Hello again! So sorry for the wait, I was...watching YouTube, to be honest. But here it is! At last! Chapter sixteen! I hope you enjoy!

The day dawned early and the sun streamed into the windows of team RSNC's dorm, lighting the room and illuminating the four sleeping bodies. The start of a new day!

"It's back…"

Skyler rolled his eyes as the curled up form of Crimson sild deeper into his blankets. Neo and Ruby just stretched their limbs and jumped down to the floor, Ruby going off to claim the shower for her own, while Skyler was already washed, dressed, and poking Crimson to get him out of bed.

"It's the sun, Crimson, it's always going to come back."

Crimson didn't emerge from his cocoon of comforters, but his muffled voice made its way to Skyler's ears.

"That doesn't mean I have to welcome it…or get out of bed…at all."

"We have a field trip, get up." Skyler crossed his arms and stared down at the lump that was Crimson Shard. "You can't be a bed hermit today."

One of the comforters moved to the side to reveal the top half of the bed hermit's face, long strands of red hair falling into twilight eye's that glared at the person above him. Skyler just arched his eyebrows.

"What? Prof. Goodwitch wants us up and ready. You're doing neither." Skyler tapped his foot impatiently on the floor, when Crimson didn't move to get off his makeshift bed, Skyler decided drastic action was required.

"Neo?"

"WHOA! I'M UP, OK!" Crimson untangled himself from the blankets, his ragged shirt fluttering. He gazed at Skyler in a small amount of shock.

"No need for violence!"

Neo just looked at the entire exchange in confusion. Those two make even less sense then Ruby.

"-We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock, have fun!" Professor Goodwitch waved them off into the forest. Team RNSC started off into the expense of trees, the sunlight mixing with the swirling leaves of Forever Fall, bathing the four figures in a red-tainted light. The rest of the group of four teams somewhere off to the left.

"So…these trees look good for sap collecting." Crimson gestured to the fiery trees in front of them. The rest of the team looked around idly and shrugged.

"Sure."

"Good as place as any, I guess."

The team dispersed and began to collect the pale red sap of Forever Fall. Once they had completed the main task of the field trip, Team RSNC decided to try their hand at completing the secondary task of the field trip, doing nothing whatsoever.

"Well, that was fun." Crimson sighed as he slid down the tree truck, his full jar on the ground by his side. Ruby sat down on the opposite side of the tree trunk with Neo dangling her legs from the branch she was perched on; Skyler leaned against the truck, albeit after taking his suit coat off and stashing it in the crock of his arm. There was silence for a moment before a quick rustle sounded on the other side of the tree and Ruby popped her head around the side of the tree. Her sliver eyes anticipative as she looked at Crimson.

"Hey Crimson, since I was all sharing with my story, do you think you can tell us the secret between you and Roman?"

Crimson settled on a comfortable spot on the tree and closed his eyes. "No."

"Please."

"No."

Pleeeease."

"Noooooo."

"Oh, come on! How bad can it be?!"

Crimson opened his eyes and turned to face the disgruntled Ruby.

"The story ends with Roman in drag, being forced on a date with a guy named Junior."

Ruby was saved responding to that revelation when her scroll began beeping. Ruby fumbled it out of her pocket and answered it.

"Hello?" Ruby walked some little ways off and Skyler turned an incredulous look to Crimson.

"Drag?" He mouthed. Skyler's clear eyes gazed into Crimson's twilight irises.

"Zombie Boy…what did you do?"

"Hello?" Ruby walked away from the rest of team. Dimly aware of Skyler converging onto Crimson.

-Ruby, where are you? –

"Oh, hey Rome'! How are you-" Ruby greeted, but Roman's voice cut through.

-No, Ruby, this is important! Now, where are you?!-

Roman's serious and panicked tone immediately turned Ruby somber.

"I am on a field trip with the first years, why? What is wrong?"

