Kirakishou gazed into silver pools, uncertainty swimming in the eyes of the red-clad reaper that stood before her amid the crowd of students. Many had gathered before her room, no doubt drawn to the beginnings of the N-Field's physical representation within the waking world. Some had slept within it the previous night, after all.

Her poor seedbed, broken and clinging to life as it was, could only sustain so few. Especially when its powers were being used for a purpose as intense as hers. With what she had planned, she would need to nurture every seedling to its fullest potential.

Even the smallest of souls.

Many eyes turned to her. Questions were spoken. Some kind, some concerned, some forward and untoward. Most were silent; contemplative. None mattered, bar her small little reaper. They were insignificant in the current timeline- she could see that now. Faceless existences meant only to fulfil their role. Nothing more. She had no use for blank slates in their current state.

"...K-Kira...?" a tentative murmur amidst a sea of voices, one she heard all too well.

She reached out.

Ruby's hand was soft in her own. Warm. She admired the texture that her senses registered from her reaper. It was so very different to her doll physiology, that which was hidden behind her illusion of humanity. Outside of the N-Field, Kirakishou had only experienced the sense of touch with only a single other human; Jun. Her advances towards the man whom would have been her master had been met with apprehension and scorn. Looking back at it now, it was easy to spot the differences between how Jun had reacted to her touch in comparison to her dear crimson rose.

Ruby was quite different to Jun in that regard. The young huntress-in-training surrendered to her ministrations with all the grace of a blushing maiden, one uniquely ambivalent towards the outside world when held under Kirakishou's watchful eye. Ruby's singular focus on her was as intoxicating as it was addictive. To witness such yearning desire brimming within those silver pools sent a shiver down her host body.

In that singular moment, nothing else mattered. Neither the humans nor faunus that crowded around her room were of any consequence. Not the vines that continued to grow as her influence spread throughout the academy. They were all pointless. Ambience hidden behind a mounting crescendo.

It was just them.

"...Ruby."

She was surprised to find her voice sounding equally as tentative as her young red rose maiden's had been. Ruby had been… missed, during the N-Field's expansion. Sleeping ever so deeply, Kirakishou hadn't dared harvest from her darling. She had felt alone. Unbound. Yet hand in hand now, their bond grew once more. Power surged through her dimension, nourishing her special garden of souls in a way none other could.

A unique power flowed within Ruby's spiritual being. Kirakishou knew this, now that she had rooted her power and sampled others. Hers was a pure, guiding light. Exactly what her Palace of Beginnings desired. Exactly what she desired. Now that she had tasted this sensation, she had found herself wanting.

The red-hooded figure eventually noticed the onlookers and fidgeted under the attention- withering and shifting as the eyes of her fellow peers turned to her and inadvertently ruined their minor moment of solace. Kirakishou may have been beyond their judgements, but the small soul of Ruby Rose could only endure for a certain period of time before she was weighed down by their stares.

"Come."

Ruby could only nod wordlessly, shivering uncomfortably from the social pressure. Her cheeks coloured a vibrant red hue, one Kirakishou had come to associate with many of her interactions with the young reaper. Her red rose was one that was embarrassed easily and shied away from others, yet conversely was a soul that freely opened and bonded with any whom would listen to her song.

The onlooking students allowed them to pass without complaint. She knew they would. Many of those she passed were already hers, from a certain perspective. They would dance to the tune they desired and the N-Field would in turn record their movements for her viewing pleasure. She doubted their would be much in they way of divergence, nor any ripples created from their thoughts and aspirations. They would amount to nothing more than what they were now, as nothing was more important than mediocrity to such souls.

Perhaps, in the future, they would prove useful to her. For now, though, Kirakishou was satisfied in simply forcing them to give her and Ruby some time alone.

Once away from the crowd and past several hallways, only then did Ruby begin to take charge; faltering in their movements and forcing her to stand still. A confrontation. Kirakishou admired the look in her eyes. So sharp. So curious, yet riddled with an anxiety and doubt that she continued to endure though.

Weak, yet strong. The soul truly was a fickle thing.

"Kira… what, what was that… with the door? And the vines? Was it your semblance?"

She smiled lowly, cupping her cheeks and cocking her head to the side. Father had always stated that such movements were cute. Personally she had come to adore the actions herself. Hopefully her darling would think much the same. Even if Father was a backstabbing faceless entity nowadays, Ruby was still as human as Rozen had once been and could likely appreciate such movements.

