Allison Illuminated

5/8/21

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THE MAIDEN'S APPRENTICE

The Facade

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"Ruby," Taiyang called.

Her scowl deepening, Ruby dug her thumbs deeper into the waistline of her skirt and willed herself deeper into her cloak, which she had taken to wearing around the halls of Signal. The red fabric was soft and comforting and made her less self-conscious about the stares and whispers her peers aimed her way. The social pressure was relentless. She liked being cheerful and open better than the surly, confrontational front she'd been wearing, but Ruby didn't have a choice. Everyone expected surly. People looked at the surly teen framed for murder and they saw whatever they wanted to see; they looked at the cheerful teen framed for murder and they saw a psychopath.

Ruby didn't want to be a psychopath. And she really didn't want to talk to her father.

"Ruby. Ruby! C'mon, kiddo, don't do this to- Don't run away from me."

She made a noise of frustration, walking faster to get away from Taiyang, but Taiyang kept pace. The halls had a strict no-semblance policy, or else she would have sped away. There was a reason Ruby had been super-extra sure to be the first one out the door when she saw her dad lurking in the back of the assembly! She brushed past a pair of seniors and wilted a little when one of her old friends passed her without so much as a hello, but it was to no avail – a strong hand landed on her shoulder, forcing her to spin around and come face to face with Taiyang.

"What?" Ruby demanded. "What could possibly be so important that it can't wait until we're home tonight, Dad?!" She couldn't quite manage the same surliness the rest of Signal got with Taiyang or Qrow, which was worse. Because Ruby's hope always managed to break through, a hope for better things, for friends, for right answers in a confusing world, but Taiyang didn't see it anymore.

Which hurt. A lot. And every time Ruby still managed to find her optimism – every time, it sank in a little deeper when Taiyang and Qrow didn't believe in her. Every time Ruby remembered how her dad had compared her to Raven.

Taiyang gave Ruby a concerned, affectionate look that still was somehow patronizing. He reached over and gently pulled down her hood. "You're not supposed to wear your hood at school," he chastised her.

Ruby grit her teeth – she hated how overbearing it had become to be around her father all the time, how ever since he had forgiven her, which hadn't been soon enough, he had taken it upon himself to 'guide' her. The only thing Taiyang had accomplished was to make it brutally evident to Ruby how detached from her life Taiyang had been before Torchwick's death. It was a rude awakening. Suddenly, all Ruby could see when she spoke to her father was how deeply he had checked out of her life after Summer died. It took him being there for her to see all the places he had been gone. Worse, because Taiyang wasn't trying to be a good father now, eight years after Summer had died. If he were, Ruby would be overjoyed. But no, Taiyang and Qrow felt a new and pressing obligation to keep their recalcitrant murderer of a daughter from slipping into the infamy of villainy. When Taiyang wanted to talk to her in public, at school, where in the past he'd respected her boundaries and kept 'Professor Xiao-Long' separate from 'Ruby's father,' he wasn't fathering Ruby.

He was policing her.

People were watching them, and whispers floated through the stone castle hall. Ruby crossed her arms and let her hope shutter. Why should she give her optimism to her dad if he wasn't ever going to see it? So instead of throwing Taiyang the millionth opportunity to see her, Ruby struck back. "Mom did."

Ruby felt a little spark of spiteful satisfaction when Taiyang flinched. We can't even talk about her. Why shouldn't I? She's my mom. "And Summer used to get in trouble for it too," Taiyang said. "Rubes, your teachers are worried about you."

"Can't we have this conversation at home?"

"I'm worried about you."

Deep discomfort twisted in Ruby's gut. She could feel her classmates listening to them and her social anxiety was skyrocketing, and Taiyang wasn't listening to her. Her heart pounded. The incandescent lights were too bright; Ruby needed her hood, she needed to have privacy, but Taiyang's hand was still firm on her shoulder and her father's touch wasn't making her feel safe. Unbidden, the image of Torchwick's bloody corpse rose to her mind. Squeezing her eyes shut, Ruby tried to block it all out for a moment. Any reprieve she could find.

"I don't need you to be worried about me."

"Well, you haven't really given us a choice there, kid."

"But it's not helping."

"You've fallen asleep in your classes three times this week, Ruby," Taiyang said, stepping further into Ruby's space. She shrank back. "You won't talk to us anymore unless we corner you. And we caught you trying to sneak off to fight Grimm again which you know you're not allowed to do while you're on probation! It's my- it's my job to make sure you're not building destructive habits-"

Ruby's eyes burned. She slapped Taiyang's hand off her shoulder and took two big steps back, chest heaving. "So I'm just a job now?" Ruby demanded, her voice rising, not caring anymore if the other students around them could hear her.

