Neo let out a, begrudgingly, satisfied breath as she released Ilia's neck, trying not to let the crawling of her skin or itch along her back distract her. The faunus girl's glazed eyes stared back at her as she came down from her forcefully induced high, something Neo tried not to acknowledge she was struggling with. As she beheld Ilia, she fought the urge to wretch and gag at what she had done. She failed; quickly turning away from the giggling mess of a girl besides her and emptying her stomach beside a bush.

It never got any easier; each time she swore it would be the last, that it was necessary, that she had no choice. She lied each time. The thought of a dozen familiar men and women, kneeling before her, a gun pointed at their heads flashed through her mind, only to be replaced with her newest victim.

'Like this?'

The safety flicked off. Her mouth dried and her hands shot out to halt the action of the conjured spectre.

'If you say so.'

A wordless scream tore through the edge of the forest.

'I love you; you know?'

No.

'You know I'd do anything for you.'

Don't.

'And I know you love me too, and…'

Please!

'You'd never lie to me.'

An innocent smile shone across the image's face as a silent shot rang out and the memory faded, the blood marring the image and a look of horror twisted across their face. She had betrayed them. She always did. She emptied her stomach again, the acidic residue scorching her throat. Many minutes passed identically, only eventually interrupted by a worried voice.

"Neo? Are you okay?"

The multicoloured monster peered up at the faunas who drunkenly got to her knees and began to crawl over, like a thirsting man to water. It was always this way, they needed her, they grew addicted to her, dependant even. It would only grow worse with time.

First, they would crave her attention, they would prioritise her over everything else, themselves included, family and friends would lose their meaning; there was simply Neo and everyone else. Then, it would become an obsession, she could do no wrong, if she wanted something, they would get it, if she disliked something, they would remove it. Finally, it would become worship. Nothing would matter except her, they would forgo basic survival needs if she wanted, often doing so until she expressed her need for them to live, too concerned with her needs to spare even glancing thoughts to their own, however dire.

She hated herself. She could let Ilia go; her grimm's power only lasted about a day at a time at first. It was like a drug, it would need to be reapplied several times in the near future before the effects grew to be permanent, they would still want her, but it could be overcome. She stopped her thoughts before they went too far.

She could not stop.

He would not let her.

"Neo?" The faunas tried again, this time reaching forward to touch her, only to be stopped when Neo flinched away from the outstretched limb. Ilia looked hurt at the gesture for a moment before quickly swapping back to concern. "Are you okay?"

She was not, but that was not the priority, fixing this mess of a situation and regaining her cover, however temporary, mattered much more. The shorter girl rose to her feet with a deep breath before giving a curt nod towards the faunas and gesturing for them to leave. It helped if she ignored her victims to the best of her ability, attachment would only make the ending harder.

Perhaps it was not accurate to call the room silent; anxious feet tapped against the floor and furniture alike, nails drummed against desktops, and bodies shifted in their seats, but, as Miltia sat in her dorm room, it was hard to describe it in any other fashion. There was no conversation, no animation, nothing but stifling anticipation. Only Melanie showed signs of life; pacing back and forth in the centre of the room, seemingly intent on leaving a permanent trail in the carpet as she repeated her route for the millionth time.

Miltia herself was sat on her bed, her back flat against the wall behind her and hands absentmindedly reaching for a packet of cigarettes that were not there as her stress mounted. Whilst she was, albeit barely, able to keep her panicked thoughts in check, the same could not be said for her sister, who ranted 'silently' using her semblance to convey her thoughts to her twin. Miltia would protest or stop her, but she knew prodding Melanie would only make matters worse, so she settled for quietly suffering over what would come from such action.

To her credit, Blake, their new teammate, seemed to read the atmosphere well and remained quiet whilst the sisters brooded. Blake was sat on her bed, like Miltia, a book open on her lap, with her lazily turning the pages every half a minute or so. However, it was apparent she was not truly focusing on her story. Occasionally, she would glance around the room or to the door, almost as if she anticipated the outcome as much as the sisters. Miltia was thankful for the silent solitude the girl was offering them and made a mental note to make such clear later after everything was cleared up. Being friends with the darkly dressed girl was looking like a promising avenue to pursue in the future.

