8

Like Morning Follows Night

The large boat drifted to a stop and a shudder reverberated throughout as the gangplank descended onto the dock. A multitude of passengers began disembarking, among them were five teenagers traveling by themselves. The five were talking animatedly among themselves with two of them, a blonde man and a redheaded woman, were accounting tales of their time on the continent of Anima.

"Hey Jaune you said you went camping out here a lot right?" Ruby asked while her eyes roamed the surrounding. Even though it really wasn't that much different from places near Vale or even the town of Kingsport which they had just departed, it was her first time all the way on another continent. Everything felt different to her even if it really wasn't and she was busy absorbing everything.

"Oh yeah. There's a few campsites we frequented about a few days away from here by foot." He had been through this port city, Midoriumi, every time he and his family had been camping. Jaune recounted how it was always during their summer breaks that they went camping for weeks out in Anima.

"Oh yeah? Izzat why you don't get sick on boats?" Yang latched onto him with an arm around his shoulder.

Jaune rolled his eyes at the girl, "Yes, Yang. I got used to boats. Trust me when I say you don't want to hear about the first time I was on one."

"If it's anything like the first time I saw you at Beacon then I don't wanna hear it." The blonde grimaced as she remembered what had happened to her shoes that day.

"It was worse." Jaune sagged as he walked.

"Well how about some food then? You know some good places around here right?" When she got a nod from Jaune she turned to look at everyone, "That sound good…..;Ruby?" The girl in the red cloak was nowhere to be found. This wasn't completely unusual for the girl, she often had run off after seeing a strange new weapon but usually it was accompanied by a squeal of delight.

There was nothing, she was there one moment and gone the next as if she had vanished into thin air and not even Ren knew what had happened to her.

Yang felt her heart start to beat fast as a small amount of panic rose in her chest. She knew her sister was strong, could handle most things, but the big sister in her couldn't help but wonder what if? It would be just like Ruby to run into someone who she can't handle.

What are the chances of running into you here? Was Ruby's first thought as she stared down the point of a very sharp and long needle like sword. It was a weapon made for stabbing and her eyes traveled down it's length to the person holding it. Brown and pink eyes met hers and a slow, almost pleasant, smile spread across the woman's face.

"Neo, what are you doing here? W-?!" Her voice cut of as a finger pressed to her lips. Neo reached up with her free hand and tipped the bowler hat on her head. The one she was wearing looked identical to Roman's, minus the feather. The tip of the needle pressed into Ruby's neck and her aura pushed back. The grin on the other woman's face turned almost feral as she pressed on, the younger girl's back pressed to the alleyway wall she had been abducted into.

Ruby could feel the point grating down her aura bit by bit and with a cry she used her artificial hand to knock the sword away, a line of pain dragged across her throat, and gained some distance, taking out Rose Thorn at the same time. She held it before her in the two handed defensive stance like she as taught. She had been practicing using her new weapon with both arms and was surprised that she was now basically ambidextrous. She couldn't write as well with it was she could her dominant but in combat her two hands were now close to identical.

Pain lanced through her side as the needle-sword attacked her from behind and to her left, the illusion of Neo shattering in front of her. Ruby whirled around, deflecting the next strike and barely managing to deflect the next series of strikes, all aimed at vital points.

The red-cloaked girl frantically backpedaled, "Wait, wait, wait! I didn't kill Torchwick!" Neo only hesitated for a second before renewing her assault on the young girl. Ruby thrust forwards at the oncoming enemy but the woman simply sidestepped it into her guard and hooked the crook of her swords handle around the reaper's neck and careened her headfirst into the wall.

Even though her aura absorbed the worst of the damage Ruby was left with spots in her eyes and the tip of a blade tickling her chin. Rather than try to finish her off right there, Neo leaned in with her eyes shifting to pink and cream. With one hand she fished out her scroll and typed a quick message on it before showing the screen to the girl she had pinned to a wall.

Who did?

"No one did. He was… he was eaten by a Grimm." Ruby stammered out.

With a silent snarl Neo stepped back and slammed her needle back into the umbrella before turning around to Ruby who was just rubbing her neck and eyeing her maybe-not-quite enemy warily.

Cinder planned it.

Ruby read the message and an odd feeling rose up within her, it was almost like hope but more complicated, "Yeah. She's the one who planned everything."

Neo's usually playfully demeanor was nowhere to be found and a cold look that made the younger girl shiver adorned the multi-colored girls face as she typed another message up.

Do you seek her?

Ruby merely nodded in assent and the other woman took out a small card and handed it to her. On it was inscribed a scroll's contact information and a small sentence Stay in touch. When the young girl looked up Neo was gone. When she pulled her scroll out she noticed she had a few missed calls from Yang and about four times as many text messages.

As Ruby turned out of the alley she decided against telling her sister about this encounter. There was no use worrying her over something she didn't quite understand yet either.

