Significant Changes: The time skip no longer happens in this chapter. We are staying with the baby (Ace) much longer this time around. Her informative scene has been entirely re-written to reflect that. This chapter contains 3 mostly new scenes and 1 old scene. Other scenes have been shifted to later on in the story.

Original chapter length: 2,894
Revisited chapter length: 4,542

"Regular dialogue" [Faunus speech only]

AYangThang: Only one chapter this week since it's a long one and most of the content is entirely new.

Chapter 8

Ruby came home early the next morning. She wished that she could say she was as relaxed and refreshed. Instead, her training with Ren had given her a lot to think about. Plenty of little thoughts were still buzzing around in her mind restlessly. He was always able to give a fresh perspective on things, and she appreciated his honesty.

Ren was always was always gentle with his thoughts, but never out of pity. He wasn't the sort of man to hand out empty platitudes on a whim. It had never been his way. He was the sort to keep to himself, wordlessly offering his support from the back of the group unless otherwise invited to speak up. He just didn't bother with the affairs of others, likely because he had his hands full enough on a daily basis.

His advice had been easy to follow, generic little facts that Ruby could have come up with on her own.

She slipped off her shoes and padded towards the kitchen, the wafting of coffee telling her that someone was already awake. Weiss sat at the table, the newspaper already spread across part if the table. Weiss gazed down at it idly, pen in hand. She circled low ranking missions that could be done in a day or less. It wouldn't pay much, but, at least it was honest work.

"You stayed out all night." Weiss spoke in her usual disinterested manner, not bothering to lift her gaze from her current project. "If you were going to do that, would it have killed you to send a text?"

"Sorry, I was caught up in training. I didn't think we'd be gone so long."

"I noticed." Blue eyes flicked up at the statement, holding the gaze of silver for a mere moment before yielding. Her eyes returned to the paper. The sound of the pen aggressively making another mark punctuating her feelings on the matter. "Warm milk is in the pan." Weiss said, making another circle. "I fingered you'd try to sneak in before Blake woke up."

Caught red-handed, the only thing Ruby could do was concede defeat. With the warm milk waiting for her, it was hard to think she had lost the battle of wits. All that it needed was the powdered additive she liked best. "So are Yang and Blake still sleeping?" Ruby asked as she reached for the small canister in the nearby cupboard.

"Yes, although Blake just went back to bed. She was up even earlier than I was, feeding Ada. Yang's dead to the world." Weiss replied quietly. "Nora kept her out until last call, and managed to ply a few beers into her besides. I'd be surprised if she stumbled out of bed before ten."

"We've been doing that a lot, lately…" Ruby said unhappily. "Goading Yang into doing things she doesn't really feel like doing. I feel kind of bad about it…"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No…"

"Then there's nothing else to be done about it. We do the best we can, and that's all we can do." Weiss told her setting her pen down and folding the paper into a fourth of its size. "I won't pretend we haven't made a few missteps in this already, but I don't regret our actions, mistakes or not."

"Yang's really not taking all of this well…"

"I don't know about that." Weiss grumbled bitterly. "What sort of metric do you even use to quantify that sort of thing, anyway?"

Ruby didn't have an answer for that, and it was probably better that she didn't. Weiss scowled darkly as she thought about it, finding no comfort in the way the silence permeated the room around them. Soft breathing was not enough to soak up the deafening silence, and the booming thoughts that were allowed to run wild because of it.

"I don't know, either, Ruby." Weiss was the first to break it. "However, I do know one thing. She's taking it better than I would have." In that, Weiss was sure. She lifted the coffee to her lips, frowning down at her own emotional mismanagement. The coffee had been splashed with Kahlua instead of cream. "The baby's not even related to me, and here I am, proving to be a monumental disappointment anyway…"

Ruby nodded, knowing that Weiss generally drank her coffee black, unless it had been spiked with something. It made the younger huntress take pause, because in truth, she wasn't a big fan of drinking. At least, not as a half-assed coping system that proved to never work anyway. Looking down at her own warm drink, she realized how easy it would be to add that little something extra.

Bringing the hot chocolate to her lips didn't do a thing to help, either.

"How was your training?" Weiss asked then, as if changing the subject would save them both from gloomy thoughts.

