Still alive! Sorry for the long delay, between school and day-to-day life, I didn't really have a chance just to sit down and write. But here it is! Chapter eighteen! I hope you enjoy!

The students of Beacon Academy woke to a newly risen sun and the sounds of warfare blasting from the dorm of Team RSNC.

"Just accept your fate!"

"Never!"

Ruby ducked as a kitchen chair came sailing overhead, rising to her feet, she glared at Crimson Shard and Skyler Snow, both whom were boldly glaring back. While the kitchen was, for the most part, neat and clean, but the rest of the dorm lay in the shambles of Skyler's overturned bed and the mess of school uniforms on the floor.

"Just wear them, you've gotten away with if so far, but Goodwitch will probably blow an artery if you keep it up." Ruby ground out between her teeth, she was already wearing her own uniform with her cloak falling behind her, but she had yet to convince the partners to don their own; and for nearly two hours, the war of words and random household objects have ensued. The three combatants were arranged around the small table in the kitchen, Ruby against the assassin and the spy, both of whom were again shouting their stark defiance.

"I will never put on anything so utterly tasteless and poorly tailored!"

"Have you seen me?! I am not wearing that!"

Ruby threw up her arms and looked in desperation at the bathroom door, wishing Neo would hurry up and help with this. Turning back to Crimson and Skyler, Ruby narrowed her eyes.

"Last warning, put the uniforms on."

Skyler drew himself up. "Absolutely not."

Crimson shook his head. "I agree with Sir Posh."

Skyler closed his eyes for a moment, his courageous stance now slightly deflated by Crimson's diminutive.

"I really wish you would just call me by my actual name."

"Sure thing, Snowball."

"Getting back on topic!" Ruby called them back to the current situation, her inner mental war raging between trying to call off unnecessary attention to themselves and the realization that her team was the very definition of unnecessary attention. Crimson and Skyler looked expectantly at Ruby, waiting for another round of "Order and Death Threats" to begin; if that was going to be the case, then Team RSNC would never get to class.

"JUST PUT THE UNIFORMS ON!"

"DEATH FIRST!"

Neo stepped out of the shower, the steam whispering around her and turning the mirror into a foggy portal. Rolling the last bit of morning stiffness away, Neo wrapped a towel around herself and wiped the condensation away from the glass. Her reflection now looking back at her with curious eyes.

She stared at her reflection for a moment, searching the face with the mismatched eyes for any hint of-

"HA! VICTORY IS MINE. SUFFER!"

"NOOOOOO!"

"I WILL AVENGE THEE, BROTHER!"

Neo face-palmed as the sounds of minor explosions and shouting reached her ears, even as a small grin crept to her face.

"Ordinary mornings are over-rated anyways."

"Welcome back, class." Glynda Goodwitch's tone did not sound all that welcoming, but the students of Beacon Academy have all but grown use to it and now just accept it as their strictest professor's way of being in a state of mild happiness.

Goodwitch's eyes swept the students arranged before her, finding Team JNPR, Team CRDL, Team EBWY all arranged before her, and, lounging at the very end, Team RSNC was present for class. Only problem was…

"Mr. Snow, why do you have a black eye?" Goodwitch started to feel the first pang from the vein in her forehead, Skyler Snow looked the professor in the eye, showing off the fact that his left eye was lost in amidst a mass of bruises, and shrugged.

"I had a disagreement with my leader over the wardrobe choice, a disagreement that I lost." Skyler looked down at his school uniform which he was wearing in obvious disgust. "Oh, yes, I lost."

"I didn't!" His partner said cheerfully, gesturing to his leather trench coat and startling makeup, his crimson deathhawk like a red banner of victory. Crimson leaned back on the bleacher. "I survived!"

Neo rolled her eyes and gestured to the burn mark on her uniform's sleeve. All twelve of them.

"Yeah, by setting half of our dorm on fire!"

"Still putting it into the `Victories of Crimson Shard` book."

Ruby looked over at him in confusion. "You have a victory log book?"

