"When we feel weak, we drop our heads on the shoulders of others. Don't get mad when someone does that. Be honoured. For that person trusted you enough to, even if subtly, ask you for help."
― Lori Goodwin
Chapter 10-
She was informed by Aria and shortly after by Pyrrha who was in the room next door and heard everything. Blake had accidently told her team that she was a Faunus after Weiss was ranting quite loudly about the problems they caused for her family, and in that time she also informed them that she used to work with the White Fang.
Ruby reacted immediately as she told Neo to handle the team while she went with Blake. The plan would still go ahead but slightly differently.
Ruby found Blake at the statue with her bow undone as she stood there looking at the statue in contemplation.
"You look better with the bow off." Ruby said softly, careful not to scare Blake.
"And you with the headphones, but neither of us are going to do it anytime soon." Blake replied back sharply.
"That is true. Come on let's go." Ruby said, gently moving Blake to follow her.
"Where are we going?" Blake asked, following Ruby.
"I have an apartment in Vale. You want to go into the city and find Sun but I suggest you don't. The offer for a place at my apartment is available but I won't stop you, however I will get you to Vale easily." Ruby informed her.
"How did you know?" Blake asked stunned as they were walking to the docks.
"Because it's easy to read, and I know what you would be likely to do. Seek out another Faunus, it would be unlikely to be me because I am at Beacon which you don't wish to be at so the next likely person is Sun." Ruby explained her thinking.
Blake remained silent as they approached a Bullhead with a waiting pilot for them, Ruby raised her hand in greeting as she climbed into the back with Blake following.
"The pilots Naomi, sort of my own personal pilot." Ruby explained briefly but Blake remained silent.
After an hour Ruby led Blake into her apartment, making tea for the woman as she sat her down in the living room which only had a couch and a TV.
"Alright. Do you want to talk about it? Or would you rather sleep?" Ruby asked softly.
"I think it's best to talk about it now, while it's still fresh in my mind." Blake replied just as softly.
Ruby just nodded, allowing Blake to speak on her own terms instead of pushing the topic any further just yet.
"Weiss was ranting about the Faunus, using horrible terms for us and well she was then going on about how bad the White Fang was and called all of them murderers and pretty much sub-human." Blake explained.
"So you tried to defend them." Ruby stated, already knowing all of this.
"I did, but it didn't work and I was just getting so annoyed that I couldn't help but refer to myself as a Faunus as well and then it seemed to go down from there when I said I was in the White Fang." Blake said, calmer than earlier.
"I'm not taking sides, however Weiss was under her father's influence much more than her sister and mother so the views may not be completely her own, however that doesn't excuse what she said." Ruby replied.
Blake just nodded, not trusting herself to remain calm on the topic so decided to change it once more, "Why didn't you want me to see Sun?" She asked.
"Because he just wants to get in your pants but also because knowing your nature you would rather go after the White Fang and prove their innocence or guilt while Sun would happily allow and maybe even encourage." Ruby explained.
"Why do you think I would do that?" Blake asked.
"Because Sun will tell you about a Schnee shipment arriving tomorrow night, and you would like to stake it out to see if they showed up." Ruby informed her.
"Is that the shipment you were telling me about three weeks ago?" Blake asked.
"It is. We were going to tell you in the morning however this happened so a change of plan." Ruby explained.
"What sort of change?" Blake asked, glad for the change of topic.
"Well Neo is going to distract our teammates while making Weiss see her errors while searching for you." Ruby explained. "Because of this it means Neo will be unlikely to help me, meaning you can help me."
"I see. Thank you for the chance but is she really going to see the wrongs?" Blake asked.
"She will, don't worry about that her sister and mother are still around as well to help." Ruby said with a smile, "Let's go to sleep so we can talk more in the morning when we are well rested." Ruby said, getting up and showing Blake to her room.
The next morning when Blake woke up she walked through the apartment, seeing that it was very plain and bare, with no pictures hanging on the walls and was painted a neutral colour.
Arriving back to the living room Blake found Ruby sitting on the couch asleep sitting up and she found Neo working in the kitchen in the next room over with the door open.
"Good morning Blake, just ignore Ruby for the moment and come in here." Neo said, inviting the woman into the kitchen.
"Good morning, how did you get here?" Blake asked, knowing Neo wasn't there last night.
"I came in quite late last night, Ruby tends to struggle to sleep quite often so I couldn't stay at Beacon while she was here. She didn't get to sleep until about two hours ago." Neo informed her, "What would you like for breakfast?" She asked next.
"Um toast is just fine thank you." Blake said.
