A/N: Hey guys, here is the finale to Rose's reunion with Cinder! And again, I had too much fun writing this chapter…well the second half at least.
The Q&A will be at the end of the chapter for those willing to read it.
Please enjoy!
I don't own RWBY or RoosterTeeth.
Guilty Rose Chapter 10
Rose lead Cin and her team to the dormitory they'd be staying in for the next few months. While she did, the dark haired faunus was still having a hard time coming to grips that Cin was actually there next to her. She planned to find her soon, but she didn't even believe she'd find so much as a lead this weekend.
Yet here Cin was, walking next to her while she lead Cin and her team to their dorm. It was honestly very overwhelming. It didn't help that her mother was on campus.
Rose's heart clenched at the thought of her mother. For years, she wanted nothing more than to see her mother again. But now, she didn't want to her mother to see the monster she's become.
Rose shook the toxic thoughts from her mind and glanced back over at Cin.
"She's actually here, Cin is actually here. I need to ask her why though."
Cin also looked consumed in thought as they walked, so Rose decided to just focus on leading the group instead and ask her questions later.
Cinder looked down at the petite faunus, trying to figure out what she was thinking about.
"She's probably thinking about how I worked with Roman and am probably a criminal."
Cinder bit the inside of her lip at the possibility of Rose viewing her in a negative light. Of course she had done things that were less than strictly legal, but she at least tried not to be a bad person. She did her best to keep her word to Rose and never let Salem turn her into a monster. Thinking of Salem reminded her of the reason she came to Beacon Academy in the first place.
Cinder was here to save Rose from Salem's condemnation.
While Rose and Cinder got a handle on their thoughts, a certain multicolored girl couldn't take her eyes off the wolf faunus of the group. She heard Roman's description of the girl, but Neo was finding it quite difficult to see this girl as the infamous 'Face of Death'.
"Did this girl really kill all those people in cold blood?"
"You probably shouldn't stare too much Neo. I already have to deal with a jealous Emerald, I'd rather not deal with a jealous Cin-YEOUCH!"
Neo retracted her elbow as she watched the other members of the group spin around at the sudden yelp.
"What are you two doing back there!"
Neo acted completely innocent under Cinder's glare while twirling her umbrella. Mercury on the other hand was cradling his side hoping the short girl hadn't broken one of his ribs this time.
"Are they always like that, Cin?"
Cinder's heart fluttered at the little pet name Rose had given her years ago. A quick fake cough into her fist bought her the time she needed to regain her composure.
"Normally Emerald here is involved too. But yes, for the most part they stand around bickering about like an old married couple."
"Hey, don't make me any kind of couple with him!"
"Yeah, we all know your type is dark hair-OW, OUM DAMMIT WHY!"
"Thank you Neo."
The multicolored mute gave a curt smile and bow to Emerald. Cinder just rolled her eyes, long since used to the antics, while Rose tilted her head in confusion. When Neo saw this, she wished she could have cooed but settled for typing out a message on her scroll.
Don't worry about it. We're just teaching him when to shut up.
When Rose read the text, her jaw clenched and several scars began to burn as if the whip that made struck only moments ago. Her surroundings began to warp, and she began reliving one of her first lessons from Hannya
….
CRACK!
"AAAGGGHHH!"
"I told you to quit your damn blubbering! If you're gonna cry, do it quietly or go somewhere I can't hear you!"
Rose couldn't stop her crying, which only made the drunk woman even angrier.
CRACK! CRACK!
"I Told you to shut up! If you won't stop, I'll keep them coming until you do!"
The pain and yelling were too much for the small faunus and she released another wail. She regretted the action immediately.
CRACK!
….
The lighthearted joke was no longer lighthearted or a joke.
Cinder saw the message and it's effects on poor Rose. The girl was clutching her sides while hyperventilating through clenched teeth and tears began to slowly fall from her eyes. Her eyes were honestly the worst, the were wide open and full of pain and terror.
She could only imagine the horrors the girl was reliving right now. She knew from the state that she first found Rose in that the girl's life had been a living hell. And so Cinder wrapped her arms around the trembling girl. The faunus didn't react to the embrace. She didn't lean into it nor did she fight it, but Cinder held the girl still. After a moment of this, the gold eyed girl glanced around the corridor they were in to find that they were on the right floor. And fortunately enough, their dorm was only a few doors down.
The group made their way over to CMEN's dorm. Mercury swiped his scroll past the scanner to unlock the door. The group entered the room and sat their luggage down while Cinder continued to hold Rose, though the girl had shown no signs of acknowledging the contact.
Neo was still trying to catch up on what she had done to cause this sudden change in the infamous killer.
"She was forced to do the things."
Cinder's words came to mind while she was trying piece things together.
"I found a little girl locked in a cage that was convinced she was some kind of monster."
