Hello again! Sorry about the delay (Writer's Block snuck up on me and then proceeded to beat me over the head with a baseball bat) But here it is! Chapter Thirteen! Hope you enjoy!

If you see any grammar errors, tell me and I will fix them!

Warning: There is a sorta Lime scene in here (I say sorta because one member was a bit...involuntary, which brings me to the next warning: attempted rape, no one panic, there is a reason I say attempted)

Ozpin gazed over his desk at Glynda, who glared at the sliver-haired headmaster.

"You want me to do what?!" She said in a voice of barely suppressed rage. Ozpin sighed.

"I want you to recall the suspension on Team RSNC."

Glynda's upper lip curled back. "You do know why they are suspended in the first place? This isn't some hasty decision, but a legitimate punishment!"

Ozpin raised his hands in peace. "They didn't technically break any rules or policies. Suspending them was a bit unfair."

"THEY WERE HANGING A TEAMMATE OUT A WINDOW!"

"Yes…well…I still want them back."

Goodwitch looked to about to pop a blood vessel. "I-"

Ozpin looked at her with a single eyebrow raised. Goodwitch threw up her hands and shouted.

"FINE! But remember if this comes back and bites you on your ass; it is not my fault!"

She stormed out, fuming at the prospect of bringing those nightmares back into her school. As the elevator door slid shut, Ozpin sighed deeply.

"Don't make me regret this, Ms. Rose."

Roman didn't come back that night, Neo wasn't too worried, but Ruby, after that little meeting with Cinder, was tense and uptight. Sifting on her pallet, Ruby stared at the metal roof of the warehouse, the loft itself cast in darkness and silence. As loud as he is while awake, Crimson barely made a sound when asleep.

Of course, given the beating he received from Neo, Crimson could be a coma.

Ruby rolled over to her side, trying to clear all thought from her mind. It wasn't easy. The thoughts of what happened at Beacon barely crossed her mind, but the thoughts of Cinder and their meeting threw her for a loop and she could not calm her brain down. Even when Ruby first met Cinder Fall, the psycho made her feel uncomfortable; then it got worse, Ruby could barely stand to look the amber-eyed creature in the face because of what happened on that day, years ago…

"So, who are we meeting again?" Ruby scuffed her boots against the wet pavement of the very outskirts of Mount Glenn. "An evil psychopath or a crazed murderer?"

"Oh, hush." Roman rolled his eyes at the thirteen-year-old Ruby. "And stop scuffing your shoes!"

Ruby stuck her tongue out at his back and continued to kick at the damp road. She looked around at the broken buildings.

"So, where's Neo? Why isn't she here too?"

"Because Neo is learning how to drive so she can finally buy her own ice cream."

"Oh…when can I drive?" Ruby kicked a rock off the cracked road.

"When you're sixteen."

"Ugh, fine. How about fighting? When can I fight?"

Roman rolled his eyes again.

"Ruby, just yesterday, you took down a member of the Grimm Pack with your bare hands."

Ruby shook her head. "No, that doesn't count as fighting."

The crime lord cast her a curious glance. "So, what does it count as?"

Ruby smiled a little, a gleam coming in her sliver eyes. "Massacring."

"You're a little monster, you know that right?"

"Meh."

Finally, they came to an office building that might have been towering when it was first built, but now collapsed in on itself, the face of the office perforated with holes and gaps in the stone and glass façade.

Ruby whistled as she looked at it. "Definitely a crazed murderer. Why did you bring me here again?"

"Because you can beat a fully grown man unconscious with your bare hands."

"Ah…so, are we going to go inside?"

Roman and Ruby entered the ruin through a gap where the doors were supposed to be, the inside of the office was nearly worse than the outside. A huge hole took the place of the ceiling, the second floor was nonexistent, with the desks and various other junk strewn around the plaza; turning it into a colossal junk heap of rotting material.

"HELLO!" Ruby called out into the gloom of the plaza. "ANY CRAZED MURDER-MMF!"

"I'm Roman Torchwick!" Roman called out while keeping a hand over the mouth of the struggling Ruby. He gazed around the darkness. "I'm on time, what about you?"

"Actually, you are two minutes late." A low silky voice answered. A woman stepped into the dim light, she was tall with night-black hair and glowing amber eyes, a small smirk playing on her lips. Two other shadowy figures could be seen behind her, covered by the gloom inside the office. Roman didn't care about who were behind the woman as he was too busy staring at the woman herself.

