Hello, my favorite fanfiction readers and writers! Sorry for the delay, this week was just one thing after another, but here it it! Chapter Fourteen! I hope you enjoy!

Ruby drifted in and out of nonsensical dreams, dreams that pulled hard on the urge to fell back asleep. Ruby would have too, if not for those voices.

"You! What are doing in my house?!"

They were getting on Ruby's nerves, but did they care? No.

"Oh, hey, Roman! Guess who? Hah-haAAAAGGHHH! NO! THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN TO ME AGAIN!"

The sounds of high-pitch squealing and explosions thudded dully on the Ruby's eardrums. What was going on?

Ruby stirred and opened her heavy eyes. The world blurred briefly before coming together…what?

The scene before her confused Ruby even more then she was when she had her eyes closed. It was a scene of absolute chaos. Roman had returned to his fort, only to find that fort invaded by Crimson Shard.

And he was not happy.

Crimson flipped over a bolt of shrieking fire dust and landed on the coffee table as the bolt exploded onto the sitting room furniture, sending flaming chair innards everywhere. Crimson stood up on the table and caught an airborne chair leg that would have beamed him in the head otherwise. Panting, Crimson turned to glare at the hopefully ammo-less Roman Torchwick.

"ARE YOU DONE TRYING TO KILL ME?!" Crimson waved his arms wildly in the air, the smoldering chair leg leaving trails of embers.

"NO!" Roman snarled as he raised his cane in an overhead, bone-shattering blow to-Crimson hit Roman over the head the chair leg, twice-no…three times. In the silence that followed, Skyler poked his head over the kitchen counter, his frizzy hair sticking up every which-way.

"Are you done beating Torchwick unconscious?"

Crimson chucked the chair leg aside. "As a matter of fact, I am."

The assassin glanced around at the pieces of destroyed chairs and singed sofa.

"You think I'm going to have pay for this?"

Skyler snorted. He wandered over to the fridge and started to pull out an assortment of food stuff.

"No, I don't think murder victims can pay for property damage."

"Yeah."

Meanwhile, throughout all of this, Ruby was staring in no small amount of shock at the two of them.

"Did you just destroy our loft?" Her sliver eyes slightly bugged out at the sight of the groaning Roman.

The two jumped and whirled around to face the dark-red headed girl who had managed to sneak up behind them.

"Oh…uh…Good mourning, Ruby!" Skyler flourished with a smile. "Roman came back this morning."

"He tried to kill me." Crimson stated. "Which is why your living room-spot looks like…"

He gestured to the flaming mass of burning Laz-e-boys as if words didn't really do it justice. Roman groaned loudly and pushed himself off the floor, Ruby hurried over to him.

"You ok?"

Roman blew out a breath and gingerly touched the top of his head, his hand brushing off the crushed bowler hat.

"A little headache and the soul-crushing despair of having my hat destroyed, but otherwise, Yeah, I'm fin-WHY IS THE LOFT ON FIRE?!"

Roman rose to his feet in a flash and yanked an Ice Dust crystal from his coat, slamming it into Melodic Cudgel, he fired the bolt at the fiery destruction, freezing it and efficiently destroying all hope of sitting in those chairs again.

Ruby waved away the steam from around her face. "Was that really the best course of action?"

Roman held up his hand and turned stiffly around to walk to his room. He didn't even spare the time to glare at Crimson as he walked past the kitchen. They watched him go until he disappeared behind the Shoji screens. Crimson turned back to Skyler as Ruby wandered over to them, the assassin glanced at her.

"Is he going to kill me?"

Ruby looked thoughtful. "Maybe...or he'll just have me and Neo do it." She shrugged.

"Or just Neo, who knows."

"Mm…omelets."

Crimson forked into his breakfast, a breakfast that he and Skyler created for everyone as the:

`I'm-sorry-card of deliciousness. ` In the words of Skyler Snow

After which Crimson put in a remark about how they were going to do this anyway and it had nothing to do with the fact that the sitting area looked like a mix between a plane crash and the ninth circle of Hell.

Neo had then hit Crimson over the head with her plate.

Roman had come back in just as Team RSNC finished breakfast and pointedly ignored Crimson's presence as he addressed the rest of the team.

"You've been accepted back to Beacon; the call went out last night."

Ruby drooped her fork. "What? How do you know?"

Roman smiled slyly. "Do you think I'm going to let you and Neo go off to live with a bunch of college-age boys without bugging a few dozen Scrolls?"

Skyler nodded in an acquiescing manner and looked at the clock.

"We still have an hour before the classes start. Anything else we need to know?"