-Is Neo with you? What about the rest of your team? –

"Yes, they are right here. But what is wrong, Roman?!"

Ruby heard him take a deep breath on the other end of the line before speaking again.

-You have a serious problem, Red. Me and Cinder just had a meeting with the White Fang. -

"That's nothing new, why are you all panicky?"

-Because, this time, Cinder wanted White Fang soldiers placed under me, following my orders. -

"Did they not take that well?"

-Unfortunately, that's not the problem. Because Faunus elitists were being placed under the command of a human, the leader of the Vale branch, of the White Fang, had to show up. -

"Was there endless ranting?"

-No, I wish he did, though, but that's not what happened. If you don't already know, Adam Taurus is the leader of the White Fang of Vale and while he wasn't exactly what you call happy, he agreed to send in how ever many soldiers Cinder wanted, but under one condition. -

"I take it that the condition wasn't anything good?" Ruby asked, she heard Roman laugh humorlessly at the question.

-Oh, you have no idea, Ruby. Taurus wanted information about this person who did him a "great wrong in the past" or something dramatic like that. He described this person as young and female. A human with dark-red hair and sliver eyes, who used a scythe and had a Semblance that left a trail of rose petals behind. –

Ruby didn't speak as heard this, she couldn't as her throat constricted her vocal cords. She stayed silent, gazing at the falling leaves that drifted around her, but not actually seeing them.

-Ruby? Are you there? –

Roman's worried tone broke through the haze that surrounded Ruby and she snapped back to reality.

"Yes, yeah, I-I'm here…Roman, what did Cinder tell him?"

-He wasn't asking Cinder; Taurus was asking me. And I told him that I never heard of anybody of that description, but I will look into it. –

"And Cinder let you lie to his face?!"

-That's another thing; Cinder didn't say anything! She just set there in silence with this expressionless mask over her face. But that's not the problem, Ruby! –

Roman took another deep breath.

- Ruby, Adam Taurus knows you are at Beacon. I don't know how, but he does! I don't think he'll try and touch you there, but you have to stay at the school! You can't come home, I have White Fang members in the warehouse now, you have to stay away. I'm sorry, Red, but you cannot come home, not until I say it's safe. –

Ruby felt her chest tightened to the point of it was nearly impossible to suck in air. "But- "

-I know, but if anything happens to you, I will never…if anything happens at Beacon that puts you in danger, I. Will. Come. To. You. Just know that, OK? –

It was Ruby's turn to take a deep breath, she breathed out a huge gust of air and answered.

"Right, stay away from the warehouse and the city, try not to leave Beacon and stick with my team as much as possible."

-Good…Ruby, when did you maim the poster boy of the White Fang? –

"I... uh…" Ruby shifted from foot to foot before sighing. "A little over a year ago, I didn't tell you because of Cinder being sorta allies with the White Fang which means if it got out, well…"

-Understandable, but why did you do it in the first place? –

"Hey, whoa! He attacked first! Him and some of his White Fang elites all came at me! I didn't kill any of them, I thought it would just blow over!"

Roman sighed tiredly.

-Red, you cut off one of Adam Taurus's horns, how exactly did you expect for that to blow over? –

Ruby just collapsed against a tree trunk and slid to the ground. "A girl can always hope, Rome'…I need to go tell Neo what happened."

-Ok…Ruby, please promise me you'll be safe. –

The girl smiled softly. "I promise, Rome'."

Ruby disconnected the call and let what just transpired wash over her. The pure shock of who was after her and why flooded through her and Ruby rested her head against the rough bark.

What the hell is wrong with my luck?

One year ago

On the streets of Vale

Ruby was lost, she was wandering through the backstreets of Vale and she was lost.

"Why does Vale have to be so freaking confused." She grumbled to herself as she turned away from yet another dead end. The fourteen-year-old Ruby wandered out of the small alley into the larger backstreet, piles of refuse littering the ground. Ruby looked down the backstreet and tried to plot out where she hadn't already gone and failed to find a way out.