"Ah~ So forceful..." she muttered demurely, her voice shy and soft.

She hadn't expected Ruby to widen her eyes comically and her face to redden further. Her red rose was so emotive. Possibly more than most of her dear sisters. Perhaps moreso than the pleasantry of Kanaria, if such a thing was even possible. Thankfully, her red rose reaper did not possess a verbal tic like her older sister. She did not desire for any more associations between the girl in front of her and the beings that had betrayed her.

She decided to voice her feelings aloud.

"I admire you, Ruby."

Ruby blinked, taken off guard by her words. "Y-You do?" she stammered.

Kirakishou nodded wordlessly, taking a step forward in her own gesture of assertiveness. Ruby attempted to move backwards, only to find her back clashing against the wall. The young rose blushed at the close proximity of their bodies.

"You tread where others would flee." Kirakishou whispered, eyeing the twin silver pools of her beloved rose. "You reach out and grasp at the world. You bond with others, despite who you are. Regardless of your fear. Despite everything you've suffered, you care, Ruby. About everything and everyone. Nothing is beyond you, because of that. It is a trait few possess, in this world and the next. A pale rose is beyond grateful to have one such as you, tending to them."

Ruby was silent, her eyes occasionally flickering down to Kirakishou's lips as she spoke, no doubt mesmerised by her beautiful words. The young reaper was too flustered to even respond to the words on her own, such was the sway that Kirakishou held over her.

Her breath is warm. Kirakishou studied her reaper's features for any sign of distress. Heavy. Frantic. This conversation makes her uncomfortable. No. She is uncomfortable with closeness. Intimacy. Bonding. She yearns for what she fears. She fears because she hasn't experienced it.

Lonely. Yet wanting.

The irony of the situation was not lost to the doll. Ruby Rose had trapped herself in her insecurities, just as Father had trapped himself in his single-minded desire to resurrect his darling Alice. The young rose's desire had been awful similar to the desire that had led to her conception. Perhaps such was why she could connect so intently with the little reaper, why her garden could harvest Ruby's strength without a contract even in its dilapidated state. The nature of a bond such as this was an alien concept to the both of them, yet it was one Kirakishou wished to explore further.

Father had been alone, no matter how many dolls he created. His ambition consumed him, until he became the creature his is now. Kirakishou would not allow her darling red rose to be consumed by her inaction.

Ruby would bond with her. She had promised to be there for her, after all. Yet to bond successfully was a two person process. Kirakishou could understand this revelation, after the failure with Jun and her sisters. Give and take.

"...Have you resolved-"

"Ruby!"

The abrupt shout from nearby broke their entranced state, Ruby involuntarily pushing her away as she started in embarrassment at the sound of her elder sister.

Kirakishou levelled a glance at the blonde brawler, clad in a casual attire. She did not bother to turn her head, merely eyeing the girl wearily. Yang's eyes had flashed crimson for a fleeting instance, much to her inner confusion. Did she possess a semblance which allowed her eyes to change to different colours? Whatever could be the use of such a pointless change? Yang's original lilac colouration was far superior to the bloodied crimson orbs she had witnessed. They reminded her far too much of her elder sister Suigintou and her own twin pools of red.

"-nothing but Junk! A pitiful illusion!"

The words rang painfully in her mind. Repeating endlessly. A broken record with no purpose to serve. Constant, horrible words. Useless useless useless. How dare she. She who had been father's first creation, a simple beta test modelled to hold Father's sins so that he may craft unhindered by the likes of angst and fear. Who gave Suigintou of all dolls the authority to mock her in her own palace?! All over a sickly girl that had begged for death.

With a start of surprise, the doll abruptly realised her hands had clenched into fists and her lone eyes had narrowed. In fury. An emotion Kirakishou had seen only in others. She quickly glanced away from her darling rose, who did not deserve to witness her horrid expression. She had known the definition of what such an emotion alluded to how she had felt. Although, Kirakishou had not believed her pure form to be capable of such things.

...Was even the fleeting reminder of her black rose sister strong enough to cause such distress?

Or had it been the sight of Yang's sudden arrival, interrupting her meeting with her darling rose?

How could she tell? How could she understand?

