A/N: I'm SO late, I know.

BUT, Here's a double chapter.

Like seriously, it's over 4.7k words before A/N.

Yeah, I'm late because I was spending so much time writing this chapter and I regret nothing.

I loved writing this chapter and had to make the decision not to keep writing. (I fully believe this would have been a 6k chapter or more otherwise.) But I ended it where I did so I could post.

I'll talk about it more at the end.

Also I will have a chapter for Monday or Tuesday as per my normal release schedule hopefully. I have a Modern Physics test Monday, so yeah.

Without further adieu!

This week's chapter of Guilty Rose!

Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, because I promise it's one hell of a ride!

I don't own RT or RWBY.

Guilty Rose Chapter 22

The girl was a spitting image of herself, only with long, braided hair.

Time slowed as the Ruby's head turned to look at her mother. Silver met silver for the first time in twelve years.

"Ruby?"

Summer could only utter those two syllables as she laid eyes on the small faunus sitting in the corner of the room. Joy welled inside the mother.

Or it did until Rose's face change from shock to horror and betrayal.

Time sped back up as the girl got up and burst into petals.

"Ruby!"

She didn't even get the name out before the girl was out the window and on the ground running.

"Mom!"

Yang and everyone else in the fall busted into the room when they heard the shout. But they only arrived in time to see the last of the petals to settle on the ground.

Summer turned to Raven with a pleading look.

"She ran, why would she run?"

"I don't know Sum, but let's go after her."

Weiss and Blake looked at each other and grimaced. They knew chasing after her wouldn't end any better than this but they weren't going to say anything yet.

"Yeah, c'mon girls."

Summer walked up to the window Rose had just leaped out of and jumped out of it herself.

The others were shocked by the sudden change in attitude, but quickly followed after.

Summer already had the scent of her daughter, not that the trail of rose petals wasn't enough, and followed it.

"Mom, slow down."

"No time, she has a speed semblance. If we slow down, we'll lose her."

"And how do you know that?"

"World class tracker, remember?"

"Right."

"Hey, I am!"

Raven shook her head and Summer pouted as they continued to follow the trail. They ran in silence until they neared the dormitory that Cinder and her team stayed in.

"Mom, I'm not sure this is a good idea anymore."

"Yang, I'm not going to lose her, not after finding her."

The women followed the trail into the dormitory and soon found Mercury sitting in the hallway outside his dorm. As the group approached, the gray haired boy opened an eye and then closed it.

"You aren't getting in there, it's locked."

Summer and Raven glared at the teen who almost seemed to be ignoring them.

"A locked door isn't going to stop us, now open it, or we break it."

"Even if I had my scroll, I wouldn't open it for you, and if you care at all about the girl in there, you won't go near that door."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The boy opened his eyes to glare back at the woman.

"Oh I don't know. A girl wearing nothing but a cover comes knocking on our door, panicked out of her min in the middle of the night. So how about you tell me why I'm in the hall sleeping on the ground?"

"I just wanted to see my daughter!"

Mercury didn't miss Yang's flinch and glared at her.

"Yang, you didn't."

Yang didn't verbally respond, she just turned away.

"Great, the one thing she actually asked you not to do. Well, are you happy with how things turned out?"

Summer's glare got harsher now that the boy was truly ignoring her.

"Hey, don't talk to my daughter that way!"

"Mom… He's right to be mad at me, I betrayed Rose's trust by calling you two here tonight."

"What are you talking about Yang?"

"The only thing Rose has ever actually asked me to do was not tell you about her...And that's exactly what I did."

Summer glanced between Yang and Raven. Then a scroll ring coming from Weiss' pocket broke everyone's focus. Weiss immediately went to fish the device out and saw the text notification. When her face went through several emotions nearly simultaneously, it piqued everyone's curiosity.

"So? What was it?"

Weiss' head shot up and she rapidly looked at everyone in the hall.

"It was a message from Cinder. She said that Rose is safe and sound in her dorm. Also that Rose will be ready to properly reunite with you in the morning… That and some other stuff."

Weiss' blush and muttering at the end raised a few eyebrows.

"What else did she say?"

"Nothing you need to know about, you brute."

