A/N: It's me, Sera, with a new chapter of Guilty Rose, hot off the press!
This is a rather important chapter though a tad shorter than my normal chapters now. We have the conclusion to Rose's return from her reunion with Cin, we have a check in with Kylo- I mean Adam Taurus, and a check in with half of team STRQ.
I got an important question last time which will be partially answered in the chapter, but I will provide a full answer after the chapter.
I have a few more details to share at the end of the chapter that are also rather important to explain how things are going to play out from here to the end of the Volume 1 arc.
I don't own RWBY or RT.
Please enjoy!
(Update 7/29) Minor fixes and a few additions to the ending A/N
Guilty Rose Chapter 11
It took one bite and she knew.
Rose knew these cookies. The flavor and aroma brought back memories of a time before the Oni Tribe.
No, she couldn't call it a memory. It was an image really.
An image of her eating these cookies while a woman in a white cloak, a blonde haired man, and a very young Yang were smiling at her. She couldn't quite remember the man or woman's face out, but she knew they were her parents.
She was so happy she started crying.
Weiss and the others seemed to have started panicking when she did, but she just kept eating the cookie and losing herself in that image. She did pause for the briefest of moments when Weiss wrapped her her arms around her.
It was nice, until she ran out of cookie to eat and cruel reality sunk back in.
Rose could only stare at her hands after the blissful feeling vanished. She wanted the feeling back. Unsure what else to do, the faunus turned to look at Weiss, who recoiled for a moment.
"Can I have another?"
"I-I-I. Ahem, yes you mat Rose. In fact I have another dozen just for you."
Rose suddenly felt a warm sensation in her chest when the heiress said this. She didn't know what the feeling was, but she kind of liked it. And that made her uncomfortable.
Before this thought process could continue further, Weiss handed Rose another cookie with a heartwarming smile on her face.
Rose took the cookie without question and began taking small bites, savoring it even more than the previous one. Her reservations about the warming feeling in her chest disappeared and she snuggled into Weiss' side.
The faunus could feel the girl tense up and hear her heart beat faster. But Weiss never pulled away, she even held Rose closer.
"This feels right, strange."
Rose pushed the thought away and continued eating her cookie while enjoying Weiss' warmth.
The silence of the room continued as Blake got into her bed so she could start reading a strange black book and Yang sat in a chair observing Rose and Weiss. Weiss continued to pass Rose cookies and the wolf faunus would eat each one slowly.
Finally it was broken by a loud sigh from Yang.
"Who was she?"
Rose stopped mid-bite to looked up at her sister. Yang didn't look upset, but she did look concerned.
"Cin?"
"Yeah, her. You lied to me for her. I want to know why."
Rose winced at the slight edge in Yang's voice and snuggled deeper into Weiss' side. She knew this conversation was coming, Yang did tell her they'd talk about Cin earlier. But she still wasn't quite ready, the faunus didn't even know where to start.
Yang bit her lip when she saw her sister's reaction to her demand for more information. She looked down at the floor and searched it for the words to follow up with. Finally, another sigh broke free from her lips and she spoke in a much softer tone this time.
"Look, I know you met her while you were still in the Oni Tribe. She told me she regrets not rescuing you from them, so she can't be that bad. But I still want you to tell me everything, and be honest. Please Rose."
Rose sat there silently for a moment before reaching for the empty air around her neck.
"I met her after my first attempt to escape the tribe. They had me locked in a cage for a week with only enough water not to die. And suddenly, there she was. I don't know exactly why she was there in the camp. But she was like me, someone being turned into a monster. Only she still had a chance to not be one."
"Rose, you're not-"
Rose held a hand up to stop Weiss and Yang. She knew they didn't understand how much of a monster she was.
Taking a bite of her current cookie dispelled the dark thoughts before too many tears fell.
If only she didn't want her mother to see what kind of monster she had become.
"I haven't seen her since that day. Not until the night before orientation, while me and Glynda were doing errands. But I am glad she didn't turn into a monster."
Yang searched Rose's face for any tell that she was lying, but couldn't find any. But she didn't feel like she got enough of an answer, not for how her sister was acting earlier.
"That doesn't explain why you acted the way you did, not by a long shot."
Rose chewed on her bottom lip for another moment, silently debating on how much more to tell them.
"She is the one who gave me the confidence and the idea to escape the tribe."
"Okay, now she's more okay in my book, but there's one more thing I need to confirm."