"I tried to concentrate like usual, but I couldn't. My head just wasn't in it like I thought I could force it to be." Ruby told her, coming to sit at the table beside her partner. "After a few hours, we spent most of the night just talking."

"What did he have to say about all of this? Anything good?"

"Typical stuff, mostly." Ruby said. "Take each day as it comes, and that sort of thing. At least, that's how it started at first. He derailed a little, and it was the less encouraging things that I found the most helpful."

"Such as?"

"His past." Ruby told her, watching blue eyes study her thoughtfully. "The upbringing he had before all of that. There wasn't any sage words of wisdom, or anything. It was just that hearing him talk about the life he had growing up made everything else going on right now seem a little less crappy, if that makes any sense… I don't really know how to describe it."

"You don't have to." Weiss said with a little nod. "I know what you mean…" The sound the baby's cry made Weiss sigh as she pushed herself up from the table. "I suppose it's my turn this time…"

Even as Weiss excuse herself from the kitchen, she could feel the implication sinking deeper into her. In truth, she wasn't sure she was how she felt about it, either. Surely, this was Yang's responsibility, or Ruby's at the very least. Weiss was sure that it could never be hers. She'd be little more than a lackluster replacement, and a child deserved so much more than that.

She was not suited to the needs of a child, and she had never given any thought to bearing a child herself. If the company had fallen into her hands, motherhood would have been inevitable. She would have gotten married, and she would have had a child. Progeny and the line of succession would have held true for one more generation. It wouldn't have mattered if she wanted to be a mother or not. That future would have been set in stone, regardless. Refusing to think about it was just easier than the alternative.

Her father freed her of that burden completely. When the title of heiress had been stripped from her, any responsibility she had to adhere to his wishes died out along with it.

She had been alright with that, too, thanks to the team members that had unrepentantly pervaded her life. She hadn't been particularly keen on becoming a parent anyway. She was insipid enough to know her skills rested elsewhere.

A place far away from parenthood, and the thin veneer of what might be called familial love…

The two days passed by at a snail's pace. There was a very real conversation to be had about what they should do. Instead of broaching the topic like reasonable adults, the four women found solitude an easier escape. All of them fell into the habits of their trade. Ruby obsessed over weaponry, Weiss with dust, Yang with training, and Blake with charity.

Each of them had spent plenty of days just like this in the past, especially when they were confined within the dorms at Beacon Academy. They would gladly spend several more the very same way. It was a horrible method to fill the void, and it didn't work the way any of them wanted to. Spoken word turning to ash on the tips of their tongues. Apologies and critiques alike couldn't even reach the air.

Everyone was tense, waiting for the one thing that could jumpstart a healing process among them.

A knock came heavily upon the door, startling the four women out of their midafternoon stupor. There were few things that could have prepared the household for the arrival of the mail carrier, distractions were hard to come by. They had ambled about their routine as best as they could, but it was a fickle thing as the hours taunted them slowly.

It was almost as if this moment was too taboo to even come at all, but, here it was.

Yang opened the door, signing her name to receive the packet of sensitive information. The tall man handed it over, wishing her a good day as he continued on his delivery route. He didn't seem to notice the gravity of the situation, and maybe that was fitting for a person such as himself. Tasked with passing off closed documents like this all the time, immune to thoughts of the contents within. She wished she could feel the same. That she could be as ignorant as he seemed to be.

Now that the awaited packet had arrived, it seemed too intimidating to touch it, let alone open it.

Yang licked her lips, the thick packet in hands as she stood numbly in the living room. It felt heavy, the white envelope sealed tightly and tied with twine to prevent being tampered with.

Weiss looked up from her place at the sofa, the magazine on her lap left forgotten. Ruby was on one side, and Blake on the other. Just moments before, Blake had just poured everyone a hot mug of tea. Ruby was busy dumping a handful of sugar packets into hers, while Weiss tapped at her mug with her fingers. They were all on edge, a mix of indescribable emotions clouding their features.

"Well, are you going to open it?" Weiss prompted expectantly when Yang continued to stand there, gazing off into worlds unseen.

Yang wasn't alone in her anxiety. It was a little comfort, but not nearly enough. "Yeah, I am..."

"What are you waiting for?" Weiss asked as she produced a pocket knife from her purse, sliding it across the table. "Use that."