"If you're sure, I can do other foods." Neo offered.
"No it's fine thank you." Blake said.
"Ok. Anyway I'm dragging your team out to look for you later, Yang wants to because she's your partner and I had to stop her. Weiss was a little more reluctant but with her sister and mother there she had to go." Neo told her.
"I see. But you know where I am though." Blake said.
"Do I? I was just seeing Ruby and didn't notice anyone else here." Neo returned with a smile, "You'll be safe until tonight so just enjoy the day." Neo replied.
"Thank you. But why are you doing this for me?" Blake said to the woman, thankful for what the pair were doing but also suspicious.
"We see someone in need and we wish to help. Especially when it is bigotry towards Faunus, Ruby was very worried when we first met. It took her about a year until she finally told me that she was a Faunus, although I suspected for a long time." Neo explained, cooking up some bacon and eggs.
"How did you two meet? Ruby doesn't strike me as the sort of person you just meet in school." Blake informed her.
Neo laughed heartily at the comment, "No we most certainly did not meet each other in school. It's a long story and I don't think we've got the time today." Neo replied back, "I also believe Ruby is about to wake up as well." Neo stated, quickly moving to where Ruby was laying on the couch.
Almost on cue Ruby seemed to wake up with a start, reaching out for one of the weapons on her body but Neo was already at her side to calm her down.
With soft whispered words Ruby had calmed down and joined Blake in the kitchen while Neo placed a plate of bacon and eggs in front of Ruby and toast in front of Blake.
"Good morning." Aria said, coming from underneath Ruby's hood.
"Good morning Ruby, Aria." Blake replied.
"Did you sleep well?" Aria asked.
"Yes I did thank you, what about you?" Blake asked politely.
"I stayed up exploring Vale, however mother says she slept well. Thank you for asking." Aria informed her.
"Well I better get back to Beacon, I will see you both tonight." Neo said, leaning down to give Ruby a kiss goodbye underneath her hood before leaving the house with a soft goodbye to both women.
"So what are we going to do today?" Blake asked as Ruby took their dirty dishes and started to clean them.
"It is a free day, mother is thinking about looking into some White Fang bases or maybe reading until tonight, she is undecided. If you have anything you wish to do today then mother is happy to do it." Aria informed Blake.
"I'm happy to just read, it is rare that I can get a day to do just that. However I don't have my book with me, I left it in my hurry to leave my dorm." Blake informed her.
"That is no issue." Aria said as Ruby stood up, "Follow us." Aria said.
Ruby led them through the apartment until they reached a small room past the two bedrooms, however there was still one room left after this.
Opening the door Ruby revealed the room full of books of all sorts, Blake saw books about quantum theory all the way to simple romance books all lining the walls of the room.
"You can read anything you want to in here." Aria informed her.
"Why does Ruby have books on quantum theory?" Blake asked as she looked through the selves.
"Mother has random interests in things, sometimes she has a desire to learn more about Dust or evolution. She has already learnt everything she can about the mind and weaponry alongside Dust and a few other topics." Aria informed the woman.
Blake didn't respond as she picked out a book that caught her eye as she spoke, "I think I'll read this." Blake informed the pair.
"It's a good book." Aria said, reading the title.
The pair then went back to the living room where they sat in silence reading their respective books, Blake had picked out a romance book while Ruby herself had picked out a romance book as well, although not a common book.
They read in silence until Blake finally decided to ask a question that was bugging her for a while, "Why do you always wear your hood? I mean why do you wear it now? When it's only the two of us here." Blake asked, always seeing Ruby with her hood up or headphones on.
"Mother doesn't enjoy being exposed, her eyes are her biggest give away so prefers to keep them hidden. But also she finds safety and comfort in the darkness of her hood and in the night as a whole." Aria informed her.
"Nyctophilia." Blake said.
It seemed Ruby's body language seemed to smile at her as the word left her mouth, "Mother doesn't enjoy labels but she knows what people would say about her behaviour." Aria said in place of Ruby.
"I see, I didn't mean any offense." Blake said quickly.
"Mother doesn't take any. It is rare anything so deeply affects her." Aria stated.
"If it would make you relaxed mother will remove her hood and headphones." Aria asked.
"It's alright." Blake replied quickly.
"Mother says it is unfair, you have chosen to reveal your true self while she instead hides." Aria said as Ruby removed her hood alongside her headphones but what surprised Blake was that upon closer look the woman wore a black choker around her neck with a small black rose in the middle.
"I never noticed that before." Blake stated as she saw the choker.
