Significant Changes: I've added Faunus speech this time around. The reason it wasn't in the earlier chapters is simply that the set-up itself would have been awkward for it. You'll see more of its capabilities as the series goes on, but this should give a small one-sided taste.

Note On Faunus Speech: While I doubt Faunus would be able to have full conversations with merely Faunus body language and vocal patterns alone, I do have a feeling that they'd be able to get a truncated message across. It's these messages that I think add a great deal of context to the growing relationships as Ace perceives them. However, it should be clear that humans can't understand Faunus Speech any more than they would a foreign language.

Furthermore, other Faunus may have a limited perception based on species. For example, Velvet (a rabbit Faunus) wouldn't be able to understand a cat's meow, and Blake (A cat Faunus) wouldn't be able to understand the soft clucking a rabbit sometimes makes.

However they both would understand territorial growls, hissing, and purring, since these are both sounds indicative of their respective species. (Yes, rabbits can actually make a purr sound, but they do it by using their teeth. They can hiss too.)

Original chapter length: 1,548
Revisited chapter length: 2,334

"Regular dialogue"
[Faunus speech only]

Chapter 4

Ruby detailed the mission. The shock. The discovery. The aftermath.

A simple little village off the coast of Vale destroyed, and Ruby didn't even know who might have done it. Then again, she didn't seem to want to know, either. Her older sister couldn't blame her, drinking in the long story as the sickening poison that it was.

Tough to swallow, and bitter afterward.

Yang knew of the town, hell, everyone from Patch did. It would be greatly missed. A lot of fishermen had built lives there in that sleepy little village. Buying fresh food had always been easy and cheap. The ferry shuttled people back and forth from the smaller islands around Vale, and that dock was a common destination. Yang had plenty of fond memories, the taste of fresh caught fish had only been one of them.

As children, their father would take them on that boat all the time. It was much slower than taking an airbus, but as a little girl, Yang had loved the sea air. Hearing that the village was gone wasn't easy. It hurt deep, like the ending of an era taken away too soon.

It was also the most believable part of Ruby's story.

The young woman loved that village too. Ruby wouldn't lie. She would never make up a story so tragic for the fun of it. It was everything else that seemed so unlikely. Like a bad fever dream, and nothing more. Yet, as further proof, Raven's insignia on the bottom of the sword's sheath spoke plenty of who owned it. There was no choice but to believe Ruby. To soak in every bit of the tale she had to tell. Yang listened intently, in spite of the impossibility of it all.

She tried to fit the pieces together. She could believe that Raven might get around. That Raven might have more than one man in her life. The blonde could even accept that she might have other siblings living lives in far corners of the world. It wasn't unheard of. Huntresses could be just as promiscuous as their male counterparts. It might even be an unspoken commonality of the trade, for as much as Yang knew.

Yang could not fathom, however, that Raven was dead.

That Ruby had chosen to bury the woman by hand, and all by herself. That there was a grave someplace as proof, a corpse laying inside.

Yang looked over at Weiss. The ex-heiress was currently holding the small black haired, black eared, cat Faunus. Her inquisitive red eyes full of intellect, not unlike Raven's own. Bottle in hand, Weiss marveled as the baby suckled from it greedily. Blake was nearby in case things turned sour, but it seemed her presence wasn't necessary. Weiss had the baby well in-hand.

Yang eyed the scene with trepidation. She couldn't believe that this Faunus infant was her baby sister.

Yet, if there were ever a question of what Yang had been told, this infant proved something. Raven, on some level, had been a sentimental person. That underneath all of her mystery, she had goals, and things she cared deeply about. She would never be the matronly figure that other women aspired towards, but to think that she didn't care at all…

If that were true, Raven would still be alive.

"So, that old village, huh?" Yang said, more as a way to absorb the information, rather than repeat it.