"Well…hello, gorgeous." He chuckled as Ruby rolled her eyes. She took the opportunity to pluck his hand off her mouth and step away from him. The woman, seeing the thirteen-year-old girl, frowned.

"Who is this? I said come alone!"

Roman held up his hands, Melodic Cudgel dangling from his grip. "Hey, take it easy, she is just here as my own little version of backup."

Laughter burst from one of the woman's henchmen in the shadows. The woman turned back with a glare.

"Silence!" The glare fixed back on Roman. "Who is she?"

Roman looked at Ruby who shrugged and stepped forward. "My name is Ruby Ros- "

SLAP!

"You will speak when spoken to- "

The woman's harsh rebuke was cut off as Ruby smashed her fist into the woman's sternum, she doubled over, wheezing.

"CINDER!" Her henchmen started forward, the sounds of their weapons being readied, they were stopped by the sight of Melodic Cudgel and a fully unfolded Crescent Rose being pointed at their faces. They froze, breathing heavily as Cinder tried to compose herself. The henchmen revealed themselves to be some grey-haired man with heavy-looking magazines on his legs while the other turned out to be…

"Emerald Sustrai." Ruby growled upon fully seeing the fellow thief. "For someone who says they own allegiances to no one, you seem to be awfully chummy with Wheezy here."

Emerald growled and her grip on her duel pistols tightened. Roman raised his eyebrow.

"One of your street buddies?"

"We avoided killing each other if that what's you mean, the full story I'll tell you later."

"Fun! So, are you two going to lower your weapons or are you going to be stupid?" Roman gave a small grin in the direction of the henchmen. They glared death at him, the one with the silvery-grey hair flexing his legs while Emerald raised her weapons ever so slightly.

"Enough." The voice was rougher, but still low and slightly sultry. Cinder straightened up, her face expressionless. "Enough."

Her lackeys relaxed their fighting positions and settled for glares. Roman watched as Emerald holstered her weapons; he smiled and spun his cane in a circle before placing it back on the ground. Ruby did the same for the scythe.

Cinder stared at Ruby, her eyes just as impassive as her face. "What is your name?"

Ruby scoffed. "Oh, I'm sorry, am I being spoken to now?" Cinder narrowed her eyes and repeated what she said. Ruby struck a cocky pose and answered.

"Ruby Rose. I take it that you are Cinder…someone?"

Roman muffled a chuckle so that Cinder didn't notice, not that she would anyway; she seemed to be completely focused on the girl in front of her. To her henchmen's surprise she answered the young girl's question.

"My name is Cinder Fall. Tell me, where did you learn to hit like that?"

Ruby looked in some surprise at the woman in front of her. "I learned to hit like that thanks to being myself, a few attitude problems, and dozens of crazy bastards."

The smirk slowly started to return. "Did someone have a fun childhood?"

"Fun" is not the word I would use to describe it." Ruby muttered. The smirk returned in full force as Cinder heard those words. Roman seeing the smirk, decided to get everything back on the reason they came here and away from Ruby.

"Did you call us for a reason or are we just going to stand around and chat?"

Cinder turned to Roman, the smirk fading, replaced by a more professional expression.

"I have a proposition for you, it will be long and will require absolute secrecy, it would worth your while, of course."

"I'm listening."

"I'm planning a revolution of sorts and I need your assistance."

"Oh! Well, that sounds fantastic!" Ruby exclaimed sarcastically, she looked in disbelieve at Roman. "We're not actually going to agree to do this, are we?"

Roman turned her eyes on Ruby. "Ruby, this is what we do for a living."

Turning back to Cinder, he smiled. "So…how much are we getting payed?"

Neo looked in shock at Roman and Ruby. She couldn't believe that Roman agreed to do something of this scale and just for a measly nine million lien a week…ok, maybe not that measly, but a revolution was still a huge operation and not exactly Roman's style.

Ruby looked unhappy at the prospect of working with the new associates and, frankly, after hearing what this Cinder Fall did to Ruby; Neo loathe to do anything for them either…except maybe stab them.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE NOT GETTING PAYED ANYMORE?!"

"I mean she is not going to pay us anymore!"

The Criminal family was gathered around the kitchen in the loft, Roman was brooding, Neo was irritated, and Ruby was shouting everything.

"WHY NOT?! WHY AREN'T WE GETTING PAYED?!"

"Because Cinder thinks that three payments of nine million lien is more than enough for our continuous cooperation…and I agree."

Neo started and Ruby looked like she had been punched in the gut.

