A/N: This chapter was supposed to be done two days ago...but yeah, that didn't happen.

I don't have much in the way of pre-chapter notes besides that I'm finally back to canon times. This chapter will be the same day as the first episode of volume 2.

The notes at the end of the will give you some insight if you so desire to read them.

Enjoy the chapter!

I don't own RT or RWBY

Guilty Rose Chapter 32

Rose took another deep breath as she paced in her dorm room again. The rest of her team was out getting ready for the new semester.

She had finally decided on a way to help Cin. She would tell Ozpin about Cin's past and see if he'd offer her amnesty and asylum in exchange for information, the same deal he made with her.

But Rose knew it wouldn't be quite that easy, she was bargaining on Cin's behalf without her consent.

"This will work, it has to."

Rose's third attempt at self assurance fell short of what she wanted, but did give her the confidence to leave her dorm and head towards Ozpin's office. The whole way, she went over everything she'd say again and again.

Her speed gradually increased as she kept moving, as if she was trying to outpace her insecurity about her plan.

By the time she was passing Glynda who was leaving the elevator to Ozpin's office, she was already using her semblance at near full power. Glynda was nearly blown off her feet by the draft off of Rose. After stumbling back into the elevator and realizing who just ran passed her, she grabbed Rose by the shoulders.

"Rose, what's going on? Why are you running like that?"

Rose looked up at Glynda with her big eyes while she tried to catch her breath.

"I need to talk to Ozpin about Cin!"

Rose didn't realize in her adrenaline-fueled state that she yelled that at Glynda, who then started to panic thinking that Cinder had revealed her true colors.

"Rose calmed down and tell me what happened, is everyone okay?"

Rose's eyes contorted in confusion as she looked up at Glynda. She then took a moment to fully catch her breath and calm down.

"Everyone's fine, I'm just trying to help Cin out."

Glynda was taken back by that. After she heard the evidence against Cinder and her team, she had taken to keeping a near constant eye on them. Though of course, she found nothing.

"Oh… um, what does she need help with exactly?"

Glynda winced at that pathetic attempt to get information out of Rose. Rose just looked down and chewed on her lip in indecision.

Part of her wanted to only talk to Ozpin, but the other part of her trusted Glynda to help and she would need allies for this.

"Cin has a past like mine...but she also doesn't want to let it define her."

Glynda blinked owlishly.

"You know about Cinder's past?"

Rose returned the previous gesture.

"You know her past, too?"

The pair stared at each other for a moment, trying to gauge the other's opinion on the subject of their conversation. Finally, Glynda spoke up again.

"Are you vouching for her?"

Rose held Glynda's eyes for another moment before nodding slowly.

"Yes."

Glynda smiled softly, she was aware of Rose's romantic situation and was slightly concerned, but seeing how resolved to help Cinder.

"Then I'll help, let's go see Ozpin together."

Rose's head fell, not in shame but in an odd fit of happiness.

"Thank you."

Glynda's smile grew a bit more and punched the button for Ozpin's office. They elevator began its ascent and the two stood in a comfortable silence until the chime indicating their stop.

"Glynda? You just left?"

"I ran into Rose when I left the elevator, she needs to talk to you and wanted me here for emotional support."

Ozpin's turned to Rose who was discreetly trying to hide behind Glynda now that her courage was starting to falter again.

"I see, well then, how can I help you?"

Rose took one more moment to go over what she'd say again. Glynda saw this and grabbed Rose's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. Rose looked up and gave her teacher an appreciative nod.

Finally, Rose looked at Ozpin with all the resolve she could muster.

"I'm here to talk with you about Cin's past. From what Glynda said, I'm sure you've already heard about the people she's worked for and some of the things she's done."

Ozpin regard Rose for a moment, much like Glynda had before.

"So, you are aware of it too."

Rose nodded firmly at Ozpin, she was now too far to turn back. Ozpin let out a sigh before looking back at the faunus.

"Knowing you're involvement with Cinder, I can assume you are trying to bargain for her to remain free."

"Yes...but she doesn't know I'm doing this."

Ozpin quirked an eyebrow at this.

"So you're telling me that any deal we make here, may not hold up when we approach her."

"No, she will accept the terms I set, I know she will."

"And what assurance can you give me that she will accept this deal, Miss Rose?"

Rose looked down and considered what she would say.

"What assurance did you have when you offered me a place here."

"That was and is a different matter Rose, you weren't sent her on an infiltration mission."

Rose glared at the man.

"No, I was just the most infamous killer on Remnant."

Glynda and Ozpin were dumbstruck by the outburst. They had seen her outbursts before, but those were only anger directed at herself.