"Yep, keep every victory I have ever survived in it, very useful."

"Weird."

"IF YOU ARE DONE TALKING…" Goodwitch's loud voice brought the team's attention back to their combat professor and class in which they were apparently supposed to be paying attention. Glynda glared up at Team RSNC and continued.

"Now that you are focused, maybe we can actually start the class, yes?"

Ruby stared for a moment before shrugging. "Sure, why not?"

Glynda narrowed her eyes, but didn't chose to comment. Instead, she spun on her heel and addressed the rest of the class.

"As per usual, we will be sparring against one other. Now remember, the Vytal Festival is just months away and I recommend you get all the training you can, both inside and outside of class." Goodwitch paused to look around at each and every student. "So, without further ado, who wants to go first, any volunteers?"

There was a lull as students looked at one another, waiting for the first to volunteer to fight. They didn't have to wait long before someone raised their hand. There was a low murmur of surprise among the crowd, not that the volunteer payed any attention to them. Goodwitch's eyes flickered upwards to the person and she nodded.

"Ms. Neopolitan, nice to see you volunteering, do you have an opponent in mind or shall I chose one for you?"

Neo put a finger to her chin and adopted a thoughtful expression. She held that poise for a fleeting second before leveling her finger straight at her newly chosen opponent. Goodwitch followed the finger and her emerald eyes met the lilac irises of Yang Xiao Long, Neo smirked as the golden member of Team EBWY met her incompatible eyes, the petite girl's finger still pointing directly to the blonde's forehead.

"I choose her."

Dimly, they both heard the muffled sniggering of Crimson Shard.

"Are the combatants ready?" The voice of Glynda Goodwitch echoed around the auditorium, ringing around the member of RSNC and the member of EBWY as they stared each other down. Yang's team watching warily, none of them knowing exactly what would happen. Neo's team watching warily, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

"She probably won't kill her." Ruby whispered, her eyes locked on Neo and her opponent. "Probably."

"Oh, Neo won't kill her." Crimson was remarkable unconcerned about the entire situation, he leaned back. "Not yet, at least. Of course, extreme humiliation by a vicious battle hobbit is absolutely certain."

"Did you just call Neo a battle hobbit?" Skyler shifted around to look at his partner who shrugged.

"Yep….do you think she'll kill me?" He turned to Ruby who looked back at him with a frank expression on her face.

"Just don't ever say that in her presence…ever, or death will be the least of your problems." The fabric of her cloak bunched around her as Ruby leaned back against the wall behind her.

"And I do believe the match is starting."

The remaining team-members looked out past the bleachers to see the Glynda Goodwitch initiate the match between Neopolitan and Yang Xiao Long.

"Began!"

Yang didn't have time to react before her petite opponent's knee was knocking against her skull. A quick moment later, and Neo's legs wrapped around the blonde berserker 's neck.

"Wha-" Yang barely got her confusion out before Neo flipped backwards, her legs still locked around Yang's neck. A thin crack splintered the floor when Yang's body slammed down upon the stone. Legs a blur, Neo leapt away from the struggling form whose golden hair fanned out across the floor like a tangled net.

"Ouch." Skyler watched as Yang Xiao Long pushed herself off the floor and whirled around to face the smirking Neo. Lilac eyes narrowed and the blonde charged forwards, fist raised to strike, but Neo simply threw her head back and let out a silent peal of laughter as she danced away from the bone-shattering blows.

The two charged towards each other for the second time, but Xiao Long's assault was cut short when Neo's foot made lightning-fast contact with Yang's throat, multiple times. The sudden pain, and the inability to breath that came with it, caused the blonde causality to reared back, her choking gasps echoing around the hall. Team RSNC watched as their fellow teammate then roundhouse-kicked her enemy across the auditorium.

"So, how the aura levels holding up?" Crimson asked over the sounds of the rather one-sided battle.

"Umm…" Skyler checked the screens. "Xiao Long is at completely screwed and Neo is still at total domination."

"Ah, thank you!"

