Chapter Thirty Five
The Shackling Truth
Pyrrha clutched Jaune's arm for balance as she woozily stumbled toward the elevator. Ren and Nora flanked them, hovering with protective care. Her brain pounded against her skull and she could feel a cold sweat try to prickle along her skin. She sucked in a deep breath and reached forward to call the elevator.
"Pyrrha, you sure you're up for this?" Jaune asked with uncertainty. His pale yellow aura glistened faintly around him, something his aura did often now that his semblance was finally unlocked. While she hadn't had time to talk with him about it, pride filtered through her whenever her eyes caught it. "Doc has barely even cleared you for the dorm."
"I'll be fine, Jaune," Pyrrha insisted, a tired but warm smile on her face. While the semblance-induced sickness still roiled through her, she was able to control her recovery thanks to many years of practice. "Why don't you all check on Team RWBY while I'm in my meeting?"
Ren and Nora shared a look, and Ren responded. "Weiss, Yang, and Blake are still in the medical wing. We've been trying to get a hold of Ruby, but…"
"It's like she dropped off the face of Remnant," Nora mumbled with crossed arms.
"Oh. I see." Pyrrha was at a loss for words, and stepped robotically into the elevator as the doors parted for her. "Well, I hope she's okay."
"We'll keep looking for her, don't worry," Jaune reassured her as he kept one hand out so the doors wouldn't slide closed. "And we'll try to get some answers from the other girls about… well, everything."
Pyrrha's smile thinned, but she nodded through it. She had to admit that she didn't understand everything either. She didn't understand why, right after the Fall Maiden and her lackeys flew away, Weiss pointed Myrternaster at Nyx and began to call her Neo. She wasn't close to Nyx Peridot, not like Team RWBY, so she couldn't say she knew the girl well, but she feared her late night conversation with Ruby hit closer to home than she first imagined. But she also couldn't say she remembered the events well. She nearly passed out the moment she deactivated her semblance, and everything else after blurred together. "Try to find how Mercury's doing while you're at it?"
"Of course! We've gotta check on one the members of the Bro Squad."
The team looked at their leader with sudden, dumbstruck confusion.
"The… Bro Squad?" Nora said slowly.
"Yeah! Me, Mercury, Ren, and Team SSSN!"
"We never called ourselves that," Ren deadpanned. "...Nor have we all spent time together as a group."
"Listen, I have seven sisters. I need guy friends." Then, Jaune's scroll chimed, and with a quick glance, he noted, "Oh. Well, found Ruby. She'll be in Yang's hospital room soon enough, wants us all there. Should I tell her you're with Ozpin?"
"Please do. Tell her to stop by the dorm sometime, too." Pyrrha clapped her hands together with a beaming smile. While a part of her worried why Ruby wanted them all to gather, she was just relieved Ruby reached out. "But anyway! Professor Ozpin is waiting for me."
"Right. Good luck." Jaune smiled.
"Tell us how it goes!" Nora shouted just before the elevator doors closed. Pyrrha shook her head with a smile.
She centered herself as the elevator began to ascend. She wasn't sure what the Headmaster wanted, but she could make a few guesses, and none of them were things she actually wished to discuss right now.
The most feasible guess was more talk of the Fall Maiden, and Pyrrha still wasn't sure what her answer was. Ruby was behind her, but she refused to let Ruby be involved in this business. The poor girl was already dealing with more than enough. Her first encounter with the Fall Maiden was… messy. And more importantly, she showed her trump card, her semblance, though she supposed she likely already knew of it, if she was scoping out Beacon so intently. Though, she was able to overpower her, sans half the Maiden power. Maybe she could defeat her without the help of the Maiden powers?
A frown marred her features as she delved further into the thought. If she killed the Fall Maiden without the other half of the powers, would Amber's soul be… healed?
She had no chance to mull over that thought, as the elevator slid open and she caught Professor Ozpin and Amethyst in a heated conversation.
"-not going to just stand around when they're sitting around reaping the benefits of a deal some little girl made for them!"
"That 'little girl' has a name, Miss Grendel. Use it," Ozpin spat back with a surprising amount of venom.
Pyrrha blinked as she took in Ozpin's annoyed expression and Amethyst's confrontational stance to the side of Ozpin's desk. Ozpin's gaze landed on Pyrrha's instantly.
"Miss Nikos, please, come in."
Amethyst's scowling mouth contorted further. "So now you're ignoring the issue?"