The same, however, could not be said for the final occupant of the room. Weiss Schnee, Princess of Atlas, and, currently, the lightning rod for the twins' shared fury. The freakishly pale princess sat at Blake's desk, the picture of perfect posture and appearance, only marred by the annoyed scowl plaguing her lips whilst she waited. The twins had fully intended to deliver on their promise, the idea of beating Weiss senseless was tantalising and borderline euphoric to think about, but it appeared that sparring between teams had been prohibited until placement matches were completed.

It made sense; after all, if a student was injured, accidentally or otherwise, then they would be unable to participate tomorrow. So, with obvious contempt, the twins had let the princess off the hook, for now at least. However, to their disdain, Weiss was forced to wait for Ruby's return along with them.

Unfortunately, the dorm rooms required a student's ID card to open. Each card had a chip containing the student's details and information, including things like gender, age, team ranking, and individual ranking. Said ID cards had yet to be issued as whenever an individual's or a team's ranking changed, it would need to be manually updated at a professor's terminal in their offices. Since the ranking matches started tomorrow there was little point in handing them out, only to have each student forced to line up the next day so that they could be updated. Instead, a single, temporary card had been created for each dorm, each being trusted to a random team member to keep hold of it until they received their cards. As luck would have it, Neopolitan had been selected to keep hold of her team's card and was the only one who could collect it from the reception. That left Weiss with them, waiting in a mixture of muted irritation and anxious shuffling.

"Would you stop pacing already!" If Militia had not been quietly observing the signs of Weiss getting gradually more annoyed, she may have been surprised by the sudden outburst. She had a modicum of sympathy for the girl; she had been suddenly addressed with outrageous information and reacted about as well as Miltia probably would have given the situation. However, that did not excuse her, and it seemed her twin was far less forgiving than she was.

"Oh, forgive me, your highness. I apologise for allowing my deep-seated anxiety to show over something as minor as my sister's health, how undignified of me. You see, it's just that some stuck-up, no-good, blue-blooded, entitled bitch from the northern kingdom decided to stop gargling daddy's balls for a moment and set Ruby off when she was clearly not in a good frame of mind!" Weiss looked appalled and flinched back before retorting.

"How dare y…"

"Oh, did I mention that our adoptive father has been given less than a month to live, courtesy of a different, but equally abhorrent, princess? I would say that I have half a mind to kill both of them, but that would imply part of me didn't want to. And just between you and me, your majesty, it's only Miltia's voice in my head keeping me from making clothing out of your skin." Weiss simply stared, aghast, for several moments before scoffing.

"I fail to see how this is my fault." The princess ignored the warning growl from the seething twin. "Perhaps I may have been harsh with my wording, but need I remind you; your 'sister's' mere existence is treason. She's a monster, she could have killed us all in that hall. Who knows how long it will be before she'll turn feral if she hasn't already! You're lucky my phone is in my luggage or I…" Weiss rolled out of her chair just in time to watch a bladed heel slash the spot she had just been seated in. Reflexively, the princess called her semblance to the brink, ready to activate, but not bringing its might to bear. Melanie ignored the slowly dropping temperature as she tore her heel free, eyes ablaze with anger.

"Or you what?" The words were barely even whispered, but the whole room heard them clear as day, a threat lying in wait, waiting for an excuse to be carried out. Inwardly, Miltia cursed. This whole argument could be avoided if they were allowed to come clear with Ruby's heritage, but only the girl herself was allowed to disclose such information. She wasn't afraid of the legal repercussions as such, but they would breach Ruby's trust and that wasn't something they could afford, especially if she was as on edge as she seemed to be. The issue, however, was that, because Weiss didn't know, a much larger problem could come about. Miltia had hoped that Ruby would be back before the problem reached its climax, but, at the current rate, there may be a murder first. Weiss seemed all too happy to rise to Melanie's threat.

"Or I would have already alerted my father, along with the King of Vale, and she'd be dead!"

Miltia could hear a non-existent pin drop as the words hung gracelessly in the air, an ugly taunt that even she could feel herself rising to. Her rationality managed to keep her in check, nothing would happen to Ruby; she was a Branwen at the end of the day, but her palms still bled as her nails cut deep into her flesh. Melanie was not so reserved, her snarl more audible than the words she spoke.

