A/N: hey, I'm early! And it's another long chapter, 3,259 before A/N!
So the last two chapters got A LOT of reviews. I'll admit that a few were scathing, but I will carry on and do my best for you guys.
So before we start the chapter, I got somethings to tell you guys.
I feel like I should come flat out and telling everyone the exact point of this fic.
This fic is about Ruby Rose being broken. About how her past is haunting her. About how people are trying to help her.
Now, there will be a romance in this fic. Mostly Ruby x Cinder, but there is going to be a few thing in particular about the story that will surprise most of you, hopefully.
That's all for now, I really hope you guys enjoy!
Guilty Rose chapter 4
"Roooossssseeeee!"
Blake watched from her the busty blonde call out for the name again. She was honestly shocked the girl hadn't been hunted down by grimm already. She was curious about the girl she had watched act some friendly with Weiss Schnee.
"Speaking of the heiress, did she really help that wolf faunus yesterday?"
The entire scene had baffled Blake. She watched Weiss plow into the girl with her luggage cart, then scream at the terrified little faunus, but all that was expected. What she did next was what confused, she asked if the girl was okay, she helped the faunus stand up. Then they talked to each other. Some part of her wanted to believe that maybe Weiss was different from her father, but the rest of her just boiled with hatred and fear.
Blake's thoughts soon turned to the faunus. She had only identified the girl as a faunus when part of her tail was sticking out from under her cloak. But that was enough to make her curious about why she let a Schnee get that close to her. The other thing that bothered Blake was that the faunus girl seemed familiar, even though Blake never saw the girl's face or caught her scent.
"Rose! Oh! Hey there, have either of you boys seen a girl in a green cloak?"
Blake's attention returned to the blonde as she mockingly smiled at two ursai. Two ursai roared and swiped at the girl.
"You could have just said no."
Blake debated on whether or not to help the girl, so she resigned herself to just continuing to watch. That small part of her berated her again.
"What am I doing?"
Yang jumped back, believing she had cleared the swipe easily, and cockily smirked at the beasts. Then she saw a small golden strand of hair slowly float to the ground. Rage built up in the pit of Yang's stomach. Her hair had been messed with by these creatures.
"YOU MONSTERS!"
Yang screamed and let her aura erupt from her body, baffling the grimm. She never understood why it always appeared as a flame, her stepmom always told her it may have something to do with her semblance. She seethed at the beasts for a moment before charging them. The one on her left reacted first. It launched a powerful swing, only to have it be blocked by a bone shattering punch to its elbow. A punch followed by a shotgun blast that tore the already shattered elbow apart. The ursa howled in pain as its arm soared through the air. A howl that was silenced by a shotgun enhanced right hook to its jaw followed by a body blow that ended the misbegotten creature's life. The other ursa must have taken this as its cue to charge Yang. Yang waited for the beast as it barreled towards her. Just as the grimm reached her, Yang delivered a textbook uppercut that obliterated its head. When the rest of the creature slumped down, she saw something rather peculiar. A weapon sticking out of its back with a ribbon leading to the raven haired girl from this morning.
"I want credit. Yang by the way."
Blake rolled her eyes at the blonde and sighed.
"Blake."
Blake wasn't quite prepared when the girl's face soured, and her mind jumped to so many conclusion as the girl approached her. Most of them including her heritage or involvement with the White Fang. Soon, Yang was right there jabbing a finger into Blake's chest.
"You were giving my friend a dirty look this morning, care to explain why."
Blake's jaw dropped, out of every scenario her imagination came up with, Yang noticing Blake glaring at Weiss wasn't one. Another finger jab, this one actually making her aura flare. The busty blonde must not be one for patience.
"I have some...disagreements with how her family's company treats its workers."
Yang's glare narrowed. She wasn't happy with the answer she got.
"Maybe you shouldn't judge people before you get to know them, now c'mon partner."
Blake froze. Some part of her realized earlier what she had done. But Yang's words made her understand what she had done. She had labeled Weiss Schnee. Even refused to give the girl a chance after watching her assist and converse with a faunus. Blake was in no small part disgusted with herself. She wanted to run away.
….
"The last of the teams have been formed."