Yang stood there in the hallway, more than a little stunned at the situation she had inadvertently stumbled into during her morning journey to the cafeteria. Her mind had been a mess after the recent argument between Weiss and Blake the night prior, where her dark-haired teammate had revealed she'd been part of the White Fang of all things. It had been complete chaos. Just to imagine the shy little girl that Yang had chanced upon in the Emerald Forest had been a terrorist at one part in her life was… well, startling, to say the least.

Typically she'd be pissed at the heiress for essentially starting all of this nonsense with her racist comments towards the faunus, but after hearing the poor girl's screams last night, she was more than willing to cut the girl some slack. It was clear she was suffering inside, she was just that damnningly annoying type that held everything back and put up a facade. To be frank, she should have realised it sooner. Of course being an heiress to some huge corporation would make for a wacky childhood. It was just… the girl was so crabby it was difficult to actually emphasise with her at times.

How Ruby had slept through all of that hassle was anyone's guess. Her baby sister wasn't even that heavy of a sleeper. Especially compared to her. Yet even Yang had been awoken by the heiress multiple times the previous night.

It was as if everything had suddenly all turned to shit in what was essentially a single 24 hour window. All she wanted was for it all to go back to how things were, before… before Kirakishou had arrived.

The logical side of her knew it wasn't Kirakishou's fault for this. That she was just projecting onto the first girl she saw. Kirakishou hadn't made Weiss a racist, she hadn't made Blake say those things or become Ruby's sudden… crush of her own choosing. Everybody had already been like that in the past, especially Ruby. Her younger sister had always been a little bit wild with emotions and a huge part of her had dreaded what would happen once she stumbled into a relationship.

Kirakishou's only fault had been showing up at the precise wrong time.

Worse still- her sister was still so young. Ruby was so innocent. She'd expected the hand-holding of course, the cute cute pet names and cuddles... things like that. Witnessing her little sister pinned up against the wall in such a… raunchy manner wasn't something she was going to be forgetting anytime soon. Especially by someone who was not quite there mentally. Yang wasn't even entirely sure if Kirakishou knew what she was doing, let alone if she was doing it on purpose.

When Ruby had returned from her meeting with the headmaster, she'd been cagey with the details, but she'd been able to gather that something had happened with Kirakishou and Ruby had a major role to play. Discovering the girl walking in Beacon's halls with her younger sister had been a surprise to say the least. The girl was easily a few lien short of a card. She'd expected Kira to be in a hospital or something.

Not here.

"Yang! I-" Ruby squeaked in flustered surprise, pushing away from the cherry-blonde girl to stare embarrassingly at her sister. "This isn't what it looks like! Really!"

"So you weren't being thrown up against the wall like in some trashy romance flick?" she deadpanned, levelling her best sisterly glare towards Ruby.

Honestly. She'd been trying to avoid the sarcasm. Really trying. But come on.

As Yang had come to expect from her sister in anything to do with Kirakishou, Ruby's blush intensified, looking away and muttering something. She had to strain herself to hear it.

"...I just… I just wanted to give her the class transcript, okay..." she mumbled out dejectedly.

Senses flaring in sudden alarm, Yang snapped her gaze over to her fellow blonde at the abrupt killing intent flooding off her in waves. Kirakishou's single eye had narrowed considerably and her hands had clenched into tiny fists. The dazed smile that typically adorned her face had flattened into a blank expression.

Whilst her head hadn't moved from facing Ruby, that singular golden eye of hers had locked on to the blonde brawler herself.

Yang had originally pegged Kirakishou as a weird, crazy little girl. A fool with memory problems. But in that single moment, she wondered exactly what kind of creature was hiding underneath the beautiful appearance and fragmented speech.

Just as quickly as it occurred, the girl blinked and forcefully relaxed as she quickly glanced away, looking almost surprised at herself. The smile soon readily adorned her face oncemore, before turning her head fully to glance in her direction as if nothing had happened. Everything had shifted so suddenly that Yang was left partially wondering if it had even occurred in the first place.

Well, she would have likely discarded it as a trick of the light or something, were it not for the memory of Kirakishou's glare running clear in her mind.

Kirakishou turned to her baby sister. Yang felt the sudden protective urge to rush forwards, only to stop herself at the last second.

"You needn't do such a thing for a pale rose, dearest Ruby." she sang sweetly, cupping the girl's cheeks much to Ruby's obvious embarrassment. "A pale rose will always follow her Ruby. Ozpin would allow nothing else, because she would not be here without her Ruby."

