Ruby descended the stairs of her home in the early hours of the morning, sun cascading through the stain glass windows of the house. She was in her usual pajamas covered in roses, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with one hand and stretching with the other arm while she yawned. As she reached the bottom, she looked around for any signs of life, heading to the living room as she called, "Neptune? Penny? Nora?"

Ruby heard nothing and found just the same in the living room, plopping down on the couch before sighing, "Figures. Just another day in paradise."

She leaned back into the couch, nuzzling for comfort and shutting her eyes to catch some more sleep. She would have, had it not been for a whistling to her right. Already knowing who it was, Ruby tentatively turned and opened her eyes, finding her sister leaned against the doorway to the room. Ruby sat back up, propping her elbows on her knees as she pinched the bridge of her nose, groaning, "Fuck...what do you want?"

"I'm your sister, I don't want anything. Come on, your company's good enough, huh? Same as always." Yang replied, strolling to the couch and seating herself next to Ruby.

Ruby drew her nearest hand from Yang in poorly disguised disgust and scooted away from Yang, replying, "Yeah...thanks. I really appreciate that."

"So, family ain't back yet, huh?"

"Nope."

"Oh, he's a goddamn fool, Ruby." Yang comforted.

Ruby sighed, confiding, "Despite the chaos of these last few weeks, I think I've finally figured it out," Ruby paused, shifting around uncomfortably as she admitted, "It does sound ridiculous."

"No. No, it actually does not sound ridiculous. Y'know? Because you, you're a killer. You are a woman of action! You do not sit on couches, you take scores! You're back, Ruby, we are back! Alright? All we gotta do is go bust out Velvet and then we're golden! Blake, she makes us multicultural, and Weiss makes it cyber. We're like the kingdoms when they stopped fighting, fucking, and feasting on each other! We just get ourselves a gay friend, BAM!" Yang ranted.

"Not, it's not it. I got money, it just makes you miserable. Look at Weiss! She hates her fucking family, cowers in fear of her dad, and wants to kill her sister for inheriting the Schnee Dust Company. I want to do something meaningful with my life. I want to start a family. Not just adoptions to cover our asses. I wanna be a mother."

Yang slouched into the corner of the couch, musing. "Great, that's great...and uh...so where exactly does this leave me in the second act of your life?"

"What do you mean? We're still sisters, Yang."

"So, what are you saying? Am I a godmother? You gonna kick me out like a pitbull because you've got kids now and you can't trust me?"

"I think it'd be best if we stopped meeting after we get this mess all sorted out." Ruby confessed, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"We're done, just like that then, huh?"

"Yeah. I can't risk it any more, Yang. I want to have my own children. I can't be playing these fucking games with the cops. It'll all catch up eventually."

"This is not a game to me! This is a fuckin' way of life!"

"I got a fuckin' family!"

"Yeah, well, I got nothin'! No one gives a fuck about me!" Yang slammed her fist on the couch, breathing heavily out of her nostrils.

Ruby spoke up moments later, "I do. You're all I have for a family right now, Yang. Dad and our moms are all dead, or they might as well be. I love you, Yang, but you being around my children...I don't want to risk getting pulled into any unnecessary shit that could cost me all of this."

"Oh, fuck you," Yang roared, getting off the couch and wagging her finger at Ruby as she sneered on, "I saw your grave. I mourned you. And then it turns out that everything I fucking thought about you was wrong. Everything! You're not dead and you're not a woman."

Ruby shot up to her feet, demanding of her sister, "Well, what the fuck are you?!"

"I'm your fucking nightmare!"

"Yeah, enough with your goddamn threats! Unless you're gonna kill me, get the fuck out of my house!"

Yang glared on at her sister, turning to leave as Ruby seated herself. However, Yang stopped at the doorway, raising a pointed finger as she continued, "Let me...let me just ask you something, alright? Something I've been, I've been thinking about. Up in Atlas...exactly who was buried in your place?"

Ruby shrugged her shoulders and clasped her hand together, emotionlessly replying, "I never gave it any thought."

Yang's face quickly changed from confusion to anger as she pointed her finger at Ruby, "You know what I'm thinking?"

"I have no clue."

"You treacherous piece of shit! You're fucking dead! You're fucking dead!" Yang cried out, storming out of the house.

"Oh, shit..." Ruby muttered, following her sister.

Ruby threw on a pair of slippers before she made it out the door, just as Yang took off in Ruby's Tailgater. "Motherfucker!"