"Let me see that message."

"No!"

Yang lunged for the device, but Weiss was just a bit quicker and got the device away first. Yang tried again but Weiss more than ready, keeping her scroll as far away as possible.

"Give it!"

"No!"

While Weiss was distracted, Blake snatched the scroll away and looked at the message. Her eyes widened and a faint blush developed on her features.

"What the hell is on that message!"

"Absolutely nothing that concerns you! You think Velvet could actually make those?"

Blake turned to Weiss with a conspiratorial look.

"I am entirely willing to agree and find out."

"True."

Raven quirked an eyebrow, not sure how to take the display. Summer just shook her head with a faint smile on her lips.

"Let's head back to your dorm, we've got a lot to talk about."

….

Emerald sat on the opposite end of the bed from Cinder, Rose and Neo and watched the whole scene play out. She had plenty to resent Rose for, but for once she couldn't resent the girl for taking up Cinder's attention. She herself nearly had a heart attack when she opened the door.

"Alright, we all better get some sleep tonight, I guarantee we'll need it."

"You're right, Rose, are you going to be okay taking Mercury's bed for the night?"

Rose's head snapped to Cinder and she stared sheepishly. Cinder raised an eyebrow at this action and suddenly grew an amused smile.

"Or would you rather sleep with me in my bed?"

Emerald expected a blush or something from the young girl, but that didn't happen. The girl's face fell a small amount and she actually looked away from Cinder.

"Rose, it was a joke. Wait is something wrong?"

Rose looked back up, even more sheepishly than before.

"I can't sleep in a bed...I always sleep in the corner of the room, facing the door."

Emerald winced at this, she saw Neo do the same. They had long since figured out that Rose's abuse at the hands of the Oni tribe was extensive, to say the least, but that lesson was a particular painful one to learn.

The green haired girl herself remembered when she learned that lesson. She shudder remembering those drunk bastards. At least she was fortunate enough to get away from them.

Emerald then noticed the blank expression on Cinder's face, and part of her felt relieved that the girl didn't understand.

"Okay, I won't ask why."

Cinder looked over at the corner of the room and the gears seemed to turn in her head. Then she glanced at the head of each bed, eyes moving to count every pillow and cover in the room.

"However, how about we make things more comfortable for you."

Neo seemed to start thinking about something as soon as Cinder said that, and suddenly Emerald felt like she was about to be dragged into something.

The multicolored girl typed something into her scroll and held it out to Cinder. When Cinder read the message, her face lit up.

"Us? Comfortable for us? that's bold Neo, even for you."

Rose looked between both girls, confusion written all over her face.

"I believe she is implying that we all join you in the corner tonight."

Neo affirmed this with a big smile and a firm nod.

Rose's eyes went wide when the new information registered and then she looked down again. Emerald wanted to scoff at the three's antics, and she wanted almost no part in this. Only because she couldn't deny the prospect of sleeping in the same 'bed' as Cinder for a night.

"I guess that's...okay."

Emerald bit back a groan. She knew the little faunus would agree, who wouldn't agree to sleep with Cinder.

Neo and Cinder gave each other victorious grins. Emerald scoffed this time, which earned her Rose's attention.

"Is that not okay Emerald?"

The green haired girl went to give her some mildly biting remark, but was met with a sight she was wholly unprepared for. Two massive silver eyes staring at her, made even more effective by already being red and puffy.

"Mother of all kicked puppies!"

Emerald tried to resist and deliver her original remark, or at least decline the implied offer. However, her willpower was being melted by that adorable face.

Emerald made one last valiant effort to open her mouth and speak her mind. Her face must have tipped the faunus off though because her eyes widened even more somehow and her bottom lip began quivering.

Emerald's jaw just hung limply now. Her voice had officially died in her throat and heart was trying to decide if it wanted to stop or hammer its way out of her chest.

"It's fine."

Her voice was hoarse and thick like it had actually died and been resuscitated.

Then Rose did something outright cruel.

She smiled.

It was a small happy smile, but it had a physical impact on everyone else in the room.

It had literally stolen their breaths for a moment.

Cinder was the first to recover somehow.