Ozpin? The headmaster? Is he involved in all of this somehow? Yang wondered disbelievingly as she watched her fellow blonde turn her younger sister into a puddle of embarrassment, What in the world is she talking about? Is this another one of her funky speeches, or is something else going on?

One thing was for certain, however. Yang would be having a serious talk with her beloved younger sister once the two were alone. It was clear that this was more than just one of Ruby's petty crushes. She knew, after all, that Ruby had probably never dealt with someone who was actually interested in returning her affections. Yet with Kirakishou's… trauma of some kind messing with things, she wanted to make sure her sister knew what she was getting into.

Before everything went to shit and her sister ended up heartbroken.

Kirakishou, putting it lightly, was a bit of a mental case in her eyes. Whether it be the flowery speech pattern, the odd eyepatch or her sudden arrival and supposed insertion into Beacon Academy, it was clear that there was simply too many odd things surrounding the girl for Yang to ever approve of Kira entering a relationship with her younger sister. Ruby was simply too young to deal with this and it fell on her as the big sister to sort everything out.

Unfortunately, Yang knew better than anyone else how exactly her little sister operates. This wasn't going to be easy. Not in the slightest. Oum, she wished at least one of their mothers was still there to sort everything out. She wasn't equipped to deal with this. Though she certainly wouldn't be going to Dad about this. Her sister would never date again.

"I, Kira please.." Ruby whined, tentatively pushing the white-clad blonde girl away from her even as she kept sneaking embarrassed glances over at her sister. "N-Not, um. Not here. Please. Not now."

Kirakishou faltered slightly, before finally stepping back. The poor thing actually looked surprised at Ruby's request. The expression was so out of place Yang couldn't help but wonder if she'd ever actually been focused enough on someone to be effected by how they feel. She didn't strike Yang as someone with that many friends. Hell, Yang herself was as open to people as most could be and even she was having some difficulty listening to the bizarre girl.

Perhaps because she was-

No.

Especially because said girl was blatantly seducing her younger sister.

"I think what Rubes is saying is that she's more concerned about finding- er-" Yang tried to interject, only to abruptly realise that it probably wasn't the best idea to blab about team issues to a girl with a suspicious past they'd randomly met yesterday.

The glare that Ruby sent her way was as adorable as it was infuriated. She probably hadn't wanted to get Kirakishou involved with the whole ordeal. Whoops.

Her sister sighed softly, putting a hand to her head. "I'm sorry, Kira. We just have a few issues with one of our team members at the moment and, well, Yang's right. I need to get back to fixing it. It's my duty as a team leader. We'll talk later, okay? I'll see you in class on Monday!"

Kirakishou stared at the retreating forms of the two sisters. When they were about to turn a corner and depart from her sight, Yang glanced back her way, an unreadable expression on the blonde sister's face. A moment later and Kirakishou was left standing alone in the hallway.

In that precise moment, she discovered something about herself. A unique facet about her personality that had only developed in light of her presence within the waking world.

She did not like being interrupted. Especially over an event that she had already taken upon herself to resolve.

Her night had been a terrible one.

The dreams had kept coming. One after another. Distant memories that confused the faunus more than answered any of her questions. It would have been an all-around typical night were it not for one singular fact that had utterly confounded her.

The memories weren't hers.

They were the memories of her teammate, Weiss freaking SCHNEE.

Why did this have to happen to her?!

Why of all times, did this have to happen to her now? After the argument she'd had a day earlier with the Schnee heiress where Blake had inadvertently revealed not only her faunus heritage but her connections with the White Fang. Oh Oum. Her teammates must be so confused. Hell, she was confused about it all, too.

At first, Blake had surmised it to be a night terror. An oddly specific one, but nothing to be concerned about. It had taken a tad longer than the faunus would have hoped, but she'd eventually fallen back asleep, regardless of how odd that particular dream had struck her at the time.

Yet they kept happening.

Over and over again. Small snippets of Weiss' early childhood. Interactions with various family members, for good and for worse. Arguments over a variety of things. Her mother's downward spiral into alcoholism. Whitley's absolute failure in anything even partially related to common decency. Winter leaving for Atlas. Weiss facing a possessed suit of armour as her father passively watched, knowing deep within her core that her father had arranged everything even as she was powerless to voice her concerns.