"What?" She asked, her voice quiet. "What do you mean you agree?"

Roman looked up and met the eyes of Ruby and Neo, his green eyes were shielded, but Neo sensed that they were holding back a barrage of emotion. The words that came out of his mouth were slow and careful.

"It's fine that we are not going to be payed anymore, we will still work for Cinder Fall and once we are done, she will leave. Nice and simple."

Neo and Ruby shared a quick glance. What was happening? Ruby narrowed her eyes as she looked closely at Roman. He was concealing something from them.

"Rome', what are you hiding from us?"

Roman smiled grimly. "People have secrets for a reason, Red. You're a perfect example of that."

Ruby stiffed as Roman left the kitchen and vanished beyond the screens of his bedroom. Neo looked at Ruby and raised a hand, but before she could do anything; Ruby yanked her body away and headed towards the stairs.

"I'm going out." She called over her shoulders, her red cloak flowing behind her.

Neo look after her with worried eyes.

Ruby stepped onto the ground level of the warehouse, the crates casting shadows in the dying light of evening. Rubbing her head, she slid open the door and stepped outside.

"Well, you are exactly the person I wanted to see." A sultry voice exclaimed. Ruby slowly lifted her head, her sliver eyes meeting the amber eyes of Cinder Fall. Oh God.

Ruby clenched her fist. "What do you want?"

Cinder smirked, Ruby was getting exceptionally tired of that smirk.

"I already said, I came to see you." The tone of voice that this was said was nearly a coo.

"Uh…OK, what do you want?"

Cinder looked at her with unnaturally bright eyes, her smirk turning more sinister.

"I want you."

Well…shit.

"Uh, you want me to join your little minion group?"

The smirk turned into a smile, an exasperated smile. A smile that someone might give another who was just not realizing the obvious. She shook her head.

"Great! I'll just be- "

The door of the warehouse slammed shut. Ruby whirled around to see that Cinder's face had come closer. Cinder's right arm has slammed the door shut while her left pushed Ruby against it. Cinder leaned in a started whispering in Ruby's ear.

"You have sliver eyes; did you know that? I adore sliver eyes; I find the people with them are so…powerful."

When Cinder said "powerful", heat flushed onto her face and her amber eyes turned dark. She stepped even closer, the proximity making Ruby quake. The whispers growing intense in her ears.

"When I saw your eyes, I felt just the slightest twinge, but when you hit me, the raw force in the blow." Cinder trembled in pleasure, savoring the memory. She brushed her lips against Ruby's ear. The contact making Ruby want to scream.

"I know then, that I wanted you." She murmured. "I know then that I didn't just want your skill, no, I wanted your body."

Oh Hell, No!

Ruby tried to shove Cinder away, but her efforts just made Cinder smile. She pressed her body against Ruby's smaller frame and smirked.

"Don't worry, you'll start to like it."

Cinder slammed her lips down on Ruby's, her body pinning Ruby to the door, her arms holding the girl in place. Ruby couldn't move, couldn't fight, couldn't do anything to stop this from happening.

Except…Ruby went limb and pressed her arms to Cinder's chest. Cinder responded with a moan and opened her mouth, her slimy tongue brushing across Ruby's lips. Choking down her disgust, Ruby forced her lips open to allow the tongue to slip inside. As Cinder's muscle explored Ruby's mouth, the young girl did something that she learned on the streets, she bit down.

Ruby felt her teeth slice into the thin membrane and into the muscle. She pushed Cinder back, this time it worked. Cinder stumbled back, her hand over her mouth as she tried to stop the flow of blood leaking from her mouth.

"Fuck you!" Ruby snarled. Cinder spat out a glob of blood and straightened up. Her eyes dark with lust and flaming with rage.

"No, I think I'll leave that to you." Cinder stalked forward and Ruby gripped Crescent Rose, ready for this-

The warehouse doors screeched opened, revealing playfully bickering Roman and Neo.

"This will be the last ice cream run I do for you, Neo! Mark my words-What is going on here?!"

Roman took in the sight of a bleeding Cinder and a murderous Ruby, his hand automatically aiming Melodic Cudgel, Neo spun her parasol, ready to wipe out Cinder and defended Ruby and Roman.

Cinder glared at the both of them, then at Ruby. She snarled out a small noise of frustration before composing herself as best she could with blood still dripping down her chin. She locked eyes with Roman.

"Torchwick, we have some new assets, I want you to come tomorrow. We need to make a favorable impression. Don't be late."