Uh…" Roman checked his Scroll. "The White Fang are getting angsty for some reason, Cinder Fall is pissed for some other reason, I hate Crimson Shard- "

"I know!" Crimson said cheerfully.

"-Beacon called some guy named Qrow Branwen to tell him your suspension is over, Ruby…Ruby?"

Ruby had dropped her fork and was staring at Roman in dawning horror.

"What?" She squeaked.

Roman looked confused. "Why? What's the problem?"

Ruby took a deep breath and resisted the urge to rock back-and-forth in her chair.

"Qrow Branwen is my uncle…who probably thinks I'm dead."

Roman stared at her, and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "And why did they call him to tell him your suspension is over?"

Ruby got smaller. "I don't know! I didn't put any contacts down! I-" She froze.

"What?" Roman asked warily.

"I-I mentioned him when I was being interrogated by Ozpin. He might of, when I didn't put down anything, put Qrow in because of my story, I don't know-GAAA! WHAT I'M GOING TO DO?!"

The sudden outburst caused Crimson to choke on egg and cheese and sputter out a reply.

"Stop freaking out! Take deep breaths! Flee the continent!"

"NOT HELPFUL!"

"You're still freaking out."

"QUIET! BOTH OF YOU!"

Roman's shout brought the volume down as Ruby contented herself to hyperventilating and Crimson to trying to remove omelet from his lungs. Roman sighed and rubbed his forehead with both hands.

"OK, are we sure that this is even a problem? That this Branwen won't just brush it off?"

"HE THOUGHT I WAS DEAD!"

"Yeah, well so did that blonde-" Skyler begin, but was cut off as a parasol and a cane made very threatening gestures against his bodily functions.

Ruby took a deep breath and started over. "I remember him being…loving and protective…" Ruby trailed off as she plunged deep into thought and memory. Loving and protective?

...Was he?

Roman saw Ruby's eye glaze over and her hands go limp. He caught the eye of Neo and she nodded. Snapping her fingers at the two male members of her team, she gestured with her parasol to follow her out of the kitchen. Skyler did with a nod of understanding and Crimson did with lounging look at his unfinished omelet. Once they were gone, Roman stepped forward and gently placed his hands on Ruby's shoulders.

The warm contact shook her out of her trance. Ruby lifted her eyes in a bit of a daze, meeting the emerald green eyes of Roman. He smiled softly.

"It's all right, Red. It's all right."

Ruby looked at him, her sliver eyes still far away. "I can't remember if my uncle loved me."

Her voice was hollow and her eyes crinkled like they did when she was holding back tears. Roman's throat tightened and instead of saying anything, he just pulled her into his chest, his arms closing around her as if they could shield Ruby from her demons. Ruby burrowed her head into Roman's coat, breathing in the scent of expensive cigars and night air that hung around him. They stayed like that until Roman looked back over at the clock and sighed.

"You need to get back to Beacon." He said softly. Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but Roman shook his head.

"No, you just got off suspension, showing up late to class is not going to help you get on your professor's good sides."

"I'm pretty sure one my professors already doesn't like me." Ruby murmured, looking into Roman's face, he cracked a small smile.

"Little surprise there, you are the one who stole a car and crashed it into the loft just to prove to Neo that you could."

"It was a dare! Neo dared me!"

Roman chuckled and held Ruby out at arm's length, looking into her eyes.

"You'll do fine, Red. In all the time that you have been here with us, you have never not had a plan."

"I DON'T HAVE A PLAN!"

"Again with the freaking out, I see."

Neo hit Crimson on the shoulder as they, once again, stood in front of Beacon Academy. Students rushing off to classes and Team RSNC trying to find out where they stand with the whole cover-could-be-blown-and-we-could-all-go-to-prison situation.

So far, it could use some work.

As they wandered off in the direction of Prof. Port's class, Skyler looked around, observing every person that was remotely near to them, his clear eyes picking up the minutest details as he strolled towards the classrooms.

"Snowball, stop staring at everyone. People are going to start to worry." Crimson said without looking at the well-dressed spy who huffed in annoyance and shot a glare at the eccentric assassin.

"It's my job to observe everyone around me, it is your job to kill everyone around you. I'm doing my job and I'm doing it perfectly."

Crimson looked at Skyler questionably. "It's my job to kill everyone around me? I thought it was my job to only kill a select few people while trying not to get myself killed in the process." His expression turned thoughtful.

"Speaking of targets, should I start a target list?"

Skyler raised an eyebrow. "A target list?"

"Yeah, a list of people we, as a team, want dead."