"Yeah…"

"Ya know, it seems so strange. It's like everything came full circle." Yang murmured slowly. "Uncle Qrow and Raven, they grew up there in that village. They were orphans, but the people there knew them, so…"

Ruby nodded. "Uncle Qrow used to say it all the time. That they never had a real home, but, they never really needed one…"

"But why, then? Why, after all this time?" Yang forced out a long, tedious breath. One carrying years of questions, anger, worry, and confusion. It was riddled with the holes of abandonment, and oozing in the bitterness of failure. Loss was a distant thing. No more than a dull ache that persisted only because it should. It wasn't a sharp stabbing throb, like the kind she felt when Summer Rose died.

She wished she felt worse, honestly…

That she felt the way a person should feel when experiencing the loss of a parent, but Yang simply didn't. Instead she felt strangely numb. As if the world should still be turning, regardless of the catastrophic loss.

"That's what I just don't get…" Yang continued in a soft murmur. "Just why…?"

"Did she ever really need a reason for anything?" Ruby asked. "She never explained herself, and she never seemed to want to."

"If she didn't need a reason, you would have dug a much smaller grave, Ruby." Yang stated, hearing the choked sound of disgust that emanated from Ruby's throat at the thought of something so morbid. That a mother might flat out abandon their baby, regardless of who that mother was. "She stayed, there was a reason for that... Had to be..."

"Still..." Ruby muttered sickly.

Yang couldn't blame her. It was a very sickening thought, indeed.

Fingers gliding along the condensation of her beer, Yang considered that. The trail of wetness coating her thumb, a droplet splattering onto the arm of the sofa. "So, what was the reason? Why would she go back there? And why stay long enough to get pregnant?" Yang wondered aloud.

"I don't know." Ruby spoke.

"Yeah, me either." Yang said then. "I thought she hated kids. She never stuck around for me. Can't imagine she'd have a sudden change of heart." Yang scratched the back of her head. The confusion was more irritating than knowing the woman was dead. That was a painful realization all on its own. "Are you sure that she wasn't just there at the wrong time? That all of this isn't just a coincidence?"

"I can't say for sure, I wasn't there when it happened. I kind of wish it was…" Ruby said guiltily. "I don't think it is, though."

"That baby and I... What if we aren't related?" Yang asked.

"You won't know that without DNA tests." Weiss said rationally, looking up from the baby in her arms. "If you want to know for sure, that's the only way."

"Yeah, you're right…" Yang sighed.

"Sooner rather than later would be preferable." Weiss prompted again. "We need to know for a fact what we're dealing with."

"I just…" Yang swallowed hard. She looked to Blake, golden eyes full of sympathy that Yang didn't want. "No… You're right, the sooner we get this done, the better. Tomorrow, we'll go, get it done."

It was going to be easy, right? They were hunters, and asking for that kind of test was simple enough. A quick cotton swab inside of the cheek, maybe a bit of blood as a control test. Toss down a little money, bingo, done deal. With the latest advancements, they could have the answer in a few days. The wait wouldn't be long, but it sure felt like it.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…

…tomorrow…

It was the mental chant they all used to get by. Yang had mindlessly gone through the motions of the past several hours. Eating dinner, doing the dishes, sitting in front of the sofa, nursing a beer or three. She did her best, trying to wait for daybreak so they could do the test. Then she could be done with it. She could go distract herself. She wanted, needed, that distraction now.

Her mind was scattered.

In the mess of purchases, Ruby had bought a fold-up bassinette made for camping. The baby was currently inside of it, mewing. At first it was just white noise. Babbling, little more. Then it turned to a pointed cry.

A baby's cry.

Yang looked at the youngster. Her ears were flattened back, and eyes were closed. Rosy cheeked and tear stained. Aggravation at its finest. It was the first time that the realization had registered all day. Yang nearly choked back the rest of her beer when the reality set in.

This baby had no one. It was all alone now.

She was alone, and something about that pissed Yang off.

So what if Raven was the kid's mom? So what if she wasn't? Raven had been there, and that was enough reason for Yang to blame the woman for this entire mess. Reaching in, she ever so gently picked up the crying baby, and held the child to her chest with care.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, feeling the baby's ear flick against her chin. The little one's crying was dismayed and constant. "I'm sorry…"

After some time, the little girl quieted. Yang tried to put her back, but to no avail. The baby began crying as soon as Yang tried to put her in the fold away bassinet. She paced back and forth, but as soon as she tried to put the baby down, she'd start crying once more. Yang finally gave up, settling herself in the bay window. She looked outside, not that there was much to see.