Ruby shook her head. "You know, saying 40% vs 100% is not that hard." This earned her weird looks from the partners.

"That's boring."

"Completely unimaginative." Crimson shook his head sadly. "I'm embarrassed to be affiliated with you."

Ruby rolled her eyes and turned back to the match. A match that had already descended into Neo dodging every attack made by Yang Xiao Long with humiliating ease.

"JUST HOLD STILL!" The angry roar was cut off to a gurgle as the silent assassin once again jabbed her foot into the enraged berserker's windpipe. Said berserker reared back again, but instead of just standing there and smirking, Neo rushed forward and used her parasol to deliver a crushing blow to Yang Xiao Long's abdomen.

The attack drove anything left resembling breath out of her lungs and Yang clutched her hands around her throat, a futile attempt to protect it, Neo's smirk returned as she saw this action and a sadistic light lit her eyes like an inner fire.

"Pathetic." There was a blur of color and a choking grunt of pain as high-heels struck the already bruised skin of Yang's stomach. The brawler's mouth gaped open in a breathless gasp of pain, but she wasn't beaten yet, her fist flew out suddenly and Neo barely had time to sild out of the way before the gauntlets swung where she stood just bare moments before.

Neo deflected a punch with the closed parasol before twirling it to slam against Yang's arm. Hard. Hard enough, in fact, for the sharp crack of bones breaking to echo all around the class. There was a slight pause as lilac eyes widened at the sight of an arm dangling uselessly from her body. A slight pause as the lilac eyes turned a red so vivid and blood-lusting, that Neo felt a tingling chill go up her spine. A chill that was quickly forgotten as an enraged blonde huntress charged her, the yellow gauntlet flashed like sunlight as it pummeled and heated the air with its attacks.

"She's faster." Crimson watched the match, which was now turning into something more dancelike and vicious, with expert eyes. "Even with her arm broken, Xiao Long is much faster then before."

"True, she is faster, stronger, but so much more careless. She's leaving herself open to all sorts of attacks." Ruby observed, it wasn't her main profession to kill like Neo's or Crimson's, but she could tell when someone was starting to throw caution to the wind and just start to attack senselessly and stupidly.

Yang threw out her arm, golden tendrils of flames literally arching off her fist as it closed the distance between it and Neo, but before it could distribute its devastating force onto the soft tissue of Neo's face, the elfin girl seemed to vanish in a trailing flash of light only to reappear standing on top of her taller adversary, Neo's boot heels pressing against Yang's shoulder blades.

"Get off, get off, GET OFF!"

Neo nearly fell backwards as Yang bucked forward, her heels teetering just for the barest second before balance was regained in the form of a small hand grapping a handful of golden hair. The resulting screech causing Skyler to hiss and cover his ears in pain.

"Ow! And why?! And ow again!" His teammates' focus, however, never left the events unfolding in the arena. The person whose hair was currently being used as a lifeline was struggling aggressively, but the sylphlike girl being braced against her enemy's back was just looking at the hair in her hand thoughtfully.

The light in Neo's eyes and the way her lips were turning up into a smirk made Ruby widen her eyes and tilt her hand towards Crimson and Skyler.

"You see that expression on Neo's face?"

A quick shared glance between them and both the partners turned back to Ruby, nodding. Ruby turned her head back to the fight, her face completely neutral.

"Well, let's just say if you managed to make Neo angry beyond all belief and she is looking at you with that face, it would be in your best interest to run."

Any response was cut off as the ringing sound of a blade being drawn resounded, drawing all attention to the thin blade, which simmered like poison, being conducted by the skilled hands of Neopolitan who still was holding the better part of Yang Xiao Long's flowing golden mane in an unbreakable grip.

The struggling stopped as Yang froze, hearing the sound of the spike-like sword being drawn and the fact that her hair was still in the grips of its wielder. The entire assembly watched the two opponents stay as still as if they were trapped in the oils of a painting.

The room wasn't silent, however. There was the clink of heels on stone and the swish of a riding crop.

