours now that Dawn had been in the world. Two, if Sun was being exact. And already everything seemed to glow as though made anew. As though this morning marked the death of an old world with the birth of his wonderful little daughter.

The doctor had brought in a plastic crib to put beside Blake's bed. With Dawn now asleep, the doctor informed them it was important the baby be properly placed on her back during sleep to prevent suffocation. After Dawn was carefully placed in the little crib, Sun had maneuvered it close to Blake's bed and scooted himself closer as well. Blake was radiant; a soft, contented glow shining from her as she leaned on her side and ran her fingers along Dawn's sleeping face. It was like Blake couldn't pull herself from her daughter even if she wanted to. An invisible force compelled mother and child to one another that Blake masterfully appeased with only her soft caresses of Dawn's cheeks.

Sun wished he could put into words how much he loved seeing Blake so immaculately content. Even he didn't want to hear himself say "I love you" for the septillionth time, but there really was no other way he could say it. No other way for him to emote it.

Thankfully, Blake spoke up before he did.

"I didn't think I could love someone so much," said Blake in a gentle voice. Her golden eyes shined as they remained fixed on Dawn, glittering as she giggled when Dawn grasped Blake's pinkie in her sleep.

"I'd… worried…" mumbled Sun.

Blake noticed her husband's abashed tone. She turned up and saw Sun looking down and away from her, his thumbs twitching and fumbling with one another in his lap as though he'd done something wrong. "What? Sorry, baby, I didn't hear you. You said you were…?"

Sun opened his mouth and closed it slightly, like the gaping mouth of a fish, unsure of what he was about to say. Then, he reclaimed confidence in his words and said to Blake, "I'd worried… for a long time, ever since we'd first gotten around to dating… I dunno…"

"What?" asked Blake, lifting herself a little higher on her side as she searched through her husband's expression. "What'd you worry about, Sun...?"

Sun again hesitated with his words. Blake was uncomfortable whenever she saw him do this. It wasn't that he wasn't smart enough to say the right things, but that she knew he was afraid she'd think less of him because of his crude ways of speaking his mind. She'd told him time and time again she didn't care if he wasn't as good with words as she was; Blake loved him for so much more than that. But still, it seemed he hid things from her, just as she'd once hidden things from everyone around her.

Only with Sun, it was his feelings he hid. Blake wished he didn't, had told Sun just as she'd shown all of herself to him, he should show all of himself to her. And so whenever a moment like this occurred, when Blake knew Sun was going to speak his heart for her to hear, she made sure not to judge or remark. Only listen. Just as he had with her.

"I'd worried…" said Sun, looking up to meet Blake's eyes while he spoke, "... that you wouldn't want to have kids in the future… that you'd not be interested in that kind of thing with anyone… even with me..."

Blake was dumbstruck. She couldn't speak for a time, could barely think beyond this revelation of her husband's. "Sun…"

Sun dropped his gaze from Blake's with a weak chuckle. "Sorry. Maybe it was wrong of me to think that about you. I'd just… I just…"

"What, Sun? Please, tell me," said Blake. "I want to know."

"I just didn't want to one day find out you weren't happy being with me," said Sun, his voice cracking as he laughed even as tears fell from his eyes. "I saw how free you were and how far you wanted yourself to go and I was so worried if you stayed with me that one day you'd feel like I was holding you back…" Sun's laughter crumbled gently, parts of his laughter trembling into sobs as he tried wiping away his tears with his wrists. "... I never… wanted to be the reason you were unhappy. And I was afraid if you had kids with me, that you'd eventually come to resent it because you couldn't do anything you used to love…"

Blake couldn't stand watching silently any longer. When she reached out to hold his wrist, Blake was relieved that he was within her reaching distance. She held his hand with both of hers over Dawn's crib, and Blake made sure to whisper so as to not wake her daughter. "Sun, look at me."

Sun wiped his face with his free hand, cleared his nose as quietly as he could manage, then turned up to meet Blake's eyes. Blake, herself, began to cry even before she could speak, and had to hold one hand to her own mouth to quiet herself. But she forgot what she was going to say in the process. She hadn't known Sun felt this way about her, hadn't known he'd kept it inside himself for so long. It tore her apart inside to think Sun thought so little of himself compared to her, and she barely noticed Sun's hand leaving hers as she fell to the bed and allowed herself to cry without restraint.