Ruby charged ahead at Yang, the car turning a hard corner as Ruby suddenly appeared in the street in a flurry of roses. Yang sped off toward the Vineyard Hills, Ruby waving down an oncoming taxi, hopping in the back and telling the driver, "Get me to Valerian Airport and step on it."

As the driver hurried to the airport, Ruby dialed Yang's scroll, immediately being met with, "Fuck you!"

"Hey, come on. Where are you going?" Ruby asked.

"You know where I'm going. Fuck you!"

"You don't need to go all the way to Atlas to find out what I can tell you over a couple beers back at my house. Come on, we'll order pizza."

"Well, when you put it like that, fuck you! Fuck your pizza! Fuck everything it stands for!"

"Yang, this is insanity."

"Ho, no. No, this is clear and reasoned thought, finally."

"Stop your car, come on. Come back, we'll talk."

"Oh, I'm not gonna listen to another one of your lies!"

"Hey, I'll lay it all out for you. Everything. Just stop the car. Turn around."

"I'm going up there to see it for myself."

"You'll be disappointed."

Yang laughed madly on the other line, rebuffing, "Oh, I'll be something."

"It'll be an anti-climax. The grave's empty. Just a bag of sand, something like that. Just smoke and mirrors."

"UGH The lies! How do you do it, Ruby?! The game is up!"

"I'm trying to save you a trip."

"You've done me enough favors, sis, alright? Save your fucking breath."

"Yang, come on..."

"Fuck you, Ruby! Soon enough, I will."

Yang ended the call as she turned onto the freeway north towards the desert, tapping her scroll as she called Junior, "YANG! It's great to, uh..."

"Junior, get your worthless as to the airfield and gas up Ol' Faithful. I'd say one of my friends had it delivered to me, but who the fuck knows how deep this rabbit hole goes, Junior. I can't trust anyone. Not even you." Yang ordered.

"What?! Yang, calm down, you can trust me!"

"Prove it! Get that fucking plane gassed up by the time I get there or you're next on my list!"

"Yang, please, I'm on your side! Are you okay?"

"Everything is not okay! Nothing has ever been okay! But I got to go see it for myself! I'm going to go see an old friend, alright? If you're where I think you are, Velvet..."

"Yang, you're not making sense!"

"I don't know why I didn't see it. I guess...I guess I didn't want to. Fuck!"

"Yang, I'm begging you, slow down and take a breath. You're scaring me!"

"Maybe I knew all along. I'm gonna find out for sure, and I'm gonna...do something about it. There was always something wrong with that job. With what went down after. I guess I...I guess I wanted to believe. Fucking...fucking flea circus! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"

"I'm sorry, Yang, but please, calm down."

"Oh, somebody's gonna be sorry, and it'll be you if that fucking plane isn't ready to go by the time I get there, Junior! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you, Ruby!"

Yang continued to careen down the freeway, turning off towards the desert and screaming towards the airfield as raindrops began to come down to earth. She skidded to a stop at the airfield, finding Junior emptying the last drops of fuel out of a can into a rusted old duster, Yang paying him now mind as she hopped into it and barreled down the strip. As she took flight, the rain came down in sheets, soaking the blonde and disguising the tears of fury and anguish she let loose. Her own emotions and the cacophony of the storm made her unaware of a text warning her from Junior, which read, "Shit, Yang! There's sum Chinese guys here asking where ur flying. I think they're Ren's..."

As soon as Yang hung up, Ruby went to work on her scroll, Ozpin's voice echoing out, "Special Agent Ozpin."

"Shit, Ozzy. Shit, she knows. I think she knows." Ruby blurted.

"What? Who?"

"Think!"

"Shit. Shit! How?"

"I don't know how, she used her head."

"But does she know? Does she know it all?"

"Hey, she's on her way up to Atlas now to confirm her suspicions."

"Shit, then what?!"

"Then who fuckin' knows what?! I don't know! I'm going to go see if I can reason with her...fuck me."

"Well, I'd come but I-I-I..."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. This is between me and her. Besides, if it goes wrong up there, I'm sure you aren't far down her list."

"That's good to know. Stay safe, Ruby."

"I'll do what I can, Ozpin. If you don't here from me in the next 24 hours...assume the worst."

With that, Ruby ended the call and parked her ride came to a screeching halt outside the airport. She handed the driver a hundred, telling them, "Keep the change, and this conversation to yourself."

