Cinder glared at the man across from her. Her amber eyes practically burning holes in his head. It didn't seem to disturb the man though; in fact it looked as if his arrogant smile had grown wider because of it.

Her voice came out with venom and she felt her two subordinates tense from their position.

Good.

"I will not repeat myself Watts. Answer the question."

This time he complied. But not without looking like he was being generous in giving her an explanation instead of being ordered to. The thought made her blood boil.

"I was sent here by our lady to assist you in your… little goals."

She snarled at him. "I do not need your help with my plans, do not presume to think differently."

He smirked. "Ah yes, because failing to acquire the Maidens full powers is a sure sign that you do not need my help. How did that happen by the way? You should have been able to deal with one girl, even if that Huntsman came in at the end."

She did not respond as her fingers sank into the leather of her seat. It was a mistake; as when she did that Watts grinned arrogantly again at her.

"That is what I thought. As such I've decided to call in a few of my own contacts. Doctor Merlot is-"

Cinder was not sure if it was the name of that man himself or the fact that Watts had the gall to utter it in front of her, but as soon as it passed his lips the air around them became a scorching blaze.

"You what!" She snarled. "You spoke to that man knowing full well he would be in contact with me."

"Ah yes, Salem did mention the two of you had a… history of some sorts, but to be frank with you Cinder that is none of my concern. Merlot has owned a seat at our able far longer than you, and now our lady has decided it is time to put him into action. You're expected to put petty feelings aside." With that he stood up, brushing himself off of some invisible layer of dust and turned to leave, still with that arrogant smirk on his face.

The half-maiden grit her teeth in frustration. Though she loathed to admit it, she needed his aid, and if Salem had ordered it she couldn't very well refuse. For the moment, she was stuck with him. The door shut behind him and there was silence.

Cinder let loose a growl. "Mercury, Emerald."

Both snapped to attention behind her.

"Go and speak with Torchwick, have him recruit more men what every way he can. I will not tolerate failure even once."

"Yes ma'am!"

Cinder sighed. Damn that man, and damn Salem for tolerating him.

…

…

"Can we just have a moment to hash this out?"

Weiss gave the blonde Huntress-in-training an ice look but didn't protest. the girl said nothing as she kept walking but allowed Yang to walk beside her.

Yang nodded. "Alright then," there was an awkward pause."

Weiss raised an eyebrow impatiently. "Well? What have you to say Xiao-Long?"

The taller girl sighed. "I'm just trying to think of the best way to put this…"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh? Are you going to tell me I shouldn't go to the headmaster? That maybe I should just accept that our leader really doesn't have the qualifications to lead us."

"No…" yang murmured. "I'm saying that I agree with you."

Weiss stopped, turning to stare at her teammate with a startled expression. The brawler looked both ways to see if the hallway was occupied. When she found that it wasn't she sighed and leaned against the wall.

"I agree that it's weird that the headmaster would appoint my little sister as the leader of our team… and I think it's more than a little shady that she was able to get into Beacon with no official training or anything but… I don't think you need to be so hard on her."

The Schnee heiress slumped a little at that, suddenly looking tired. It seemed like she wasn't the kind of person capable of holding onto her anger. "It's not that," she said eventually. "It's just that… already Beacons… not what I expected it to be." She paused, looking like she was fighting to find the right words before motioning with her hands.

"It's… different. So… so different. I expected rules and regulations to be the utmost of importance, that the teacher would be distant, polite and professional, but instead we have the terrifying miss Goodwitch, professor Port with his long-winded stories and on or the first day they threw us off a cliff."

With each teacher mentioned Weiss seemed to deflate more and more, but still Yang stayed quiet, letting the shorter girl shed her thoughts.

"And… I suppose I should have realized that it wouldn't have been what I had in mind from the very first minute of initiation. I should have known that it wasn't going to get what I wanted."

"What was it that you wanted?" Yang asked hesitantly. "To be team leader?"

Weiss sighed, and slid down the wall beside Yang, sitting down miserably. After a moment of thought the blonde followed suite.