But then, Sun's arms wrapped around her so tightly, so warmly, that Blake immediately turned to hold it closer against herself while she wept. She pressed her lips to the curve of Sun's toned neck and kissed him over and over again.

"I'm sorry, Belle," said Sun in a whisper, "I'm sorry I said that. I shouldn't have-"

"Stop it," said Blake, her voice a raspy growl as she pounded her palm against his shoulder. Sun could tell her strike wasn't at all playful, and pulled back to see, to his astonishment, Blake glaring at him angrily through her tears. Before he could say anything, Blake grit her teeth and slammed the side of her fist against his chest as she said, "Stop. It! You always worry about me, but what about you?"

Sun turned his head down. "Blake, I-"

"'Blake,' nothing! I love you, Sun! I love you so much and I can't believe you worry about me so much more than you worry about yourself! You always go on and on about how much you love me, but you never stop and remember all the reasons why I love you so much! Because you aren't a burden, dammit! You aren't a pest…! You're not..." Blake paused to take a breath, but she felt her lower lip tremble and the bulge in her throat throb as the truth of her words haunted her even as she spoke them. "You aren't… You aren't someone I could ever imagine resenting, Sun, don't… please, never think that I'd… that I'd ever hate you for being the father of my…"

She couldn't finish the sentence. It was too horrible for Blake to fathom, and her hand flew across her lips as she wept once more. Sun wrapped his arms around his wife's trembling figure in a flash and held her tighter than he'd ever held her ever before. He kissed her so many times he almost lost track of time entirely. He could only know it was some time later, long after he realized Blake had again wrapped her own arms around him, when Blake reached up to caress his cheek and brought her lips to his for a deep and intimate kiss. He wondered if he'd ever felt so loved by one person in his entire life.

"You," Blake whispered against Sun's lips, "are my husband. And the father of my child."

Blake leaned back and met Sun's storm grey eyes, the same ones her daughter had inherited, then held his face in her hands. She smiled.

"You and I both know you've gotta be pretty special to have the honor of being both," said Blake with a gentle chuckle. Sun clasped her hand against his cheek, leaned his forehead against Blake's, and reveled in the quiet peace which fell between them. Nothing more needed to be spoken, and Blake could feel her love accepted by Sun in its entirety as his love glowed as powerfully as ever towards her.

Then, gently, the door to the hallway slowly creaked open. Blake saw the movement in the corner of her vision, and she pulled away from Sun to see who it was opening the door.

A dark velvet ponytail swung softly into view, and the head it was attached to leaned out tentatively from the threshold. Ruby's silver eyes met Blake's, and she waved with a beaming recognition blooming in her countenance.

"Hey!" Ruby mouthed to Blake.

Blake smiled and waved back. Sun turned, saw Ruby, and waved a warm greeting of his own.

"Is it okay if we come in?" mouthed Ruby. She pointed her bandaged finger at Dawn's plastic crib, asking a wordless question.

Blake pressed a finger to her lips, then waved for Ruby to enter. Ruby nodded, and carefully pushed the door open the rest of the way as she walked in. As she did, Ruby turned back and pressed a finger to her own lips to the people behind her, waving for them to follow. Penny, Yang, and Weiss walked in, single-file, with Weiss carefully easing the door shut behind her.

In spite of how quiet it all was, the girls' greetings were as vibrant and warm as ever much to Blake's amazement. They all greeted Sun cordially, shaking his hand, patting him on the back like an old friend, then moved on to Blake as she sat up in her bed, holding her hand and leaning over to hug her tight. Like the surrogate sisters Blake had always known them to be.

"So?" asked Yang with a whisper. "Can we see her?"

Blake nodded and pressed a finger to her lips, then leaned over to the opposite side of her bed where the crib was. When she waved, everyone carefully made their way over to the plastic crib and looked down. A collective breath of endearment and wonder rushed through the room as they saw the newborn Dawn for the very first time.

Ruby pressed both her hands against her mouth and ogled into the crib as though she'd found some long-lost treasure and wanted to let Blake know about it. "Oh my goodness she has your hair!"