It was just another reminder of who they were deep down at their core. The dangerous people that they had inevitably become. They were huntresses with the best of intentions, perhaps. Yet, they were deadly forces to reckon with, all the same. It was the life they'd chosen, embracing it entirely. The lives they lived were not the sort that promised a long life, or a happy future.

It was hard to reach for the knife, considering that.

Sure, Yang knew the life well. Her upbringing was nothing less than that of a huntsman's daughter. Thinking that anyone else might be subjected to that sort of danger was blood curdling. The blonde could feel the soft buzzing of trepidation from beneath her skin. It was not the knife itself that sickened her, but rather, all of the lessons that came inherent with it.

The calculated world view, the attitude required, even the training...

To be a huntsman's daughter was a cruel thing, because life's lessons came early. They had to, there was no choice in that. To keep a child in this household, there was only path that would ensure her safety. Passing down the tools of the trade, and the discipline required to wield them. A simple lockbox would never be enough to protect curious fingers and inquisitive minds. Not when the inhabitant themselves were armed to the teeth, and trained to eviscerate an oncoming threat with little more than a reflex.

To be exposed even slightly to such a life…

"Open it..." Ruby told her. "Don't keep us in suspense."

It promised danger to anyone even slightly naive about it. One curious question is all it would take, and Yang had learned that the hard way. Misjudging adventure for near suicide as a child. Taking her sister along for the trip. She had been foolish to think she could be just like her parents. Trudging around in the wilderness without the years of training required to survive.

They were not normal people…

They were huntresses…

In spite of it all, she reached for the knife. Cutting the twine and slicing the seal was a momentary task. Pulling out the papers, it took a moment to find her voice. "Top page is an itemized list…" Yang began uneasily. "According to this, they found her birth certificate. Apparently that's enclosed. They've got her registry papers for citizenship in here too. Let's see…"

A beat of silence later, Yang pulled out another piece of paper. As was expected, her only traceable relatives on her mother's side were Yang, and Qrow.

"Says here that her name's Ace." Yang said. "Ace Branwen, she was just over a month old when Ruby found her. Huh, strange…" Yang murmured, flipping over a few pages. "Seems like there's no record of health…"

"That makes sense…" Blake said. "She's village born, so there wouldn't be any record in the kingdom. The village doctor would have had that."

"Wouldn't they have sent in a copy to the kingdom?" Ruby asked, leaning forward just enough to see Blake on the other side of the sofa. "I mean, the birth record alone isn't enough, right?"

"If everything was digital, sure, but Vale isn't like Atlas." Weiss told her. "The further away from the heart of the kingdom you go, the less technology can be relied upon. Transmission systems are powerful, but even they have limits if a village hasn't be outfitted with an amplifier. A village with less than a hundred people wouldn't be able to afford something like that."

"What about next of kin?" Blake wondered then. "Anyone we don't know about?"

Yang took another breath. "According to this, the only surviving relatives on her dad's side is a withering old cat Faunus who lives in Vacuo."

Blake nodded. "Would Raven tell him anything?"

"Nah, I don't think so…" Yang murmured. "Raven wasn't like that. He probably doesn't even know that he had a grandchild. Even if he does, according to this, the guy's pushing ninety. He's in no condition to raise her."

"Did Raven leave a will?" Weiss asked.

"No, not that this shows. Raven didn't have one in Ozpin's file on her, either. She probably refused to keep one."

"What about dad? Does he have one laying around?" Ruby asked. "You think he knew anything?"

"I doubt it. If he has a will of hers, it'd be way too old to help us now." Yang said, coming to take a seat beside her sister. "Uncle Qrow might have known something, but, only if he made a guess or two. I don't think that Raven would have specifically told him about the pregnancy."

"Well, that settles it." Weiss said quietly. "She's your sister, Yang."

"I know…" Yang hadn't even needed to look at the stupid paperwork, she had made her choice several sleepless nights before that.

"Right…" Ruby said, "But now that we know for sure, what do we do now?"

"The same thing we've been doing, I guess." Yang told her with a shaky sigh. "We'll just have to figure it out as we go…"

As a team, the unanimous decision to raise Ace amongst themselves went without saying. There wasn't even a question in their minds, although, as they all soon came to find out, keeping a baby meant changes.

Big changes.

There was one thing they couldn't put off any longer, and the sooner they dealt with it, the better.