Suddenly a few more pieces came together, and a not so happy picture was forming.
Then the multicolored girl thought about the event that led up to this predicament. She hit Merc and then showed Rose the message. A message stating she was just...teaching...him...to...shut...up.
"Rose was taught to shut up. Oh shit!"
Her eyes nearly bulged out of her skull when all the pieces fell into place.
"How have I not understood this earlier? Seriously, what the hell kind of mass murdering psychopath is ever described as 'terrified'?"
Neo was known for her frivolous demeanor and supposedly sadistic nature. So what she did next surprised even her.
She joined Cinder in embracing the small girl.
Cinder almost recoiled when the newest member of her team joined her in holding Rose, but looking down at the girl still lost in her waking nightmare. She made a decision right then to never deny Rose the comfort of others. No, not when this tortured soul needed all she could get.
….
Rose didn't know how long she had been sitting in the nearly suffocating embrace of Cin and her teammate, and she wasn't sure how comfortable she was with the situation. This was made evident to the others by the low whine that escaped her lips.
Both girls immediately released the girl, though it was more to see what made that adorable sound than to acquiesce to the complaint itself. Of course, what they saw was two massive silver orbs looking up at them. The eyes had a twinge of confusion and fear in them that made them even more effective at melting the two girls' hearts.
It took Cinder a full minute for her to recompose herself.
"Are you, um, feeling better Rose?"
"Um, yeah, I-I'm fine."
No one was convinced by Rose's response. Which only served to bring all of Cinder's worries and insecurities about Rose to the forefront of her mind.
"Is it...because of me?"
Rose's head shot up when Cin croaked out the question.
"How could she possibly think… Oh."
The night she last saw Cin was in fact the thing that had her out of sorts. But that was in no way Cin's fault. Cin presence that night had actually been an amazing discovery that night. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the two lives she ended.
"No."
This time Cinder could tell the faunus was speaking the truth, maybe not the whole truth, but nonetheless, the truth. Which this fact did wonders to soothe the insecurities she developed on the way to Beacon Academy.
"However, there is a question I want to ask you."
Rose's voice wasn't accusatory, but whatever the question was, she knew she wasn't going to like it.
"Hello, insecurities, my old friends."
"Sure."
Rose drew a deep breath, this wasn't an easy question to ask, and part of her really didn't want an answer. But she had to ask it.
"Are you still with those people who wanted the Oni tribe to work with them?"
The raven haired girl's breath hitched. She knew she wouldn't like the question, but she didn't realize how on prepared she actually was. Her face twisted with so many emotions as she tried to find an answer to the question.
The face Cin made and the long silence was answer enough for Rose. She just looked to the ground.
"I see."
It was heartbreaking to hear those words come out of the faunus' mouth. Cinder actually felt a lump develop in her throat and had to blink back tears.
"Do you hate me now?"
Rose's head turned slowly until silver met gold. The fauns searched the other girl's eyes for everything she needed to know. She found it, and a small smile developed.
"No, You didn't let them turn you into a monster."
Just as Cinder was about to respond to that, Rose's scroll went off, notifying her of a text message.
Mom's gone, you can come back now.
Rose couldn't help but sigh. The girl knew Yang was not happy that she didn't want to see her mother. She looked back over at Cin, trying to find some way to excuse herself. Though Cin spoke before she did.
"Was that your, uh, sister?"
"Yes, that was Yang."
Cin considered asking the girl to stay longer, but the majority of her knew it was wrong to keep Rose from her team and family.
Schooling her pained expression into a softer one, Cinder finalized her choice.
"Why don't you head back, we can always catch up some other time. We can see each other again, right?"
Cinder bit her lip at the last part coming out as nearly begging, but she quickly relaxed when the girl gave her another small smile.
"Of course we can, maybe your team can even have lunch with mine some time."
Emerald had managed to keep her jealousy in check this entire time as it seemed there was something legitimately wrong with the little tramp for the last hour. But this was too far, she was never going to sit at the same table as this girl and have some kind of happy lunch.
"That's not-Geee-a problem!"
She was going to thank Merc with a damn knuckle sandwich for pinching her and stop her from making a complete ass of herself to Cinder's little crush in front of Cinder. But for now, she just forced herself to smile sweetly.
She really hated this girl.
….
Weiss couldn't believe what an amazing baker Miss Rose was. She had never had such fantastic pastries before in her life. Her, a Schnee, has never tasted such glorious cookies in her seventeen years of life.
If it wasn't for her pride, she might have begged for more. Instead, she did the proper thing and offered fair compensation for the recipe.
She was immediately refused, but then promised a batch every time Miss Rose visited. Weiss deemed this acceptable.