Well, nothing besides other hunter's homes.

"Bet you don't even have a name, do you?" Yang said softly, holding the baby close in the dead of night. "Be just like her… Leaving you behind without a name… What was she, an idiot?" The question was meant to be rhetorical, but she found herself answering it anyway. "Who am I kidding? You probably have a name… Maybe… Hell if I know what it is… Wish I did, but I don't. Damn, there's so much that I just don't know…"

[Kin.] The small child mewed.

Yang looked down curiously, feeling the way the ear flicked against her chest again. With a small waning smile, she mimicked an action she'd seen Blake do earlier. Rubbing the tips of the baby's ears gently in a small little circles. As she did this, she continued her train of thought.

"Raven was there, right? She must have had a reason to be. I don't think she was the type to do pointless things. I wish I knew which one of us was better off." Yang looked down again. "Me, or you?" Then she turned her gaze back to the window. "Ya know, I used to think the same thing about me and Ruby. I always wondered which one of us was better off."

Her thumb paused its small circles. "I never did figure that out. Even if I did, would it have really mattered?" Yang muttered then. "And that's another thing. Why do I have to be the responsible one? Whatever happened to livin' my own life for a change? I had Ruby on my hip, and now there's you…" She said glancing down at the baby.

[Kin?] The baby mewed softly, large crimson eyes blinking owlishly at her keeper.

"And damn you're cute and all, but come on…" Yang said with a shake of her head. "Where's the justice here?"

Yang knew the baby wasn't going to give a reply. She couldn't talk yet, after all, and there was no one else in the room. "I've got a weird family, kiddo. It's not exactly a family you brag about, but it's mine. Hell, I guess it's yours too, maybe." Her fingers began to scratch at the base of one little ear.

The young Faunus purred contently, and Yang continued to sit and look out the bay window.

"I wonder what your dad was like." Yang said then. "What if he's still out there? He could be. I mean, what if the guy Ruby found wasn't your dad? What if that was your uncle, or a friend of the family, or something? You'd still have a family, then. They'd probably be a Faunus just like you. Maybe you'd be better off with them…"

When tiny eyes opened Yang felt a pang of remorse at even thinking it. "Hey, don't go looking at me like that…" When the baby mewed, Yang sighed. "You just like me because I know how to give good ear rubs."

[Kin.] The baby mewed again, almost as if to agree.

"I don't know if we can do this." Yang said softly, her fingers pausing again, prompting another little mew. "Hey, it would be different if you were like five or something. I know how to be a fun big sister, but you, you're just a little thing." Yang's voice grew quiet then. "I mean, let's be real here. I don't know how to take care of a baby…"

Another small mew, this one softer than the rest. [Tired.]

A flick of a tiny ear followed, and Yang could only frown at her.

"Hey, it was different with Ruby. My dad and uncle were the adults. They did the parenting. Ruby and I, we really aren't that different in age. I mean, what's two years, really? I did big sister things, not exactly parent things. Well, unless it was a girl thing that a guy would screw up... Then maybe, but you catch my drift…"

Tiny ears flattened back, and the baby gave a big yawn.

"Yeah, yeah, see you're sleepy. All you do is cry when I put ya in the stupid basket thingy. Even now, I'm completely sucking as a responsible adult. Can't even get a baby to sleep. Pretty damn pathetic…"

A small sound, a mix between the usual mewing and a purr called to Yang again. The baby closed her eyes, seeming to settle in quite happily against Yang's chest. [Mine.]

"Oh, now you're comfy…" Yang muttered. "Couldn't be comfy on the sofa, oh no. That'd be too easy. You had to be comfy here in the window… Makes perfect sense… "

The baby smacked her lips together after another yawn, finally drifting off.

"I mean just look at us. What the hell kind of cosmic crapshoot did we sign ourselves up for?" Yang could only sigh. "This just isn't right…"