"Well, as Emerald said, we need to get some sleep."

It took less than three minutes to turn all the pillows and covers in the room into a pallet in the corner, a little longer to decide the sleeping arrangement. Which ended up being Rose sitting between Cinder's legs and Neo and Emerald being on either side of her.

Rose leaned back into Cinder and snuggled into her chest, which made Cinder blush the color of her favorite dress. Neo silently chuckled at their expense and snuggled into both girls herself.

Emerald didn't snuggle in, instead she maintained a solid few inches between her and the other three. She was tempted to close the distance or at least reach out for Cinder's free arm, but Cinder decided to use her free hand to pet Rose's hair. So Emerald decided against reaching and instead watched Rose's eyes close before closing her own.

….

For the second time that night, Rose found herself in her cage.

She sighed and was curling up to ignore the pain this dream caused.

"Ruby."

It was barely more than a whisper, but it might as well have been at the volume of a fog horn.

Rose looked up to see something she never thought she'd see.

The cage was unlocked and opened. Not only that, but there was her mother, a woman that looked like an older version of Yang with black hair, her team, Cin, Neo, and Emerald, all of them facing her.

Rose looked closer expecting to see disgust or hate on their faces, but found their expressions full of love and happiness.

Her breath caught in her throat.

"You see me?"

All of them nodded.

The first tear fell.

"You found me?"

Another round of nods.

Rose stood and more tears fell.

"I'm free?"

One more round of nods.

Rose ran straight to her mother. Her face collided with her mother's chest and the group began wrapping their arms around her.

The happy hot tears flowed from her eyes and she went to wrap her arms around them.

That's when she noticed she couldn't move her arms.

Rose looked back to see her weapon tangled up in the bars. She pulled on them and tried to loosen the cords, but neither action got any results. She realized that if she wanted to get free of the weapons, she'd have to walk back into the cage.

A quick look at the happy faces around her solidified her resolve to be happy with how far away she had gotten now.

She simply relaxed and enjoyed being embraced.

….

"Alright Yang, start talking."

Summer sat on the bed intended for Rose facing her oldest daughter and her team while Raven was walking around the room. The faunus knew her girlfriend was reminiscing about her first year here.

"Um, where would you like to begin, because there is a lot."

"Beginnings are always a good spot to start, Yang."

Yang glared at her mother and gave a mocking laugh.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Blake and Weiss giggled at the scene before Summer fixed them with a look too.

"If you too think you're exempt from this talk, you're sorely mistaken. So, you can sit down by my daughter."

Summer's tone of voice had an immediate affect on the pair and the nervously sat down next to Yang so all three girls could bask in the ire at the same time.

"Now talk. When did you first find Ruby and why the hell didn't you tell me?"

Yang looked stunned by the venom in the woman's voice so Weiss decided she'd take this one instead.

"We, well Yang and I, met Rose for the first time on orientation day. At the time, we were blissfully unaware of who she was."

"Yang and you? What about Blake?"

The three girls cringed and looked at each other. Yang and Weiss tried to show her she didn't have to say it, but the girl seemed to already be convincing herself.

"I met her a few years ago...when I was still a part of the White Fang. I'll spare you the details-"

"Tell me everything."

It was Blake's turn to flinch.

"She and a woman from the bandit tribe that kidnapped her stumbled across us after leaving the scene of the assassination she performed that night. When the leader of our group couldn't convince her to join us, he ordered us to attack. The women Rose was with ordered her to kill everyone, but spared myself and the leader of our group."

A myriad of dark emotions flooded Summer's face, as well as Raven's.

"That's. Dammit."

Summer sighed and took some time to collect herself. She decided to get a nagging question out of the way.

"Why do you call her Rose? You know her name is Ruby."

The three teens looked very hesitant to answer that question. Yang decided to bite this bullet.

"That kinda has to do with when I found out she was Ruby...which was at the same time that I found out she was the Guilty Rose, Face of Death, or whatever else people call her. When I said her name out loud, she looked so confused. She had already told us that she didn't remember her name...maybe beaten out of her is more accurate."

"What?"

The word was a whisper full of venom.