Blake giggled softly in agreement, and Ruby turned back down to the sleeping babe, pretending to claw her eyes out at the infant's cuteness. "Ho!"

"And she's a Monkey-Faunus, too! How remarkable! The chances of that kind of inheritance with conflicting Faunus variants are rare!" said Penny in her own amazed whisper.

Yang turned to Sun, who was standing at the head of the crib, and gave him wink and a sharp, playful nudge. "I guess this one's mostly your handiwork, eh, stud?"

Sun smiled back bashfully and gave Yang a sharp nudge of his own. "Jump up your own ass and die, alright?"

"Language!" said Yang with a gasp, dramatically pressing her hand to her chest, then softening as she gave Sun a proud pat on his shoulder. "You gotta work on that when you're teaching this little gem the ropes, mate."

"Yeah," said Sun with a chuckle, "I'll try."

Weiss sat on the edge of Blake's bed, scooting closer to get a better look at the sleeping infant in the crib. When she saw Dawn coo softly in her sleep, Weiss felt her heart skip a beat. She looked over at Blake, who was watching Weiss with the most gentle of smiles, and reached to take hold of her friend's hand.

"She's precious," said Weiss.

Blake winked and squeezed Weiss's hand. "Thank you."

Ruby, her hands still on her mouth, turned back to Blake and asked, "What's her name?"

"Dawn," said Blake. She scooted herself closer to the plastic crib and watched her daughter sleep with overwhelming love blossoming in her chest. "Our beautiful little Dawn…"

All the girls collectively gave adoring "aw"'s in varying degrees.

"Dawn," said Weiss, tasting the name and finding it wonderful to speak. "A perfect name for a little girl."

"Dawn Wukong, an interesting name," said Penny.

"Yeah. Dawn's a good name for her," said Yang.

"Perfect," agreed Ruby.

There was a stirring in the crib, and after a series of indignant cooes, Dawn's grey eyes fluttered open to look wide-eyed at all the new faces staring down at her.

A collective gasp arose, and Blake chuckled from the sound.

"Oh my goodness, she has your eyes!" said Yang, slapping Sun's arm as she looked at Dawn in awe.

"Ho! Hello!" cried Ruby, looking down at Dawn in an even greater intensity, as though she were staring into the sun, itself. She turned back to Blake, wiggled a bandaged pinkie in the air and asked, "Can I…? Please…?"

Blake opened her mouth to say yes, but then eyed her team leader's velvet bandages suspiciously. "Didn't you just come back from a mission?"

"Wha-?" Ruby followed her teammate's accusing stare and knew instantly what was bothering her. She waved at Blake with a laugh. "Oh, everything's clean! The villagers I stayed with offered to wash my clothes last night. I'm clean!"

Blake's expression scrunched for one final scrutiny, then she sighed and nodded. Ruby carefully reached down into the crib with her pinkie offered to the wide-eyed Dawn. As Blake leaned over into view, she saw her daughter's wariness at the approaching appendage.

"Dawn?" said Blake.

The storm grey eyes of her daughter flicked instantly towards Blake, knowing fully well the voice of her mother. Blake's heart bloomed knowing Dawn clearly understood the sound of her voice, then she whispered softly, "It's okay, sweetie. I'm here. Mama's here. It's just mama's friend. She won't hurt you at all. I promise, baby."

There was another moment's hesitation, both Ruby and Dawn looking at Blake to make sure everything was alright, then Dawn turned away and reached up to Ruby's pinkie with a gentle giggle. The apprehension of the moment passed, and Ruby allowed Dawn's infantile hands to grasp her bandaged finger for the very first time.

"Wow…" said Ruby. She moved and flexed her captured digit in small, careful tugs, judging each movement by how much it made Dawn smile. One particular tug caused Dawn to squeal with delight, and Ruby smiled as though the child were her own offspring. "I'll always remember this. Even when she's all grown up, I'm gonna make sure I remember the first time I ever touched this wonderful little girl…"

Blake watched her friend and daughter connect so beautifully before her, then said, "You know… if you want to… you can hold her."