"You're a dead bitch! I'm goin…" She was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the dorm's door. All heads turned towards the sound, momentarily forgetting the hostility between them, silent anticipation winning out over rage. No one moved to answer the door, causing a second, more agitated, knock to rap against the reinforced wood, accompanied by an equally irked voice.

"Hey, open up! We know you're in there!" Quickly, Miltia remembered herself, thankful for the sudden distraction, and eager to hear of what happened, she ran to open the door.

As the portal swung open to reveal a rather miffed Ilia and a pale looking Neo beside her, the twin couldn't help but notice how Blake's eyes darted over the top of her book a sudden confusion clear on her face. Miltia's attention was once again stolen back towards the returning duo.

"Yo, Mil, can we come in? You're kinda blocking the door." She shuffled clear of their path, allowing them entrance, her questions dying on her tongue as Melanie assailed the duo first.

"So?! What happened?!" The white-wearing twin strode towards them, her worry replacing her fury. Ilia held her gaze for a moment before answering and Miltia swore she could see something slip into the faunus' eyes, something akin to irritation perhaps? It faded as soon as it came, replaced by a sigh, the perfect picture of an overwhelmed teen.

"Ruby is… Well… We don't really know." No sooner had the words left her mouth than Melanie continued.

"What do you mean you don't know?!" She shouted, her confusion bordering on rage. "You were there, what happened?! Is Ruby hurt?! Did she hurt someone else?! Where's that ginger girl?! Did she get hurt?!" What…"

"Mel!" Miltia let out a stressed breath when Melanie paused. "Let them talk." The other twin moved to protest but was cut off as Ilia took the initiative first.

"I mean what I said. Ruby just… exploded… half the forest was covered, there were grimm everywhere, but Pe… we managed to beat them. Bart was there, he took both of them to his office, he said he wanted to talk to all of us later." A pregnant silence followed as she finished. Miltia recovered first.

"But Ruby's fine right?" She caught the faunus' twitch again the skin on her hands flickering a faint yellow and red for the briefest moment. She grew worried. "Right?" Eventually, Ilia nodded.

"She's fine, not a scratch, just unconscious…" Blake flinched suddenly from her corner of the room, causing the attention to flicker towards her. Ilia in particular seemed surprised at the reaction.

"Sorry," she said, "I just suddenly got a chill, it's nothing." Slowly, they accepted the response and turned back to each other. Weiss seized the opportunity to retake control over the conversation, standing up and walking over to the duo.

"Enough of this farce, Neopolitan, do you have the key-card for our room?" Neo looked at the princess quizzically for a moment before coming to some sudden realisation and fishing through her pocket for something. After a few awkward moments of her doing such, she produced a dark blue card with a large holographic chip on one side. A smirk sliced across Weiss' face as she turned back to the twins. "Good, now, if you would, I have a call to make." She made to walk out but was headed off by Melanie.

"You aren't going anywhere." Melanie looked down to the white-haired royal, a challenge burning in her eyes. Miltia moved to interject but was pushed aside as Weiss rose to the tempt, the temperature seemingly plummeting and her breath clouding her vision slightly.

"Hilarious; I don't remember asking for your opinion on the matter." Melanie got closer, their faces now barely an inch apart as they sneered at each other.

"And I don't remember the reason I haven't kicked your privileged ass to the moon and back yet." The smaller girl held her glare, a growl almost escaping her throat.

"Is that a threat?"

"What if it is?"

"I could mop the floor with you."

"Try it bitch!"

"Oh, do not tempt me, harlot!"

Miltia could feel the tension rise around her, and worse still, inside her head. Melanie's thoughts were screamed into their shared mental space, uncontrolled and uncensored in her rage, crashing around inside her skull like enraged animals. Each curse, each worry, each threat and promise alike were drowned out by each other, culminating into an inescapable, incomprehensible mass of noise.

This was not the first time this had happened; Melanie was in the majority control over their mental link; it being her semblance, and she had done it many times accidentally in the past. Perhaps it was some sort of coping mechanism, a burning need to get her feelings and words out to another, but not trusting anyone other than her twin enough to do so, and each time Miltia had struggled to keep herself sane. She loved Melanie, more than anything else in the world, but she could feel her mind begin to struggle against the onslaught her sister's panic brought with it.

