Chapter 5
One week later.
Upon arriving back Ruby was rushed away to the hospital wing at the academy where she was examined by the doctors and checked over and they couldn't find anything wrong with her, so she was released.
In that time though, Ruby wasn't seen much by her team. They weren't sure where she went but she wasn't in classes and whenever she returned to their dorm in the evening she went straight to bed.
It wasn't until the team returned to their dorm one evening to find Ruby standing in front of the TV in their room when they had a chance to talk to her, but she was watching the news as they reported of another Dust store robbery by the White Fang.
"The White Fang, awful bunch of degenerates." Weiss exclaimed loudly upon hearing the reporter.
"What is your problem?" Blake asked angrily, not liking how Weiss was talking.
"Weiss." Ruby warned lowly, she knew exactly what Weiss had gone through. They had all gone through it, but Weiss took it the hardest.
The transition period between ousting Jacque's Schnee and sorting through everything he had done to the Faunus and getting the Schnee Dust Company back on track had been hard, on the whole family.
But this hadn't stopped the White Fang from targeting the Schnee's because despite everything happening they still saw the Schnee's as the enemy.
Though in recent years they had stopped targeting the Schnee family now, at least most of them had but there were sub factions within the White Fang that still believed them to be evil.
"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane." Weiss said, turning to look at Blake.
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus." Blake answered back angrily, not backing down.
"Misguided? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!" Weiss threw back immediately.
"So, then they're very misguided." Blake replied, while Ruby attempted to interrupt them but failed to do so.
"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat and steal." Weiss said, not noticing how angry Blake was getting.
"You ignorant little brat." Blake growled in response.
"How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!" Weiss exclaimed loudly.
"You are a judgmental little girl." Blake replied, sounding even more angry.
"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!" Weiss seemed to shout.
"Maybe we should go." Yang suggested to Ruby, but she just ignored her as her attention remained on these two women.
"That is the problem!" Blake shot back.
"You realise you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!" Weiss said back, staying close to Blake.
"There is no such thing as pure evil. The Faunus hate Humanity because of people like Cardin, people like you, that forces the White Fang to take such drastic measures." Blake shouted back
"People like me?" Weiss exclaimed in surprise.
"You're discriminatory." Blake said.
"I'm a victim!" Weiss shouted, "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed; an entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood." Weiss said angrily and as Yang moved forward to comfort her.
"No!" Weiss said, stopping Yang. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!" Weiss shouted.
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake shouted back, and then as a sudden realisation as to what she said, she turned and ran.
Ruby watched as Blake ran off, she knew she should go after her. Stop her, possibly even explain more about her family and Weiss but she thought against it. She could find Blake easily enough later, but first she needed to speak to Weiss.
"The White Fang, for all their faults want the same thing as the family. Equality between humans and Faunus, unfortunately not all within the White Fang want this. They began resorting to violence because people listen more but at the same time it doesn't. It makes people fear the Faunus. The White Fang isn't all Faunus, and those claiming to be White Fang aren't always following the leader." Ruby explained to Weiss.
"What do you mean?" Yang asked, wanting to know more and Weiss was silent but listening to Ruby.
"There are sub fractions in the White Fang, divisions if you will. The one that Blake was a part of was more militaristic and aggressive, which was why she left. The leader of this faction wasn't who she thought they were, so she left." Ruby answered. "You've got to remember that the murders, attacks were because of Jacques and it took time for him to…leave." Ruby said, unsure how to truly answer it.
She was young when it happened, and Weiss was younger still and Jacques, Weiss' father was still around and influenced their first few years and unfortunately they both got the brunt of it all.
"Tomorrow, we're going to go into Vale to look for Blake. I hope you'll use this time to decide what you want to do." Ruby said, heading towards the door but Yang stopped her.
"How do you know her story?" Yang asked, she wanted to know more about her partner, which she realised she knew painfully little about her.
"Because I was there when she left." Ruby stated, walking out of the door and heading away from her two teammates.
Ruby moved through the school quickly and quietly, using her semblance but it wasn't as destructive as she moved quickly through the school.
Using her semblance, she slowed as she reached her destination, the headmaster's garden. She found the tree she adopted as her own and sat underneath it, relaxing against the rough bark.
She'd been her almost a dozen times now and she had never seen Ozpin here again, it seemed that he knew to leave her alone while she was here.
Sighing Ruby took out her scroll and thumbed through to a familiar number as she sent the message. 'When are you in Vale?' She asked.