"Mother always wears it, it was a gift from my other mother. Mother loathes wearing rings or anything on her hands or arms so as a proposal item instead of a ring Neo brought a specialist made choker." Aria told Blake of the item.
"Specialist made? How so?" Blake asked, intrigued by the item.
"It has a tracking chip allowing mother to always know where she is in case something happens. It also monitors her health and alerts her if anything is wrong. Also the choker allows me to speak more clearly like I am now. Alongside this it is also bullet proof and cannot be broken by anything, including Dust enhanced items." Aria listed off.
"What about the flower? It looks so real." Blake asked, leaning in to look at the choker to see the black rose that had hints of a dark red.
"Because it is. The Black Rose can be seen as a symbol of death or love depending on the reason it was given to someone. It can also be seen as pure devotion as well since a true black rose is impossible to produce. However another, more popular meaning when it comes to romance is the fact it means tragic romance as well. But the flower is real, mother was able to use a small force field through dust to hold a real black rose suspended within to keep it fresh and alive." Aria explained to Blake, while Ruby allowed her to look at the choker closer.
"That's amazing." Blake breathed out, taking the so carefully crafted item into a new respect.
"It is, I love it and so does mother, both of them." Aria informed her.
"But what about the flower itself? You said it means tragic romance, why would Neo give this to you if it meant that?" Blake asked.
"It is not it's only meaning, but just one of them." Aria deflected.
"But it is still one of the meanings." Blake pushed.
"That is true, however not the only one." Aria said.
Realising she would get nowhere Blake sat back while saying, "Well it is a beautiful gift, thank you for showing me." Blake replied honestly.
"It was no problem, it is so rare it is on display that mother likes showing it off to people. Although she prefers letting my other mother see it better." Aria said innocently.
"I see." Blake replied, not mentioning how that sounded to her.
"May I ask if you have your scroll on you?" Aria asked out of the blue.
"Um sure, I have it here." Blake replied, taking her scroll out of one of her pockets.
"You've had no calls or messages from your team have you?" Aria asked.
"No I haven't, which is odd I would have excepted them to try." Blake replied, looking at her scroll a little upset.
"We made a duplicate scroll which forwarded your calls and messages to the fake scroll which Mother has to put them off trying to call you." Aria explained.
"Why did you do that?" Blake asked, annoyed that they did that without her permission.
"To make your team actually search for you instead of using technology to do it." Aria stated.
"I see." Blake replied, not completely trusting the reason but understood it easily enough.
The pair didn't speak for the rest of the day except for what to do about lunch, which they ordered some takeout food instead of cooking something.
In the end they used the day to simply read books, when one finished the book they were reading they simply went to the large library to get another one until it started to turn to night.
"Ok, the shipment is coming into the dockyards shortly. We'd better get ready and leave to catch them." Aria stated as Ruby got up, pulling her headphones and hood back up to cover herself.
The two of them quickly got ready, although they didn't need to do much as they made their way down towards the docks where they were aboard a container ship, watching the shipment in silence to see if they showed up.
It wasn't long into the night when they did indeed show up, inside five Bullheads Roman and a large amount of White Fang guards or workers in order to steal the Dust.
"You have one chance to convince them not to do it." Aria said softly but her voice was firm, far from the innocence it held earlier.
Blake just nodded her head as she jumped down from the ship as she tried to reason with the White Fang working with Roman.
While Blake was attempting to reason with the Faunus Ruby moved from the ship and started to move in red flashes around the containers, freaking out the guards as they saw glimpses of something.
As Roman ordered the White Fang to attack Blake, Ruby stepped in as Aria spoke aloud but they were hidden among the containers.
"That was your only chance." Aria called out menacingly.
This single line was enough to freak out the White Fang guards as they started to get jumpy looking around them to try and spot Ruby, or the Red Reaper as they knew her.
A couple even dropped their guns and started to run away but in a flurry of rose petals they were rendered unconscious in front of the others.
As Blake saw how it was going she drew her own weapon and charged straight towards Roman, letting Ruby handle the guards.
Ruby made short work of the guards, disabling the majority of them until the Bullheads arrived overhead with more troops and guns.
"Naomi." Aria called out.
"On it, firing thirty mike-mike." Naomi replied.
Naomi's bullhead suddenly appeared from behind a warehouse on the docks, de-cloaking in the process as a booming sound came from the aircraft.
The high explosive projectiles smashed into the White Fang Bullheads, however the shots were only on disabling the aircraft instead of killing the occupants.
"Thank you." Aria replied as Ruby turned her attention towards Roman.
"Well Red it seems you have me beat." Roman stated as he knocked Blake away from him.