She struggled to keep control of her own body, her mind was overloaded by the invasive thoughts, unable to tell her intentions from that of Melanie and a migraine hammering itself through her skull.

When they were young, Junior had told them that sometimes Miltia would speak or act as if she was Melanie, usually when her twin was stressed or overly emotional in some way. It had occurred less and less as they got older, Miltia becoming surer of herself and who she was apart from Melanie, but it never truly stopped. Miltia sometimes wondered if her overprotective nature around her twin was truly of her design, or rather a subconscious side-effect of Melanie's self-preservation response forcing itself upon her.

The mental tirade continued, along with the actual argument, robbing her of her senses, dulling her perception and overwhelming her.

"Ruby is a Branwen!"

Miltia's mind cleared, Melanie's shock stopping her fury momentarily and releasing her twin from her accidental torture. Slowly, as she regained her bearings, Miltia joined the rest of the room in staring at the source of the interruption, Ilia. The faunus scanned the room, apparently annoyed with the appalled expressions she received from her sisters.

"What?" The twins tried and failed, to not choke over her words as Ilia stared them down. Weiss, once again, recovered first, straightening herself and fixing her slightly ajar jaw.

"Hah! Adorable; do you honestly believe that I would fall for such a tactic? Stalling for a time by making a preposterous proposition, laughable. Next, I'm to believe she's the bastard daughter of non-other than Crown-Prince Qrow himself." She chuckled to herself before wiping an invisible tear from her eye, allowing steel to re-enter her gaze. Only to flinch at the surprised looks the twins wore on their faces. She huffed another laugh, raising her eyebrows as she did so.

"Oh please, you don't honestly think I would…" She trailed off as their expressions did not change. "You can't be serious".

Ruby was not sure what she found most disturbing; the scene around her far more alien than she had expected to wake up to. To start, she had fainted again, her grimm had grown too restless, too powerful, and too massive for her to handle, the constant raving of the beasts had overwhelmed her, and she had once more lost control.

What was most unsettling about it, however, was the fact that the constant thrum they made inside her head had dulled, not truly gone but fainter, further away. It was like the space the sound filled had gotten larger and thus it echoed less or at least quieter, the sounds made more sense, almost audible without overwhelming her. Most of the time, after an outburst, she would wake up feeling better, but it was only temporary whilst the grimm replenished their numbers and strength within her shadow. This time, however, was different, the grimm were not tired, or worn out, or even low in number, they simply did not fill the space anymore.

Besides the obvious issue, though, were a few other things. First was that the grimm rose seemed exhausted, the heads of the roses were drooping and withered as if starved of the necessary nutrients. It had quickly begun to recover, a faint draw on her strength recognisably directed towards it, the drain didn't bother her, but its state of decay did. What happened?
Next, was the fact that she had awoken to Penny simply staring at her in a measured silence, even as she made to interact with the ginger girl she was simply ignored as she seemingly just took in as much detail about Ruby as she could. It was an uneasy feeling to be watched so thoroughly, and as much as it would be apparent to most people that she didn't appreciate it, Penny seemed to ignore her distressed look and continued her muted judgement.

Finally, but perhaps most shockingly, Bart… was drinking tea. At first, she had thought she was dreaming; her uncle would rant for hours about the superiority of coffee, listing various facts and statistics that would slam the other beverage as nothing more than inferior and pointless. And yet, after pinching herself, she beheld the professor practically chug the liquid as he scrambled over notes and worked, unaware of her awaking.

"Bart?" Her words came out raspy and she suddenly became aware of how dry her throat was. A brief press of her nose to her jacket confirmed that she had recently been drenched in sweat, the now damp material giving off an unpleasant musk around it. Her uncle practically leapt from his seat as she spoke knocking several items and papers off his incredibly messy desk and shattering something ceramic that went sailing over the far edge. The professor ignored all of the destruction his movement caused, instead, choosing to hurriedly move over to his niece, navigating the paperwork jungle like a native and making it over in no time.