Though she did make sure to secure Rose at least a dozen cookies at the moment and every time her mother would visit, just in case. Yang supported the plan, stating that even if Rose wasn't ready to meet her mother, the cookies might speed up the process. That was an excellent idea in the heiress' mind, but it wasn't the reason she did it.
Though from the look in the woman's eye, she wasn't going to give up on meeting team RWBY's R. and to make matters worse, apparently Miss Rose was a well renowned tracker. At least they managed to dissuade the woman from tracking down the girl that day.
"When is Rose getting back?"
Yang glanced up from her scroll and gave Weiss an irritated look, a look which was promptly ignored.
"I don't know, okay, whoever that girl was she was important to Rose. So we're just gonna have to wait."
Weiss began nibbling on another one of the delicious cookies while she prepared to fire back some sort of comeback, but the dorm's door beeped and then opened. And there stood Rose with a pensive look on her face. A look that Weiss found both cute and worrying.
Maybe it was Miss Rose's teasing or her minuscule amount of concern about this girl Rose met, but Weiss felt brazen. And so she patted the spot on the bed next to her.
"Rose, why don't you come sit next to me and we can talk about whatever is obviously on your mind."
Much to her delight, Rose sat next to the white haired girl without any opposition. After the faunus sat down, she sucked in a deep breath through her nose, likely in an attempt to prepare herself. But then something odd happened, she stopped mid-breath and turned to stare at the cookie Weiss had just begun to savor.
Weiss would never allow herself to be accused of using underhanded means or settling for small victories.
But right now, she would be content with both.
She pulled the cookie from her lips and offered it to Rose.
"These are quite delicious cookies, would you like one?"
Rose sniffed the cookie suspiciously at first, then she took the pastry. Weiss internally cheered when the redhead took a small bite from the cookie where she had been eating from.
Weiss' victory was short lived as Rose suddenly began crying. Panic set in and the heiress began frantically trying to tink of a way to comfort the girl, who was still eating the cookie.
Unable to think of anything else, Weiss wrapped her arms around Rose's small for. She made sure that she wasn't impeding the faunus from eating the cookie before looking at the other half of the team.
The two other girls looked just as confused on what to do.
After a few moments, a low whine caught Weiss' attention. The heiress looked down to find that Rose had finished her cookie and was just sitting there, staring at her hands.
"Oh no, oh no, please don't! Dear Oum, she's going to do it!"
The white haired girl could only watch as Rose turned her head to look up at her with a breathtaking teary eyed pout.
"Can I have another?"
"I-I-I. Ahem, yes you may Rose. In fact I have another dozen just for you."
Weiss brought the box of remaining cookies into her lap and pulled another one out for Rose. She gave Rose a warm smile as she handed the cookie to her, pleased that she was able to do this much for the tortured soul. However, what she was in no way prepared for w as Rose gently snuggling into her side as she began munching on her cookie. Needless to say, Weiss' heart was thundering in her chest.
Yang and Blake looked at each other, and a quick confirmed that they would begrudgingly let the two girls be, but they would eventually get their turn to feed Rose cookies.
A/N: I'm rather positive that quite a few of you are going to be mad at me for that last development. What can I say, Summer's cookies are that good. And who can actually blame Weiss for what she did! Tell me you guys wouldn't do the same, given the chance!
Anyway, I promised a Q&A and I'm gonna give it to you!
Araneavalon: There's a poll?
Yes, there is. I forgot to say I put it up. On the subject of the poll, I have 15 people who voted yes, and no one has voted no.
Burritos89: Is it okay to ask how the thorns work or will that be explained in a later?
Yes it is okay, and it's actually already been explained in chapter 3. So a quick summary of her semblance is she can place a 'thorn' on anyone or anything and be aware of its exact location and condition while it is within a mile of her. Outside of that range or after a time, the 'thorn' begins fading away. The thorn's range and duration are also affected by Summer and the target's emotions. However, the thorn still fades away eventually. I would like it to be known that Ruby's thorn is an extremely special case. Her thorn continues to exist, even though it shouldn't by any means. It also only gives Summer the sense that Ruby is still alive.
Remnant7: What prompted you to make Ruby and Summer wolf faunus?
This is actually a pretty simple to answer. This story never really came with a human Ruby. I literally started with a faunus Ruby and let Less Than Human and re:Bound inspire the story. As for why Summer is a faunus, well Ruby I need one of Ruby's parent's to be a faunus and Summer seemed to be the logical choice.
Remnant7: Will there be Bumblebee?
No. Sorry guys, I'm not adding Bumblebee as a pairing to this story. I'm still deciding on whether or not Yang will be paired with someone at this moment.
NevTSC: Will Ruby ever meet her mother?
This is probably the most common question I get. Yes, it will happen. But you need to be patient, I have a plan that everyone should be happy with.
If I missed a question that you think needs to be answered, drop a review or PM me and I'll answer it!
I really hope you enjoyed this chapter!
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