Yang was losing her mind by the time she found her sister coming out of an alleyway. The young girl appeared while putting something into her pocket and looked up when the blonde girl yelled out her name. Several people stared but decided it wasn't worth their time and continued on their way.

"Ruby! Where'd you go all of a sudden? You should have said something if you were gonna check something out! I was worried about you, don't disappear on me like that!" The girl in question looked like she was about to get whiplash from the way her sister went from berating, to hugging, to questioning, and back to berating her. Finally she shook her head and pushed her sister back to an arm's length away.

"I'm fine, Yang. I just got seperated for a few minutes. I'm a huntress, I'm capable of looking after myself." She pointedly looked at Yang when she hesitated and bit her lip, holding back on something it seemed she wanted to say. It was obvious her sister thought she couldn't look after herself. It had been like that ever since the Fall of Beacon and Yang had only gotten more protective since.

Ruby loved her sister, she really did, but this wasn't something she could accept. Maybe she was only sixteen but she could look after herself. She was trained in combat and could hold her own against people like Torchwick. Powerful people like that were somewhat rare so the chances of running into someone stronger than Torchwick were low and the dark haired girl only refrained from saying as such because she had, in fact, run into Neo.

It was the only thing that made her endure her sister's rant until someone else came to her rescue.

"I think we established in Patch that Ruby can hold her own. There's no need to say anything more, right Yang?" Jaune slid somewhat between the two sisters, holding his hands up to placate the other blonde. Yang stopped mid-sentence and although it looked like she had more to say she finally noticed just how many people were paying attention all around them.

With a breath Yang suggested they go get some food and Nora perked up, suggesting a pancakes. No one noticed Ren observing the youngest of their party a little more attention, his eyes staring at a brand new hole in the girl's cloak.

"Sun!" Blake surged forward attempting to attack the spy, Illia, and fend her off why out of the corner trying to see if her companion was alright. Of course he wasn't alright, he'd been stabbed. And to her horror, he wasn't moving. The chameleon faunus jumped back and faded into the darkness as the cat faunus turned to rush to her downed friend. She continued saying his name over and over as she pressed a hand to his wound and with the other used her scroll to dial her mother.

One and a half rings later Kali picked up, "Blake? Where'd you go? Is everything okay?" As tears rushed down that faunus' face she frantically told her mother about Sun's condition. Kali gasped on the other line and immediately told some of the personal guard at their estate to go out to their position to retrieve them.

Blake let her scroll drop to her side and placed her other hand atop the boy's wound. She'd had to perform first aid before in the White Fang, had seen allies die before as well. But this was different, another friend was nearly getting killed because of her.

All she ever wanted was equality, to walk down the street without stares or sneers. She wanted to be able to be what she wanted to be and for others of her kind to have the same right. Blake didn't want this. Not murder and certainly not terrorism. However yet again a friend was bleeding into her hands because of her, because she didn't want to be alone and dragged someone else into the crossfire of her fight.

Blake apologized over and over as she stared at the crimson slowly staining his shirt and her hands.

That was how the guards and medics found her with Kali in tow. She took a look at her daughter and knelt besides her throwing her arms around the young girl. Gently she pulled her away to let the medics get to work on the young man.

"Blake? Blake! I need you to tell me what happened here." Kali shook her daughter's shoulders slightly causing the young woman to look at her mother with tearstained eyes.

"It's my fault Mom. It's all my fault." Her heart broke at the sight of Blake blaming herself like that. She hugged her and started running her fingers through the young girl's hair like she had long ago.

"There there, dear. Your friend will be fine, we need to get back to the manor. I want you to talk to your father about everything that happened tonight."

Everything hurts was the first thought that ran through Sun's head as he started coming around. Then he noticed a sharp pain in his chest when he tried to breath and his eyes came open. Calming his breaths the pain became manageable while he looked around the room he had woken up in. It looked like Mr. Belladona's study and he noticed in the chair near his, Blake sat, her head hung in her hands with her hair draped down.

The fuzzy feeling in his head cleared as he recalled the events he could remember. The White Fang girl. The chase. Getting stabbed. Oh yeah. His aura had been low due to making so many aura clones with his semblance. Otherwise he wouldn't have been hurt much when that girl had stabbed him.

"Blake?" Her head stirred when he said her name. She turned towards him a looked him over with puffy eyes. When she saw him blinking owlishly at her, the cat faunus' shoulders slumped in relief. Drawing herself together, she sat up and looked at him.

"This is why, Sun. This is why I ran away. I'm tired of seeing my friends hurt because of me. Yang, Ruby. Now you?" Her hands tightened into fists and she stood up, walking over to him as he attempted to sit upright, wincing in pain.

"Shut up!" She cut him off as he attempted to speak, "I'm done seeing my friends hurt because of my mistakes." She glared at him when he opened his mouth, "Do you think I like being alone? Do think I abandoned my friends for fun? I had to do this, Sun."