"Miss Grendel, that is enough."
"Is there something wrong?" Pyrrha questioned as she stepped into the room with her hands clasped in front of her.
The near demonic expression on Amethyst's face shifted until she managed to procure a stretched smile and tried to calm her anger. "Pyrrha! How are you feeling?"
"I'm - well, not fine, but I was always a fast healer when it comes to semblance overexertion." Pyrrha eyed Amethyst cautiously as she said this. "Though, blatant use of my semblance may have been an overreaction."
"Oh? I would say you saved your friends as a result. Overexerting yourself was necessary to ward off the Fall Maiden." Amethyst refuted with a slight grin. It still looked wooden, like she wasn't used to smiling (she probably wasn't), but Pyrrha appreciated that she was trying. "It also saved me the decision as to whether to reveal myself to the public."
Pyrrha smiled sheepishly. "Well, I'm glad I could help. But what happens now? The Fall Maiden obviously doesn't have any fear of blatantly displaying her powers."
The smile dropped from Amethyst's face. "Multiple things. Cinder and Emerald are on the run, with Lynae and the other two Fang members you encountered. With Miss Belladonna's assistance, we identified them as high-ranked lieutenants originally under the command of Fennec and Corsac Alban, operating out of Mistral. As you can see, we've put out warrants for their arrest and are coordinating with Mistral investigators to see if the Alban brothers are involved at all." A sudden ire entered her eyes and curled at her mouth. "Ruby Rose has convinced Roman Torchwick to strike a deal with Ozpin. To put it simply, Neopolitan and Mercury Black are under witness protection and cannot be harmed without major legal backlash. As a result, Miss… er, Neo? Has been given permission to scout out warehouses previously housing dust. She found none and provided photographic evidence, so we also have copious amounts of unaccounted dust to worry about."
Pyrrha's brows furrowed at the venom that dripped from her tongue as she spat Neo and Mercury's names. She, for one, was glad they were officially turning themselves over and assisting them, but the hate in Amethyst's eyes disturbed her. "Why are you so upset over Neo and Mercury providing information?"
Ozpin sighed. "Miss Grendel has a… personal vendetta."
"Personal? You realize that Mercury Black was one of the individuals that sucked the soul out of Amber Kale, the reason the power transfer is even up for debate?" Amethyst questioned hotly with burning eyes. "I've been hunting him ever since. I fought him and his little friend, I suppose it was Emerald, right after Cinder took half the power, and the moment I learn his actual identity, I can't touch him."
"Wait you - you want to kill him?!" Pyrrha blurted with wide eyes. She watched in morbid fascination as Amethyst's cold eyes gleamed, the mere thought giving her satisfaction.
"As much as she may want to, she is not permitted to harm Mister Black." Ozpin leveled a heavy look in Amethyst's direction, to which she crossed her arms and stared despondently at the ground. "Miss Rose has… persuaded Roman Torchwick to cooperate with authorities and has since provided the identities of his employer and current Fall Maiden, Cinder Fall, as well as her many safe havens in Vale, in exchange for his and his accomplices immunity."
"So, Mercury was one of the spies Ruby was worried about," Pyrrha stated. "But, but he saved Yang. So he's switched sides?"
"That would appear to be the case." Amethyst looked pained to admit that.
Pyrrha stepped further into the office before she eventually took the seat in front of Ozpin's desk. Mercury's odd behavior before the match with Yang was beginning to make sense now. He could barely look her in the eyes then, and what she saw was a mix of panic and hard thinking. Amethyst sighed, but dutifully took her place behind and to the right of Ozpin. "I'm… not sure of what's happening exactly but know that Mercury is a good friend. To all of us," Pyrrha eventually said, speaking on behalf of her group of friends, as she shared a look with both Ozpin and Amethyst. "And if he wishes to change his ways, we will support him."
"I appreciate your open-mindedness with the situation, Miss Nikos," Ozpin said with profuse gratitude. "But that is not the reason I have called you up here, unfortunately. I'm sorry to ask this of you, but because of the situation, I must ask that you make your decision now so we can prepare for the transfer, should you accept. Are you willing to become the new Fall Maiden?"
The lump in Pyrrha's throat stopped her from gasping. She expected this, but she didn't want to speak of it, not just yet. Her decision would end a life, and place her in the path of ending another life. And then, who knows what she would have to do to keep the Maiden power safe? Who else would she have to eliminate, to cut from her life without any chance of letting them back in?