Ruby dashed out of the car, hurrying up a set of stairs and disappearing into the crowd of the airport. As she did, a hybrid slowly pulled up to the curb outside, Ren and Alice inside as Ren went on, "Her girlfriend has arrived at the airport. We'll have people on any plane she boards."

Atlas

A cemetery lie peacefully under a blanket of snow, basking in the dim light of the poles within it and more snow was coming steadily down. A figure in a hoodless black coat and skin-tight black leggings waded through the snow, its long, golden hair billowing down its coat. Over its shoulders it had a pickaxe and a shovel, crunching through the snow with its head on a swivel, checking each grave. Finally, spinning around and revealing itself to be Yang, her eyes widened as she found what she was looking for. "Ruby Vasilias," the gravestone read. Yang tossed the shovel aside, bringing the pickaxe up high as she muttered to herself, "Who you got in here, huh," she paused, grunting as she slammed the pickaxe down into the cold, hard ground, "As if I need to ask."

The outskirts of Atlas were just as serene as the cemetery, the roads barely plowed and the sign welcoming those to the kingdom nearly buried itself in snow. A station wagon sped past the sign, weaving around unplowed sections of road and other drivers. Ruby, having only changed to a gray wool cap with a red rose on it and a black coat, leaned forward in her seat with anxiety and held the wheel with white-knuckle grip.

Neptune, we're going to Vale. I made a deal. The slate will totally be wiped clean.

She could not have been far behind her sister, if she had somehow made the journey with this weather in the first place. What did she even have that was capable of making the flight, anyway?

Trust me, Neptune, look at me. It was the only thing I could do. Either everyone dies or one gets out. I was that one! We can start a new life there. We can get married, settle down, and start a family. I love you, Neptune.

Her tires lost traction and she skidded across the road, her car turning more and more diagonally before traction was abruptly regained, the vehicle fishtailing before righting itself.

His name is Ozpin. He used to be my teacher. Nice guy...a realist. He gets the glory, I get out. It's not even a decision, Neptune. I don't have a choice. Do you wanna die here where it's always snowing? Or do you wanna go and live where it's always sunny?

Ruby swerved around a mound of snow, nearly running head on into a jacked-up truck, the driver honking at her but getting none of her worry.

Some depot out of town, you don't need to know. Trust me, nothing is gonna go wrong. Nothing.

After several, nerve-racking minutes, Ruby pulled up to the church. She uncurled her hand from the car and sat for a moment, catching her breath and calming herself. Finally, she exited the vehicle, leaving her keys behind as she headed into the cemetery.

I did the deal, Neptune. It's over. Baby, we get out. Be happy. Be normal! We did it. Baby, we are home free. It's over. Just this one job and then it's done...

Ruby charged up the stares and into the graveyard, twisting her head in every direction for any sign of Yang. The first lot held nothing, same with the second. Finally, darting past an angel's statue and into the furthest lot, Ruby found a mound of dirt beside a grave, a shovel flying up over the top of the grave and hurling dirt onto the pile. Ruby cautiously approached the the open grave and found her sister brushing the dirt away from the coffin within. "Hey, you're wasting your time." Ruby called out as she approached her sister.

Yang held her head back and sighed with an agape mouth, gesturing to the sky as she rebutted, "Is that why you flew out here, huh? Tell me that I'm wasting my time?"

"Go ahead, open that casket. I don't give a shit."

"Yeah, that's what you look like, a woman who doesn't give a shit."

Ruby waved Yang off, turning as she said, "Ah, this is ridiculous."

"How long are you gonna keep lying for, Ruby, huh? When's it gonna stop? What happens in the dark," Yang paused, tossing the shovel aside and brandishing a pickaxe before her, "comes out in the light."

"Oh, give it a rest, Yang," Ruby demanded, Yang burying the pickaxe into the casket as she continued, "There's nothing there!"

Yang chuckled to herself, prying back on the pickaxe's counter-weight as she said, "Well, moment of truty."

Ruby only threw up her hands and looked on with clear worry. Finally, the wood gave way, splintering and tearing apart. Yang tossed the tool aside and fell onto her hands and knees to look closer. A rotten, horrifying, eyeless face peered out from the hole, it's red hair and long, rabbit ears still atop its head. Yang began to laugh, rising and glaring up at Ruby as she confirmed, "As if I didn't know...Velvet."

"Look, we do what we gotta do to survive. This thing, it didn't work out the way it was supposed to." Ruby assured.

"Oh, and how was that, huh? With Velvet locked up and me in the ground? Or-or-or...or both of us in the coffin?"