Ozpin managed to recover a moment later.

"Rose, you have to understand, you are making a deal on her behalf without her knowledge or consent. Plus, the crimes we have evidence of her committing are of a much darker nature than yours."

Silence hung in the air as the two stared at each other.

"Ozpin, Cin is the reason I escaped the Oni Tribe. She is the reason I'm here. And I know that if I let her stay with whoever she's with, you'll eventually send me to hunt her down and kill her. So that's why I'm here. I'm here to ask you for the chance to save her before it's too late."

Ozpin held Rose's gaze a moment longer before sighing, he couldn't refuse when she said it like that.

"Very well, what kind of deal were you hoping for?"

A small smile developed on Rose's lips.

"The same deal you made with me. Amnesty and asylum in exchange for all the information she can offer."

Ozpin's brain nearly came to a halt at this. It never occurred to him to try and get information from one of Salem's agents voluntarily like this, mostly because he never thought it would work. This was undoubtedly the best opportunity for information on Salem he had in centuries.

"If she agrees, then yes."

Rose's smile grew and her tail began to sway.

"I'll go tell her now."

Ozpin nodded to the faunus as she turned back to the elevator and dashed for it.

"I'll make the necessary preparations."

….

"Okay Neptune, I need you to listen to me, and I mean really listen. Don't. Be. You."

Sun was walking his partner to Beacon Academy's cafeteria for the final bit of his tour. Helping transfer students was an official job of his since he was caught stowing away on a ship, harassing police officers, and evading arrest. And now it was time to help his actual team, though the other half just wanted to sleep after their trip to Vale.

Neptune however, wanted to see the campus, or more accurately see the girls on campus. Which had Sun worried for his well being already.

"What does that even mean? Don't be me? I'm awesome, how could I not be me."

Sun facepalmed for a few seconds. He would make one more effort to save his partner's life before leaving him to his fate.

"Look, these are real huntresses-in-training, not the pretty asses you chased back in Vacuo."

Sun watched his partner feign offense at the comment.

"I chased huntress-in-training at Shade too."

Sun grit his teeth at his partner's idiocy.

"You know what, fine, go be you."

Neptune puffed his chest out triumphantly.

"Glad to see you're seeing things my way."

"Yeah, no, I'm just not going to be a part of this."

Sun shook his head as he came to that conclusion. He then waved his hand dismissively towards the cafeteria.

"Why don't you just head on to the cafeteria, I'll catch up later, I gotta go tell the parole officer I did my job."

"Okay, more ladies for me."

Sun sighed as he pulled out his scroll and opened up the RFC group chat. The group chat was currently full of pictures of Rose being dressed up in all different kinds of outfits, again.

Sun let out another tired sigh.

The last one looks the best in my opinion.

Also guys...I failed to talk my partner out of being a complete and utter fuckboi.

Make his death painless, I owe him that much.

Sun looked up to see Neptune still approaching the cafeteria. Then his scroll went off again.

No promises~

Sun gave Neptune's back a final salute after he read Coco's message.

"He's a dead man."

….

Weiss knew she'd have to put up with the complete human scum that was Sun Wukong's partner, but she didn't know he'd be this bad. He was worse than the suitors her father kept throwing at her, at least one or two of them had the decency to ask if she would agree to marry them.

No, Neptune was everything Sun had warned her and the rest of the RFC about and then some. He'd try and try for each girl he saw and after so many refusals, he would move to the nearest girl without missing a beat.

And now it was Weiss' turn in the barrel. She couldn't help but internally sigh that if she hadn't met Rose, she might have found this cretin handsome. But with no such delusions, she found his lackluster pickup lines and foolhardy persistence beyond infuriating. Thus she began counting the ways she could physically, socially, and economically ruin his life to keep from actually doing so.

"So snow angel, did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"

"Oh dear Oum, did he actually use that line? Again? I think I'd rather listen to Yang's puns for a week straight than listen to him attempt to flirt for a minute."

When Weiss finished that thought, she noticed something peculiar. The entire cafeteria was dead silent. Which at Beacon, silence was entirely unnatural.

And a glance to the entrance of the cafeteria revealed the cause of the silence.

There stood Rose, staring at her and Neptune.

"Neptune."

"Yes, snow angel?"

"I can't say it was a pleasure knowing you. However, I am happy to say that I won't be knowing you for long."

Neptune looked at her in utter confusion as he tried decipher what she meant by that, though he never got the chance to finish before the storm of petals found him.

….

Rose had messaged Cin to see where she and her team were so she could talk. Though oddly, the only response Rose got was that they were in the cafeteria dealing with something and that they would meet with her afterwards.