"I… what if I just killed the Fall Maiden?" Pyrrha grasped at her half-baked idea. "Then the power would seek out its other half in Amber, correct? Would that restore her to her old self?"
Amethyst's angered visage melted away as Pyrrha tried to explore avenues concerning her friend. "I wish that were the case, Pyrrha, but it's more complicated than that. You remember what I told you, about the soul merging with the new host?" Pyrrha nodded. "Well, half of Amber's soul has already done so with Cinder's soul. If we had gotten to Cinder sooner, then maybe we could have killed her before the merge, but now, well… half of Amber's soul is gone, and will never come back. If we kill Cinder, it's very likely Cinder's whole soul will cram itself into Amber's and we'll just have Cinder in another body."
"But how do you know this?"
Amethyst looked to Ozpin, who sighed. "This is not the first time our enemy has attempted to take the power of a Maiden. Long ago, before you, or Amethyst, or… even I," Ozpin paused briefly. "Were born, someone attempted to drain the powers from the Spring Maiden. Generally, the transfer of power leaves the soul of the previous Maiden behind to rest, so while the new Maiden retains memories of their predecessor, the predecessor's consciousness isn't present. The method in which Cinder and this previous attacker drained the power caused the soul to not be put to rest, but to be displaced until the soul, for lack of a better word, dies. Since the displaced soul is within the attacker's body, the magic is officially relinquished to the soul of the attacker."
"Because what would a displaced soul do but think of the person whom they're trapped in? And what can the magic do when it's already in a new, living host?" Amethyst added with bitterness.
"I-I see…" Pyrrha tried to push down the bile that roiled in her stomach at the thought. Instead, she asked Amethyst, "You speak about magic with such… hatred. I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, but do you even like being the Summer Maiden?"
She watched as Amethyst went still for a long moment. Then, her face dropped into the softest expression she had ever seen on the Maiden's face, and with a long, forlorn sigh, Amethyst admitted, "No."
Ozpin's wise and stoic demeanor loosened at the admittance, and with a slow nod, he urged gently, "I'm sorry that it must come to this, but Pyrrha, we still need your answer."
Pyrrha shut her eyes tight as she realized what she should do. She exhaled, and with a bittersweet smile, she realized she was privileged to even be given a choice in this matter, since Amethyst never did. So, she answered, "I will be your next Fall Maiden."
As Mercury swam back into consciousness, his entire body ached with a dull, throbbing pain.
He cracked his eyes open with difficulty, and sucked in a gasp of air only to regret the large gulp. His chest screamed at the action, and the majority of his torso felt constricted. When he looked down, he was met with a near completely bandaged torso and matching bandaged arms, though the bandaging around his arms were more thinly wrapped than his chest.
Mercury hissed as he pushed himself to sit upright. What happened? Last thing he remembered was a gut instinct telling him to look up, and when he saw he was staring down the barrel of Lynae's sniper from the top of the arena, he went to push Yang out of the way, and then… nothing.
He did a quick survey of the room. It wasn't exactly spacious, but since he must be in a hospital, or maybe the med-bay of Beacon, small rooms made sense. There was a counter with a few medical cabinets to his left, a cushioned seat to his immediate right, and the rightmost wall was curved and had a window overlooking Beacon grounds.
So he was in Beacon. That was something, at least. Outside, there was a larger amount of security than before, and by that he meant Altesian Knights lining the very edge of the floating academy. What caught his eye though was the Amity Arena, huddled up close to the pavement and large ramps propped so construction workers could haul materials up and down. Jeez, how much did he miss?!
He experimentally bent his knees and ankles. The servos moved without much issue, though they needed some maintenance considering he had no clue how long he was out. So, they didn't discover his prosthetics, or if they did, they didn't disable them.
With gritted teeth, he swung his legs off the cot and stood up fully. His entire upper body ached, but he managed to stay upright. His steel eyes scanned the room again, until eventually his eyes locked onto the foot of his cot.
"Alright, let's see the damage…" He murmured as he reached for the patient sheet attached to his cot.
He pushed down the thought of anything else. It worried him that no one was around when he woke up, whether it be a firing squad or Ruby herself (By the Brothers, he wished Ruby was here). His stance in the eyes of Ruby and her crew as well as Professor Ozpin was a big, fat unknown, and waking up without anyone to give him at least an idea of what was happening spiked his anxiousness.