Ruby carefully curled her pinkie back and lifted her arm as she stared at Blake in shock. "O-Oh, n-no, Blake, if something went wrong-"

A gleeful cry from the crib broke Ruby's words. When everyone looked back at Dawn, they saw the baby girl grasping with both her fists up at Ruby as she cooed with more excitement than before.

"I don't think that's up to me," said Blake with a laugh. She smiled at Ruby, then turned to Sun. "Babe, could you pick her up and show Ruby how to hold her right?"

Sun stepped beside Blake and touched her hand with his fingers. He looked at her with a questioningly lifted brow. "You're sure you're okay about that?"

"Yeah, I'm sure! We're both gonna be right here, just hand her off to Ruby then take her right back," said Blake.

Sun shrugged, then reached into the crib with both hands and extracted his now very vocal daughter from within. His eyes remained locked on his daughter while he walked to Ruby, then he turned to her and said, "See how I'm holding her? Just like this; rest her head in the crook of your elbow and hold her just like you think you would. It's just as easy as it looks."

Ruby smiled, giddy with excitement. She nodded and opened her arms to Sun. Just as Sun told her, Ruby rested Dawn's head in the crook of her elbow and it all was just as easy as it looked. Ruby took two steps back, and was delighted to know she was carrying the first child of team RWBY here in her very own arms.

And Dawn was absolutely loving it.

"You got her, right?" asked Sun.

"Yeah, I have her, I have her," said Ruby. She turned and walked around the bed to the window, Sun following closely beside. Upon reaching the window, Ruby opened the blinds to let the growing morning sun to pour through in earnest. The view of the Forever Fall forest and the mountain range in the distance was nothing short of breathtaking.

"You see that, little cutie? That's the world your mama and her friends fought for," said Ruby, bouncing Dawn in her arms. The child glanced out the window, her grey eyes flashing like lightning in the glint of the morning sun. Ruby held the child closer in her arms, reaching around to stroke Dawn's little black bangs with her bandaged fingers. "It's blooming for you, baby. It bloomed just for you."

Dawn felt Ruby's fingers across her forehead and immediately renewed her efforts to try and snatch them for herself. She succeeded, and Ruby moved her out of the sunlight with a chuckle and a sigh.

"This is your world now, sweet child," said Ruby. "Our gift to you."

Sun was standing before Ruby, smiling but obviously wanting Dawn to be returned to him.

Ruby looked down at Dawn one last time. "Dawn?"

The child reacted to her name, much to Ruby's amazement. A smart girl. Just like her mama.

"My name's Ruby Rose, but you can call me auntie Ruby. I'm the guardian of your world." Ruby ran her bandaged fingers gently across the smooth surface of Dawn's cheek, and laughed. "It's so good to finally meet you, Dawn."

When Ruby was done, Dawn was returned to Sun's arms. As Ruby stepped back to wipe the tears from her eyes, Penny stepped forward to take her place with arms opened. "May I?"

Sun glanced over at Blake, who nodded her consent. Sun turned back to Penny and said, "Alright, just like I told Ruby, you hold-"

"I know how to hold a baby, Sun! I've been ready since Blake first told us she was expecting!" said Penny, giggling with a warm kindness as she continued with, "It's okay, Sun. I'll take care of her. Trust me."

Sun took a breath, exhaled with a smile, and allowed Dawn to be passed along into Penny's open arms. As she'd promised, Penny held Dawn perfectly in her embrace, cradling her almost better than even Blake had.

Penny then turned and began humming softly to herself, bouncing Dawn in her arms as she walked a small circle across the room. Penny returned Dawn to Blake's arms, then knelt beside the bed. Only watching as Dawn stared up at her mother with wonder.

"A little over seven pounds, light grey eyes, black hair, Monkey-Faunus variant with prehensile primate tail phenotype, and female," said Penny. She reached over to caress Dawn's small tail in her fingers, then reached farther and stroked the babe's temple just as Ruby had and smiled. "A beautiful, healthy baby girl…"

Penny stood and leaned over the bed. "Dawn?"

Dawn looked up into Penny's kind smile, her eyes wide with wonder as she saw Penny's glow with a bright green light. Penny gave a wink and a gentle salute and said, "I'm Penny Polendina, a friend of your mama's. But you can call me auntie Penny when you're capable of speaking! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

The child was silent for a moment, then saw the glow of Penny's green eyes pulse again and alighted to the sight. Penny hummed a loving chuckle and said, "I'll always be here to help you, sweetie. Don't you worry one little bit."