"I didn't have an issue with not being the leader of this team; my father always said 'Schnee's lead, they do not follow'… I didn't want to be like him, to try and force that opinion on others and make myself team leader. But… look, I don't look down of your sister: Ruby is a competent fighter, she has the potential to be a great partner. I'm just not sure someone her age can take that kind of responsibility when she hasn't been groomed for it. I was and I don't know if I'm ready for it, and because of that in my mind I go through all the scenarios in which this ends in failure and I…" she trailed off, falling into silence.

After a minute or two it was Yang that sighed this time. "You know… I might not know what you feel completely, but I kind of understand your worry about this team. I mean, if you take a good look at us even from the outside you might not notice anything, but I don't think everyone's being that honest; hell, my own sister wouldn't explain where she's been all this time."

Weiss looked her way. "Are you still concerned about that? Isn't it better that she's here now?"

Yang's eyes hardened. "A... a number of people have walked out of my life… I finally have the chance to find out why at least one of them did. I'm not gonna let it go that easy."

"About that… you… you said that Ruby didn't go to Signal, but you also said that she didn't go to any other school, and you were concerned that she might have been with your uncle correct?"

She nodded. "Yeah… so far I don't have a great track record with the people important in my life sticking around."

There was a pause.

Weiss sighed. "Then what is it you would have me do exactly?"

The blonde shrugged. "I don't know; just… give her a chance. A chance to see what she can do before you decide if this is a real problem or not."

The heiress gave a final sigh before climbing to her feet with the brawler following her lead. "Alright, for now I'll give her the benefit of the doubt… maybe... that's what I should do after her being so accepting of me when we first met... but I reserve the right to change my judgment, if she cannot prove that she is a competent team leader then iI will be very vocal about my complaints."

Yang grinned and punched the girl's arm lightly. "That's the spirit! Now come on, you should be getting back, no clue what kind of trouble our two teammates could be getting' up to."

She nodded, turning to walk back to their room. Yang held up for a moment longer, her smile fades slightly as she looked down the hall both ways.

There was that feeling again.

When Weiss was out of sight and she was sure no one else was there to see, she reached for the bottle in her pocket.

And downed the pills.

…

…

Ruby shut her eyes hard, trying to focus on anything stable. Her mind took in the minute details she could feel the crackling of energy as her hand tightened around the shaft of Crescent Rose.

Her body shook as she searched within herself, her breath became labours and fast, with every second that ticked by her muscles tensed more and more.

She needed a focus, she needed to find it!

Where…. Where was it?

Where was that strength from before?

Her heart hammered in her chest and she grit her teeth. More; she needed to focus harder, to reach for that tiny spark that had saved her life twice before.

Her legs began to tremble and she growled in frustration.

'Come on!' she hissed in her mind. 'I just need something ANYTHING to see.'

Wait! What was that? In the darkness of her consciousness her mind's eye could see the tiniest of sparks. It was a flame of the coldest silver, flickering desperately.

She reached out, feeling its warms, its life, its-

It slipped.

No, no, no! It was so close, it had to be, yet with every second the distance seemed to grow. Her body strained with effort to maintain her focus and –

"That is enough Miss Rose, do not push yourself anymore." As if a spell had been broken Ruby was suddenly shunted back to reality, and when she became aware of herself she realized how weak she felt.

The silver-eyed girl's legs buckled and she dropped to the ground panting. Above her Miss Goodwitch eyed her with concern, and for good reasons.

Three days ago Ruby had come to her, it had been right after an argument she had with one of her teammates. The young girl had insisted on some kind of training to take her mind off it.

The woman herself would have gone with combat training, but the Headmaster had suggested she try tapping into the power of her eyes again. From the single-mindedness it needed Glynda could understand Ozpin's reasoning, but the mental stress table put on the girl left a bad taste in her mouth.

All the same Ruby had thanked her after the first day and come back the next, informing her that she and Miss Schnee had… smoothed things over. It was far from perfect but there did not seem to be any hostilities from them.

This was the third day and the strain on the Huntress-in-training was beginning to show and the frustration too was growing. To the point where Miss Goodwitch and taken it upon herself to monitor Ruby's state.