She stormed off. Roman thought he could see actual smoke rising from Cinder's shoulders, but brushed it away as unimportant, he stepped forward and put his hands on Ruby's shoulders.

"What happened?" His eyes searched hers worriedly. "What did she do to you?"

Ruby felt a new emotion rise in her chest, she knew then that she hated Cinder Fall, that she would always hate her, and, if she could, Ruby would drive Crescent Rose's blade through her filthy chest!

"Ruby, what happened?!"

Ruby shrugged his hands off her shoulders. "You better go buy ice cream for Neo now."

"Ruby!"

But Ruby didn't stop, tears were prickling her eyes, threatening to cascade down her face. She pushed past Neo and ran up the stairs. She could hear both of them hurrying after her, catching up. Ruby activated her semblance, leaving a cloud of rose petals behind her. She sped into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it, then she vomited all over the floor. After the third time, Ruby curled up against the door, breathing heavily, her body shaking at the thought of what Cinder tried to do to her, tears falling from her eyes as she dry-heaved.

Roman banged on the door.

"Ruby?!" He sounded close to tears himself. "What did she do to you?"

Ruby raised her head and screamed out her rage and disgust and fear.

"LEAVE ME- "

"-ALONE!" She snapped to a sitting position, her skin clammy and sweat running off her forehead. Breathing heavily, Ruby looked around at the sleeping loft, it was calm and quiet, basking in the soft light of the moon. Rubbing her face, Ruby laid back down and stared at the ceiling. This always happens when you fall asleep, Ruby, you think you be used to it, by now."

Ruby never told Neo and Roman what happened, she didn't even try and make up some story, she just refused to talk about it and, eventually, they had stopped asking.

Ruby sighed and sat up, if you can't sleep the there is no reason at all to be in bed…pallet…whatever. She rose and padded off towards the direction of the kitchen. Entering the chrome and tile section of the loft, Ruby opened the fridge, bottles clinking as the door swung open. Looking inside, Ruby could see-

"Late night snack?"

Ruby whirled around to face Crimson, who was standing there in a t-shirt and ragged pair of shorts and a small smile. She closed the fridge behind her.

"Nope."

Crimson just smiled wider and shook his head, he moved over to the cabinets. He creaked open the doors and started shuffling through them.

"Do you have any tea? I would really like some tea."

Ruby raised her eyebrow, but answered anyways. "Cabinet at the end, middle shelf."

Crimson wandered over and opened it. "Ah, hello."

He pulled out a wooden box and opened it, the dark green of tea leaves showing.

"I was expecting a cardboard box and teabags, Roman only gets the best, doesn't he?"

"Except if it's ice cream, Neo eats enough of it to drive him into bankruptcy as it is."

Crimson smiled at that as he filled a kettle with water and set it on the stove top. Ruby stared at him for a moment, then she spoke.

"Crimson, how do you know Roman?"

A sideways glance from Crimson revealed that his smile had faded a little. "What?"

"How do you know Roman? What happened that made you meet or whatever?"

The assassin's index finger tapped a rhythm on the granite of the counter tops. He looked over at her, then stretched his neck to look in the direction of the sleeping Neo, then back at Ruby.

"OK, why not? The tale of how paths crossed between Roman Torchwick and Crimson Shard is a mildly interesting one."

Crimson leaned against the counter. He stared at the floor for a few seconds before beginning his story.

"Three years ago, when I was still a newcomer to the assassins and, thanks to always picking the wrong jobs and me being a slightly violent maniac, I was absolutely boned. I was fourteen and on so many hit lists, I'm still surprised that I lived through that year. Everywhere I turned, people were trying to kill me, street gangs, other assassins, mob bosses, White Fang- "

"Why did the White Fang want to kill you?" Ruby interjected. Crimson just raised an eyebrow.

"Long story short, never go and use a flamethrower on their leaders. Anyway, so I was in hiding kinda, I was less in hiding then living in a dumpster because of the fact that I had no money because no one wants to hire an assassin who is a very dead man walking. So, one night, I was trying to figure out a game plan and, lo and behold, I saw the infamous Roman Torchwick, rising nightmare in the criminal underworld and one of the few people who were not trying to kill me. I don't know why I did it, but I followed him down the street, he lost me down here at the docks, probably coming here. I stayed at the docks, meaning to hire myself out because dumpsters have zero internet connection as well as billions of Crimson-killing diseases."

Crimson paused as he checked the kettle and took a breath.