"Left or right." Ruby glanced one way then the other before sighing. "Or am I just going to die out here?"

Just then, on the fringes of her hearing, Ruby heard voices, voices that were growing nearer.

Ruby backpedaled into the alley behind her, trying to disappear into the shadows the lurked near the walls. Crouching behind a pile of rubble, she listened as the voices entered the space in front of her.

"-failure! Complete failure! I had thought you were the best that I had to offer, now you're just an embarrassment to the White Fang!"

If Ruby hadn't been hiding, she would have given a whistle; whoever that was talking was, unquestionably, not happy. The voice was cut in its ranting by another, calmer, speaker.

"Adam, calm down. The assignment was nothing important, it was just dust."

The first voice, Adam, snorted. "Everything we do is important for our cause! There is no room for failure for anything!"

There was a breath of silence, then Adam resumed speaking.

"Blake, listen. The entire purpose of our assignments is to strengthen the White Fang and bring mankind to its knees, we cannot fail! Not even in one little thing!"

Meanwhile, Ruby thought that this would be a good time to not move and let what she now knew as soldiers of the White Fang, angry soldiers of the White Fang, pass her by.

But the rat had other plans.

Ruby felt something warm touch her leg and froze barely even breathing as she felt cold paws clambering up her body. Involuntary shuddering starting to shake Ruby's body as the head of a rat that, in Ruby's opinion, must have the blood of a Ursa coursing through its oversized veins, popped up over her shoulder.

Don't move. Don't move. Don't move. Don't move. Ruby thought frantically as the White Fang members passed by the opening of the alley. Ruby began a nearly silent string of whispering to keep herself from panicking.

"Don'tmovedon'tmovedon'tmovedon'tmove-AAGH!"

The scream of pain when the rat sunk its teeth into her shoulder was less then nearly silent.

Ruby jumped up and ripped the rat off her shoulder and threw it to the far end of the alley, it hit the wall with an angry hiss and slinked off into the garbage piles. Ruby glared at it before turning back to the front of the alley and…came face-to-face with the group of White Fang soldiers that were now blocking Ruby's way out.

"Uh…hi?" Ruby waved, her eyes shifting from face to face. The group of White Fang members stared at her with impassive expressions on their faces, their eyes locked on the small red figure in front of them. Then a tall figure pushed aside the row of Faunus and come to stand in front of Ruby. His shock of red hair glowing vibrantly in the light of the setting sun, two horns swept away from his forehead in a gentle curve, the light bouncing off their glossy surface. His face was expressionless and his eyes were hiding behind a half-mask that gleamed bone-white and blood-red. Ruby arched an eyebrow.

"You know that mask will do nothing to hid your identity, right?"

The man in front of her remained impassive as he spoke.

"Who are you?" The voice, Ruby realized, belong to the man named Adam, who she supposed, was the leader of the group, the human tapped her chin thoughtfully before answering.

"Eric von Randomperson. You?"

Apparently, that wasn't the answer the Faunus wanted, he hefted something into Ruby's view, a sword in a simple black sheath. Ruby raised her eyebrows at the weapon and raised her head to look into the man's face, his expressionless mask starting to show cracks of anger.

"Are you going to stab me? Because if you are that means you, a twenty-probably-old man, just shanked a fourteen-year-old girl." Ruby looked frankly at the Faunus in front of her.

"Are you going shank me?"

Adam looked like he was deciding between furious or confused. Looking down at the human girl, Ruby saw his weapon drop just a fraction.

"Do you even know who I'm am?" The Faunus demanded, His face contorted with the strange mix of fury and confusion. Ruby shrugged.

"Adam someone? Faunus of the White Fang? I don't know, give me something!"

The man stretched to is full height and answered coldly.

"I am Adam Taurus, commander of the White Fang of Vale." Adam's face grew harsh. "And you are just a human alone in dark."