"That is enough." Goodwitch's eyes were glaring slightly at the shortest, but probably deadliest, member of Team RNSC. "Ms. Neopolitan, let go of Ms. Xiao Long at once."

Mismatched irises of pink and brown rose lazily to stare into the hard eyes of the professor. The contact was held for a moment before the grip on Yang's hair relaxed and Neo shrugged, the rippling movement of her shoulders seeming to convince Goodwitch that everything that was about to happen wouldn't now that Neo moved her shoulders.

"Good. Now, please get off Ms. Xiao Long's back and we can talk about your self-control in-"

When the blade swung down in a speeding arc, everyone and everything seemed to stop, like time itself was immobile except for the thin sword as it seared itself through the long locks of golden hair. Movement was once again restored as the once proud mane was reduced to large heap on the floor.

"Oh." Crimson began to intone.

Neo dropped back down to the floor just as Goodwitch came charging up in a fury rarely seen in most living organisms.

"My." The sound of Crimson's voice was nearly drowned out in a literal roar of pure rage and Glynda Goodwitch went from about to inflict corporal punishment on a student to defending that same student from a wrathful wraith of fury.

"God. YES!" Crimson's shout of victory went largely unnoticed as the scene of unfolding chaos beneath the perch of Team RSNC was too good to miss, a short-haired Yang Xiao Long wrestling one-armed against the enraged Glynda Goodwitch. Neo was just standing off to the side, watching. Resting her parasol on her shoulder, she turned and waved at her team before pointing at the broken arm that still dangled at Yang's bruised side.

"I really thought that would work."

"WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT YOU COULD MUTILATE MS. XIAO LONG AND GET AWAY WITH IT?!"

"Well, mutilate is a little strong. I mean, Neo just gave her a haircut."

"Yeah, Xiao Long looks good with a pixie cut!"

"No, she doesn't, not really. In fact, she looks kinda weird."

The auditorium was empty, the majority of the students leaving to make their way to the next class, all except the Ruby Rose, Skyler Snow, Crimson Shard, and the now infamous Neopolitan. The four were all lined up while Glynda Goodwitch paced in front of them, rapidly and furiously.

"Enough! Do you know what will happen now?" The professor paused in her pacing to glare at the team, all of whom shrugged.

"Let me take a wild stab at it." Ruby stretched her arms unconcernedly and looked up at Goodwitch.

"You want us expelled, but you can't for some reason, so you will have the choice of suspending us, you know, again." Ruby paused and looked thoughtful. "Or you can just give Neo dentition and let all of us go."

"Hey!"

"Oh, put your arm down, Neo. You'll be fine and it will give you some time to yourself."

"You are all going to be detention!" The steely gaze of Glynda brought Ruby's and Neo's argument to a halt. "For the month, you, Ms. Rose, and your team will be cleaning and repairing the combat arena by hand."

Reactions varied among the members of Team RSNC.

Ruby rolled her eyes as both Skyler and Crimson began to argue with the unwavering professor.

"WHAT KIND OF CRUEL JOKE IS THIS?! REPAIRING THE COMBAT ARENA BY HAND?! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! YOU MIGHT AS WELL BRING IN UNICORNS TO DO IT!"

"I CHEERED! THAT IS ALL I DID!"

The protest might have flamed into a full-fledged sparring match, but just as Crimson was about to pull out a war clever and Goodwitch about to telepathically send them all to the moon, Neo marched in between her teammates and her professor and snapped her fingers. The nosy crack of sound overcoming the rage of the quarrel and drawing all eyes to her.

"Yes. Ms. Neopolitan, what is it?" Her voice was quieter, but still extremely angry. Neo looked up at her with a blank expression on her face and gestured for Goodwitch to come closer. The professor did, albeit giving Neo an odd look in the process.

"Well, will you tell me whatever you want to tell me now?" Goodwitch stared down at Neo and the tiny grin that had formed on her face and with a finger, gestured for Glynda to bend over. With another odd look, the professor complied until her face, and Neo's, were only inches apart.