Yang looked at her stepmother and let the pain and guilt she felt show on her face.

"She told us everything that happened after she was taken...It's bad."

A tear fell from Yang's eye. She had been doing her best to not face Rose's past, but everything that happened in the last few hours forced her to. And now the emotions were hitting her full force.

Weiss put a comforting hand on Yang's shoulder, squeezing softly.

"Miss Rose, I would like you to know that we were forbidden by Professor Ozpin from asking Rose about her past or telling others. And while we all agree that you should have been informed immediately, it was Rose that actually stopped us. But since we've already broken her trust..."

Summer grimaced at the pain in their faces, the shear amount of guilt they felt about calling her made her almost want to stop them.

"I hate to ask again, but..."

"You deserve to know everything. It just won't be easy to say or hear."

They all shifted uncomfortably and took a deep breath to ready themselves. Weiss looked at Yang, but could easily tell the blonde would have a hard enough time hearing the information.

"I'll start from the beginning of what Rose told us. From when she she was taken. She was taken by a tribe of bandits that went by the name of 'Oni'. As for why she was taken, she said the tribe wanted more members, but were so incompetent that she was the only child taken. Fr-from what she said, it was horrible. They beat her for what suspect to be their own amusement before they began to actually train her in martial arts. I've seen the scars from all this myself, Miss Rose."

Weiss looked to the ground. She had memorized every scar Rose had, and while she abhorred why Rose had the scars, she still found the marred skin to make the faunus regal in her eyes. Regal because the girl had suffered so much, yet still had such a beautiful heart.

Weiss apparently took too long in her musing as Blake picked up where she left off.

"After they considered her trained enough, they forced her to kill the only person in the tribe that showed any kindness to her. And then they forced her to kill others. I told you already how I met her, and by that time her moniker was well known."

Summer was already sick to her stomach, but she needed to hear this all the way to the end.

Blake opened her mouth to continue but audibly choked on the words. She glanced over at Weiss who nodded her understanding of the silent question.

"Rose told us that she tried to escape after a few years, she said she was caught before she even could attempt her escape. They locked her in a cage for a week with only enough water to live. That was when she met Cinder Fall, the leader of the team whose dorm we found her at. Cinder gave her the courage and idea on how to escape the tribe. Unfortunately that escape didn't happen until years later, when the Oni Tribe decided to attack another tribe. Though I don't recall the name of that other tribe."

"It was the Branwen Tribe."

All eyes fell on Raven, who looked beyond pissed.

"How do you know that?"

Raven bit her lip to quell her anger.

"I was away from the tribe, looking for Ruby no less, when it happened. I heard from my second all the details, or thought I did. I think I'm going to have come up with something creative for Vernal for neglecting to mention Ruby's actual description. So what happened after she escaped?"

"She said she roamed Vacuo for a year. Unfortunately, she was still being hunted that entire time. She had to continue killing people to just to survive. It was a little over seven months ago that she came to Vale to turn herself in because all she wanted to do was stop killing, and that is when Ozpin picked her up."

"Wait, Ozpin has not only known about her, but had her here for eight months! And he didn't tell us!"

"Yeah, I had the same reaction, mom."

Yang spoke up finally, though her voice quivered with pain.

"Rose made him promise not to tell us. She was terrified of what we would think about her when we found out about everything."

"We'd never!"

"I KNOW! But that's what she thought! We've been trying help her since the semester started, but it's been hard for her with the episodes and what happened at the docks tonight."

"Wait, what happened at the docks?"

The girls looked at each other with pained expressions.

"We decided to stop a heist of my family's company's freight by the White Fang."

"YOU WHAT!"

The girls shriveled under Summer's shout.

"We thought it would okay, just a lot of unprotected dust and all. But things went south. The White Fang was there in force, even Torchwick was there. I don't even want to imagine what they would have done to us if Rose hadn't...killed them."

"She killed them?"

Yang could only nod with a horrified expression, remembering the carnage again.

Summer saw this, she couldn't take anymore either.

"That's enough girls. that's quite enough for tonight. I'll wake everyone up so we can all go see Ruby together, so get what sleep you can."

The girls nodded numbly and all crawled into their beds, knowing that they wouldn't be getting any sleep.