"Okay, okay, okay, it's my turn to see the little sugar cube, eh?" Yang said as she took the place of Penny and gazed down at the little girl in Blake's arms. "Hey there, squirt! Heyo…"

Dawn heard the new voice and saw the glowing pattern of Yang's cybernetic arm flash as it waved its fingers at her with amazed wonder. She flailed her arms gleefully as Yang brought her hands to scoop up the newborn and bounced Dawn carefully in her arms.

"Goodness, you're a lively one, aren'tcha?" said Yang as she sat herself on the edge of Blake's bed. She could see Dawn was enjoying the plush warmth of her ample breasts as well as the gently humming warmth of her robotic hand. Every time Dawn leaned her little head into Yang's careful caress or burrowed herself deeper into Yang's embrace, Yang felt her heart beat a warmth warmer than any she'd ever felt before. It reminded her of when she'd taken care of Ruby when they were just kids. This was a little girl she would once again protect with the diligence of a paladin, but if the situation arose, defend with the fury of a dragon.

"It's been a long time since I've wanted to protect someone so much," Yang said to Blake.

Blake smiled. "Me, too."

"She's beautiful," said Yang.

Blake nodded. "Thank you…"

Blake knew her teammate needed to say little else to emote her love for the babe she held; it was written all over her face as her lavender eyes remained on Dawn as she curled into the warmth of her arms. Yang stood and stepped around beside Blake and caressed Dawn's face one last time.

"Heyo, Dawn. I'm Yang Xiao Long, but you can call me auntie Yang for short." Yang chuckled. "Or you can call me 'Kickass Aunt.'"

Dawn cocked her head with a confused babble. Blake shot Yang a glare.

"Yang."

"Alright, alright, when you're older, when you're older." Yang returned Dawn to Blake and gave a playful wink. "You made a real cutie, Blake."

Blake giggled, then turned to Weiss and said, "Weiss?"

Weiss jumped a little, having been lost in thought when Blake called on her.

"W-What do you need?" asked Weiss, looking frantically around for the reason why she was called.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to hold Dawn," said Blake. She looked closer at her teammate and saw her fidgeting as though she were nervous, and asked, "Weiss? Is everything alright?"

"Wha…? Y-Yeah, of course! I, uh…" Weiss waved a hand at Blake and nodded her head. "S-Sure I'll hold her."

Blake bounced Dawn once in her arms as though to invite Weiss. Weiss's smile cracked ever-so slightly, but she said nothing as she walked over. Once there, Blake held Dawn carefully out to Weiss. "Just like Sun told Ruby to hold her, okay?"

Weiss hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head. "O-Okay…"

Weiss opened her arms, accepting Dawn into her embrace as easily as holding a seven-pound loaf of bread. The room was unusually silent while she held the babe in her arms, adding to the rushing sound of Weiss's heart as it beat loudly in her chest.

It shocked her how much of both parents Dawn had taken after, but it was clear without any reasonable doubt that Dawn had taken most heavily after her father. Her little black tail twitched with delight beside her head, and her storm grey eyes…

Her eyes…

"That filthy Faunus from the boat!"

They were her father's eyes…

"Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can?"

And they were beautiful and kind and pure and innocent and…

"Monkey-tailed rapscallion!"

And they were Sun's...

"Faunus riff-raff!"

And they were...

"Filthy Faunus!"

And she...

"Dirty Animals!"

… couldn't breathe...

"Thieves!"

"Liars!"

"Murderers!"

"Weiss!"

A hand landed on Weiss's shoulder and she gasped in shock. She whipped around to see it was Sun who'd brought her out of her thoughts. His eyes were searching her face, which had grown paler than her typical complexion.

"Weiss?" asked Sun. He squinted his eyes to look closer at something on her face, then said, "You're… crying…?"

Weiss suddenly became conscious of the excess moisture she felt in her eyes. She whipped around to see the worried looks on everyone's faces. She took a step back, making sure she was still holding Dawn securely in her arms…

… She remembered she was still holding Blake's daughter in her arms…

"Weiss?" asked Blake.