"So, uh…" Yang scratched her head. "How are we gunna…"

"I'm not exactly sure, but whatever you do, it had better be done carefully." Blake said as she examined the little girl's ears. "I don't think she knows to fold her ears down yet. You'll have to do it for her."

"Fold them down? No way." Yang said looking like Blake had grown a second head. "I don't want to hurt her."

"It doesn't hurt if you're gentle. Someone has to fold them, Yang." Blake told her, pointing to her own ears as proof. "See how big my ear canal is? You think hers are any different?"

"Oh, man…" Yang cringed. "You're kidding me."

"I'm not, if you pour even a little water over her head, and it's all going to go rushing inside." Blake told her. "That's what'll end up hurting. Especially if they get infected. You absolutely don't want to get too much water in them."

"Never mind the bath, let's just soak a towel and scrub her with that." Ruby said thoughtfully. "How dirty could she possibly be?"

Weiss cringed. "I don't know, Ruby, why don't you sit in your own excrement for more than five seconds, and figure that out."

"Point taken." Ruby shivered with disgust at the thought.

"Well, I mean, we have been using the wipes…" Yang said with a shrug. "It's not like she's totally filthy."

"She isn't clean by any stretch of the imagination, either." Weiss shot back.

"Sponging her down got us by, but we can keep doing that much longer. If we're going to keep her around, we've got to get used to stuff like this." Ruby said, scratching her head with a sigh. Even if what she said was obvious, she felt just as uneasy about it as everyone else. "Oh, this is stupid. Come on guys, what could be so hard?"

"Okay then, what do you suggest?" Weiss snapped.

It was amazing to think that four huntresses, all of whom were able to survive out in the wilds for days, couldn't figure out how to bathe a baby. They'd certainly put off the issue long enough, even by a human's sense of smell. None of them wanted to think what Blake thought of it.

"Well, I was assuming we would just, ya know, put her in there?" Ruby said looking down into the now partially filled bath tub.

"She's too little." Yang said with a shake of her head. "She can't support herself on her own, and we can't just lay her in there, least I don't think we can."

"Unless one of us gets in there with her and holds her." Blake replied. "Maybe turn on the shower, and wash her that way?"

"Um, I don't think so." Ruby said hesitantly. "Though, I guess if we did, at least she can't smack us in the face."

Weiss was dumbfounded. "What on remnant are you even talking about?"

"Funny story, actually." Yang said. "Uncle Qrow's apartment didn't have a bathtub, so when we went to stay with him, we had to use the shower. Anyway, Ruby was still a baby, couldn't stand on her own yet, so he carried her in the shower with him. She flailed around, smacked him in the face, and he almost dropped her." Yang explained. "Little kids are really, really, slippery…after that he got wise and put her in a bucket until she was old enough to stand still."

"Why am I not surprised?" Weiss replied. "Well, we are not putting her into our bucket. It's filthy, and we put chemicals in it. By the looks of it, someone is going to have to bite the bullet and get into the tub with her." The tone of her voice implying that she was not going to be the one to get into the tub with the Faunus.

"Can't we just stick her in the sink?" Blake asked, leaning on the door. "That's kind of baby sized, one of us can hold her. Someone else can actually wash her down."

"This is absolutely idiotic. You can stay here and complicate that matter all you like." Weiss said as she made her way out of the bathroom. "I am going to go to the store and buy one of those contraptions made for this sort of thing."

"Remember, whatever you buy, you have to lug it home." Blake said.

"I'm not lugging anything." Weiss protested. "Come on Yang, you're coming too. We have a full list of other things we need to get, might as well get it all in one trip."

"Oh, sure, turn me into the pack mule..."

"She's your sister!" Weiss scolded. "Come on, let's get going."

Yang hated shopping for things on a list, especially when Weiss was the one who made it.

They collected items, placing them in the shopping cart one by one. Yang followed, hands in her pockets as she watched Weiss carefully fixate over new, desperately needed purchases. There was a method to the madness, somehow Yang could tell that. She picked up the box beside the one that Weiss was looking at, this bath seat was adjustable.

"No, not that one." Weiss told her distractedly. "It doesn't seem to be very good quality."

"They look the same to me..." Yang told her. "Color may be different. This one's also twenty lien cheaper."

"It also lacks three core safety features." Weiss said, tapping the box she held. "We're getting this one."