Skyler blinked. "You worry me, Zombie Boy, you worry me constantly."

"Meh, not the first time."

"What? That you worry someone to the point of terror?"

"I worry you that much?"

"Can we just walk to class?" Ruby asked. "This conversion is not helping my headache…or sheer terror of what's going to happen because I don't have a plan and-Oh, I taste vomit in my mouth!"

Neo patted Ruby on the back as Ruby doubled over, clutching her stomach. Crimson automatically took a step back.

"Nope, my boots are just starting to smell normal."

Skyler sighed. "You suck at this whole support thing."

Bending down, Skyler offered a hand down to Ruby. "Come on, throwing up is definitely not the best way to deal this situation."

Ruby groaned. "I don't think there is a best way to deal with this situation."

Once on her feet, she turned to look at Crimson with a frown. "And you…what are you looking at?"

Crimson was staring in the middle of the walkway, his face turned up in a kind of wondrous shock.

"Wow…I'm pretty sure your uncle is here, Ruby."

Ruby froze, her eyes locked on Crimson. "What?! WHERE?!"

Crimson Shard rubbed his chin, his eyes still locked on the heavens and growing a micro amount wider every passing second.

"If I had to guess, I'll say in Ozpin's office."

Skyler raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

Instead of answering, Crimson backed away off the concrete path. "Uh, you people might want to get out of the way."

Ruby was confused. "What? Get out of the way of what?"

Crimson inched his head to the side. "Defenestrated sadist."

"What now?"

"Falling professors."

"Made even less sense."

"You really might want to move, now would be a good time."

"Not until you- "

The force of the impact sent Neo, Ruby, and Skyler sailing over Crimson's head and into the shrubs bordering the paths. Green aura flicked in wild arcs as a twitching figure tried to stand, only to collapse back down into the newly-formed crater.

Crimson looked back at the unconscious forms of his teammates before striding forward and crouching down to look at the comatose person laying in front of him. A small grin on his face.

"Hey Ozzy, remember when you launched us off a cliff?"

"I'll be there shortly." Qrow hung up the scroll. For a moment he simply stood still, overlooking the forest lands of Vale. A blank look on his face as he processed what he just heard.

Ruby was alive. Ruby was alive. Ruby was-Wait, suspension? Suspension from Beacon, Suspension from Beacon. Where. Ozpin. Is. The. Headmaster. That motherfuc-

Rage blanketed Qrow's mind, wiping away all other emotion and thought. Turning towards the direction of Vale, he ran. His wrath fueling his strength to an epic proportion, pushing him to league-devouring speeds. He ran with two purposes in mind.

To see Ruby, no matter what gets in the way, he'll see Ruby again. And afterwards, to beat the shit of Ozpin…or kill him, Qrow hadn't decided yet.

Through the night, Qrow ran. Never stopping once to rest, anger powering his body through the cold and Grimm. When the sun peaked over the horizon, Qrow as marching into Beacon, on his way to dear old Oz. He streamed to the elevator, only to find Glynda Goodwitch standing there, waiting to go the same place Qrow was.

"Ah, Qrow. I was expecting to see you here, but where is young Ms. Rose?"

The veteran hunter automatically twitched at the sound of her name and gave Goodwitch an expressionless stare as he entered the elevator. Glynda slipped in beside him and cast him a wondering look.

"What's the matter?"

Qrow turned to her. "Is Ozpin in his office?"

"Yes."

Qrow turned back to the chrome door. "Then you'll see."

The rest of the ride up was silent, Qrow ignoring Goodwitch's inquisitive glances.

The doors opened onto the window-lined office of the famous Professor Ozpin who was sitting behind his desk with the ever present mug of coffee in front of him.

"Ah…Qrow. Surprise seeing you here."

Qrow marched into the office and stood before the desk. "I bet you are, Oz."

There was silence as the two men stared at each other. Ozpin blinked.

"So, what brings you here?"

Qrow placed both of his hands on the desk top and bent closer to the sliver-haired headmaster.

"I received a scroll call from Glynda last night, and she said my niece had her suspension removed."

Ozpin's skin paled slightly. "Oh, yes…she did have the suspension removed, as did the rest of her team."

"As did the rest of her team." Qrow said, as he was testing those words and not liking the results. He locked eyes with the headmaster, his voice growing harder.

"So she got suspended, her entire team got suspended, and here I was, not even knowing she had a team."

"Qrow…"

"Of course, that's not very surprising given a very important fact." Qrow leaned in even closer and whispered.

"Can you guess what that fact is, Oz?"