Taiyang gave her wide eyes, as though he didn't even understand what he was doing to her. "What? No, Rubes, that's not what I meant at all-"

Ruby wanted to say a million things to her father. How was she supposed to do class when everybody hated her and nobody trusted her? How was she supposed to pay attention when she hadn't lost a single spar all year, when she was bored and at least a year advanced, and all prospects of her graduating early had vanished when she had been placed on probation? Ruby had outgrown Signal, which was why she had gone after Torchwick in the first place – not that it mattered to the adults. She was stifled, she needed to grow, she wanted so desperately to do good and feel like she was progressing toward her dream of following in Summer's footsteps. Taiyang used to understand that dream. Now Yang was at Beacon and Ruby's life was stagnant and darkening. She was a huntress. They were trained to kill. Ruby Rose would not apologize for saving lives, no sir.

"No, I get what you meant," Ruby said resentfully. "Everyone's just waiting for me to snap and kill someone else, aren't they? Well you're going to be disappointed, Dad. You're barking up the wrong tree."

She stalked away, and Taiyang let her go.

It made her so mad. So so so mad. So mad she could swear off cookies over it. It made her mad because really she was sad and Ruby had spent half a lifetime not dealing with being sad over her parents so it was easier to be mad. Huntresses fought for the truth and for justice. Ruby hadn't realized how much she cared for candor until she was surrounded by lies. Truth mattered, even when the facts of the matter weren't evident. It made her so breathtakingly angry that not one person in her life had tried to look beneath the facade. Nobody saw her; nobody saw her truth.

No, that wasn't quite right. There was one person who saw Ruby, one person who knew who she was, what she had done, not the cover story that had been concocted around Roman's death. Cinder Fall saw Ruby. Cinder… cared. The older huntress was invested in her, which made Ruby uncomfortable too. She didn't fully buy that all Cinder wanted from her was to kill Scary Fire Lady. Cinder was too Cinder not to have an ulterior motive. But Ruby also got strange tingly feelings about Cinder. Like Cinder was someone to trust, someone who could give her what she needed.

The phantom memory of Cinder's hand ruffling her hair struck Ruby. Ruby idly ran a hand through her hair as her feet carried her to the library. She turned the last moments of their encounter over in her head again.

"Here," Cinder said, handing Ruby's scroll back to her. "My number."

"What do you want me to do with it?" Ruby asked timidly. All of her earlier fight had gone out of her once she had struck the deal with Cinder, and the space between had become awkward for Ruby, as she uncertainly tried to feel out what she had just gotten herself into. She didn't know Cinder. And it was extremely intimidating that Cinder seemed as cool and unaffected as before, smirking a knowing little smirk – a facade, Ruby had seen it slip enough times to know it was a facade, but an insurmountable one nonetheless.

"Whatever you like, little Rose," Cinder said, stepping into Ruby's space. Cinder was physically warm, like a radiator, or brimstone, Ruby shivered, wondering whether it was her semblance. She had her mouth open, helpless to respond, when Cinder placed her hand on Ruby's head, running a mocking thumb over her hairline. "I'll call you when I want you, of course. But I know when I've made myself the responsible party." Cinder's smirk softened to a smile, something entirely too affectionate, and Ruby nearly whimpered at her hand's continued presence on her head. "I owe you. And I'm not one to abandon someone who's relying on me. If you need me, I will come. If you want my aide, you only need to ask. When I make a deal…" Cinder cocked her head, an amused lilt playing at her lips. "Let's just say I don't renegotiate."

"Why are you doing that?" Ruby demanded, the words tumbling from her lips.

"Doing what?"

Ruby blushed, and hissed, "Touching me."

Cinder blinked lazily, giving her a blank look. "Would you like me to stop?" she asked, ruffling her hair.

"I- you-" Ruby blushed deeper, glaring at Cinder, then looked away in deep embarrassment, hating the answer that sprang immediately to mind. No, she didn't want Cinder to stop. Cinder was a stranger and a murderer and yet Ruby had told a life-altering lie for her and when Cinder touched her head like- like that, it made her feel weird in ways she hadn't felt since- Since- She shut down further, unable to answer Cinder through her overwhelming confusion, and gave the ground a bitterly embarrassed glare.

Mercifully, Cinder withdrew her hand. "It's okay, Ruby," she said softly, far too softly, in the kind of tone that suggested it was okay. "I understand."

Ruby, startled, looked back up at Cinder. "Understand what?"

There was a flash of something – some pain – before Cinder was back to her cocky dangerous self. "I'll call," she said confidently. "Don't worry. I won't let you wait long enough to stagnate. Besides-" Her smirk turned cruel. "You may be able to hack and slash your way through the Grimm, but people? Fighting humans is an art. And if you want to be useful to me, Ruby Rose, you're going to need to learn the dance like an extension of your soul."

She shivered at the parting thought.