A wave of nausea writhed inside Weiss's stomach. She walked to Blake and carefully returned Dawn to her mother, where she belonged.

"Weiss, ah!" Blake took Dawn back into her arms. "Weiss!"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't… I can't hold her…" said Weiss in a rush of whispers.

Weiss turned to leave and Blake reached out to hold her teammate's wrist, but Weiss quickly freed herself with a savage yank.

"Weiss!" cried Blake.

Weiss reached the door before anyone could react, and left the room in a hurry.

A stunned silence remained over everyone present in the room. Blake turned down to Dawn, whose beautiful little face was contorting into a sadness preceding the wailing which came soon after. Instinct took over immediately, and Blake rocked her daughter in her arms, shushing her and whispering sweet nothings in the hopes the babe would calm down.

Once Dawn's cries had eased into small moans of discontent, Blake looked up at Ruby and said, "What're you doing? Go after her!"

At Blake's words, Ruby's stunned silence disintegrated. Her silver eyes sharpened, and Ruby glanced over to Yang.

"Open the door," she said.

Yang did.

Everyone blinked. A sharp rush of air and space whirled about the small confines of the hospital room.

When Dawn opened her eyes, she pawed up at the rose petals with absolute delight, giggling as they disappeared one by one into thin air.

xXx

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," was all Weiss could say as she made her way through the hospital. Bumping into doctors, patients, and anyone else in her way.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

She had to get out of here. She had to go somewhere where people wouldn't look at her and know her immediately upon sighting her. Somewhere where she couldn't see the world her family had tormented so mercilessly. Somewhere she could go that could give her the power to undo all the wrong things her name had ever been tied to.

"I didn't mean to do it… I didn't mean to… I'm sorry…"

Weiss wanted to escape from here more than anything else in the world. To never corrupt that wonderful little angel with all the hate and bigotry she once embraced so easily. She focused on this one singular goal as she trudged on through the hospital.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, excuse me. Please, excuse me. My bad. I apologize, please, I'm sorry…"

Ahead the entrance to the hospital came into view.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me…"

Weiss wiped the tears from her eyes and walked faster towards the exit.

"F-Forgive me… Please, God, forgive m-me… Please forgive me… Please, God, forgive me…"

She didn't register the sudden appearance of the crimson-cloaked figure standing before her before Weiss ran headlong into it.

"Ah!" cried Weiss, side-stepping the person without thinking as she said, "I'm so sorry! Please, forgive me-"

A powerful hand bandaged in velvet snapped out and grabbed Weiss's wrist like a vice.

"I didn't think the woman who ended Salem's Cataclysm would run away when faced with a newborn child," said Ruby.

Weiss didn't even try to escape from Ruby's grip. Only rasped a low sigh and said after a moment's silence, "I can't hold that baby girl, Ruby."

"Yes you can," said Ruby. "You just did."

"You know what I've done! The things my family has done to people like Blake and Sun! To every Faunus on this planet! The things that came out of my mouth, the things I said about Sun, about Blake, the things I believed growing up viewing the world through my father's eyes…" Weiss's voice cracked while she spoke. She lifted her free wrist to furiously wipe the tears streaming down her cheeks. "I don't… I don't deserve to touch that little girl… Not after everything I've done… I can't… I can't bear knowing what she'll think of me when she grows up and learns what my family did to her kind, I can't… Oh God, I… I can't…"

Ruby stood as silent as ever and watched her teammate quietly weep beside her. The hospital bustled and continued to move all around the two, only a spare handful of people giving the occasional glance in their direction. The longer Ruby waited, the more composed Weiss seemed to become. And not long after, Weiss straightened herself tall and proper as usual, giving her eyes and nose a final, careful wipe.

"You ready to go back, now?" asked Ruby, as casually as a parent would ask their child if they were ready to leave for a trip.

Weiss, after a moment's hesitation, nodded and said in a small voice, "Yeah."

Ruby tugged gently at Weiss's wrist, and the two women walked silently back to Blake's room and entered through the door. Weiss turned her head up from her feet and immediately gasped in shock.