"Ruby, thank goodness; I was beginning to think that you had entered a coma or something." Ruby grimaced at his remark, it was unfortunately something she had become accustomed to over the years. Her grimm had rendered her unconscious many times in her life, often as a result of exertion be it physical or mental. She had yet to remain unconscious for more than a week at a time, but, throughout her life, she had been in a coma-like state for a total of what was around two months. Each time she would dream, sometimes endlessly wandering the garden, heavily populated by roses and serene, other times running from the endless tide that was her grimm. Nothing had spoken to her in her dreams, not since she had fought with Nora as a child. A bright light invaded her vision and thoughts alike.

"Interesting." Bart crouched in front of her as he inspected what she could only assume was her face, but more accurately her eyes. For a long moment, she sat in silence as he hummed to himself, arriving at many unspoken conclusions or theories before, eventually, realising how invasive he was being. "Sorry, it's just a rather unique change has caught my attention now that you are awake." Ruby simply looked at him quizzically, or at least she tried to; struggling to banish the dots in her vision caused by his miniature torch.

"Change?" He nodded, quickly pulling out his phone and taking a picture of her face with the flash causing her to flinch back as she was once again blinded for a moment.

"Look for yourself." He said perhaps a little more enthusiastically than was appropriate and handed her the phone.

Still reeling from the flash, she took a while to make out what it was he was alluding to. Noticing her struggle, he pressed two fingers to the screen and spread them, enlarging the image on what he wished to direct her attention to. Her eyes widened as she beheld the now obvious change in the image. There, hidden near the edges of her eyes, she could make out parts of her sclera that were inexplicably black. She stared at the picture, trying her hardest to decipher why such a phenomenon happened. Eventually, she was stirred by a gentle tap on her shoulder, a glance revealed it to be Bart, seemingly having left and returned with a glass of water which she greedily consumed. Bart chuckled, tired but light-hearted.

"I don't suppose you understand what this is, or had a nifty dream telling you or something?" It was Ruby's turn to huff a small laugh at the comment and shake her head. Bart sighed. "No, I didn't think so, but one could always hope." He pulled his glasses off his face, wiping the lenses on a cloth he produced from his pocket and looking slightly downtrodden all the while. "Unfortunately, we do not have the time to find out; both your team and your sisters' have questions, and, in the case of a certain princess, I can only hold them off for so long." His niece nodded, playing with her hands, and staring into the distance as she thought about how she would do so. Her attention was stolen back when the professor stood back up and slowly moved over towards Penny who finally tore her gaze from the other girl.

"Miss Polendina, I understand that my niece is quite the spectacle, but something else seems to be bothering you, would you mind explaining what that is?" For many silent moments, the ginger girl stared up at him, studying him, before eventually she turned back to Ruby and replied with a question of her own.

"What are you?" Ruby flinched as Penny's eyes narrowed and seemed to try and look through her. Luckily, Bart decided to step in on her behalf.

"Ruby is, as you are, host to a grimm." Penny looked confused for a moment before her expression changed and she adopted a more annoyed expression.

"No." Her reply was curt and definite. Both Ruby and Bart were taken aback but before they could protest or retort the Atlesian girl continued. "Please do not insult my intelligence, I have memorised all available public records, so that I may better learn about the grimm, and something or someone even remotely similar to Ruby is not documented." The other two simply continued with their befuddled looks.

"If you could please expand further, perhaps it would be easier to answer your question." Penny pondered his response for a moment before acquiescing to do so.

"Of the four-hundred and eighty-seven recorded grimm hosts since the formation of Vale, be they a rogue or a member of the Branwen family, none have shown the ability to grow further." When they still did not reply, Penny continued. "Theories suggest that this is due to the host's inability to absorb emotion and their short lifespans when compared to the grimm with which they are partnered; with such little time to adjust to the host's body, combined with a lack of catalyst, bonded grimm are unable to evolve beyond the state of which they were first infused. Growth amongst grimm hosts is often measured by the human's ability to master the power they are given and their dominion over their respective grimm." Penny slowly pushed herself to her feet, walking towards Ruby as if sizing her up after doing so. "So why is it that your grimm is not only capable of growth, but also doing so at a highly accelerated rate, beyond what even a standalone grimm should be capable of?" There was a long minute of silence as the synthetic girl drew close to Ruby, her eyes nary more than a few inches from her own.