Glynda was more or less satisfied with the match ups, except for two. Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc was always destined to be a lopsided partnership, especially since Arc's transcripts did not match his actual skill level. The other partnership that concerned her was Rose and Weiss Schnee.
"I was hoping that Rose would be paired with someone who had a better history."
"Hey, Rose is making a friend, give her some credit."
Glynda sneered slightly at the image of Rose and Weiss walking. Rose had made some progress in the last six months, but something was holding back. She was worried that a Schnee's abrasive personality might be a detriment to Rose.
"I have my doubts. She needs a more supportive partner."
Ozpin let out a small chuckle, catching both women's attention.
"From the way you two are talking, you'd never suspect the conversation was about a trained killer."
His amusement with the situation was short lived as his comment was met with two extremely harsh glares.
….
Rose walked at a slower pace than she would have liked, but Weiss needed it. She tried to hide it, but she was still limping. They had been walking for only a few minutes when Weiss let out a pained squeak. Rose let out a long sigh and pulled back her hood.
"Weiss, this is why I told you that you needed to rest longer."
Weiss straightened herself and tried to appear as nothing was wrong. Unfortunately, she was forced to obviously favor one leg.
"I have no idea what you mean."
Rose stared up into Weiss' eyes. She fidget under rose's gaze for a few moments before letting out a sigh in utter defeat.
"I may have slightly overestimated how much my ankle actually healed. I'll be fine though."
Weiss was expecting Rose to either glare at her or start frantically attending to her. Instead, she was met with an adorable whine. A whine that made melt on the inside.
"Weiss, we are going to rest until your ankle is healed."
Weiss could only meekly nodded her submission and both teens took a rest at the base of a tree. Rose made a face full of disapproval as she removed Weiss' shoes. She sighed after confirming that Weiss' ankle had swollen again.
"Why did she try to hide this? Does she not trust me? Does she hate me already?"
Rose didn't realize that her face had contorted into one of pain and insecurity as she gently placed her hands on Weiss' ankle and channeled some of her aura into the injury. She did, however, realize Weiss was fidgeting again while staring at her. Her expression fell further.
"I think she really does hate me. She'll hate me even more when I tell her about my past."
Her heart twisted in her chest again at the thought of telling Weiss and the rest of her team the truth about her. Suddenly, she was looking at Weiss through sickeningly familiar bars.
"Rose?"
Rose's thoughts were broken and she realized she had been staring at a very concerned heiress.
"Are you okay? You're not looking well."
Rose recoiled. She expected Weiss to have some scathing comment like Hannya always had. No, she wanted her to.
"I-I'm fine."
There was no doubt that Rose was lying, and it hurt Weiss.
"Is she mad that I didn't let my ankle heal enough?"
"Rose, please tell me what's wrong."
The plea from Weiss almost didn't register for Rose. It actually took a moment for her to even process it.
"How can she be so nice to me? Right, she doesn't know yet."
"After the initiation, I'll tell you everything. For now, let's focus on getting through initiation."
The words sounded hollow, but Weiss eventually nodded in agreement. What else could she do.
….
"Where is this stupid temple or whatever?"
Yang was getting rather annoyed with how long it was taking to find the temple in this gods-forsaken forest.
"It's be much further."
Yang spun around to face her partner with exaggerated exasperation. But the black haired beauty only rolled her eyes.
"Are you sure?"
Blake's arm shot out to point at a clearing in the forest a dozen yards away. A clearing with what appeared to be a ruined temple in it.
"Oh, I guess you got a point."
Her brilliant pun only earned her a scoff and an eye roll before Blake walked towards the ruined temple.
"Yeesh, tough crowd."
Yang followed after her partner. Approaching the ruined temple, a number of pedestals came into sight. Some of the pedestals had what looked like expensive chess pieces while others were empty.
"Guess we're not the first ones."
Yang went up and snatched the white knight piece and waved it in Blake's direction, getting her an indifferent shrug.
"You're almost as bad as Rose."
This earned her what suspiciously sounded like a growl. A rustling in the bushes alerted the pair to movement. They spun around half expecting another pair of ursai. Instead, they saw a green and white pair of girls. Yang heard Blake gasp, but didn't put much stock in it.
"Weiss? Rose?"