"Unfortunately, that didn't exactly work out. It was the next morning when some friends from the White Fang found me. Of course, I started to fight for my life and that was what Roman found that morning, five lion Faunus fighting a dirty street rat with war cleavers."

"What did he do?" Ruby asked, pushing herself onto the counter top opposite Crimson, he was facing the kitchen while she was facing the rest of the loft.

"Did Roman help you or, at least, not try and kill you?"

Crimson flicked his fingers at her. "He did the latter, he tried to just to avoid the fight, but lion Faunus when in battle, and angry in general, turn a bit homicidal. So avoiding the fight turned into having to beat a White Fang member unconscious, several White Fang members, actually."

The kettle whistling made Crimson pause in the telling of his recount and started making his cup of tea, as he worked, he continued in his telling of the story.

"So, there we were, me and Roman, standing in the midst of five cataleptic Faunus, and me knowing that the bounty on my head was going to get a rather unfortunate amount larger. Still, I turned to Roman and smiled…he then hit me over the head with that stupid cane of his."

"Melodic Cudgel." Ruby supplied.

"Yeah, that…moving on. So, I stumbled around for about a minute while trying to regain my sense of sight, once I did, I was staring into the face of a very irritated Roman Torchwick. As I recall he asked me what I had done to make the White Fang angry."

"That's all?" Ruby asked incredulously. Roman was usually more…elaborated when he was mad.

Crimson sipped his tea and shrugged.

"Well, if I didn't edit out the amount of profanity and threats against my bodily functions that were involved, we would be here all night. Of course I answered him, `I'm an assassin, everyone hates me, the White Fang wants my head on a pike, blah, blah, blah`. After I finished he just stared at me for a while before asking me if I needed a job."

"You said yes." Ruby asked, Crimson nodded.

"Yeah, I asked about the job and all he said was that it would require amazing skill and no little amount of outright awesomeness!"

"Uh-huh. So, who did you kill?"

"Well, you're blunt, the person I was supposed to kill was the leader of one of the largest street gangs in Vale…which I did…and with great, slightly bloody, professionalism."

Ruby looked at him with something like disappointment in her eyes. "Is that is? That's the big secret between you and Roman? You did a job for him?"

Crimson looked at her critically, sipping his tea.

"No, that's how we met. The reason why Roman experiences actually pain when he remembers me is something else entirely."

Ruby's disappointment turned into hope. "So, are you going to tell me?"

Crimson sipped his tea, looked at the hopeful Ruby, and sighed heavily. He set down his mug, placed his hands on her shoulders, and gazed into her eyes.

"No."

Glynda Goodwitch pinched her nose as she tried to decide who to call in order to tell that RSNC's suspension was recalled and that she expected them at school tomorrow. It, apparently, wasn't going to be easy.

Crimson Shard had no family listed, in fact, he didn't have any relatives listed at all. Glynda felt a twinge of sympathy, no child should live without a family.

Skyler Snow had an aunt listed, but, as she lived somewhere in Vacou's central desert, Goodwitch doubted that Mr. Snow would be staying there.

Ms. Neapolitan had no family listed either. Poor girl…

As for Ruby Rose, Glynda flipped to the listed relatives where she was relieved to see a name there that the professor felt cleared up the matter of where the team was or, at least, Ms. Rose would be staying for her suspension. Taking out her scroll, she put in the number and waited as the scroll on the other end rang, on the third ring, a gruff and slightly hoarse voice answered.

"Yeah?" In that one word Goodwitch could literal hear the amount of alcohol he had consumed. God, Qrow! Do you ever stop drinking?

Shaking her head, Glynda answered him.

"Qrow, it's me. I'm…happy to inform you that Ms. Rose's suspension has been recalled."

There was a pause. Then:

"What?"

Sighing in annoyance, Glynda repeated herself slowly. "Ruby Rose, your niece, was, along with the rest of her team, suspended. I am calling you to tell you that that suspension has been recalled by Ozpin. Got it?"

There was an even longer pause, a pause that started to make the combat instructor feel uncomfortable. "Qrow…?"

"I'll be there shortly." Then he hung up.

So...that happened. Anyway, I want to talk about something very cool to me, this story has two hundred-nine followers! THIS. IS. AWESOME! Thank you, guys! Really, thank you and you are all awesome! Every single one of you, mind-blowingly awesome! I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and that you all continue to be to blow minds...wait...no, that's right!

Thank you and I'll see you in the next chapter!