Yang opened her mouth to ask the near critical question she needed to ask Rose, but Weiss spoke first.
"So how exactly do feel about her."
Rose turned to look at the white haired girl and cocked her head to the side in confusion. The other three girls had to suppress the urge to coo at her.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean do have any specific feelings for this Cin girl?"
Rose's face scrunched up more and she took another bite of her cookie while she mulled over the question.
"She just means a lot to me Weiss. I never would have escaped the tribe if I hadn't met her."
Weiss knew this answer was honest and innocent. Mostly because she had felt something possibly similar when Klein and Winter pushed her to to pursue her dream here at Beacon. Though she also figured Rose's feelings went deeper considering the circumstances, but the faunus in her arms seemed oblivious to that.
Good, she still had a chance.
….
Adam seethed in his office. There had been no news of the Guilty Rose since the failed robbery. It was infuriating.
Though on the brighter side of things, it seemed that Cinder's master was loosening her hold on him by sending Cinder to Beacon for whatever reason.
Then something clicked.
"Beacon...no...but she was with Beacon's deputy headmistress."
Adam roared in frustration as he slammed his fist down onto his desk. If the little bitch was at Beacon, she was out of his reach until Cinder's plan came to fruition and they manage to burn Vale to the ground.
"Maybe she'll come to the city again...or maybe I could lure her out."
Marron Sauvage stood outside Adam's office, debating on whether or not she should actually go in. Then the little bear faunus heard maniacal laughter coming from behind the door. She rubbed her recently healed ribs and walked away.
"I can't believe they put that fucking creep in charge."
As Marron walked, she thumbed the paperwork she was going to give the illustrious leader. She found a memo from Sienna Khan. A memo that caught her eye because in the title was 'Guilty Rose'. She decided to read further, and nearly dropped everything.
The memo ordered that all attempts to harm or capture the Guilty Rose were to stop immediately. The rumors about her were falsified. That numerous cells in Vacuo witnessed the girl cutting down humans that were confirmed racists.
"Oum, he's been lying to us."
….
Summer sat in her apartment that still smelled like fresh baked cookies and sharpened the new dust arrowheads she had just finished making. She always enjoyed tinkering with weapons. She had hoped to share this hobby with her youngest daughter Ruby, and part of her hoped she still could.
She stopped, suddenly the sound of sharpening weapons was no longer soothing. The faunus checked her scroll to find that it was already well past midnight, and with a loud sigh and grumble, she nearly resigned herself to turn in for the night. That was until she once again saw the legal envelope on her table. A spike of pain and anger racked her chest.
She still couldn't believe that Tai actually went so far as to send her divorce papers.
"And now my blood's boiling, great."
Suddenly, Summer remembered that she wanted to call and check in on Rae. The woman double checked the time and figured it would probably be late evening at worst where her old partner was at. A slight smile pulled at her lips when she saw the contact photo for Rae. It was a pick of her, Rae, and Yang taken a few months after Summer persuaded Rae to help look for Ruby. It was one of her fondest memories too.
Now there was no turning back, she had to call her best friend. One tap later, she was listening to ringing, waiting for Rae to pick up.
"Hey, Sum, what's up?"
"Nothing much, just wanted to call and check in on you."
"NoPe."
Summer was nearly shocked speechless when Rae popped the 'p' in her response, something only Summer and Yang ever did.
"Excuse me?"
"Nope, you're not calling just to check in on me."
"And how would you know that?"
"Your calling me in the middle of the night, people don't call other people in the middle of the night just to check in."
"And since when have you known this?"
"Since you told me every time I've called you in the middle of the night to 'just check in'. Now what's wrong?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Summer."
"I'm serious, nothing is wrong."
There was a long pause, which made the faunus worry because it meant Rae was about really put the pressure on her. Summer just hoped she could hold out against her best friend.
"Sum, do you remember when I called you after I went to visit my father right after Yang was born?"
"Oh dear Oum! She's gonna hold that one over me."
"It was another night I called you to 'just check in'. You finally forced it out of me what was wrong after an hour of arguing with. Do you remember what I told you when you finally beat it out of me?"
Summer couldn't help but let out a long, tired sigh. She was beat. Beat with her own logic and tactics by the one person she used them against most.
"You told me your father made you leader of the tribe just before he died."
"Good, and do you remember why I was so upset about that?"
Summer let out her growling sigh, along with the last remnants of her resistance.
"You knew Tai wouldn't come with you, and that he would be too weak to move on if you took Yang with you. So you had to leave them both behind to take your place as leader of the tribe."