Cinder was dangerous. That much was obvious. At the same time, Ruby had this small, naggling, growing conviction that Cinder was trust-worthy – that whatever deal from hell she had wandered into was as binding and permanent as any promise she had ever made. She, foolishly, trusted Cinder. Worse, Cinder was the only person Ruby really trusted right now, and she didn't know a damn thing about her. It was just… The warmth. Not her strange elevated body heat. It was the way that Ruby felt warm in the forest clearing with Cinder, safe even, no matter how furious she had been at her. The trust felt almost implicit, and Ruby didn't get why. Cinder felt like an important person in her life, important to her, even though she had only met her twice. But Cinder saw her. Cinder believed in her. Cinder had saved her life.

She needed answers, and Ruby doubted Cinder would be particularly forthcoming. Hence, she found herself slipping into a secluded computer booth hidden away from prying eyes in the back of the library, slinging Crescent on the table next to her, cracking her knuckles, typing her password into the browser and accessing the internet.

Cinder Fall.

Ruby had always wished there were an encyclopedia of famous huntsmen like there was for the encyclopedia of Grimm, but huntsmen registration data was jealously guarded by the academies. It had always bothered Ruby. Shouldn't the people of Remnant know the men and women tasked to protect them? That meant the only reliable source of information about huntsmen came from news articles, forcing Ruby to do some detective work.

Cinder was a ghost on the internet. Her full name yielded practically no results, nothing but a barebones networking page someone had made for her. The only new information there was her education: one year at Atlas Academy, two years at Haven. Huntress. Not accepting work requests. Graduated in three years – that was possible? – full time huntress for three more. Ruby frowned.

Can you graduate from Haven Academy in three years?

No.

Can you transfer from Atlas to Haven?

Transfers are extremely rare. Make sure to choose your huntsmen academy wisely! Atlas Academy prides itself on a rigorous four-year program that adheres to the discipline and the justice of the Atlesian Military, helmed by General James Ironwood, decorated-

How can I get my huntsmen license?

Attend one of four prestigious combat schools!

Alternate ways to get huntsmen license?

Here Ruby struck something actually useful – a forum post that listed out ways of acquiring huntsmen licenses beyond a traditional education. There were field promotions, extreme cases where huntsmen-in-training could receive full privileges in times of war or hardship. There had been three since the end of the Great War, and a quick search revealed all of their names. Then there were cases of mentorship or prior training, where a highly skilled combatant above Academy age could demonstrate their mastery of the craft before a distinguished panel and receive a license. But Cinder had graduated early, she had only been nineteen! Those were the only two options, right?

She dug, deeper and deeper. And finally, on a seedier thread on a seedier site, Ruby found a single line answer to her question: headmaster consent.

That floored Ruby – she had to sit back in her seat and think about that for a moment. The headmasters could just give out huntsmen licenses? She knew the four-school system was powerful, sometimes more powerful than kingdom governments themselves, but… Were the schools just built around the headmasters? How else could Cinder have become a full huntress at nineteen? And Cinder was registered in Atlas, which meant that Ironwood had to have been the one to promote her… while she was learning in Mistral? Why not the headmaster of Haven?

…Who was the headmaster of Haven?

Headmaster of Haven.

Ruby's eyes widened at a slew of old headlines. Leonardo Lionheart jailed on charges of fraud, corruption, and accessory to murder. Haven in uproar. Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon, assumes temporary leadership of Haven Academy.

"What on Remnant…?"

She clicked on the top article, and immediately had to fight back her disbelief. Her search for Cinder Fall had yielded nothing, but there she was, in the second paragraph of a front page article: huntress-in-training Cinder Fall, 19, was instrumental in uncovering years of corruption and rot within the highest echelons of the huntsmen leadership. While details leading up to Lionheart's arrest are sparse, Professor Ozpin of Beacon describes Miss Fall's "tremendous bravery and unwavering commitment to her integrity and sense of good," saying, "through her courageous individual actions, Miss Fall shows us all the promise of the newest generation of huntresses. I can only hope that Miss Fall will continue to follow the right path in the future." Cinder Fall was not available for comment.

Ruby stared at the paragraph. Shakily, she duplicated the tab, then went back and meticulously went through every other article about Lionheart's arrest. Most of them used the same quote from Professor Ozpin, and many failed to even mention Cinder's name, referring to her only as 'a student.' Cinder was never available for comment. There were no interviews, no follow-ups, not a single quoted word from Cinder on the internet.

For a terrifying moment, Ruby wondered if she was being gaslit by the CCT. Surely some of those articles must have come up in her search for Cinder Fall. She tried it again.

Cinder Fall.

A brief profile. Then nothing.

Ruby swallowed, feeling very small in the cavernous library, the primary huntsmen academy subsuming her. The stone walls fell in around her; every glowing screen seemed unreliable, her scroll burned a hole in her pocket, and every passing student seemed to know exactly what transgression she had just committed. All she could do was stare at Cinder's single page of web results and whisper to herself, "Why?"

