Chapter 8: Adjustments
Xiao Long/Rose Household
"Make sure you don't tell anyone about your robotics Ruby!"
"Yes Dad, I can't tell anyone about it, I should cover my nose when I sneeze, and I can't use any of my limbs to beat others in games, got it dad."
It was the first day of school for Ruby, and the 5 year old (soon to be 6) was now getting ready for the first grade. She put on her red sneakers and black blouse, hiding any evidence of her prosthesis. Other measures were also taken to prevent her from exposing herself as an android, including a call to Professor (DOCTOR!) Polendina on how to lengthen the dust conversion cycle to prevent her from sneezing clouds of dust shortly after eating. The little wolf Faunus now stood ready at the door with Yang by her side, and with one final goodbye to Tai and Qrow, set out to Little Patch Elementary.
The school was a small brown building with a gently sloped roof, with a playground and grass field right outside. Many other children were there, some clinging to their mothers and saying goodbye, while others chattered excitedly to one another. Yang looked around the crowd and suddenly grabbed a very surprised Ruby by the hand, running off towards some of her friends.
"Hey Yang, is that your sister?"
"You know it, Ruby say hello to my good pals."
Ruby was immediately swarmed by Yang's friends, while she was happy that Yang had a lot of friends, she was taken off guard by how they squealed when they saw her.
"Yang, she's so cute!"
"Look at those little wolf ears and silver eyes!"
Ruby was saved by the school bell, ringing loudly from within the school to tell children it was time for school to begin. The others quickly moved around Yang and charged into the school with Yang apologizing to Ruby in the distance. Ruby quickly shook herself out of her trance and began to run into the building herself. Wondering what else the day had in store for her.
Beacon Academy
Blake woke up from her bed within the teacher's faculty room. Ozpin had been gracious enough to allow Blake to sleep there, and it was very, very comfy. She listened idly to the sounds of students from all over Vale heading towards the academy, preparing for the training that would make them the protectors of humanity. Life was good in Blake's opinion. She no longer had wanted posters across all four kingdoms, courtesy to Ozpin, and she had a direct phone line to her parents. Qrow came into the teacher's lounge more drunk than usual, chatting with a portly man with a bushy moustache. They conversed for a good five minutes, sharing stories until the man, named Port apparently, checked the clock on the wall and began rushing towards his class. Blake then took notice of the books between her arms and paled. Grade 3-4 Arithmetic was held in Qrow's left arm, along with several other heavy hardcover books. Qrow saw Blake's face, and smirked, as one of the best teacher in Signal, according to his old students, he would school Blake without mercy. He suddenly frowned at the thought:
That could be taken out of context.
Little Patch Elementary
First Grade was officially the most over exaggerated thing Ruby had ever heard. Yang had told her plenty of horror stories of trying to figure out what addition meant, and why there was a cross with a 2 and a 7. Ruby deduced that it was because of her mystical "Xiao Long genes," as her father had claimed, and the random numbers popping up at the edge of her vision, which were coincidentally the right answers. Yang balked at this when she had told her this at recess, and for some weird reason asked her to do her homework for her, which surprised Ruby even more. If homework was so easy, why didn't Yang do it herself? That question would be answered later, right now, she was going to teach people how to play tag the predatory way. Being a wolf Faunus granted her extra speed and stamina, and her robotic body boosted it even further, which is why she left to join Yang and her friends at tag, leaving a pile of traumatized first graders behind her, one of the supervisors nursing his aching ribs from laughter.
Yang's friends welcomed the little Faunus to their merry band, but before they could get a game of tag stared of, the bell rang, and the group cooed at how Ruby's ears went from being perked up to drooping flat against her head. Little did they know how close they came to being utterly crushed by a ditzy 5 year old.
White Fang HQ, Mistral
Sienna groaned into her hands for the umpteenth time that day. The separatists had left in the night, the guards at the entrance of many areas of the base included. Not only had Sienna lost a sizable bulk of her supporters, but the deserters also took all the equipment they could with them, including a power generator, which meant that a part of the HQ now no longer had power. A movement like this was unprecedented, and now Sienna had to juggle current operations of the White Fang and fighting the separatists. Many of the White Fang at the base were demoralized, the unity they believed in had been broken by their brothers and sisters of the White Fang.
"How many are left in the base?" Sienna questioned Yuma, ears twitching with irritation.
"Approximately 80% of the Fang remain here, Leader Khan, we await your orders."
Sienna put the palms of her hand together and sighed. It may not have seemed like a large number, but some of those who had left were senior members who could possibly persuade others to join.
"Tell some of our best trackers to trace where the deserters have gone, we have one more threat to deal with now."
XiaoLong-Rose Household
Ruby said goodbye to all of Yang's friends, who returned the gesture to Yang and herself. Today had been a fun day for Ruby, she trounced kids in tag, learned about addition, and found new friends. She excitedly chattered with Yang as they walked home, waving her arms around animatedly. They made their way home to the cottage, and were welcomed home by Tai.