His eyes scanned the page. Multiple lacerations to his arms because of glass (when did that happen?), as well as one big penetrating chest wound that grazed his pleural cavity just enough to be annoying. Great.
There wasn't much else. Apparently, most of the damage had been on its way to healing before he was admitted. Ruby had… she was able to successfully aura heal. A grin worked across his face.
Some relief flowed through him as he realized Ruby must have come to his aid not long after he lost consciousness. And on the first try she managed to stabilize him? His girl sure was something special.
Another thought caused his smile to dim. He… wasn't sure if Ruby wanted to stay with him. He pursed his lips. Really, why would she? He'd lied, manipulated, and actively worked against her. He watched her strife over the investigation and now she probably knew he could have done something.
Don't think about it. Just get your bearings. He repeated this with a worrisome crease in his forehead as he scanned the document further. It didn't say much else of note, and he set it down with a frown. There wasn't much else in the room to give him any hint to what happened, but a few of his possessions were on the table by the head of his cot. His scroll, a paper note, and a silver bracelet.
A noise sounded from the back of his throat as he pinched the bracelet between his fingers and held it up. It was a simple band, thick enough to cover about two inches of skin, and a delicate carved pattern that reassembled silver brick. It was designed to latch around the wrist, but the thick latch was made to look less like the latch by coating it ruby red. Ideally, it would adhere to the wrist almost like a suit cuff. He spotted it through the window of a store on one of Neo's ice cream trips, and before he even fully thought it through he had gone in and gotten it. He didn't even steal it either, he bought it. It was a nice chunk of change too.
He wasn't sure if it was Ruby's style, but she didn't seem like the flashy type, so the lack of big jewels and rhinestones seemed like a safe bet. He'd also wanted to get it engraved, but he wasn't sure what to put on it. Maybe he was overthinking a half-baked gift that would just be seen as a bribe now…
Then, he stopped. How did it get here? Last he remembered, he stashed it somewhere in the dorm, away from Cinder's lifeless shells she calls eyes. Suspicious, he thumbed open the note on the stand. He snorted at the contents.
Hey Dum-Dum,
You've been out for three days, lazyhead! Well, possibly more, if you don't wake up before Ruby and I are back.
Found this in the dorm before the Bitch Hot Tamale and Em hoofed it. You're lucky Cinder didn't find it before you went AWOL. You're safe here, and Ruby's got our backs.
Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.
~Neo
Whatever was left of his anxiety washed away at the simple note Neo left behind. He didn't know how Ruby was feeling, but she didn't give up on him, and that was all he needed to know.
While he didn't fancy the idea of walking around with just bandages concealing his chest, his shirt and jacket weren't around… though he had to wonder if both weren't ruined considering the stitching that he felt, tight but well threaded, signified a pretty big wound. He shrugged to himself, decided he could survive the loss considering he could have died, and meandered to the door with slow steps.
He pressed the panel, and the door swished open to-
"Salutations, Mercury Black!"
"Holy-!" Mercury staggered back and pressed a hand right over the twinge he felt in his chest. Jeez, this thing was going to be more bothersome than he thought. As he caught his breath (really, how quick he ran out of breath was embarrassing), he locked onto pale green eyes, a freckled face, and messy ginger hair. Great. The robot that pulled one of Roman's Bullhead's out of the air.
"Uh. Penny, right?"
"Indeed I am! I'm sorry we couldn't meet under more pleasant circumstances!" Penny said with a cheery smile. "And with that in mind, I'll have to ask that you return to your hospital bed. General Ironwood has specifically requested that I ensure your well-being, and that includes minimizing strain on your injuries!"
Oh God, did this robot - girl? - sure, girl, did she constantly talk in exclamation points? And, wait, General Ironwood specifically requested?
"Um. Why did General Ironwood assign you to me?"
"I suppose it wasn't just him. General Ironwood took note of my friendship with Ruby, and thought I was the best choice! That way, Ruby's psychological state won't suffer further deterioration!"
Okay, he thinks his heart might just explode right now. "Psychological wha- deteriorate?!"
"Yes! Since a familiar and trusted face is guarding you rather than faceless guards, statistically-"
"I get that!" Mercury waved his hands. "How is Ruby? Is she- is she okay?"