"Qrow, I can explain- "

"THAT FACT IS THAT FOR FIVE YEARS I THOUGHT RUBY ROSE WAS DEAD!"

"Calm down- "

"I THOUGHT SHE WAS KILLED! I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER SEE HER AGAIN AND WANT ME TO CALM DOWN?! HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN SHE WAS ALIVE?! WHEN WERE YOU PLANNING TO TELL ME?!"

"I was just as shocked as you were- "

"SHUT UP, OZPIN! YOU KNOWN WHAT RUBY'S DEATH DID TO ME, I LOST EVERYTHING WITH RUBY'S DEATH! BUT HERE YOU ARE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT SHE IS ALIVE AND YET, YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!"

"YOU WEREN'T READY TO HEAR IT!" Ozpin shouted out, desperate to get a complete sentence out.

The glare on Qrow's face turned deadpan, "What?"

Ozpin glared at him. "You weren't ready to know that she is alive."

Qrow's lip curled up in confusion. "That doesn't even make sense."

Ozpin breathed deeply. "She is not the same girl you knew five years ago. She is hiding something; her entire team is hiding something."

Qrow leaned back and walked around to the back of the desk, Ozpin stood up quickly and faced him, his fist clutched. Qrow just stood in front of him and stared Ozpin in the eye. Qrow placed his hands on the headmaster's shoulders, paying no attention to how Ozpin tensed at the contact. Qrow looked deep into his eyes.

"I'll see you downstairs, Oz."

Qrow lifted Ozpin off his feet and before the professor or Glynda could do anything about it, Qrow hurled the headmaster out the window, glass shattering everywhere as Ozpin free-falled towards the ground far below.

Qrow brushed off his hands and turned to face a beyond-furious Goodwitch who was opening and closing her mouth without sound in her shock and anger.

Qrow raised his eyebrow. "You really need to be more informed about the students, Gly'. If you were, you'd actually know what's going on."

Qrow walked into the elevator.

Ruby woke up to see Crimson drawing on Prof. Ozpin's face with a Sharpie. A monocle was already in place and the doodler was working on the mustache when Ruby snatched the maker out of Crimson's hand.

"Not a smart thing to do!" Ruby yelled as she threw the marker into a nearby pond.

"Hey!" Crimson protested indignantly. "You just threw my artistic talents into a fish sanctuary!"

"You're lucky I didn't throw you in." Ruby muttered darkly as she tried to rub off the black ink off the still unconscious face of Ozpin. Eventually, she just smudged it around his eye.

"Well, we can blame it on whoever threw him out the window." Ruby sighed as she looked at Ozpin who now looked like he had a black eye.

"Yes, and then I need to propose to said person, marriage will come from this!"

Ruby shook her head. "You're weird."

"I am a bit strange."

"Yeah."

Behind them, they heard the sounds of Neo and Skyler coming back to the world of the non-comatose.

"Ugh, what happened?" Skyler tumbled out of the bush he was caught in. "And where's my hat?"

Crimson looked over at him. "No idea, after the amazing falling man here sent you into the bushes, I wasn't really watching for your hat."

Ruby looked down and her eyes widened. "The amazing falling man is waking up, people!"

Neo stumbled over, her usually perfect hair in a disarray mess and leaves coating her jacket. She tumbled over to Crimson and glared at him with anger in her mismatched eyes of open hostility. Crimson just looked at her.

"What? I said to get out of the way, you just failed to listen."

Neo still glared at him, but walked over to Ruby to see what state Ozpin was in as his eyes fluttered opened. He groaned and propped his self-up on his palms. He turned his head to stare at the two girls with a stupefied expression.

"Ms. Rose, Ms. Neapolitan, I-I…did anyone get hurt?"

"No…uh, professor? Why were you falling out the window?"

"Oh…I…" Green Aura flickered around Ozpin's body as he tried to come up with an answer for the question. Fortunately, the answer came striding into view, weapon in hand.

Crimson propped his chin up with his hand as the raven-haired hunter with the giant longsword came marching towards Ozpin, who's eyes flickered between the hunter and Ruby who, along with Neo, had retreated away from the two men.

"Qrow, wait…"

WHAM

Qrow swung his blade broadside, sending Ozpin flying with the side of the sword. The still healing Ozpin flew out of the carter and into the grass bordering the pathway. Qrow, his focus entirely on Ozpin. Ozpin's face became a deadly calm as Qrow swung his sword at the sliver-haired huntsmen's face.

