Pulling himself from his thoughts he jerked his chin from her grasp, but she took her shirt off completely and grabbed his chin again and said sternly "this wasn't your fault" he opened his eyes and slowly looked down at her scar and sighed, taking him by his wrist she led him to touch her stomach and let it ghost over the large scar "my dad and uncle tai don't blame you Cole, just as I don't"

He couldn't take the pain anymore and let the walls break, freeing his tears as he poured out all his pain onto her smooth peachy chest. "I don't know that, but when…*hic*…. We got back to beacon they treated- god sake ruby your sister beat me while you were in the valian hospital, dying!" his pain turned to bitterness while Ruby watched him wreck the place "yang, jaune, Pyrrha, and Glynda were the first to believe that I was a problem while Ren, nora, and Blake…..they did nothing!"

just before he but you and Weiss stood by me through it all" standing up he wiped his eyes and gave her shirt back, after she put it back on and sat together for a few moments he got up and walked into the bathroom not caring that she followed.

Turning on the sink, he looked up at her and smiled at her. "y'know Ruby…if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have stayed in beacon for all that time" he added before stopping to brush his teeth.

"Well, what about ozpin and Glynda? They took your side and aren't treating you like a criminal"

Cole rinsed his mouth out and said, "Glynda isn't my mother and ozpin's a manipulator and a liar. Those two may have stood by me because the things the students said about me were rumors; they may have acted like they cared, but I know what they really are and now that ironwood has you, me and those secrets he's probably going to try to take control over what he can." Gently pushing her out he said, "now get out, I need to shower and get ready for tomorrow, wouldn't want lieutenant

brown to be late for the competition for who gets me as their pet/slave"

Ruby gasped and asked "wait, that was true? I thought that was a joke?!"

"nope, it's happening" he said through the door and got undressed. "Now get going, tomorrow's going to be hell for those people"

Opening the door, she quickly kissed him on the cheek and smiled at his blush before giggling at him.

While walking toward the door and followed security back to augus and alyx's room so her and the other recruits could get enough rest for tomorrow's 'event' one she intended to win, but first she needed her scythe. Suddenly, the sound of boots stamping the floors sounded behind her.

"FREEZE! ON YOUR KNEES NOW!" a guard screamed and down Ruby went but when she got halfway a guard grabbed her and fired an ice round, but it exploded against a black hand covered with robotic plating "hold your fire, in only giving miss brown something!" Ruby was let go and there stood Cole in his black compression shorts and a frozen left arm and a box in the other, "here, this is for you" he said tossing a box the size of a 40' plasma screen TV to her feet and slowly walked back into his cell/room. Ruby knelt down and opened it up gasping at the beautiful object and quickly closed the box up and took it with her.

'his apologies are so much like dad's it kind of makes me think- no bad Ruby he wouldn't have' she thought before she looked at the guards.

"Oh…uhm, it's okay, it was a gift" Ruby said walking with the guards down the hall hoping nothing would happen.

"Thank you, I'll be going now" she said, pocketing it and walked outside following a guard to augus' and alyx's room with a smile.

elsewhere*

Inside a well lit room filled with artwork and two chairs sitting in front of a redwood desk and behind it sat a large man wearing a black 3-piece suit. Signing a few forms, he stopped when he noticed the gentle footsteps approaching from behind.

"did you bring him?" a cold raspy voice asked.

"No sir" a woman in a silver dress said nervously. "Cinder and her two protégés attacked me, so I killed them…and Roman is missing, the white fang's branch let by Adam Taurus are no longer working with us, and my- I mean, Cole, was captured by Ironwood. The worst part is Leo is dead and ozpin -along with Cole's 'adoptive' mother Glynda -" she added venomously "are trying to use their positions against the council to get Cole off remnant's most wanted list with a promise of giving him a punishment of community service and house arrest for two school years unless accompanied by a team of students and two professional hunters."

Turning on his phone, he let out a sigh of discontentment "you left out something" he finally said after a few minutes of silence.

The man calmly stood up and began enjoying the view for a few seconds and said without looking her in the eye "you left out the part where you went against my orders and LET THAT BASTARD LIVE" he said as he turned around close lining his monitor off his desk and looked into her eyes which burned orange and glossed over with a red sheen.

This man was powerful, wealthy, and very influential in and out of the business shark tank and if he warranted he could have someone killed with a snap of his fingers, but this girl was powerful too and worked for half the price which made her valuable to him, so instead he used something worse than a price for her head. Not to mention he was practically more wealthy than the SDC company if not for the Faunas slaves they had used "p-please s-sir, don't d-do this" she begged with a shaky voice. "Anythi-thing but that" her entire being shook and trembled like she'd been thrown out into a blizzard.

"Tell me why you did it, and I'll think it over" he said quietly clenching his fists. "Answer the question!" he barked, making her jolt and shake.

"Because i…." she trailed off unable to look away, her body petrified to the spot, unable to move anywhere. "Speak up!" he ordered as he grabbed her hair on the top of her head, "what. Did. You. Say?"