While she waited for a reply she allowed her mind to reply what had happened. It brought up uncomfortable memories, those that she'd much rather had left in the past, but it wasn't something she could easily do with them being brought up.
Her scroll alerted her to a message, opening it she saw the reply which caused her to smile. 'I arrived half hour ago. What's up?' Came the reply.
'A fight between my teammates…when can I see you?' Ruby asked the other person, she knew that meeting them would always help her relax and comfort her. And she couldn't wait.
The reply was instant this time, clearly expecting another message. 'Weiss and Blake? And tonight, if you'd like. ;)' The reply caused Ruby to chuckle a little, she had told the person all about her team and her situation at the minute, which was why Ruby wasn't there meeting them immediately.
'I can't. But I need to go to Juniors tomorrow night.' Ruby answered, she couldn't go tonight otherwise she'd never come back and get her team to search for Blake so instead she'd have to wait until tomorrow.
'Tomorrow night then. Now, tell me how little Weiss exploded at Blake?' Came the reply and Ruby soon lost herself in a texted conversation until she couldn't stay up any longer and fell asleep leaning against the tree.
The next day, Vale.
"Blake! Where are you?!" Yang called out down another empty street, they had been searching for the last several hours for any signs of the woman.
"Calling out won't help." Ruby stated, playing with her scroll.
"Well how else are we going to find her? We have no idea where she's gone." Yang replied, slightly annoyed at their lack of progress.
"Do you know where she is Ruby?" Weiss asked as it seemed Ruby was just playing around on her scroll the whole time they've been searching.
"I have an idea where she may be going, but I'd rather find her first. Which I don't know where she is currently." Ruby answered as she put her scroll away for the moment.
"I could help you look." A voice said from behind them, startling the three young women.
Turning around Ruby recognised just who had spoken, and she smiled, "Hello Penny. What are you doing here?" Ruby asked the girl.
"Friend Ruby! It's so good to see you again." The girl, Penny said excitedly as she hugged Ruby.
"And you Penny, here let me introduce you to my teammates." Ruby said, turning around to introduce Weiss and Yang but had found that they had made themselves scarce. "Huh, I guess they carried on looking." Ruby said though she knew the truth. "Sure, you want to help me look?" Ruby asked Penny.
She knew the girl and the truth behind her as Ironwood had told her. She was the one friend that Penny had, truly had as she spent time with the girl while she was at Atlas Academy and, so she knew the girl well.
Though normally she had someone with her and wouldn't be allowed off on her own, which surprised her to see Penny wandering around Vale on her own.
"Of course, Ruby, I'd love to help." Penny said cheerfully once more.
"Alright, come on then." Ruby said, smiling at the girl as they started to head through the city together.
The two of them spent the day together looking for Blake but as time wore on Ruby had a growing sense of dread that she knew where Blake had gone.
'Go.' Ruby's scroll alerted her to the message and it was a brief message that alerted her that Roman's raid was going on.
She had first gotten the hint of the raid when she learnt of a Schnee dust shipment coming into Vale, that was when she started dropping hints of the lack of security on the shipment.
Now though she got the confirmation she needed that the raid was going on, but she just hoped that Blake was nowhere near the ship.
"Penny, come on I know where Blake is." Ruby said, taking them towards the docks as night started to roll in.
"Alright Ruby." Penny said cheerfully as she followed Ruby unaware of where she was going.
When they arrived at the docks Ruby went onto the rooftop when she heard gunfire and fighting below, which was where she saw Blake and a monkey Faunus fighting against Roman and the White Fang there.
"Damn." Ruby muttered as she saw that Blake was there.
"What's wrong?" Penny asked curiously.
"That's my friend Blake, fighting against some bad people." Ruby stated, working out the best way to intervene.
"They're hurting your friend." Penny said, and before Ruby could stop her from doing anything Penny was jumping down and her swords deployed from her back.
"Oh God damnit." Ruby said, but she stayed back out of the way as she allowed Penny to fight the White Fang as she decimated them.
Ruby waited until the White Fang had been cleared but Roman had escaped from the docks and made off in the last transport that Penny couldn't stop.
"What the hell were you thinking?! Both of you!" Ruby shouted at Blake and Penny, she noticed that the monkey Faunus had gone as they heard sirens coming towards them.
"I'm combat ready Ruby, I can fight." Penny stated.
"Not the point Penny, you know you're not supposed to be fighting. Hell, you're not even supposed to be by yourself." Ruby said, and she saw Penny getting upset. "Look, he's going to arrive now and take you away. When you can, come find me again at Beacon alright? And remember, I'll always be your friend." Ruby said to Penny as she knew her fears, but the police cars arrived before Ruby could say anything else.