The headmaster caught the blade in his aura-covered hand and struck Qrow in the chest with his cane, forcing the huntsman back. Qrow grunted as he regained his footing on the broken stone of the pathway. A snarl appeared on Qrow's face as he swung the sword only to have Ozpin block it and drive an another blow to his sternum.

Gasping now, Qrow glared at the headmaster who held his hands out in front of him.

"Qrow, just listen!"

"Give me one reason why I should!"

"Um, well…" Ozpin stepped out of the way and gestured to Team RSNC.

Qrow's eyes passed over the hatless Skyler, the elevated Crimson, the petite Neo, none of them really held his interest, but a strand of red from a flowing cloak caught his eye, the flowing cloud of red lead Qrow's eyes to a face framed by black-red hair and with shielded sliver eyes staring back at him.

Ruby…

Qrow stepped forward, his weapon dropping from his hand like so much unwanted garbage. Another stepped forward. Qrow's face was a confused mess of emotions, Ruby's face was a shield of expressionless stone.

The rest of Ruby's team watched the situation with wide and wary eyes. Neo's parasol alternating between resting on the ground and swinging at her side. Crimson, for once, was somber as he watched both Ruby and Qrow. Skyler was simultaneously watching the exchange and looking for his lost fedora.

Qrow finally came to a stop right in front of Ruby, the two stared at each other, neither of them speaking, neither of them moving. Qrow's eyes lingered on Ruby's sliver irises and something happened, Qrow smiled softly.

"Hey."

Ruby gasped, her shield falling away. With that one word, memories that Ruby had sealed closed long ago, came breaking through.

.

A gruff-voiced hunter telling her tips on how to properly wield a scythe, tips that would later give Ruby a fighting chance…

A man who kills Grimm drunk, giving Ruby a haircut when no else would, tickling her nose with the long strands. Ruby had giggled as she tried to tell him that it was gross….

Qrow watching Ruby as she gently touched her mother's snowy cloak, the door firmly shut as Qrow leaned against it. Yelling could be heard on the other side.

A nonchalant Qrow holding a platter of chocolate chip goodness over his head as a tiny Ruby tried to scale his torso.

A small red-haired girl curled into the chest of a veteran monster-slayer as a thunderstorm raged outside. A smile gracing his face at the sight of a sleeping Ruby. His lips forming words that could barely be heard over the pounding of the rain.

"I love you, Little Gem. I love you more and more every day."

.

Ruby nearly fell to her knees as the memories flowed into her mind, the barrier behind her eyes dispersing as tears leaked out. Her legs gave out, but before she could hit the ground, arms wrapped around her shoulders and Qrow held her to his chest like so long ago. Tears coursing down the hardened hunter as he held his niece whose supposed death had driven him to the brink of despair. Neo and Crimson shared a glance and silently steeped away from the reunion. Ozpin not being to hold back a small smile as he watched the two. Skyler off in the distance, looking for his hat.

Ruby pulled slightly away, wiping tears from her eyes as she looked into his face. Her eyes now a confusing mess of emotions. The memories of the better part of her childhood still drifting in her mind.

"You never came to find me." She charged. "Why didn't you come?"

Qrow eyes turned miserable. "You didn't just die, you vanished. There wasn't a place to even start looking…Oh God, I'm so sorry! I should have starting somewhere! I should have never just blamed the Grimm!"

Ruby finished wiping the tears away, her mind coming back to the present. She breathed deeply and looked back at Qrow.

"Did you go on a rampage?"

Qrow's eyes went slightly confused, not expecting that question, he cocked his head to the side.

"What?"

"On a rampage. Did you go on a Grimm-killing spree?"

Despite the gravity of the situation, a smile tugged at the corners of Qrow's lips.

"Yeah, I did, big one too."

"How many did you kill?"

"They thought the forest had caught on fire because of all the dissolving bodies."

A hint of a smile appeared on Ruby's face. "Well, at least you did that."

Qrow smiled faintly. "At least." He echoed. They both stood up before the smile was replaced with a frown. "What did happen to you, Ruby? If the Grimm didn't kill you, why did you disappear?"

At that question, several things happened at once; Glynda Goodwitch, Peter Port, and Bartholomew Oobleck came rushing around the corner, Team JNPR came running after them, just as Team EBWY appeared from the opposite direction, chatting.

And Skyler found his hat.

So, there we go! What'd you think?

Anyway, as always, thank you to all the lovely people who are following this story, have favorited this story, and have actually favorited me (Which is amazing!), thank you all and you are all awesome!

A special thanks to Lucian Naruto for all the help you have given me on the fanfic, thank you so much, you're awesome too!

So, thank you all and I'll see you in the next chapter!