Taking a few deep breaths, she looked into his eyes and saw the red was gone but not the rage that came with them. "I said I love him sir, I can't kill him even if I wanted to" she replied with pleading fearful eyes.

Letting her go, he growled and kicked her in the gut on her way to the floor. "Then bring him to my office alive" he said grabbing a bottle of scotch and pouring a glass. "Betray my orders again, and I'll have you chained to a tree and fed to Beowolves!"

She coughed a few times before getting up and walking out the doors, holding her stomach. 'I need to find him and get us some place safe' she thought to herself,

clutching the railing near the elevator. 'Screw getting him back to the village'.

Crimson sat back down and smiled at the irony, his best assassin has enough of a heart to make his target's life easier while subsequently making his life harder by defying her orders, killing his contacts, and blatantly disrespects him by admitting to his face that she loved the man she was told to kill. albeit as quickly and as cleanly as possible, but didn't. "This guy better be strong cause he is in for one helluva test run" he said, picking up his phone and hit 5 on speed dial. "Get my car ready and have the girl in the room when she gets back" hanging up he walked into a room and took a spare phone and a small box of cigars.

beacon headmaster's office*

teams JNPR and three of four members of team RWBY were training with a new program supplied by ironwood himself and knowing his intent ozpin glared at jaune's performance along with weiss' and yang's willingness to join.

"sir if you hold that mug any longer you'll break it" Glynda remarked pouring more tea in. "im just deeply..." he trailed off loosening his grip he set the mug to his left and rubbed his face.

"disappointed would be the nicest word to use" she said flatly "but at the very least he's finally taking his combat training seriously, just hoped he didn't go about it like that"

Jaune was in the center of the arena circling a replication of cole otherwise he'd be on the ground and broken from head to toe regardless of aura thanks to the real cole. "yang. Weiss. I'll take it from here" he said clenching his sword and tossed it to the side before he charged holo-cole.

they both traded hits for five minutes but neither went down, holo-cole took the brunt of his hits to his armored arms and legs at the cost of grappling jaune and slamming him to the ground and one time put jaune's arm to sleep. so to finish the fight jaune pooled his aura into his hands and managed to break off a few pieces of the bot and ripped out a few tubes. Holo-cole held its side while sparks flew from its extremities and 'bled' some kind of blue blood staining the floor. Some came from its mouth and nose while the majority of it came from the hole in its side.

unfortunately for holo-cole, he gave that sarcastic smirk and parried most of his opponent's strikes, even his defense seemed decent, at least until jaune ran out of patience and infused his aura into a powerful uppercut taking it's head off spraying blue blood, coolant, and oil on him and all over the floor.

"Glynda if I can convince james to give cole back..." he stood up and grabbed his cane looking her in the eye "I will treat you to a full course homemade dinner at my house and I will do everything to protect him...and I know its not the best timing but in case I lose my position as headmaster I am forced in giving you a promotion to headmistress" she froze at his words watching him walk towards the elevator and added "until then keep Ruby's team and JNPR on campus" he turned around glaring. "threaten expulsion; barring anyone of ever becoming huntsman, give them a months detention- whatever it takes to get the message across that cole is to be left to the real hunters of remnant"

Her knees gave out and down she fell in the chair and had to take a few deep breaths before doing her job and ozpin's hoping to keep her mind on the work and the first thing she did was emotionally harden her heart and pressed the intercom in the arena just as another cole replica got its chest impaled and blown up.

"attention all beacon students, report to the auditorium without your weapons and equipment this is not a request failure to do so will resort in suspension and confinement to your rooms and your teams will suffer with you so don't push the envelope. For those who think they'll get away with pushing the envelope I will personally see to it that your sent home with the rest of the school year's homework and assignments, and they must be finished by the end if you want graduate to the next year...do not test my patience" she tried sounding as professional and still be kind but rethinking it she sounded cold and ruthless, measures need to be made in order for beacon to remain safe. "I just pray that this day doesn't get any worse" she groaned walking towards the elevator and as the doors opened she calmly made her way to the auditorium.

A few minutes of walking, her mind went on a tangent of random memories taking her through the garden cole had helped build with RWBY and JNPR before all this happened, happier memories played through her head remembering cole trip over nora and fell in some mud getting weiss and ruby dirty.

Weiss was upset, but everyone else were laughing at and jeering cole along with weiss and ruby after they kept slipping around the puddles.

"you'll pay for that cole" weiss said making ruby laughing as they all got in on the fun and threw mud and wrestled around. even a few professors, Glynda and ozpin joined in on the fun and by the end of it they all had to swim in a lake two miles from the school as punishment for dirtying the school and ruining the garden and after they were sent to their rooms to wash up.

Smiling and chuckling 'thankfully no one cared since it was summer vacation" she sighed smiling "what I wouldn't give to see those days again" she added wiping a tear from her cheek and opened the doors to the back stage and into the overhead spotlight. Every student from all four years stood patiently and quietly for why they were there and others not wanting to be there regardless. With a push of a button Glynda had long benches rise from the floors.