"Adam, what…?" A voice cut through Adam's vehemence and both he and Ruby bent to look back at the small group of other Faunus, a girl with raven hair and two feline-like ears poking out over her locks; Ruby noticed she wasn't wearing a mask of any kind.

"What, Blake?" Adam eyes went back to staring at Ruby, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword. "Blake?"

The girl's eyes fluttered from Adam to Ruby, apprehension etched deep onto her face.

"Let's just go, Adam, she hasn't done anything to us."

Adam considered that statement, Ruby watching, her hand moving onto her back. Finally, the Faunus nodded his head.

"You're right, she has done nothing to us." Ruby's eyes widened slightly in surprise, was it really going to be that easy?

Adam nodded again. "No, she hasn't done anything to us, but she knows who I am and that is reason enough for something like her."

Adam rewrapped his hand around the hilt of his sword and jerked it out of its sheath faster than the Faunus around him could see, the red blade of the sword glowing like fire-filled blood as it struck towards Ruby's throat.

"Adam, no!"

The blade sliced through the air, the edge of the blade about to cut through the flesh of the human girl…only for the red blade to be lost in a mass of rose petals. A mass that surged forward and engulfed the group of Faunus.

Adam felt the breath ripped from him as the cloud of rose petals tore past him, leaving the Faunus blinking in the dying light. Adam twisted around, weapons gone from his hands, and come to stare at four figures amassed in rose petals. What Adam used to know as Blake and three loyal Faunus elites, were now humanoid shapes collapsing onto the ground, bodies covered in red petals as yet more twisted above the Faunus in a cyclone of frightening beauty.

Adam recovered his wind and shook himself free of the image of danger and grace around him, he sprinted towards the fallen forms of his comrades, but before he could do anything to free them, the rose petals that swarmed flew up to join their brothers in a swirling cloud of flower petals. The Faunus left behind were ashen-faced and still, but Adam could see the rasping fall and rise of their chests.

"What are you?!" He shouted at the cloud of swirling red that still twirled above him. "Tell me!"

The cloud collapsed back down and faded away to reveal…a Ruby who was stumbling the backstreet like a drunk person.

"Why does this always happen?!" The girl groaned as she put a hand on the backstreet's wall to steady herself and tried not to throw up, after a moment she glanced back at Adam, the lone Faunus's face was contorted with fury and shock.

"How…what…you little scum!" Adam kicked up the tinted sword and dark sheath, Ruby pushed herself off the wall and drew out Crescent Rose. Unfolding the deadly scythe, Ruby rolled her shoulders.

"Fine then, but this will leave a bad message to all the aspiring young sociopaths of the world."

Adam snarled and sheathed his sword, Ruby raised her eyebrow. "That's not exactly frightening."

The sword being shot out of its sheath at nearly the speed of a bullet was a bit more intimidating, especially as it plowed itself into Ruby's chest. Ruby slammed back up against the rough brick wall and dodged as Adam sprinted forward, caught the sword, and delivered a slash to try and disembowel the human who spun away from him and related with a flurry of strikes herself.

Dodging the blade of the scythe, Adam slashed his blade at Ruby's face only to have the attack blocked by Crescent Rose, which slid down the blade of the sword in an attempt to cut Adam's hand, but the Faunus was quick and he danced away, his sword free of the scythe's wicked curve.

"You can't win." Adam grounded out between his teeth. "You are-"

"-Right behind you." Ruby's voice called over Adam's shoulders, but before Adam could turn; Crescent Rose lodged itself in front of Adam's left horns, the blade pressing against the cell-covered bone. Adam froze as he heard the sound of a finger being placed against a trigger.

"You can't…you wouldn't…you won't." The Faunus breathed as he felt the large blade righted against his horn. Ruby sighed heavily before answering.