"Ah, it's good to see you again Yang."
"Oh no."
"YOU!"
Rose hid behind Weiss as Blake seethed in her direction, this time Yang took notice of Blake's reaction. She turned to her partner to defend her other friend, but stopped when she saw the mix of shear horror and hatred in her eyes. And all off it pointed at Rose. Yang glanced back at the new arrivals for clarification, but received none. Thus she just got in between them.
"Blake, c'mon, it's just Rose."
"That thing is a fucking monster!"
"Whoa, that's too far!"
Rose stare at the black and yellow pair. Memories of the night she met the black haired faunus haunted her. She trembled under the girl's harsh stare, but she took a deep breath and stepped out from behind her partner.
"No Yang, it's not. She has every right to hate me and call me a monster. I am a monster."
Rose's voice was accompanied by a said little smile that stopped Yang in her tracks. She had to stop and examine Rose closely. Her silver eyes showed guilt for whatever she had done. She turned back to her partner so she could attempt to defuse the situation again.
"Silver eyes?"
Yang's head snapped back to the cloaked girl, and she realized something. Rose looked exactly like a younger version of her stepmom. She had done it, She had found her little sister Ruby in less than twenty four hours of coming to Beacon Academy.
"Ruby?"
That name hit Rose like an ursa major. Vision of a woman in a white screaming that name appeared. She knew it had weight to it, but the roar of an ursa broke the tension. All eyes turned to an ursa that had just erupted from the treeline. They were about to engage it, but it collapsed to reveal a white and pink girl riding it.
"Awww, it broke."
A magenta eyed boy came panting out from behind the slowly dissipating corpse.
"Nora, don't ever do that again."
Unfortunately for the boy, Nora had already dashed off at near super human speeds to claim the white rook piece.
"I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!"
"Nora!"
"Coming, Ren!"
Nora's little song and dance was finished, she zipped back over to her partner. Though before the tension could mount again, a feminine scream filled the air.
"Oh no, there's a girl in trouble!"
Rose whipped out her SVD and peered through the scope to find the source of the scream. She found it, an armored boy flailing as he flew through the air towards them. Rose looked over to Weiss.
"Weiss, could put up on of your black glyphs about thirty feet up and ten feet that way."
"Okay?"
Weiss was obviously confused, but put up a black glyph where Rose indicated just in time for the blonde boy from yesterday to smack into it.
"Thank...you."
Weiss glanced down at Rose who just shrugged. Then Weiss turned back to Jaune and gave a slightly sadistic smirk.
"Oh, you're welcome."
Rose watched the glyph vanish from existence and the boy land in a rather uncomfortable position.
"My back..."
Rose shook her head and let out displeased sigh. She knew this blonde annoyed Weiss, but she had hoped she'd at least be civil. Rose was about to turn to Yang again when a low rumble came from the same direction as Jaune.
"There's a large grimm coming this way."
"Pyrrha!"
Jaune jumped to his feet while Rose went prone, both facing the direction of the noise. The rest of the group turned the same direction with a confused look on their faces. The rumble soon became loud enough for all to hear, and they all steeled themselves for the coming fight. They didn't have to wait long for the redheaded amazoness to burst from the forest, closely followed by an ancient deathstalker. Pyrrha turned to fight the monster, which was about to use its massive stinger. Rose aimed for the creature's largest left eye and squeezed of the shot. The bullet hit its mark and the grimm recoiled and let out a ground shaking roar. Rose began firing shots in quick succession to suppress the beast and cover Pyrrha while she joined the rest of them.
"Yang, can you and your partner take over shooting at it. Don't worry about hurting it, I just need you to keep it distracted for a few moments."
Yang looked at Rose with a conflicted expression, but nodded. Blake on the other hand hissed before complying. Rose then turned to Weiss.
"Weiss, I'm going to need your help to completely immobilize it, are you up for that?"
Weiss looked at the ruined temple, and then back at Rose.
"Do we really need to? We can just grab the relics and run back to the cliffs."
"That grimm will follow us the whole way, and even Pyrrha couldn't outrun it."
"I see your point, what do you need?"
"Freeze its left side, I'll take the right side."