"this will take a bit longer than ozpin's speech but if one of you falls asleep I'll have you in the cafeteria scrubbing the dumpsters with just water and metal brushes"

Sitting down obediently the students watched and waited on her to speak but for a few moments she stood there saying nothing.

"as you are all aware of by now, cole valentine a former student of this academy has been accused of international crimes as well as put on the top 13 most wanted list being ranked at 7, but has been bumped up to number five for what occurred at haven academy. due to the fact that he was never my son and is a fugitive I have to take action so that none of you get hurt so I -as well as ozpin, the whole staff of this academy and the council- believe it best to lockdown, no one in or out unless I or ozpin say otherwise, failure to comply will result in expulsion or worse, you will also be barred from ever attending another academy, denied any kind of work as a huntsmen, access to enlist in any military branch or even become a enforcer of the law, do you all understand me?" as soon as she asked they all -except JNPR and ruby's team- replied loudly in unison "yes ma'am" and mentally cried out in terror.

"good, now remember, your all still beacon academy students so I'll try to not have you work too harshly but you need to remember that no one's invincible." as she left through the back door she pulled out her phone and sent JNPR and the rest of ruby's team a message, "come to the headmaster's office" pushing send she walked up the steps of beacon tower and stood next to the elevator doors and pressed the top floor button, by the time the doors opened and she stepped inside she slumped over the wall letting out a heavy sigh and leaned into the wall of the elevator doing everything not to burst into tears from everything that was happening and only seemed to make the elevator feel smaller and smaller every second she was in there.

"this needs to happen Glynda, it's for their own good" she thought to herself before sitting at her temporary desk.

Within ten minutes the seven of them came into the large office weapons on their persons and looked mission ready.

Glynda's eye twitched in repressed fury before slowly standing up and said "summon your lockers" they all eagerly did as she'd asked and one by one she quickly stripped them of their weapons, armor and dust crystals locked them using her security codes and made sure to send said lockers back where they came and sat down at the desk.

She grabbed the phone and said "bring seven chairs into the office please" as emotionless as possible.

"uhm...miss Goodwitch?" jaune asked but only got a glare that said 'don't speak' in return, three droids came out of the elevator holding chairs for them and left just as quickly.

"I'm sure you all are wondering why I asked you all here for" she began as she stood up and walked over to the pot of tea and poured herself a cup.

"I assure you ma'am we haven't the foggiest" weiss said respectfully which Glynda took note of.

Choosing her words carefully she took a long calming breath, stood up and sipped her calming jasmine tea while pacing in front of them. "now, as most students that come to this academy are brash, arrogant, and spiteful" she emphasized each word with her heels clicking the glass below "but, with time they learn that its not about them when they get a taste of their first few missions and end up more humble and steadfast to be proper hunters and huntresses of the future"

sitting down she took a sip of the orange colored tea watching them squirm under her watchful eyes, "but in your cases -for one reason or another- you all forgot that half way into your second school year, and I couldn't be more disappointed with all of you" her words were like someone dug knives all the way down to the bone of theirs "you all were relatively humble when you got here, albeit a bit childish and overly excited, maybe even idiotic in thinking you were invulnerable, but humble all the same. two of you learned to be at the second half, but first year for the rest of you." She looked over every one of them for a few seconds each.

weiss fiddled with the hem of her dress in relative shame and refused to speak up but she knew, Blake was being Blake so no changes there, Yang glared daggers at the woman but glynda was unfazed to her ire, Jaune shrank in his seat at her gaze, Ren was breathing deep but was scared shitless, Nora was quiet for once in a while, Pyrrha avoided her and everyone by playing with her hair.

"but...somewhere down the line you all got it in your thick skulls that it didn't matter and had targeted cole for his mishaps and only made it worse when he came back so broken and suffering in silence and made it harder on him when holding ms.branwen in his arms dying from gods knows what; you all did nothing to comfort the man. agitating him to the point of no return wasnt good enough? I saw the footage of the day he left beacon, hell everyone saw it."

they all looked up at her flinching in unison when she stood up as slowly as she could so to not fly off the rails.

"id expect better of our students but with all of this on the table you then lost ms.branwen on a mission to recover your classmate" she took a deep breath and clenched her jaw at yang's smirk forming as her eyes flickered toward the window that seemed too clean to have been there long, "and on top of this you all celebrated his new status by destroying state-of-the-art Atlesian grade holographic hard light projection droids to look like cole- I can't begin to understand where your heads went when you thought it was a good idea to continue down this deplorable path, I'm genuinely ashamed to call you lot students of beacon academy!"

she thought it best to end it there and to let them think it over while they gather their thoughts. For the first time the seven of them watched the professor Glynda Goodwitch grab a bottle of vacuian bourbon with a card tied to it with her name on it in silver calligraphy, and poured herself a glass.

Thanks for reading I hope to improve the next chapter.

I'm limiting each chapter to 4000 words or less from here on.

Comment anything you think could be worked on at:

H6pp1n355_in_misery.

Criticism is appreciated