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realize that was what you meant!" Penny blinked with a big smile that he just couldn't describe as natural. Maybe it was because he knew she wasn't really human. Probably that. Though, her smile disappeared (finally) as she reported Ruby's well-being. "Ruby has spent her time in isolation since your match against Yang Xiao Long. Her heart rate is elevated often, and her neural activity is more… chaotic than usual. I've noticed her eating habits over the past three days have been unsatisfactory as well, but she waves me off whenever I bring up this issue."
Mercury felt his insides rot at the bomb Penny unwittingly dropped on him. This was because of him. He needed to fix this, needed to talk to her.
Penny held out a hand in a 'stop' signal when Mercury went to stride past her. "I'm sorry, Mercury. You must stay confined to this room. I'm sure Ruby will return soon!"
House arrest, huh? Mercury grit his teeth, but pushed down his annoyance. "Well, where did she go?"
"She went off with Neopolitan to talk to the rest of her friends! I'm personally glad she is. Her team must be so worried!"
He could barely swallow past the lump in his throat. I have a feeling I know why she went.
Ruby's hand hovered over the access panel to her sister's room in the medical bay. A cold sweat broke over her entire body and she felt herself shiver at the feeling. She could do this. She had to do this.
A black gloved hand closed around hers in a slow, comforting movement. Ruby didn't realize she was shaking until Neo reached for her. Despite her uncertainty around the smaller woman, Ruby's eyes desperately sought her mismatched ones.
"I don't know what to say, I-I - how do I explain this to them?" Ruby's lip quivered. "A-All of my friends are in there, and they're gonna realize I've been giving everyone bits and pieces of the whole story, and - and-"
Neo pressed a finger to Ruby's lips and took Ruby's hand to place on her chest. Neo made a show of breathing in deep, holding it, and exhaling. Ruby tried to copy Neo's slow breathing, and only when Ruby wasn't near hyperventilation, Neo used one hand to type out a message.
{You've done nothing wrong. Just tell the truth, and let me take the fire}
Ruby shook her head. "B-But I don't want to just throw you to them." Neo didn't respond, but Ruby managed a weak laugh as the ice cream woman tapped her cheek and smiled encouragingly. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
Neo's smile dropped for a serious, concerned expression.
{Why are you being so nice to me?}
The silver eyed girl gnawed at her lip. She pushed back the tears prickling at the back of her eyelids. She had to stop crying, she would not cry. Ruby couldn't even muster an answer, half because she didn't know, and the other half because the strictly morally good compass within tried to move her back to the vision of black and white. But, there was no black and white. There might have been before she met Mercury and Neo, back when there were heroes and monsters, but Ruby only saw shades of grey now, even when she looked at herself, and she didn't know how to feel about it.
Neo saved her from answering however, and instead nudged her to face the door as she pressed a button on the door panel. It slid open with a satisfying, mechanical whoosh, and suddenly she was staring at three teams of curious friends who quickly tensed at the person standing beside her.
She had seconds to survey the room. Weiss and Blake took up the chairs beside Yang's bedside, while Yang herself was in her cot, cross-legged. Nora was sitting at the foot of the bed, with Ren hovering close, and Jaune not far away. Team SSSN was clustered together, with Sun and Sage perched on the spacious windowsill. Pyrrha was absent, but she expected that. While she wasn't in direct contact with her right now, Jaune shot a text to her that Pyrrha was in a meeting with Ozpin, which spurred Ruby to concoct a few theories.
She almost wished Pyrrha were here. She thought, aside from her sister, likely, Pyrrha would be the first to understand and accept the situation completely. She always did.
Jaune squinted. "Is that…?"
Yang blinked. "Neo…"
"You brought her here?" Weiss all but exploded as she glared daggers at Neo. Ruby felt her blood freeze at the hostile look Weiss adopted, even though it wasn't aimed at her.
Ren and Nora were blissfully silent, as was Blake, who stared with an expectant look. She almost didn't want to look at Team SSSN. Out of all of them, Scarlet was the one looking the most perturbed. Like he didn't want to face what she was about to say.
Ruby squared her shoulders, and with an impulsive need for support, she wound her arm through Neo's and stepped them both fully into the room. She could do this. She could do this.
"Everyone." Ruby's throat felt like sandpaper, her tongue numb like a dose of novocaine. She pushed through it. "I need you all to just… listen as I tell you everything about the investigation into the fire lady's operations."
Luckily, her team didn't flinch. While she wanted complete transparency, she wouldn't betray Professor Ozpin's trust and tell the other teams about the Maidens. So, Cinder will stay as just the fire lady for now.