"People always assume that." Adam heard the scythe fire and felt the recoil of the gunshot cleaved through his horn like butter. Adam stood like a statue as he felt the stump of what used to be a proud heritage jet out a spry of blood; that is when the pain came.

It came roaring like a fire through his head and down the left side of his neck. He collapsed to his knees and for the first time in a long while, Adam Taurus screamed in agony.

Ruby folding down her scythe and stood looking down at Adam, her face had changed from one of victory to one of regret at what she had apparently took from the man who groaned in anguish on the ground. Backing away, Ruby turned to escape before any more unfortunateness happened but the stirring of one of the fallen figures caught her eye, Ruby tilted her head to stare at the waking form of the Cat Faunus, distorted golden eyes met deep sliver irises.

Ruby stood still for a moment, gazing at the fallen Faunus.

What was her name? Ruby thought remotely, before vanishing in a burst of rose petals.

Blake watched her as she vanished before groans of pain and the trickle of blood reached her ears.

"RUBY! WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Skyler's shout brought Ruby back into the Forest of Forever Fall and the present. Rubbing her eyes, she shook her head to clear it from the cobwebs of memory and responded.

"OVER HERE…AND I'M FINE!"

Ruby stretched under the tree she was leaning against and waited as the beat of footsteps grew closer and her team came into view. Skyler look relieved when they found her just sitting under a tree, Neo had an irritated expression on her face, and Crimson…was juggling the sap jars, his focus completely on the glass containers as they twirled in the flittered forest light. Ruby just looked at him.

"I see you're concerned for my wellbeing!" She called over to him, Crimson not even looking at her as he continued his act with the jars.

"You are a feared scythe-wielder of thievery and kickass-ness, what exactly is going to affect your wellbeing?"

Ruby nodded. "Fair point, fair point. Now, let's get go-GA! WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"

Ruby held her arm to her chest to nurse it as she glared darkly at Neo who snapped her blade back into her parasol, matching Ruby's glare. Neo pointed to the cloaked girl in front of her and then gestured wildly to the entire expense of the forest, then back at Ruby.

"You think you can just rest by yourself in a forest full of Grimm?! Do you think you'll be safe?! YOU WON'T!"

"I can take care of myself, Neo." Ruby snapped back. Neo just huffed in frustration and stalked away, back towards the rendezvous point in the clearing. The rest of Team RSNC just staring after her, after a moment, Ruby pushed herself off the ground and followed her partner, leaving Skyler and Crimson alone under the tree. Skyler still looking in the direction that two girls stormed off in and Crimson still juggling.

"Well…" Skyler seemed loss for words. "I uh…nice juggling."

Crimson smiled faintly. "Thank you, I am a man of many, many talents."

"Uh huh."

-Ok….…Ruby, please promise me you'll be safe. –

She hit replay. She wanted to feel it again.

-Ok…Ruby, please promise me you'll be safe. –

The words sent shivers through her, the raw fact that she held the power over her inferiors to either reward them with their most converted desires or murder them with their darkest fears flowed through Cinder in waves of ecstasy. She felt alive in her power and relished in it.

Thinking they are so safe, thinking when they are alone that I'm not listening. Cinder smiled in dark amusement. If only they knew and if only they realized…

Cinder's amber eyes glowed with an eldritch fire and her dark smile twisted into a sinister sneer. The amount of secrets and power she had amassed over her sycophants was something Cinder was sure would be the one thing that they would never want to find out.

And I am perfectly willing to keep it that way… Cinder remembered the sight of sliver eyes and the taste of pleasure and blood. Of desire snatched out of reach and never regained, of a heat quite different than that of fire's coursing through her body.

Perfectly willing to keep it that way...as long as they worship me!

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? In between? Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter.

In other news, there are now three hundred and three amazing people following Street Rose now! This is awesome! Thank you so much for that and thank you to everyone who left a review and just helped with this story, you guys truly are awesome!

So, thank you again and I will see you in the next chapter!