"Well?" Despite the brusque tone that Goodwitch was using as she looked into the eyes of the student, the huntress was feeling a vague sense of unease about being this close to the outwardly harmless Neopolitan.

The small grin that had formed on Neo's mouth bloomed into a full-blown smile, a smile that spoke volumes.

"Ruby, idiots, now would be a good time."

"FINALLY!"

The shout broke Glynda Goodwitch from her focus on Neo and turned it to the rest of the team...or what remained of them. The professor spun in a quick circle, but all she could see was a fading trail of rose petals and a flash of grey that informed the assistant headmistress that Skyler Snow and Ruby Rose had just ran out the door.

"GET BACK HER-"

"Shouldn't have taken your eyes off me, bye!"

Goodwitch whirled around just in time to see Crimson Shard vanish into a vent, the rapid banging from his escape fading quickly as he got away. Thoroughly confused flustered and angry, Glynda turned back to where Neo was still standing, the smile shining out at Goodwitch as she locked eyes with the smug student, but when she stepped forward, the perfect image of Neo in all her cocky confidence shattered into shards of glass that seemed to simmer and fade.

Glynda Goodwitch was now alone in her classroom, her mind boiling with fury. Fury at the team who were now scattered around the school, fury at herself for falling for Neo's distraction, and fury, lots of fury, at the one man who let the little creatures inside the school in the first place!

"OZPIN!"

"FREEDOM!"

"You know, shouting is really going to ruin our chances of hiding."

Team RSNC had taken refuge in the library, in a one of the reading crannies that dotted the vast room. Ruby looked up from the book that she had snatched on her way in.

"Meh, it's not like they are going to think rogue students will go hide in the library, Goodwitch is probably off looking outside on the grounds or something."

And so, for the next forty minutes, there was chatter and page-turning from their hiding place until Ruby Rose made a very important discovery about herself.

"I. Am. So. Bored."

The groan elicited Neo to look over at her partner who seemed to be collapsed in a heap of inactivity.

"Fascinating. Anything else?"

"I want to go somewhere! Come on, reading is fun and all, but this is a free day and we should spend it in Vale or visiting Roman or something!"

"I second that idea." Skyler called from the other side of the hiding place, his clear eyes and fuzzy hair peeking out over the top of the huge leather-bound book that looked mystic and ancient. Skyler carefully closed said book and placed his fedora back on his head. "I could go for a day in the city."

Crimson, on the other hand, simply shook his head. "Unfortunately, I already have plans for today, but you go on, have fun, give Roman a kiss for me."

"No, I am not doing that." Ruby hopped up from her seat and clapped her hands. "Okay! Let's go and hope we don't get caught by any of the professors."

As the majority of the team were leaving, Skyler popped his head back into the cranny and looked suspiciously at his still lounging partner.

"Zombie Boy, what exactly are your plans?"

Crimson smiled and tilted his head to the side.

"Why, my dear Snowball, for the longest time, I have been wondering how my friend, Jaune Arc, has been doing in this great institute."

"Is this sometime I should be worried about?"

"No idea, maybe?"

It was still midafternoon when the three hunters-in-training departed from the ferry station. Ruby forging a path through the crowd while her teammates came up after her in a less determined pace.

"Where are we going? And what's the rush to get there?" Skyler's voice called out over the hum of noise from the surrounding crowd and city. His leader did not answer until they were free of the station crowd and walking down the streets of downtown Vale. Breathing a sigh of relief of being free from the crush of people, Ruby turned to her teammates and laid out the day's plan.

"First, we will…um…any ideas?"

Neo shrugged, but Skyler put the tips of his fingers together and looked around the street.

"Well, let's see. There is always the entertainment of Vale."

"Criminal or otherwise? We can always go mess with some gang or something."

Skyler raised an eyebrow, though he didn't seem overly concerned about Ruby's suggestion. "I like your way of thinking, but let's keep the murder rate down for today."