Weiss nodded and rotated her sword's dust cylinders to ice dust. Rose finally looked over at Jaune and Pyrrha, who were making sure the other wasn't injured.
"We're going to immobilize the deathstalker, you guys need to finish it!"
Rose didn't wait for an answer as she sprinted to the beast's right side, using her semblance to spin her left kama the whole time. She loosed the kama and brought it down on the creature's back, piercing its armor. Rose then wasted no time wrapping guilty Rose's cable around a tree trunk so she could use it as an anchor. She saw Weiss erect several glyphs on the far side of the deathstalker, which soon created a wall of ice that trapped the beast's legs. The whole while, Yang and Blake kept shooting at the grimm and dodging its tail.
"You, can you help them keep it distracted. Pyrrha, You, me, and her are going disable its tail and then we're going to hammer my sword into its head."
Jaune saw the skeptical looks his plan received, but soon those looks changed to acceptance and determination. They all sprinted towards the beast. Ren took his place by Yang and began firing at the deathstalker. Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha waited for the grim to strike the ground with its tail. As soon as it did, Pyrrha threw her shield perfectly. The shield struck right at the joint between the stinger and tail, nearly severing it. The shield bounced back to Pyrrha and she threw it again, this time severing the stinger completely. Jaune reversed his grip on his sword and charged the beast, barely dodging its massive pincers. That was until the left pincer finally struck him, but it only succeeded in launching Jaune onto its back. He quickly recovered and positioned his sword hilt up.
"Please don't miss!"
His cry was only met with a scary-happy laugh as the white and pink maniac lauched herself at the beast, her hammer prepared for an overhead swing while covered in a thin black corona. A swing which was delivered with near perfect precision. Jaune sword sunk in all the way to its guard. The creature let out a pained roar before collapsing dead. It's collapse was followed by silence, as if they were all waiting for it to come back to life.
"We did it!"
Yang's victory cry somehow cemented the grimm's demise, and Rose and the rest of the group relaxed. Rose had unraveled the cable and retrieved her kama by the time she noticed Yang making her way towards her.
"Ruby!"
Again, the name struck Rose, but this time she did not welcome the feeling it brought. So Rose stood straight and faced her friend.
"I don't know where you got that name from, but please don't call me that."
"But that's your name, Ruby Rose. Your my little sister."
Rose's breathing quickened and she took a few steps back. Ruby Rose, that name really had meaning to it, but it still felt alien. Like it was meant for a girl that looked exactly like her, but wasn't her. She shook the thoughts from her head.
"Even if you're right, I-I'm not the person you want me to be."
"What do you mean? You're alive and here, I'll call mom right-"
Rose saw Yang reach for her scroll, she had to stop her. She did stop her by grabbing her wrist.
"You can't tell anyone I'm here."
There was a sudden scoff from behind Yang. When Rose peered at its source, she found an annoyed cat faunus.
"Can't tell anyone, we should tell Ozpin, or better yet, the police."
"What is your problem with my sister!"
Rose looked at the ground for a long moment. Finally, she drew a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"I promised myself that I'd tell my team and that I'd accept their hatred for me, but she could actually be my sister."
Rose glanced at the relics, there was a pair of pawns, a white rook, and a white knight left on the ruined temple's pedestals.
"Yang, do you and Blake have a relic yet?"
"Yeah, the white horsey. Why?"
Rose looked up at Yang, debating whether or not she should even consider this. Finally, she sighed and walked towards the ruined temple.
"I'll tell you everything, then you'll know why you can't tell anyone about me and why Blake rightfully hates me."
Rose gave the cat faunus a look with the last pat of her statement. She turned back to the white knight piece. It looked terrifying to her, like the horse head was about to come alive and bite her hand as she reached for. She silently prayed that it would. Finally, her fingers wrapped around the game piece and her fate was sealed.
"Welcome to Beacon Academy, Guilty Rose."
A/N: And there we hve it, the end of the initiation test. Rose is told her real name by her big sister, but the reunion isn't happy and joyous. We can only wonder why.
Next time, teams will be announced.
So back to reviews, I want to thank each and every one of you that followed, favorited, and reviewed my work. It really helps me as a writer. So please keep giving me feedback, I take every bit seriously.
I hope to see all of you next chapter!
Thank you again!
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