The story as Ruby could piece it together: Cinder Fall was born and raised in Atlas, where she ultimately joined the Atlas Academy. Something happened. She went to Mantle. Something else happened, something that involved the uncovering of what seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, a conspiracy of some sort. Whatever it was, it was big enough that Cinder had graduated early for it – and Ironwood, the same headmaster of the school she had left, had approved her license. Somewhere along the line Cinder had come into contact with Scary Fire Lady, who had 'a power' that Cinder wanted, and was also evil. Like, in charge of criminal overlords evil. At that wound her up on a rooftop in Vale, hacking Roman Torchwick's corpse apart with Crescent Rose. Saving Ruby's life.

In that moment of realization, Ruby was scared shitless. She was a part of- of whatever this was now; Cinder was dragging her into the middle of what suddenly felt like a vast conflict, something defined, with borders, without any knowledge of who or what she was facing. Whatever it was, it was hidden. Or worse, censored. And Ruby didn't know what side she was walking onto. On one hand, Cinder had unmasked Lionheart for some seriously atrocious crimes. What if Scary Fire Lady and Lionheart were linked? But at the same time, Ruby now had first-hand experience that Cinder and Ozpin didn't always see eye-to-eye, and their methods certainly differed. She had been on the receiving end of that interrogation. Once again, she realized, the only one she could trust was Cinder. Cinder would tell her the truth.

And then, all at once, Ruby was breathlessly excited. A wild grin splitting her face, she began to bounce up and down in her seat, taking pictures of her discoveries. Something was afoot, and she was sure that it was real huntress business, not sitting around bored at Signal all the time. Conspiracies! Evil Scary Fire Ladies! Superpowers! And she would be at the center of it all! She could save the world, she could be a hero, and Cinder would teach her how, and then she would prove to everyone how wrong they had been to hate her for a crime she had never committed! Saving people, defeating bad guys, that was the cream and the crop of being a huntress. That was something Ruby could still believe in, even if she wasn't sure what was true and what were lies anymore.

Opening her messages, Ruby tapped on her history with Cinder, which included only a few short pleasantries and a few questions from Cinder on dust preferences and clothing and weapon sizes. Sticking her tongue out in concentration, Ruby attached a photo of the article and a photo of the web results and sent them to Cinder. She paused, debating what she wanted to say, then settled on the simplest truth she could manage. She was sick and tired of lies.

I don't understand.

Fifteen minutes later, when she sat in class, idly ignoring her boring history lecture, her scroll buzzed a reply.

Good, Cinder had written.

That means you're asking the right questions.

Ruby stared at the texts for a long time, hiding her lit scroll behind her textbook, and something glowed to life in her chest at Cinder's praise.

::

[A/N] I'm so freaking close to the end of my novel fam, you have no idea. It's atrociously long in the most delightful way – currently a continuous 565k words – but it's all mine and I'm so so so proud of it. Just eleven chapters left and I'm done and then I'll be focusing on fanfic for about a month before I dive into draft two of that project and my second novel (which will be considerably shorter lmao). Been at this project for eighteen months now and I'm overjoyed with the product.

Anyway I needed a break so I came back to this story because how cruel would I be to leave you just two chapters ;) not like I did it for five and a half months lmao. No this just flowed off my fingertips and with finals in a week I needed some mindless fanfic to relieve some of the stress. Original shit is mentally taxing.

I remember the mythic "upload schedule…" Good times, good times…

Also holy cadoodlefloots Volume Eight was wonderful. There is so much plot potential in this fandom and I really wish I read more fics that focused on the narrative tensions instead of AU shipping and endless Beacon retrods :( Give me quality Atlas fics! Canon divergences! I can only do so much myself and I still need to wrap re:Bound! Pretty please writers I love you I will shower you with kudos and favorites and reviews.

Anyway yeah this is nice low-stakes stress relief for me, I love you all very much, thank you for 100 follows. Thank you to YuukiAsuna-Chan, Zifryt, AbigAssMoose, DarkMoonHunter, Revsi Lore, Dark-Silver96, RedShirt1453, RagnarokRazgriz, Crimson_Grave, NonCreativeGuy, Psychootaku666, Skiakitty, Robbie2413, for spite, JustLivingOneStepAtATime, and two Guests for reviewing!

I'm really dedicating myself to writing novels guys; it's always been my dream to write for a living, and I've finally hit that threshold where my prose can power an original project with the type of plot you've seen me put together for re:Bound, Petals in the Ash, and my other fics out of the fandom. That does mean less time for fanfic, but I still love writing fanfic, and the ungodly amount that I read would surprise nobody. I'll always be around, don't y'all worry. You haven't seen the last of me yet.

Much love, Allie