Turning to look at Blake she said, "We'll talk about this later." Ruby said to the woman as the police officers came towards them with pistols raised at them.
"Stand down officers, the situation is under control." Ruby said, reaching into one of her many pockets.
"Hands up!" The officers called back, noticing how heavily armed all of the Huntress' in training were.
"Huntress Rose, here's my ID. We stopped a raid by Roman Torchwick on this Dust shipment." Ruby said, pulling out a Huntress ID that she showed the officers.
The ID was one that all Hunters and Huntresses received once they completed their training, though Ruby's was given to her by a Huntsmaster when she saw Ruby handle a difficult contract.
"Our apologises, could you tell us what happened here?" The lead officer asked.
"Of course, could you allow my friends in first?" Ruby asked, pointing towards Yang and Weiss alongside a black car that had driven up.
The officer waved his hand getting their attention to let the people into the area while he and Ruby walked off to the side.
"Right. You three talk, I need to clear everything up with the officer." Ruby said, heading over to the side with the officer to explain what had happened while Blake, Yang and Weiss all talked amongst themselves.
Once Ruby had finished with the officers she went back to her team, where Blake immediately spoke up. "I'm sorry for running…" Blake began but Ruby cut her off.
"It's fine. I understand why you did, there's nothing to apologise for. Now you three head back to Beacon, I'll talk with you later about this Blake and how you knew about this raid." Ruby said to the three as she started walking away.
"Wait. Where are you going?" Weiss asked as Ruby walked away.
"Out. I'll be back tomorrow or the day after." Ruby said as she carried on walking away, her destination set into her mind.
The three women watched as Ruby left before making their own way back to their dorm. Along the way they spoke more, and Blake told Weiss and Yang how she met Ruby.
"After I left my partner at the time I went into the forward carts where Ruby was standing. We fought briefly before we stopped, at an impasse and she let me go. She helped me set up a new life and helped me get ready for Beacon. I lost contact after that and I didn't know anything of her past, not really." Blake told them both as they walked through the halls of Beacon. Her story taking time.
"So, you didn't know she was a Schnee?" Weiss asked, keeping her voice low so others couldn't hear them.
"No, I…how are you all related? I don't get it, she goes by Rose and doesn't look anything like you." Blake said, asking exactly what Yang was wondering as well.
"It's…well it's complicated. Our family isn't as simple as it seems." Weiss said as she opened the door to their dorm room.
"She's right, our family is as complicated as it gets." Winter Schnee said from her chair inside their dorm room, startling everyone that she was there.
"Apologises, but I heard you were out when I got here and decided to wait here." Winter informed them all. "Where's Ruby?" Winter asked.
"She's…not here, she's out. What are you doing here?" Yang answered for everyone.
"Looking for Ruby, and to see my sister and her team. Unofficially." Winter explained, "Now tell me what you've been up to tonight?" Winter asked the team, as no one met her eyes as she looked around.
Ruby headed through the dark streets by memory as she drew her cloak around her and over her head. She arrived at Juniors club where she was let in immediately.
Her eyes looked around the club as she headed straight for the bar. She took note of all the patrons around the club and she noticed the one she was looking for but sat at the bar first.
"Red. What can I do for you?" Junior asked as he came over towards Ruby immediately.
"Well firstly, Katakana. Find anything?" Ruby asked, referring to the man that he'd ask Junior to look for.
"It's a little difficult finding anything on her, the last location I could get was she was in Atlas briefly but after that she vanished. I'm sorry I couldn't find anything else." Junior answered though he was reluctant to tell Ruby the bad news.
"I expected as much, thank you. Secondly, I'd like two whiskeys please." Ruby ordered the two drinks.
"For yourself?" Junior asked as he poured the drinks.
"One for me, the other…see that girl over there, short one in black? Got green eyes. Give it to her please and say it's from Red." Ruby asked Junior to do.
"Is she old enough?" Junior asked, he had let the girl in, but she didn't seem old enough though the ID she showed proved it.
"She's older than me." Ruby said, handing over the money for the drinks. "Thank you." Ruby added.
Ruby started to sip at her drink while she waited for Junior to return and after a few minutes he returned and said, "She says thank you. Know her?" Junior asked.
"A little. Your room upstairs free?" Ruby asked.
"It is. How many nights?" Junior asked as he knew what Ruby wanted.