But she just kept pushing.

"I'm fine professor," she gasped between breaths. "I've barely done anything, I just… h-hey!"

Ruby cried out in shock as her limbs froze up, ignorant of her commands. This was because the Professor had decided that the best way to stop a young huntress was to restrain them with her semblance.

"Miss Goodwitch!" Ruby whined, but the woman just shook her head unapologetically.

"It would be wise for you to do as your teacher tells you Miss Rose, I will not have you exhausted today. If you fall asleep in class I will not let you go without a detention."

The girl pouted but gave in with a nod. "Fine, but I'll be back later to try again… hey; do you know where Amber is? I thought that maybe she could give me a few more pointers on magic."

"From what I know she is with the Headmaster," Glynda supplied. "I believe he is mentoring her on how to use her own powers… she is inexperienced… she is not a fighter, he is making sure that she will be."

Ruby gave a sad smile. "You don't sound happy about it, do you?"

The blonde sighed. "I will never be happy about sending children to their deaths… but it is something I have realised is an inevitability with training young Huntsmen, and now to invite a girl with not even that desire into our secret war…"

The silver-eyed girl blinked. "What about me? I'm younger than anyone else here."

She received a glare in response. "And you know very well my stance on such affairs; if I did not think it better to inform you of the dangerous on your life then I would have made sure that not even Ozpin would have been able to recruit you."

Heh… oops.

The Professor fixed her glasses with one hand as she released Ruby from her hold. "You have had plenty of time here, it would not be wise for you to miss your next class."

"Wait, when is that exactly?"

"Four minutes from now."

"What!?"

Of course Ruby made it on time, her semblance saving her neck this time and she just managed to make it before the bell rang out.

Her seat was beside Weiss at the end of one of the tables; her team was aligned together with team JNPR beside them. Behind them as Team CRDL, although by the looks of it they were pointing and laughing at a Faunus girl in the corner. It was obvious to Ruby that they were racist, it was probably obvious to everyone. They couldn't do anything in class to her though.

Great! At least that meant-

There was a gust of wind as something green blurred past her vision.

"Greetings class! I am Professor Oobleck and I will be your history teacher for the semester and the rest of your time at Beacon should I not have a catastrophic heart failure moving on our first order of business will be to study the Faunus Rights Revolution no questions? Good let's begin."

Ruby could only gasp at the man who spoke so fast not even her with her speed semblance had been able to keep up, had he even stopped to breathe? It didn't matter by the looks of it because he was already righting something up on the board behind him.

Ruby let out a long whine that went unheard by the rest of the class… mostly because they were just as distressed as she was. Seriously, what was with the teachers in Beacon being so weird?

If she had paid more attention she might have noticed Blake looking around nervously, why wouldn't she? This was her history, and now she'd hear exactly what it was that they taught the people meant to protect everyone.

Would they ridicule the Faunus? Paint them as villains? After everything the White Fang had done, she expected it to be so if only so that-

"To understand we must first the horrible treatment of Faunas before the war."

Eh?!

"To put it plainly, the Faunus population all over the world was treated as sub-human- as seen by the masses as nothing more than animals… and in some cases they were victims of these mistreatments were then ignored by the authorities, after all… human rights were of no concern when dealing with animals –or at least – that was the view at the time."

There was a low mutter throughout the class, many throwing uncertain looks to the only visible Faunus in the class: a girl with rabbit ears, hair and eyes all of the same brown colour. Velvet Scarlatina fidgeted slightly as eyes were drawn to her.

Oobleck continued, "Many of the atrocities inflicted on Faunus kind have been 'swept under the rug' so to speak, but in an effort to teach only the truth historians have been able to salvage some of the… more common practices." In his hands was a list and the students suddenly tensed, perhaps afraid of what they might hear. The Doctors eyes sharped behind his glasses as he gazed upon his class. "For some of you this may incite uncomfortable feelings, perhaps it might not be standard, but if some of you feel as if this is too upsetting for you, you can leave at any time.