….

"Rae, you still awake?"

Summer's question broke the two hour silence in the room.

"Of course I am. We all are."

Hitched breaths from across the room confirmed her statement.

"Oh."

"What did you need, Sum?"

"I wanted to ask you what I should say to Ruby in a few hours."

Raven went silent for a moment before pulling her lover into a tight embrace.

"Tell her you found her… Tell her you love her… Tell her you'll never let her go again."

Summer snuggled into the embrace with a small smile.

"Yeah, I think that sounds like the right thing to say."

Raven smiled and kissed the top of the woman's head.

"How did I get so lucky?"

"Mom...moms, you know none of us are asleep. So please keep the sappiness to a minimum."

Summer and Raven giggled.

"And don't forget you still owe me an explanation."

The giggles died at the idea of that awkward talk.

….

Morning had finally arrived in the dorm. Light leaked through the blinds and hit Cinder like it never had before. She refused to open her eyes and surrender to the sun, instead she snuggled into her body pillow's hair, that smelled exactly like Rose, to hide from the harsh rays of light. The pillow groaned and shifted to get comfortable again.

"Wait. Hair, smells like Rose, groans and shifted?"

Cinder's eyes popped open and she found her vision full of black and crimson hair. A wild blush developed on her face and she looked around to find how the sleeping pile had shifted in the lat few hours.

Rose was now wedged between Cinder and Neo, with Cinder spooning Rose and Neo face to face with the faunus. Emerald was spooning Cinder and had one arm draped over both Cinder and Rose.

Cinder really wanted to get so her heart could stop trying to explode. But as soon as she tried to, Rose whined.

"That's so unfair Rose."

It wasn't more than a few moments later when Cinder heard her scroll go off. Luckily, she had a free arm and her scroll was within reach. Upon retrieving the device, she unlocked it and found a message from Weiss.

We are on our way and I have the items you requested.

Cinder smiled mischievously before typing a response.

This will be quite fun.

Cinder looked at Neo and Rose for a moment and bit her lip. Her talk with Neo played in her head.

"Asking for help, huh?"

Weiss, I would like to talk to you about something regarding Rose while she is talking to her mother.

There was a brief pause, but soon a new message popped up.

Sure.

Cinder cringed, Weiss didn't use one word responses. She took a breath to solidify her resolve again. The breath was full of Rose's scent which did a remarkable job helping.

After a moment of consideration, Cinder took a picture of the pile.

With a final sigh, Cinder reluctantly pushed herself up, waking everyone in the process.

"Cin?"

"Good morning, Rose. Your team and mother are on their way. Weiss will be bringing you some clothes so you can get dressed before you see your mother."

Rose's eyes grew when Cinder said that. Anxiety was practically radiating off of the faunus.

"Rose, I promise you it's going to be okay."

Rose seemed to search Cinder's eyes for any sign of uncertainty or doubt, but the other team leader had none. Cinder knew that this day would be a very good day for the faunus.

The teens all began their morning rituals, aside from Rose who just sat on Cinder's bed still wrapped in the cover from the previous night.

The other girl's all decided to forgo showers that morning seeing as they would have company in a few minutes.

Finally Cinder's scroll buzzed again to reveal a message from Mercury.

Everyone's here again, you letting them in?

Instead of responding by text, Cinder quickly made her way to the door. She opened the door enough to stick her head out. She looked straight at Weiss first, who had brought clothes for Rose as asked.

"Hey Weiss, you come in first, Rose needs to get dressed first."

Weiss brought Rose a stack of clothing. Cinder noticed the pants weren't actually Rose's, but elected not to say anything. Instead she went to her closet and grabbed one of her white button up blouses. Weiss cocked an eyebrow when Cinder handed Rose the blouse, but said nothing too.

Rose looked between the two girls with a baffled expression before shrugging and walking into the dorm bathroom.

When Rose made it in, Cinder turned to Weiss to find her already waiting for whatever Cinder had to talk about.

"You said you had something to talk about regarding Rose."

"Yes, I wanted to ask you for help, I guess?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"Help? With what exactly?"