Yang got inside and quickly invited Ruby to her room to help her with her division. After a brief rundown by Tai on how to do division, Yang cackled with glee when Ruby finished all of the work for her, only to realize that they had a quiz on the topic in a few days. Yang quickly rushed over to Tai and asked him how division truly works.
While her sister was doing that, Ruby caught a strange scent. The scent was of someone she met a few days ago, but it was so faint that she could barely tell whose it was. She focused on mapping out all the smells, and found that there was a scent of a cat Faunus. She recognized the scent, it was the scent of the cat Faunus that planted the bomb Intrigued, the followed the faint but distinct scent to its origin, which happened to be one of Uncle Qrow's shirts, she made a mental note to ask him later.
As if on cue, Qrow showed up at the doorway, nursing a cup of a strong smell drink in his hand, the smell even more evident on his body. He descended into the usual halfhearted bickering between Tai while ruffling Yang's hair, tipsy from an intake of alcohol that was evidently higher than usual.
Ruby made a beeline for Qrow, confused on why he had that scent:
"Uncle Qrow, why do you smell like that girl from the bombing?" Ruby did not need to be a cybernetic wolf Faunus to see the widening of Qrow's eyes, but she did smell sweat coming from her uncle as soon as she mentioned it. She then noticed the books tucked under his left arm, and recognized them as teaching books. Her mind connected the dots, and her eyes narrowed accusingly:
"Why are you spending time with her? Why are you teaching her things, shouldn't she be in jail, like all the other bad people?"
She whirled around before Qrow could give an answer, and Yang quickly rushed after her, taking one more glance at Qrow before taking off to calm Ruby down. Qrow looked at Tai, and they knew that the time had come for them to tell the two sisters about Blake.
Ruby paced around her room furious with her lupine ears turning in every direction. The source of all her pain, all her nightmares, under her nose the entire time, and Uncle Qrow was spending time with her and teaching her things? Why? Ruby kept pacing around the room, getting more agitated the more she thought about that girl. There was a knock, and despite all the voices in her head screaming for her to leave it locked, she went up and opened the door.
Yang, Taiyang and Qrow all stood at the entrance, with the latter looking nervous and the eventual talk that would follow. The family quickly sat around in the four chairs in Ruby's room, surrounding the bed. It was Tai who broke the silence:
"Ruby, I want you to understand that the girl Blake is not a bad person…she didn't know there was a bomb inside of that box."
"Then why did she run away? The police would've given her a chance." Ruby did not get why they were trying to defend this Blake girl, but if her uncle and father were giving her a chance, then she would too, after a series of intense questioning.
"She was scared Ruby, she knew that you got injured, so she shouldn't stay in Atlas. The police in Atlas, well, they don't really see Faunus the way they do."
"Why would they? Police are supposed to view everyone as he same right?"
"It's not that simple to understand. There are many people in Atlas who don't get along very well with Faunus, people who believe they're less animalistic, which is true sometimes but mostly unproved."
"But Winter, Weiss and Whitley are nice."
"They are, but they are some of the few of the many others who wouldn't even consider glancing at you twice. People don't need a reason to be evil, while others may not be evil and do things unintentionally to you. That's just how the world works"
Ruby was silent after that. She was still mad at Blake for blowing her up and giving her nightmares, but her dad and Uncle Qrow had never had the heart to lie to her before, and she trusted them with her little heart. Ruby's shoulders sagged in silent acceptance, nodding slowly as she processed the information.
"Can you bring me to her on the weekend for me to meet her?"
"Are you sure pipsqueak?" Qrow was worried that Ruby would have a meltdown when meeting with Blake.
"…Yes, I want to talk to her."
"If that's the case, then please promise that you won't attack her or try to hurt her. It may not seem like Blake is sad about anything, but she was crying waterfalls about you when we first found her, alright kiddo?"
"…Okay"
Beacon Academy
Blake was woken up in the morning by Qrow, it was Tuesday.
It's also been 4 weeks since I nearly bombed someone to death she thought grimly. Qrow stood over her with an unreadable look on his face, urging her to get up. Blake got up and heard a mutter that sounded suspiciously like: "she's gonna have to prepare herself." She must have been staring, because Qrow looked her in the eyes and spoke slowly:
"Ruby's going to visit you in a few days, prepare yourself."
White Fang HQ, Mistral
Sienna looked over the reports that her trackers had sent. There were multiple attempts from the deserters to erase their tracks, but the trail was still clear, they were making a beeline towards Atlas. Sienna pursed her lips and motioned for the direct line to the pocket bases of the Mistral Branch, they needed to make their move before the rogue members attacked Atlas:
"Brother Albain, have your garrison be geared up and prepared for combat, there will be conflict tonight."