"And… you're going to explain why that Neo girl you told us about is here." Sun's grey eyes didn't leave Neo as he stated this. Like he already went to a conclusion he wasn't sure about.
Ruby kept her gaze firmly at the spot above Sun's head. She charged forward. "You know her better as Nyx." As she said this, Neo's form cracked until her old disguise coated her from head to toe. The only notable difference was her hair wasn't up in pigtails. As a few sharp inhales were heard, Neo blinked her green eyes back to their brown and pink, and shattered the illusion with just a thought. "She was one of the undercover agents for the fire lady… Cinder Fall." Ruby felt her throat closing as Jaune's eyes blew open, as Sun's normally jovial expression went slack, as Sage's concerned look shut down into a blank mask. Scarlet, she could barely stand to look at him, how his green eyes latched onto Neo and his mouth hung open, like his jaw unhinged from his skull. "Mercury and Emerald were also agents. But, Mercury and Neo are on our side now. Cinder and Emerald are… gone. Run off Beacon grounds once General Ironwood ordered his people to comb the grounds for them."
She stopped talking for a moment to catch her breath. She didn't like the tightness in her chest, didn't like how the air was sucked from the room and made breathing hard. She didn't like how quiet it was. Ruby felt herself leaning into Neo as the woman rubbed a hand over her shoulder blades and squeezed her hand tight.
"Um. Also… Roman- I-I mean, Torchwick made a deal with Professor Ozpin! He, uh, he told Ozpin everything he could about Cinder's plans, and in exchange he, Neo, and Mercury are all under protection. So, um, I guess Torchwick is on our side too?"
Ruby shifted her eyes to her team as she said this. Yang looked like a shell of her former self, still recovering from Lynae's attack and now processing the wall of information. Weiss's eyes still hadn't left Neo. Blake lifted her gaze, calmly, to Ruby's.
"Did Torchwick think of this deal all on his own, Ruby?" Blake's gaze was expectant.
Ruby gulped. "No…"
Weiss looked like she was simmering. "Oh?"
"What does that mean?" She heard Jaune murmur to Nora and Ren, who both shrugged.
She suddenly understood Yang's docile look, Blake's strained patience, and Weiss's absolute fury. They knew. They had to know, somehow. With a sudden wash of shame, she looked to SSSN, the four who she entrusted with this secret. While the four were still noticeably shocked, they snapped into reality at her desperate look.
"Nice going, Rose!" Sun leapt from his perch and marched over to Ruby's side, opposite of Neo. He wrapped an arm around her and shook her good-naturedly. "Rubes here had a plan to make Torchwick spill the beans on who the fire lady was, and she checked in with Nep and I to see if it would work out."
Neptune spread his arms out and walked toward her with a beaming smile, though it was a little strange. Like he was trying too hard to keep the smile up. "Knew you could pull it off, Little Sis!"
Behind him, Sage spoke with a low tone to Scarlet, who looked between Ruby and Neo with nervous, unsure eyes.
"So you told Team SSSN before you told us," Weiss spoke up in a frank, utterly disappointed tone. "Your team."
"I, um, i-it was an impulsive decision," Ruby stumbled through her explanation. "I-I wasn't going to tell an-anyone, b-but I was just so worried the first time and I needed to get it off my chest-"
"The first time?"
Her voice died in her throat as Weiss's unimpressed look morphed into a heated glare. Neo's hand tightened around hers, and Sun's arm tensed enough to pull her closer. Yang just looked blank still, and it was the worst response Ruby could have ever gotten from her sister.
"I-I visited Torchwick after the Breach to see if I could get any information out of him. His responses were, um, the reason why I pushed so hard to keep investigating."
"And you told Team SSSN before us?" Weiss repeated with a hard edge.
"I-I'm sorry I didn't- I-"
Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and took a hard breath. Her mind ran back to Neo's words. You've done nothing wrong. She's done nothing wrong, and all she had to do is explain the situation, and everything would be okay. She didn't tell her team for the right reasons, out of concern for them, and all she had to do was explain.
With that in mind, she cleared her throat, opened her eyes, and said calmly, "I met with Torchwick twice. Both times it was to gain information, and the second time it was to also encourage him to work something out so he, Neo, Mercury, and Emerald were all safe and able to join us. Emerald chose to run with Cinder before I could tell her about it, so she's not part of the deal. I told Team SSSN half because I needed someone to talk to, and the other half because I needed advice on how to trip Torchwick up in my second meeting with him." She managed a grin and nudged Sun. "By the way, name dropping who I thought was the spy worked really well. So, thanks Wukong."