No one moved

The green hair man nodded. "Very well. I would like to state that these happened very early in our history, these things have not been repeated in the last five hundred years, but have existed of over millennia. These atrocious acts… are as follows;

The hunting of fox Faunus for sport, engaging activity for those of the middle class, the slave fights in the slums between different slave Faunus youth and the experimentation of drugs and dust on Faunus by the hands of even doctors."

Gasps could be heard all around. Blake could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as the list grew on and on, a horrible feeling settled in her stomach and her ears flattened on her head within the bow. Luckily everyone else was caught up in their own shock to notice… she didn't feel very lucky about it though.

Blake didn't need to look around to know how others felt; the secret Faunus could imagine the pale faces and expressions, she was among them: this was new to her, not even the White Fang was aware of this, something that would have helped their recruitment cause immensely.

Again. Blake was horrified.

But Doctor Oobleck was not finished, and with a grave face and to slow pace he delivered the final nail in the coffin.

"And perhaps the most luxurious, extravagant thing for the rich… was to … was to… consume delicacies such as young Faunus children."

It was hell.

There was not a single person who was able to remain calm; even the quiet Ren was one his feet, though mainly to try and restrain the berserker that was Nora from destroying everything in her path from pure rage, simply in an effort to express what she was feeling.

Many could agree with the sentiment.

Things just seemed to… slow for Blake as she took a look around.

Beside her, her partner was practically on fire, wait… no, she was on fire; her golden mane was alight with flame and her eyes were crimson.

Her other side –where Weiss sat – was the opposite, it was like a chill Blake could feel through her bones. Weiss was shaking. Blake couldn't see the girls face from this angle but she knew it wasn't any better than the rest of them and Ruby…

Ruby looked tired, there wasn't really any other way to explain it; it looked like she wore a weight on her shoulders that could not be lifted. Well at least she-

"Some would even feast on these children while they were still alive."

Nope, that was it.

One of team CRDL rushed past their seats in an attempt to make it out the door -Sky -but for some reason he decided it was too far away and instead dashed to the window, and proceeded to empty his stomach.

Blake's thoughts had stalled as others yelled out for an explanation. Doctor Oobleck stood at the front of the class, waiting for the initial shouting to stop.

And when it did people were left sitting in mute horror.

When he spoke again his voice was clear; "I would like to remind everyone that while it is expected for all of you to be unsettled by this it is ill-advised to express your negative emotions in such a manner, lest it attracts more Grimm than usual… are there… any questions so far?"

Weiss raised her shaky hand.

"Yes Miss Schnee, what is it?"

The snow haired girl gulped. "Why… why is this the first time I'm hearing this? I've… I know that the mistreatment of Faunus has been poor in the past but never like this. This is horrible."

Blake blinked. Huh, it looks like she could even agree with a Schnee on this, was that even a shred of decency within her words? She would have never expected it from her family.

"The answer to that is as simple as it is callous Miss Schnee," Oobleck said, fixing his glasses. "The reason you have not heard of it, is because the information is suppressed and hidden from the civilian populace."

Hushed whispers travelled around the classroom. Pyrrha was the next to ask a question. "But sir, why would they hide this? Surely it's something we should all know the truth about."

The man looked among his audience. "Can one of you answer that question?"

There was silence all around, before a small voice from Blake's right spoke up weakly.

"It's for the same reason the council keeps secrets the rest of the time," Ruby sighed. "So that we don't attract the Grimm, if everybody knew it would just make people hate each other more and now with the White Fang becoming more of a problem for them they don't want to give people any more of a reason to join up."

"That is correct Miss Rose," Oobleck said with a nod before turning to the rest of them. "This knowledge is highly controlled for the dangers it possesses… however in order to give us some semblance of freedom this information is taught to all Huntsmen and Huntresses, other than that only the highest members of the council know. You are all being taught this because it is important for you in affecting your judgements."

In the back Cardin frowned, he'd been making sure Sky wasn't about to throw up again but he was definitely more interested in this topic now, if perhaps a bit uncomfortable.

"What do you mean affect our judgment? How is this supposed to help?"