There was another pause, longer than any of the previous ones.
"It broke my heart to leave them, and I'm so glad you took care of those two for me. I remember calling you every week to hear about how they were doing. Though I was surprised to find out you decided to marry Tai."
"Urk!"
Summer slapped a hand over her mouth when she made a sound while cringing when Rae mentioned her marriage. She silence lingered as she prayed that Rae didn't notice.
"So it's something wrong with Tai and your marriage then. Spill, now. He may be my ex-husband and father of Yang, but I'll castrate him with a fork in a heartbeat if he did something to you."
The tracker couldn't help but look at the legal envelope again, and recall Tai's ultimatum.
"Maybe she can help."
"He didn't really do anything like that. You remember that fight me and Tai had a few months back?"
"You mean the one about you giving up on finding Ruby?"
"Yeah, t-that one."
Summer silently cursed herself for letting her voice crack like that.
"Sum. what. Did. he. do."
"He sent me divorce papers...and told me to sign them if I won't accept that Ruby is gone."
Summer could practically feel Rae's seething breaths through the phone. She was starting to fear for Tai's ability to reproduce.
"Sign them."
"What?"
"Sign them. If anyone, and I mean anyone, decides to come between you and finding Ruby, get rid of them."
"This is Tai we're talking about."
"No, this is Ruby we're talking about!"
"Rae."
"No, Summer. I want you to look at that picture of Ruby you have as your background, and then look at those papers, and I want you to tell me what's more important."
Summer's free hand clenched. She knew what was more important to her the moment Tai sent her those papers.
She bit her lip as she felt tears run down her cheek.
"Ruby is."
A sob escaped her mouth before she could strangle it back."
"Sum, I'll be there in a minute, let me get some things packed."
"Thank you Rae."
"Sum, you wouldn't do any less for me."
"Not just for t-this Rae, for everything."
A small chuckle through the speakers.
"I'll always be there Summer."
The call ended and Summer slumped forward in her seat to cradle her head in her hands.
"What did I do to ever deserve you Rae?"
….
Raven pressed the end call button.
She blinked at her scroll.
She checked to make sure the call ended, even turned the device all the way off and then back on.
Satisfied the scroll had ended the call, Raven checked her surroundings. She was in her tent and no one seemed to be outside of it.
She quickly gathered a weeks worth of clothing, several hundred Lien, and her weapon before cutting a portal to Summer.
"Tai, you really fucked up. Your loss."
Raven steeled herself and stepped into her semblance.
A/N: So that happened. All of that.
I'm going to answer that question I got in the reviews of last chapter before I discuss the chapter in depth.
Tensazangitsu: What is the relationship between Summer, Raven and Taiyang in this fic?
So this is an important question.
Earlier in the story, it was made known that Tai was trying to force Summer to give up on looking for Ruby. This didn't go over well, of course. And now we're seeing the first ramifications of this, courtesy of expert advice from Raven.
This chapter also shows the specifics of Raven and Summer. They were and are best friends. While there are certain facts about their relationship that I'm still developing and debating. Anyway, Raven agreed to help Summer look for Ruby and in the course of that, became a part of Yang's life again.
Now for Tai and Raven's relationship. As I stated in the chapter, Raven leaving Tai and Yang behind now has a specific reason. She knew Tai wouldn't crush him, and feared what would happen if she took Yang with her. However, now she's firmly on Summer's side of things for specific reasons.
If anyone has suggestions or comments on this, I'm all ears.
Now to discuss the chapter.
I hope everyone noticed how Rose answered Yang's interrogation about Cin, it's important guys, and will be on the test!
I won't spoil things any further as this will be something of a reoccurring theme.
Now for the scene with Adam.
Yes, he finally calmed down and thought rationally. This doesn't bode well for Rose, of course.
Then there's the OC, she's just a named White Fang grunt, that happened to discover that Adam was lying. She won't be a major part of the story, but she will serve a background purpose.
Finally, back to Summer and Raven.
First, Summer is sharpening arrows because her main weapon is a compound bow. I haven't decided on a name or appearance for it yet, so send any recommendations.
And before you ask if that call is the start of what you think it's the start of. Yes. Yes it is. I set this up from the beginning without even realizing it, so now I'm just sleeping in the bed I made.
*Update*This chapter is the beginning of the arc that is replacing the forever fall arc in canon. I will mention the Forever Fall field trip, but that's it.
Well, that's it.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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