"I didn't murder anyone! Though some of those gangs…"

"Oh, I'm sure, no doubt. But I was mostly meaning our lovely assassin here, who has a bit of a history of stabbing people and then dissolving their bodies in various chemicals."

Neo put a hand to her chest in mock shock. "I have never!"

"Ewww!" Ruby looked at Neo. "You said you just buried them!"

Neo patted the taller girl's arm. "I lied."

"Jerk." Ruby playful pushed Neo, who just chuckled silently, not even slightly off balanced.

The three walked deeper into the city, not yet having a specific destination in mind, they just wandered around Vale until an angry figure of stark white planted itself in front of the three teammates. Ruby halted mid-step and looked up into the icy blue eyes of Weiss Schnee.

The two huntress stared at each other for a moment until a flicker of movement behind the heiress got Ruby's eye. The entirety of Team EBWY had assembled behind their teammate.

There was a long stretch of silence as Team EBWY and Team RSNC stared each other down. Then Skyler broke the stretch with a single comment.

"If Crimson was here, he would have already said something insulting; so, in a way, you are all lucky catching us here without him."

Weiss's snowy eyebrows rose in a high arch. "Oh, and you think we can't stand to be insulted?"

"Of course not! I know you can't stand to be insulted. Take for example, a person mentions what cruel, sociopathic taskmasters your family is and then all of a sudden, it's pistols at dawn."

"How dare you!"

"You see; this is exactly what I'm talking about."

"Thank you, Skyler!" Ruby called out over both his and Weiss's voices. "You've been loads of help." Sliver eyes swept over the fellow team and Ruby felt her hand instinctively creep closer to the handle of Crescent Rose. "So, why are you blocking our way?"

Weiss's back straightened, but it was the quiet Blake Belladonna who answered.

"Because of Yang."

Neo's eyes automatically snapped over to Ruby's face, but she was surprised to see that there was no battle of holding emotions deep inside her and there was no violent outburst of those same emotions, there was just a frankness at the explanation given by Blake. Neo felt warmer that maybe, just maybe, her Ruby was healing from the wounds inflicted on her heart, mind, and soul.

The sliver-eyed girl shook her head. "Story of my life right there. 'Because of Yang'…I assume everyone here knows, right? Because this might turn out extremely awkward if not."

The fact every single member of Team EBWY looked anywhere but at Ruby was all the answer she needed. The rest of her team picked up on the unspoken answer as well.

"Well, I wouldn't say good for knowing." The translucent eyes of Skyler Snow went from face to face, picking out the details that only his eyes were trained to see. "But you do have to admit, this does cut down on the long explanations."

Neo nodded in agreement.

Ruby hummed tonelessly for a brief second before returning to her conversation with the various members of the other team.

"So, why is it 'Because of Yang'? I assume the whole hair incident might be involved in some way?"

Ruby's eyes flickered to Yang's head and back to Blake's face rapidly, but the sight that she saw threaten to send her into a fit of giggles.

Yang Xiao Long's hair was now just brushing the top of her ears. Neo must have gotten in a lot closer with her blade then Ruby previously thought.

Though it does provide Xiao Long with a more…nope, Skyler was right. That look does not suit her at all!

As fun as her private thoughts were, Ruby realized that Blake was speaking.

"The…hair is what prompted us to come talk to you and your team." The dark-haired huntress paused for a moment as her eyes saw the handle to Ruby's weapon of choice and the flowing red cloak that hid the rest from view. Ruby noticed.

"Do you like my weapon? Wow, that sounding wrong." Ruby winced, but still forged on. "Still, I won't get offended if you want to see Crescent Rose."

"What? Oh!" Blake realized that she had been staring and shook her head. "No, it's fine. I was…lost in thought."

Lost in memories. Memories of that girl in the alley, the same girl who is now standing right in- Blake shook those thoughts free, so what if the "Mutilator of the Faunus" was standing in front of her? Blake had known for a long time that Adam had attacked first and brought it upon himself.