"Okay, what's next then…" Yang said trailing after Weiss as they made their way down the aisle.

"You go get more nursery water, I'll get the rash cream and the wipes. Then we should have everything."

"Yeah." Yang agreed, headed off in the right direction. "Sure thing..."

Weiss watched Yang go, a small scowl forming across her features as she realized that the blonde seemed to be lost someplace in the recesses of her own mind. Weiss couldn't blame her, of course, there was plenty to think about. Too much, perhaps, for any measure of comfort.

Weiss felt her own destination would prove to yield the same sort of plague on her mind. In the end, it was unsettling for the ex-heiress.

There were too many considerations to sort through. The products on the shelves melding together as she thought about the huge undertaking they'd all just agreed to. It was all the more tangible as she scanned the back of two rash cream products. There she was, willingly sinking herself deeper into the livelihood of a child. With a small curse, she tossed both creams into the basket.

Had she lost her mind?

Yang came back with two gallons of nursery water just in time to see Weiss looking over a few books resting on the end of the isle. Looking back at the cart promised that it would already be a costly purchase. As Weiss added the thick tome to the stack, the total cost promised to rise.

"Do you really think we're doing the right thing?" Yang asked, her eyes more focused on a teething toy that was hanging up on display.

Weiss turned with a second book in hand to regard Yang carefully. The pages slipping shut, her place in the index lost as she looked back down at the cover of the book. "I can't say, really. There's only one other alternative, and I'd rather not think about that, either…"

"Yeah, well I feel like I'd be a really shitty person if I didn't think about it a little…"

"Put it out of your mind."

"I can't. I want to, but I just can't..." Yang said, setting the water in the basket one at a time. "I just keep thinking, maybe she would be better off with someone else." Yang told her, leaning on the cart, feeling it roll into until it rested against the store shelves. "Someone who isn't like us…"

"An interesting notion at face value... Too bad it holds no water under scrutiny…"

"Weiss, we live dangerously. Our own lives aren't assured. The missions won't stop, they can't. The way I see it, best thing to do would be to keep her away from all of it…"

"Indeed, because that worked so well in the past..."

"That's kind of the point, I don't want it repeating."

"That's a lovely sentiment, but it's also useless." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes, tossing the next book in before joining Yang. Both of them leaning on the side of the basket. "Your curiosity nearly killed you as a child. You started wondering about your mother so much that you even put Ruby in danger. You've lived your whole life struggling with who your mother was. Now you're telling me you want to put someone else in that very same position."

"I didn't say that." Yang shot back. "I'm just asking if you think we're making the right choice."

"Well, therein lies the problem…" Weiss told her. It was then she reached for one of the soft toys, examining it carefully to ensure it was safe. "There is no right choice in this, Yang. If we don't raise her, someone else will. There's no option in that."

"Then… If we can raise her?"

"There is no 'if', blockhead." Weiss told her quietly, placing the toy in the basket. "Hypocrisy made out of kindness is still just that, hypocrisy. It still has the capacity to be dangerous, regardless of if you have the best intentions. Your father hid so many things from you, and look how that turned out."

"But, if it keeps her safe…"

"It won't do any bloody good." Weiss said knowingly. "Not if she's anything like you in the slightest."

"She might not be…"

"Is that really a risk you want to take?" As Weiss said that, she refused to think of her own upbringing. Years of failings culminating in her own dismissal from the Schnee legacy. To think she might ever follow in her father's sordid footsteps was perhaps the highest insult she could think of. To extend that insult onto others was something she just couldn't do. "You're better than your parents, Yang."

"Yeah, maybe, but I'm still a screw-up too."

"The way I see it, odds are that she's better off staying with us than with anyone else." Weiss said quietly. "I'd make that bet ten times out of ten."

"Why?"

"If I stood here long enough to give you all the reasons why, we'd be here all night, so you'll have to settle for three."

"Three?"

"Firstly, over the years, I've entrusted my life to you more times than I can count." Weiss began, ticking the reasons off on her fingers. "Somehow, miraculously, I'm not dead yet. Secondly, when my family cast me aside, it was my teammates that gave me a new one. Thirdly, every time the odds are stacked against us, we figure it out." Weiss shot back, flinging her long white hair over her shoulder with a flick of her wrist. "Now, if you're finished being paranoid, I'd like to go home…"