She was going to accept the response considering what she had just done, but she messaged her team to ask if they wanted to have lunch together and they gave the same response as Cin. That had Rose worried, so she made her way to the cafeteria intent on finding out what was wrong and attempting to help.

She was not expecting the problem to have blue hair and talking to Weiss.

She saw the boy grinning and chatting at Weiss, which Weiss obviously found irritating. This made a feeling bubble up in Rose that she only found vaguely familiar. It was like the night at the docks when she saw the White Fang grunts closing in on her team, except this time Weiss wasn't actually being threatened.

"Snow angel."

That was the only phrase Rose heard, and it echoed in her mind. Not because of the words themselves, but the way he said them. Rose didn't even notice her face twisting into a snarl, nor when her body took off towards its target.

She did register the impact of her hand on the blue haired boy's head and the following impact of her hand pushing his head through the table Weiss was sitting at.

There was a collective sympathetic hiss of pain from the entire population of the cafeteria, followed by a few cheers, groans, and the distinct sound of lien being pulled out and stuffed into pockets.

Still seeing red, Rose gripped the boy's hair and ripped him from the table only to release and let him flop onto the tile.

Rose stood over the prone form panting while waiting to see if he'd make another move. But the blue haired boy just laid there with confusion and food plastered on his face. Finally a voice brought her out of her vigil.

"Hmph, I was actually hoping you would use your knife, thank you nonetheless though."

Rose's head snapped to her who now had a hand on her shoulder. Weiss must have saw that her joke wasn't found to be as funny as it was intended to be.

"Hey, it's fine. If you hadn't done it then someone else would have. Now let's get you some food and head back to the dorm before people start congratulating you again."

Rose nodded an affirmative before turning to Cin and her team.

"Want to come with, I still need to talk to you. It's really important."

Cin stared at the faunus for a moment, obviously perturbed by the talk being important. Sparing a glance at the still dazed Neptune, Cin shrugged.

"Sure, the cafeteria lost its appeal anyway."

The two teams formed up and began walking to the exit with Neo lagging behind. The ice cream colored girl looked at the group, then at Neptune. The girl finally shrugged before delivering a swift kick to the boy's balls. Neptune's released a high pitched whine while Neo skipped back to the rest of the group.

Cinder shook her head at the smiling mute.

"Neo, as your team leader, I must chastise you for harming him. Also, as your team leader I must commend you for hitting such a small target."

Most of the group sniggered as the mute cutely feigned guilt.

….

After the teams had finished eating together and talking about their plans for the new semester, Rose had taken it upon herself to walk Cinder and her team back to their dorm. Not that Cinder minded this at all, in fact it was quite lucky as Cinder wanted to talk to her team and Rose about official joining Ozpin's side of the war.

Though her nerves on the subject kept her silent until they did manage to get to the dorm.

"So Rose, about you wanting to talk to me, I have something I need to talk to you about afterwards."

When Cinder spoke up, she had been so deep in thought that she hadn't realized that Rose was much the same.

"Huh? Oh, that's fine...though I'm not sure you'll want to talk to me after what I have to say."

Rose's nervous fidgeting had Cinder worried as she tried to imagine what the girl could possibly have to say that would warrant such an announcement.

Cinder dismissed the dark thoughts as she closed the door behind everyone and they all took their usual spots in the dorm room.

"So what's so important that you have to tell me?"

Cinder tried to add as much levity to her voice to keep the situation from becoming heavy. Though the deep breath Rose took more than countered her efforts.

"I talked to Ozpin about your past."

A/N: Shorter chapter than the last few and a cliffhanger...sorry.

Though a clarification on why I did this is because I didn't want to write another 4-5k and because I thought it was better this way.

Alright, on to the recap!

So the talk scene. That one was interesting to set up, I really had to play with and strain the implicit trust that Glynda and Ozpin have given Rose. As well I had to present Ozpin logically realizing that this was the chance of his current lifetime. I'm not sure though that I captured how nerve wracking the whole experience was for Rose and I apologize for the shortcomings of my abilities to write that.

Next scene is Sun and Neptune. Come on guys, I had to bring them in eventually. Sun, I decided he's been on campus arrest and that of course means he was dragged into the RFC. His job is mostly "hired muscle" but he has more jobs I will disclose later. Neptune on the other hand, is well Neptune.

Neptune hitting on every female in sight and getting caught by Rose. Yeah, we all saw this coming one of two ways, and I'm proud I chose this way… just imagining the poor sod hitting on Rose is nightmare inducing.

Alright, the cliffhanger scene, yeah, this next chapter will test my ability to write something fierce. So wish me luck!

that's it for notes, see you in a week or so!

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