Blake, it seemed, had gotten up from her bed with the assistance of Sun and Yang and was carrying Dawn in her arms while she did.

"Belle, are you sure you should be walking at all? You just got through delivery and now you want to get up?" asked Sun.

"I'm fine," said Blake, "just help me a little bit. I'm just a little sore, that's all. I can walk just fine."

"I'm with Sun, Blake," said Yang. "You should just wait-"

"I said I can walk!"

"Blake!" cried Weiss.

"What?!" Blake said through a growl, realizing it was Weiss who'd asked. When she saw Ruby and Weiss standing in the doorway, Blake's eyes narrowed at Weiss. "You."

Weiss dreaded facing her Faunus friend, but forced herself to hurry to Blake's side to help her stand with Dawn in her arms.

"Blake, you should be resting in bed, you're still sore," said Weiss.

"I don't care about that, I want to know why you ran off!" Blake said.

Weiss winced at the sharp question and was silent for a passing moment. She glanced back at Ruby for a reason even she didn't completely understand, but was met only by the cold glare of her leader's silver eyes.

Tell her.

"Well?" asked Blake, her question sharp and deliberate. Weiss turned back around to see Blake's golden eyes staring daggers into her, flashing with impatience. "I'm waiting!"

Weiss glanced down once and saw Dawn looking up with wide-eyed confusion at her mother's anger. After a moment, the babe's storm-grey irises flicked over to Weiss and remained. Recognition flashed across the babe's expression, and a smile grew across her soft lips.

"I… I don't…" Weiss stuttered, then breathed a tired sigh. "I don't deserve to hold her, Blake…"

Blake's reaction wasn't nearly as severe as Weiss had feared, but the confusion on her teammate's face was clearly one of horror and disbelief. "Why… Why would you say something like that, Weiss? She's my daughter, of course you deserve to hold her! Wha-?"

Weiss wrapped her arms tight across her chest, tried not to meet Blake's pleading gaze as she said, "After everything my family's done to the Faunus? After everything they've done to this whole planet? And…"

Weiss turned a sad glance to Sun, but couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze as she said, "... The way I've treated Sun, too…? It was ugly. Hateful. I'm ugly. And hateful."

Blake remained in stunned silence. Weiss turned back to look at Blake, then shook her head in a solemn defeat.

"I grew up like this, was a part of this all my life… and…" Weiss smiled through her falling tears. "... I don't want to see the look on your daughter's face… when she's old enough to know what her auntie Weiss did to her people…"

Weiss wiped her tears from her face with a sharp sob, then turned on her heel to leave.

"You know what I'm gonna tell my daughter, Weiss?!" cried Blake. "What I'm gonna tell her about her auntie Weiss?!"

Weiss froze, shut her eyes tight and waited for the inevitable barrage. Not a barrage of hateful words, no. Weiss knew Blake better than that, knew her teammate enough to know she wouldn't grant Weiss the satisfaction of accepting her for the monster she demonized herself to be. No, what Weiss prepared for were the kind words she knew Blake would say about her.

And in a way, that would be infinitely more painful to endure than had Blake agreed with Weiss.

Weiss hated many things, many, many things, but she really did hate it when someone proved her wrong.

Weiss thought all of this, her body tightly clenched, waiting. Waiting for the scalding truth she'd forgotten in her despair to wash over her in all of Blake's masterful and eloquent fury. She waited for Blake to answer in the encroaching silence. Waited. And waited.

But Blake didn't speak.

There was no sound in the room.

Save for the gentle, tentative shuffle of bare feet coming to a stop right beside her.

Weiss slowly opened her eyes. As she'd suspected, Blake was standing beside her with Dawn still cradled in her arms. Blake was smiling at Weiss, and the Schnee heiress was both terrified and relieved at the sight of it.

"I'm gonna tell my daughter that out of all of her amazing aunties, out of all the people her mama loved and cared for besides her papa," said Blake, "I'd trust no one else to be a better godmother for her than her auntie Weiss."

No negative thoughts dared to enter Weiss's mind. No thoughts at all could enter her mind. It was as though the wind had been knocked out of her, but still, somehow, she could still breathe just fine.