Ruby could feel the tension practically vibrate through the air as the ginger girl all but pinned her against the cleared off desk on which she sat. Risking a glance at her uncle she could see him slowly reach under his desk, preparing for something she prayed would not happen. She quickly returned her gaze to her new teammate, only to flinch at what she saw. Penny was positively beaming, her large green eyes wide like a puppy and a goofy grin plastered across her face.

"This is fantastic!" Penny practically squealed as she somehow managed to get even closer and excitedly inspect Ruby's face, focusing on her eyes. Ruby tried and failed to put some distance between them, hindered by the desk and Penny almost leaning over her. Ruby finally spoke up, more in an attempt to regain her personal space than to converse.

"What's fantastic?" Penny suddenly drew back as if in utter shock at the question before giggling and tacking a step back, much to Ruby's pleasure.

"You're weird." Ruby and Bart shared a look and each cocked an eyebrow at the ginger's response. Luckily, she elaborated. "You're really weird, like me."

Suddenly, Penny jumped forward, seizing Ruby by the waist, hoisting her into the air with ungodly strength and span around in a circle, giggling all the while. "You don't know what you are, like me!" Ruby began frantically flailing in the girl's grip, afraid the girl, who was barely larger than herself, would drop her.

"Penny… please…" The spinning began to give her a headache and she struggled to keep her stomach intact, all the while Penny obliviously sped up. "Stomach…" Thankfully, Bart noticed her plight and managed to stop Penny by putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I am glad to see you have found some common ground with Ruby, after all, it was the reason Winter suggested you come to Beacon. But I think you should give my niece a little more time to recuperate from today's events, don't you?" Penny suddenly let Ruby down, almost dropping her on the floor, and gasped, covering her mouth with both hands.

"You're right. Apologies friend Ruby, I let my excitement get the better of me." Ruby grumbled lightly as she steadied herself and fought off nausea from being rag-dolled. After a moment of centring, she gave the ginger girl a small smile, the most she could muster, before turning to Bart with a confused look.

"Winter?" There was a pause before the professor moved to explain, but Penny took his hesitation as an inability to answer, stepping up instead.

"Yes. Crown-princess Winter Schnee was quite adamant I go to Beacon to study; with the intentions of me meeting someone similar to myself." Ruby looked to her uncle who nodded his head, affirming what Penny had said. Ruby's confusion didn't fade.

"As in Atlesian princess Winter?" Bart simply nodded, his puzzlement showing, unsure of where his niece was taking this. "You didn't think to specify?" The historian quickly made to defend himself, but Penny was once again faster.

"Do not worry friend Ruby; over their many shared messages, the princess had made it quite obvious she prefers him to call her by only her given name." Ruby's eyes widened as she looked to Penny.

"'Many' being?" Once more the green-haired man tried to interject. Too slow.

"One-hundred and seventy-three over the last two days." The smaller girl looked incredulously at her uncle, who raised a hand to speak, only for his phone to let out a high-pitched beep. "One-hundred and seventy-four" Penny chimed in, much to Bart's chagrin. A smirk slid across Ruby's face.

"Bart…" This time, set on getting a word in before he could be overwhelmed again, the professor responded, hiding his lightly flushed face all behind his hand as he feigned scratching his forehead.

"I think it's time we call your teams over and explain what is going on, don't you, I do, we should do that, don't worry I will, just give me a minute." His words were rushed, and he hurriedly made his way out of his office, the sound of laughter chasing him down the hallway.

AN: As always thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. I know this chapter was very delayed from the last release, right after I said I would try and fix my schedule as well. However, as I'm sure you all know, the world is on fire and life happened. The next chapter is a pretty big one plot-wise and originally it was part of this chapter, but, 5k words in and after so long, I thought it would be better to let out a chapter in hopes everyone who reads my work doesn't abandon me. I am now using Grammarly in hopes it helps reduce errors and makes the story read better. Reviews and constructive criticism would be phenomenal and appreciated, especially if my pacing comes off as either too fast or slow.

-Tabaxi