"One, no wait two please." Ruby said, handing over the cash for it immediately.
"All yours." Junior said.
Downing the rest of her drink Ruby stood up and headed for the stairs, "When she asks, direct her upstairs please." Ruby called out happily as she went upstairs.
"Confident, aren't we?" Junior called back.
"Always Junior." Ruby called back over her shoulder as she headed upstairs.
Heading into the room Ruby unstrapped her weapons first, placing them onto the table in the room and her cloak swiftly followed. After that she began to remove several knives she had on her body. Once they were gone she set about removing her boots which was when she heard it.
The door hadn't opened but she heard the footsteps. They were featherlight on the ground, barely audible but the sound was there and in the quiet of the room it was noticeable to Ruby.
Letting it play out, she finished removing her boots and stood up once more, which was when the person behind her made her move.
There was a quiet scrape of metal on metal as a blade was drawn from its sheath, but Ruby kept her back to the approaching person as she was interested to see what would happen.
Even though she was taller, not by much but just enough she felt the blade reach up behind her in the air and slide down her front.
She felt the cold steel of the blade against her skin as it carefully slid along her body between her breasts and stopping at her waist and remained there.
"I rather like these clothes, so I'd rather you didn't." Ruby said calmly, and the blade was removed just as carefully as it was slid in.
"You weren't that worried last time." The soft, sweet voice pointed out behind her. Remembering the last time well with Ruby's original outfit that she had worn.
"I wanted a change then, I don't anymore." Ruby stated, slowly turn around to face the woman who had entered her room. "Seems you wanted a change as well." Ruby said as she took note of the woman's new outfit.
Her outfit was black and white which consisted of a sleeveless black blouse with white frills on the chest and collar alongside a black ribbon bow hanging from the front of her collar. The blouse exposed her midriff and she had medium length black armbands on both of her wrists. With the blouse she wore a knee-length skirt fastened with a white belt with black shoes that had been removed and placed next to Ruby's boots.
"It's only temporary." She said, taking a step forward into Ruby's reach.
"That's a shame. You're rather cute, in that Lolita way." Ruby stated.
Instead of replying to Ruby, the woman just stepped forward and reached up to pull Ruby down to her and pulled her into a searing kiss.
Ruby lost herself briefly in the kiss before she broke it off. Curious Ruby wanted to see what the woman was going to do next.
It wasn't long until she let the woman fall back with her to the bed as she pulled the woman into another kiss as she wrapped her arms around her.
The kiss lasted a little longer than the first but was cut short as the woman started to crawl downwards, planting kisses on Ruby's exposed skin before getting onto her knees on the floor.
"Where are you going?" Ruby asked huskily, sitting up slightly to watch her go down.
"Not far." The woman said, smiling slightly as she knelt on the floor.
Ruby watched as the woman's head disappeared underneath her skirt and she felt warm breath and kisses being traced along her thighs.
Whining as the woman took her time reaching her sex, she simply enjoyed teasing Ruby until finally she placed a kiss onto Ruby's sex.
"Neo, please." Ruby begged, using Neo's name at last as she wanted release.
Neo smiled underneath Ruby's skirt, though the other woman couldn't see her as she reached up and removed Ruby's panties with a little help from Ruby as she lifted her waist before she leaned back in for another kiss on Ruby's bare sex.
Letting slip a moan from her lips Ruby reached a hand down and tangled it into Neo's black hair as she pushed her against her sex more as Neo began to use her mouth and tongue on her causing more moans to slip from Ruby's mouth.
"What are you doing?" Ruby asked sleepily, not even bothering to cover herself as she wrapped her arms around Neo's body.
"Drawing. It's been a while." Neo replied as she leaned against Ruby and brought her knees up, her sketchbook resting on them while she had a pencil in her hand.
"What are you drawing?" Ruby asked, waking up further as she looked over Neo's shoulder to look at the book.
"You." Neo answered, revealing the drawing of Ruby while she was sleeping, the covers covering her waist but her upper body was revealed, and Neo was just detailing her face.
"That looks amazing. You'll have to let me see once it's finished." Ruby said in reply, loving that Neo was an artist though she didn't have as much time for it now.
"Once it's finished? I plan on finishing it now." Neo answered as she carried on adding little detail to it.
"That's unfortunate than, I need to be getting back soon and well, I want a proper goodbye." Ruby whispered huskily into Neo's ear, leaning down to kiss Neo's neck.
"Well damn." Neo answered as she put her book and pencil away and then turned to Ruby, pushing her onto her back.