She was so stunned, she hadn't noticed Blake offer Dawn for her to hold. Nor did she notice when she accepted the babe into her arms without a moment's hesitation.

Eventually, one word managed to echo through the empty space of her stunned mind, and Weiss felt the word escape her as she asked, "W-Why…?"

"Besides all the money?" said Blake with a chuckle. Weiss joined with an uneasy laugh of her own, then fell quiet as Blake pressed close to her. Blake's arms wrapping quietly around Weiss's to better hold the smiling Dawn she held, then looked Weiss dead in her ice-blue eyes and said, "I'd trust her auntie Weiss to treat her like a precious gem. I'd trust her auntie Weiss to understand the things that make her like her mother, both the good and the bad. I'd trust her auntie Weiss to just as ready to spoil her as to put her foot down like she always did when she and her mama adventured together. But most importantly? I'd trust her auntie Weiss because even though she was part of the monster that ruined so many lives, grew up in its shadow, even helped it from time to time because she knew no better, she knows, just like her mama knows, what it means to love enough to see through the darkness and change for the better. What it means to leave behind the person you were to become the person you are now."

Blake reached up and carefully, softly, dashed a stray tear making its way down Weiss's cheek.

"Weiss Schnee," said Blake, "a woman like you- a friend like you- who worries that she isn't worthy to love another, will always deserve to hold my children."

As Blake ran her hand through Weiss's white tresses to pull their foreheads gently together, Weiss did not weep in sorrow this time.

"Thank you, Blake… Thank you so much…" whispered Weiss.

Blake shook her head. "You'll be fine. I promise."

"You'll be a wonderful mother, Blake. I swear you will."

"And you'll be a wonderful aunt. I know it, Weiss."

Dawn giggled with glee in Weiss's arms, enchanted by the light of the fresh sunrise dancing in her aunt's silvery hair, reaching up as though to grab the newborn morning in her dimpled little fists.

xXx

A/N: Loved writing this chapter. The original idea of the "Her Beautiful Dawn" arc actually started when I imagined how Weiss's guilt of her family's sins would manifest in her as an adult. I figured every time she saw either of Blake's babies, some dark corner of her mind would whisper in her ear all the bad things her family had to do with the Faunus growing up in the household she did.

And of course, if Weiss loves Dawn and Dusk even a fraction as much as I know she does, I knew her guilt would hit hardest the first time she held Dawn in her arms.

And Weiss does love her niece and nephew. Loves them as though they were her own children.

As does the rest of team RWBY.

(And team SSSN, too. Though I don't mention them at all throughout "Her Beautiful Dawn," you can rest assured Sun's team arrived shortly after to congratulate Sun and Blake for the new addition to the family. I was just way too lazy to write them in, lel.)

So yep. Chapter 8 will take us back to the mayhem of Adam's Funeral, which I will try and start editing way earlier than I began trying to edit this chapter. After that, I will be dedicating all of my writing efforts to finishing the first draft of "Eternal Autumn" for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

And I am going to fucking finish that first fucking draft of "Eternal Autumn" by the end of November even if it fucking kills me.

Send me good NaNoWriMo vibes by leaving a review and following & favoriting this story! And don't forget to follow me on Tumblr at "youweremeanttobehere"/"To Write Is Human, To Edit Is Divine"!

And of course, happy Halloween…

HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEEUHEUHEUHUE…

*(Chapter Soundtrack)*

"Hourglass," "Spectrum" – Zedd, "Clarity"

"The Veldt – 8 Minute Edit" – deadmau5, "The Veldt (feat. Chris James)

"Firelight" – Young the Giant, "Mind Over Matter"

"Don't You Worry Child," "Royals" – Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox, "Twist is the New Twerk"

"Fountain of Life" – Two Steps from Hell, "Miracles"

"Mother's Song" – Masakatsu Takagi, "Wolf Children Soundtrack"

"The Moment I Said It" – Imogen Heap, "Speak For Yourself"

"Up, Up, & Away" – Kid Cudi, "Man On The Moon: The End Of Day"

And just to be redundant; another gracious, genuine thanks to all my readers and supporters. You know who you are. All of you.

Thank every single one of you beautiful, wonderful, unique people for finding some kind of worth in my writings.

Until next time,

M.E. Grimm