He didn't know what to say. Blake stood there, hands shaking and voice trembling. Something broke within her and she sat down beside him, her voice barely a whisper, "I think about them every day. Ruby. Yang. Even Weiss. I don't like being alone and I thought that that was how it was going to be when I started attending Beacon. But instead I found Yang, my partner.

"She wouldn't take no for an answer. She dragged me away from my books and forced me to come out of the shadows to be with the team. Then there's Ruby. Ever the optimist. She was so pure and her intentions so genuine. She tried her hardest in everything she did. I thought I hated Weiss, at first. She was judgemental and cold but when we finally got to know her I found that she was perhaps the one who craved true friendship the most. I judged her for her heritage, I was just as bad as those racists whom I despise so much.

"I'm glad I was proven wrong. I love them, Sun. I love them more than I thought I could love anyone. They are a second family to me. Do you know how it feels to have that family put in danger because of you? I hope they hate me for leaving."

The last part was choked out. Blakes breathing was heaving and her hands were clenched so hard her knuckles turned white, "You don't mean that."

"Yes I do!" Her head snapped in his direction, her eyes boring into his, "You saw Illia last night. She's not even the worst of them! No, no more. They're better off without someone like me. My choices are mine and so are the consequences."

Sun felt something ugly in the pit of his stomach. Sure he could admit to having a crush on the girl in front of him, what wasn't there to like? But what began as interest had turned into a genuine friendship. He wanted to see her succeed and cared for her. What he felt wasn't some shallow feeling of attraction but a genuine love and desire to see the other party happy no matter what.

"Sure. You get to make your own decisions, but you don't get to make ours. I'd do what I did last night over again, and honestly Yang would probably say the same. Thing is, Blake, when your friends decide to fight for you, it's because we want to. When you push us away and make that choice for us, that hurts more than anything the likes of 'those' people could do to us."

Sun looked over and Blake was looking away, her ears turned sideways. He sighed internally, he loved the girl but she was stubborn to a fault. It's why he had followed her, even if she hadn't been going to do what he thought she had, what was best for someone wasn't always what they wanted. For Blake it was companionship. No matter if she wanted to be abandoned he wouldn't let that happen.

Sun considered everyone else on team RWBY his friends as well and he owed it to them to help Blake however he could. A grin came across his face, "Besides, if it makes you feel better, the next time I go up against that lizard girl, it'll be for me." He made a pose with his left arm but winced at the sharp pain. Blake hid a laugh behind her hand and a small smile was there when she took it away, he thought he heard something about a hero when the door to the room suddenly fell over. Behind it was Ghira Belladona pinching the bridge of his nose and Kali Belladona standing up quickly.

"Oh dear would you look at that! He's awake!"

Blake's ears flattened against her head as she glared at her mother.

The door chimed as a group of people walked into the inn of a certain village. It was about a two day's walk from the port city and as such was fairly big for a frontier town. Jaune looked tired, like he wasn't getting enough sleep and Nora and Yang were getting into an argument about which would win in a match between a King Tajitu and a Deathstalker. Ren hung back as Jaune went up to make their reservation.

"Ruby. I know it's not really my business but what really happened back in Midoriumi? You've nervous since we left." That gaze devoid of expectations bore into the silver eyes girl and made her shuffle her feet.

"You have to keep it quiet okay? I don't want to worry everyone, honestly I'm not really sure what to make of what happened." She only continued when he sighed and nodded along with her, "Okay so I kinda got into a fight with that girl who was with Torchwick." When his eyes widened in surprise she rushed to add, "But it's fine we talked it out…. Kinda. So thing is she thought I took out Torchwick. I was able to convince her it wasn't me and she kinda sorta maybe wants to help us get Cinder."

Ruby poked her index fingers together, staring up at Ren who had his hand in his face. Itr was easy to tell he regretted asking her but his duty wouldn't let it go, "You were planning to tell us that a criminal wanted to assist us right?"

She wilted under his gaze and nodded saying that she just didn't know how to bring it up with everyone. Ren agreed follow her lead but she had to tell everyone soon and they joined the group at the receptionist's desk.

"Okay so that'll be three rooms with six people. A hundred lien a night a room so three hundred lien please."

Six people? Everyone looked around doing a quick head count and everyone gaze settled on the sixth person standing just within their group. Everyone froze and Ruby's blood ran cold seeing the short woman standing there smiling. She looked behind her and then looked forward, not finding anyone else who could have been the culprit.

Neo waved cheerfully at everyone.

A/N: Hey people, sorry about not posting an update last week, I had to move rather suddenly. So now, however, I am done and regular updates shall resume.

So you may have noticed that we are finally at that part of the Menagerie arc but Weiss still has a long time before her arc comes to a climax simply because the timing just doesn't match up. What we see in the show just can't be happening at the same time. It didn't take WEEKS for Weiss to ride an airship to Mistral. That's absurd.