"Velvet got shot. You saw it! She didn't make it. I got shot, I did. That's...that's it!"

Yang again began to wag her finger at Ruby, climbing out of the hole as she continued, "I think the only thing that didn't go as planned was me showing up on your doorstep ten years later. Ruby. I mourned you."

"And I missed you, Yang, but I got a fuckin' family, Yang. We were all gonna die. She did die."

"You cannibalistic motherfucker!" Yang roared, raising her fists just as her gauntlets deployed.

Ruby drew just as fast, her black and red box expanding into a rifle aimed at Yang. "I didn't want it to come to this." Ruby admitted, fighting back tears.

"Yes you did, you just don't have the fuckin' balls to do it, but I do!" Yang shouted.

"I've got more to lose than you."

"Never a truer word has been spoken, sister. Now pull the fucking trigger."

The two continued only to stare at each other, neither able to move an inch before Yang hissed, "You ain't got the guts."

After another pause, Ruby screamed, "Take the fucking shot!"

A movement to the left caught Yang's attention, demanding, "Who's that?"

Ruby turned to see a figure duck behind a mausoleum, the scream of a round firing out of Yang's gauntlet catching her attention. Ruby aimed her rifle at the ground and fired, the recoil taking her up into the air and safely over the fiery orange round, impacting and demolishing the mausoleum hiding the figure. Ruby crashed down to earth on a knee, taking aim at a fleeing Yang. She let a few round rip as Yang ducked out of a large gate, her bullets bouncing off all around Yang as the brawler disappeared from sight. A voice from the other side of the graveyard called out, "Yang Xiao Long, Mister Ren has requested a word."

"Hey, ho, I'm not the one you're looking for!" Ruby called back, hiding behind a headstone.

"Hey, she's over here! She's over here! Get the girlfriend!"

"Girlfriend? Motherfucker." Ruby muttered.

A pair of Chinese mobsters charged up the set of stairs to Ruby's lot, instantly being dropped by a round that passed through the chest of one into the skull of the one behind him. Ruby dashed for the stairs, having to take cover immediately as gangsters clustering into the second lot opened fire, forcing her behind another tombstone. "Fuck, who are your pals, Yang?"

As soon as the gun fire ceased, roses fluttered out from behind the gravestone Ruby hid behind. Awed by the spectacle, Ruby suddenly sprung high into the air, scythe fully extended and firing at a van parked in the middle of the lot. The vehicle exploded on impact, throwing bodies nearby around in bloody heaps. The men far enough to survive dove for cover. Ruby sprinted through the yard, slamming her scythe down on a tombstone and splitting it and the man seated behind it in two. Another man rose to fire at her, only for her to blaze past him and hook him with the spikes opposite her blade. He was dragged along before she spiraled around, the force causing the blades to rip him in two, his legs sailing splayed through the air and landing crotch first into the face of a comrade, while his head smashed into another's, knocking him out cold. Ruby charged at the man pinned under the corpse's bottom and planted her scythe's spear end on the shaft into his stomach, using him as a vault to send herself skyward into the next lot.

Ruby landed on the churches roof and slid down into the pushes, more thugs charging into the lot to find her as smoke from the van's ruins billowed into the cold sky. Once all appeared clear, Ruby set her scythe back into its compact mode and rushed to her car, not wanting anymore of a firefight. She slammed the door shut and reached for the ignition, grabbing only air. She pounded her fists against the steering wheel, growling, "Yang...fuck!"

The chatter of men outside her car brought her attention to the men aiming their assault rifles at her through her window. Finally speaking English, one taunted, "We've got you now, girlfriend."

"Alright, alright, you got me." Ruby conceded, hands raised.

"Get out of the fucking car." another demanded.

Ruby opened the door of the vehicle and kept her hands raised, her Crescent Rose strapped to her lower back. Just as she got to her feet, one stepped forward and kicked the door, closing it on her neck and shins, making her fall to her knees, gasping for air. One of the men slammed the butt of his rifle into her forehead, throwing her back agains the car, her vision fuzzy and her mind dazed. She felt their arms hook under her armpits and dragged her limp body through the snow, being relieved of the cold as she was hurled into the back of a waiting van. The men got in the vehicle and slammed the doors shut, looking down on her with malicious smiles as one spoke up, "We have special plans for you. Someone wants to have a talk."

With that, the man raised his foot and stomped down on Ruby, her last conscious sense being the sound of her skull cracking.