Cinder looked down and bit her lip, she was already regretting this. But she would press on.

One deep breath gathered her courage.

"I want your help to make Rose happy."

Weiss looked stunned.

"Excuse me?"

Cinder had only looked up long enough to see Weiss' reaction before looking back down.

"I want your help to make Rose happy. I can't do it on my own and I need help."

"I-I think I'm going to need some clarification, what specifically are you asking?"

Cinder chewed on her lip nearly to the point of drawing blood.

"I guess I'm asking if I...we can make her happy together?"

Weiss stared at Cinder for a moment.

"Are you asking if we can both be in a relationship with Rose at the same time?"

Cinder grimaced, there was a lot of venom in the heiress' voice, and it all belonged there. She also saw Neo giving her a look that said this wasn't what she meant when she said to ask for help.

"Yes, I am. I know its...unusual, but..."

Before Cinder could finish her sentence Rose came out of the bathroom with Cinder's blouse and a pair of silver blue women's slacks on. Normally such clothes would have made her writhe uncontrollably, but she seemed to actually be enjoying herself. There was a smile on her face and she kept sniffing her clothes and releasing sighs that almost sounded like giggles. Even her tail was swaying lazily.

Weiss and Cinder gawked at the scene before looking at each other.

They had both made Rose happy by giving her their clothes.

"I'll...consider it."

Weiss said with a face that said she would likely agree.

"You better, because if this is what you two can do when you're being competitive, I can only imagine what would happen if you cooperated."

Summer suddenly spoke up from her place behind the two girls after appreciating their handiwork, causing both girls to shriek and calling the entire room's attention to her. Everyone's attention except Rose who was still in her own world.

"How long have you been there?"

"The entire time."

"How?"

"I'm a tracker and a huntress, stealth is kind of my thing."

"Alright. So, you're okay with this?"

"Honey, my job is to track you down and skin you alive if you hurt her. Besides, look at that, you two make her happy. And from what I heard, she hasn't been happy since she was taken."

Both girls cringed in agreement. Then all three looked back at Rose who was still sniffing her clothes. Summer sucked in a deep breath.

"Ruby?"

The smaller faunus froze when she heard her name. Slowly, she looked up to meet the eyes of her mother.

A long tense moment passed.

"Mommy?"

Summer took a small step towards her daughter.

"It's me Rose, I'm here."

Rose didn't move, but she searched her mother's face for something.

And then it clicked.

She was waiting for those three words.

"I found you."

Rose's eyes went wide and tears began brimming in her eyes.

"Mommy!"

Rose burst into petals and crashed into her mother's chest, sobbing and clinging to her.

Summer slowly wrapped her arms around her daughter.

Her daughter that had been ripped from her arms twelve long years ago was finally back in her arms.

A/N: Holy Hell that was a chapter.

And I wanted to add to it.

Like I had to peel my fingers off my keyboard.

Also a buddy of mine kept encouraging me to write more. He seriously suggested I go for 10k words this chapter!

So I don't really want to do a full recap here, my fingers hurt enough. But, I think I need to explain a few points.

So, let's start with the scene with CEN and Rose. Again, I've been waiting months to write this scene. And again, you can blame this scene for why this story's official pairing is what it is.

Also, Emerald, that poor girl just had to look at Rose. No one survives a Rose pout for long.

Rose's dream. Ho boy was that a scene that hit me while I was writing and I HAD to add it. It sums up a lot of my future plans for this story as well as the present.

Now for Cin and Weiss' talk. There it is guys. The true start of the ship I have planned, and there will only be more scenes like this, so be ready. I promise most will melt your hearts.

And the end. We've all been waiting for it. Rose is finally found by her mother. I almost cried writing that, so I hope you did too.

Next chapter will be a continuation of the reunion, plus a bit of Summer and Raven spilling some beans. And another absolutely adorable and touching Fallen White petals scene, if I do say so myself.

Let's see, anything else...Ah, the official end of v1 will be either next chapter, or the chapter after next, just depends on if I want to write Ozpin actually being force fed his coffee mug.

So, this is the last call for the end of volume Q&A!

Alright that's all of my announcements, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Please follow, fav, and review!