"It will help you Mr Winchester because the knowledge of the past will influence your choices in the future, tell me boy; what do you think is the duty of a Huntsman?"

He blinked, along with a few others in the class.

"Um… to kill Grimm?" he half-told-half-asked.

"True," the teacher allowed. "But that is not all there is to it; as a protector, as a Huntsman, you are expected to be the heroes of the people and as such are required to have a certain level of empathy… it is not realistic for all of you to be patient and kind saints but it is desired for you to at least realise what people may be going through, this includes our Faunus population."

The large boy nodded, but he didn't really look happy with what he'd heard. Although Blake could have been wrong, it's not like she cared enough about him to learn what his facial features might mean.

Oobleck took a sip of coffee from a mug that seemed to just appear on his hands. "Where were we? Ah! Yes, these acts happened centuries ago without anyone notable in power seeing what was wrong but it wasn't until one particular event did things begin to change, there was an attack on a village names Sanus, a relatively unimportant settlement, but when it was attacked the human population had no hope of surviving… until the Faunas inhabitants decided to aid them."

He didn't wait for them to gasp at the new information, powering on instead.

"After the battle humans grew to realize that the Faunus were not that different from them after all… However, rather than treating them equally, Humans used the Faunus' differences to exploit and continue to discriminate against them. It has never been as bad as before, but there was still slavery for a while after. From that we lead up to the great war, where afterwards the Faunus population was 'rewarded' the island known as Menagerie, however it was just a thinly disguised attempt to relocate them away from humans. This did not succeed and the Faunus Rights Revolution was born with one of its main benefactors: the Schnee Dust Company."

What!

Blake felt her jaw drop at the teachers' words. Had she just heard him right? The Schnee Dust Company had been their main support. This must have been a joke!

Almost on their own, Blake's eyes shifted to her Schnee-born teammate. Her form was straighter and she seemed to have a surprised look on her face… but one that was nevertheless proud.

Oobleck nodded even as the surprise rippled through them.

"Indeed Nicholas Schnee was a great Faunus sympathiser in his youth, and after leading many expeditions to find new types of dust alongside Faunus partners, he formed an understanding of them. When he amassed a great enough public figure and treasury he was the first corporation to hire Faunus workers and give them an honest wage. This seems to have been… forgotten now, mainly because the Company has slipped back into discrimination when it comes to these workers, paying them what is rumoured to be less than minimum wage. However there has been no real evidence of this and anyone who has come forward quickly retracts their statements."

He tilted his head in thought. "Things are… tense in this day and age, with non-peaceful White Fang action on the rise there has been a rift forming between Humans and Faunus, one that drives more people to hate each other, more people to join the White Fang and perpetuate the problem."

The team leader of JNPR raised their hand again Blake turned to look at him when she noticed something; had he been taking notes?

"Um, sir? You said there used to be a fair treatment of Faunus in the, um, Schnee Dust Company so… what changed."

Doctor Oobleck opened his mouth to answer when the bell rang.

"That is something you will have to find in the library for now Mr Arc. Class is dismissed, for homework I want a ten thousand word essay on the progression of Faunus Treatment on my desk two weeks from now."

There was no groan at the homework, people were still too numb for that, instead many students shuffled out of the room, and at the moment Blake was swept up with her team and she was walking down the hallway with them.

"Well," Yang said. "That was definitely somethin'"

Weiss sighed. "If you mean horrific then I would have to second it. I was not aware of such despicable events in history."

Blake turned to say something, but before she could a voice sounded on the speakers.

"Team RWBY and JNPR to the Headmasters office for briefing. Repeat, team RWBY and JNPR to the Headmasters office."

Ruby turned to her team. "That must be the mission they were talking about, guess it's a good a time as any. Come on, let's go."

...

...

So.. yeah, the World of Remnant isn't all sunshine and rainbows. this is just the tip of how dark this could get. A taster to let you know what's coming in the future.

Did you like this chapter? Yes? No?

Be sure to let me know. also if you saw any mistakes please tell me, some tend to slip through so if I find them I'll be sure to fix them.

That's all I have for now.

Bye!