But the secret Faunus was sure not to let Ruby Rose remember who was also in the alley that day.

"Are you zoning out again?" The slightly exasperated voice huffed and Blake snapped out of her thoughts again and focused in on Ruby.

"Sorry." Blake blinked as reality crept back into her mind. "As I was saying, we just came to say-"

"No." The red-cloaked huntress's voice, though quiet, was steely and firm. "If you are about to say 'we're sorry', I would appreciate it if you saved your breath." Ruby crossed her arms as her eyes grew to match her voice.

"Number one, what on Remnant did any of you do to be telling me you are sorry? I do not remember seeing of you during my childhood. Number two, you came out here to say you're sorry? Really? Sorry is just a word that holds no meaning in it whatsoever in this situation. In my situation!"

There was silence as the outburst traveled through the minds of everyone present. And then, the last thing anyone expected to happen, happened. Yang Xiao Long stepped forward and stood in front of Ruby, her arm in a sling close to her chest. The two stared at each other, sliver once again meeting lilac.

The tension radiating from both Yang's teammates and Ruby's teammates was so tangible, the air tasted like iron.

Blake, Weiss, and Ebon were all tense and wary, their eyes flickering rapidly between the two half-sisters, but Skyler and Neo were relaxed ad calm. Their hands rested in either pockets or on the handle of a parasol, they seemed perfectly at ease with Yang being barely a foot away from Ruby…unless you looked in their eyes which were as hard as the metal of their weapons and spoke of pain and horror beyond a normal person's imagination if the blonde so much as bothered their leader.

Not that Ruby appeared bothered, in fact, she did not appear to be have emotions at all. Her face was as closed off as the face of a mountain and her eyes seemed shielded and as indecipherable as the dead.

The silence was finally broken when Yang spoke.

"Ruby, I-"

"Don't, just don't." Ruby's voice was once again quiet, but also firm and with nothing resembling softness in it at all. "You do not get to choose when you talk me. You do not confront me on the streets, in the hallways, anywhere!" Ruby's sliver eyes seemed to glow with fierce emotion. "If you want to talk to me, then you wait for me to speak to you."

And with that, Ruby shoved her way past Yang and her teammates, her rose-red cloak flowing behind her, and strode away, her teammates right beside her, neither of them acknowledging the other team's existence.

None of Team EWBY spoke as they watched the three members of Ruby Rose's team disappear deeper into the city and away from them. Yang watched and the words that had been ordered to her by the person whose life was still a shadowy secret and one that Yang believed that if it ever comes to light, it will bring nothing but despair and darkness with it.

These gloom-shrouded thoughts were driven from Yang's mind when she felt a hand come to rest on the shoulder of her unbroken left arm. The huntress turned to see Ebon standing beside her, her black eyes searching her friend's face.

"You did try, Yang. And remember, she didn't say never speak to her, she just said to wait." The searching grew more intense as Yang's expression didn't change. "All you have to do is wait."

There was another spell of noiselessness then a long sigh issued from Yang's mouth. "Yeah." Lilac eyes took on a new flash of life. "You're right."

Ebon smiled softly and gestured to the team. "Come on, people, we still need to go the docks."

Yang's lip curled even as they started heading to the city's docks. "Why do we need to go there again?"

"Because Weiss wants to spy on the newly arrived exchanged students, so she can plot their ultimate defeats in Vytal Tournament."

"I told you! I want to welcome them to Vale!"

Ebon just smiled a snarky grin. "Sure, sure." Turning away from the heiress who was muttering grumpily under her breath, Ebon caught sight of Yang's new, involuntary hairstyle and the grin turned into pursed lips of inspection. Nodding to herself, the leader of Team EBWY spoke with no traces of her usual sarcasm.

"You know, Yang, I think that style makes you look good."

OK! There we go! What do you think? Let my know in the reviews of things I could do better on or just PM me and let me know that way!

Anyways, thank you all for being awesome and taking the time to read my story! It means a lot to me! So, good-bye for now and I'll see you all in the next chapter!