"But I don't play fair Red." Roman called out, throwing a handful of red dust crystals inside his pocket towards Blake and raised his cane towards her, firing a blast from his cane. "Time to choose Red." Roman called out.
"No!" Aria cried out, prompting Ruby to propel herself forward using her semblance to reach Blake in time. While running Ruby fired her rifle up towards Roman's Bullhead but it only hit the armour.
"No shot!" Naomi called out as she tried to get a shot on the aircraft without killing everyone inside but she couldn't.
As the explosion rang out Ruby was covering Blake with her body, covering the woman's crouching body. With the smoke clearing Ruby's Aura had created a visible shield around them, glowing dark red around Ruby and extending out a small distance as well.
Blake looked up to see Ruby, pale and sweating heavily over her with the smoke of the dust explosion clearing around them.
"NAOMI!" Aria screamed out to the pilot.
"Landing now. I see Neo coming over the warehouse as well as police forces." Naomi updated them as she brought her aircraft down close to the two women.
When the aircraft touched down Blake spotted Neo teleporting onto the roof of the warehouse and onto the ground before vanishing from sight completely before she arrived right next to them, a syringe in her hand.
Neo was silent as she moved Ruby's hood and moved the choker ever so slightly to inject the contents of the syringe directly into Ruby's neck.
"What are you giving her?" Blake asked quickly, seeing how Ruby's visible manifestation of her Aura started to dim.
"Aura injection, she's used a lot of it protecting you so she needs it to help her Aura return to normal levels." Neo briefly explained as she replaced the hood over Ruby's head.
"Blake!" Yang called out, rushing forward to bring the woman into a large bear hug.
Weiss followed at a slower pace as she was unsure how to go towards Blake and seeing the Reaper in Blake's arms and Neo hovering over her with an empty syringe.
"Yang you better let Blake go, she's holding Red." Neo stated.
"Sorry, it's just you were missing and we didn't know where you were." Yang explained.
Blake didn't reply as the Reaper started to stir in her arms and she saw that Neo struggled to hug the woman as she woke up.
"What happened?" Weiss asked.
"White Fang alongside a human, Roman Torchwick were targeting this Schnee Dust shipment, we were attempting to stop them however but we failed to capture Roman." Aria explained in place of Ruby, who was still recovering from using so much of her Aura.
"Naomi get up in the air and cloak, don't let the police see you." Aria ordered the woman.
"What about you? The police are almost here." Naomi replied.
"Just go, remember no one can know of your involvement." Aria informed her.
Naomi followed the instructions as she pulled her aircraft up into the air, activating the cloak as she vanished from sight as police cars started to arrive.
"Help me to my feet." Aria asked, prompting Neo and Blake to immediately helping Ruby to her feet, taking an arm over their shoulders.
"Hands up." The police called, advancing quickly from their cars with weapons pointed at the group.
"Stand down. Huntress code 2, 4, 1, 10." Aria called out loud enough for them to hear, giving the officers a pause as one check out the code.
Five minutes later the guns were lowered and Ruby, or rather Aria explained the situation to the officers who listened with rapt attention however this was aided when Naomi had picked up Mizu and Winter Schnee to help support their story.
Shortly after explaining the situation they were free to go, as the Reaper and Blake were the only two involved and this was all planned alongside the code Ruby had provided meant the police couldn't do anything but question and report the event.
A/N
So it was hard choosing a place to actually end this chapter and I'm not at all happy with where I ended it but I didn't want too long a chapter and keep it equal.
Also a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter, I'm curious as to see who gets some of the references made in this chapter alongside what I may be referring to at some points.
I would have posted a chapter over the weekend but my computer actually fucked up with Malware and so I needed to clear it all off which took a day and a half to actually sort the problem out.
Also I'm thinking of taking a break from writing this story, don't worry I've got almost thirty thousand words written and I won't actually stop until I get to a point I'm calling Act Two because that's what it's more or less going to be but part of the same story so I'll keep posting twice a week until I reach the end. I'm doing this because I would like to focus on a couple other stories I want to get finished plus I've got some ideas I want to get written down in more fluid sense then notes on my phone.
Also don't forget about Rooster Teeth's Extra Life livestream on November 7th at 8am through to November 8th 8am, funnily enough I'm going to watch the majority of it but going Christmas shopping with my older brother and sister on the 8th which will be fun. But go out and support the live stream and maybe even donate, it's for a great cause.
I think that's it, more or less. So thanks for reading and I'll see you next time. ^_^
Oh and you're going to absolutely hate me when I get to the end of the first act, I'm very tempted to leave you all with a horrible cliff-hanger. No idea yet.