Sun beamed a great, genuine smile back at her. "No problem, Rose."
The comfort she drew from Sun's sincerity drained away as Yang's soft, croak-y voice echoed across the room. "Did you not trust us?"
"You trusted them over us?" Weiss tacked on with bite.
Jaune, who had been silent for most this time, stepped in with a harsh look at Weiss. "That's not fair of you to say! A lot's happened, and hurling accusations at her isn't going to get you any answers!"
"Yeah, Weiss, it's not like that at all," Neptune insisted. "Ruby didn't want to worry you."
"That's easy for you to say when you were in the loop," Weiss objected with crossed arms. "We're a team. We were the ones dead set on investigating Torchwick and all his cohorts! And yet you decide to make decisions without us, and not only that, help a criminal mastermind think up a way to get himself and two conniving spies out of trouble?! I mean really, Ruby, you know I respect you as team leader, but I thought we were all on the same page here. I thought you were through with this ridiculous notion you had to do everything yourself, and now look where it's led us! With a criminal taking advantage of your kindness, and two leeches that lied to our faces."
A string snapped that Ruby didn't even realize had grown taut. "SHUT UP!" Weiss's expression snapped into a slack jaw, as well as her other friends' expressions, but she barreled on. "I didn't tell you about me meeting Torchwick because I knew you would react like this! I'm surprised you're not reacting with more shouting honestly! And conniving? Really?! Neo is standing here, in front of all of us, asking for nothing and offering everything! She scouted the entirety of the city within a couple days trying to find leads for Professor Ozpin! She has to go out again with someone who wants her dead not long after this to look for people who also want her dead! And Mercury-" Ruby's voice faltered at his name, but she wiggled from Neo and Sun's grip to throw her arm out behind her towards the door. "Mercury is still unconscious with a hole in his chest after defecting nearly cost him his life! And he did it all for us. For us. I'm-I'm not asking you to forgive them, but don't- don't just write them off and be b-big meanies, but, but give them a chance!"
The room descended into silence again, with eleven pairs of eyes all staring, bugged out, right at her. Even the stoic Ren looked shocked at the outburst. Ruby felt her entire body was flashed in a white-hot oven, but chills shook through her.
It was then she realized how she looked. Her regular attire absent from her form because of the amount of blood on them, her current clothes disheveled, her hair wild and messy with her eyes equally as wide and wild with the beginning of bags underneath them. She… she looked so unlike her usual, peppy self, and she hated it. And, and she yelled at all her friends. At her team, at her partner. She wanted to make them understand, help them come to terms with Neo and Mercury now exposed for who they once represented, but instead she… she screamed at them.
"I-I-I…" Ruby stuttered, her hands going to her mouth as she took minuscule steps back. "I'm s-sorry, I-I didn't, I didn't mean to yell, I… I…"
She stumbled back further, and suddenly the room was too small and the stares too piercing. Ruby avoided Sun's hand that tried to clamp down on her shoulder, avoided Neo's encouraging expression, and couldn't meet the eyes of Blake, who began to slink out of her chair.
Blake began softly, "Ruby—"
But she didn't hear her, because a second later, Ruby ran through the door.
Sorry to the peeps in my PMs, I'm just posting and running at this point. This semester is hitting me hard and I'm *stressed*.
Arotoris: Thank you so much, that's kind of you to say! I will most definitely continue :)
thirdegree101: Hm. Not sure what I would categorize Ruby and Neo either. Shaky friendship?
Dragon Lord Draco: Poor girl can never have normal knees, nor can the people around her, literally and figuratively.
The Night Whisperer: I am convinced Ruby is a little spitfire when she's pissed. Merc's got some explaining to do!
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Thanks! The other two were dubbed the Neo Reveal and the Cinder Reveal. Original, I know, lol. Glad you enjoyed!
Astray-Tech: Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying! Staying in-character with the characters while also evolving them differently from the show is... very difficult. So I'm glad it's paying off!
The Baz: Ehh, yes and no. Also, my definition of 'chill' might not actually be chill... not sure. No spoilers though!
Servos New Head: wait. They already have voice actors though? Oh, and this fic started way before it was revealed Merc didn't have a semblance, so he has one here!
Lonessa out.