Time and time again. Over and over, all throughout the night until roughly four in the morning, where Blake had finally been able to get a few hours of peaceful sleep before Sun had inadvertently awoken her with one of his hijinks and she'd yelled at him for his idiocy. She'd felt terrible all morning after that, but her mind had been so utterly frazzled at the time she couldn't stop herself.

Eventually, she'd calmed down and researched the names that her mind had recalled from the dream, in the off chance that her dreams hadn't just been random night terrors conjured up from a guilty conscious. Some of the names she could vaguely recall from her time spent in the White Fang, yet others were a complete unknown to her. For all her dislike of the Schnee family name, she'd had no clue that Weiss even had a brother and sister, let alone one who'd become an Atlesian Specialist under the direct command of General Ironwood himself. She'd expected the names conjured in her bizarre dreams to be nothing but nonsense at first.

Until every single name had proven correct.

Jacques Schnee. Whitley Schnee. Every single painful detail involving her mother had been correct, too, even if she'd had to dig rather deep for even a mention of the woman.

The worst of all had been the history of Peter Tarkus- the man whom had branded her former partner, Adam, with that damnable Schnee Dust Company logo. She could remember the mission almost as if it had happened yesterday. It had been her first major outing and it had highlighted the cruelty of humans- especially those within the employ of the SDC.

She had surmised the man to be something akin to a stereotypical villain out of a child's storybook.

To see that he'd been a loving husband and father fuelled by grief, through the eyes of his surrogate daughter as she cried over his tombstone, had been more than a shock for the young feline faunus. Even now, somehow, she could precisely picture the man comforting a young Weiss over one of her constant bouts with Whitley Schnee. Weren't dreams supposed to fade with time? Even if said dreams were supposed memory fragments from somebody else?

Weiss had privately yearned for Peter Tarkus to have been her actual father, instead of the monster that was Jacques Schnee. That much was obvious. The sheer level of abuse that he'd put his daughter through bore an uncanny resemblance to those that Adam had inflicted upon Blake herself; emotional manipulation behind a friendly facade. It was a miracle in its own right that Weiss hadn't become a carbon copy of the man, like Whitley apparently was on the path to becoming.

...Like she had almost become with Adam.

But the question still hung there in her mind, her rampant curiosity fuelling her fire.

Why.

Why did she have the memories of her teammate? Why now?

She wondered if she would ever truly understand it. If this wasn't some bizarre series of events and Weiss actually had lived such a life... well.

All that Blake was certain of, was that there had to be a connection between her heated argument with Weiss the night before and her sudden acquisition of the heiress' childhood memories. There was no doubt in her mind.

Were that the case... Blake would admit to feeling some manner of regret for the snooty heiress and the things that she had said during their fight. Of all things, compassion for her was something she'd never imagined she would ever feel upon joining a team with the heiress in tow. As her mother used to say, life worked in mysterious ways.

To think that her life would take such a turn after she'd halfheartedly agreed to a walk through the docks with-

With her team. Where they'd met that strange girl.

Part of her wondered exactly what travesty had occurred to create such a bizarre mockery of a person, twisted and turned into the broken shell that had spoke her dreamlike sentences with her innocent little team leader. She hoped the girl could get some help in the future.

She had met similar people during her time in the White Fang. Survivors of bandit raids or freed faunus rescued from the Schnee dust mines. Blake would typically encounter them in batches of two to four at a time after most of her missions.

Most of which had been indoctrinated by Adam's silver tongue. Others had died. Yet they all paled in comparison to the girl they had met on the docks, the afternoon before everything had gone to shit.

Kirakishou belonged to the third type of victim that the White Fang would rescue.

Those who had witnessed events that had left long-lasting scars deep within their minds. Twisted them. Turned them into something else. Once Blake had left the White Fang, she'd hoped to never see such a sorry state of person ever again.

...And I left my team there with her. Hah. Teammate of the year right here.

A/N:
Thank you all for your continued appreciation of this little story. Apologies for the delay. Typically, I write two chapters ahead so that in the event of tragedy or other nonsense, there is always some more content to upload. Chapter 8 proved to be a difficult little thing.

Reviews are appreciated. This is admittedly unknown territory that I've stepped in, but I look forward to seeing how everyone reacts to future events.